Open Mike 25/06/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 25th, 2017 - 180 comments
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180 comments on “Open Mike 25/06/2017 ”

  1. adam 1

    Am I the only one who is feeling more than a little perturb about the deathly quite around where the money is coming from for support workers? Where exactly is the cash going to come from to pay the new wages?

    We have a government currently dedicated to austerity as an economic policy, we have an opposition who say they will manage the austerity economic policy better. Both seem hell bent on ignoring the costs of support work for the elderly and disabled.

    I’m seeing nothing, so I’m going to have a stab in the dark here. That the money is not there, so the people who need the support – will be the ones who suffer. The new wages will be payed, but the hours will be less, and those who are suffering the most will ultimately pay, by getting less (Austrity 101, or making the uber rich happy, by making the poor suffer).

    If we had a left that supported social democracy, and choice in political economy then we could have a debate. As it stands, there will be no debate because the left is dominated in this country by people who are committed to austerity. Then there are those who won’t take any criticism, because there is an election. Here though is a real problem, who pays to alleviate suffering? The uber rich point blankly refuse, their hangers on refuse as well.

    No one want to engage with the needs going forward we have associated with support work, and extended care. And where is the money, if we can spend billions of our tax on oil, why can’t we pay decent wages and look after our aged and disabled? And why can’t we even talk about political economy or where we want our tax dollars spent?

    • BM 1.1

      Christ, the National government did the complete opposite of austerity.

      You guys really do live in some alternative universe.

      • saveNZ 1.1.1

        @BM – agreed, Key ran up debt, sold off the assets and spent the money on his mates and staying in power.

        A good time was had by many and it made him popular until his actions came to light, such as the power sell offs would have made more money in dividends already, the state houses are sitting empty and the poor subsidised by tax payers are paying $200 per night for a dodgy hotel with zero signs of any changes and it’s getting worse, the economy is dependant on ponzi scheme immigration scams, the corporations that are taking over Silver Fern Farms and Cadbury are closing down the factories and works and making people redundant. The schools, hospitals and transport networks are overflowing…

        P.S. I think Adam is talking about National’s austerity to low paid workers… non workers… and the numbers are growing in the low wage, zero hour contract, economy being created.

        And yes, in my view in NZ it is like two different societies operating in alternative universes, Planet Key and Planet Earth, and it’s expanding – otherwise known as inequality.

        • Wayne 1.1.1.1

          Save NZ

          You really do live in an alternative reality. The money was not “spent oh his mates”.

          The increased debt from 2009 to 2013, which amounted to around $50 billion, was to keep the economy going and to deal with the Christchurch earthquakes.

          Through 2009 and 2010 there were large increases in welfare spending due to unemployment increasing to around 8% due to the GFC, and a lot of pump priming to keep businesses afloat and increased infrastructure spend.

          Then in 2010 and 2011 the earthquakes, which cost about $20 billion in direct govt payments.

          In 2010/11 the annual deficit got out to $20 billion (as I recall) due to the combination of the GFC and the earthquakes. I recall thinking we can’t sustain this; we have to get out of this by getting on top of all non essential govt spending. However, there were real increases in health and education spending.

          Getting on top of things took another two years. It also meant no wage increases in the state sector in 2010 and 201, though of course people still went up on annual scales (teachers, nurses, police, defence all have 10 step salary scales).

          I am sure you will mention tax cuts, but the big shift was largely self funding by reducing income tax, but increasing GST, the “tax switch”.

          So in NZ, no real austerity. Fortunately China also meant we got back to positive growth much earlier than the rest of the OECD. But managing govt expenditure is part of that. Look at the contrast with Australia which also has the China market.

          • Poission 1.1.1.1.1

            The chch eq were from a government expenditure POV close to a zero to small financial gain.

            • Wayne 1.1.1.1.1.1

              EQC dos not cover all the roads, bridges, pipes etc plus the red zone land, most of which can now only be used as parks.

              The new govt buildings, such as the justice sector are vastly more than any insurance return.

              The $20 billion cost to govt is on top of insurance payouts, which went mostly to homeowners and commercial property owners.

              Large sums had to be spent to support businesses, emergency housing, alternative govt services, lots of overtime for all sorts of govt paid workers.

              The latest reconstruction estimates are over $40 billion (which covers everything not just the literal cost of new buildings). More than half of which is not covered by insurance.

              Sure $40 billion is a boost to the local economy, but the money has to be found, and most of it did not come from insurance. About $20 billion over 5 years or so directly from taxpayers or govt borrowing.

          • millsy 1.1.1.1.2

            New Zealand’s austerity was far more subtle than in the UK, the USA and Europe.

            Anyway, most of our public sector was outsourced or privatised in the 1990’s in Ruth’s first round of austerity.

            For instance, Joyce’s pet ministey, MOBIE is a facade with most of its work outsourced to the private sector. It doesnt even own the buildings that it operates on. Same with MSD and MPI.

            • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.2.1

              It doesnt even own the buildings that it operates on. Same with MSD and MPI.

              That bit really pisses me off. It’s always far, far cheaper for a government to own the buildings they use than paying rent to a capitalist.

              But paying rent to a capitalist increases GDP and profits. It just doesn’t actually improve the nation.

          • RedBaronCV 1.1.1.1.3

            Let me remind you of the tax cuts for the high income earners.If the budget was under so much pressure then this should not have been done & the rates should have been put up.
            And if?? there was a gst/income tax switch then you are confirming that you robbed the poor to pay the rich ” someone’s mates”

            But there wasn’t really a Gst /tax switch was there and each of those measures cost about $2 billion a year so $4 billion by 9 years=$36 billion and all of that went to the rich. There would have been a lot of alternative mileage out of that money.

            And the size of the welfare bill is a consequence of continuing with strong immigration so we have a bloated workforce – more than we have jobs for

            As to China – the Nacts took the best terms of trade we had had in many a long year and made sure none of it trickled down.

    • garibaldi 1.2

      Good questions adam.
      I fear the problem will escalate rapidly as the boomers age and the following generation voters will not tolerate “excessive” expenditure on the boomers because it is the boomers who have ruined things for them, and there will be overwhelming numbers of aged boomers demanding support. In short we will reap what we have sown.

      • Foreign waka 1.2.1

        garibaldi, the boomers as you call them have paid 14% interest rates on their mortgage for their roof over their head. Many have still not paid off their house that does not resemble any of those mansions you see advertised on TV.
        They were the first to get hammered with increased education fees and had to go through more than one recession. Not only that, but any savings that were there were squandered away with the swindles of high flyers and the new neo lib policies (i.e. BNZ). There were no breaks for their expenditure when the mother of all budgets hit in the early 80’s. It took most likely more than a good part of 15 years for most to recover from the financial juggernaut. These years are also lost in means of career and getting improvement of income to make up for the losses. We are talking about average people and not magazine cutouts.
        Your comments are being devoid of any understanding what the average person out there has to be content with but keeps going without bleating and complaining to get some handout or wealth transfer based on “I am entitled”.
        And whilst I understand that things have not improved a hell of a lot as kiwis have voted for a right wing government keeping on with these neo lib policies, it is still true today as it was 100 years ago. Get working, saving and build something for the future. Put a bit aside when ever possible for the so called rainy day. You might not get rich, but you have a chance to build a live like everybody else.
        Just don’t pick on the oldies who are in their twilight years and just want to see their life out in reasonable comfort without having to be euthanized off to get the hands on a few dollars.

        • In Vino 1.2.1.1

          As I read his last sentence, I suspect that Garibaldi himself is an oldie boomer, Foreign Waka.

          • Foreign waka 1.2.1.1.1

            Vino, I am not so sure and if he is, than I find his comments offensive to anyone who has worked 40-50 years and then get told that they had it too good to deserve any decent living in their twilight years.
            There is already enough elder abuse out there without getting this kind of encouragement. If anything will increase, than that kind of abuse will.
            What a society – where the weakest are treated like that.

            • In Vino 1.2.1.1.1.1

              Confession – I was born in 1946, so I am among the first boomers. I believe our generation lost the plot, but were especially tricked by the election when Lange first got in. That is the only time I ever voted for antisocial right-wing policies, but like so many others, I had no idea at the time that bloody Roger and friends were going to screw us all over, and that Lange, for all his wit, would have little idea of what was happening until too late. I thought I was voting left against right-wing Muldoon. (He was right-wing at the time, but nobody explained to us how Roger etc were going to shift all those goalposts and slant the field.)

              Like you, I feel it is very unfair to blame boomers, but the fact is that even after Rogernomics, the majority of boomers (and the following generation) were stupid enough to vote for governments that would carry on those policies, not reverse them. Unfair as it is, we may well reap what we few tried to vote against sowing.

              • garibaldi

                Thank you In Vino, you have covered it accurately.
                Foreign waka…. We would have very good cover in our retirement if it hadn’t been for Muldoon and his dancing Cossacks.
                I’m not picking on the oldies, I am one and I am pointing out the folly of what we, as a generation, have knowingly done.

              • Foreign waka

                I understand your sentiment In Vino, especially if I look at the selfish generation that has been raised as a result – pendulum swinging etc.
                I do however recognize what is right and what is wrong and having children in poverty and elderly joining is so wrong on so many levels. To point at times past to justify an other horrid chapter is hopefully not what anyone likes to see.
                As to the voting pattern, I belief that those who have vested interests will and do vote, but the large portion of younger people think that by not voting they will “show” their discontent. This logic is either just laziness to get involved really or stupidity, lets just name it for what it is. And yes, it is the baby boomers who raised these lazy thinkers.
                This ought not to be a precursor to have older people treated like dirt. We have to reiterate the dignity of humanity, it is a duty not a choice. Otherwise we are going backwards, with disturbed minds dishing out cruelty.

                • In Vino

                  Hi Foreign Waka

                  Horribly True? Let’s hope not. You are right in saying that young people need to engage and vote. Let us pray…

    • patricia bremner 1.3

      Adam, you are right to wonder. I know that hours have been cut for workers who have a range of hours in their contracts. So yes, right rate, less hours.
      BM There were many subtle and unsubtle cuts and extra taxes to pay for those tax cuts. Austerity has led to homelessness suicides and an ever growing divide.

    • Jenny Kirk 1.4

      Perhaps it would help a bit to read this, Adam. Grant Robertson’s speech to business people down south.

      http://www.labour.org.nz/grant_robertson_speech_to_otago_southland_employers_assn

    • Bill 1.5

      Well, given that ‘everyone’ is operating under the umbrella of liberalism, we can confidently say that if money is made available for support-workers on a no-strings basis (unlikely), then money is going to come away from somewhere else.

      Same as, if money is going to be made available for children in poverty, then that money is going to be taken away from somewhere or some-one else too.

      These is room for reprioritising. But not much.

      I look at a liberal economy a bit like how I’d look at a balloon. Squeeze *here* and all that happens is that a bulge pops up *there*. It would be a joke if it didn’t have real world and utterly predictable consequences.

      Maybe under liberalism, the immediate pressure can be taken off of support workers and others. And in return, roads deteriorate or libraries are shut down – or whatever other slicing and dicing a “creative” liberal government can think up, by way of removing the day to day signs of a society being bled and hammered for the sake of preserving the integrity of an economic and political theory predicated on opportunity and ephemeral individual liberty and benign or impartial market rules and mechanisms.

      Liberal capitalism. Fucking over workers since 18 whatever.

      But hey! Big thumbs up. We’re free from the shackles of collective identity! Did someone mention class? Silly person. We are free now. And we are working on that equal opportunity thing now. Give it time. Embrace it. Be thankful for what the future will most surely hold. And yes, we’ve always approached the future on our knees.

  2. A very interesting article.

    This is the risk we run, as Māori, when we dig into Australian soil to create places or points of belonging, no matter how well we think we have consulted with indigenous peoples. That soil is not ours and will never be ours.

    That doesn’t mean to say we can’t be Māori on that soil. How can we not be? We should guard and protect and develop our cultural expressions — but why not have cultural clubs and centres?

    We should protect our language, our rituals, our mourning and our celebrating, even in little ways as our whānau did for our Dad in 2012 when we laid him to rest in Australia.

    And there he lies, ever, ever, the manuhiri.

    But we must be wary of transplanting our notions of being tangata whenua to the whenua of others, and risk wreaking yet another layer of colonisation upon those home peoples.

    We must never forget who we are. And we must never forget who we are not.

    https://e-tangata.co.nz/news/and-there-he-lies-ever-ever-the-manuhiri

    • Tautoko Mangō Mata 2.1

      Thank you for posting this article. It provides a perspective that I had not previously considered and deserves to be widely read.

      • marty mars 2.1.1

        Yes I really liked the article and I too found it came from a great angle. I really liked this

        “But we must be wary of transplanting our notions of being tangata whenua to the whenua of others, and risk wreaking yet another layer of colonisation upon those home peoples.”

  3. Wayne 3

    Adam,
    No secret at all. It is all provided for in the 2017 budget. That is why no-one suggests, even on the left, that it is all smoke and mirrors.
    One good thing about the NZ government finances is that everyone in parliament irrespective of party who actually looks at the government books trusts the figures. The benefit of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1993.
    It also means alternative budgets of the opposition have to be designed on the basis of the Treasury figures.

    • adam 3.1

      I’m not suggesting smoke and mirrors, I’m suggesting that austerity is a policy that does not work. And that the left should stop supporting it.

      As for the budget figures, if they like all the ones in retaliation to disabled like the last few years, then I will see them as the mythology that they are.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 3.2

      …everyone in parliament irrespective of party who actually looks at the government books trusts the figures.

      Apart from Nick Smith when he’s ACC Minister in 2009. Or when the National Party lies about housing affordability. Or how deferred maintenance is a surplus.

      Absolute trustiness.

    • Stuart Munro 3.3

      Right – like the lie that counts one hour a week as employment.

      And the failure to collect data on poverty.

      That’s smoke.

      • Wayne 3.3.1

        Stuart Munro,
        80% of all new jobs are full-time.

        • Stuart Munro 3.3.1.1

          Wayne – why are we even having to discuss it? Why not use fulltime job equivalents the way farmers use stock units?

          Fact is the current government’s performance has been risible – only the combination of faked or uncollected stats and a sabotaged media has saved them from being stoned in the streets. And the media are becoming wise to the lies.

        • Sacha 3.3.1.2

          Wasn’t that stat about 80% of *all* jobs including recent ones? Got any links for just the past few years?

  4. mary_a 4

    Heather du Plessis Allen comes out giving some hard stick to English and the Natz over the Barclay issue! The Natz ego massaging media is beginning to wake up to the ugly truth of what Natz is all about, something which HDPA alludes to in her piece.

    However, why isn’t Key also getting some stick at the same time? After all he was PM at the time of the whole dirty business and like English covered up what Barclay did, so he also deserves equal condemnation as well.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11881114

    • Ed 4.1

      Don’t wish to disillusion you, but these Tory propagandists will return to type closer to the election. They know which way their bread is buttered.
      The left must not rely on the media.

    • tc 4.2

      Heather and hubby are shills for nact so this is the ‘balance’ piece they claim a moral high ground with when their obvious bias and scant regard for intellectual rigour is pointed out.

      Dogma all the way with Nats media poodles.

      • Tamati Tautuhi 4.2.1

        Just leading Labour and the Left with a little teaser to think the media and MSM are not really that bad, just wait for Dirty Politics 3 to get under way, if its anything like the USA & UK Elections we could have a rip snorter of an Election Build Up.

        The media & MSM will be trying to paint NZF in a bad light as they realise Winston & NZF are the key to this Election and it is not what their owners the Multinational Corporates and the International Bankers desire ?

  5. Penny Bright 5

    I’ve just tweeted this to Radio NZ and Wallace Chapman – who are interviewing the, in my considered opinion, PHONY Suzie Dawson (new ‘Leader’ of the Internet Party, this morning Sunday 25 June 2017:

    ____________________________

    Where’s your due diligence on Suzie Dawson Radio NZ?‬

    ‪What is her proven track as a NZ ‘activist’?‬

    ‪Seen this?‬

    ‪http://www.indymedia.org.nz/articles/715‬

    Penny Bright

    ‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.

    NZ political activist since 1972.

    2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.

    Exposing the $1.6 billion Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.

  6. Sanctuary 6

    I am so jealous. Oh if we were to have a Labour leader who was welcomed by the young like this, and who would not be afraid to quote Shelley to them from the pyramid stage:

    “Rise like Lions after slumber
    In unvanquishable number-
    Shake your chains to earth like
    dew
    Which in sleep had fallen on you
    Ye are many-they are few.”

    https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10154970248731939/

  7. Penny Bright 7

    Here’s the EVIDENCE – which proves why, in my considered opinion, Suzie Dawson is ABSOLUTELY not to be trusted.

    https://www.facebook.com/1261190663892805/videos/1743674342311099/

    Suzie Dawson (Suzette Maree Dawson) is now the new ‘Leader’ of the Internet Party.

    BEWARE!

    This is what one of Suzette Maree Dawson’s key supporters Ben Cooney said about me on a live-streamed video of the 8 December 2012 anti-TPPA protest in Auckland – which was posted on Suzie Dawson’s PRIVATE website – Occupy Savvy.

    “Here’s Penny Bright – SIS informant”

    This is why, in my opinion, decent people and genuine political activists should have NOTHING to do with either Suzie Dawson or Ben Cooney.

    Penny Bright.

    ‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.

    NZ political activist since 1972.

    2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.

    Exposing the $1.6 billion Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.

    #ThinkForYourself

  8. Cinny 8

    Wowzers… the OUTGOING PM is digging himself an even deeper hole on Q+A atm, well worth a watch, good journalism by Corrin, live link stream here, will post interview when it comes up later.

    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/live-stream-q-a-q15157

    • Ed 9.1

      And English shows a complete lacks of transparency and honesty throughout the interview.
      Watched this, then the Corbyn speech.
      The difference is that Jeremy Corbyn has real integrity and a vision for all of us.
      English meanwhile pimps for the elite.

    • Cinny 9.2

      Cheers for that Craig.

    • Wow still lying there bill. You said what was on your mind – bullshit. You lied and have continued to lie. Now your fucked cos we all know you lied and you know we know but you can’t change your story because then it is solidified. Lying bastards like you disgrace yourself and your God beliefs.

      Bet key is smirking about all this.

  9. Anne 10

    I’m repeating this here as it is more appropriate than the “Racist attack on a marae” post:

    Q&A have just done a hatchet job on Labour. A very good interview with Andrew Little, the content of which was totally ignored by the panel ( Josie Pagani , John Tamihere and Michelle Boag), who proceeded to repeat all the crap of the past few days. And this gem from Josie Pagani:

    Labour are hypocrites because they have been accusing foreign students of being the cause of the housing crisis and now they’re bringing them here to work for them.

    I kid you not. She said this.

    I might add they ignored the content of the marae chairman’s interview too. It was a concerted effort to attack Andrew Little and Labour. Tamihere never stood up for his own people either although his muttering was so bad it was hard to hear what he was saying.

    • Ed 10.1

      Josie Pagani.
      Need I say more?

      • Wayne 10.1.1

        Better still, Josie said;

        “Using foreign students to campaign against foreign students.”

        A real zinger that cuts to quick of the issue.

        So Anne, your spinning won’t help. Labour was caught out fair and square. I personally find it unbelievable that Labour could have ever thought it a good idea to bring in 90 overseas students to be the ground workers (90 students working 40 hours a week is a hell a lot of campaign work). And John Tamihere also pointed out the sense of unease about bringing in foreign students to do what a party should be able to do using enthusiastic local people.

        After all the rest of us rely on volunteers in the weekend, typically around 20 or so on Saturdays

        • Ed 10.1.1.1

          Are you happy with our ranking of 34 mount of 41 for child wellbeing?
          Is your conscience clear about your contribution to this?

        • marty mars 10.1.1.2

          What about lying bill english Wayne. You happy with his lies? You comfortable with that level of integrity?

        • lprent 10.1.1.3

          Wayne. Please don’t be a spinner.

          Sure 20 per electorate that would be about right. We used to routinely get that on week nights for doing isthmus phone calling – and I suspect that they still do.

          So how many electorates in Auckland where these volunteers were doing canvassing in? Divide 90 by that. How many in the country on phone dial? Divide 90 by that.

          The National party usually pays most of its canvassers at minimal wages (I hear usually below minimum wage), either using students or the Farrar push polling system. Because that is the only way that they can get canvassing work done – I can’t remember the last time I saw any canvassing volunteers in Auckland. Certainly the paid canvassers never report any.

          Frankly your example is just hypocritical. Admit it, the main reason that the National party stalwarts are upset about this (apart from the Maori thing) is that these are overseas volunteers rather than paid minions. Something that has become so rare in the National party that they keep looking at it as being a revolutionary activity.

          • Wayne 10.1.1.3.1

            My experience, over a twenty year period in North Shore (not that long ago) is that all local electioneering is done by volunteers, including phoning.

            In the election campaign we usually did Saturday canvasing (the 20 was in North Shore alone, not elsewhere in Auckland), a stint at the Takapuna market on Sunday, and phoning on a week night usually with Young Nats. No-one was paid anything, it was all volunteer.

            I cannot imagine it has changed in any material way in the last five years, except for digital platforms.

            National has a much larger membership base than any other party (in recent years as many as 35,000) so getting volunteers is not that hard. The Young Nats have really grown in the last few years, and are always keen to help. They do so voluntarily. Both at the local level and the national level.

            They, like all National activists are motivated by the ideals of choice and personal freedom both socially and economically, and therefore getting National in, and keeping Labour out!

            So I don’t believe you about National electorates using paid canvassers.

            As for David Farrar, he has his own polling firm, and I guess does polling for all sorts of organisations, not just National. He therefore has to pay his workers, since he is running a business.

            • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1.1.3.1.1

              a much larger membership base

              Pretending that raffle tickets are membership applications isn’t it?

              As for personal freedom, how much personal freedom do homeless people have? If your members are motivated by that then why do your policies destroy so many lives?

              The obvious conclusion is that your members can’t tell when they’re being lied to.

              • Wayne

                OAB
                Unlike you National deals in reality. That is the members are actually signed up members, who complete an actual membership form. Maybe that is not the case with the political parties you are most familiar with.

                • One Anonymous Bloke

                  You have the names and addresses of 35k people who don’t know when they’re being lied to? Nah, surely some of them are deceitful and corrupt too: when the lies are exposed, like with Bill English’s lies, for example, they deny and blame someone else.

                  Still, that’s the company you keep.

                  [There’s a moderation note for your attention over here] – Bill

                • Draco T Bastard

                  National has never dealt in reality. They’re always proclaiming delusion as their driving force.

                  That’s why they oppose saving the environment.
                  That’s why they’re for shifting ever more of the countries wealth to the rich while saying that it will make everyone better off.
                  That’s why they ignore science to ram through their policies.

                  They do all that they can to make a few people rich at everyone else’s expense and then get surprised when their polices inevitably fail.

              • greywarshark

                The obvious conclusion is that National Party members want to be presented with lies appearing ingenuous but actually unscrupulous and substantially believable, that they can adopt and embrace.

                This is my position in a longer and more detailed version of yours OAB.

            • Anne 10.1.1.3.1.2

              In the election campaign we usually did Saturday canvasing (the 20 was in North Shore alone, not elsewhere in Auckland),

              Oh you mean those weedy looking kids with ultra short backs and sides… expensive blue and white striped blazers… and matching striped panama hats (must have cost the Nats a pretty penny) who used to lounge around the Takapuna street bars talking loudly and showing off? 😀

        • Ed 10.1.1.4

          ‘At some point people are going to admit this 2 month old story about a Labour intern slave scandal was just a distraction from Bill & Todd.’

          https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/06/24/at-some-point-people-are-going-to-admit-this-2month-old-story-about-a-labour-intern-slave-scandal-was-just-a-distraction-from-bill-todd/

          • Red 10.1.1.4.1

            No was rebranding of labour to slavelabour , Catchy, will stick a lot longer than Barclay gate

            • Ed 10.1.1.4.1.1

              Troll

            • Psycho Milt 10.1.1.4.1.2

              He’s just assisting with the “repeat a lie often enough” thing. If Wayne above is correct, he may even be getting paid for it (in fact, I hope so – who would embarrass themselves like that for free?).

        • Craig H 10.1.1.5

          Calling the volunteers foreign students is disingenuous – most people understand foreign students to be people on student visas studying in NZ. The volunteers are domestic students in their home countries, volunteering abroad, and attempting to pretend they are in any way related is poppycock.

        • Anne 10.1.1.6

          Ho… listen to you Wayne. You come here regularly and indulge in pure spin and misrepresentation.

          Labour was not “caught fair and square”. IT WAS NOT A LABOUR RUN PROGRAMME. It was run by an independent organisation who did not do their homework properly. Even though the participants were genuinely trying to assist Labour (oh, what a shocking sin) they should not have used Labour’s name during the recruitment process. You are are being traditionally selective in your responses and, in the process, I call you out as a cheat. But then we know Nats are especially prone to such behaviour.

          I congratulate Labour for picking up the tabs and running with the programme for the sake of the fresh young idealists who are trying to make a difference in this seriously corrupt world. In a bygone era I was one of them, so I understand their enthusiasm and applaud them for it.

          Re- Josie Pagani. There were no quote marks around my claim concerning her comment. Unlike you [apparently] I don’t always have the time to check up what exactly was said so I paraphrased. Her level of expertise as a commentator leaves a huge amount to be desired, and it disappoints me that the MSM use her as a so-called left commentator when every intelligent, informed individual knows she is nothing of the sort.

          Now back to the real story of criminal conduct and corrupt cover-ups by the most senior members of the National Party and their unprincipled junior lackeys.

    • Ethica 10.2

      Yes it was disappointing that the panel today consisted of three right wingers. No balance.

  10. Draco T Bastard 11

    The Rise of Jeremy Corbyn and the Death Throes of Neoliberalism

    A new economic consensus is quickly replacing the neoliberal one to which Blair and Clinton, as well as Thatcher and Reagan, subscribed; politicians are scrambling to articulate it, often blatantly breaking with their own history. Certainly, May’s frantic left-wing posturing against inequality and social division confirmed that the Anglo-American revolution of the 1980s — built around a strong prejudice against government and for free markets — is over. At least in Britain. May, the conservative daughter of a country vicar, will probably be best remembered for advancing, inadvertently, a counterrevolution of the left.

    Take that as you will.

  11. Morrissey 12

    How come we get Hosking and Garner and Mulligan
    five days a week on television, but never see this guy?….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdACEzbjG-w

  12. lprent 13

    Locked out the googlebots at the firewall and the site has calmed down a lot. It explains a lot about the unexpected site dropouts in the past couple of weeks.

    They were repeatably from several servers re-requesting the same bad URL over and over again.

    The googlebots had been previously exempted from the usual crawler rules because they were so well behaved. And they were running less than the denial of service rules.

    Complained to google.

    • greywarshark 13.1

      Thanks for that unintelligible explanation lprent. (Just joking. Some learn a lot and some a little with every communication from you.) Thanks.

      • lprent 13.1.1

        🙂 Yeah it is a problem with computing. Damn near every explanation sounds like a excursion into a long fantasy land story arc. Which in many respects is exactly what it is. In particular the whole net is just an extended story of shared perceptions about how it should operate.

  13. Tautoko Mangō Mata 14

    Our hospitals are struggling to cope with the numbers of patients and the lack of money. They are also struggling with a Minister of Health who seems to show little interest in cost-effective preventative health measures, like taxing sweetened beverages.
    The FIZZ Symposium which will be held tomorrow at Auckland Hospital will have the latest information on this issue of sugar and health.

    This government is good at ignoring evidence-based information, while it is very susceptible to lobbying by the NZ Initiative, The NZ Food and Grocery Council and the Tax Payers’ Union. I find the Tax Payers’ Union strong opposition to a sugar tax rather at odds with their website slogan: “Championing Value For Money From Every Tax Dollar”

    If reducing sugar intake by taxing sugar leads to a reduction in health issues, then surely this will make the tax payers’ health dollar go further.

    • Tautoko Mangō Mata 14.1

      The aims of the Taxpayers’ Union are:
      To reduce wasteful spending by central and local government;
      To increase transparency and accountability of government spending;
      To increase institutional checks on government spending;
      To enable New Zealanders to easily scrutinise government spending;
      To lower the tax burden on New Zealanders; and
      To promote evidence based public policy.

      http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/what_we_stand_for

      I look forward to the Taxpayers’ Union supporting the evidence-based policy which could arise from the FIZZ symposium.
      https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2017/jun/taxing-sugary-drinks

      However, it was pleasing to see that the Taxpayers’ Union has questioned the following:

      The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Auditor General’s office to investigate today’s revelations regarding the use of former Prime Minister John Key’s taxpayer funded ‘leaders budget’ to, allegedly, cover-up allegations of wrongdoing by National Party backbench MP, Todd Barclay.
      Jordan Williams, the Union’s Executive Director, said, “We need to know whether Parliamentary Service did acknowledge that there was an illegal recording made by an MP. If so, why didn’t the agency refer it straight to the Police?”

      http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1706/S00271/thats-taxpayer-money-not-your-hush-money.htm

      • ianmac 14.1.1

        I reckon that they are safe TMM, requesting that as there can be no response to it. But it leaves Taxpayers Union looking good so that they can carry out their real purpose to do the dirty on the Left.

      • Tautoko Mangō Mata 14.1.2

        UGH!!!!!
        I reread the disgusting Carrick Graham written “Whaleoil “slag-off of Tony Falkenstein who was a speaker at the previous FIZZ symposium. This type of hatchet job (Falkenstein being being called a two-bit-hooker with absolutely no evidence whatsoever) was exposed by Nicky Hager in his Dirty Politics Book, (p 85).
        These personal attacks of people working for the public good need to be exposed. There should be no intimidation of those who wish to attend the symposium either.

      • greywarshark 14.1.3

        This not doing anything about sugar laden drinks fits well within the Gnats do-nothing policy (unless there is money in it for them and their patrons.) They are paid to provide a PR cover of interested, concerned appearance.

        Have a look at the lovely Gladys Knight as she advises –
        Do Nothing Till you Hear from Me. (I think Gnats are looking for a way to use this as their theme at this election, and not pay anything till they hear from the lawyers.)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEm9vivjW1E

  14. ianmac 15

    The only credit that I saw for Bill English over the interviews with Paddy and with Corin, was that Bill did answer the questions. A past PM Key would have skidded, slipped and digressed and was impossible to interview. Bill still ended up in the pooh but he did answer the questions. (Wish Corin would let him speak though!)

  15. Draco T Bastard 16

    T r u m p ’ s L i e s

    Many Americans have become accustomed to President Trump’s lies. But as regular as they have become, the country should not allow itself to become numb to them. So we have catalogued nearly every outright lie he has told publicly since taking the oath of office.

    Just think of what would have happened if the MSM in this country had done the same for Key’s lies.

    • Red 16.1

      Politican less than truthful, newsflash

      • Draco T Bastard 16.1.1

        Why do you think that’s acceptable?

        Or is it just that they’re your preferred politicians and you don’t mind them lying?

      • McFlock 16.1.2

        Headline nobody has seen, ever: “Trump statement reasonable and truthful.”

    • greywarshark 17.1

      Tax cuts for NZ. The modern economic equivalent of the old medical profession treatment of bleeding the patient to cure them. Poor kiwi lies wan yet still more of the same. When we die the excuse will be ‘It was God’s will’.

      This is what we have GST for folks. If they get it up to 20% Roger Douglas’ mob will have got their flat tax.

  16. Cinny 18

    Received national party advertising propaganda today.

    Membership/donation form with an insert about the outgoing PM

    Oh hell no don’t be asking me for money or to join your party.. was like wtf… found that tasteless boarding on offensive.

    The insert was titled, “We’re working for NZ”, picture of the outgoing PM against a farming background. The flyer was all about him, there was no ‘we’re’ in either of the two images… no I take that back, I see sheep, about six of them. Nada about the local candidate (tbh that really surprised me), just Bill and his six sheep working for NZ.

    I feel a sheep song coming on ….. just for the outgoing PM and his six sheep who are working for NZ 😀 Maestro… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG6JFrWjGTE

    • Red 18.1

      25pc cinny , 25pc I say again, lower than Cunner same time in 2014

      • Ed 18.1.1

        Do you care about the fact we are 34th out of 41 OECD countries for child well-being?

        • Red 18.1.1.1

          That’s a silly subjective stat ed, 25pc is simply fact, government must be doing something right

      • Cinny 18.1.2

        Baaaaaaa baaaaaa haaahaaa what national getting 25%? After all my post was all about national, gosh Red, if you say so, I mean I’m not a national supporter, but I don’t think I would have guessed that low. But hey this Barclay thing is continually ongoing, so you may be correct.

        Will check in with you on the eve of the 23rd, to let you know how close your guess was at national only getting 25%

        • Red 18.1.2.1

          Ok, Barclay gate, employment spat will disappear, slavelabour Has an enduring quality about it

          • Cinny 18.1.2.1.1

            Dude it’s the lying and lack of action by the outgoing government that has been and is enduring. Standby the news is on, am sure we will hear more about Barclay any moment now.

            • Red 18.1.2.1.1.1

              No one cares, beltway rubbish, news leading with sailing and rugger here a wager if labour win Powerade next election I will self impose a 10 week exile from commenting here, if national led government you do the same, let’s test your convictions You game ?😀

              • Red

                Correction Powerade should read power before spell and grammar zealots on this site hunt me down, site for some reason won’t let me edit and predictive text is not my friend

              • Cinny

                Hmmm Red I’m all about numbers, I would have gone for 11 or 9 but not 10 weeks. So instead let’s do it from Sabbat to Sabbat

                From the midnight the day after spring equinox (23rd September), result should be in by then, until Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere, known in the North as Samhain, also known on a commercial level as Halloween

                From midnight on the day after Spring Equinox until the final minute of Sabbat on the last day of October, if National wins I won’t comment on TS.

                For you Red, when national loses, no commenting from the first minute of the 24th Sept until the last minute of 31st October.

                Deal?

          • Robert Guyton 18.1.2.1.2

            Your desperation has an endearing quality about it.

          • weka 18.1.2.1.3

            Hasn’t the intern thing already dropped of the media’s targeting?

            On the Barclay/English affair Newsroom just published another piece with new information. And BE also released some new fodder for the MSM and social media. I expect tomorrow’s news will be full of that.

            • Red 18.1.2.1.3.1

              For political junkies may be for the average voter slavelabour will hang around a lot longer on the campaign trail and in voters subconscious

              • Nah Bill confirming his lies even after those interviews today. I think more to come – we got all next week for the drip drip drip. Gnats are going to use up a few dead cats on this one. Maybe a sex scandal will get it out of the news but I suspect not lol not the way bills going…

                • weka

                  We still don’t know why National backed Barclay for so long, including at the last selection process 😉

                  Plus there’s the police investigation, and the Clutha-Southland selection investigation process.

              • weka

                Mate, it’s being hammered in the media, and the PM just pointed out that he’s been lying again.

                • David Mac

                  60 marae slaves have turned down offers to be relocated. Must be Stockholm Syndrome.

                  The Todd thing stinks bad, the Nats turned to their arsenal and the biggest ordinate they could spin up and hand to Hootie and The Blowfish is this stupid slaves in slums claptrap.

                  If that’s the best their armory has to offer they have much bigger problems than axe in hand Bill standing next to the fallen Cherry tree.

                • Red

                  But know one cares, it won’t move the polls, slave labour will

                  • Because anonymous internet guy says so? Oh no, we’re fucked!

                    Comments are only worth the arguments contained in them (whether explicit or implicit). Unsupported assertions have a total value of 0, and repeating unsupported assertions multiplies 0 to get a cumulative value of, er let’s see… oh, yes: 0. Whenever you’re ready, feel free to raise yourself above being a no-net-worth commenter.

    • Graeme 18.2

      Oh dear, a campaign all about Bill English, what could go wrong….

      I think I saw that picture before, 2002 wan’t it?

    • greywarshark 18.3

      Cinny
      I had to stop after 3.5 minutes. What a long shaggy sheep song, very good, and well understoood. And using some sharpened No.8 fencing wire for the needle on the vinyl – that’s creative.

  17. Tamati Tautuhi 19

    National promoting further tax cuts and increased wages at the National Party Convention, relief at last for the lower socio-economic groups here in NZ ?

  18. So Barclay offered to play the tape to english – spose that confirms one lie.

    Too many bill you’re not going to make it…

    • Bill must have been an awesome dad. “Yes, the baby did just spend some time with a very intent expression on his face and now the room smells of shit, but the fact of a full nappy hasn’t been established – so I’m off down the pub.”

  19. David Mac 21

    I think Bill is probably a fantastic Dad, he’s a good bloke. Good blokes are crappy liars. His words and body language/tone have been juxtaposed.

    That’s ok, we all lie. Now back to what matters. How can we get more of us saying ‘Geeez, I’m loving life.’

    • BM 21.1

      None of this is going to effect Bill English in the slightest.

      • Ed 21.1.1

        Of course..

        • BM 21.1.1.1

          Did it have any effect on John Key?

          No, no it didn’t.

          I’ll be honest I’ve never seen such a group of slow learners as the people I see here on the standard, it’s really head scratching stuff because you guys aren’t dumb there just seems to be quite a disconnect with reality.

          I’m guessing it must be a left wing thing?

          • McFlock 21.1.1.1.1

            Is Bill English John Key?

            Um, I won’t answer that, it’s the subject of a police investigation, um, I really don’t want to answer that, um, no, I guess no he isn’t….

          • marty mars 21.1.1.1.2

            Key ain’t English remember?

            • BM 21.1.1.1.2.1

              Key was no God, he was as polarising as he was popular.

              English’s more conservative “gee shucks” country boy approach has far more supporters than it does detractors, he’ll probably end up more popular than Key.

              • McFlock

                Maybe unless Barclay taped himself telling blinglish about taping, and blinglish’s subsequent advice or lack thereof. And Collins might want a 2 month gig as PM for her CV – it’ll really help with the prospective log and milk customers.

              • Yeah he was a real hero for the gnats last time he led them to an election record loss wasnt it? You think those gnat MPs have forgotten that? I dont think so. And here he is again stuffing it up lol go billshitter go

                • BM

                  English failed because of Shipley and he was up against Clark

                  That woman was fucking hideous and so disliked I doubt Key would have done much better than English in 2001.

          • JanM 21.1.1.1.3

            So what you’re saying is that we consistently overestimate the ability of the RW voter to give a damn?

            • BM 21.1.1.1.3.1

              The alternative is a complete shit sandwich, no one’s in a hurry to have that.

              • Draco T Bastard

                That’s what the RW voter always gives us because they’re so accepting of the lies of their leaders.

          • Ed 21.1.1.1.4

            Do you care about our ranking at 34 out of 41 in the OECD for child well-being ?

          • Draco T Bastard 21.1.1.1.5

            I find it disturbing that you’re fine with politicians lying so blatantly and engaging in crimes tghat should be sending them to jail.

            Of course, if it was Left politicians lying you’d be screaming blue murder.

          • dv 21.1.1.1.6

            So why did Key go BM?

      • marty mars 21.1.2

        Sounding a bit hollow there lol

      • Andre 21.1.3

        True. Coz the bit of his soul that might have been affected was in the 49% he sold off a while back.

      • David Mac 21.1.4

        Nor should it, he’s a first rate farmer.

        • BM 21.1.4.1

          David, you seem a bit more on to it than most around here.

          Why do think the Todd Barcley “scandal” will have little effect on Bill English’s popularity or how people vote?

          • David Mac 21.1.4.1.1

            Because if you asked random people to list their top 50 concerns Todd would be lucky to make many lists. Unfortunately for Bill I think the tiny bit that will stick in the minds of people more concerned about Shortland Street plots than Todd whatisname is ‘Bill fibbed’.

            • BM 21.1.4.1.1.1

              Very true.
              Your last sentence, Like you, say everyone tells the odd fib can’t see it being the career ender everyone on here thinks it’s going to be.

              • Good you admit he’s a liar. Pity he’s too weak to own up – I spose he has always got another Sunday coming up hasn’t he.

              • “Odd fib”
                Odd fib!
                Orchestrated litany, this stream, this gush, this torrent, BM.

                • McFlock

                  That’s why nats are so shit at workplace safety: their instinct is to minimise the perceived extent of their own offending, isolate themselves from their colleagues’ offending, but the thought of eliminating tory corruption never occurs to them.

              • Draco T Bastard

                Prima facie, He’s been covering up a crime and that comes with up to seven years of jail.

                That’s not the odd fib. That’s an orchestrated series of lies designed to mislead and prevent the application of justice.

                RWNJS: Law N Order – for the little people but not for RWNJ politicians.

              • Ed

                What won’t you defend?

      • In Vino 21.1.5

        ‘affect’ is the verb you are struggling for, BM (back at 21, where BM demonstrates weakness in syntax, along with other nonsense.

      • Psycho Milt 21.1.6

        None of this is going to effect Bill English in the slightest.

        I expect not. Right-wingers don’t seem to have a problem with either crimes or the covering-up thereof by their leaders. However, those of us who expect better are free to try and promote that as a concept.

        • Stuart Munro 21.1.6.1

          They don’t have to behave better – as long as they face a robust set of punishments.

  20. David Mac 22

    Oh to have a dictophone rolling in the Fresh Sir JK’s place.

    “Oh don’t tell them that Bill….too late. They’ve got you on toast now Sport.”

  21. Cinny 23

    Weka you’re bang on in your comments 18 above.

    MSN just published more info via Newsroom..

    The board and the selection committee knew Barclay had:

    – already broken National Party rules by releasing the name of a challenging candidate.

    – breached the rules by speaking to the media between the close of nomination and the close of the pre-selection process.

    – spoken to his electoral office staff about employment matters that breached a confidentiality agreement.

    not declared police had asked him to be interviewed over the taping of conversations of staffer Glenys Dickson on his candidate nomination form.

    – got staff in his Gore electorate office to canvass delegates to support his reselection when it was outside their contractual obligations and a misuse of taxpayer money.

    And there were issues around a $5000 loan Barclay had been given by the party for campaigning. At this point the loan had not been repaid or disclosed in the campaign donation register.”

    Lolz the dodgy board lead by Peter – let’s not change the fishing laws because I’ve shares in Sanford – Goodfellow. What a surprise, not.

    I must say tomorrow mornings live interviews with the outgoing PM will be interesting. And what do you know, Radio Live are talking about the Barclay thing as I’m typing.

    • Anne 23.1

      Excerpt from Newsroom story:

      In late February the police began investigating Barclay about the use of an interception device to unlawfully record Dickson.
      Davie says not long after, he also got a “rark up” from another board member Glenda Hughes about supplying the police with the text messages he’d received from Bill English .
      “They made up part of my statement to the police and Glenda was furious I’d given them to the police.”
      After Dickson complained to the police, Hughes urged her to withdraw the complaint.

      Well I never. And a former senior police officer.

    • The decrypter 23.2

      In the morn billshit could well lie and say he slept well last night.

    • ianmac 23.3

      Gee thanks Cinny. Just when Bill must have believed that it was all over, ka-boom. Some of the details were already known but there is more and linking it all together is great.
      Though there is less to bother Bill than I had hoped. Expect Bill tomorrow on Morning Report he will say every Board has its moments of disagreement so nothing new. He will suggest that Labour has its troubles too etc etc.

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    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
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