very true, as long as it doesn’t become the ONLY thing that defines the nation. And as long as all the hype and commercialisation that goes with it doesn’t put unreasonable expectations on a generation coming through (as one of the commenters in your link refers to – its longevity will depend on grass roots participation)
Dairy, cow shit, unsawn logs and rugby just aren’t going to get us through it – but …. well done All Blacks (I’d say that though even if they’d lost)
Col. Richard Kemp calls it “the most moral army the world has ever known.”
So why do thousands of young Israelis refuse to serve in the IDF?
Saturday 24 October 2015
In his pisspoor book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, former U.S. president Bill Clinton tells what, even for him, is a breathtakingly cynical lie: he claims that an unarmed seventeen-year-old Palestinian peace activist, Asel Asleh, who was murdered by Israeli soldiers in 2000, was “caught in a crossfire and killed”. [1]
Asel Asleh was murdered fifteen years ago, but nothing has changed. Palestinians are still being harassed, humiliated, raped, shot, stabbed, crushed and killed by gangs of illegal “settlers” and by the soldiers of the Israeli Defence Force, which is, scandalously, infested by extreme hardline “settlers”. And there is a never-ending supply line of Bill Clintons justifying every illegal arrest, every kick, punch, knifing and shooting.
By Palestinian standards, Ansar Aasi is lucky: he is still alive, he can still walk, and—thanks to the fortuitous filming of his assault—he has been released, after three days of illegal and unwarranted detention. This is how the brave soldiers of the Israeli “Defence” Force—labeled by former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Richard Kemp, as “the most moral army the world has ever known” [2]—dealt with the grave and imminent threat represented by Ansar Aasi….
Without fail, politicians like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton wag their fingers at people like Ansar Aasi and express sympathy with the thugs who beat him up. Moral giants like Anthony Weiner scoffingly label them “little Palestinian terrorists”. Comedians like Sacha Baron Cohen and Jerry Seinfeld taunt, slander and ridicule people like Ansar Aasi and even, in the case of Baron Cohen’s Bruno movie, cast them as unwitting stooges in their “satires”.
But there are decent young people in Israel who—-unlike Obama, Biden, the Clintons, Weiner, Baron Cohen and Seinfeld—object to this. They’re called, contemptuously by the Israeli extreme right, “refuseniks”….
+1 –
Rachel Aliene – deliberately run over by a bulldozer by Israeli military.
Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American peace activist and diarist.[1][2] She was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a combat zone in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under contested circumstances[2][3] during the height of the second Palestinian intifada.[4]
She had come to Gaza as part of her senior-year college assignment to connect her home town with Rafah in a sister cities project.[5] While there, she had engaged with other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in efforts to prevent the Israeli army’s demolition of Palestinian houses.[2][6][7]
Less than two months after her arrival,[5] on March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed during an Israeli military operation after a three-hour confrontation between Israeli soldiers operating two bulldozers and eight ISM activists.[3][8]
Fellow ISM protestors saying that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran over Corrie, and Israeli eyewitnesses saying that it was an accident since the bulldozer operator could not see her.[9][10][11][12]
In 2005 Corrie’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death,[13] contending that she had either been intentionally killed or that the soldiers had acted with reckless neglect.[3] They sued for a symbolic one US dollar in damages.
In August 2012, an Israeli court rejected their suit[3] and upheld the results of the 2003 military investigation, ruling that the Israeli government was not responsible for Corrie’s death. The ruling was met with some criticism.[14][15][16]
An appeal against the August 2012 ruling was heard on May 21, 2014. On February 14, 2015, Israel’s supreme court rejected the appeal.[17]
Now lets imagine if a US peace activist was deliberately run over by a Palestinian Bulldozer what the different international response would be?
Your thoughts. Surely the point of the Israeli Palestinian conflict is arrogance on the part of one side who believe that not only can they uproot and disenfrancize a whole community but nobody calls them out and they make out they are the victims. Of course this argument is used by both sides.
TPP update
1. Globe and Mail: TPP’s copyright chapter will cost Canadians hundreds of millions
Canada’s rock-ribbed bastion of pro-trade, pro-Tory ideology has come out against the Trans Pacific Partnership’s Intellectual Property chapter in a leading editorial signed by the paper’s editorial board.
The paper calls out the government for caving to the US entertainment industry on copyright issues, particularly copyright terms, saying that they have no place in trade agreements, that their extension will not provide benefit to Canadians, and will cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars. https://boingboing.net/2015/10/24/globe-and-mail-tpps-copyrig.html
3.Doggett Warns TPP Text Work Could Water Down Deal; Rebuts USTR Sales Pitch
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) on Friday (Oct. 23) warned that delays in releasing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) text could signal an effort by negotiators to water down the agreement announced on Oct. 5, and he also rebutted key Obama administration selling points regarding the deal’s environmental and tariff-cutting benefits. http://insidetrade.com/
!!!!!!!Pencil in 14 November for Protest Marches against TPP_ The Dead Rat Deal. http://itsourfuture.org.nz/
The first, why the majority of NZers agree that inequality is a problem, but why they don’t vote for political parties that would actually do anything about it:
last year I convened a series of focus groups, comprised of members of the public holding a wide range of opinions. How would people explain and defend their opinions in the presence of divergent views? In keeping with survey results, most focus group participants – when asked individually – expressed a preference for a more equal distribution of incomes (better wages for the low-paid; restraint in executive compensation). In the subsequent group discussion, however, these preferences were marginalised by the view that, while a more equal distribution might sound nice, it was likely not feasible given the “realities of the market”.
…
What was most interesting here was that while this “market reality” trope was typically advanced by only one person in each group, it seemed able to over-ride a majority preference for greater equality. Even those participants with very strongly-held egalitarian commitments found it difficult to argue against this appeal to the constraining power of market forces.
Huffington Post has a story about the life and death of an Amazon ‘temporary’ warehouse worker:
That meant Jeff wore white. He’d started working at the warehouse in November 2012, not long after it opened. It was the first job he’d been able to find in months, ever since he’d been laid off from his last steady gig at a building supply store. By January, peak season had come and gone, and hundreds of Jeff’s fellow temps had been let go. But he was still there, two months after he’d started, wearing his white badge. What he wanted was to earn a blue one.
…
Less than an hour later, a worker found Jeff on the third floor. He had collapsed and was lying unconscious in aisle A-215, beneath shelves stocked with Tupperware and heating pads.
Even those participants with very strongly-held egalitarian commitments found it difficult to argue against this appeal to the constraining power of market forces.
Egalitarian people need to be given the tools to be able to argue against automatic market ideology. In the new world of sound-bites and Twitter length discussion, those tools need to be as short and inarguable as phrases like “market reality”. I think it is the opposition who must do this.
The man who uses these market force phrases most, Blinglish, has said this week they need to “get the market right” which screams anything but a free market to me.
I think he has realised he has screwed up and is having to intervene.
The “market” is simply a construct of rules and regulations that leads to a certain wealth distribution.
To attain a different, more equal, wealth distribution then quite simply the current rules and regulations need changing.
Such rules and regulations include tax rates, tax policies (eg cgt), provision of health, education, minimum wage rates, living wage rates, the list goes on and on.
Tweak and adjust each one until the required settings are attained. The current settings have led to the current inequality.
That’s it exactly. The market is a construct of politics and behaves as the politicians have designed it to behave. If we have massive inequality and poverty that’s because the politicians have designed those things in to our society through the rules and regulations that they’ve put in place.
We can change these setting and thus change the outcome.
So to keep the present status quo I’d be best served by someone whose ideology was one that disregards any discussion of regulation, I.e a neolib who wants to get rid of them and so out of fear we’d all rather not change less we lose even the regulations we have. Aka Jamie Whyte, who in the contortion of reason supports the sugar subsides all because nobody will dare discuss them and their impact on global obesity and dental crisis, and so status quo means big govt intervention supported by Whyte by omission.
Yes, I understand that but the point I was trying to make is that the egalitarian participants in the focus group example above found it difficult to articulate that in the face of the flat right-wing mantra, “market reality”.
Why do we, the socially conscious left, not have equivalent short, powerful, and universally accepted memes with which to fight the idea that the market will decide everything?
Look in ‘reality’ when you have family you help each other out – simple. It’s got nothing to do with power, at the end of the day.
It’s got everything to do with power. Poor people can’t help themselves never mind their family – they simply don’t have the power to do so.
The rich, on the other hand, can buy MPs at Cabinet Clubs and get regulation and legislation tailored to them as we’ve seen with SkyCity, Warner Bros, Rio Tinto and other corporations that this government is heavily subsidising from the incomes of the poor.
Market reality today is where a single strong interest of one or few individuals overrides an even stronger interest that is held by a much larger group.
Collective , democratic and governmental groups represent the collective interest of the many.
(Think factory spewing health destroying smoke V. clean air rules )
Why do we, the socially conscious left, not have equivalent short, powerful, and universally accepted memes with which to fight the idea that the market will decide everything?
I think you make a very good point here muttonbird.
I wouldn’t live this life, if it were not for love, the want to help, and the decency of wanting to help a relative. Why belittle myself to the size of a pip on purpose for the hell of it? There is a point to every exercise- always.
I am fair, understanding and kind. I know myself inside out. I have made huge sacrifices to be here, I have battle wounds, scars, emotionally and physically – I am drained, tired, fu8ked off, frustrated, hurt, angry and fed-up. But I don’t give up; I get up, over and over and over and over again. If ‘I’ keep trying then- you must try yourself, ESPECIALLY considering the outcome is 100% in our favour.
Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.
Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.
Anibal must be really confident (or just stupid) that state force will be able to quell the masses forever. Or he might just be one of those people who has confidence in their own bolt hole, and that they can take it all with them in the next life. When he/she drives, it probably never occurs to him/her to look in the rear vision mirror once in a while.
I’m wondering where the ‘hard right’ think they’re going to find exile in 20 years time – somewhere in the Islamic State or Israel maybe?
And this one is a must read as well. David Graeber at his best:
True, for much of the nineteenth century, the United States was largely an economy of small family firms and high finance—much like Britain’s at the time. But America’s advent as a power on the world stage at the end of the century corresponded to the rise of a distinctly American form: corporate—bureaucratic—capitalism. As Giovanni Arrighi pointed out, an analogous corporate model was emerging at the same time in Germany, and the two countries—the United States and Germany—ended up spending most of the first half of the next century battling over which would take over from the declining British empire and establish its own vision for a global economic and political order. We all know who won. Arrighi makes another interesting point here. Unlike the British Empire, which had taken its free market rhetoric seriously, eliminating its own protective tariffs with the famous Anti–Corn Law Bill of 1846, neither the German or American regimes had ever been especially interested in free trade. The Americans in particular were much more concerned with creating structures of international administration. The very first thing the United States did, on officially taking over the reins from Great Britain after World War II, was to set up the world’s first genuinely planetary bureaucratic institutions in the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions—the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and GATT, later to become the WTO. The British Empire had never attempted anything like this. They either conquered other nations, or traded with them. The Americans attempted to administer everything and everyone.
I do suggest downloading and reading the PDF linked here.
Here is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: The Five Eyes are after Kim Dotcom and the litigation against him is effectively a circus performance for media and the public because in private, the system has already been meting out his extra-judicial punishment for years.
For all intents and purposes, whether it’s because they’ve gone rogue or are off the leash or whether it is just unofficial deep state policy; New Zealand intelligence agencies have been acting “arguably at the behest of a foreign power” according to Bryce Edwards. Including against their own countrymen.
That used to be called treason. Now it is called international co-operation and is self-justified by a secret treaty that was hidden from the public for 60 years: known only as the UK/USA Agreement. According to this link detailing the complex history of the agreement, which instituted and eventually encompassed the Five Eyes, the full text only became available in 2010 – some 64 years after its genesis.
We need to take our democracy back off of the bureaucrats.
We need to take our democracy back off of the bureaucrats.
In Vladimir Arnold reminiscence of Rokhlin,he discussed the latter’s vision for the future.
I recall another conversation with Vladimir Abramovich, the subject of which
he would return to again and again – his vision of the future of humanity. According to him, humanity is moving towards bureaucratization where an all-powerful bureaucratic apparatus will be suppressing everything alive and creative that still exists. According to him, this phenomenon is not exclusive to Russia, it is global, although this is an uneven process. Rokhlin thought that this process would be soon completed (in view of the fact that two-dimensional sphere is compact), and the Global Government will be created, which will realize the worst predictions of Zamyatin’s “We” and Huxley’s “Brave New World” on the global scale. Degenerating humanity lead by their worst representatives will democratically establish ochlocratic dictatorship, which will be suppressing everything out of the ordinary and will be mainly preoccupied with stopping progress, and, as a result, destruction of education and science (by means of dumbing down children from a very young age by watching TV, playing video and computer games).
Our times, the golden age of mathematics and science in general will then
be considered an unprecedented highest point, the way we now think of Italian
Renaissance Art, and Klein’s “Lectures on Development of Mathematics in the
Nineteenth Century” will read as Vasari’s “The Lives of the Artists”.
“I am glad I will not live to see that”, concluded Rokhlin.
It is difficult to debate such predictions, however I would like to cite a similar
prediction by Leo Tolstoy that has not quite become a reality. “The strength of
the government lies in the people’s ignorance, and government knows this, and will, therefore, always oppose true enlightenment”
The result is that currently we have a situation where 2 political parties in New Zealand that together represent less than 1% of the electorate wield enormous power in parliament.
That clearly isn’t right or just – but it is legal.
So what is the rational response to such an irrational situation?
Well, you could try to take the moral high ground and say “because others are manipulating the system I won’t”. But that just leaves you powerless because the manipulators will win time and again – as we have been seeing.
The alternative is to say – “Well, the history of politics is the history of doing deals. If that’s how the game is currently being played then we must use the rules to work for us. And when we are in power we will change the rules so the they are not so easy to manipulate.”
That is a lesson that the Left in NZ seem to want to refuse to learn. It’s why we still have a National led government instead of Hone and Laila in parliament supporting a DC led Labour/Greens/IPMana government.
To suggest that NZFirst would have gone with that unstable hydra at the 2014 election is pretty dubious.
Instead we’d right now have an NZFirst – National government. Probably better than what we have now, but still not what we need, and clearly primes the stage for a NZFirst – National coalition in 2017 as well.
IMO, NZFirst would have gone for Labour/Greens/NZFirst coalition with IPMana on the cross benches. After National’s attack in 2008 I doubt that NZFirst will be considering propping up a National government for the foreseeable future.
Winston’s a pragmatist. He didn’t got with Labour in 1996 because Helen wasn’t speaking to Jim, and he didn’t think that would work for a government.
The coalition you’re suggesting would be made up from a notoriously divided Labour party, an untested Green party and supported by a crazy german that the public hate. Up against John Key.
Creepiness to the extreme. Parliament goes into recess so FJK can continue to stalk Richie McCaw (and the boys)!
Bet there are also a few other NatzKEY politicians over in the UK as well sharing the fun. Sod the country. More important to have a beer with the boys and to be seen doing so! FFS!
Don’t worry.
Andrew Little will soon be there. Once he arrives the All Blacks will really be terrified and will be hiding away to keep out of the reach of feral politicians.
Just what are the polie’s excuses anyway?
I think we should avoid letting our ideologies inform our opinions on matters of social and economic policy. What matters is scientifically observed evidence. I support the idea of providing everyone with an unconditional basic income not because I just think it’s the right thing to do, and the best way to make ongoing technological unemployment work for us instead of against us, but because such an overwhelming amount of human behavioral evidence points in the direction of basic income.
Remove the stress of competition and everyone benefits.
EDIT:
Increasing incomes results in greater social cohesion.
For anyone who thinks welfare proves otherwise, it doesn’t. Because we attach conditions, we actually introduce certain harmful effects. By targeting assistance to households instead of individuals, we create an incentive for the formation of single parent households. By removing assistance as incomes increase, we create an incentive to stay out of the labor market. By giving only to those determined to be deserving, we attach a stigma to the assistance and to its recipient. These are not problems with the provisioning of cash assistance itself. These are problems with the way we go about designing our assistance programs. They are the result of non-universality and the inclusion of conditions that are actually and provably counterproductive.
Our present National led government is doing the exact opposite of what needs to be done.
What level would you set the Universal Basic Income at?
Would you make it $25,000/year say?
Are you aware that to do so would require that this would require raising the tax rate, on all incomes, by about 50% unless you could reduce other spending dramatically?
I do mean by 50%, not to 50%.
1. I’d set it at about $20k
2. Our entire tax structure needs to be changed and I’d incorporate a UBI with that change. It may be the first step in that change but it would certainly be a part of it.
3. I’d stop the private banks from creating money. This should stop runaway inflation even without changing tax rates
And I’d already figured that a UBI would need tax rates above the flat 30% that Morgan wants if we stayed with the present system. But considering that a few people are ripping us off to the tune of $6 billion per year then I figure a change to the tax system to catch that would also help constrain any inflation that may arise.
$6 billion/year isn’t very much compared to the cost of a UBI though is it?
Suppose we paid the UBI to everyone in the country, and did it at your rate of $20,000/annum.
That comes to about $90 billion/year doesn’t it.
If we limited it to those over, say, 18 it would be around $70 billion/year.
The amount it comes to isn’t actually a problem. As I’ve said before, we’ve got the financial system backwards. We look at it as the government needing to raise money to do these things when the government is actually the source of all wealth and money in a country. Taxes then destroy the money that the government creates constraining inflation.
Alwyn. Have you ever read the website set up to explain the book written by Gareth Morgan and Susan Guthrie called The Big Kahuna? It can be found at: http://www.bigkahuna.org.nz/
I ask because I would be very interested to see an informed debate by commenters here using the explanations and Q&A sections on the above site as a common reference point, rather than this point scoring nonsense that rears its head every now and then. What do you say? Are you serious about having such a discussion? If so, why not choose an explanation from the Q&A you are dissatisfied with and explain your reasoning and then see what response you get?
Oh dear.
I tried the Minister of Finance calculator giving everyone $20,000.
I also had a 15% GST and a required rate of return on capital of 4% (Can you do better at the moment)
The flat tax rate to have a (tiny) surplus was 70%. Perhaps Rob Muldoon was right when he had a tax rate of 66% as his top rate.
I read “The Big Kahuna” when it first came out. It was long enough ago that I don’t feel I can really comment on it without fully rereading it and I don’t think I have the time or inclination to do so.
Relax mate, a UBI of $250 pw ($13,000 p.a.) will be enough if the government lowers the cost of accomodation, food and power, while making healthcare truly accessible and timely.
And private sector employers will do great out of having to pay workers less.
The purpose of a UBI, as I understand it was to replace all other benefits.
You appear to want to retain things like subsidised power , subsidised food, subsidised housing don’t you?
So instead of being the only benefit you want to add it to all the other ones.
Are you really in favour of reduced wages? What about the “living wage” that people seem to be in favour of?
Dude a UBI is not supposed to replace the rest of NZ society like free healthcare and free education. And it certainly isn’t a ticket for privateers to gauge consumers at the power meter and the water meter.
Is there a reason you want foreign shareholders to keep ripping billions of dollars out of NZ consumer pockets every year?
Hey I didn’t comment on Health care or Education did I?
I said “You appear to want to retain things like subsidised power , subsidised food, subsidised housing don’t you?” There is no claim there that a UBI is meant to replace either of these.
There isn’t any private investment in water in New Zealand is there? Unless there is it is hard to see how it would involve ripping of consumers.
Power charges are another matter. I don’t really know enough about the details to comment on it though. I haven’t really bothered to go through all the economics of the electricity industry here although I plead guilty to having bought shares in a couple of the companies.
So not prepared to have an issue by issue conversation using the Q & A as a common reference point. by the sound of it. Just intellectually dishonest pot shots from the sidelines.
Life is tough.
As I said I read it when it first came out in about 2010 or so.
I really don’t want to revisit the epistle. It isn’t really the most important work ever published is it?
Why don’t you start the conversation if you are so keen on it rather than accuse me of intellectual dishonesty because I don’t choose to play by your rules?
Did you attempt to have a discussion or debate with the authors of TBK when it was published and the website went up? They made themselves very available and still are through Morgans website. I wonder why you didn’t try throwing your nuggets at them? Worried about being shot down in double quick time?
I suggested using their Q & A because it provides an easily available reference point for many of the criticisms and questions directed to the authors as promoters of the UBI. Anyone who IS intellectually honest would surely be interested in building on information already in the public domain in a structured and inclusive manner rather than sniping in a disorganised and non productive way, essentially designed to create more heat than light. I don’t pretend to be an economist or an expert on the concept of a UBI, but I can follow a discussion on the issues involved when the participants aim at clarity rather than deliberately leading the discussion down dark alleys which seems to be your modus operandi.
Yes I did talk to them.
I suppose I am being a bit tough on you.
As you admit, you say
” I don’t pretend to be an economist or an expert on the concept of a UBI”.
I have a PhD in Economics, and I suppose I don’t really feel like spending my time discussing topics where you have to go back to basics to try and get someone to understand them. You can call me arrogant if you like.
Sorry but your opinion that I am “intellectually dishonest” I find offensive. I really don’t have the time or inclination to try and educate the ignorant on the subject.
You may not have realised it but you are not on a specialist forum for special people with PHD’s in economics. This is a public space for all comers. So yes, you are probably right that you are an arrogant arse who finds it beneath himself to construct his argument in such a way that mere mortals can follow his line of thinking.
Did you manage to stump your economist peers (Morgan and Guthrie) with your cute line of questioning?
Your method seems to involve a line of rhetorical questions which suggest that there are almost insurmountable problems that make a UBI unworkable, when you are obviously familiar enough with Morgan and Guthrie’s work that you know what their proposal consists of in its totality and you know that the kind of questions you are asking here have been asked and answered elsewhere. I call that dishonest.
I suspect you have an ideological and / or moral aversion to the concept of a UBI which colours your ability to scrutinize it with an intellectually objective eye. Tell me it isn’t so.
Harvard ethicist Louis M. Guenin describes the “kernel” of intellectual honesty to be “a virtuous disposition to eschew deception when given an incentive for deception.”
I also had a 15% GST and a required rate of return on capital of 4% (Can you do better at the moment)
The correct, maximum return to owning capital is zero. In fact, it should actually cost you to hold capital.
The flat tax rate to have a (tiny) surplus was 70%.
Don’t want a surplus. In fact, the governments deficit would be the rate of growth in the economy.
The purpose of a UBI, as I understand it was to replace all other benefits.
To replace most of them. There would still be a few extras for people with special needs.
You appear to want to retain things like subsidised power , subsidised food, subsidised housing don’t you?
Nope. What I want is to have them provided as a government service at close to cost. Take into account maximum public servant wages/salaries of $150k (or less) and the fact that there won’t be any profits/dividends means that costs will actually go down.
Are you really in favour of reduced wages? What about the “living wage” that people seem to be in favour of?
“Yes and we wouldn’t actually need either the living or minimum wage with a UBI”
…that would depend entirely upon the level of a UBI. If any UBI covered the basic cost of living (do we have a different level for Auckland/ Queenstown?) then that may be true however every proposal i have seen to date has not reached that level by quite some amount, therefore in the majority of cases there will still be a need for some other form of income and if that involves paid labour are you seriously suggesting legal protections will be redundant?
“Are you aware that to do so would require that this would require raising the tax rate, on all incomes, by about 50% unless you could reduce other spending dramatically?”
Who says so, and why? This is simply untrue. The government could issue a UBI of any value (including $25,000 p.a) without raising a single dollar of extra funding if it wanted to.
I cannot see any real difference between paying out the money today and taxing it back tomorrow and taxing today to pay it out tomorrow.
They still are going to collect the amount of tax that goes out in the UBI aren’t they?
Besides “Nic the NZer ” appears to be implying, and I may be misreading his intention, that there is no need fund the payment at all. They can just print the money and never bother to collect it back.
I cannot see any real difference between paying out the money today and taxing it back tomorrow and taxing today to pay it out tomorrow.
The difference is where and at what time in the cycle the money is created/destroyed and how it’s used.
At the moment the majority of money is created by the private banks and spent where they choose. A hell of a lot of it goes on existing housing thus pushing house prices up. This money is then taxed giving the government an income.
The other way the government creates the money and spends it where it’s needed. People have in income that keeps them well, infrastructure is built without interest and the government can also spend massively on R&D.
The first way accepts the delusion that the private sector is the source of all wealth and the second accepts the reality that the government is.
It would have interesting inflationary consequences wouldn’t it?
$25k/person/year would represent an additional $112 billion being added to the money supply each and every year.
At the moment M1 is about $42 billion. The broadest aggregate, M3 is about $290 billion. Giving the money out as a direct payment would simply add to M1 I would suggest.
If you gave everyone $25k/year M1 would be $42 billion today, $156 billion this time next year, $268 billion in two years and so on.
Do you really think that inflation wouldn’t go through the roof?
It would have interesting inflationary consequences wouldn’t it?
$25k/person/year would represent an additional $112 billion being added to the money supply each and every year.
Firstly, you are assuming here that everyone gets a lift by the amount of the UBI.
That is incorrect. The UBI will partially replace the first part of wages and salaries which are currently being paid out.
Secondly, why would inflation “go through the roof” by giving every Kiwi just enough to get on by? A UBI is not geared for people to spend lavishly or extravantly – therefore the pressure on inflation will be negligible.
I suggest you look at my reply to Draco just below here. I was talking about Nic’s comment which appeared to assume no taxes to get the money back. Thus what he was saying appears to be a permanent increase to the money supply.
I also don’t understand what you mean by the comment that
“The UBI will partially replace the first part of wages and salaries which are currently being paid out”
I had thought it was intended to go to everyone and be in addition to whatever they earned.
It would have interesting inflationary consequences wouldn’t it?
$25k/person/year would represent an additional $112 billion being added to the money supply each and every year.
Not necessarily as there’s things that can be done to keep the amount of money added to the economy the same or even decrease it. These would include but not be limited to:
1. Stopping the private banks from creating money when they make a loan
2. A reworking of taxes so as to take more money out of circulation
3. Preventing the importation of foreign money into NZ$
Giving the money out as a direct payment would simply add to M1 I would suggest.
Yes, it would be Reserve Currency rather than Bank Money.
If you gave everyone $25k/year M1 would be $42 billion today, $156 billion this time next year, $268 billion in two years and so on.
There’s these things called taxes that could be used to destroy the money created at near balance.
Do you really think that inflation wouldn’t go through the roof?
Not if it’s done properly. In fact, I’d expect inflation to drop.
You say
“There’s these things called taxes that could be used to destroy the money created at near balance.”
That is fine but Nic said
“The government could issue a UBI of any value (including $25,000 p.a) without raising a single dollar of extra funding if it wanted to.”
He was the one I was responding to and he appears to be saying that no taxes to recover the money would be necessary. Surely you would regard taxes to destroy the money would be “extra funding”. The case you are defending doesn’t seem to be the one (Nic’s) I was questioning.
Well I wanted to know what the problem was for a start. First we need to take into account that the government can’t run out of money, it doesn’t face a budget constraint.
Your talking about an ‘increase in the money supply’ which does not even need to occur. The government (including the RBNZ) could borrow (not tax) the funds spent resulting in no increase in the M1 money supply. Presently they do this almost daily in order to allow the RBNZ to maintain its OCR policy.
Further, even assuming that the extra spending is not reversed, the Quantity Theory of Money which you are then using to imply inflation doesn’t work. There is no necessary implication of inflation. This conclusion depends entirely on the capacity of the economy to absorb additional spending having been exhausted. Clearly the economy is presently running below capacity so it can absorb additional spending.
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
At the Auckland Transport board meeting today a series of papers really highlight the cost of sprawl. For the last few years, the Supporting Growth work has been looking at designing the strategic transport networks for future greenfield areas in the South, Northwest, North (around Dairy flat) and in Warkworth. ...
Hi,Today’s newsletter is something I’ve wanted to report for ages, but I have been waiting on a New Zealand judge to make a ruling. That ruling has been made — so here we go.Enjoy.A scene from Mister Organ.Two Police Officers Knock on My DoorOn November 4 last year, I was ...
Only three days after Nanaia Mahuta had dinner with China’s Foreign Minister, New Zealand’s intelligence chiefs were talking about state actors interfering in New Zealand politics and using ethnic communities here for espionage purposes. Neither GSCB Director (and new SIS director) Andrew Hampton nor acting SIS CEO Phil McKee ...
In what has been one of her most important diplomatic mission, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has opened the door for a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins later this year. Such a mission is regarded as vital with a new Prime Minister Li Qiang settling into office. ...
Saturday morning, we went to Albert Park.We were there to show support, to challenge words of demonisation.To repeat those words from Michèle A’Court:Making them sound “other” is a technique used by racists and homophobes to dehumanise whole groups of people who “aren’t like them”. If you dehumanise people, it is ...
Too Strong For The Law’s Web: But, if the USA is too big to punish, why isn’t the Russian Federation? Russia’s economy may be roughly the size of Italy’s, but it’s nuclear arsenal is more than capable of laying human civilisation to waste. Threatening to arrest Vladimir Putin - especially when ...
Nobody likes a fascist, except other fascist’s of course. Thankfully they were completely outnumbered in Auckland last Saturday when a supposed advocate for women’s rights, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker, tried to give a public speech about how transgender people are worthy of persecution.You can understand why Parker and her ...
On Friday I sent out a newsletter called Posie Parker vs Transgender Rights to provide information about the visit to our shores of Ms Parker. I attempted to show there were multiple points of view but on balance my sympathies were strongly with the counter protest group standing up for ...
Brian Easton writes – Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector ...
Oh, the irony. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has made a career out of inciting public hostility against the trans community, only to find herself on the receiving end of public hostility at her Auckland rally. In a further case of karmic justice, the people who brought her into the country ended up ...
In 1972, British soldiers tortured a false confession out of Liam Holden, resulting in him being given Britain's last death sentence. While it was commuted to life imprisonment, Holden was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years. Now, the courts have finally recognised that it was torture: In 1973 Liam Holden ...
Taxpayers are not only subsidising already-very-profitable private banks via the cheap ‘Funding For Lending’ loans that helped pumped up house prices in 2021, but are also paying the banks upwards of $2 billion a year in interest for cash kept with the Reserve Bank. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: ...
This weekend saw a showdown between two tribes of contemporary gender politics: those in favour of progressing transgender rights versus women wishing to defend their spaces. It’s a debate with huge passion, outrage and consequences. The figure at the centre of the clash was the British “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” Posie ...
Tomorrow the Auckland Transport board meet again. Here are some of the highlights from their board papers. The open session starts at 9am and can be watched on this Teams link. Closed Session The closed session is typically where the most interesting items are discussed. Items for Approval ...
Mutual Support: Democracy in New Zealand will not be saved by pitting Pakeha against Māori, but by joining together with every other citizen who still understands the meaning of working together to build something good that will last. Call that co-governance if you like, or call it something else – ...
Imagine being a great big business success enjoying your lavish Waiheke island property with infinity pool and ballroom and riparian rights and heli-pad. Sweeeet. But imagine, also, having to take orders from some little bureaucratic oik about how often you can land a chopper on it.I can’t, really, but it ...
Hi,New Zealand’s Life megachurch has confirmed to Webworm it was paid $10,000 by Hillsong for investigating Brian Houston’s sexual misconduct allegations.Following Webworm publishing this piece about the $10,000 payment, Life’s Corporate Communications Manager Phil Irons has confirmed what it was for:Paul [de Jong] was engaged by Hillsong to assist in ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 19, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 25, 2023. Story of the Week Q&A: IPCC wraps up its most in-depth assessment of climate change The final part of the world’s most comprehensive assessment of ...
by Daphna Whitmore I thought the #LetWomenSpeak meeting would be a good time to talk about free speech and why it is important for the left. Then the mob stampeded the open-air gathering and no one got to speak. Here’s what I was had prepared. Today I want to talk ...
By Don Franks Today my friend Ani O’Briien went to a meeting in Auckland and wrote: “No sooner had Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull arrived at the Rotunda, a protestor (who had managed to get past the barrier) ran at her and threw a red substance all over her and a security ...
Jonathan Milne, managing editor for Newsroom Pro, has expressed his indignation about the outcome of a court decision yesterday in an article headed Posie Parker wins the beautiful freedom to make an ugly argument.Newsroom Pro laments: High Court Justice David Gendall has regretfully allowed an outspoken anti-trans activist to enter New ...
imagine my surprise this week when the National Party, in their infinite wisdom, decided to release an education policy. As you can imagine, this got us so riled up here in the office that we dusted off our Windows XP laptop, waiting 17 hours for all the updates to be ...
Come on Jess thought Mr Evans come on. He watched the large clock on the wall tick closer to 8:40am. Come on girl.In two minutes he had to submit the class attendance report and with Jess having already been late once that term it’d mean an automatic visit from the ...
This week’s UN IPCC report warned climate emissions will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. Bronwyn Hayward points out in The Hoon podcast how far behind NZ’s government and councils are now on climate action compared to the rest ...
Chris Hipkins, after he became prime minister, committed to defeating the cost-of- living crisis. He proceeded to make a bonfire of policies that were at the heart of Jacinda Ardern’s administration. But, as Richard Prebble pointed out this week, “the government has not just U-turned, it has repudiated the ...
There are some wellness, crystal-gazing, holistic spiritual guidance types in my disaster-hit coastal community who insist that the power of positive thinking will overcome the physical and material damages incurred by the community. They object to restrictions on road travel … Continue reading → ...
Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector is inherently unstable, like military ...
1. We see here new police minister Ginny Andersen. Which larger than life NZ political figure was her great-uncle?a. Rob Muldoonb. Bill Andersenc. Richard John Seddond. Norman Kirk2. We see here archival footage of Ginny Andersen coming out of her electorate office to ask ex-tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop if he ...
Buzz from the Beehive Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential. Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – ...
Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR:Auckland MayorWayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Further assistance is now available to businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, with Customs able to offer payment plans and to remit late-payments, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri has announced. “This is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to assist economic recovery in the regions,” Meka Whaitiri said. “Cabinet has approved the ...
More than 41,000 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $20 a week Law change estimated to help lift up to 14,000 children out of poverty Child support payments will be passed on directly to people receiving a sole parent rate of main benefit, making ...
A major investment by Government-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance towards electrifying the public bus fleet is being welcomed by Climate Change Minister James Shaw. “Today’s announcement that NZGIF has signed a $50 million financing deal with Kinetic, the biggest bus operator in Australasia, to further decarbonise public transport is ...
A world-leading payments system is expected to provide a significant cash flow boost for Kiwi innovators, Minister of Research, Science, and Innovation Ayesha Verrall says. Announcing that applications for ‘in-year’ payments of the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) were open, Ayesha Verrall said it represented a win for businesses ...
Minister of Transport Michael Wood joined crowds of keen cyclists and walkers this morning to celebrate the completion of the Te Awa shared path in Hamilton. “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, greener, and more efficient for now and future generations to come,” Michael ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today. The ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, with several hundred ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018. The Minister met her counterpart, newly appointed State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who also hosted a working dinner. This was the first engagement between the two ...
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today, says Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor. Damien O’Connor marked the start of construction on New Zealand’s first uplink centre for ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Can I begin by thanking Gary Taylor, Raewyn Peart and others in the EDS team for their herculean work in support of the environment. I’d also like to acknowledge Hon Simon Upton, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, my parliamentary colleagues, and the many activists here who strive ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā tangata katoa, o moana-nui-a-kiwa, E ngā mate, haere, haere, haere atū ra, manuia lau Malaga. Thank you for the kind introduction and opportunity to join you this morning. It is always good to be here in Aukilani, where I ...
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi, tēnā koutou katoa. Talofa lava and thank you Catherine, for the warm welcome. I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person today but it’s great for the opportunity to contribute virtually. I’d like to start by acknowledging: Alzheimers New Zealand, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
A strong coalition of organisations, unions and employers across the country are calling on the Government to take immediate action to close ethnic, gender and disability pay gaps in the workplace. In support of this call, an open letter ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Old, Associate Professor, Biology, Zoology, Animal Science, Western Sydney University Shutterstock If you look at where wombats deposit their poo, you realise they must be able to perform some surprising acrobatics. It has always amazed me to see wombat ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock Work isn’t just about getting paid. Employment can provide a number of benefits for people in terms of health, wellbeing, social, economic and financial inclusion. It can also reduce reliance on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Herb Marsh, Distinguished Professor of educational psychology, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock Your child comes home from school and tells you three classmates are teasing her constantly. One even put chewed gum in her hair as she was listening to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate lecturer, Flinders University NetflixReview: Wellmania, Netflix. What does it mean to be well? Wellmania, inspired by Brigid Delaney’s book of the same name, attempts to answer this question. Liv (Celeste Barber) is stranded in ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was “horrified” and in shock after being hit by a motorcycle before attending a rally against an anti-trans speaker over the weekend. For the first time, Davidson, who was this week asked to clarify comments she made at the rally about “white cis men”, has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Petousis-Harris, Associate Professor Primary Health, University of Auckland Bastiaan Beentjes/Getty Images Following the deaths of two infants, doctors and scientists worry New Zealand’s whooping cough epidemic could be the worst in years. Known as pertussis or the 100-day ...
Nash’s career is over after being sacked by the prime minister but questions about outsider access to cabinet decisions and perceptions of influence remain, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. The last ...
The National Party has been quick to call for a by-election in the Napier electorate after Stuart Nash was sacked as a minister over a breach of Cabinet rules. ...
Daily traffic chaos is the norm on one of the city’s major arterial routes. This week, it got even worse. About a week ago, almost all the overhead signs heading into Auckland on the northwestern motorway disappeared. Covered by what appeared to be thick green tape, anyone using State Highway ...
Pacific child poverty rates haven’t budged since 2019, despite government attention. A new report suggests some key areas to focus on.The Pacific population in Aotearoa New Zealand is young. A third of Pacific people are under the age of 15, compared to 20% of the total population of New ...
Australia has drawn closer to traditional allies the US and UK by inking its nuclear submarine deal. Meanwhile our foreign minister's just returned from China where some delicate diplomacy has been deployed. The geopolitical chess game in the Indo-Pacific has become increasingly complicated in recent weeks. In the latest ...
Only 10 percent of the Red Cross relief fund for post-Gabrielle recovery in Hawkes Bay has been given out - so what’s the hold-up? Matthew Scott finds out. Volunteer organisers in the post-cyclone Hawkes Bay recovery are asking where the millions of dollars donated to the recovery effort is going as people are ...
Chris Hipkins spent a huge amount of political capital when he gave Stuart Nash a fourth chance in his Cabinet. Now the Prime Minister faces big questions as to how much confidential Cabinet information has been leaked and the influence it’s had. Political editor Jo Moir explains. It has barely ...
Who are the middle classes and what do they want? The book launch for Megan Nicol Reed's novel One of Those Mothers was not the kind of quiet, low-key, scantily catered book launch that takes place in quiet, low-key, scantily catered ways every week in New Zealand publishing. ...
Mandating domestic violence training for family court judges to ensure they have the evidence-based expertise to do their jobs appropriately does not threaten judicial independence - it enhances it, argues Carrie Leonetti Opinion: Since their inception about 50 years ago, family courts around the world have been subject to the nearly universal ...
Emma Godwin aims to be just the second Kiwi female from the provinces to swim at a senior long course world champs, and become an Aquablack. And she's determined to get to the Paris Olympics, but not to move to a big city to do so. It’s not often a swimmer from ...
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By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Private security companies are currently holding Papua New Guinea together with the largest workforce of 29,445 and supporting the police in managing law and order issues. There are only 6832 policemen and women serving the country currently, according to reports. Internal Security Minister Peter ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Private security companies are currently holding Papua New Guinea together with the largest workforce of 29,445 and supporting the police in managing law and order issues. There are only 6832 policemen and women serving the country currently, according to reports. Internal Security Minister Peter ...
US President Joe Biden (right) meets with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) during the AUKUS summit at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego California on 13 March 2023. Image: RNZ Pacific/Jim Watson/AFP “But it is what it is,” he said of the tripartite arrangement. ‘Escalation of ...
US President Joe Biden (right) meets with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) during the AUKUS summit at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego California on 13 March 2023. Image: RNZ Pacific/Jim Watson/AFP “But it is what it is,” he said of the tripartite arrangement. ‘Escalation of ...
Procurement professional Ankit Bansal has been selected by local party members as National’s candidate in Palmerston North for the 2023 General Election. “I’d like to thank our local party members for endorsing me to campaign in Palmerston ...
Executive Manager of Te Mahia Community Village Rima Nakhle has been selected by local party members as National’s candidate in Takanini for the 2023 General Election. “The Takanini electorate is my home and I’m really excited to have the opportunity ...
Property management company director Dr Carlos Cheung has been selected as National’s candidate in Mt Roskill for the 2023 General Election. “Mt Roskill is my home and I’m grateful for the opportunity to campaign here for a National Government that ...
The Chairperson of the Governance and Administration Committee is calling for submissions on the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill The Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill is the second bill in response to Cyclone Gabriel. The ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins’ full statement, as shared to media, on the decision to remove Stuart Nash from cabinet: This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart ...
Four strikes and Stuart Nash has been ousted from cabinet. It follows revelations this evening that he shared private cabinet discussions with business leaders and criticised decisions made in a 2020 email, according to reporting by Stuff. In the email, Nash set out his opposition to a decision cabinet had ...
The future of Stuart Nash, recently demoted to the bottom rung of cabinet, hangs in the balance following reports that he shared private cabinet discussions with business leaders and criticised decisions made in a 2020 email, according to reporting by Stuff. It follows Nash losing his police portfolio for breaching ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Crowley, Adjunct Associate Professor, Public and Environmental Policy, University of Tasmania Labor and the Greens on Monday announced a deal to strengthen a key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, by introducing a hard cap on industrial sector emissions. But the ...
The native parrot the kea is under siege from aerial spread 1080 poison drops says a West Coast wildlife advocate Laurie Collins of Westport. While it is accepted that a good proportion of New Zealanders are opposed to aerial 1080 poison drops used ...
West Coasters might have a taste for the gung-ho but pragmatism has taken a turn for the cautious at an extraordinary Greymouth council meeting Outspoken West Coast Regional Council chair Allan Birchfield has been rolled by his colleagues in a bid to make peace with the government and stem the ...
By Tim Wilson, Executive Director, Maxim Institute* What does politics produce when mixed with violence and intimidation? Sadly nothing constructive, plus a humungous helping of anger, division, recrimination, spleen and confusion. Oh, and headlines. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Senator Lidia Thorpe’s defection from the Greens changed the power dynamic in the Senate. Now the government needs two crossbenchers (and the Greens) to pass legislation opposed by the Coalition. Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie and ...
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Security guards have made their voices heard and now have enough signatures to initiate a Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) for workers in their occupation. Since the Fair Pay Agreements Bill was passed in October 2022, more than 1000 security guards across Aotearoa New ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Charlson, Conjoint NHMRC Early Career Fellow, The University of Queensland Shutterstock Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of the world’s most esteemed climate experts, delivered its sixth report and “final warning” about the climate crisis. It ...
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Poet Ash Davida Jane talks with poet Andrew Johnston about his Selected Poems, which spans 23 years of his published work. I’ve started writing this review in the notes app on my phone from the backseat of my friend’s car, which feels a far cry from the world of Andrew ...
National is demanding Marama Davidson apologise to cis white men over her comments from Saturday. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he considers the matter closed. ...
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All Blacks win a very tough semi-final.
More importantly, Shonkey in the audience basking in the reflected glory!
It’s so important that New Zealand can play such a meaningful role on the world stage!
Well worth the taxpayers dollars it cost to send him there!
http://d3lgc28rsiigal.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/image1.jpg?ac8fef
Pretty sure there a post just talking about this.
Shoot jk down. Works well.
But wait there’s more.. am guessing he wouldn’t be in the changing the rooms if we lost. 2nd photo down says it all really: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/73363625/all-blacks-and-john-key-share-victory-beers-after-rwc-semifinal
Great image here. Sport helps our international relations and our self image, along with lots of other positives (outlined by Ad earlier in the week).
very true, as long as it doesn’t become the ONLY thing that defines the nation. And as long as all the hype and commercialisation that goes with it doesn’t put unreasonable expectations on a generation coming through (as one of the commenters in your link refers to – its longevity will depend on grass roots participation)
Dairy, cow shit, unsawn logs and rugby just aren’t going to get us through it – but …. well done All Blacks (I’d say that though even if they’d lost)
@Lprent: a couple of times this morning loading The Standard has linked me to a Telecom HG630b Home Gateway login page.
That ain’t my router.
Careful it could be Slaters gateway
Col. Richard Kemp calls it “the most moral army the world has ever known.”
So why do thousands of young Israelis refuse to serve in the IDF?
Saturday 24 October 2015
In his pisspoor book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, former U.S. president Bill Clinton tells what, even for him, is a breathtakingly cynical lie: he claims that an unarmed seventeen-year-old Palestinian peace activist, Asel Asleh, who was murdered by Israeli soldiers in 2000, was “caught in a crossfire and killed”. [1]
Asel Asleh was murdered fifteen years ago, but nothing has changed. Palestinians are still being harassed, humiliated, raped, shot, stabbed, crushed and killed by gangs of illegal “settlers” and by the soldiers of the Israeli Defence Force, which is, scandalously, infested by extreme hardline “settlers”. And there is a never-ending supply line of Bill Clintons justifying every illegal arrest, every kick, punch, knifing and shooting.
By Palestinian standards, Ansar Aasi is lucky: he is still alive, he can still walk, and—thanks to the fortuitous filming of his assault—he has been released, after three days of illegal and unwarranted detention. This is how the brave soldiers of the Israeli “Defence” Force—labeled by former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Richard Kemp, as “the most moral army the world has ever known” [2]—dealt with the grave and imminent threat represented by Ansar Aasi….
Without fail, politicians like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton wag their fingers at people like Ansar Aasi and express sympathy with the thugs who beat him up. Moral giants like Anthony Weiner scoffingly label them “little Palestinian terrorists”. Comedians like Sacha Baron Cohen and Jerry Seinfeld taunt, slander and ridicule people like Ansar Aasi and even, in the case of Baron Cohen’s Bruno movie, cast them as unwitting stooges in their “satires”.
But there are decent young people in Israel who—-unlike Obama, Biden, the Clintons, Weiner, Baron Cohen and Seinfeld—object to this. They’re called, contemptuously by the Israeli extreme right, “refuseniks”….
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/refuseniks-occupations-underbelly
[1] Bill Clinton Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Hutchinson, 2007), page 91
[2] http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=24780
+1 –
Rachel Aliene – deliberately run over by a bulldozer by Israeli military.
Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American peace activist and diarist.[1][2] She was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a combat zone in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under contested circumstances[2][3] during the height of the second Palestinian intifada.[4]
She had come to Gaza as part of her senior-year college assignment to connect her home town with Rafah in a sister cities project.[5] While there, she had engaged with other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in efforts to prevent the Israeli army’s demolition of Palestinian houses.[2][6][7]
Less than two months after her arrival,[5] on March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed during an Israeli military operation after a three-hour confrontation between Israeli soldiers operating two bulldozers and eight ISM activists.[3][8]
Fellow ISM protestors saying that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran over Corrie, and Israeli eyewitnesses saying that it was an accident since the bulldozer operator could not see her.[9][10][11][12]
In 2005 Corrie’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death,[13] contending that she had either been intentionally killed or that the soldiers had acted with reckless neglect.[3] They sued for a symbolic one US dollar in damages.
In August 2012, an Israeli court rejected their suit[3] and upheld the results of the 2003 military investigation, ruling that the Israeli government was not responsible for Corrie’s death. The ruling was met with some criticism.[14][15][16]
An appeal against the August 2012 ruling was heard on May 21, 2014. On February 14, 2015, Israel’s supreme court rejected the appeal.[17]
Now lets imagine if a US peace activist was deliberately run over by a Palestinian Bulldozer what the different international response would be?
Your thoughts. Surely the point of the Israeli Palestinian conflict is arrogance on the part of one side who believe that not only can they uproot and disenfrancize a whole community but nobody calls them out and they make out they are the victims. Of course this argument is used by both sides.
Will a UK cultural boycott of Israel help?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/cultural-boycott-israel-starts-tomorrow
…(shades of Springbok Protests boycotts on apartheid South Africa… you know the Springbok protests John Key forgot)
…it must be serious and effective because now there is a backlash from certain UK writers
‘Harry Potter author JK Rowling leads resistance to cultural boycott of Israel’
https://www.rt.com/uk/319503-israel-cultural-boycott-rowling/
https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/pinter-harold-nobel-laureate-harold-pinter-and-other-writers-slam-israeli-human-rights-abuses
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/05/iain-banks-cultural-boycott-israel
Enjoy the rugby
TPP update
1. Globe and Mail: TPP’s copyright chapter will cost Canadians hundreds of millions
Canada’s rock-ribbed bastion of pro-trade, pro-Tory ideology has come out against the Trans Pacific Partnership’s Intellectual Property chapter in a leading editorial signed by the paper’s editorial board.
The paper calls out the government for caving to the US entertainment industry on copyright issues, particularly copyright terms, saying that they have no place in trade agreements, that their extension will not provide benefit to Canadians, and will cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars. https://boingboing.net/2015/10/24/globe-and-mail-tpps-copyrig.html
2. Good quick twitter summary of TPP and the internet.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30372493-TPP-will-make-unlocking-jailbreaking-illegal
3.Doggett Warns TPP Text Work Could Water Down Deal; Rebuts USTR Sales Pitch
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) on Friday (Oct. 23) warned that delays in releasing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) text could signal an effort by negotiators to water down the agreement announced on Oct. 5, and he also rebutted key Obama administration selling points regarding the deal’s environmental and tariff-cutting benefits. http://insidetrade.com/
!!!!!!!Pencil in 14 November for Protest Marches against TPP_ The Dead Rat Deal.
http://itsourfuture.org.nz/
+1
Two important articles about Inequality.
The first, why the majority of NZers agree that inequality is a problem, but why they don’t vote for political parties that would actually do anything about it:
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/78283/peter-skilling-examines-why-concern-over-inequality-doesnt-translate-support-political
Huffington Post has a story about the life and death of an Amazon ‘temporary’ warehouse worker:
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/life-and-death-amazon-temp/
Egalitarian people need to be given the tools to be able to argue against automatic market ideology. In the new world of sound-bites and Twitter length discussion, those tools need to be as short and inarguable as phrases like “market reality”. I think it is the opposition who must do this.
The man who uses these market force phrases most, Blinglish, has said this week they need to “get the market right” which screams anything but a free market to me.
I think he has realised he has screwed up and is having to intervene.
The “market” is simply a construct of rules and regulations that leads to a certain wealth distribution.
To attain a different, more equal, wealth distribution then quite simply the current rules and regulations need changing.
Such rules and regulations include tax rates, tax policies (eg cgt), provision of health, education, minimum wage rates, living wage rates, the list goes on and on.
Tweak and adjust each one until the required settings are attained. The current settings have led to the current inequality.
+1
That’s it exactly. The market is a construct of politics and behaves as the politicians have designed it to behave. If we have massive inequality and poverty that’s because the politicians have designed those things in to our society through the rules and regulations that they’ve put in place.
We can change these setting and thus change the outcome.
So to keep the present status quo I’d be best served by someone whose ideology was one that disregards any discussion of regulation, I.e a neolib who wants to get rid of them and so out of fear we’d all rather not change less we lose even the regulations we have. Aka Jamie Whyte, who in the contortion of reason supports the sugar subsides all because nobody will dare discuss them and their impact on global obesity and dental crisis, and so status quo means big govt intervention supported by Whyte by omission.
Yes, I understand that but the point I was trying to make is that the egalitarian participants in the focus group example above found it difficult to articulate that in the face of the flat right-wing mantra, “market reality”.
Why do we, the socially conscious left, not have equivalent short, powerful, and universally accepted memes with which to fight the idea that the market will decide everything?
Look in ‘reality’ when you have family you help each other out – simple. It’s got nothing to do with power, at the end of the day.
If I wanted you deflated and powerless I would leave you to rot. Sometimes it’s nice just to help and accept help- there’s nothing wrong with that.
The power is actually in your hands -really?
It’s got everything to do with power. Poor people can’t help themselves never mind their family – they simply don’t have the power to do so.
The rich, on the other hand, can buy MPs at Cabinet Clubs and get regulation and legislation tailored to them as we’ve seen with SkyCity, Warner Bros, Rio Tinto and other corporations that this government is heavily subsidising from the incomes of the poor.
more families than you appear to account for actually are constructed and operate around power and its abuse.
Market reality today is where a single strong interest of one or few individuals overrides an even stronger interest that is held by a much larger group.
Collective , democratic and governmental groups represent the collective interest of the many.
(Think factory spewing health destroying smoke V. clean air rules )
In two words – Erin Brockovich is the fight back
Or maybe “Victorian sweatshops”
Why do we, the socially conscious left, not have equivalent short, powerful, and universally accepted memes with which to fight the idea that the market will decide everything?
I think you make a very good point here muttonbird.
How abour Fair Trade concepts?
You already know the answer to these questions.
But do you?
I wouldn’t live this life, if it were not for love, the want to help, and the decency of wanting to help a relative. Why belittle myself to the size of a pip on purpose for the hell of it? There is a point to every exercise- always.
I am fair, understanding and kind. I know myself inside out. I have made huge sacrifices to be here, I have battle wounds, scars, emotionally and physically – I am drained, tired, fu8ked off, frustrated, hurt, angry and fed-up. But I don’t give up; I get up, over and over and over and over again. If ‘I’ keep trying then- you must try yourself, ESPECIALLY considering the outcome is 100% in our favour.
you missed out “drop dead gorgeous and aspirational”
Yes, and I also know how to have a productive conversation. Fuck off trole.
Eurozone crosses Rubicon as Portugal’s anti-euro Left banned from power
So much for democracy in Europe.
You bet me to it. The most disturbing story of the day.
And raises a serious question- why have a head of state if they can over-rule democratic choice?
Technically our head of state, the Queen, can still overrule our democratic choices.
Fortunately there is an historical reason for her not to do so in case it doesn’t work out so well.
Anibal must be really confident (or just stupid) that state force will be able to quell the masses forever. Or he might just be one of those people who has confidence in their own bolt hole, and that they can take it all with them in the next life. When he/she drives, it probably never occurs to him/her to look in the rear vision mirror once in a while.
I’m wondering where the ‘hard right’ think they’re going to find exile in 20 years time – somewhere in the Islamic State or Israel maybe?
New Zealand. Hard to see the masses uprising here.
Dreams are free, but Spain …. Portugal ….. most of South America, India, most of the African continent …. and whatever is left ….
???
Hold on. In Portugal the highest-polling party gets first crack at governing, and coalitions/alliances are declared before the election, right?
Sounds like you’re making shit up.
So not right? Is that what you’re saying?
And this one is a must read as well. David Graeber at his best:
I do suggest downloading and reading the PDF linked here.
Good link – lots of interesting stuff in there
FVEY vs Kim Dotcom
We need to take our democracy back off of the bureaucrats.
We need to take our democracy back off of the bureaucrats.
In Vladimir Arnold reminiscence of Rokhlin,he discussed the latter’s vision for the future.
I recall another conversation with Vladimir Abramovich, the subject of which
he would return to again and again – his vision of the future of humanity. According to him, humanity is moving towards bureaucratization where an all-powerful bureaucratic apparatus will be suppressing everything alive and creative that still exists. According to him, this phenomenon is not exclusive to Russia, it is global, although this is an uneven process. Rokhlin thought that this process would be soon completed (in view of the fact that two-dimensional sphere is compact), and the Global Government will be created, which will realize the worst predictions of Zamyatin’s “We” and Huxley’s “Brave New World” on the global scale. Degenerating humanity lead by their worst representatives will democratically establish ochlocratic dictatorship, which will be suppressing everything out of the ordinary and will be mainly preoccupied with stopping progress, and, as a result, destruction of education and science (by means of dumbing down children from a very young age by watching TV, playing video and computer games).
Our times, the golden age of mathematics and science in general will then
be considered an unprecedented highest point, the way we now think of Italian
Renaissance Art, and Klein’s “Lectures on Development of Mathematics in the
Nineteenth Century” will read as Vasari’s “The Lives of the Artists”.
“I am glad I will not live to see that”, concluded Rokhlin.
It is difficult to debate such predictions, however I would like to cite a similar
prediction by Leo Tolstoy that has not quite become a reality. “The strength of
the government lies in the people’s ignorance, and government knows this, and will, therefore, always oppose true enlightenment”
http://www.ams.org/bookstore/pspdf/mbk-86-prev.pdf
Do you need any more reasons to go on the people’s climate march on Saturday 28 November?
Our glaciers have shrunk by one third.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/287912/nz's-glaciers-have-shrunk-by-a-third-report
Details of march
http://act.350.org/go/8464?t=1&utm_medium=email&akid=8196.229789.hWpR00
Rational Voting In An Irrational System
That is a lesson that the Left in NZ seem to want to refuse to learn. It’s why we still have a National led government instead of Hone and Laila in parliament supporting a DC led Labour/Greens/IPMana government.
To suggest that NZFirst would have gone with that unstable hydra at the 2014 election is pretty dubious.
Instead we’d right now have an NZFirst – National government. Probably better than what we have now, but still not what we need, and clearly primes the stage for a NZFirst – National coalition in 2017 as well.
IMO, NZFirst would have gone for Labour/Greens/NZFirst coalition with IPMana on the cross benches. After National’s attack in 2008 I doubt that NZFirst will be considering propping up a National government for the foreseeable future.
If either key or Winston weren’t the leader of there party would you still think a coalition was unlikely?
ATM, yes. Today’s National is a long way away from what it was in the 1970s which seems to be where NZFirst seem to be positioning themselves.
Winston’s a pragmatist. He didn’t got with Labour in 1996 because Helen wasn’t speaking to Jim, and he didn’t think that would work for a government.
The coalition you’re suggesting would be made up from a notoriously divided Labour party, an untested Green party and supported by a crazy german that the public hate. Up against John Key.
Creepiness to the extreme. Parliament goes into recess so FJK can continue to stalk Richie McCaw (and the boys)!
Bet there are also a few other NatzKEY politicians over in the UK as well sharing the fun. Sod the country. More important to have a beer with the boys and to be seen doing so! FFS!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/73363625/all-blacks-and-john-key-share-victory-beers-after-rwc-semifinal
Don’t worry.
Andrew Little will soon be there. Once he arrives the All Blacks will really be terrified and will be hiding away to keep out of the reach of feral politicians.
Just what are the polie’s excuses anyway?
Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion
Remove the stress of competition and everyone benefits.
EDIT:
Our present National led government is doing the exact opposite of what needs to be done.
What level would you set the Universal Basic Income at?
Would you make it $25,000/year say?
Are you aware that to do so would require that this would require raising the tax rate, on all incomes, by about 50% unless you could reduce other spending dramatically?
I do mean by 50%, not to 50%.
A few things:
1. I’d set it at about $20k
2. Our entire tax structure needs to be changed and I’d incorporate a UBI with that change. It may be the first step in that change but it would certainly be a part of it.
3. I’d stop the private banks from creating money. This should stop runaway inflation even without changing tax rates
And I’d already figured that a UBI would need tax rates above the flat 30% that Morgan wants if we stayed with the present system. But considering that a few people are ripping us off to the tune of $6 billion per year then I figure a change to the tax system to catch that would also help constrain any inflation that may arise.
$6 billion/year isn’t very much compared to the cost of a UBI though is it?
Suppose we paid the UBI to everyone in the country, and did it at your rate of $20,000/annum.
That comes to about $90 billion/year doesn’t it.
If we limited it to those over, say, 18 it would be around $70 billion/year.
The amount it comes to isn’t actually a problem. As I’ve said before, we’ve got the financial system backwards. We look at it as the government needing to raise money to do these things when the government is actually the source of all wealth and money in a country. Taxes then destroy the money that the government creates constraining inflation.
Alwyn. Have you ever read the website set up to explain the book written by Gareth Morgan and Susan Guthrie called The Big Kahuna? It can be found at: http://www.bigkahuna.org.nz/
I ask because I would be very interested to see an informed debate by commenters here using the explanations and Q&A sections on the above site as a common reference point, rather than this point scoring nonsense that rears its head every now and then. What do you say? Are you serious about having such a discussion? If so, why not choose an explanation from the Q&A you are dissatisfied with and explain your reasoning and then see what response you get?
Oh dear.
I tried the Minister of Finance calculator giving everyone $20,000.
I also had a 15% GST and a required rate of return on capital of 4% (Can you do better at the moment)
The flat tax rate to have a (tiny) surplus was 70%. Perhaps Rob Muldoon was right when he had a tax rate of 66% as his top rate.
I read “The Big Kahuna” when it first came out. It was long enough ago that I don’t feel I can really comment on it without fully rereading it and I don’t think I have the time or inclination to do so.
Relax mate, a UBI of $250 pw ($13,000 p.a.) will be enough if the government lowers the cost of accomodation, food and power, while making healthcare truly accessible and timely.
And private sector employers will do great out of having to pay workers less.
The purpose of a UBI, as I understand it was to replace all other benefits.
You appear to want to retain things like subsidised power , subsidised food, subsidised housing don’t you?
So instead of being the only benefit you want to add it to all the other ones.
Are you really in favour of reduced wages? What about the “living wage” that people seem to be in favour of?
Dude a UBI is not supposed to replace the rest of NZ society like free healthcare and free education. And it certainly isn’t a ticket for privateers to gauge consumers at the power meter and the water meter.
Is there a reason you want foreign shareholders to keep ripping billions of dollars out of NZ consumer pockets every year?
Hey I didn’t comment on Health care or Education did I?
I said “You appear to want to retain things like subsidised power , subsidised food, subsidised housing don’t you?” There is no claim there that a UBI is meant to replace either of these.
There isn’t any private investment in water in New Zealand is there? Unless there is it is hard to see how it would involve ripping of consumers.
Power charges are another matter. I don’t really know enough about the details to comment on it though. I haven’t really bothered to go through all the economics of the electricity industry here although I plead guilty to having bought shares in a couple of the companies.
So not prepared to have an issue by issue conversation using the Q & A as a common reference point. by the sound of it. Just intellectually dishonest pot shots from the sidelines.
Life is tough.
As I said I read it when it first came out in about 2010 or so.
I really don’t want to revisit the epistle. It isn’t really the most important work ever published is it?
Why don’t you start the conversation if you are so keen on it rather than accuse me of intellectual dishonesty because I don’t choose to play by your rules?
Did you attempt to have a discussion or debate with the authors of TBK when it was published and the website went up? They made themselves very available and still are through Morgans website. I wonder why you didn’t try throwing your nuggets at them? Worried about being shot down in double quick time?
I suggested using their Q & A because it provides an easily available reference point for many of the criticisms and questions directed to the authors as promoters of the UBI. Anyone who IS intellectually honest would surely be interested in building on information already in the public domain in a structured and inclusive manner rather than sniping in a disorganised and non productive way, essentially designed to create more heat than light. I don’t pretend to be an economist or an expert on the concept of a UBI, but I can follow a discussion on the issues involved when the participants aim at clarity rather than deliberately leading the discussion down dark alleys which seems to be your modus operandi.
Yes I did talk to them.
I suppose I am being a bit tough on you.
As you admit, you say
” I don’t pretend to be an economist or an expert on the concept of a UBI”.
I have a PhD in Economics, and I suppose I don’t really feel like spending my time discussing topics where you have to go back to basics to try and get someone to understand them. You can call me arrogant if you like.
Sorry but your opinion that I am “intellectually dishonest” I find offensive. I really don’t have the time or inclination to try and educate the ignorant on the subject.
You may not have realised it but you are not on a specialist forum for special people with PHD’s in economics. This is a public space for all comers. So yes, you are probably right that you are an arrogant arse who finds it beneath himself to construct his argument in such a way that mere mortals can follow his line of thinking.
Did you manage to stump your economist peers (Morgan and Guthrie) with your cute line of questioning?
Your method seems to involve a line of rhetorical questions which suggest that there are almost insurmountable problems that make a UBI unworkable, when you are obviously familiar enough with Morgan and Guthrie’s work that you know what their proposal consists of in its totality and you know that the kind of questions you are asking here have been asked and answered elsewhere. I call that dishonest.
I suspect you have an ideological and / or moral aversion to the concept of a UBI which colours your ability to scrutinize it with an intellectually objective eye. Tell me it isn’t so.
Harvard ethicist Louis M. Guenin describes the “kernel” of intellectual honesty to be “a virtuous disposition to eschew deception when given an incentive for deception.”
The correct, maximum return to owning capital is zero. In fact, it should actually cost you to hold capital.
Don’t want a surplus. In fact, the governments deficit would be the rate of growth in the economy.
To replace most of them. There would still be a few extras for people with special needs.
Nope. What I want is to have them provided as a government service at close to cost. Take into account maximum public servant wages/salaries of $150k (or less) and the fact that there won’t be any profits/dividends means that costs will actually go down.
Yes and we wouldn’t actually need either the living or minimum wage with a UBI.
“Yes and we wouldn’t actually need either the living or minimum wage with a UBI”
…that would depend entirely upon the level of a UBI. If any UBI covered the basic cost of living (do we have a different level for Auckland/ Queenstown?) then that may be true however every proposal i have seen to date has not reached that level by quite some amount, therefore in the majority of cases there will still be a need for some other form of income and if that involves paid labour are you seriously suggesting legal protections will be redundant?
“Are you aware that to do so would require that this would require raising the tax rate, on all incomes, by about 50% unless you could reduce other spending dramatically?”
Who says so, and why? This is simply untrue. The government could issue a UBI of any value (including $25,000 p.a) without raising a single dollar of extra funding if it wanted to.
According to Gareth Morgan we can create an $11,000 basic income by setting all income tax rates at 30%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4LUiSfLIa8
Plus the government does not need taxes to fund the UBI. It can issue the money first and then tax it back later.
I cannot see any real difference between paying out the money today and taxing it back tomorrow and taxing today to pay it out tomorrow.
They still are going to collect the amount of tax that goes out in the UBI aren’t they?
Besides “Nic the NZer ” appears to be implying, and I may be misreading his intention, that there is no need fund the payment at all. They can just print the money and never bother to collect it back.
The former increases the stock of money available to the people.
The latter decreases it, or at best, keeps it neutral.
It could be viewed as a form of PQE I suppose?
The difference is where and at what time in the cycle the money is created/destroyed and how it’s used.
At the moment the majority of money is created by the private banks and spent where they choose. A hell of a lot of it goes on existing housing thus pushing house prices up. This money is then taxed giving the government an income.
The other way the government creates the money and spends it where it’s needed. People have in income that keeps them well, infrastructure is built without interest and the government can also spend massively on R&D.
The first way accepts the delusion that the private sector is the source of all wealth and the second accepts the reality that the government is.
It would have interesting inflationary consequences wouldn’t it?
$25k/person/year would represent an additional $112 billion being added to the money supply each and every year.
At the moment M1 is about $42 billion. The broadest aggregate, M3 is about $290 billion. Giving the money out as a direct payment would simply add to M1 I would suggest.
If you gave everyone $25k/year M1 would be $42 billion today, $156 billion this time next year, $268 billion in two years and so on.
Do you really think that inflation wouldn’t go through the roof?
Firstly, you are assuming here that everyone gets a lift by the amount of the UBI.
That is incorrect. The UBI will partially replace the first part of wages and salaries which are currently being paid out.
Secondly, why would inflation “go through the roof” by giving every Kiwi just enough to get on by? A UBI is not geared for people to spend lavishly or extravantly – therefore the pressure on inflation will be negligible.
I suggest you look at my reply to Draco just below here. I was talking about Nic’s comment which appeared to assume no taxes to get the money back. Thus what he was saying appears to be a permanent increase to the money supply.
I also don’t understand what you mean by the comment that
“The UBI will partially replace the first part of wages and salaries which are currently being paid out”
I had thought it was intended to go to everyone and be in addition to whatever they earned.
Not necessarily as there’s things that can be done to keep the amount of money added to the economy the same or even decrease it. These would include but not be limited to:
1. Stopping the private banks from creating money when they make a loan
2. A reworking of taxes so as to take more money out of circulation
3. Preventing the importation of foreign money into NZ$
Yes, it would be Reserve Currency rather than Bank Money.
There’s these things called taxes that could be used to destroy the money created at near balance.
Not if it’s done properly. In fact, I’d expect inflation to drop.
You say
“There’s these things called taxes that could be used to destroy the money created at near balance.”
That is fine but Nic said
“The government could issue a UBI of any value (including $25,000 p.a) without raising a single dollar of extra funding if it wanted to.”
He was the one I was responding to and he appears to be saying that no taxes to recover the money would be necessary. Surely you would regard taxes to destroy the money would be “extra funding”. The case you are defending doesn’t seem to be the one (Nic’s) I was questioning.
Well I wanted to know what the problem was for a start. First we need to take into account that the government can’t run out of money, it doesn’t face a budget constraint.
Your talking about an ‘increase in the money supply’ which does not even need to occur. The government (including the RBNZ) could borrow (not tax) the funds spent resulting in no increase in the M1 money supply. Presently they do this almost daily in order to allow the RBNZ to maintain its OCR policy.
Further, even assuming that the extra spending is not reversed, the Quantity Theory of Money which you are then using to imply inflation doesn’t work. There is no necessary implication of inflation. This conclusion depends entirely on the capacity of the economy to absorb additional spending having been exhausted. Clearly the economy is presently running below capacity so it can absorb additional spending.
Awesome video of a tornado.
Bill McKibben –
Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About Climate Change by the Mid-1980s—and Denied It
And thanks to their willingness to sucker the world, the world is now a chaotic mess.
http://www.thenation.com/article/exxon-knew-everything-there-was-to-know-about-climate-change-by-the-mid-1980s-and-denied-it/
https://twitter.com/hashtag/exxonknew
Previously on TS – http://thestandard.org.nz/exxon-knew/
Nihilistic Password Security Questions
#8 fits NZ ATM 😈
Password questions for the seriously depressed.
After reading these I felt like adding another.
Right after “When did you stop trying” I want to add
“Why can’t you stop crying”.
I much preferred your previous link to the Tornado.
Tony Blair truly sorry or simply covering his butt?
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/25/tony-blair-sorry-iraq-war-mistakes-admits-conflict-role-in-rise-of-isis
Disingenuous warmonger making a pre-emptive control-the-narrative non-apology.
+1 Indeed.
Yep, that’s about the way I figured it.
He’s not saying sorry, he’s making excuses for why the war was necessary.