Gee Whiz. This long time supporter of bloody wars and invasions will be able to tell us all about some of the benefits of imperialism for the aggressor nation.
Time running out for Ukraine grain exports from blocked seaports
1 day ago — Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine was seen as the world's breadbasket, exporting 4.5 million tonnes of agricultural produce per month through …
Ukraine’s Black Sea ports remain blockaded by Russian warships since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
There is now no room to store the country’s next grain harvest and warnings of a global food crisis are growing. Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly one-third of global wheat supplies, while Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn, barley, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.
Russia doubles fossil fuel revenues since invasion of Ukraine began
27/04/2022 — Russia has received about €62bn from exports of oil, gas and coal in the two months since the invasion began, according to an analysis of …
Considering that there won't be anyone with any actual experience of Ukraine speaking.
And a disgraceful bunch of crusty old, arrogant, blood-thirsty, know-all, Tanky true-believers in the audience straining to listen through their ear horns to an old political opportunist hack, willing to give them what they want to hear to confirm their dogmatic conspiracy theories.
Any Ukrainian ex-pat who did turn up, would get shouted down as a Nazi.
Prime Minister Ardern to meet with President Biden.
Wow! Just Wow!
This proposed meeting was previously described as problematic for a number of reasons, one of which was the Prime Minister's recent bout with Covid-19.
The significance of this unscheduled meeting, coming as it does in the wake of the latest school shooting cannot be ignored. The comments of our Prime Minister on gun reform yesterday, would not have gone unnoticed in the White House.
NEWSROOM
Ardern’s Biden meeting confirmed
Jacinda Ardern has secured a White House visit with US President Joe Biden. The eleventh-hour programme change will extend the Prime Minister’s time in the US by a few days, writes political editor Jo Moir.
Robert Menzies, then Prime Minister of Australia, was invited by Harvard to give a commencement speech in 1960, which he accepted. It has been only 62 years before the New Zealand PM got the same invite. In the meantime, such intellectual heavyweights as Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg were given the same opportunity which they duly accepted. 🙂
Correct – but it's clear that the right would have been cock-a-hoop if there had been no meeting. That's why Jason Wells from ZB has been in the US asking what's effectively the same question (is your meeting with president Biden confirmed?) over and over and over – and why the NZ Herald ran a puff piece on Key's meeting with Obama years ago. Such is the desperation of these media outlets to get the Nats elected, that they have abandoned all dignity and self-respect.
I was struck by how acceptable Ardern's considerable achievements are to an economically elite, but socially liberal, audience. If anyone wanted to seriously push back at the significance of her speech, rather than just play dumb gotcha games like ZB and the Herald, that would be the point to explore – what progress has been made in reducing economic inequality.
Good news about the meeting. Some slightly snide comments have been made insinuating the PM may not rate getting a meeting, so hope those commenters now change their tune.
There would be few times in History, (if ever), that the President of the US rearranged his schedule at short notice to fit in a meeting with the leader of a small nation.
Agreed Ad….but a lot of people will look at the standing ovation she got for mentioning gun reform from the smartest people in the country and think maybe the time has come. It has to happen sometime.
…. It is customary to see this shift as arising from the economic crisis of 1974–75 and the rise of neoliberalism—or as erupting in the 1980s and after, with the huge increase in the global capitalist labor force resulting from the integration of Eastern Europe and China into the world economy….
…..“absolute general law of capitalist accumulation,”
The greater the social wealth, the functioning capital, the extent and energy of its growth, and therefore also the greater the absolute mass of the proletariat and the productivity of its labour, the greater is the industrial reserve army…. But the greater this reserve army in proportion to the active labour-army, the greater is the mass of a consolidated surplus population, whose misery is in inverse ratio to the amount of torture it has to undergo in the form of labour. The more extensive, finally, the pauperized sections of the working class and the industrial reserve army, the greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation.
“Nowadays…the field of action of this ‘law,’” as Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy stated in 1986,
is the entire global capitalist system, and its most spectacular manifestations are in the third world where unemployment rates range up to 50 percent and destitution, hunger, and starvation are increasingly endemic. But the advanced capitalist nations are by no means immune to its operation: more than 30 million men and women, in excess of 10 percent of the available labor force, are unemployed in the OECD countries; and in the United States itself, the richest of them all, officially defined poverty rates are rising even in a period of cyclical upswing.
In the present case, as even the Governer of the reserve bank says, “Once again Adrian Orr describes government spending in the budget as only a very small part of the drivers behind inflation in direct contradiction to Luxon and Seymour. Here is a good explanation by Adrian Orr about what is really happening”. https://www.facebook.com/661042032/videos/1146421059476599/
Inflation is almost entirely imported. Making "fighting inflation" by raising interest rates for New Zealanders, almost totally pointless as an inflation fighting tool.
The effect is simply to punish those asking for pay rises (an intention behind the RBA all along) and to depress the real economy. Interest rate rises may yet kill more employment and businesses than covid.
"What hasn’t been commented on is that an increase in interest rates will also penalise every business and household in the country including everyone resident in Auckland and Christchurch who already have a mortgage and have no intention of buying or selling a home. There will be no beneficial behaviour change within that wide group who are not seeking to get further into debt but it will impose hardship and constrain the rest of the economy. The interest rate rise would be imposed simply as an attempt to limit price rises"
As inflation is imposed, almost entirely in this instance, from offshore, trying to limit it by raising interest rates within NZ is an own goal, and more likely to result in recession and further supply problems.
Nothing to explain, this is a part of official policy, Lachlan is entirely correct. In technical terms the estimated rate of unemployment is called the NAIRU rate. The budget documents will usually mention what rate their thinking is using.
We lack nurses/caregivers, builders (apparently), truck drivers, ag workers …the list is long.
We have a multitude of hospitality and tourism businesses that are what are described as 'zombie' companies.
There is a mismatch of employment…if you wish the labour pool to be otherwise occupied how do you engineer it?….cease the support for the non viable businesses through artificially low interest rates (and consequent increasing asset prices) and force labour into productive/profitable enterprises that can service higher capital costs.
It isnt pleasant but does Wellington (or NZ) really benefit from 400 cafes?….or do we benefit from thousands of Air BnBs (and the labour it removes from the workforce)?…or any other number of businesses that can only survive because asset values were increasing and borrowing was easy.
And then there are the associated issues related to the inflated cost of housing that feeds into our competitiveness.
Its the US so, it depends how many of the costs of operating a truck are sub contracted onto the drivers. Maybe the driver shortage will get some of those corporate excesses improved.
From experience the people for medium skilled construction or medium skilled service work are injured-recovering, long term ACC. NEETs, Long term welfare, gang-related or short term jail offenders. Especially in Southland, Otago, Canterbury. Nelson, Wellington, Manawatu, and Wairarapa.
To get below 3% those are the people you have to focus a lot of money and management around.
Assuming this is about the NAIRU rate estimates. The cost of employment going below x is not considered important, even if escalating. In theory the idea of accelerating inflation is based on employees having too much bargaining power and earning too high wage increases. The official policy is to keep some people unemployed limiting wage demands.
If this sounds to brazen to be state policy you need only look back to the benefit cuts policies of the 90s when it was clearly projected that the unemployed needed to bargain more desperately for a job, rather than what was paid as a benefit. Literal hunger seems to have played a key part when minimal food budget estimates by nutritionists had to be cut by an additional percent to be acceptable to the official budget plan.
The cost of unemployment going below 3% may not be important to the definition of the measure, but it is certainly important to employers. The RB should reflect on that.
As a company we observe that, now that they can, many staff and subbies booking their tickets for Australia, Europe and UK for the major construction works. Australia in particular. Higher wages, even more epic infrastructure, and they will fly you in and out.
Construction Accord meetings across the main public and private players are fully focussed on this.
I think as KJT's comment highlights the Reserve bank is presently merely adding increasing interest costs to the other costs of employing people. Its doing that because its supposed to help with inflation, don't ya know.
I laughed at Gervais' Super Nature on Netflix, was offended in places, enjoyed his clever construction of humour. It was deeply political, he says it's not, that he just wants to make people laugh, but it is both: laughter inducing and very political.
He straight up spent five minutes repeating hardcore gender ideology talking points. He didn't even have to work to make them into jokes, he just repeated what happens on twitter everyday.
He also told jokes about women, disabled kids, paedophilia, and so on. He's not hating on those groups of people, he's pointing to stereotypes and the problems that identity politics is causing.
It's a particular kind of humour that won't suit everyone but there's something there to appreciate that we are short on, and that is satire.
This is as good a representation of the response to his show (and the problem) as any.
Maybe because anyone shooting anything at someones house is a bad look for the government and it probably isn't much of a comfort for the peoples whose houses were shot up
Still far rather a shotgun than an assualt rifle. For reasons which should be obvious.
Idiot talking heads and their parrots, get their knickers in a knot over the strangest things.
A real conservative wouldn’t want to ban opera. You’re not a true conservative, you’re a wannabee, an uncouth barbarian who’s learned some manners by watching Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira, of course) and who went to school and learned to read Hairy Maclary.
Sleep well tonight knowing Government is far happier that your house will only get shot gun pellets. I guess that is getting tough on crime according to Labour. Semi autos bad, shot guns ok.
And I feel better that according to Parker, the gangs did hand the naughty guns back (just kept the not so naughty ones).
You still don’t get it, do you. Let’s try a lower speed for you, say 30 km/h, and they T-bone me at the driver’s side. Likely to die, and less likely to die, still not ideal and not something I’d voluntarily test out. Still too fast for you?
BTW, even if I were to get hit crossing the road, I’d rather take my chances with a much smaller Smart car than the much bigger 4-wheel drive; even the side mirrors on the latter are more dangerous (ask cyclists).
I want less crime, particularly less gun crime. Auckland has been hugely affected, and quite frankly the empty rhetoric of our police minister is sickening.
"Right wingers Don't want less crime. They want more."
What a stupid comment. A lot of the businesses that are being ram raided are probably right wingers. They want someone to actually do something about stopping it. Hugging the crims is not working.
Do you mean, have I considered that he’s saying what his listeners actually want to hear? And have I considered that the selective-hearing ones here on TS actually heard what he wanted them to hear?
You nailed it, in a few attempts, which is better than John Key did with that hammer and that billboard.
I was quite clear too. You said Parker was tone-deaf and I replied about selective hearing. So, who’s the “he” that you’re referring to: Parker or Bridge?
What Parker said was stupid. It is tone deaf because it goes against the lived experience of Aucklanders who are facing a rising escalation of gun related crime.
What Bridge said about Parker's comments reflects what many Aucklanders are thinking. Not what we want to think or want to hear, what we are actually thinking. Crime is rampant in the city at the moment. I live less than 10 minutes from what appears to be yet another horrendous murder, and it's out of control.
What Aucklanders were thinking about what Parker said!? He’d just said it and you and Bridge already claim or imply to know what Aucklanders were thinking? You mean the ones with selective–hearing problems who needed a hearing aid?
… and it’s out of control.
There you go, you demonstrate my point exactly, which is most probably why you’re listening to talk-back and hearing the things you think you’re hearing: confirmation bias.
I sat at home this afternoon listening to the police helicopter and police cars moving in on the suspect in a brutal knife murder in a popular local walking area.
In Sandringham, just down the road from where I live, the Sandringham Business Association have described how brazen crime is happening every day.
"Now you walk back the talk-back. About time you realise the limits of your knowledge and personal experience."
I didn't walk anything back. I would have thought 'widespread disgust' was a fairly strong claim?
And yes I understand unless you've living it, it's hard to comprehend it. It's so much easier to snipe away about 'talk-back' and 'dog whistles' rather than actually accept we have a problem.
And Parker didn’t accept there’s a problem or he denied it? Now, who’s hearing things??
You have no idea where I’m living and what I experience in terms of violent crime and killings by shootings on an all too regular basis – it is not a fucking competition – and frankly it doesn’t matter because no matter what has happened in my area I still don’t see Parker’s interview in the same bad light as you do nor do I see this Government’s efforts on crime and gun laws in particular as failures or denials of a huge problem. Far from it. The big difference is that I don’t have your confirmation bias and negative attitudes.
"And Parker didn’t accept there’s a problem or he denied it? "
Oh he knows there's a problem, their polling will be telling them, which makes his flippant remark all the sillier.
"I still don’t see Parker’s interview in the same bad light as you do nor do I see this Government’s efforts on crime and gun laws in particular as failures or denials of a huge problem. "
Which makes you as out of touch as Parker's comments made him look.
Got it, because people don’t swallow the same memes from talk-back and don’t see things your way they’re ‘tone deaf’, ‘out of touch’, and ‘sniping’ at the truth-seekers & truth-speakers of MSM. You know that these labels and accusations say a lot about you, don’t you? Don’t forget to lock the doors tonight and to set the alarm.
I would say that claiming media reports were 'Not a reflection of reality' is tantamount to saying they are making it all up. Wouldn't you?
[You would say that because you make up your own narrative here. It doesn’t change the fact that you are twisting KJT’s words.
Sensationalising, radicalising, ramping up, embellishing, magnifying, propaganda, et cetera, don’t mean making it all up, i.e., ab initio, but twisting and distorting reality, just as you do here with KJT’s words. You know full well that there’s always a kernel of truth and a foundation of truth, quite often the iceberg under the surface. So, don’t be smart arse here playing your smart arse game with us and implying that KJT is some kind of media conspiracy nutter.
The media know what they’re doing and it is not writing Sci-Fi or D&D Fantasy:
What media are very good at is making up sensational attention-drawing headlines and other click-bait because that helps them to make money. If you can’t keep up here then pull out – Incognito]
"It doesn’t change the fact that you are twisting KJT’s words."
I didn't, and I showed you I didn't. KJT's exact words were "Sensational media, is not a reflection of reality.". "Not a reflection of reality' is implying 'making stuff up'. You do this a lot…can't run an argument and then attempt to moderate your way out of it.
[My argument is that you’re twisting KJT’s words, and you do. You left out the operative word here this time, which is “all” and you definitely implied KJT is a media conspiracy nutter. You do this a lot…denying your error of ways and then arguing with moderation when given a warning.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
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It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
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Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
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For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The Fabians are running a talk by Matt Robson entitled -‘An Independent Foreign Policy for Aotearoa-New Zealand’ at 5pm today.
Will be interesting
Gee Whiz. This long time supporter of bloody wars and invasions will be able to tell us all about some of the benefits of imperialism for the aggressor nation.
Considering that there won't be anyone with any actual experience of Ukraine speaking.
And a disgraceful bunch of crusty old, arrogant, blood-thirsty, know-all, Tanky true-believers in the audience straining to listen through their ear horns to an old political opportunist hack, willing to give them what they want to hear to confirm their dogmatic conspiracy theories.
Any Ukrainian ex-pat who did turn up, would get shouted down as a Nazi.
Congratulations on the recognition for our PM by Harvard, and on her honorary Doctorate. We are fortunate to have such representation.
The right will be discombobulated!!
PM Jacinda Ardern is meeting with President Biden.
Both earned on the right political mix of good luck, good timing, and hard policy work.
Yes True.
Breaking News:
Prime Minister Ardern to meet with President Biden.
Wow! Just Wow!
This proposed meeting was previously described as problematic for a number of reasons, one of which was the Prime Minister's recent bout with Covid-19.
The significance of this unscheduled meeting, coming as it does in the wake of the latest school shooting cannot be ignored. The comments of our Prime Minister on gun reform yesterday, would not have gone unnoticed in the White House.
The right will be discombobulated!!
I doubt that.
Robert Menzies, then Prime Minister of Australia, was invited by Harvard to give a commencement speech in 1960, which he accepted. It has been only 62 years before the New Zealand PM got the same invite. In the meantime, such intellectual heavyweights as Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg were given the same opportunity which they duly accepted. 🙂
Correct – but it's clear that the right would have been cock-a-hoop if there had been no meeting. That's why Jason Wells from ZB has been in the US asking what's effectively the same question (is your meeting with president Biden confirmed?) over and over and over – and why the NZ Herald ran a puff piece on Key's meeting with Obama years ago. Such is the desperation of these media outlets to get the Nats elected, that they have abandoned all dignity and self-respect.
I was struck by how acceptable Ardern's considerable achievements are to an economically elite, but socially liberal, audience. If anyone wanted to seriously push back at the significance of her speech, rather than just play dumb gotcha games like ZB and the Herald, that would be the point to explore – what progress has been made in reducing economic inequality.
Zuckerberg and Winfrey are fabulously rich, therefore the Right do consider them intellectual heavyweights (big brained).
Hope you enjoyed "discombobulated" Robert, even if Ross did not lol.
Good news about the meeting. Some slightly snide comments have been made insinuating the PM may not rate getting a meeting, so hope those commenters now change their tune.
There would be few times in History, (if ever), that the President of the US rearranged his schedule at short notice to fit in a meeting with the leader of a small nation.
This meeting well arranged before Ardern left NZ. The challenge for the PM will to ensure Biden stays awake through it.
One hopes Biden will use a dialogue around Jacinda's post mosque shooting gun law changes to tighten gun laws in the US.
Biden has until November until he loses majority in Senate and Congress.
To do anything.
Then it gets really hard.
Agreed Ad….but a lot of people will look at the standing ovation she got for mentioning gun reform from the smartest people in the country and think maybe the time has come. It has to happen sometime.
Who wants to have a crack at explaining this?
https://twitter.com/lachlanp_/status/1529577138428739584
Not me personally but you probably couldn't go much far past this for an explanation:
Already have.
KJT. Random musings on all sorts of things.: The Reserve Bank, Debt and the Property Market (kjt-kt.blogspot.com)
In the present case, as even the Governer of the reserve bank says, “Once again Adrian Orr describes government spending in the budget as only a very small part of the drivers behind inflation in direct contradiction to Luxon and Seymour. Here is a good explanation by Adrian Orr about what is really happening”. https://www.facebook.com/661042032/videos/1146421059476599/
Inflation is almost entirely imported. Making "fighting inflation" by raising interest rates for New Zealanders, almost totally pointless as an inflation fighting tool.
The effect is simply to punish those asking for pay rises (an intention behind the RBA all along) and to depress the real economy. Interest rate rises may yet kill more employment and businesses than covid.
"What hasn’t been commented on is that an increase in interest rates will also penalise every business and household in the country including everyone resident in Auckland and Christchurch who already have a mortgage and have no intention of buying or selling a home. There will be no beneficial behaviour change within that wide group who are not seeking to get further into debt but it will impose hardship and constrain the rest of the economy. The interest rate rise would be imposed simply as an attempt to limit price rises"
As inflation is imposed, almost entirely in this instance, from offshore, trying to limit it by raising interest rates within NZ is an own goal, and more likely to result in recession and further supply problems.
Nothing to explain, this is a part of official policy, Lachlan is entirely correct. In technical terms the estimated rate of unemployment is called the NAIRU rate. The budget documents will usually mention what rate their thinking is using.
We lack nurses/caregivers, builders (apparently), truck drivers, ag workers …the list is long.
We have a multitude of hospitality and tourism businesses that are what are described as 'zombie' companies.
There is a mismatch of employment…if you wish the labour pool to be otherwise occupied how do you engineer it?….cease the support for the non viable businesses through artificially low interest rates (and consequent increasing asset prices) and force labour into productive/profitable enterprises that can service higher capital costs.
It isnt pleasant but does Wellington (or NZ) really benefit from 400 cafes?….or do we benefit from thousands of Air BnBs (and the labour it removes from the workforce)?…or any other number of businesses that can only survive because asset values were increasing and borrowing was easy.
And then there are the associated issues related to the inflated cost of housing that feeds into our competitiveness.
In this case I propose a bylaw. Licenses for new cafe premises will only be granted when one or more of the following applies,
A) the barristas have built new premises.
B) the barristas are operating inside a doctors surgery and part timing as nurses.
C) the barristas harvest their own coffee beans.
D) the barristas have a heavy vehicles license.
D) i think the baristas with a HVL would rather work at Walmart.
https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1512057450077294599?cxt=HHwWjsC4_aqP9PspAAAA
Its the US so, it depends how many of the costs of operating a truck are sub contracted onto the drivers. Maybe the driver shortage will get some of those corporate excesses improved.
From experience the people for medium skilled construction or medium skilled service work are injured-recovering, long term ACC. NEETs, Long term welfare, gang-related or short term jail offenders. Especially in Southland, Otago, Canterbury. Nelson, Wellington, Manawatu, and Wairarapa.
To get below 3% those are the people you have to focus a lot of money and management around.
Not a lot of employers can do that.
Assuming this is about the NAIRU rate estimates. The cost of employment going below x is not considered important, even if escalating. In theory the idea of accelerating inflation is based on employees having too much bargaining power and earning too high wage increases. The official policy is to keep some people unemployed limiting wage demands.
If this sounds to brazen to be state policy you need only look back to the benefit cuts policies of the 90s when it was clearly projected that the unemployed needed to bargain more desperately for a job, rather than what was paid as a benefit. Literal hunger seems to have played a key part when minimal food budget estimates by nutritionists had to be cut by an additional percent to be acceptable to the official budget plan.
The cost of unemployment going below 3% may not be important to the definition of the measure, but it is certainly important to employers. The RB should reflect on that.
As a company we observe that, now that they can, many staff and subbies booking their tickets for Australia, Europe and UK for the major construction works. Australia in particular. Higher wages, even more epic infrastructure, and they will fly you in and out.
Construction Accord meetings across the main public and private players are fully focussed on this.
I think as KJT's comment highlights the Reserve bank is presently merely adding increasing interest costs to the other costs of employing people. Its doing that because its supposed to help with inflation, don't ya know.
Argh to them all
Last December a story about a GOP congressman and family posing with guns for a Christmas photo made the news. It was shortly after a school shooting.
No doubt the same will happen this year.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/christmas-card-guns-lauren-boebert-thomas-massie-start-new-culture-ncna1285709
I laughed at Gervais' Super Nature on Netflix, was offended in places, enjoyed his clever construction of humour. It was deeply political, he says it's not, that he just wants to make people laugh, but it is both: laughter inducing and very political.
He straight up spent five minutes repeating hardcore gender ideology talking points. He didn't even have to work to make them into jokes, he just repeated what happens on twitter everyday.
He also told jokes about women, disabled kids, paedophilia, and so on. He's not hating on those groups of people, he's pointing to stereotypes and the problems that identity politics is causing.
It's a particular kind of humour that won't suit everyone but there's something there to appreciate that we are short on, and that is satire.
This is as good a representation of the response to his show (and the problem) as any.
https://twitter.com/salltweets/status/1529943993240367105
Geez that was funny, that shit-eating grin of his made it even better
#irony
David Parker puts his foot in his mouth more than once!
At 1:50 he actually says he thinks the gangs handed back their semi autos!
And not only that at 2:50 he would rather a shotgun than a semi auto fired at houses.
We all feel safe now!
'Abhorrent': Bridge calls out Parker over gun comment after recent Auckland shootings (msn.com)
That was a really bad call, like hes not wrong but really its not something you should say out loud
Why the hell not. It is true.
Maybe because anyone shooting anything at someones house is a bad look for the government and it probably isn't much of a comfort for the peoples whose houses were shot up
Still far rather a shotgun than an assualt rifle. For reasons which should be obvious.
Idiot talking heads and their parrots, get their knickers in a knot over the strangest things.
They sure do, us conservatives on the other hand don't
But. "Here we are".
A real conservative wouldn’t want to ban opera. You’re not a true conservative, you’re a wannabee, an uncouth barbarian who’s learned some manners by watching Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira, of course) and who went to school and learned to read Hairy Maclary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzvFNLAnYNw
Except the police also believe high powered rifles were used on some incidents.
Do you believe the police understand what weapons were used?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/467822/this-is-frightening-for-our-community-counties-manukau-police-chief-on-gang-related-shootings
With a general arming order across Auckland,do you believe the police will be armed with hugs and kindness?
Sleep well tonight knowing Government is far happier that your house will only get shot gun pellets. I guess that is getting tough on crime according to Labour. Semi autos bad, shot guns ok.
And I feel better that according to Parker, the gangs did hand the naughty guns back (just kept the not so naughty ones).
I’d rather get hit by a Smart car than by a big 4-wheel drive. See, bad, less bad, but still bad. Let me know if I go too fast for you.
If a Smart car travelling at 60km/hr hits you crossing the road you will probably die.
If a big 4 wheel drive travelling at 60km/hr hits you crossing the road you will probably die.
You still don’t get it, do you. Let’s try a lower speed for you, say 30 km/h, and they T-bone me at the driver’s side. Likely to die, and less likely to die, still not ideal and not something I’d voluntarily test out. Still too fast for you?
BTW, even if I were to get hit crossing the road, I’d rather take my chances with a much smaller Smart car than the much bigger 4-wheel drive; even the side mirrors on the latter are more dangerous (ask cyclists).
Less "bad guns" less people dead.
To simple for you?
May as well allow RPG’s. After all they are just more “bad”?
You make it sound like we have a choice. I choose neither. Or do I have to wait for the PM sack this useless police minister first?
You want to ban shot guns as well?
No problem.
I want less crime, particularly less gun crime. Auckland has been hugely affected, and quite frankly the empty rhetoric of our police minister is sickening.
I gave a whole lot of references. You know evidence, of how we get less crime.
And then a whole bunch of idiots came back with suggestions equivalent to putting more cops at the bottom of the cliff……..
More interested in bagging some Labour Ministers, with specious bullshit, than reducing crime.
Right wingers Don't want less crime. They want more. To scare voters into voting for their over simplistic and ineffectual, "solutions".
I applaud you making suggestions about how we get less crime. I just wish the minister of police were so proactive.
But speaking of the bottom of the cliff…how about funding bollards in front of shops when crime is going nuts on your watch.
"Right wingers Don't want less crime. They want more."
What a stupid comment. A lot of the businesses that are being ram raided are probably right wingers. They want someone to actually do something about stopping it. Hugging the crims is not working.
Talking of stupid comments!! Not even intended irony undoes this level of stupidity.
Good choice! Don’t vote for ACT.
Technically, of course, he's correct. But tone deaf, and politically damaging. Particularly in Auckland.
Selective hearing: only hearing or thinking that you’re hearing what you want to hear.
And we do have just a few in-house experts in selective hearing and associated sign language here on TS.
"only hearing or thinking that you’re hearing what you want to hear."
I wouldn't describe Ryan Bridge in those terms, but ok.
I wouldn’t know, I was referring to members of the TS commentariat, who obviously use Ryan Bridge as a ‘hearing aid’.
Oh, I see. Have you considered the possibility that he might just be saying what many Aucklanders were actually thinking? And what the police minster has (belated) realised?
Do you mean, have I considered that he’s saying what his listeners actually want to hear? And have I considered that the selective-hearing ones here on TS actually heard what he wanted them to hear?
You nailed it, in a few attempts, which is better than John Key did with that hammer and that billboard.
I was quite clear – do you think he’s saying what Aucklanders are ‘actually thinking’.
[Please check and correct your user name in the next comment, thanks]
Mod note
Sorry – switching between laptop and cellphone. Corrected now.
I was quite clear too. You said Parker was tone-deaf and I replied about selective hearing. So, who’s the “he” that you’re referring to: Parker or Bridge?
Bridge.
No not what they want to hear, "what many Aucklanders were actually thinking?" There is a difference you know.
I have given my working definition of selective hearing. Are you now disagreeing with that?
It was about what Parker said and what people heard or thought they heard, yes? Bridge was the ‘hearing aid’.
Confirmation bias and selective hearing are not the same. There is a difference you know.
Now, work it out, I’m gonna have a few drinks in about an hour.
What Parker said was stupid. It is tone deaf because it goes against the lived experience of Aucklanders who are facing a rising escalation of gun related crime.
What Bridge said about Parker's comments reflects what many Aucklanders are thinking. Not what we want to think or want to hear, what we are actually thinking. Crime is rampant in the city at the moment. I live less than 10 minutes from what appears to be yet another horrendous murder, and it's out of control.
What Aucklanders were thinking about what Parker said!? He’d just said it and you and Bridge already claim or imply to know what Aucklanders were thinking? You mean the ones with selective–hearing problems who needed a hearing aid?
There you go, you demonstrate my point exactly, which is most probably why you’re listening to talk-back and hearing the things you think you’re hearing: confirmation bias.
Nice meme, BTW, nicely aided by the NZ media.
"…and you and Bridge already claim or imply to know what Aucklanders were thinking?"
I can only speak for my own impression of what Aucklanders are thinking, and it's widespread disgust.
"confirmation bias."
Far from it.
I sat at home this afternoon listening to the police helicopter and police cars moving in on the suspect in a brutal knife murder in a popular local walking area.
In Sandringham, just down the road from where I live, the Sandringham Business Association have described how brazen crime is happening every day.
Four days ago the police said they were "…disgusted by the callous behaviour of gun-toting criminals, saying it's extremely fortunate no one has been hurt after seven shootings in Auckland overnight.". That was after shootings in 7 suburbs across Auckland in one night.
If you don't live in Auckland, you seriously cannot understand what's going on.
Now you walk back the talk-back. About time you realise the limits of your knowledge and personal experience.
So, now talk-back is like a dog whistle that can only be heard & understood properly by Aucklanders who live in ‘the war zone’?
You’ve confirmed your confirmation bias, again.
Apparently, David Parker is a part-time Aucklander, but he may not live in the ‘right’ area to understand, which makes him ‘tone deaf’, allegedly.
"Now you walk back the talk-back. About time you realise the limits of your knowledge and personal experience."
I didn't walk anything back. I would have thought 'widespread disgust' was a fairly strong claim?
And yes I understand unless you've living it, it's hard to comprehend it. It's so much easier to snipe away about 'talk-back' and 'dog whistles' rather than actually accept we have a problem.
And Parker didn’t accept there’s a problem or he denied it? Now, who’s hearing things??
You have no idea where I’m living and what I experience in terms of violent crime and killings by shootings on an all too regular basis – it is not a fucking competition – and frankly it doesn’t matter because no matter what has happened in my area I still don’t see Parker’s interview in the same bad light as you do nor do I see this Government’s efforts on crime and gun laws in particular as failures or denials of a huge problem. Far from it. The big difference is that I don’t have your confirmation bias and negative attitudes.
"And Parker didn’t accept there’s a problem or he denied it? "
Oh he knows there's a problem, their polling will be telling them, which makes his flippant remark all the sillier.
"I still don’t see Parker’s interview in the same bad light as you do nor do I see this Government’s efforts on crime and gun laws in particular as failures or denials of a huge problem. "
Which makes you as out of touch as Parker's comments made him look.
Got it, because people don’t swallow the same memes from talk-back and don’t see things your way they’re ‘tone deaf’, ‘out of touch’, and ‘sniping’ at the truth-seekers & truth-speakers of MSM. You know that these labels and accusations say a lot about you, don’t you? Don’t forget to lock the doors tonight and to set the alarm.
No it's the denial of reality. You can't see it see it because you’re doing it.
😀
"Sensationalising news ≠ making it all up"
I would say that claiming media reports were 'Not a reflection of reality' is tantamount to saying they are making it all up. Wouldn't you?
[You would say that because you make up your own narrative here. It doesn’t change the fact that you are twisting KJT’s words.
Sensationalising, radicalising, ramping up, embellishing, magnifying, propaganda, et cetera, don’t mean making it all up, i.e., ab initio, but twisting and distorting reality, just as you do here with KJT’s words. You know full well that there’s always a kernel of truth and a foundation of truth, quite often the iceberg under the surface. So, don’t be smart arse here playing your smart arse game with us and implying that KJT is some kind of media conspiracy nutter.
The media know what they’re doing and it is not writing Sci-Fi or D&D Fantasy:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018806015/media-ramp-up-angst-over-arming-police
What media are very good at is making up sensational attention-drawing headlines and other click-bait because that helps them to make money. If you can’t keep up here then pull out – Incognito]
Mod note
"It doesn’t change the fact that you are twisting KJT’s words."
I didn't, and I showed you I didn't. KJT's exact words were "Sensational media, is not a reflection of reality.". "Not a reflection of reality' is implying 'making stuff up'. You do this a lot…can't run an argument and then attempt to moderate your way out of it.
[My argument is that you’re twisting KJT’s words, and you do. You left out the operative word here this time, which is “all” and you definitely implied KJT is a media conspiracy nutter. You do this a lot…denying your error of ways and then arguing with moderation when given a warning.
This is your last warning – Incognito]
Mod note
I have.
But then I noticed he simply parrots right wing "gotcha" memes. Like the usual suspects on TS. Obviously what he is paid to do.
You mean he says things that you disagree with?
It doesn't matter what Poto Williams, or any Government MP does. The media bullshit artists, and the ones popping up here will find fault with it.
Totally dishonest.
Poto has given her critics plenty of material. There would be no finding fault if crime wasn't out of control.
Repeating a false meme endlessly doesn't make it true.
But it does make it a genuinely stronger meme.
You think it's a meme? Let's see what other people are calling it.
Crime wave.
Youth crime wave spree
Auckland young people 'out of control' as ram-raids ramp up across city
Brazen crime 'happening everyday' in Auckland's Sandringham quarter
Come and visit Auckland and see it for yourself.
Sensational media, is not a reflection of reality.
"Sensational media, is not a reflection of reality."
No, of course not. They're making it all up. It's a media conspiracy. /sarc.
Sensationalising news ≠ making it all up
Don’t twist people’s words to try score your own cheap lazy point.
Of course I get paid, don't you?
Ridge is just another National Party Poodle. IMHO .