Ngapuhi woman, fluent in Te Reo, English and French makes Big Mistake by marrying foreign guy who just happens to live and work with multiple sclerosis.
As are her husband’s….”… works full-time for the Housing Ministry in his native Quebec.
He coaches young people with disabilities and he has multiple sclerosis.”
But, nah. Fuck off. You have a disability…and we don’t like your kind around here…..
So. Is this policy from Immigration going to continue even under this supposedly more humane and kind administration?
Is this the true nature of the Coalition of Lovingkindness?
Or is it way past time that someone told Immigration that there has been a change of government and we are not going to act like officious, heartless arseholes anymore?
Rosemary, I suspect you can gauge the Immigration Dept’s feelings about the new Government by the way they tried to stitch up Iain Lees Galloway.
National made sure the heads of most, if not all, of the Ministries were Tory Compliant during their nine years in power. It’s going to take a while to weed them out.
What the hell is going on at INZ!!!!
The number of appeals has gone up, many/most of which get accepted because fuckups were made in the first place.
I just don’t believe it can all be put down to staff churn and inexperience.
As things stand, they seem incapable of distinguishing between genuine cases and people with skills we (NZ Inc. needs), and those pulling rorts. (The job buying, the shitty tertiary education schemes, the sham relationships, the lack of monitoring of advisors – one you’ll recall a convicted fraudster)
I’m currently with extended family who’ve now, like many others, decided to just give up after having wasted nearly ten years dealing with the incompetence.
Then there’s that other little agency under MBIE that have allowed themselves to become overwhelmed by the number of cases of exploitation in the workplace
The muppetry now just beggars belief. It’s becoming harder not to believe there is a bit of an agenda at play among some of the senior management – and as you say @TRP, the attempts at trying to stitch up I L-G haven’t gone unnoticed.
Meanwhile, the rorts continue unabated whilst the genuine immigrant gets hammered.
I have to say it’s probably about time Ministers started paying closer attention to some of the people dealing with various cases (McClymont, Malcolm, and a few others, as well as those working with the exploited) rather than relying on ‘their officials’. It has become way past a joke.
But then I guess MBIE is not the only muppetry that the coalition are having to deal with (NZTA, WINZ et al)
MBIE/NZTA are all the babies constructed by the very controversial “Mr Fix all” Steven Joyce, so that is why we have these useless ‘seeded bureaucrats still all sitting there now, as he seeded them with his clones.
Labour must ‘weed all these national Party ‘sleeping cells’ inside these agencies out or face possibly loosing the next election next year, – It is now labour’s choice as they have 17 months left to do this.
Those wanting to come to Godzone had better be in tip- top health with fully functioning everything, as the less- than-perfect in mind, wind and limb are simply not welcome since….https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/5453.HTM ?
As for thinking that being the spouse of a New Zealander…and tangata whenua to boot… is going to get you special treatment….forget it.
“….and removed the provision for special treatment for the spouses of New Zealand citizens. This meant that applicants for the grant of citizenship who were married to New Zealand citizens would be required to meet the five-year residency period.” https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/5453.HTM
That particular little turd was brought in under the 2005 amendments.
So much for the new Family Friendly New Zealand….putting the wellbeing of all to the fore.
Are we still supposed to accept that this current Labour- led government is in any fundamental way different from the previous?
“They’re actually doing their job and enforcing the rules.”
The problem appears to be with interpretation of the rules in many cases as the number of appeals will attest.
But then as I’ve said on many occasions – it’s all working as designed and its way past time the system (and the culture within) is dismantled.
But then there’s also the other problem with other units within MBIE that don’t quite fit with the idea that “They’re actually doing their job and enforcing the rules.”
The Labour Inspectorate now seem more prepared to admit that the number of cases of exploitation are greater than they’d thought – even though a moron in a hurry could have told them that several years ago (many tried!)
Again, we had one manager telling us all they had sufficient Labour Inspectors a few weeks before the government was elected – CLEARLY bullshit!)
I accept they’ve been under-resourced in so many areas, but that doesn’t explain the continued bullshit that keeps emanating from the place.
Perhaps if they looked into WHY there is inexperience and churn in the place – could be a starting point?
It’s high time for reform (not just MBIE) if the coalition wants to make headway.
I’m almost beginning to feel a tiny bit of sympathy for Peter Hughes – having to tell more and more of the PS senior “officials” what should have been bleeding bloody obvious!!!!! (Thompson and Clark anyone? Demographic Profiling anyone? etc etc etc). And MBIE’s new CEO was handed a bit of a poison chalice after that knobhead that moved in to create Messrs Joyce and Coleman’s vanity project.
During the first national Government we heard by email (anonymous) that Mr Fix it” Steven Joyce had authorised a circular that was sent out by MBIE to every employee a warning to agree with the current government policy and act accordingly; – or find a new job.
In cases where any press releases would be sent the managers were also warned not to say anything that would ‘ebmassess the Government policy as their employment would be reviewed’.
Labour now needs to repeat this National control policy of the “Public services staff” as they need to support the current Government also.
Codes of Conduct don’t apply to Masters of the Universe @CG. Let alone just behaving ethically and in the public interest. Just as long as you’re in the club.
(/sarc btw)
I can’t remember the most recent ‘issue’ that the SSCommisar has been called in to slap a wet bus ticket over some ‘officials’ but its been in the past couple of weeks.
OwT
I wonder too about the management of semi government entities. I have been thinking about DHB’s – treating our medical sector as if they were factory workers. And the budget setting of hospitals – who sets that? The old refrain was that they were cutting fat out of the system. Sounds very medical doesn’t it – keyhole surgery anyone? But all the liposuction that can be done must have been done. Now we have the harsh reality of intention from the top, to cut back all public services to their level of incompetence I believe.
(And who are behind the top bananas? Who set this austerity regime in place that is ruining all the people’s living standards in the world? And can look with equanimity and ready judgments as people struggle and fall down.)
I think the present management mentality is to treat everybody entering a sector as an intern and work them to the bone on the basis that one day they will have a good salary if they just stick through. It is another version of the ‘couch’ interview that applicant starlets had to go through to get places in productions. Too many psychopathic Harveys at the top with their modern business training, turning out to become standard Dalek-like figures, chanting ‘Exploit, Exploit, Exploit’.
Note:
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, created by the megalomaniacal scientist Davros of the planet Skaro to be an emotionless “master race” bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse.
The Daleks – Wikiquote https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Daleks
Today’s public servants see everything in black and white terms. They don’t like grey areas. They don’t like Labour-led coalitions because they have a pesky habit of considering those grey areas and that makes their job harder to do.
They have yet to catch up with the new mantra of justice and fair play. – or should I say the old mantra of j and f play which was tossed out of the window 30 plus years ago.
“Is this policy from Immigration going to continue even under this supposedly more humane and kind administration?”
Yes. That agency tried to slip in an exception into NZ’s principled position during negotiation of the UN Disability Convention and though officials talked them down informally at the time, Immigration NZ have never been slapped back forcefully enough by any of our govts since.
Seeing disabled people only as a burden is not good enough. Yet here we are.
Thanks Rosemary
MP still sending up everything they touch. It helps to keep some lightness about you when looking at today’s politics. Just that word ‘politics’ alone offers avenues of fun. Like how many words can one make out of it. When one feels that one can’t make any sense out of it, that could always provide a little light relief.
A whole bunch of comments from late last night were held in the mod queue until I manually released them a few moments ago. There were a few from Sam and a couple from Gosman and a scattering of other poster’s comments. I’m not sure what the issue was, but I hope normal service has now been resumed.
He can’t seem to speak proply… or rather, on te radio and on Q&A last night, he avoids the basic words that people relate to and understand..
.. such as “the workers pay tax, why can’t the capitalists?”
.. “this is about making the rich pay a little more, so the working poor pay a little less.. at the moment the rich pay nothing on their speculative gains – it’s not even work”
.. “why do we penalise work by taxing income and not capital?”
..”workers work hard all their lives to provide for their families. They dont earn enough to even save, so why are they penalised with income tax, when the speculators aren’t?”
Mr Robertson – stop diving into ‘Wellington-speak’ every time. Take a leaf from Winnie’s book and lay some big one-liners down. Use words and sentences that people can relate to. And finally, get new glasses that don’t put a bocking line through your eyes.
Alternatively, remove him from public speaking roles
Don’t make fun about The End of Life Bill Sam.
That is serious and I want it brought in along with consultation to ensure that it is worded with care and meets all reasonable requirements and is overseen by some independent authority of integrity.
It may be the one thing that is worthwhile that ACT has championed.
It is important to many people and the whole country’s betterment.
That bill was trash. We already have pain management that can be subscribe by an A&E doctor. There was no need to make the process complicated by 3 times.
Maybe some people don’t want to be in doctor’s hands at some particular point of their decline, and want to take themselves into the next stage – unto death. Maybe they have a right to decide what they want to do and not wait helplessly for the decision of minor gods.
Well then he is a chicken and letting others define the issues.
How is someone stating the fact that the working poor pay taxes on the meagre money they make, while the non-working wealthy pay no tax on money they make a “class warrior”?
I also think you are conflating class with money. Most rich have no class in my experience, they have gauchity and baubles, too much make-up and too many bright jackets, trinkets and toys, scathing words and poorly attitudes – but they have little to no class.
The poor have on average a great deal more class, as in manners and respect for others.
back to the cgt: Everybody is scared shitless of the lazy bludgers making asset value gains from no work. And paying no tax.
“Probably because he does not want to come across as a class warrior”
As so many people have said that it has become a trope – it’s only called “class war” when the poor (or the non-rich) fight back.
Kindly take your linguistic deceitfulness somewhere else.
vto @ 3
Grant Robertson is normally a clear and coherent speaker but I have to agree with you. It wasn’t a good presentation. I had difficulty understanding him.
I wonder if the change of time is part of the problem. I’ve picked up that the interviewees look quite tired and not up to their usual performances. Imo, it’s a poor decision to go for a 9:30 pm start on a Monday night.
Gaddafi was lynched by his own people because of the incompetence and brutality of his regime. I think it is a very apt warning to Maduro. Don’t try and do a Gaddafi and stay on beyond what the people want.
Libya was a right royal F5$K Up for everyone Gosman, the Libyan people were a shitload better off b4 the Yanks poked their grubby little noses in there, you are a clown of the first order, who does not know shit from clay.
Yeah that’s why they rose up and overthrew him. You are aware of how Gaddafi maintained power and how he suppressed anyone who might be a threat to his messed up regime aren’t you?
Where have I claimed I am an expert on any of those topics? I know a lot about Venezuela but much less about Libya. I wouldn’t classify myself as an expert. This is a discussion. If you have counter facts then present them. Engaging in ad hominem attacks on me won’t make your case stronger though.
Name me one lie. We’ve gone through this before though. You refuse to detail anything I have supposedly lied about. Instead you just make generalised statements about me lying about Venezuela.
Repeating US, propaganda, like a bloody parrot, despite many references and facts given to you, that showed you were talking nonsense, almost made me moderate you.
However I tend to the view that even parroting fools deserve to be heard, and show up the inconsistency’s, in their arguments, over time.
While studiously ignoring, facts on the ground, like the one below.
https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/poverty-reduction-venezuela
“Venezuela has seen a remarkable reduction in poverty since the first quarter of 2003. In the ensuing four years, from 2003 to 2007, the poverty rate was cut in half, from 54 percent of households to 27.5 percent. (See Table 1). This is measured from the first half of 2003 to the first half of 2007. As can be seen in the table, the poverty rate rose very slightly by one percentage point in the second half of 2007, most likely due to rising food prices. Extreme poverty fell even more, by 70 percent—from 25.1 percent of households to 7.6 percent.
These poverty rates measure only cash income; as will be discussed below, they do not include non-cash benefits to the poor such as access to health care or education.
If Venezuela were almost any other country, such a large reduction of poverty in a relatively short time would be noticed as a significant achievement”.
Which don’t suit your narrative.
I give you that, as with the “weapons of mass destruction” you are not on your own with lying like a flatfish, sorry, being economical with the truth, about regimes the USA wants to remove.
No, I have no problem agreeing that Chavez was very good at spending money on poverty reduction in the first few years of his time in power and that had initially very good results. However the way he went about this laid the seeds for the economic collapse that followed. The poverty rate in Venezuela now is much worse than when the Chavista regime took over in 1999.
“Poverty in Venezuela is an epidemic. Nearly 90 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty. According to estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, this is a dramatic increase from 2014 when 48 percent of Venezuelans lived in poverty. Maria Ponce is an investigator with the local universities researching the food shortage, and she stated that “this disparity between the rise in prices and the population’s salaries is so generalized that there is practically not a single Venezuelan who is not poor.””
The results of US economic sanctions, rich whites in Venezuala upset about paying taxes, combined with repeated coup attempts and a US inspired collapse in their main export earner, would challenge the most competent Government.
Which I will agree Maduro’s is probably not.
However the corrupt self interested A holes the US wants to replace them with, are a lot worse.
No it wouldn’t. There are lot’s of countries with incompetent politicians and even those who have serious economic disruption (some even involving war). These nations aren’t suffering Hyper-inflation of the scale that Venezuela has or even the sort of economic contraction that has occured in Venezuela (which remember has still been able to sell 40% plus of oil to it’s supposed arch enemy of the USA in this period AND access funding from Russia and China).
Venezuela is quite unique in the World as being at peace yet suffering from negative impact worse than a nation at war. This is not the US’s fault. It is the fault of the policies of the Venezuelan regime. These include Price controls, Overvalued exchange rate, Nationalisation of key sectors of the economy, Printing money to cover huge budget deficits. None of these policies have been imposed on them by the US. All of them heve lead to the economic misery the country now faces.
Wow gossy you just can’t stop lying can you. You just can’t take you ideological blinkers for one second. Because to have to admit that US, Canada and The UK are actually stuffing with Venezuela economy would bring down all your other lies.
Toilet paper was your first lie. You have lied about the elections, you lied about trade, you lied about sanctions, and you lied about the constitution.
Those are just off the top of my head without going through all your posts.
You lie. I’d say it’s because you’re an ideolog, if I was being generous.
But as of today I think it’s because you actually want a war.
So keep spreading your lies, you will get what you want, death and the murder of civilians in a civil war. People like you will have made that happen. You sad, sad, little man.
The Usa is a Mafia Gangster state and their negotiations consist of “do what we say or we kill you and make your children suffer” ….. as they did to Gaddafi when Nato became ISIS / Al Quada / Nusras airforce.
He was Lynched usa style …. as they used to whip, castrate, burn and torture the negros before the mob hanging.
It was a British plane which bombed Gaddafis convoy allowing the muslim extremist and western backed rebels to get their hands on him.
Peace offers and election negotiations were turned down by the wardogs like Hillary Clinton and Nato …… Something like 10,000 bombing missions were carried out killing thousands of civilians and destroying their infrastructure.
What happened to Gaddafi was symbolic of what then happened to Libya ….the Nato ‘liberated’ country.
Regarding womans rights and schooling for instance …. thats all gone…. child brides in arranged marriages back in.
Gaddafi had female body guards who had to flee the country ….. two who didn’t were raped to death …. literally …. or raped for hours / days before being garrotted.
And the black population of Libya were ethnically cleanesed with hundreds of Lynchings with them ending up swinging from meat hooks and ropes ….. Libya was totally destroyed as a modern socialist society.
The people of Venezuela do not want what the usa brought to Libya …. and it seems to be what the usa is threatening.
Look Gosman, I know that you missed your opportunity of being a camp guard, and that now you express that frustration and your vile world view on the Standard every single day in a literal tsunami of comments, and lots of people seems quite happy to argue with you, however this is a serious subject and I have no stomach for your sick twisted ideology today thank you..please go spread your sickness somewhere else.
This is Open mike and therefore is open to all ranges of views and opinions. You aren’t a moderator so unless you can convince a moderator to do something (what I don’t know considering I am not in breech of any rules around commenting that I am aware of) you are going to have to suck it up sunshine.
I like very much debating with people who have different views, just ask anyone who knows me, or look at my history on The Standard, but I don’t like debating with people who just argue every single fucking thing that is said by pretty everyone for what seems to be for no reason at all except to troll, or maybe for some other weird freudian reason that I can’t pinpoint..that is just boring and pointless.
I’m actually very selective on the topics and comments I respond to. Yours tends to be selected because you make uninformed and ridiculous comments about Venezuela.
As long as you continue to post nonsense about Venezuela I will continue replying Adrian. You can of course stop me doing this but stopping posting nonsense about Venezuela. The ball is in your court.
Below $72k distributions fail to comprehend your sophistry. It actual isn’t difficult to force you to concede that your original premise for your Venezuela ideology was just bullshit on a stick.
You’ve been around long enough to have observed the gosman handles mode of operation…gosman exhibits all the classic tr*ll behaviours…not quite a bottom feeder…but close to it…
Thanks for the advice but; – no!!! – we wont’ listen to your tripe any more – so don’t waste time using your pinkie any more no-ones listening other than your clones.
Does this Gosman work or just spend all day on the computer wasting everybody’s time. Please do not waste your time feeding this little bottom feeding weasel he irritates the f&*k out of me, he needs professional help.
Re: ‘Suck it up Sunshine’ and other apparently non trolling activities on the TS
No one on The Standard is about to silence you Gossman, as at this point it would probably halve the number of comments on any given day, and we’ve pretty much reached the bottom of the barrell a long time back.
The technique of swamping a post or thread with lots of comments usually arguing minutiae, semantics, actual meanings of words and other deliberate techniques to distract and detach from the subjects at hand. 101 stuff and effective and annoying and deliberate.
he/she only answers questions with more questions, it is a technique of swamping a post or thread with lots of more useless anti-constructive comments to take the subject off course.
Other mods may see it differently, but for mine Gosman is not a troll, Adrian.
There is a clear effort to write relevant comments, put coherent points of view and engage in debate. They may be views from the right, but as TS is not an echo chamber, that’s fine.
However, even if I don’t think Gosman is a troll, nobody is required to feed him.
I beg to differ, just because Gosman can string two sentences together that are not complete gibberish and are coherent, doesn’t mean that it isn’t trolling.
There was an excellent conclusion to DW’s Frank Sieren commenting on the recent Munich Security Conference about the place of EU between China and the U.S. It’s very similar to where New Zealand finds itself now between both those powers, and indeed with respect to the EU as well:
“What makes sense for the EU is becoming increasingly obvious. China and the US have to be kept in check by strong global institutions, which allow for debate and changing coalitions. The EU does not even have a common China strategy and one needs to be worked out. If we do not allow China to defend its own interests, then China can’t agree to us defending our own. We’ll only be able to act in a way that is strategically smart if we change our perspective.
Merkel admitted this, too, in a surprisingly open way: “I am firmly convinced that it is better to put ourselves in one another’s shoes, to look beyond our own interests and to see whether we can achieve win-win solutions together rather than to think we can solve everything ourselves.”
The irony of history is that US President Donald Trump’s attempts to shape international policy unilaterally are inadvertently leading to the dismantling of the old order. To put it more optimistically: Trump’s selfishness is fertilizer for a multipolar world order that is forcing the EU to finally come off the fence.”
I would be in favour of a ‘Capital Gains tax’ if it funds this option I propose for saving our planet from Climate change;
It would be more productive and environmentally sustainable for Government to offer better options for property owners to get these subsidies to make all properties more healthy.
*For better insulation like using wool underlay and wool carpeting.
*Double glazing of windows.
*This would also stimulate more jobs.
*Also sheep farmer incomes would rise and assist them to cope with lowering ‘climate change emissions’.
*These improvements would effectively be helping to slow Climate change and will slow the rate of increasing dampness, rain and extreme weather event that cause more dampness and mould in homes.
I just want to see a conviction or three recorded against his name forever, to officially recognise what he has done.
Plus whatever other arrangements are available to stop him and his cronies doing the same again. Jail seems unlikely to help achieve that in his case, though it might apply to some co-defendants.
Yes Ad, the Whale oil bit Whahoo!! and Jenny Shipley and 3 other Mainzeal Directors have to pay 36 million. Yay!! There is a God and she is getting it right!!
Just in case anyone has missed the details of this delectable most interesting judgment – read on.
The High Court has ruled collapsed property and construction company Mainzeal traded while insolvent for nine years and has held some of the directors liable for $36 million for letting it happen.
Just shows that business in NZ is used to being subsidised by government in numerous ways, under the table, but when it’s their own there is no guarantee of support.
I see that many find this news of interest, so sorry everyone for adding to the links. I am impressed that they thought that the head honchos would pick up the tab for whatever they did as a twig on the branch. Very organic-thinking. Is that something they teach at Directors’ School?
Further there was a $millions loans that Mainzeal made were reported as having generated millions of dollars of profit. I thought to whom? and looked further.
By the time it went into liquidation in 2013, Mainzeal had made loans to related companies totalling some $61m.
I think we aren’t mean and ugly enough to cope with the hyenas of the world.
We need to steel cap our teeth like in Jaws an old movie. It might help if we had seven foot businessmen too.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrgYwlVSQFg
This bit from mac1 at 13.3 should go under that above about giving out loans to the main company. It seems NZ people missing out all the time – money made here just flows around the citizens feet and offshore to foreigners, or possibly to NZ holdings through the Cook Islands. I heard a report the other day that sounded as if Winston’s Winebox Inquiry hadn’t stopped the devious financial dealings at all.
“”When the company collapsed in 2013, unpaid subcontractors and creditors were owed more than $115m. Many of these creditors themselves were put into serious financial difficulty as a result of the decisions made by the former directors.”
Can someone correct me if I am wrong. The Mainzeal directors lent money to their Chinese major company so that they could buy Chinese or other profitable businesses. Meanwhile the NZ company was not solvent, and in effect loaned money that was owed to NZ suppliers to their master company, and kept on operating on slender or no profits, believing that they were so useful that the main company would always bail them out.
And they wouldn’t and didn’t. So in effect Mainzeal was unwisely even fraudulently funding part of the enterprise in China with money owed to NZs. It must have been running as a ponzi scheme for a good length of time.
That’s not prudent behaviour by the Directors, and it goes beyond poor performance as it was a deliberate act of neglect of their duty to pay their suppliers.
Company Director Responsibilities
In the last few years, new legislation has aimed to prevent company directors from acting irresponsibly. However, the effect of such legislation has been to codify for the first time the duties owed by directors to companies, their shareholders and to the broader community, and to impose heavier burdens on company directors who are determined to act irresponsibly.
Directors’ Statutory Duties
The Companies Act 2006 sets out seven basis principles governing a company director’s behaviour, by imposing specific duties on the director. These are:
the duty to act within the director’s powers. The law and the company’s constitution set out what powers a director has. These powers relate to the matters upon which a director can take action or make decisions on behalf of the company, and the procedures which must be followed.
the duty to promote the success of the company. This does not simply mean that a director must always make decisions so as to maximise the company’s profit. The law provides that the director must always consider:
the likely long-term consequences of his decisions;
the interests of the company’s employees;
the company’s business relationships with suppliers, customers and others;
the impact of the company’s operations on the environment and community;
the company’s reputation for high standards of business conduct;
the need to act fairly as between shareholders.
the duty to exercise independent judgement. Company directors should always act independently and not allow themselves to be controlled by others.
the duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence. What this means depends on any special skill or knowledge a director has. For example, a company director who is also an accountant would have a higher duty of care in financial management than one who has no special knowledge of financial matters.
the duty to avoid conflicts of interests. Directors must not allow themselves to fall into situations where their duties to the company are in conflict with their personal interests or duties to others.
the duty not to accept benefits from third parties. A director may not accept any benefit (this would include bribes) which is offered simply because of his position as director.
the duty to declare interests in a proposed transaction with the company. Directors must inform the company if there is any proposed transaction with the company in which the director has a direct or indirect interest. The company’s articles of association will usually provide that a company may still be involved in the decision making process regarding such transactions, if the director has properly declared his interest.
Please don’t punish me with a wall’o text but yeah, I’d agree that Mainzeal had billions in government contrasts from the Sky City convention centre, stadiums, civil infrastructure, not to mention commercial operations. So they weren’t hurting for clients. As far as I can gather Mainzeal would continually renegotiate the quoted price for a building until they couldn’t.
Why would you be punished? If you know about company and directors duties you needn’t look again. It isn’t just a wall of anonymous text, it’s a list of the Responsibilities.
Can someone advise whether there is a possibility of NZ suppliers and contractors mounting a civil suit to see if they could get some of that $117 million back? What about the shareholders? Though a good number of them could be overseas pension investments/retirement savings schemes.
Financial fraud is just really, really hard to prove. The number of cases that don’t go to trial is one part of the story, the number of public prosecutors with the skills to explain complex financial fraud in a manner that every one else can understand is another story.
The longer that Simon grizzles and gets a fair number of ridicule for his efforts, the less effective will be his plan to undermine. So keep it up Simon.
John Key was remarkably comfortable associating with both Cameron Slater and his partner in crime, David Farrar, but John Key had a 40% preferred PM rating – not 6%…
That’s right – sadly no double-bunking in a Serco joint for Dame Ship.
Though for our own amusement we could start a competition for the most suitable cellmate.
Maybe Rob Muldoon’s ghost?
“The directors were covered by liability insurance, and Bethell hoped the damages awarded would be paid quickly.”
Who paid the liabiity insurance?
So, in the end, what sanction applies for a company director guilty of trading while insolvent?
Will she be employed again as a company director. Pay a fine? Go to prison? Have a criminal record? Lose her title?
Or is this the worst she gets?
“”When the company collapsed in 2013, unpaid subcontractors and creditors were owed more than $115m. Many of these creditors themselves were put into serious financial difficulty as a result of the decisions made by the former directors.”
For the behaviour which happened between 2005-13? And which the guilty parties are contemplating appealing, to delay justice thus denying it further.
Not bad for a former PM of New Zealand to be fined $6 million, responsible for a company going broke having borrowed $42 million, and owing $115 million at liquidation.
And the Nats claim to know something about business……………..FFS!
Of course no one is really surprised, as everyone in their hearts know that National politicians are all corrupt on some level..it is just a natural part of adhering to their selfish and devious ideology.
Still it is a good news story to enjoy today, RNZ should have it at the end of their hourly news roundup..sort of like a feel good fluffy kitten story.
Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.
These findings justify our appeal to the United Nations (UN) and, all member States in the world, to encourage the World Health Organization (WHO) to exert strong leadership in fostering the development of more protective EMF guidelines, encouraging precautionary measures, and educating the public about health risks, particularly risk to children and fetal development. By not taking action, the WHO is failing to fulfill its role as the preeminent international public health agency.
Collectively we also request that:
1. Children and pregnant women be protected;
2. Guidelines and regulatory standards be strengthened;
3. Manufacturers be encouraged to develop safer technology;
4. Utilities responsible for the generation, transmission, distribution, and monitoring of electricity maintain adequate power quality and ensure proper electrical wiring to minimize harmful ground current;
5. The public be fully informed about the potential health risks from electromagnetic energy and taught harm reduction strategies;
6. Medical professionals be educated about the biological effects of electromagnetic energy and be provided training on treatment of patients with electromagnetic sensitivity;
7. Governments fund training and research on electromagnetic fields and health that is independent of industry and mandate industry cooperation with researchers;
8. Media disclose experts’ financial relationships with industry when citing their opinions regarding health and safety aspects of EMF-emitting technologies;
9. White-zones (radiation-free areas) be established.
Thanks for more on EMF One Two. The problems from 5G are never mentioned it’s all rah rah about how fast it is.
Good for getting films etc so people never have to be without a placebo to look at and so never have to stress and think or imagine. Mind slobs being filled up with whatever candy floss or concoction that the money-diseased find suitable.
I will continue to post and re-post more detail, as there is decades of literature which is in the public domain…
The deployment will continue, and the sales pitch will never include a word about the known dangers and evidence of damage to human, animals, plants and insects…
The deployment will meet considerable road-blocks in the forms of existing legislation and acts (environmental mainly), as well as community’s in various nations and regions as awareness grows regarding the threat posed by cumulative EME build up, as well as the threat to planet earths natural frequencies and harmonics, which are responsible for creating and maintaining ‘life’…
Nations which deploy sooner, will provide the base of updated evidence of the damaged caused by 5G technology and modulations, as at present time the (misleading and incorrect) claims of ‘no known evidence of harm’ in relation to 5G, look certain to require an archive of injury and suffering caused to human beings, and further environmental degradation..
Regrettably, before action will be taken by those agencies charged with protecting public health and the environment…
Climate Change will play a major role in slowing and halting the deployment of damaging technologies, directly and indirectly…
Retain hope, gw…there is large global movement gaining momentum in all nations and regions, including NZ…
More pseudoscience junk from One Two. Anyone who wants to read something scientific on this issue should check out David Gorski on Twitter, he exposes all sorts of quacks & dodgy types, who usually push this type of stuff because they have something to sell to you.
It seems the prominent cleric found guilty of kiddy-fiddling can now be discussed since the suppression orders have been lifted and the case is reported in said cleric’s home newspapers.
The reason for the suppression order was apparently:
Until now the trials have been subject to a suppression order and could not be reported. The reason for the strict order was that [redacted] faced a second trial in relation to separate alleged historical offences. The first trial was suppressed temporarily so information from it would be less likely to influence the jury in the second. Suppression orders are not unusual in such cases.
But Kidd has now ordered that reporting restrictions be lifted after the Department of Public Prosecutions dropped the second set of charges. Kidd had ruled that key evidence was inadmissible and could not be used, significantly weakening the prosecution’s case.
Name redacted and link not supplied in case the suppression order is still active here.
If one more Republican Senator agrees to vote against Trump’s emergency declaration, Trump will be stopped flat on the most important part of his immigration platform.
Pell, Shipley, Whaleoil, Trump; Going to be a good week against the extreme right.
Genghis Can’t will just veto the legislation overturning his emergency declaration, and there won’t be enough Repug votes for the veto override.
It’ll be the courts that stop the “emergency”. The interesting bit will be if it gets to the Supreme Court in time. I’m awfully curious how the 5 Repug justices are going to reconcile upholding the “emergency” with their past positions. Or whether they’ll just brazenly ignore all the precedents and all the principles they’ve previously held dear.
Really lovely piece of work from Gordon Campbell on the corrupt relationship between the Chinese government and the National government both in power and in Opposition. Just the historic set of links and relationships set out in it is worth the read by itself:
BM is right .
Nats can sniff out easy money like an airport beagle honing in on a banana.
Of course they’re all over China.
They’ll push it to the “pretty legal” stage every time but not often go over the line. Corrupt ideologies attract dodgy people.
It was more timing than anything else, free trade deal just done with China, the second biggest economy in the world, businesses opportunities coming out the wazoo.
If Labour had won the election in 2008, the only difference would have been instead of National politicians doing deals it would have been Labour ones.
Labour didn’t do a free trade deal with China for nothing.
Actually they’re not very good at understanding where the ‘fairly legal’ line is, hence Shipley having to pay and essentially being shown to be unfit to hold directorships of anything.
Southern Response, another Gnat crony outfit, launched a huge amount of legal action instead of paying earthquake victims as they were supposed to. They didn’t win a single case.
The rest of the world are now realizing that backing the US/Trumps completely illegal and transparently obvious imperialist regime change operation (which has failed spectacularly) in Venezuela is looking more and more illegitimate as every day passes, many of these countries which themselves have suffered the brutal and sickening reality of US backed interventions in the recent past, are getting nervous at the White Houses extremist rhetoric.
Just a tiny taste of what US Imperialist intervention looks like..
Knowing all this, It is hard to imagine that anyone would support US intervention in Venezuela today…yet there are, why and what justification could they possibly have for offering their support for an action that will undoubtedly cause tenfold or more death and suffering?..and more especially when it has been freely admitted by the White house itself that Oil and resources are their real reasons for wanting regime change in Venezuela.
Yes it would seem that some people have absolutely no moral compass whatsoever. Perversely many of them relish in it, as some of us watch on in disbelief and dismay as they keenly and proudly prance about displaying their inner moral wasteland with such pride for everyone to see right here on this site…yuk, it’s revolting.
“Thornton” doesn’t sound like an Hispanic or Amerindian name – though there’s always marriage I guess.
Maybe Adrian has reached a point of ethical development where he cares about the well-being of people he doesn’t know and will never meet?
Nah – that seems too far-fetched eh? Can’t be real – gotta be something in it for him eh?
From No Right Turn Re Shipley:
“…Meanwhile there’s another curious feature, and that is the amount owed by the Mainzeal directors will apparently be mostly covered by liability insurance. Which seems… odd. Most insurance policies for us dirty peasants include a clause saying that they won’t pay out for intentional, reckless or criminal behaviour – …”
Using insurance money to avoid criminal charges is pretty legal under national ….
“When the government dropped charges against former Pike River boss Peter Whittall over the Pike River mine explosion, they claimed that the simultaneous announcement that he would pay compensation to the families of the 29 men he was accused of killing was just a coincidence, and that there was no deal. As usual, they lied …… ”
After years of increasing fares and cutting routes – the tide seems to be turning – after Air New Zealand announced domestic tickets will decrease by up to 50 per cent. The cheapest regional routes will now start from $39.
Blomfield said the High Court ruling was followed by Slater filing with the Court of Appeal then seeking to delay the subsequent hearing on the basis of ill-health. He said Slater was then obliged by the court to provide evidence supporting his claims around his health and “that evidence simply didn’t support his application”.
“He has told the public he had two strokes, but the evidence showed he had only had one. He keeps repeating the fact [sic] that the stroke was caused by stress and that he must now avoid stress. However, the medical evidence is that his particular stroke has nothing to do with stress and he is in no more danger of another stroke due to stress than any other person.
“He claimed to have cognitive and language impairment because of his stroke, but the evidence showed he had none. He claimed to be too incapacitated to communicate with his lawyers, but he was simultaneously engaging in political discussions in the comments section of the Whale Oil website.”
Blomfield said the Court of Appeal gave Slater until February 22 to provide evidence supporting his claims of ill-health.
“He filed no response at all. Instead, he applied for bankruptcy. He is now saying his proceedings need to be halted for that reason. He is doing everything he can to avoid the consequences of his own nefarious actions.”
Kia ora Newshub Paddy the fire in Tasman has flared up again you say it is the dryest year on record.
There you go more carbon being spilled at sea on a heritage class Island site in Australia.
The Exotic animals that have been Taxidermed for sale by auction look like they will get a lot of interest from hunting lodges Ka kite ano P.S The Mokopunas are a big distraction
Kia ora The AM Show.
The small business are the backbone of the country so if the growth fund grows small businesses in the regions that will lift the regions economy.
I have already predicted that trump won’t win the 2020 election.
The muppets around here like to let fireworks off when the fireworks season has long finished they are wishing to become cowboys fools.
I still don’t trust your polls they look loaded from what I see most people in NZ don’t support trump????????.
I know who all the rats ARE.
It would be a good show if you talk about the real big issue the whole world faces but know you just focus on the trump and brexit distractions. You should be taking about climate change that’s is what is the biggest issue for our grandchildren O that’s correct neanderthal can’t think about the futures wellbeing.???????????.
NO fool if you look at Europe all the wealthy stable countries have heaps railway tracks cheap reliable trains low cost mostly elictric trains so we are about to go back 30 years and build a low cost railway. That is the best way to make the regions wealthy. Railways are a stable cheap way to transport people and goods China seen that hence the new Silk Road railway are not prone to oil prices shocks that is what North Land needs not oil burning 3 Lane high ways.
You don’t look trust worthy steve rogers you looks like A go oil part neanderthal big conflict of interest there go oil party pinned its tail on trump and they are going to lose all the power they have bestowed on them by the American people. I have seen trump being a racist bigot on air he picks fight with China he trashes Obama one doesn’t have to be very bright to see trump is a racist person if you can’t see that well the prizim of the $$$$&&$$$$$$, is blinding you.
There you go the dryest year on record in Tasman and know one is taking about the big picture climate change trump is suppressing that I can see that plan as day.
Chris the American metrologist not one word about climate change that’s just backs my words up.
He is losing his base duncan and the am shows hip pocket are being filled by trumps puppets for there bullshit he does not understand the ways of Asia cultures.
I say it is cool that Hugh Jackman is visiting Aotearoa on his world tour. He is inspiring Alot of our youth to become Stars like him.
Even your guest are in on supporting trump he can not look into the camera.
The lady keeps a straight face but her hands are giving away her nervousness te waha can – – – but the body gives it away. te trump show. the guest have been given scripts lol just like the poll just trying to manipulate the people.
Living wage Pay is a good way to keep workers as in the last 30 years management has stolen a bigger % of companies money and the people who make the money for the company are getting less.
Look at Fonterra it has not delivered to farmers what was sold to them they have just made the cost of managing the export of milk powder more expensive and given farmers sweets f all. Ka kite ano
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
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David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Ngapuhi woman, fluent in Te Reo, English and French makes Big Mistake by marrying foreign guy who just happens to live and work with multiple sclerosis.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383367/maori-teacher-s-husband-barred-from-new-zealand-due-to-multiple-sclerosis
Her skills are desperately needed….http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1902/S00187/crown-launches-commitment-to-te-reo-maori.htm
As are her husband’s….”… works full-time for the Housing Ministry in his native Quebec.
He coaches young people with disabilities and he has multiple sclerosis.”
But, nah. Fuck off. You have a disability…and we don’t like your kind around here…..
So. Is this policy from Immigration going to continue even under this supposedly more humane and kind administration?
Is this the true nature of the Coalition of Lovingkindness?
Or is it way past time that someone told Immigration that there has been a change of government and we are not going to act like officious, heartless arseholes anymore?
SSDD
Rosemary, I suspect you can gauge the Immigration Dept’s feelings about the new Government by the way they tried to stitch up Iain Lees Galloway.
National made sure the heads of most, if not all, of the Ministries were Tory Compliant during their nine years in power. It’s going to take a while to weed them out.
That’s where Roundup can rightfully be used. Gnats can’t even excuse themselves as roses in the wrong bed.
What the hell is going on at INZ!!!!
The number of appeals has gone up, many/most of which get accepted because fuckups were made in the first place.
I just don’t believe it can all be put down to staff churn and inexperience.
As things stand, they seem incapable of distinguishing between genuine cases and people with skills we (NZ Inc. needs), and those pulling rorts. (The job buying, the shitty tertiary education schemes, the sham relationships, the lack of monitoring of advisors – one you’ll recall a convicted fraudster)
I’m currently with extended family who’ve now, like many others, decided to just give up after having wasted nearly ten years dealing with the incompetence.
Then there’s that other little agency under MBIE that have allowed themselves to become overwhelmed by the number of cases of exploitation in the workplace
The muppetry now just beggars belief. It’s becoming harder not to believe there is a bit of an agenda at play among some of the senior management – and as you say @TRP, the attempts at trying to stitch up I L-G haven’t gone unnoticed.
Meanwhile, the rorts continue unabated whilst the genuine immigrant gets hammered.
I have to say it’s probably about time Ministers started paying closer attention to some of the people dealing with various cases (McClymont, Malcolm, and a few others, as well as those working with the exploited) rather than relying on ‘their officials’. It has become way past a joke.
But then I guess MBIE is not the only muppetry that the coalition are having to deal with (NZTA, WINZ et al)
Excellently said Tim 100%
I could not have said it; – that well .
please keep it up, – all is appreciated.
MBIE/NZTA are all the babies constructed by the very controversial “Mr Fix all” Steven Joyce, so that is why we have these useless ‘seeded bureaucrats still all sitting there now, as he seeded them with his clones.
Labour must ‘weed all these national Party ‘sleeping cells’ inside these agencies out or face possibly loosing the next election next year, – It is now labour’s choice as they have 17 months left to do this.
Tick – tick -tick!
“What the hell is going on at INZ!!!!”
They’re actually doing their job and enforcing the rules.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLSocRP08011/immigration-chronology-selected-events-1840-2008
Those wanting to come to Godzone had better be in tip- top health with fully functioning everything, as the less- than-perfect in mind, wind and limb are simply not welcome since….https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/5453.HTM ?
As for thinking that being the spouse of a New Zealander…and tangata whenua to boot… is going to get you special treatment….forget it.
“….and removed the provision for special treatment for the spouses of New Zealand citizens. This meant that applicants for the grant of citizenship who were married to New Zealand citizens would be required to meet the five-year residency period.” https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/5453.HTM
That particular little turd was brought in under the 2005 amendments.
So much for the new Family Friendly New Zealand….putting the wellbeing of all to the fore.
Are we still supposed to accept that this current Labour- led government is in any fundamental way different from the previous?
SSDD
“They’re actually doing their job and enforcing the rules.”
The problem appears to be with interpretation of the rules in many cases as the number of appeals will attest.
But then as I’ve said on many occasions – it’s all working as designed and its way past time the system (and the culture within) is dismantled.
But then there’s also the other problem with other units within MBIE that don’t quite fit with the idea that “They’re actually doing their job and enforcing the rules.”
The Labour Inspectorate now seem more prepared to admit that the number of cases of exploitation are greater than they’d thought – even though a moron in a hurry could have told them that several years ago (many tried!)
Again, we had one manager telling us all they had sufficient Labour Inspectors a few weeks before the government was elected – CLEARLY bullshit!)
I accept they’ve been under-resourced in so many areas, but that doesn’t explain the continued bullshit that keeps emanating from the place.
Perhaps if they looked into WHY there is inexperience and churn in the place – could be a starting point?
It’s high time for reform (not just MBIE) if the coalition wants to make headway.
I’m almost beginning to feel a tiny bit of sympathy for Peter Hughes – having to tell more and more of the PS senior “officials” what should have been bleeding bloody obvious!!!!! (Thompson and Clark anyone? Demographic Profiling anyone? etc etc etc). And MBIE’s new CEO was handed a bit of a poison chalice after that knobhead that moved in to create Messrs Joyce and Coleman’s vanity project.
Tim,
During the first national Government we heard by email (anonymous) that Mr Fix it” Steven Joyce had authorised a circular that was sent out by MBIE to every employee a warning to agree with the current government policy and act accordingly; – or find a new job.
In cases where any press releases would be sent the managers were also warned not to say anything that would ‘ebmassess the Government policy as their employment would be reviewed’.
Labour now needs to repeat this National control policy of the “Public services staff” as they need to support the current Government also.
Codes of Conduct don’t apply to Masters of the Universe @CG. Let alone just behaving ethically and in the public interest. Just as long as you’re in the club.
(/sarc btw)
I can’t remember the most recent ‘issue’ that the SSCommisar has been called in to slap a wet bus ticket over some ‘officials’ but its been in the past couple of weeks.
OwT
I wonder too about the management of semi government entities. I have been thinking about DHB’s – treating our medical sector as if they were factory workers. And the budget setting of hospitals – who sets that? The old refrain was that they were cutting fat out of the system. Sounds very medical doesn’t it – keyhole surgery anyone? But all the liposuction that can be done must have been done. Now we have the harsh reality of intention from the top, to cut back all public services to their level of incompetence I believe.
(And who are behind the top bananas? Who set this austerity regime in place that is ruining all the people’s living standards in the world? And can look with equanimity and ready judgments as people struggle and fall down.)
I think the present management mentality is to treat everybody entering a sector as an intern and work them to the bone on the basis that one day they will have a good salary if they just stick through. It is another version of the ‘couch’ interview that applicant starlets had to go through to get places in productions. Too many psychopathic Harveys at the top with their modern business training, turning out to become standard Dalek-like figures, chanting ‘Exploit, Exploit, Exploit’.
Note:
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, created by the megalomaniacal scientist Davros of the planet Skaro to be an emotionless “master race” bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse.
The Daleks – Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Daleks
Today’s public servants see everything in black and white terms. They don’t like grey areas. They don’t like Labour-led coalitions because they have a pesky habit of considering those grey areas and that makes their job harder to do.
They have yet to catch up with the new mantra of justice and fair play. – or should I say the old mantra of j and f play which was tossed out of the window 30 plus years ago.
“Is this policy from Immigration going to continue even under this supposedly more humane and kind administration?”
Yes. That agency tried to slip in an exception into NZ’s principled position during negotiation of the UN Disability Convention and though officials talked them down informally at the time, Immigration NZ have never been slapped back forcefully enough by any of our govts since.
Seeing disabled people only as a burden is not good enough. Yet here we are.
“Immigration NZ have never been slapped back forcefully enough by any of our govts since.”
Time to call in the experts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLdK9zaLaG8
Quite. Can’t imagine MPI being nearly that useful.
Thanks Rosemary
MP still sending up everything they touch. It helps to keep some lightness about you when looking at today’s politics. Just that word ‘politics’ alone offers avenues of fun. Like how many words can one make out of it. When one feels that one can’t make any sense out of it, that could always provide a little light relief.
Thanks for that Rosemary, brought back many a happy memory before the world was highjacked by Freidmans Neo Con Fuckwits.
Well. Must have been the thought of a wet fish about the ear hole coz….
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383446/canadian-husband-of-whangarei-teacher-now-allowed-into-new-zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQlVmvXAGLI
Morena, Standarnistas!
A whole bunch of comments from late last night were held in the mod queue until I manually released them a few moments ago. There were a few from Sam and a couple from Gosman and a scattering of other poster’s comments. I’m not sure what the issue was, but I hope normal service has now been resumed.
Have a nice day, y’all.
What is it with Grant Robertson?
He can’t seem to speak proply… or rather, on te radio and on Q&A last night, he avoids the basic words that people relate to and understand..
.. such as “the workers pay tax, why can’t the capitalists?”
.. “this is about making the rich pay a little more, so the working poor pay a little less.. at the moment the rich pay nothing on their speculative gains – it’s not even work”
.. “why do we penalise work by taxing income and not capital?”
..”workers work hard all their lives to provide for their families. They dont earn enough to even save, so why are they penalised with income tax, when the speculators aren’t?”
Mr Robertson – stop diving into ‘Wellington-speak’ every time. Take a leaf from Winnie’s book and lay some big one-liners down. Use words and sentences that people can relate to. And finally, get new glasses that don’t put a bocking line through your eyes.
Alternatively, remove him from public speaking roles
Wellington speak one-liners like Barry Sopers “PM in state of shock at capital gains reaction”……
Yep, more fake news from the tory puppets.
Probably because he does not want to come across as a class warrior. Which would not likely help the popularity of the government.
So Labour 47% + Greens + NZ1st
Natz 42% + the little nat
And so banning oil exploration? Adjusting Taina Poras compensation for inflation, signing the TPP11. Kind of like that kind of bad for popularity, eh?
Who is the baby Nat is that Seeless whose party will become extinct after the 2020 Election.
Sorry who? Twerkman. No wait, End of life bill Patty. It’s on the tip of my tongue just can’t seem to get past the irrelevance.
Don’t make fun about The End of Life Bill Sam.
That is serious and I want it brought in along with consultation to ensure that it is worded with care and meets all reasonable requirements and is overseen by some independent authority of integrity.
It may be the one thing that is worthwhile that ACT has championed.
It is important to many people and the whole country’s betterment.
That bill was trash. We already have pain management that can be subscribe by an A&E doctor. There was no need to make the process complicated by 3 times.
Maybe some people don’t want to be in doctor’s hands at some particular point of their decline, and want to take themselves into the next stage – unto death. Maybe they have a right to decide what they want to do and not wait helplessly for the decision of minor gods.
Perhaps. Although if a patient wants access to life ending medicine, I mean only doctors are certified to prescribe. That’s life.
Well then he is a chicken and letting others define the issues.
How is someone stating the fact that the working poor pay taxes on the meagre money they make, while the non-working wealthy pay no tax on money they make a “class warrior”?
I also think you are conflating class with money. Most rich have no class in my experience, they have gauchity and baubles, too much make-up and too many bright jackets, trinkets and toys, scathing words and poorly attitudes – but they have little to no class.
The poor have on average a great deal more class, as in manners and respect for others.
back to the cgt: Everybody is scared shitless of the lazy bludgers making asset value gains from no work. And paying no tax.
Wayne, why do we tax and penalise work, and not freeloading asset appreciation?
If there is to be no capital gains tax, then there should also be no income gains tax.
Fuck paying income tax anymore. The rich bludgers don’t want to pay tax, so neither will we.
“Probably because he does not want to come across as a class warrior”
As so many people have said that it has become a trope – it’s only called “class war” when the poor (or the non-rich) fight back.
Kindly take your linguistic deceitfulness somewhere else.
vto @ 3
Grant Robertson is normally a clear and coherent speaker but I have to agree with you. It wasn’t a good presentation. I had difficulty understanding him.
I wonder if the change of time is part of the problem. I’ve picked up that the interviewees look quite tired and not up to their usual performances. Imo, it’s a poor decision to go for a 9:30 pm start on a Monday night.
I wonder whether the real opposition to a left wing Government, is in the Labour cabinet.
Many seem less than enthusiastic, about any socialist policies.
And, it shows in their speeches.
‘The Coup Has Failed & Now the U.S. Is Looking to Wage War: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Speaks Out.’
Will be interesting to see how many Trump hating, Russian conspiracy sycophants will fall in behind Trumps regime change here…quite a few I suspect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dim9uOsDuI
‘The Making of Juan Guaido: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader’
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuela-coup-leader/254387/
American Psycho: US ‘conservative’ congressman Marco Rubio posts tweet of Gaddafi’s lynching as threat to Venezuela’s Maduro
https://www.sott.net/article/407970-American-Psycho-US-conservative-congressman-Marco-Rubio-posts-tweet-of-Gaddafis-lynching-as-threat-to-Venezuelas-Maduro
Here is an image of what US lead regime change actually means…
https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511577/large/Rubio_Gaddafi.jpg
Gaddafi was lynched by his own people because of the incompetence and brutality of his regime. I think it is a very apt warning to Maduro. Don’t try and do a Gaddafi and stay on beyond what the people want.
Libya was a right royal F5$K Up for everyone Gosman, the Libyan people were a shitload better off b4 the Yanks poked their grubby little noses in there, you are a clown of the first order, who does not know shit from clay.
Yeah that’s why they rose up and overthrew him. You are aware of how Gaddafi maintained power and how he suppressed anyone who might be a threat to his messed up regime aren’t you?
Expert on Venezuela AND Libya…
Where have I claimed I am an expert on any of those topics? I know a lot about Venezuela but much less about Libya. I wouldn’t classify myself as an expert. This is a discussion. If you have counter facts then present them. Engaging in ad hominem attacks on me won’t make your case stronger though.
Lol calling you an expert is a ad hominem attack – what a guy
Yeah Marty. I’m well aware of sarcasm.
I’m sure you are.
Calling you a liar on this is not an ad hominem when it’s true. And on this topic you have lied so often, it is sickening.
Name me one lie. We’ve gone through this before though. You refuse to detail anything I have supposedly lied about. Instead you just make generalised statements about me lying about Venezuela.
Repeating US, propaganda, like a bloody parrot, despite many references and facts given to you, that showed you were talking nonsense, almost made me moderate you.
However I tend to the view that even parroting fools deserve to be heard, and show up the inconsistency’s, in their arguments, over time.
What US propaganda? I am very careful not to post anything about Venezuela that cannot be backed up with evidence on the ground.
While studiously ignoring, facts on the ground, like the one below.
https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/poverty-reduction-venezuela
“Venezuela has seen a remarkable reduction in poverty since the first quarter of 2003. In the ensuing four years, from 2003 to 2007, the poverty rate was cut in half, from 54 percent of households to 27.5 percent. (See Table 1). This is measured from the first half of 2003 to the first half of 2007. As can be seen in the table, the poverty rate rose very slightly by one percentage point in the second half of 2007, most likely due to rising food prices. Extreme poverty fell even more, by 70 percent—from 25.1 percent of households to 7.6 percent.
These poverty rates measure only cash income; as will be discussed below, they do not include non-cash benefits to the poor such as access to health care or education.
If Venezuela were almost any other country, such a large reduction of poverty in a relatively short time would be noticed as a significant achievement”.
Which don’t suit your narrative.
I give you that, as with the “weapons of mass destruction” you are not on your own with lying like a flatfish, sorry, being economical with the truth, about regimes the USA wants to remove.
No, I have no problem agreeing that Chavez was very good at spending money on poverty reduction in the first few years of his time in power and that had initially very good results. However the way he went about this laid the seeds for the economic collapse that followed. The poverty rate in Venezuela now is much worse than when the Chavista regime took over in 1999.
“Poverty in Venezuela is an epidemic. Nearly 90 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty. According to estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, this is a dramatic increase from 2014 when 48 percent of Venezuelans lived in poverty. Maria Ponce is an investigator with the local universities researching the food shortage, and she stated that “this disparity between the rise in prices and the population’s salaries is so generalized that there is practically not a single Venezuelan who is not poor.””
https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-venezuela/
The results of US economic sanctions, rich whites in Venezuala upset about paying taxes, combined with repeated coup attempts and a US inspired collapse in their main export earner, would challenge the most competent Government.
Which I will agree Maduro’s is probably not.
However the corrupt self interested A holes the US wants to replace them with, are a lot worse.
No it wouldn’t. There are lot’s of countries with incompetent politicians and even those who have serious economic disruption (some even involving war). These nations aren’t suffering Hyper-inflation of the scale that Venezuela has or even the sort of economic contraction that has occured in Venezuela (which remember has still been able to sell 40% plus of oil to it’s supposed arch enemy of the USA in this period AND access funding from Russia and China).
Venezuela is quite unique in the World as being at peace yet suffering from negative impact worse than a nation at war. This is not the US’s fault. It is the fault of the policies of the Venezuelan regime. These include Price controls, Overvalued exchange rate, Nationalisation of key sectors of the economy, Printing money to cover huge budget deficits. None of these policies have been imposed on them by the US. All of them heve lead to the economic misery the country now faces.
Wow gossy you just can’t stop lying can you. You just can’t take you ideological blinkers for one second. Because to have to admit that US, Canada and The UK are actually stuffing with Venezuela economy would bring down all your other lies.
Sad, sad little man.
Toilet paper was your first lie. You have lied about the elections, you lied about trade, you lied about sanctions, and you lied about the constitution.
Those are just off the top of my head without going through all your posts.
You lie. I’d say it’s because you’re an ideolog, if I was being generous.
But as of today I think it’s because you actually want a war.
So keep spreading your lies, you will get what you want, death and the murder of civilians in a civil war. People like you will have made that happen. You sad, sad, little man.
What lie did I make about toilet paper?
Even socialists have to buy toilet paper during a revolution.
I pulled you up on your toilet paper lies years ago.
Convenient for you to forget.
Humour me and show me where you revealed my lies about toilet paper shortages in Venezuela again.
You show very little understanding of what’s happening in Venezuela, Gosman.
Like Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia. You mean.
The Usa is a Mafia Gangster state and their negotiations consist of “do what we say or we kill you and make your children suffer” ….. as they did to Gaddafi when Nato became ISIS / Al Quada / Nusras airforce.
He was Lynched usa style …. as they used to whip, castrate, burn and torture the negros before the mob hanging.
It was a British plane which bombed Gaddafis convoy allowing the muslim extremist and western backed rebels to get their hands on him.
Peace offers and election negotiations were turned down by the wardogs like Hillary Clinton and Nato …… Something like 10,000 bombing missions were carried out killing thousands of civilians and destroying their infrastructure.
What happened to Gaddafi was symbolic of what then happened to Libya ….the Nato ‘liberated’ country.
Regarding womans rights and schooling for instance …. thats all gone…. child brides in arranged marriages back in.
Gaddafi had female body guards who had to flee the country ….. two who didn’t were raped to death …. literally …. or raped for hours / days before being garrotted.
And the black population of Libya were ethnically cleanesed with hundreds of Lynchings with them ending up swinging from meat hooks and ropes ….. Libya was totally destroyed as a modern socialist society.
The people of Venezuela do not want what the usa brought to Libya …. and it seems to be what the usa is threatening.
Did Bazil Brush Soper slip over in the shower and bang his head this morning, the guy needs help, or needs to change the colour of his pills.
Look Gosman, I know that you missed your opportunity of being a camp guard, and that now you express that frustration and your vile world view on the Standard every single day in a literal tsunami of comments, and lots of people seems quite happy to argue with you, however this is a serious subject and I have no stomach for your sick twisted ideology today thank you..please go spread your sickness somewhere else.
This is Open mike and therefore is open to all ranges of views and opinions. You aren’t a moderator so unless you can convince a moderator to do something (what I don’t know considering I am not in breech of any rules around commenting that I am aware of) you are going to have to suck it up sunshine.
“considering I am not in breech of any rules around commenting”…
Except trolling like a motherfucker.
Your definition of trolling is obviously different to the moderators. Take it up with them.
It’s funny how many people think “troll” is a synonym for “person who writes comments I don’t like.”
I like very much debating with people who have different views, just ask anyone who knows me, or look at my history on The Standard, but I don’t like debating with people who just argue every single fucking thing that is said by pretty everyone for what seems to be for no reason at all except to troll, or maybe for some other weird freudian reason that I can’t pinpoint..that is just boring and pointless.
I’m actually very selective on the topics and comments I respond to. Yours tends to be selected because you make uninformed and ridiculous comments about Venezuela.
Gosman please go away and troll someone else who gives a fuck what you think..I do not.
As long as you continue to post nonsense about Venezuela I will continue replying Adrian. You can of course stop me doing this but stopping posting nonsense about Venezuela. The ball is in your court.
Below $72k distributions fail to comprehend your sophistry. It actual isn’t difficult to force you to concede that your original premise for your Venezuela ideology was just bullshit on a stick.
Some do, milt…
You’ve been around long enough to have observed the gosman handles mode of operation…gosman exhibits all the classic tr*ll behaviours…not quite a bottom feeder…but close to it…
Perhaps you don’t notice such tactics…
Gosman. another wate of time you just made again.
Get a real job!!!
Thanks for the advice but; – no!!! – we wont’ listen to your tripe any more – so don’t waste time using your pinkie any more no-ones listening other than your clones.
Does this Gosman work or just spend all day on the computer wasting everybody’s time. Please do not waste your time feeding this little bottom feeding weasel he irritates the f&*k out of me, he needs professional help.
Re: ‘Suck it up Sunshine’ and other apparently non trolling activities on the TS
No one on The Standard is about to silence you Gossman, as at this point it would probably halve the number of comments on any given day, and we’ve pretty much reached the bottom of the barrell a long time back.
The technique of swamping a post or thread with lots of comments usually arguing minutiae, semantics, actual meanings of words and other deliberate techniques to distract and detach from the subjects at hand. 101 stuff and effective and annoying and deliberate.
Hit the nail there Siobhan; & marty mars, 100%
Gosman = no constructive intelligent discussion.
he/she only answers questions with more questions, it is a technique of swamping a post or thread with lots of more useless anti-constructive comments to take the subject off course.
An attack of and by Gosmania again!
Gosman: “I am not in breech of any rules…” – still flying by the seat of your pants, you have me in stitches yet again. Maybe sit this one out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq0QiU7wKU0
Other mods may see it differently, but for mine Gosman is not a troll, Adrian.
There is a clear effort to write relevant comments, put coherent points of view and engage in debate. They may be views from the right, but as TS is not an echo chamber, that’s fine.
However, even if I don’t think Gosman is a troll, nobody is required to feed him.
“nobody is required to feed him”
Indeed. Biggest problem here for ages is those unable to resist reacting.
Bad faith comments become more obvious when they sit on their own.
I beg to differ, just because Gosman can string two sentences together that are not complete gibberish and are coherent, doesn’t mean that it isn’t trolling.
But then I am not a moderator…so whatever.
There was an excellent conclusion to DW’s Frank Sieren commenting on the recent Munich Security Conference about the place of EU between China and the U.S. It’s very similar to where New Zealand finds itself now between both those powers, and indeed with respect to the EU as well:
https://www.dw.com/en/sierens-china-time-for-the-eu-change-its-global-mindset/a-47682992
“What makes sense for the EU is becoming increasingly obvious. China and the US have to be kept in check by strong global institutions, which allow for debate and changing coalitions. The EU does not even have a common China strategy and one needs to be worked out. If we do not allow China to defend its own interests, then China can’t agree to us defending our own. We’ll only be able to act in a way that is strategically smart if we change our perspective.
Merkel admitted this, too, in a surprisingly open way: “I am firmly convinced that it is better to put ourselves in one another’s shoes, to look beyond our own interests and to see whether we can achieve win-win solutions together rather than to think we can solve everything ourselves.”
The irony of history is that US President Donald Trump’s attempts to shape international policy unilaterally are inadvertently leading to the dismantling of the old order. To put it more optimistically: Trump’s selfishness is fertilizer for a multipolar world order that is forcing the EU to finally come off the fence.”
I would be in favour of a ‘Capital Gains tax’ if it funds this option I propose for saving our planet from Climate change;
It would be more productive and environmentally sustainable for Government to offer better options for property owners to get these subsidies to make all properties more healthy.
*For better insulation like using wool underlay and wool carpeting.
*Double glazing of windows.
*This would also stimulate more jobs.
*Also sheep farmer incomes would rise and assist them to cope with lowering ‘climate change emissions’.
*These improvements would effectively be helping to slow Climate change and will slow the rate of increasing dampness, rain and extreme weather event that cause more dampness and mould in homes.
“Good laid plans make for far better outcomes”
Whaleoil has filed for bankruptcy:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12207250
I hope the various court cases continue. He does not deserve to wriggle out of personal liability that easily.
Yes sasha
I want to see him face the judge, then he could be in jail for a long time paying $25 weekly to pay all those liabilities he is now facing.
Though he may now flee again to Israel as he did in 2016?
I just want to see a conviction or three recorded against his name forever, to officially recognise what he has done.
Plus whatever other arrangements are available to stop him and his cronies doing the same again. Jail seems unlikely to help achieve that in his case, though it might apply to some co-defendants.
Yeah baby yeah
Yes Ad, the Whale oil bit Whahoo!! and Jenny Shipley and 3 other Mainzeal Directors have to pay 36 million. Yay!! There is a God and she is getting it right!!
Just in case anyone has missed the details of this
delectablemost interesting judgment – read on.The High Court has ruled collapsed property and construction company Mainzeal traded while insolvent for nine years and has held some of the directors liable for $36 million for letting it happen.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/383397/high-court-rules-mainzeal-directors-liable-for-36m
Just shows that business in NZ is used to being subsidised by government in numerous ways, under the table, but when it’s their own there is no guarantee of support.
I see that many find this news of interest, so sorry everyone for adding to the links. I am impressed that they thought that the head honchos would pick up the tab for whatever they did as a twig on the branch. Very organic-thinking. Is that something they teach at Directors’ School?
Further there was a $millions loans that Mainzeal made were reported as having generated millions of dollars of profit. I thought to whom? and looked further.
By the time it went into liquidation in 2013, Mainzeal had made loans to related companies totalling some $61m.
Today, the lawyer for the liquidators, Mark O’Brien, told the court that a $10.3m loan from Mainzeal was used to help parent company Richina with highly-lucrative acquisitions in Shanghai.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/375760/mainzeal-loan-generated-hundreds-of-millions-in-wealth-court-hears
I think we aren’t mean and ugly enough to cope with the hyenas of the world.
We need to steel cap our teeth like in Jaws an old movie. It might help if we had seven foot businessmen too.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrgYwlVSQFg
So the ship pays the money, and that’s the end of it?
She should be struck off as a director of any NZ company, a stint doing PD probably wouldn’t hurt either.
No. It gets paid by an insurance company.
This bit from mac1 at 13.3 should go under that above about giving out loans to the main company. It seems NZ people missing out all the time – money made here just flows around the citizens feet and offshore to foreigners, or possibly to NZ holdings through the Cook Islands. I heard a report the other day that sounded as if Winston’s Winebox Inquiry hadn’t stopped the devious financial dealings at all.
“”When the company collapsed in 2013, unpaid subcontractors and creditors were owed more than $115m. Many of these creditors themselves were put into serious financial difficulty as a result of the decisions made by the former directors.”
That blows.
Can someone correct me if I am wrong. The Mainzeal directors lent money to their Chinese major company so that they could buy Chinese or other profitable businesses. Meanwhile the NZ company was not solvent, and in effect loaned money that was owed to NZ suppliers to their master company, and kept on operating on slender or no profits, believing that they were so useful that the main company would always bail them out.
And they wouldn’t and didn’t. So in effect Mainzeal was unwisely even fraudulently funding part of the enterprise in China with money owed to NZs. It must have been running as a ponzi scheme for a good length of time.
That’s not prudent behaviour by the Directors, and it goes beyond poor performance as it was a deliberate act of neglect of their duty to pay their suppliers.
UK law: (Think twice before becoming a Director, if the others know more than you about damage control.)
https://www.wheelerslaw.co.uk/site/business/business_companycommercial/directors/
Company Director Responsibilities
In the last few years, new legislation has aimed to prevent company directors from acting irresponsibly. However, the effect of such legislation has been to codify for the first time the duties owed by directors to companies, their shareholders and to the broader community, and to impose heavier burdens on company directors who are determined to act irresponsibly.
Directors’ Statutory Duties
The Companies Act 2006 sets out seven basis principles governing a company director’s behaviour, by imposing specific duties on the director. These are:
the duty to act within the director’s powers. The law and the company’s constitution set out what powers a director has. These powers relate to the matters upon which a director can take action or make decisions on behalf of the company, and the procedures which must be followed.
the duty to promote the success of the company. This does not simply mean that a director must always make decisions so as to maximise the company’s profit. The law provides that the director must always consider:
the likely long-term consequences of his decisions;
the interests of the company’s employees;
the company’s business relationships with suppliers, customers and others;
the impact of the company’s operations on the environment and community;
the company’s reputation for high standards of business conduct;
the need to act fairly as between shareholders.
the duty to exercise independent judgement. Company directors should always act independently and not allow themselves to be controlled by others.
the duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence. What this means depends on any special skill or knowledge a director has. For example, a company director who is also an accountant would have a higher duty of care in financial management than one who has no special knowledge of financial matters.
the duty to avoid conflicts of interests. Directors must not allow themselves to fall into situations where their duties to the company are in conflict with their personal interests or duties to others.
the duty not to accept benefits from third parties. A director may not accept any benefit (this would include bribes) which is offered simply because of his position as director.
the duty to declare interests in a proposed transaction with the company. Directors must inform the company if there is any proposed transaction with the company in which the director has a direct or indirect interest. The company’s articles of association will usually provide that a company may still be involved in the decision making process regarding such transactions, if the director has properly declared his interest.
Please don’t punish me with a wall’o text but yeah, I’d agree that Mainzeal had billions in government contrasts from the Sky City convention centre, stadiums, civil infrastructure, not to mention commercial operations. So they weren’t hurting for clients. As far as I can gather Mainzeal would continually renegotiate the quoted price for a building until they couldn’t.
Why would you be punished? If you know about company and directors duties you needn’t look again. It isn’t just a wall of anonymous text, it’s a list of the Responsibilities.
Can someone advise whether there is a possibility of NZ suppliers and contractors mounting a civil suit to see if they could get some of that $117 million back? What about the shareholders? Though a good number of them could be overseas pension investments/retirement savings schemes.
In liquidations, contractors are the last to receive compensation behind landlords and shareholders.
I just don’t get down reading corporate bibles.
I’m actually finding it hard to understand why, the Mainzeal directors, are still out of jail.
It’s in the acronym limited liability. Shareholders assumes no liability.
Shareholders in a limited company cannot be held liable, except in some rare cases. Employees including directors and managers, can.
Financial fraud is just really, really hard to prove. The number of cases that don’t go to trial is one part of the story, the number of public prosecutors with the skills to explain complex financial fraud in a manner that every one else can understand is another story.
Oops!
Even though billionaires work harder…
Simon Bridges is directing his Twitter page readers to Kiwiblog.
He must be comfortable with people reading the comments
section as well then…
Simon is an idiot.
https://mobile.twitter.com/simonjbridges/status/1100125535890432001
https://twitter.com/Suzyiam/status/1100136473557270528
Brutal
It’s how they roll.
https://screenshots.firefox.com/oaCSp4lWJ1qGl6yM/www.critic.co.nz
https://screenshots.firefox.com/IzNV55n7aLy1KPKu/www.kiwiblog.co.nz
The longer that Simon grizzles and gets a fair number of ridicule for his efforts, the less effective will be his plan to undermine. So keep it up Simon.
That seems remarkably reckless.
John Key was remarkably comfortable associating with both Cameron Slater and his partner in crime, David Farrar, but John Key had a 40% preferred PM rating – not 6%…
Bahahahahahaha
Most people didn’t even know about kiwiblog until the Dirty Politics book came out.
Silly simon, does he even know that most people on kb don’t even back him as leader.
ROFL !!!
ha ha
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/110863543/former-prime-minister-dame-jenny-shipley-ordered-to-pay-6m-over-mainzeal-collapse
Fuck this day is just getting better
Won’t affect her in the tiniest little bit.
“The directors are covered by liability insurance which will pay their damages.”
Personal responsibility and accountability is for the great unwashed masses, not the elite.
It’ll look great on her cv drey.
That’s right – sadly no double-bunking in a Serco joint for Dame Ship.
Though for our own amusement we could start a competition for the most suitable cellmate.
Maybe Rob Muldoon’s ghost?
From the article cited.
“The directors were covered by liability insurance, and Bethell hoped the damages awarded would be paid quickly.”
Who paid the liabiity insurance?
So, in the end, what sanction applies for a company director guilty of trading while insolvent?
Will she be employed again as a company director. Pay a fine? Go to prison? Have a criminal record? Lose her title?
Or is this the worst she gets?
“”When the company collapsed in 2013, unpaid subcontractors and creditors were owed more than $115m. Many of these creditors themselves were put into serious financial difficulty as a result of the decisions made by the former directors.”
For the behaviour which happened between 2005-13? And which the guilty parties are contemplating appealing, to delay justice thus denying it further.
Wonder if this conviction means creditors can lodge their own civil prosecutions?
“Will she be employed again as a company director. Pay a fine? Go to prison? Have a criminal record? Lose her title?
Or is this the worst she gets?”
+1
I’ll bet the answers to those questions will be: yes, no, no, no, no. Yes.
Not bad for a former PM of New Zealand to be fined $6 million, responsible for a company going broke having borrowed $42 million, and owing $115 million at liquidation.
And the Nats claim to know something about business……………..FFS!
Sorry for the repeated link just saw yours.
Of course no one is really surprised, as everyone in their hearts know that National politicians are all corrupt on some level..it is just a natural part of adhering to their selfish and devious ideology.
Still it is a good news story to enjoy today, RNZ should have it at the end of their hourly news roundup..sort of like a feel good fluffy kitten story.
How sad:
“Ex-Mainzeal chair Jenny Shipley and other directors ordered to pay $36m by High Court.” ( I seem to remember that she and the other directors resigning a few days before the company failed.)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12207386
Edit: Yes Mullett. How sad.
When I click to reply the little cursor? Thing is up by n in bwaghorn . Thought ya might like to know.
Ex- Prime Minister and Chinese Government stooge Jenny Shipley is found guilty as a director of trading Mainzeal while insolvent:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12207386
Shipley’s reforms destroyed so many New Zealand families.
Never forget.
It would be a priority for a prudent government to remove her from the board of the largely publicly funded CCB, which she chairs.
Scientists call for Protection from Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Field Exposure
Scientific basis for our common concerns
Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.
These findings justify our appeal to the United Nations (UN) and, all member States in the world, to encourage the World Health Organization (WHO) to exert strong leadership in fostering the development of more protective EMF guidelines, encouraging precautionary measures, and educating the public about health risks, particularly risk to children and fetal development. By not taking action, the WHO is failing to fulfill its role as the preeminent international public health agency.
Collectively we also request that:
1. Children and pregnant women be protected;
2. Guidelines and regulatory standards be strengthened;
3. Manufacturers be encouraged to develop safer technology;
4. Utilities responsible for the generation, transmission, distribution, and monitoring of electricity maintain adequate power quality and ensure proper electrical wiring to minimize harmful ground current;
5. The public be fully informed about the potential health risks from electromagnetic energy and taught harm reduction strategies;
6. Medical professionals be educated about the biological effects of electromagnetic energy and be provided training on treatment of patients with electromagnetic sensitivity;
7. Governments fund training and research on electromagnetic fields and health that is independent of industry and mandate industry cooperation with researchers;
8. Media disclose experts’ financial relationships with industry when citing their opinions regarding health and safety aspects of EMF-emitting technologies;
9. White-zones (radiation-free areas) be established.
Thanks for more on EMF One Two. The problems from 5G are never mentioned it’s all rah rah about how fast it is.
Good for getting films etc so people never have to be without a placebo to look at and so never have to stress and think or imagine. Mind slobs being filled up with whatever candy floss or concoction that the money-diseased find suitable.
I will continue to post and re-post more detail, as there is decades of literature which is in the public domain…
The deployment will continue, and the sales pitch will never include a word about the known dangers and evidence of damage to human, animals, plants and insects…
The deployment will meet considerable road-blocks in the forms of existing legislation and acts (environmental mainly), as well as community’s in various nations and regions as awareness grows regarding the threat posed by cumulative EME build up, as well as the threat to planet earths natural frequencies and harmonics, which are responsible for creating and maintaining ‘life’…
Nations which deploy sooner, will provide the base of updated evidence of the damaged caused by 5G technology and modulations, as at present time the (misleading and incorrect) claims of ‘no known evidence of harm’ in relation to 5G, look certain to require an archive of injury and suffering caused to human beings, and further environmental degradation..
Regrettably, before action will be taken by those agencies charged with protecting public health and the environment…
Climate Change will play a major role in slowing and halting the deployment of damaging technologies, directly and indirectly…
Retain hope, gw…there is large global movement gaining momentum in all nations and regions, including NZ…
More pseudoscience junk from One Two. Anyone who wants to read something scientific on this issue should check out David Gorski on Twitter, he exposes all sorts of quacks & dodgy types, who usually push this type of stuff because they have something to sell to you.
Isn’t Twitter mainly for Twits ands people giving quick responses and updates to their fans? The EMF concerns need more than that.
Your post is about the length of a tweet, so you would be at home there.
EMF concerns are on twitter – you just have to click on them to link to articles of interest.
It seems the prominent cleric found guilty of kiddy-fiddling can now be discussed since the suppression orders have been lifted and the case is reported in said cleric’s home newspapers.
The reason for the suppression order was apparently:
Name redacted and link not supplied in case the suppression order is still active here.
If one more Republican Senator agrees to vote against Trump’s emergency declaration, Trump will be stopped flat on the most important part of his immigration platform.
Pell, Shipley, Whaleoil, Trump; Going to be a good week against the extreme right.
Genghis Can’t will just veto the legislation overturning his emergency declaration, and there won’t be enough Repug votes for the veto override.
It’ll be the courts that stop the “emergency”. The interesting bit will be if it gets to the Supreme Court in time. I’m awfully curious how the 5 Repug justices are going to reconcile upholding the “emergency” with their past positions. Or whether they’ll just brazenly ignore all the precedents and all the principles they’ve previously held dear.
Agreed.
But each of those steps puts President Trump further into isolation and ridicule.
Both sides of the Senate voting to defeat him is massive.
Then being taken to the Supreme Court by Congress.
Then forcing Generals to give up funding for political projects.
Each one of those steps under heavy media scrutiny.
Each one of those steps narrows his base further.
And by then, it’s too late to see anything new constructed in time for the election.
He’s taking this version of white nationalism to its natural political end.
6Agreed.
But each big step isolates Trump further.
A majority from both sides defeats him.
Then the President is taken to the Supreme Court.
Then Generals get large reallocations of dedicated funding.
Each step scritinised by the MSM.
And too late for 2020 construction.
Trump takes his version of nationalism to its predictable end.
Whaleoil, Jenny Shipley, and now one day after the closure of the big Catholic anti-sex crime conference …………….
……………… into jail goes Cardinal Pell.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cardinal-george-pell-found-guilty-of-child-sex-abuse-20181214-p50m86.html
Makes for a happy day.
He wuz fitted up.
https://screenshots.firefox.com/Pv6b4OvoWstILXV9/www.kiwiblog.co.nz
But Satan made him do it and he’ll suffer the wrath of God.
Satan has the most poetic punishment possible ready for Pell.
A deceiver, so Malebolge it is.
https://www.alpacaprojects.com/inferno/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebolge
…. and into jail goes Cardinal Pell.
Great day against evil 🙂
Really lovely piece of work from Gordon Campbell on the corrupt relationship between the Chinese government and the National government both in power and in Opposition. Just the historic set of links and relationships set out in it is worth the read by itself:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1902/S00111/gordon-campbell-on-nationals-cosy-relationship-with-china.htm
What a load of boring waffle that was.
Didn’t see any corruption either, just politicians developing trade with China as you would expect since Labour had done a free trade deal with China.
Then we have this article from Oz BM and btw did you know that old mate Locke is in the same bed with you Neo Con/ Libs supporting Huawei’s 5G?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-26/chinas-three-warfares-how-does-beijing-decide-who-or-what-to/10825448
BM is right .
Nats can sniff out easy money like an airport beagle honing in on a banana.
Of course they’re all over China.
They’ll push it to the “pretty legal” stage every time but not often go over the line. Corrupt ideologies attract dodgy people.
It was more timing than anything else, free trade deal just done with China, the second biggest economy in the world, businesses opportunities coming out the wazoo.
If Labour had won the election in 2008, the only difference would have been instead of National politicians doing deals it would have been Labour ones.
Labour didn’t do a free trade deal with China for nothing.
Actually they’re not very good at understanding where the ‘fairly legal’ line is, hence Shipley having to pay and essentially being shown to be unfit to hold directorships of anything.
Southern Response, another Gnat crony outfit, launched a huge amount of legal action instead of paying earthquake victims as they were supposed to. They didn’t win a single case.
Developing their post politics careers BMmer.
The rest of the world are now realizing that backing the US/Trumps completely illegal and transparently obvious imperialist regime change operation (which has failed spectacularly) in Venezuela is looking more and more illegitimate as every day passes, many of these countries which themselves have suffered the brutal and sickening reality of US backed interventions in the recent past, are getting nervous at the White Houses extremist rhetoric.
Just a tiny taste of what US Imperialist intervention looks like..
Deportations, Assassinations, and Dictator Nations: A Timeline of U.S. Intervention in Latin America
https://www.kcet.org/shows/link-voices/deportations-assassinations-and-dictator-nations-a-timeline-of-us-intervention-in
Chile recognises 9,800 more victims of Pinochet’s rule
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14584095
Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/guatemala11.htm
Knowing all this, It is hard to imagine that anyone would support US intervention in Venezuela today…yet there are, why and what justification could they possibly have for offering their support for an action that will undoubtedly cause tenfold or more death and suffering?..and more especially when it has been freely admitted by the White house itself that Oil and resources are their real reasons for wanting regime change in Venezuela.
John Bolton, January 29, 2019
“It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela,”
https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/us-coup-venezuela-oil-corporate-john-bolton/
Yes it would seem that some people have absolutely no moral compass whatsoever. Perversely many of them relish in it, as some of us watch on in disbelief and dismay as they keenly and proudly prance about displaying their inner moral wasteland with such pride for everyone to see right here on this site…yuk, it’s revolting.
Do you have relatives or friends living in Venezuela?
Why do you ask?
You seem very passionate about Venezuela, wondered if you had any personal connection.
Humanity BM… but that would puzzle you. Related ? Yes we share DNA!!
“Thornton” doesn’t sound like an Hispanic or Amerindian name – though there’s always marriage I guess.
Maybe Adrian has reached a point of ethical development where he cares about the well-being of people he doesn’t know and will never meet?
Nah – that seems too far-fetched eh? Can’t be real – gotta be something in it for him eh?
From No Right Turn Re Shipley:
“…Meanwhile there’s another curious feature, and that is the amount owed by the Mainzeal directors will apparently be mostly covered by liability insurance. Which seems… odd. Most insurance policies for us dirty peasants include a clause saying that they won’t pay out for intentional, reckless or criminal behaviour – …”
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-obvious-question.html
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-dirty-deal.html
Using insurance money to avoid criminal charges is pretty legal under national ….
“When the government dropped charges against former Pike River boss Peter Whittall over the Pike River mine explosion, they claimed that the simultaneous announcement that he would pay compensation to the families of the 29 men he was accused of killing was just a coincidence, and that there was no deal. As usual, they lied …… ”
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/search?q=pike+river
Cheaper regional fares with Air NZ!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/110860669/regional-secrets-where-to-go-on-air-new-zealands-new-cheap-fares
After years of increasing fares and cutting routes – the tide seems to be turning – after Air New Zealand announced domestic tickets will decrease by up to 50 per cent. The cheapest regional routes will now start from $39.
Successful litigant says Slater’s recent health claims are not backed by evidence presented to court: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12207479
Squealing about his health seems to be the go to when things don’t go too well for him.
Mental health can be a lifelong struggle, to be fair. Does not make a person act like an arsehole however.
Yeah, when I read the announcement post on his stroke, the whole thing stunk of bullshit.
Doctor says stroke cause purely by stress, Slater was a tremendous physical specimen in great health when stroke occurred.
Lol, good one.
Healthiest blogger ever in the history of blogging. Great genes. 6’3″ and only 239 pounds!
It’s walking those 19 holes
I hope the guy gets his power cut off. 12 years on, karma delivers.
Kia ora Newshub Paddy the fire in Tasman has flared up again you say it is the dryest year on record.
There you go more carbon being spilled at sea on a heritage class Island site in Australia.
The Exotic animals that have been Taxidermed for sale by auction look like they will get a lot of interest from hunting lodges Ka kite ano P.S The Mokopunas are a big distraction
Kia ora The AM Show.
The small business are the backbone of the country so if the growth fund grows small businesses in the regions that will lift the regions economy.
I have already predicted that trump won’t win the 2020 election.
The muppets around here like to let fireworks off when the fireworks season has long finished they are wishing to become cowboys fools.
I still don’t trust your polls they look loaded from what I see most people in NZ don’t support trump????????.
I know who all the rats ARE.
It would be a good show if you talk about the real big issue the whole world faces but know you just focus on the trump and brexit distractions. You should be taking about climate change that’s is what is the biggest issue for our grandchildren O that’s correct neanderthal can’t think about the futures wellbeing.???????????.
NO fool if you look at Europe all the wealthy stable countries have heaps railway tracks cheap reliable trains low cost mostly elictric trains so we are about to go back 30 years and build a low cost railway. That is the best way to make the regions wealthy. Railways are a stable cheap way to transport people and goods China seen that hence the new Silk Road railway are not prone to oil prices shocks that is what North Land needs not oil burning 3 Lane high ways.
You don’t look trust worthy steve rogers you looks like A go oil part neanderthal big conflict of interest there go oil party pinned its tail on trump and they are going to lose all the power they have bestowed on them by the American people. I have seen trump being a racist bigot on air he picks fight with China he trashes Obama one doesn’t have to be very bright to see trump is a racist person if you can’t see that well the prizim of the $$$$&&$$$$$$, is blinding you.
There you go the dryest year on record in Tasman and know one is taking about the big picture climate change trump is suppressing that I can see that plan as day.
Chris the American metrologist not one word about climate change that’s just backs my words up.
He is losing his base duncan and the am shows hip pocket are being filled by trumps puppets for there bullshit he does not understand the ways of Asia cultures.
I say it is cool that Hugh Jackman is visiting Aotearoa on his world tour. He is inspiring Alot of our youth to become Stars like him.
Even your guest are in on supporting trump he can not look into the camera.
The lady keeps a straight face but her hands are giving away her nervousness te waha can – – – but the body gives it away. te trump show. the guest have been given scripts lol just like the poll just trying to manipulate the people.
Living wage Pay is a good way to keep workers as in the last 30 years management has stolen a bigger % of companies money and the people who make the money for the company are getting less.
Look at Fonterra it has not delivered to farmers what was sold to them they have just made the cost of managing the export of milk powder more expensive and given farmers sweets f all. Ka kite ano