While the Herald online has been foregrounding pro JK & Blinglish articles since the budget (held at the top of the main page), there’s been plenty of articles online being highly critical of the budge (though not always in such a prominent position).
Even the usual right-leaning online polls haven’t been that into the budget.
And yet…..
On Planet BS, in an article this morning Blinglish (kiddie piggy-bank thief), is coming on all positive about “romping in the next election”
Finance Minister Bill English believes National will romp home for a third term.
Addressing about 500 delegates at the National Party’s northern regional convention in Auckland yesterday, the Finance Minister spoke of the confidence New Zealanders had in the Prime Minister and the country.
[…]
The first was to maintain public trust by continuing to deliver on the party’s promises and not bringing in unexpected large-scale changes.
He said the public had learned to trust the instincts of Prime Minister John Key.
[…]
Second was a need to maintain a “relentless focus on the economy and everything that we can realistically do to improve growth”.
[…]
His third point was about getting good results from the public service. English said one of the striking aspects of reaction to Thursday’s “sensible budget in uncertain times”was that many of the usually vociferous public-service groups had been “remarkably absent” from political discussion.
[…]
He said John Key was the best Prime Minister in a generation at articulating that confidence.
Meanwhile, Bernard Hickey’s article today is less glowing:
But, on Thursday, sitting in the Budget lockup listening to Bill English, I realised I was hearing essentially the same thing for the fourth year in a row. I was hearing a politician repeating the same forecasts about a rebound in economic growth solving the Government’s problems.
Yet, for the past four years, growth hasn’t solved the Government’s problems because there hasn’t been enough of it.
[…]
Then a sickening feeling hit me and I think it’s beginning to seep into the bones of consumers, businesses and, ultimately, voters. It’s different this time.
Maybe our economy and the global economy will never get back to “normal”.
[…]
Something is broken, and it still hasn’t really sunk through into the economic models and thinking of bureaucrats and politicians in the developed world, who are still forecasting that their economies will bounce back to pre-2008 averages.
[…]
I wonder how long it will be before the Energiser bunnies at our Treasury stop bouncing and the politicians stop repeating the same prescriptions while expecting a different result.
His third point was about getting good results from the public service. English said one of the striking aspects of reaction to Thursday’s “sensible budget in uncertain times”was that many of the usually vociferous public-service groups had been “remarkably absent” from political discussion.
Just because the media hasn’t picked up on their criticisms, and included them in the “political discussion”, doesn’t mean they have been quiet:
The National-led government’s fourth Budget is simply a money go-round which will deliver more pain for no gain, according to the Public Service Association.
[…]
Already 2500 public sector jobs have been lost, resulting in reduced services to the public and the situation is set to worsen as $1 billion dollars will be slashed from departmental budgets this year.
Brenda Pilott says that will result in public services being rundown further while demand will only increase.
“We’re already seeing the scaling down of our diplomatic presence overseas, border security compromised, prescription charges rising, police and defence personnel numbers cut, staffing slashed in a number of regional government offices such as IRD, ACC, Housing and DOC, cuts to community and health services, and vital frontline staff who offer personalised help being replaced by dysfunctional 0800 numbers.”
“None of this equates to better public services. Cuts to public services might make the government’s balance sheet look better in the short term, but they actually strip New Zealand of capacity and end up costing more in the long run economically and socially,” she says.
Soooo…. just more from Blinglish on Planet BS, then.
Ian,English has had a vision as NZ is losing 53k p.a. to Aust this depopulation will result in fewer children being educated here so we will require fewer teachers. English has got the correct answer but doesn’t understand the question 😉
Ha Ha! When it was just suggested on The Nation that Greens are “making all the running” with new kinds of policies, Parker said he disagrees He used as an example Labour’s policy for Capital Gains Tax. Wasn’t that Green Party policy long before Labour picked it up?
Hard to say, Carol. A quick google search found both parties talking about CGT in May and June 2011, but Labour seems to be the first to put out a detailed proposal, including a 15% rate. The Greens then endorsed Labour’s position, with some reservations.
Eleven years ago, in 2001, the Green Party pushed for a CGT to be investigated and looked at favourably. Their official party policy at the time did not support a CGT.
The speech by Rod Donald (CV’s link) doesn’t actually claim that a CGT had officially become Green Party policy. Rather that he – and the Green Party as a whole – believed a CGT would be a good thing. That’s my understanding of the speech anyway. In other words it was, what could be termed ‘unofficial Green Party policy’.
I can tell you the situation in the Labour Party was exactly the same. Labour has known for as long as the Greens that a CGT was an essential economic tool, but until recently it never became official Labour Party policy.
Why?
Let me quote a former senior and experienced Labour politician (long since retired) back in the early 1980s – and no, he wasn’t part of the neo liberal set. He said it’s no use introducing anything too radical (and back then a CGT was radical) until the rest of the population catches up with us. To do so is to invite an electoral backlash that will ensure we never become the govt. He went on to say that Labour just has to be patient and wait until the rest of the country catches up.
They are finally catching up, and both Labour and the Greens are commited to an official CGT policy.
That last bit of your comment is just fudging the issue, Anne. Greens were positively advocating for a Capital Gains Tax long before Labour (whatever their reasons for not doing so).
In my search to confirm this, I found a parliamentary speech by Jeanette Fitzsimons, dated 25 May 2006, where she is advocating strongly for a Capital Gains Tax and asks for it to be investigated. She says the Greens hadn’t done this because they don’t have the resources to do it:
The Green Party position is not, at this stage, a final policy on capital gains tax, because to finalise such a policy would involve a lot of work that the resources of six MPs cannot do. We need a Government department to do a proper investigation of what that would involve. We note we are almost the only OECD country that does not tax capital gains on a broad basis—Australia, the United States, and most of the OECD do so. Therefore, to do so would not, at first sight, bring about the end of Western civilisation.
Shane Gallagher Green candidate for Dunedin South in 2008 claimed that a Capital Gains Tax was Green policy:
Our policy is to have a comprehensive capital gains tax on inflation-adjusted capital gains at the time the capital gains are realised (ie a realisation-based capital gains tax). Any capital gains tax must apply to assets in NZ that are purchased and sold by people living overseas as well as assets sold or purchased by NZ residents. We support a blanket exemption for the family home from any capital gains tax when it is introduced. In addition, we support treating taxable real capital gains as income for tax rate purposes and investigate mechanisms to allow the income from capital gains to be spread over several years for New Zealand residents.
No attempt to fudge the issue Carol. I remember the long discussions about a CGT at Labour Regional and Anuual Conference workshops, going back for more than a decade. However I do accept they took place behind closed doors where the media was not allowed to go. Its a matter of fact that a political party in power (the dominant one in particular) have less flexibility when it comes to openly talking about contentious subjects – at least until the rest of the population starts to catch up. That is one luxury afforded to non-government parties, and the Greens (good on them) took advantage of it.
Oh.. Took advantage? Really that’s stretching it. Being a small party has it’s disadvantages in promoting policy.
All number of things are discussed “behind closed doors” in parties.
The fact remains, The Greens were “making the running” publicly (which was what the question to Parker was asked on The Nation) about Capital Gains Tax, long before Labour publicly espoused it. So Parker chose the wrong issue to use in response to the question.
Being a small party has it’s disadvantages in promoting policy.
Yes, it can. But on other occasions it can be a plus – such as promoting a contentious issue where the main governing party has to be careful what they say. That was particularly true for Labour with a corrupt National opposition (see The Hollow Men), and a hostile media who bought into the nasty Nat. memes.
In case you misunderstand me Carol, I’m not playing some political game of one-upmanship. I merely pointed out Labour was talking about it for a long time too – not just the Greens. I have a huge amount of respect for the Greens and am very impressed with the 2011 intake. I hope Labour and the Greens are able to from a coalition govt. in 2014 – or earlier. This country desperately needs them both!
God save NZ here in gods zone. On Q&A English had no answers and Parker thinks cgt will save NZ, and NZ will continue to see the results in 1 way airline tickets being purchased, and the continuation of current accout deficits.
One thing CGT is guaranteed to do is push rents further up, any extra tax it pulls in will just get spent again in accommodation benefits. When every player in a market faces the same increase in costs they all put their prices up.
Labour never seem to think their fanciful ideas through to a natural conclusion do they. A CGT needs to be matched with an increase in housing stock to reduce the demand for rentals.
One thing CGT is guaranteed to do is push rents further up
Bull shit. No CGT is paid unless a rental property is sold on for a profit. Explain to me why a landlord pays income tax on the rental income they earn, but currently zero tax on profit from selling a rental property.
I agree though that Labour needs to recommit to the mass provision of socialised housing.
Capital gain makes up a significant part of the return on investment of a rental property, rents alone don’t bring in enough. Add a tax to it and you reduce the return, rents will go up to recover the loss. That’s the way the market works.
If there’s a loss on the property, there won’t be any capital gains tax to be paid. So no worries.
And if the landlord raises rents to generate more rental earnings, they get taxed more on that. So no net gain mate. That’s how the market works.
And once the Government gets back into providing socialised housing for cheap, and clamping down on easy credit, there won’t be any capital gains from property speculation full stop.
That’s called thinking through the problem mate, isn’t that what you asked for?
You haven’t got it right there. Investment follows very fundamental rules based on the principle of risk & reward. Property has to pay a higher dividend than bank term deposits, if it didn’t then people would simply leave their cash in the bank. It pays that dividend via a mix of rent and (tax-free) capital gain.
Any initiatives that reduce the return on property will affect the market in one of two ways. It will lower the price of property so the return gets back up to market rates. Or it will increase rents and/or house prices to get the return back to market rates. Adding a CGT without addressing the demand/supply side will simply push prices up. The demand for rentals will be unchanged by a CGT but the investment will be reduced, ergo prices will rise until investors are attracted back into the market again.
A CGT needs to be matched with a calculated reduction in the demand for rentals – more housing stock built. Otherwise you’re just condemning the poor to even higher rents.
Rubbish. Why would rents go up to cover a future sale, which may or may not happen? The two things (rental returns and profit on the sale of the property) are unrelated. While I suppose a minority of greedy landlords might use it as a bullshit reason to increase rent, the vast majority of rental properties are held long term and therefore, not subject to CGT. CGT is designed to cover the situation where properties are regularly flipped and rental income is incidental to the real business of making untaxed gains on the increased sale price.
T.mallard argued that the tax changes that national made to eliminate tax advantages for landlords would increase rents. Was he wrong then that to reduce the returns on property Would be made up for increased rents? Or was he just playing the game of politics
Until the rules of the market are well regulated and policed then people will still invest in property. There is a huge oversell that this is nz solution, especially short and medium term along with increasing the age of eligibility of the pension. Sure long term hard to argue against but what happens for the next 10 years and the damage waiting.
TRP – You are talking about one possible variation of CGT. If the landlord thinks they will get taxed in the future, they will increase revenue now to cover that. Alternatively they ill exit the market. Basic market forces.
At least Rental income even with deductions has a tax element. Capital gain has no tax elements.
When investors are entering any market they should be looking at their risk:reward and some form of return on investment and weighing that up with what other investments return %.
Property has always been (bar ’72 when Big Norm Kirk proposed it) an acceptable means of making plenty and contributing nothing in tax.
and I found the link re Mallards basis of protecting the landlords. http://blog.labour.org.nz/2010/03/11/a-big-group-that-will-be-worse-off-following-the-tax-cuts/comment-page-1/
CGT as requires housing to appreciate in value. So then the 6th Lab govt would receive added tax to cover govt spending- But how would that fix our housing issue? Would that not then make property ownership membership more restrictive?
You can see that Mallard was correct and his detractors were wrong. He wrote that in 2010, look at what happened to rents in Auckland since then; exactly what he said would happen.
Don’t know where the 60% figure came from but it’s wrong as quoted. Election stats say there were 2,237,464 party votes and there’s only about 550,000 people over 65. They probably meant to say that 60% of people over 65 voted.
This seems to be the catch cry flavour of the month. Let’s dispel that myth once and for all
I collect my super and grab it with both hands. Reason, I am of a generation that also suffered from so called Intergenerational Theft. Every generation suffers from it. In my case, through politicians not getting it right in the thirties, some prick tried to kill me and my family by bombing shit out of us. Also when I started to earn money I paid high taxes for the next generations free university, health care, farm subsidies, export incentives etc. Didn’t have a shit show going to university because like a lot of my generation, we were “working class” and “education” or what was of it was poor during these years. Then we were made to go in the forces to keep some fat cat “safe” in places like Kenya, Malaya etc. When it came to buying a house, we were “lucky” if we could borrow finance off some lawyer at high rates and interest only. Had no show of burrowing like 100% loans from banks so you could buy a 10 acre block somewhere, even if you could not afford it. Only to sell on at some later time making a massive profit all tax free.
The same generation who were the beneficiaries of this system is same generation (Richardsons) who then said, “we have all got to stand on out own two feet, no more help or handouts” as “I we did alright Jack” and quoting Adams book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Thanks for the fish, now get fucking on with it.
The way this generation has consumed with all the cheap burrowing, the next generation is going to accuse them of Intergenerational Theft, because they will have to live in a world of depleted and expensive resources.
Inter-generational theft, bludging bennies, can’t afford super/welfare/education etc etc are all TINA catch cries from parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us.
That Labour have bought into it shows they have still not learned from the fuckups of the first ACT government, in the 80’s.
What we cannot afford is to give most of our wealth to those who waste it gambling overseas and on pushing our land prices up.
“Inter-generational theft, bludging bennies, can’t afford super/welfare/education etc etc are all TINA catch cries from parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us.”
How is generational theft a catch cry of the “parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us”?
Cause all the talk of generational theft that I have read has not come from the right wing wealthy…they are the ones that frame inequality in vastly different terms.
The claims of intergenerational theft usually steams from a (post)marxist position, which is the true left…or from the poor, or from the younger generations.
Can someone please link me some examples of a critique of generational wealth from the right wing wealthy?
Half Crown M. congratulations. You have my full support. This generation does not know what hardship and work is and they do not want to know. You are not a voice in the wilderness. Your most vocal critics are the lazy ones. They cannot defend their position, only offer personal abuse. Perhaps this is a reflection of the standard of education (or role models) offered by TV. The rich are with us always. They are unhappy and the envious are unhappy.
How many readers keep a Diary? 10 min. at the end of each day, writing up the Diary, is meditation. Very beneficial.
“How many readers keep a Diary? 10 min. at the end of each day, writing up the Diary, is meditation. Very beneficial.”
Haha..that’s funny. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqmjWCk36C8
I don’t see the diary making a comeback, not for young people. The hyper-commercialism that was forced onto younger generations since the 1980s has made that kind of reflective meditation a thing of the past. The x & y generations have been programmed to consume and look cool…they are the most socially and politically ignorant generation so far. We should all fear for the following generations…the best we can hope for is a massive economic collapse and a reorganisation of society so that we no longer act on greed. We need a meltdown with hyper-inflation so that all debt and savings are wiped clean…then the govt can take control of greedy people’s assets and we start again with a new system…sadly, that’s the only hope for future generations.
“Also when I started to earn money I paid high taxes for the next generations free university, health care, farm subsidies, export incentives etc.”
True…I don’t know who suffered more…those after the boomers or those before. I wish I was a boomer
Oh yes.The lives of those of us born into the post-war austerity were so much easier than the children and grand children of the boomer middle-classes and upperclasses – those kids who grew up with every mod con, clothes with designer labels and electronic toys.
Learn a little history.
And it certainly wasn’t a lot easier for lareg numbers of girls and women. Maori, Pacific people, the working classes, GLBT people etc.
And yes, things look bleak for future generations – especially for the less well-off. Unfortunately the wealthy and comfortably off (of all the current generations), will find all the wealth and resources they are hoarding won’t protect them from the coming contraction. Society will crumble around them.
The main point I was trying to make is every generation suffers or gains from the previous one. The neo liberals of today have benefited hugely by the taxes my generation paid, which I did not object to, as collectively everybody benefited in the building of the infrastructure (which they want to sell off to some fat cat overseas) health systems and good education.
To the ones who have got fat by the system, don’t deny me my meagre pension or help to the less fortunate, and don’t accuse me of Intergeneration Theft.
My eldest brother returned from Burma after fighting the Japanese Like all his generation be it from the left or right, the attitude was at that time “lets build a better world for everyone” and I am not going to let my kids go through that and I am going to do my best for them etc etc. My brother managed to send his son to university. This son who I would call a beneficiary of the system, now has great neo liberal attitudes with the usual “stuff you jack” everybody should stand on the own why should he be taxed to pay for some other bludgers. He conveniently forgets if it wasn’t for the socialistic systems set up in the 40’s he would not had the chance to go to university and would have been just another bright kid trying to survive in the East End. This is the attitude of the likes of Douglas and Richardson who have done very well as beneficiaries of the system which they conveniently forgot.
When I talk about socialistic systems these were systems set up by both the left and right. Lord Beaverbrook the paper magnate who really believed in a free press not like some other turd we know today, was one of the architects of the Health system in Britain. These people from the right had a social conscience about society as a whole. This cannot be said about the breed of neo liberals that have come along since Friedman and Thatcher. They have no social conscience. They only know greed at everybody else’s expense. This is going to be their downfall. The bit I find scary if they are not stopped and attitudes do not change they will take the the world with them. It will not be by Intergenerational Theft by my generation.
And, still, fatty, for you the gen x& yers are the poor victims of previous generations doings, even when those people are doing things destructive to society – always victims of the circumstances they find themselves in. Meanwhile, the protest generation boomers are never explained in similar terms, but are always the perps. of all our current evils.
The boomers who paid 60cents on the dollar taxes for hydro power stations, railways, university educations, health care and other infrastructure, for the next generations.
Who protested about nuclear weapons, social justice and foreign aid.
While gen X and y moan about 20% taxes and vote for neo-liberal Governments.
And only protest when their own student allowances are affected.
It is a bit sad that our current Uni students are deafeningly silent when those on social security are attacked, and about other issues such as AGW, and only wake up when it affects their pockets.
you make students poorer and busier, make them pay a lot of money for their courses, make them feel like they have to keep their heads down, spend time to get their grades to get a return on investment and be able to pay back their student loans.
Universities aren’t places of thinking and debate today, they are diploma mills. Where undergrads simply want the piece of paper which is going to launch their promised careers. And lecturers see teaching students as an annoying distraction from publications and the eventual promotion that leads on to.
Another example of Labour opening the door to the cutting of its own throat in the 1980’s.
“It is a bit sad that our current Uni students are deafeningly silent when those on social security are attacked, and about other issues such as AGW, and only wake up when it affects their pockets.”
I don’t think that is true at all..Actually, you’ll find that those students that were protesting are quite vocal and active in regards to other human rights…I think you have believed the hype from the mainstream media…most students generally do not care too much about the student loan issue and they believe in a user-pays system…most students are “deafeningly silent” in regards to the student loan issue and are generally ignorant to ALL political and social issues.
The percentage of NZ tertiary students protesting these changes?…I’d guess about 1-2%. Students don’t “only wake up when it affects their pockets”…students are for the most part sleepy and ignorant.
“Oh yes.The lives of those of us born into the post-war austerity were so much easier than the children and grand children of the boomer middle-classes and upperclasses – those kids who grew up with every mod con, clothes with designer labels and electronic toys.’
Good point…the average person who was born between the 1950s-1970s faced more challenges than the elite of the future generations.
“Learn a little history.”
…like that nugget of informative insight that you just blessed me with?…thank you…I know where to come for my history lessons.
“And it certainly wasn’t a lot easier for lareg numbers of girls and women. Maori, Pacific people, the working classes, GLBT people etc.”
Another good point, one I’ve argued here myself, the boomers had conservative economic and social structures, they swapped them for liberal economic and social ideals…we’ve been through this before. I do find it ironic that you highlight that privileges existed back (and still do) – white privilege, gender privilege, sexuality privilege etc…but get pulled up on generational privilege and you’ll refute that till the cows some home.
“And, still, fatty, for you the gen x& yers are the poor victims of previous generations doings, even when those people are doing things destructive to society – always victims of the circumstances they find themselves in. Meanwhile, the protest generation boomers are never explained in similar terms, but are always the perps. of all our current evils.”
…nah, not me. I realise essentialising my argument is probably the best form of defence from confronting your privilege (rather than historical facts), but I do not paint gen x & y as pure victims, and the boomers are not “always the perps. of all our current evils”…that’s not how privilege and opportunities work.
I know if all boomers were like you (or others on here) then we wouldn’t have generational inequality. If all white people in the past thought like me, then we wouldn’t have white privilege, and I wouldn’t be a privileged white person. (BTW, I’m poor, got a life crippling student loan and owning property is a distant dream…so I haven’t benefited from white privilege, but it still exists). I’m aware of my privileges…I know my history.
We’ve been through all this before haven’t we Carol?…can you or someone answer this question cause this comment has come from nowhere and I dunno if people consider this to be true…I’ll repeat my question…
How is generational theft a catch cry of the “parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us”?
Well, you shouldn’t! I am technically a boomer (1953) and I have not benefitted from any of the things boomers supposedly had… (Well, one thing – close to full employment when I left school in 1971, but I didn’t get to Uni until 11 years later, being working class, and that was just before everything changed!)
So here I am, decades later – as broke as it’s possible to be, no more prospect of home ownership than I had when I was young, too old to be attractive to employers (and I have discovered over the past 4 years that women must be attractive, to be employed in offices*) but too young for National Super.
* Yes, knowing that the Human Rights commision has no teeth and that they can say so without consequence, at least 8 prospective employers in the past 4 years have told me in so many words, that I am too old and not good looking enough to be in their office…
Yes, Vicky, while undoubtedly there’s a significant number of boomers dominating the housing ladder, home ownership is far from widespread amongst “boomers” generally:
Decreasing home-ownership rates could result in higher poverty rates for the elderly in coming years, a new study of baby boomers indicates.
The study, to be launched by the Family Commission today, surveyed nearly 2000 people, aged 40-64 years, and found their home-ownership rates half what they are for those currently aged over 65.
And as I recall, in one of your WINZ reports you state how most of the people turning up to their “courses” etc, were over 45 years.
So while the elite of the boomers are creaming it, others are not so secure. And we are getting conflicting messages. While some boomers sit at the top of the tree with significant wealth and high-paying jobs, others are losing their jobs, and finding, not only are they not the most desired employees, but some younger people have the more, most recent qualifications.
And we are being sent conflicting messages – there’s not enough money in the coffers for boomer pensions (even for some people who’ve been paying towards the super of the older generation, in the belief that their investment would set up their retirement). So some are telling boomers we need to work til we are older – which is fine for some, but only if they can get/have a job that hasn’t already ground you down. But others are saying boomers should retire and leave the jobs for younger people.
So, really, just another divide and conquer tactic and distraction from the fact that the few are doing well at the expense of many – bennie bashing, older people bashing, “lazy” student bashing…. and on it goes…..
“So, really, just another divide and conquer tactic and distraction from the fact that the few are doing well at the expense of many”
So you do believe that the concept of intergenerational inequality is a tool of ‘right wingers’?
…can you please give me an example…because I’ve never come across this kind of ‘divide and conquer tactic’ from the wealthy where they highlight the issue of generational inequality.
How many people have IT problems at work? Was reading this article about wasted time in the workplace & it claims that people wasted hours each week on IT failures;
“Kiwi workers said they wasted two to three hours a week on inefficient or malfunctioning technology. ”We all know intuitively it takes too long to boot up your computer, your email crashes, all those things, but do organisations really know what that is costing them?”
Occasionally I’ve been in a shop that linked to head office via a thin client & the system took ages to search the database but generally I thought those kind of IT troubles were a thing of the past. Do people really still have a lot of IT problems at work?
Just kidding but I think that there is still a difference Draco. Not an expert but didn’t the guru who wrote the software for access to the Budget online, say that the Apple App was done very quickly but the other took several weeks. Doesn’t really matter but in Education it seems that Mac schools are often well advanced in ITC whereas PCs are less so.
Do people really still have a lot of IT problems at work?
I suppose that depends upon how good their IT departments are. I’ve worked in corporations that did have those troubles and it was obvious that their IT department a) wasn’t funded enough, b) was taking all sorts of short cuts and/or c) their software was all over the bloody place often requiring 2 or 3 apps to get a job done.
Companies and corporations often have a poor understanding of how to properly plan and run IT. More often than not giving it to their accountant to run.
Our political parties all seem to be in to austerity.
While each has their own little fantasies about how things can get better – public/private partnerships, green jobs, capital gains tax, investment in R and D etc, none of them take us away from the neo liberal economic model and none of them are addressing the structural economic problems or climate change.
National government is busily attacking unions and trying to push wages even lower, Labour wants to mount an even bigger offensive against the whole working class by raising pension age eligibility and the Greens want to subject nature itself to market forces.
As far as our politicians go it is clear they agree on one thing.
Any mad idea is preferable to admitting capitalism is failing for them.
As energy costs continue to put the hard boot down on ‘growth’ we are going to see this perpetual stagnation and mild economic decline become the new normal.
And quite naturally, democracies all over the world will become increasingly feudal in outlook and operation, with an aristocratic class running the show in their own interests.
That would normally take money, physical resources, governmental power and corporate media influence. Which not by co-incidence the feudal types are busy sewing up.
That’s why we need people power. A single millionaire doesn’t have the same amount of money or clout as a million people with a few dollars each. We’ve just been conditioned to believe that they do.
Unfortunately, it’s a little more difficult to get a million people all going in the same direction.
No chance of that B, you obviosuly read enough to understand that the Military/Intelligence Networks are the ones who will be using the advanced tech to quash anything that resembles demoracy past or present.
As Viper points out, the rulers are currently making sure that any stragglers are seen to, and chances of competition reappearing in any industry space, consigned to the history books!
The drumbeats grow louder and louder for changes to National Super. Never mind that senior poverty is much worse in nations where pensions are means tested — old people in the US having to flip burgers or live on the streets, while employers are are always looking for ways to avoid making good on their pension obligations — I noticed that aforementioned drumbeats are coming from the financial services/banking sector, for whom administering pension funds would be a licence to print money.
National Superannuation is a taonga. Efforts to change it would only lead to an infliction of hardship.
Reduce the retirement age to 62 to allow younger people to move into the work force. Pay for the difference by printing (electronically crediting the Government with) the money required.
Meanwhile, encourage retirees to further increase their volunteering and involvement in their local communities.
Can’t work for Greece, because Greece gave up sovereignty over their currency and have subsequently put their banks and their creditors ahead of their own people.
NZ must not give up its economic sovereignty under any circumstances.
Well, I, for one, would be happy with 62 as a retirement age and to spend my time doing things that contribute to society one way or another, CV…. so long as a have enough to live on – my needs are small.
However, I don’t think your prescription deals with the problem of the current work structure and its underlying values. The reason many older people will be reluctant to step aside from work is because the current structure is built on individualistic values.
Most value is put on those who set out to make themselves rich (especially since the 1980s), while community work is undervalued – both via the relative levels of remuneration and the way economic success is measured. And the result of this is low social status given to such work.
Consequently, after many in the business world, and politics, have worked to consolidate or achieve their wealth and status, they would be unwilling to give up that status to do community work for no pay. So, many take seats on boards and places on right-wing working groups etc, They get big pay, for doing little, or little that is of value to society.
Community work does contribute to the economy, and consequently, within the structure we have, people doing it should be paid.
But I’m all for people in their 60s stepping aside from full time and high paid positions, to work part time.
Consequently, after many in the business world, and politics, have worked to consolidate or achieve their wealth and status, they would be unwilling to give up that status to do community work for no pay.
Yep. Luckily, I’m guessing the Don Brash and Roger Douglas types make up quite a small %, whereas mature persons who think more like yourself are far more numerous.
Meanwhile, encourage retirees to further increase their volunteering and involvement in their local communities.
Oh that’s hilarious! This year I decided that as there’s less than a zero % chance of my ever getting a job (year 4 on UB), I’d do some volunteering work.
That was in mid-January. It’s now a few days off from June. I’ve been to MOTAT, Volunteering Auckland, and the Auckland City Mission. All of them have turned me down – which makes me feel worse than useless. So, no, nobody’s actually crying out for volunteers!
Except maybe the people who wanted me to pay them serious money to do their ESOL course so I could teach English as a second language for free through their organisation. The tertiary qualifications in ESOL teaching that I already have, are it seems, not quite good enough, neither is my eight years’ experience in the field!
So, yeah, I’d happily take National Super at 62, only 4 years to go, as my experience has shown that employers won’t hire anyone over 50… so you’ll forgive me for screaming every time I hear about the poor yoof… at least yoof unemployment is not invisible! I look at my fellow attendees at WINZ seminars, and whaddaya know, no one there is under 45…
Labour intentions on superannuation shows they are still trapped in the Neo-liberal paradigm.
Anything to avoid the obvious answer. Extend the pension idea of a minimum income to young people and families also. Much more effective stimulus than tax cuts for the wealthy to waste.
All civilisations start off being communist. If it wasn’t for the success of that start they would never have the wealth to turn to capitalism and then screw everything up.
“As I’ve run out of marmite, please show me some vegemite or I’ll refuse to believe there’s anything to put on toast.”
Haha…good call. Its surprising that some people are still sucking on Saggy Thatcher’s floppy old tittie…The concept of TINA is possibly more powerful now than its ever been – look at Europe
National has reneged on aid commitments to the world’s poorest people, by cutting $133 million from its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) budget over the next three years…
Millhouse posted this to me about National Standards. A simple Youtube summary of NS as seen by farmers (teachers) and fruit and vegetables (children). http://youtu.be/9d9ZBpg3sMo
Just talking today with a facilitator for online post graduate teachers who report that some schools are neglecting many areas of schooling like Science and Art, but putting all their time and energy into Literacy and Numeracy in order to inflate their National Standards ratings. Funny that.
Conveniently omitted from the RWNJ narrative that Greeks have only themselves to blame, the tax exempt status of the one percent.
They are among the wealthiest Greeks — whether shipping magnates, whose tax-free status is enshrined in the constitution, or the so-called oligarchs who have accumulated vast wealth via their dominance in core areas of the economy like oil, gas, media, banking and even cement.
The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, cars and real estate, BUT friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.
That’s nice but you can’t have any of those latter things in a capitalist society and, no matter what, we all need the former (except the stocks/bonds and cars).
“Your lack of trustworthiness in no way implies any lack of ability in others to trust.”
My lack of trustworthiness? You fucking numpty.
Draco says “That’s nice but you can’t have any of those latter things in a capitalist society” in relation to “friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.”
To which I reply “speak for yourself Draco, I have everything John 72 listed (except faith, I am an atheist).”
So, what the fuck are you talking about? Its Draco and UTurn implying the inability to trust, love and have confidence. Not me.
Trust is non-existent – I’m pretty sure those emails telling me that I’ve won $100m/have a huge inheritance and all I have to do is send a $10000 money order and it’ll be right in the mail are all truthful, really.
Confidence in what? Can’t be government as they busy destroying our society. Can’t be confident that you’ll have a job tomorrow as jobs are disappearing so as to lower wages.
Empathy – ACC cuts to rape victims shows a distinct lack of that, so does all the beneficiary bashing going on.
Mercy – Same place the empathy is I suspect.
I didn’t mention friendship or love as they’re personal but I’m sure we’ll find that such has also been abused so that someone else can make a buck.
My point was that capitalism breeds the opposites.
“friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.”
I am not sure the list of things are all of the same calibre. Trust, for example, is a judgement, and depends on something in one’s life being trustworthy, though one might retain trust in God where nothing else was trustworthy. And certainly no amount of material accumulation is going to make up for these values where they are absent. However, our ability to develop and retain these properties are under threat when we are utterly deprived. It makes me angry when people are so trained that they must preface their concerns with “We do not indulge in luxuries, and we never go to the movies or take the kids to the zoo etc…” It is as if anything above bacteria-like survival becomes a source of guilt, while the people encouraging this thinking make million dollar errors and still sleep at night.
“It is as if anything above bacteria-like survival becomes a source of guilt, while the people encouraging this thinking make million dollar errors and still sleep at night.”
Perfectly put Olwyn.Unfortunately ‘morality’ has been redefined by the likes of Phil O’ Reilly, now a ‘new corporate church order business deacon’ as being: ‘the highest moral standard one can achieve is “productivity and competitiveness”‘. http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/wednesday-february-29-4748673
Now can you see how a ‘moral’ man can sleep soundly at night
In a Herald article today entitled,” Charter Schools meet with some resistance” and resplendent with a cheery photo of snow queen Catherine Isaacs, John O’Neill professor in Teacher Education at Massey, points out what he considers to be the real agenda for the ‘out of the blue’ introduction of Charter Schools.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10808693
“O’Neill is sceptical of Isaac’s sincerity in pushing the charter school agenda. He points to the legislative change, which will effectively “take teachers out of the State Sector Act”.
Under the act, teachers are deemed public servants and entitled to a collective contract.
By changing the law, charter schools will be able to employ teachers on individual contracts.
This is Isaac’s real agenda, he claims: “to block the power of the unions”.”
Never mind our children then. Ice splinters all round.
Well, after NACT went around telling everyone how good privatisation is they’d have to defend the failure that it is else they’d have to admit that they were wrong and they’ll never do that.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
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. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
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 ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
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. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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 up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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One of these people must have it totally wrong!
While the Herald online has been foregrounding pro JK & Blinglish articles since the budget (held at the top of the main page), there’s been plenty of articles online being highly critical of the budge (though not always in such a prominent position).
Even the usual right-leaning online polls haven’t been that into the budget.
And yet…..
On Planet BS, in an article this morning Blinglish (kiddie piggy-bank thief), is coming on all positive about “romping in the next election”
Meanwhile, Bernard Hickey’s article today is less glowing:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10808680
Blinglish said:
Just because the media hasn’t picked up on their criticisms, and included them in the “political discussion”, doesn’t mean they have been quiet:
http://www.psa.org.nz/newsroom/mediareleases/12-05-24/Zero_Budget_delivers_more_pain_for_no_gain.aspx
Soooo…. just more from Blinglish on Planet BS, then.
Blinglish’s predications on the next election are as accurate as his predictions on the economy.
And remember the cuts to frontline teacher numbers of between 500 and 1500.
Ian,English has had a vision as NZ is losing 53k p.a. to Aust this depopulation will result in fewer children being educated here so we will require fewer teachers. English has got the correct answer but doesn’t understand the question 😉
REDUCE DEBT.
Retain Gold.
We Welcome The Chinese!
Resistance is Self-defeat.
Authoritarian excesses, Human Rights, Environmental Impacts, will peak and then abate at some time in the future as people come under rule.
Maori may advantage social-well being of their people through advantageous trade terms.
Minimum wage set to rise in regular increments.
All in 5 Year Plan
Ha Ha! When it was just suggested on The Nation that Greens are “making all the running” with new kinds of policies, Parker said he disagrees He used as an example Labour’s policy for Capital Gains Tax. Wasn’t that Green Party policy long before Labour picked it up?
Hard to say, Carol. A quick google search found both parties talking about CGT in May and June 2011, but Labour seems to be the first to put out a detailed proposal, including a 15% rate. The Greens then endorsed Labour’s position, with some reservations.
Eleven years ago, in 2001, the Green Party pushed for a CGT to be investigated and looked at favourably. Their official party policy at the time did not support a CGT.
http://www.greens.org.nz/submissions/2001-green-party-submission-capital-gains-tax
Eight years ago Rod Donald pushed for a CGT on all but the family home. This was the policy that Labour finally adopted.
http://www.greens.org.nz/speeches/200203-financial-review-debate
Yes, CV. TGhat has been my understanding that the Green Party have had it as a policy long before Labour adopted it.
All_in-all, I thought Parker came across as a light weight on The Nation and wonder why he was given that portfolio.
The speech by Rod Donald (CV’s link) doesn’t actually claim that a CGT had officially become Green Party policy. Rather that he – and the Green Party as a whole – believed a CGT would be a good thing. That’s my understanding of the speech anyway. In other words it was, what could be termed ‘unofficial Green Party policy’.
I can tell you the situation in the Labour Party was exactly the same. Labour has known for as long as the Greens that a CGT was an essential economic tool, but until recently it never became official Labour Party policy.
Why?
Let me quote a former senior and experienced Labour politician (long since retired) back in the early 1980s – and no, he wasn’t part of the neo liberal set. He said it’s no use introducing anything too radical (and back then a CGT was radical) until the rest of the population catches up with us. To do so is to invite an electoral backlash that will ensure we never become the govt. He went on to say that Labour just has to be patient and wait until the rest of the country catches up.
They are finally catching up, and both Labour and the Greens are commited to an official CGT policy.
That last bit of your comment is just fudging the issue, Anne. Greens were positively advocating for a Capital Gains Tax long before Labour (whatever their reasons for not doing so).
In my search to confirm this, I found a parliamentary speech by Jeanette Fitzsimons, dated 25 May 2006, where she is advocating strongly for a Capital Gains Tax and asks for it to be investigated. She says the Greens hadn’t done this because they don’t have the resources to do it:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/a/d/4/48HansD_20060525_00000824-Taxation-Annual-Rates-Savings-Investment.htm
Furthermore, http://www.odt.co.nz/election-2008/the-south/28721/shane-gallagher-greens-dunedin-south
Shane Gallagher Green candidate for Dunedin South in 2008 claimed that a Capital Gains Tax was Green policy:
No attempt to fudge the issue Carol. I remember the long discussions about a CGT at Labour Regional and Anuual Conference workshops, going back for more than a decade. However I do accept they took place behind closed doors where the media was not allowed to go. Its a matter of fact that a political party in power (the dominant one in particular) have less flexibility when it comes to openly talking about contentious subjects – at least until the rest of the population starts to catch up. That is one luxury afforded to non-government parties, and the Greens (good on them) took advantage of it.
Oh.. Took advantage? Really that’s stretching it. Being a small party has it’s disadvantages in promoting policy.
All number of things are discussed “behind closed doors” in parties.
The fact remains, The Greens were “making the running” publicly (which was what the question to Parker was asked on The Nation) about Capital Gains Tax, long before Labour publicly espoused it. So Parker chose the wrong issue to use in response to the question.
Being a small party has it’s disadvantages in promoting policy.
Yes, it can. But on other occasions it can be a plus – such as promoting a contentious issue where the main governing party has to be careful what they say. That was particularly true for Labour with a corrupt National opposition (see The Hollow Men), and a hostile media who bought into the nasty Nat. memes.
In case you misunderstand me Carol, I’m not playing some political game of one-upmanship. I merely pointed out Labour was talking about it for a long time too – not just the Greens. I have a huge amount of respect for the Greens and am very impressed with the 2011 intake. I hope Labour and the Greens are able to from a coalition govt. in 2014 – or earlier. This country desperately needs them both!
it was ACT policy to until don brash learned to swallow rats
God save NZ here in gods zone. On Q&A English had no answers and Parker thinks cgt will save NZ, and NZ will continue to see the results in 1 way airline tickets being purchased, and the continuation of current accout deficits.
Blinglish and Parker……yup god save us indeed because neither of these will.
Are Labour really pushing CGT that much?
One thing CGT is guaranteed to do is push rents further up, any extra tax it pulls in will just get spent again in accommodation benefits. When every player in a market faces the same increase in costs they all put their prices up.
Labour never seem to think their fanciful ideas through to a natural conclusion do they. A CGT needs to be matched with an increase in housing stock to reduce the demand for rentals.
Bull shit. No CGT is paid unless a rental property is sold on for a profit. Explain to me why a landlord pays income tax on the rental income they earn, but currently zero tax on profit from selling a rental property.
I agree though that Labour needs to recommit to the mass provision of socialised housing.
Capital gain makes up a significant part of the return on investment of a rental property, rents alone don’t bring in enough. Add a tax to it and you reduce the return, rents will go up to recover the loss. That’s the way the market works.
If there’s a loss on the property, there won’t be any capital gains tax to be paid. So no worries.
And if the landlord raises rents to generate more rental earnings, they get taxed more on that. So no net gain mate. That’s how the market works.
And once the Government gets back into providing socialised housing for cheap, and clamping down on easy credit, there won’t be any capital gains from property speculation full stop.
That’s called thinking through the problem mate, isn’t that what you asked for?
You haven’t got it right there. Investment follows very fundamental rules based on the principle of risk & reward. Property has to pay a higher dividend than bank term deposits, if it didn’t then people would simply leave their cash in the bank. It pays that dividend via a mix of rent and (tax-free) capital gain.
Any initiatives that reduce the return on property will affect the market in one of two ways. It will lower the price of property so the return gets back up to market rates. Or it will increase rents and/or house prices to get the return back to market rates. Adding a CGT without addressing the demand/supply side will simply push prices up. The demand for rentals will be unchanged by a CGT but the investment will be reduced, ergo prices will rise until investors are attracted back into the market again.
A CGT needs to be matched with a calculated reduction in the demand for rentals – more housing stock built. Otherwise you’re just condemning the poor to even higher rents.
So, they can leave their cash in the bank. No problem.
Yeah I already answered that with socialised housing.
Rubbish. Why would rents go up to cover a future sale, which may or may not happen? The two things (rental returns and profit on the sale of the property) are unrelated. While I suppose a minority of greedy landlords might use it as a bullshit reason to increase rent, the vast majority of rental properties are held long term and therefore, not subject to CGT. CGT is designed to cover the situation where properties are regularly flipped and rental income is incidental to the real business of making untaxed gains on the increased sale price.
T.mallard argued that the tax changes that national made to eliminate tax advantages for landlords would increase rents. Was he wrong then that to reduce the returns on property Would be made up for increased rents? Or was he just playing the game of politics
Until the rules of the market are well regulated and policed then people will still invest in property. There is a huge oversell that this is nz solution, especially short and medium term along with increasing the age of eligibility of the pension. Sure long term hard to argue against but what happens for the next 10 years and the damage waiting.
TRP – You are talking about one possible variation of CGT. If the landlord thinks they will get taxed in the future, they will increase revenue now to cover that. Alternatively they ill exit the market. Basic market forces.
Which is why we need socialised housing. Market forces care about profit, they don’t care if people are homeless or not.
Their increased revenues today will get taxed today then. So you are saying that they’d prefer to be taxed more now, rather than later?
I mean how stupid are your arguments?
At least Rental income even with deductions has a tax element. Capital gain has no tax elements.
When investors are entering any market they should be looking at their risk:reward and some form of return on investment and weighing that up with what other investments return %.
Property has always been (bar ’72 when Big Norm Kirk proposed it) an acceptable means of making plenty and contributing nothing in tax.
and I found the link re Mallards basis of protecting the landlords.
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2010/03/11/a-big-group-that-will-be-worse-off-following-the-tax-cuts/comment-page-1/
CGT as requires housing to appreciate in value. So then the 6th Lab govt would receive added tax to cover govt spending- But how would that fix our housing issue? Would that not then make property ownership membership more restrictive?
You can see that Mallard was correct and his detractors were wrong. He wrote that in 2010, look at what happened to rents in Auckland since then; exactly what he said would happen.
60% of people who vote are over 65 “Q+A on Superann.”
Thats are a culture of Maternal AUTHORITY writ large.
Intergenerational Theft.
Tame Iti: Read. Spread the Truth. Grow the whanau.
TUHOE lead the way for disenfranchised Tangata Whenua.
TE MAURI ORA!
Don’t know where the 60% figure came from but it’s wrong as quoted. Election stats say there were 2,237,464 party votes and there’s only about 550,000 people over 65. They probably meant to say that 60% of people over 65 voted.
Intergenerational Theft.
This seems to be the catch cry flavour of the month. Let’s dispel that myth once and for all
I collect my super and grab it with both hands. Reason, I am of a generation that also suffered from so called Intergenerational Theft. Every generation suffers from it. In my case, through politicians not getting it right in the thirties, some prick tried to kill me and my family by bombing shit out of us. Also when I started to earn money I paid high taxes for the next generations free university, health care, farm subsidies, export incentives etc. Didn’t have a shit show going to university because like a lot of my generation, we were “working class” and “education” or what was of it was poor during these years. Then we were made to go in the forces to keep some fat cat “safe” in places like Kenya, Malaya etc. When it came to buying a house, we were “lucky” if we could borrow finance off some lawyer at high rates and interest only. Had no show of burrowing like 100% loans from banks so you could buy a 10 acre block somewhere, even if you could not afford it. Only to sell on at some later time making a massive profit all tax free.
The same generation who were the beneficiaries of this system is same generation (Richardsons) who then said, “we have all got to stand on out own two feet, no more help or handouts” as “I we did alright Jack” and quoting Adams book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Thanks for the fish, now get fucking on with it.
The way this generation has consumed with all the cheap burrowing, the next generation is going to accuse them of Intergenerational Theft, because they will have to live in a world of depleted and expensive resources.
Inter-generational theft, bludging bennies, can’t afford super/welfare/education etc etc are all TINA catch cries from parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us.
That Labour have bought into it shows they have still not learned from the fuckups of the first ACT government, in the 80’s.
What we cannot afford is to give most of our wealth to those who waste it gambling overseas and on pushing our land prices up.
+1
What we can’t afford is the rich.
Where the “rich” are the top 1/4 of households.
Well said KJT
“Inter-generational theft, bludging bennies, can’t afford super/welfare/education etc etc are all TINA catch cries from parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us.”
How is generational theft a catch cry of the “parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us”?
Cause all the talk of generational theft that I have read has not come from the right wing wealthy…they are the ones that frame inequality in vastly different terms.
The claims of intergenerational theft usually steams from a (post)marxist position, which is the true left…or from the poor, or from the younger generations.
Can someone please link me some examples of a critique of generational wealth from the right wing wealthy?
You won’t find any since the Right Wing is totally predicated on conserving and growing inter-generational wealth and power. For their own families.
Half Crown M. congratulations. You have my full support. This generation does not know what hardship and work is and they do not want to know. You are not a voice in the wilderness. Your most vocal critics are the lazy ones. They cannot defend their position, only offer personal abuse. Perhaps this is a reflection of the standard of education (or role models) offered by TV. The rich are with us always. They are unhappy and the envious are unhappy.
How many readers keep a Diary? 10 min. at the end of each day, writing up the Diary, is meditation. Very beneficial.
“How many readers keep a Diary? 10 min. at the end of each day, writing up the Diary, is meditation. Very beneficial.”
Haha..that’s funny. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqmjWCk36C8
I don’t see the diary making a comeback, not for young people. The hyper-commercialism that was forced onto younger generations since the 1980s has made that kind of reflective meditation a thing of the past. The x & y generations have been programmed to consume and look cool…they are the most socially and politically ignorant generation so far. We should all fear for the following generations…the best we can hope for is a massive economic collapse and a reorganisation of society so that we no longer act on greed. We need a meltdown with hyper-inflation so that all debt and savings are wiped clean…then the govt can take control of greedy people’s assets and we start again with a new system…sadly, that’s the only hope for future generations.
“Also when I started to earn money I paid high taxes for the next generations free university, health care, farm subsidies, export incentives etc.”
True…I don’t know who suffered more…those after the boomers or those before. I wish I was a boomer
Oh yes.The lives of those of us born into the post-war austerity were so much easier than the children and grand children of the boomer middle-classes and upperclasses – those kids who grew up with every mod con, clothes with designer labels and electronic toys.
Learn a little history.
And it certainly wasn’t a lot easier for lareg numbers of girls and women. Maori, Pacific people, the working classes, GLBT people etc.
And yes, things look bleak for future generations – especially for the less well-off. Unfortunately the wealthy and comfortably off (of all the current generations), will find all the wealth and resources they are hoarding won’t protect them from the coming contraction. Society will crumble around them.
So true carol
The main point I was trying to make is every generation suffers or gains from the previous one. The neo liberals of today have benefited hugely by the taxes my generation paid, which I did not object to, as collectively everybody benefited in the building of the infrastructure (which they want to sell off to some fat cat overseas) health systems and good education.
To the ones who have got fat by the system, don’t deny me my meagre pension or help to the less fortunate, and don’t accuse me of Intergeneration Theft.
My eldest brother returned from Burma after fighting the Japanese Like all his generation be it from the left or right, the attitude was at that time “lets build a better world for everyone” and I am not going to let my kids go through that and I am going to do my best for them etc etc. My brother managed to send his son to university. This son who I would call a beneficiary of the system, now has great neo liberal attitudes with the usual “stuff you jack” everybody should stand on the own why should he be taxed to pay for some other bludgers. He conveniently forgets if it wasn’t for the socialistic systems set up in the 40’s he would not had the chance to go to university and would have been just another bright kid trying to survive in the East End. This is the attitude of the likes of Douglas and Richardson who have done very well as beneficiaries of the system which they conveniently forgot.
When I talk about socialistic systems these were systems set up by both the left and right. Lord Beaverbrook the paper magnate who really believed in a free press not like some other turd we know today, was one of the architects of the Health system in Britain. These people from the right had a social conscience about society as a whole. This cannot be said about the breed of neo liberals that have come along since Friedman and Thatcher. They have no social conscience. They only know greed at everybody else’s expense. This is going to be their downfall. The bit I find scary if they are not stopped and attitudes do not change they will take the the world with them. It will not be by Intergenerational Theft by my generation.
And, still, fatty, for you the gen x& yers are the poor victims of previous generations doings, even when those people are doing things destructive to society – always victims of the circumstances they find themselves in. Meanwhile, the protest generation boomers are never explained in similar terms, but are always the perps. of all our current evils.
The boomers who paid 60cents on the dollar taxes for hydro power stations, railways, university educations, health care and other infrastructure, for the next generations.
Who protested about nuclear weapons, social justice and foreign aid.
While gen X and y moan about 20% taxes and vote for neo-liberal Governments.
And only protest when their own student allowances are affected.
It is a bit sad that our current Uni students are deafeningly silent when those on social security are attacked, and about other issues such as AGW, and only wake up when it affects their pockets.
you make students poorer and busier, make them pay a lot of money for their courses, make them feel like they have to keep their heads down, spend time to get their grades to get a return on investment and be able to pay back their student loans.
Universities aren’t places of thinking and debate today, they are diploma mills. Where undergrads simply want the piece of paper which is going to launch their promised careers. And lecturers see teaching students as an annoying distraction from publications and the eventual promotion that leads on to.
Another example of Labour opening the door to the cutting of its own throat in the 1980’s.
+1 on the sad directions our unis have taken away from education to a qualification assembly line.
We need a university of, by and for the people.
“It is a bit sad that our current Uni students are deafeningly silent when those on social security are attacked, and about other issues such as AGW, and only wake up when it affects their pockets.”
I don’t think that is true at all..Actually, you’ll find that those students that were protesting are quite vocal and active in regards to other human rights…I think you have believed the hype from the mainstream media…most students generally do not care too much about the student loan issue and they believe in a user-pays system…most students are “deafeningly silent” in regards to the student loan issue and are generally ignorant to ALL political and social issues.
The percentage of NZ tertiary students protesting these changes?…I’d guess about 1-2%. Students don’t “only wake up when it affects their pockets”…students are for the most part sleepy and ignorant.
“Oh yes.The lives of those of us born into the post-war austerity were so much easier than the children and grand children of the boomer middle-classes and upperclasses – those kids who grew up with every mod con, clothes with designer labels and electronic toys.’
Good point…the average person who was born between the 1950s-1970s faced more challenges than the elite of the future generations.
“Learn a little history.”
…like that nugget of informative insight that you just blessed me with?…thank you…I know where to come for my history lessons.
“And it certainly wasn’t a lot easier for lareg numbers of girls and women. Maori, Pacific people, the working classes, GLBT people etc.”
Another good point, one I’ve argued here myself, the boomers had conservative economic and social structures, they swapped them for liberal economic and social ideals…we’ve been through this before. I do find it ironic that you highlight that privileges existed back (and still do) – white privilege, gender privilege, sexuality privilege etc…but get pulled up on generational privilege and you’ll refute that till the cows some home.
“And, still, fatty, for you the gen x& yers are the poor victims of previous generations doings, even when those people are doing things destructive to society – always victims of the circumstances they find themselves in. Meanwhile, the protest generation boomers are never explained in similar terms, but are always the perps. of all our current evils.”
…nah, not me. I realise essentialising my argument is probably the best form of defence from confronting your privilege (rather than historical facts), but I do not paint gen x & y as pure victims, and the boomers are not “always the perps. of all our current evils”…that’s not how privilege and opportunities work.
I know if all boomers were like you (or others on here) then we wouldn’t have generational inequality. If all white people in the past thought like me, then we wouldn’t have white privilege, and I wouldn’t be a privileged white person. (BTW, I’m poor, got a life crippling student loan and owning property is a distant dream…so I haven’t benefited from white privilege, but it still exists). I’m aware of my privileges…I know my history.
We’ve been through all this before haven’t we Carol?…can you or someone answer this question cause this comment has come from nowhere and I dunno if people consider this to be true…I’ll repeat my question…
How is generational theft a catch cry of the “parasitic right wing wealthy to deflect attention away from how much they are stealing from us”?
Well, you shouldn’t! I am technically a boomer (1953) and I have not benefitted from any of the things boomers supposedly had… (Well, one thing – close to full employment when I left school in 1971, but I didn’t get to Uni until 11 years later, being working class, and that was just before everything changed!)
So here I am, decades later – as broke as it’s possible to be, no more prospect of home ownership than I had when I was young, too old to be attractive to employers (and I have discovered over the past 4 years that women must be attractive, to be employed in offices*) but too young for National Super.
* Yes, knowing that the Human Rights commision has no teeth and that they can say so without consequence, at least 8 prospective employers in the past 4 years have told me in so many words, that I am too old and not good looking enough to be in their office…
Yes, Vicky, while undoubtedly there’s a significant number of boomers dominating the housing ladder, home ownership is far from widespread amongst “boomers” generally:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Halved-home-ownership-rates-for-baby-boomers/tabid/423/articleID/155691/Default.aspx
And as I recall, in one of your WINZ reports you state how most of the people turning up to their “courses” etc, were over 45 years.
So while the elite of the boomers are creaming it, others are not so secure. And we are getting conflicting messages. While some boomers sit at the top of the tree with significant wealth and high-paying jobs, others are losing their jobs, and finding, not only are they not the most desired employees, but some younger people have the more, most recent qualifications.
And we are being sent conflicting messages – there’s not enough money in the coffers for boomer pensions (even for some people who’ve been paying towards the super of the older generation, in the belief that their investment would set up their retirement). So some are telling boomers we need to work til we are older – which is fine for some, but only if they can get/have a job that hasn’t already ground you down. But others are saying boomers should retire and leave the jobs for younger people.
So, really, just another divide and conquer tactic and distraction from the fact that the few are doing well at the expense of many – bennie bashing, older people bashing, “lazy” student bashing…. and on it goes…..
“So, really, just another divide and conquer tactic and distraction from the fact that the few are doing well at the expense of many”
So you do believe that the concept of intergenerational inequality is a tool of ‘right wingers’?
…can you please give me an example…because I’ve never come across this kind of ‘divide and conquer tactic’ from the wealthy where they highlight the issue of generational inequality.
their not as stupid as you fatty telling the truth and right wing is an oxymoron. you ########n
“their not as stupid as you fatty telling the truth and right wing is an oxymoron. you ########n”
Is anyone able to translate that for me please…Or have another try Mike E
How many people have IT problems at work? Was reading this article about wasted time in the workplace & it claims that people wasted hours each week on IT failures;
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6995443/We-re-sick-of-wasting-time
“Kiwi workers said they wasted two to three hours a week on inefficient or malfunctioning technology. ”We all know intuitively it takes too long to boot up your computer, your email crashes, all those things, but do organisations really know what that is costing them?”
Occasionally I’ve been in a shop that linked to head office via a thin client & the system took ages to search the database but generally I thought those kind of IT troubles were a thing of the past. Do people really still have a lot of IT problems at work?
Get a MAC!
There’s essentially no difference between a Mac and a PC any more. It’s all the same hardware and run at similar reliability.
Still, if I was running a business I’d probably run Linux.
Just kidding but I think that there is still a difference Draco. Not an expert but didn’t the guru who wrote the software for access to the Budget online, say that the Apple App was done very quickly but the other took several weeks. Doesn’t really matter but in Education it seems that Mac schools are often well advanced in ITC whereas PCs are less so.
I suppose that depends upon how good their IT departments are. I’ve worked in corporations that did have those troubles and it was obvious that their IT department a) wasn’t funded enough, b) was taking all sorts of short cuts and/or c) their software was all over the bloody place often requiring 2 or 3 apps to get a job done.
Companies and corporations often have a poor understanding of how to properly plan and run IT. More often than not giving it to their accountant to run.
Substitute “a company” for IT and you have it right.
Our political parties all seem to be in to austerity.
While each has their own little fantasies about how things can get better – public/private partnerships, green jobs, capital gains tax, investment in R and D etc, none of them take us away from the neo liberal economic model and none of them are addressing the structural economic problems or climate change.
National government is busily attacking unions and trying to push wages even lower, Labour wants to mount an even bigger offensive against the whole working class by raising pension age eligibility and the Greens want to subject nature itself to market forces.
As far as our politicians go it is clear they agree on one thing.
Any mad idea is preferable to admitting capitalism is failing for them.
As energy costs continue to put the hard boot down on ‘growth’ we are going to see this perpetual stagnation and mild economic decline become the new normal.
And quite naturally, democracies all over the world will become increasingly feudal in outlook and operation, with an aristocratic class running the show in their own interests.
Unless we manage to get a proper democracy in place before the feudal lords take over again.
That would normally take money, physical resources, governmental power and corporate media influence. Which not by co-incidence the feudal types are busy sewing up.
That’s why we need people power. A single millionaire doesn’t have the same amount of money or clout as a million people with a few dollars each. We’ve just been conditioned to believe that they do.
Unfortunately, it’s a little more difficult to get a million people all going in the same direction.
No chance of that B, you obviosuly read enough to understand that the Military/Intelligence Networks are the ones who will be using the advanced tech to quash anything that resembles demoracy past or present.
As Viper points out, the rulers are currently making sure that any stragglers are seen to, and chances of competition reappearing in any industry space, consigned to the history books!
The drumbeats grow louder and louder for changes to National Super. Never mind that senior poverty is much worse in nations where pensions are means tested — old people in the US having to flip burgers or live on the streets, while employers are are always looking for ways to avoid making good on their pension obligations — I noticed that aforementioned drumbeats are coming from the financial services/banking sector, for whom administering pension funds would be a licence to print money.
National Superannuation is a taonga. Efforts to change it would only lead to an infliction of hardship.
Reduce the retirement age to 62 to allow younger people to move into the work force. Pay for the difference by printing (electronically crediting the Government with) the money required.
Meanwhile, encourage retirees to further increase their volunteering and involvement in their local communities.
Worked for Greece
Can’t work for Greece, because Greece gave up sovereignty over their currency and have subsequently put their banks and their creditors ahead of their own people.
NZ must not give up its economic sovereignty under any circumstances.
TPPA!
GMFI. Retire when you want.
Well, I, for one, would be happy with 62 as a retirement age and to spend my time doing things that contribute to society one way or another, CV…. so long as a have enough to live on – my needs are small.
However, I don’t think your prescription deals with the problem of the current work structure and its underlying values. The reason many older people will be reluctant to step aside from work is because the current structure is built on individualistic values.
Most value is put on those who set out to make themselves rich (especially since the 1980s), while community work is undervalued – both via the relative levels of remuneration and the way economic success is measured. And the result of this is low social status given to such work.
Consequently, after many in the business world, and politics, have worked to consolidate or achieve their wealth and status, they would be unwilling to give up that status to do community work for no pay. So, many take seats on boards and places on right-wing working groups etc, They get big pay, for doing little, or little that is of value to society.
Community work does contribute to the economy, and consequently, within the structure we have, people doing it should be paid.
But I’m all for people in their 60s stepping aside from full time and high paid positions, to work part time.
Yep. Luckily, I’m guessing the Don Brash and Roger Douglas types make up quite a small %, whereas mature persons who think more like yourself are far more numerous.
Oh that’s hilarious! This year I decided that as there’s less than a zero % chance of my ever getting a job (year 4 on UB), I’d do some volunteering work.
That was in mid-January. It’s now a few days off from June. I’ve been to MOTAT, Volunteering Auckland, and the Auckland City Mission. All of them have turned me down – which makes me feel worse than useless. So, no, nobody’s actually crying out for volunteers!
Except maybe the people who wanted me to pay them serious money to do their ESOL course so I could teach English as a second language for free through their organisation. The tertiary qualifications in ESOL teaching that I already have, are it seems, not quite good enough, neither is my eight years’ experience in the field!
So, yeah, I’d happily take National Super at 62, only 4 years to go, as my experience has shown that employers won’t hire anyone over 50… so you’ll forgive me for screaming every time I hear about the poor yoof… at least yoof unemployment is not invisible! I look at my fellow attendees at WINZ seminars, and whaddaya know, no one there is under 45…
QFT and it’s that particular reason why I haven’t joined a political party. The whole damn lot of them are in denial of reality.
Labour intentions on superannuation shows they are still trapped in the Neo-liberal paradigm.
Anything to avoid the obvious answer. Extend the pension idea of a minimum income to young people and families also. Much more effective stimulus than tax cuts for the wealthy to waste.
http://kjt-kt.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/on-retirement-pensions-and-age-of.html
We cannot afford super is yet another repeated right wing meme. It has been repeated so often even those who should know better have been taken in.
We can, if we invest in our country and our young people.
Instead of selling off our income earning assets to fund tax cuts.
As capitalism has failed, can you give us some evidence-based examples of communist states that we should emulate.
All civilisations start off being communist. If it wasn’t for the success of that start they would never have the wealth to turn to capitalism and then screw everything up.
One Track. At last ! Some hope of sense.
It is better the devil you know than the one you don’t.
No you moron, it isn’t.
Draco… You are rising to the bait again.
“can you give us some evidence-based examples of communist states that we should emulate”
As I’ve run out of marmite, please show me some vegemite or I’ll refuse to believe there’s anything to put on toast.
Well put 😀
“As I’ve run out of marmite, please show me some vegemite or I’ll refuse to believe there’s anything to put on toast.”
Haha…good call. Its surprising that some people are still sucking on Saggy Thatcher’s floppy old tittie…The concept of TINA is possibly more powerful now than its ever been – look at Europe
Additional Tax changes considered were unable to be implemented due to IRD IT turnaround limitations.
“Welcome my son…welome to the machine..
Canadian students do it in style.
Murray McCully hang your head in shame
National has reneged on aid commitments to the world’s poorest people, by cutting $133 million from its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) budget over the next three years…
Millhouse posted this to me about National Standards. A simple Youtube summary of NS as seen by farmers (teachers) and fruit and vegetables (children).
http://youtu.be/9d9ZBpg3sMo
Just talking today with a facilitator for online post graduate teachers who report that some schools are neglecting many areas of schooling like Science and Art, but putting all their time and energy into Literacy and Numeracy in order to inflate their National Standards ratings. Funny that.
Conveniently omitted from the RWNJ narrative that Greeks have only themselves to blame, the tax exempt status of the one percent.
They are among the wealthiest Greeks — whether shipping magnates, whose tax-free status is enshrined in the constitution, or the so-called oligarchs who have accumulated vast wealth via their dominance in core areas of the economy like oil, gas, media, banking and even cement.
Put the blame where it should be – on the rich. That applies in NZ as well especially under this government.
Exactly. Welfare was the problem. All the neolibs forget to mention is that it was welfare for the rich.
The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, cars and real estate, BUT friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.
That’s nice but you can’t have any of those latter things in a capitalist society and, no matter what, we all need the former (except the stocks/bonds and cars).
+1
friendship,
until it is inconvenient.
trust,
until it becomes unprofitable.
confidence,
measured in material gain.
empathy,
as long as it doesn’t cause change.
mercy,
to those who are like ourselves.
love,
prostituted to ambition.
and faith,
that death will save us from the truth.
Wow
Wow, that’s really depressing. Glad I don’t have to live like that.
And please, feel free to wilfully ignore all those who do.
Ignore people who wander around second guessing and distrusting “friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith”?
Sure.
Yep. Hence why I don’t vote for Key, English or Brownlee.
Well I wouldn’t put your stock in with Draco then either.
As usual you’ve got it arse backwards, my slow-witted little conformist friend.
Your lack of trustworthiness in no way implies any lack of ability in others to trust.
“Your lack of trustworthiness in no way implies any lack of ability in others to trust.”
My lack of trustworthiness? You fucking numpty.
Draco says “That’s nice but you can’t have any of those latter things in a capitalist society” in relation to “friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.”
To which I reply “speak for yourself Draco, I have everything John 72 listed (except faith, I am an atheist).”
So, what the fuck are you talking about? Its Draco and UTurn implying the inability to trust, love and have confidence. Not me.
So who is arse-backwards?
I didn’t imply its lack, just that you can’t have it in a capitalist society where it’s all against all.
“just that you can’t have it in a capitalist society where it’s all against all.”
Well I have “friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love (though not faith as an atheist)”
So where does that leave your claim then? Are you going to tell me I don’t have these things? Based on what?
Overall, society doesn’t have those things.
Trust is non-existent – I’m pretty sure those emails telling me that I’ve won $100m/have a huge inheritance and all I have to do is send a $10000 money order and it’ll be right in the mail are all truthful, really.
Confidence in what? Can’t be government as they busy destroying our society. Can’t be confident that you’ll have a job tomorrow as jobs are disappearing so as to lower wages.
Empathy – ACC cuts to rape victims shows a distinct lack of that, so does all the beneficiary bashing going on.
Mercy – Same place the empathy is I suspect.
I didn’t mention friendship or love as they’re personal but I’m sure we’ll find that such has also been abused so that someone else can make a buck.
My point was that capitalism breeds the opposites.
Oh Contrarian you poor wee thing. I was using you as an example because I don’t trust anything you say.
“friendship, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love, and faith.”
I am not sure the list of things are all of the same calibre. Trust, for example, is a judgement, and depends on something in one’s life being trustworthy, though one might retain trust in God where nothing else was trustworthy. And certainly no amount of material accumulation is going to make up for these values where they are absent. However, our ability to develop and retain these properties are under threat when we are utterly deprived. It makes me angry when people are so trained that they must preface their concerns with “We do not indulge in luxuries, and we never go to the movies or take the kids to the zoo etc…” It is as if anything above bacteria-like survival becomes a source of guilt, while the people encouraging this thinking make million dollar errors and still sleep at night.
“It is as if anything above bacteria-like survival becomes a source of guilt, while the people encouraging this thinking make million dollar errors and still sleep at night.”
Perfectly put Olwyn.Unfortunately ‘morality’ has been redefined by the likes of Phil O’ Reilly, now a ‘new corporate church order business deacon’ as being: ‘the highest moral standard one can achieve is “productivity and competitiveness”‘.
http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/wednesday-february-29-4748673
Now can you see how a ‘moral’ man can sleep soundly at night
“That’s nice but you can’t have any of those latter things in a capitalist society”
Speak for yourself Draco, I have everything John 72 listed (except faith, I am an atheist).
“I have everything John 72 listed”
All of the latter I mean. Love, friendship etc
DH; Apologies.much haste. 60% of voters over 50?
Jackal. World Bank Prediction for “investment” in developing countries to decline.
U-Turn. Excellence.
Fight for socialism in the name of capitalism (subversion)
“Intellectuals become first students of the masses to become teachers of the masses”
“When money stops flowing to the man on the street, blood flows in the street”
Infrastructure spending. Chinese Investment. Employment.
Like Water.
In a Herald article today entitled,” Charter Schools meet with some resistance” and resplendent with a cheery photo of snow queen Catherine Isaacs, John O’Neill professor in Teacher Education at Massey, points out what he considers to be the real agenda for the ‘out of the blue’ introduction of Charter Schools.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10808693
“O’Neill is sceptical of Isaac’s sincerity in pushing the charter school agenda. He points to the legislative change, which will effectively “take teachers out of the State Sector Act”.
Under the act, teachers are deemed public servants and entitled to a collective contract.
By changing the law, charter schools will be able to employ teachers on individual contracts.
This is Isaac’s real agenda, he claims: “to block the power of the unions”.”
Never mind our children then. Ice splinters all round.
First the Serco incompetence. Then the National Party in denial.
Well, after NACT went around telling everyone how good privatisation is they’d have to defend the failure that it is else they’d have to admit that they were wrong and they’ll never do that.