“It’s probably necessary to stop here and point out a couple of things. First of all, the fact that free trade is bad policy doesn’t mean that every kind of trade barrier is good policy. The habit of insisting that the only possible points along a spectrum are its two ends, common as it is, is an effective way to make really bad decisions; as in most things, there’s a middle ground that yields better results than either of the two extremes. Finding that middle ground isn’t necessarily easy, but the same thing’s true of most economic and political issues.”
That link was discussed here yesterday. Glad you brought it up again.
Excerpt:
“People who are aligned to the Labour cause actually genuinely take action about improving housing, about lifting incomes, about making sure that schools are properly funded, and our hospitals are properly funded.
“What they don’t do is go around looking for those on the highest incomes to back them – to challenge whoever because that’s all they want. Labour people, passionate Labour in their heart – they stick with Labour, they campaign on Labour issues, and for the Labour Party. Nick’s not one of those people.”
Andrew Little is bang on. Pseudo supporters who are only in the party for what they can get out of it. Having used Labour to its fullest capacity, they then scarper off to greener pastures. I think you could put people like Phil Quin and Josie Pagani into much the same boat.
I note on Q&A today that Pagani has given herself a new title – Public Affairs specialist.
Yeah, Labour can afford to be really picky about who they approve as left wing enough.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin and the other 10-15% of voters that Labour has lost are all dispensable. If they lose some all they need to do is accept their reduced party status and use Greens and maybe NZ First to make up the difference.
Good luck with that one. It’s a strategy that has failed before, but maybe if it’s repeated enough times it will work eventually.
The problem is that Labour seems to expect the non-voters to understand them and support them. They don’t seem to try let alone succeed in understanding the non-voters.
Repeatedly trying to sell a a failed product to very reluctant buyers is a bit of a challenge.
If two terms of key’s government wasn’t enough motivation to get the missing million off their bums on election day and voting for any opposition party to prevent a third, then their hearts, and minds, really can’t be in it.
I wouldn’t advocate writing them off, they’re still a huge potential voting block, but I wouldn’t build a campaign around them or labour under the expectation they’ll all of a sudden engage.
Labour/Greens just need to keep the policy coming.
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s the “Labour” Party – even for someone as incapable of understanding what people are telling him as you are, that name should be a bit of a giveaway as to whom the part exists for. Just in case you are as obtuse as ever, it’s for people who are on the side of labour – Leggett, Pagani et al are not and should be pissing into someone else’s tent.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin, Shane Jones, the Maori MPs et al are people who helped get Clark’s Labour into Government and stay there for for nine years.
If Labour wants to ditch it’s ‘broad church’ appeal and piss on anyone who won’t accept their narrowing appeal without criticism then they are heading towards voluntary minor party status.
They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.
Oh ffs again. Legget is considering standing for National. So unless you think that Labour should be so broad as to also be National, you’re spouting a self-serving, the centre is god mythology that isn’t born out by what is happening in the world.
“They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.”
Telling lies this early on a Sunday Pete, really. (that or you simply don’t understand the MoU and what it means).
National and Labour are not mutually exclusive, as has been pointed out here many times. There’s quite an overlap in the centre and has been for a long time.
And get stuffed with your accusing me of lying just because you happen to disagree. Try arguing on the issue, if you have an argument.
Yes, I’ve read it, it’s so vague that you can’t clearly explain it.
It appears to mean that Greens and Labour are open to building relationships with other parties, people and organisations that share their goal but recognise that is a decision for themselves.
Unless Greens and Labour have decided they are from the Maori Party, the Mana Party, or are amongst the 15% of voters who have previously voted for Labour or Greens, but have now been deemed to be RWNJs?
At least we have this though. PG has just admitted he doesn’t understand the MoU, which makes his original statement about Labour having ditched Labour and is not L+G a confirmed idiocy.
I didn’t admit I don’t understand the MoU. I said it appears to be too vague for OAB to explain it, but OAB seems to rarely try and explain anything, they seem more intent on playing dirty.
The way Labour and Greens have worked with each other and not worked with each other suggests to me that it isn’t a hard and fast agreement, it is simply a general understanding that they will try and work together better until the election to present a Labour+Green alternative to voters and to defeat National.
Meanwhile, on Earth, I encouraged this dishonest bore to explain which clauses he can’t understand. It’s written in plain English. Instead, the lying troll puts words in my mouth.
It’s because he’s an astroturfing waste of bandwidth.
There’s nothing vague about agreeing to work together in Parliament and select committees, for example, unless you’re a lying trolling petty poison-pen.
There’s nothing vague about “no surprises”, unless you are pretending to be an illiterate idiot to advance your ongoing unoriginal repetition of right wing smears.
There’s nothing vague about monthly meetings, unless you have no original thoughts of your own and a list of right wing memes to faithfully copy.
No wonder people 🙄 whenever his latest ban expires.
It’s vague where it’s most critical – what Labour and Greens might do after the election.
The MoU seems to be an attempted con, selling Labour+Greens as a viable alternative to National (Labour having conceded they can’t go head to head with National any more) but with no indication what the end coalition would look like.
That’s been Winston’s trick in the past (and still is, the ‘wait until the voters decide’ trick, but the voters don’t know what to base their decision on).
No concession from Labour: a recidivist liar made it up.
No “attempted con” either – the MOU means exactly what it says. Unless you’re determined to bad-mouth the parties in question, that is. Because you’re motivated by hate.
Yes: the reason Petty George runs these plagiarised lies is pure and simple: malice, and a desperate cry for attention.
The comparison with NZF is a lie too, because unlike Peters, L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.
Can’t really fault the rest of your assessments OAB, although I would say the nasty comes from fear of the left and wanting to consolidate power in the centre because that’s the only place he can tolerate.
No, Pete, I’m not going to tell you how I understand the MoU, because you are a troll who looks intent on running attack lines against the left.
“L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.”
The wording of the MOU implies it will run only until the election and it is not being presented as a coalition deal.
Asked about NZ First’s role Little said: “We both agree this is not a monogamous relationship.”
He would welcome any other party committed to changing the government and advancing progressive policies.
But he refused to say whether he would leave the Greens out in the cold and form a government with NZ First if it had the numbers and its leader Winston Peters insisted.
Yes, we’ve already established you either have no idea what is going on or are lying.
I”m not going to show you anything because you are a troll.
Labour and the Greens were explicit that the MoU lasted until the election and that any coalition deals would be negotiated after the election. And they’ve also been explicit that they are willing to work together in government. And they’ve also been explicit that they’re not guaranteeing that, because obviously how the voting goes will have a big impact on who gets to form govt. Duh.
Only a fucking idiot* would criticise them for not having a coalition deal 12 months out from an election.
I haven’t seen anyone say they should have a coalition deal before the election. No one does that, it would be absurd to even suggest it.
Yes Labour and Greens have indicated they would work together in Government – maybe. Greens will almost certainly need Labour if they still won’t work in government with National.
But Andrew Little wouldn’t rule out jilting the Greens and doing a deal with Winston if that allowed him to form a government.
Even this “statement of the bleeding obvious” is barbed with Petty’s feeble smears – “jilting” – seriously? Is Petty George in fact a teenage fashion victim with a very unfortunate skin condition?
I think it would be more useful for New Zealand if Labour and National just went into a long-term coalition. Spare me the tedium of another election.
National under Key have hardly cracked down on social welfare as they have done, accelerated resolution of Maori issues, retained all the Helen Clark government’s innovations and in some places improved them, plus the earthquakes and Auckland’s needs have simply forced Key to become more and more Keynesian as he stays on.
Whereas Labour in policy terms are about the same as when Helen Clark left – even dumping the 90 day fire at will clause was beyond fighting.
Sure, there’s lots to differ on, but it’s too small and country, and our politics overall now too centrist.
Labour and National’s caucuses should simply get together over Christmas, share a good long bong session, and move in together.
We’ve been waiting for a long-term compact that would steady the country and push it along harder. Well, Labour and National, do it.
@ Petey boy:
Leggett, Pagani and Quin are dispensable. No-one in the LP has shed any tears at their loss Pete dear. Labour has not been so unified since the departure of these trouble makers, but we know that is all a bit hard for someone like you to comprehend.
“picky about who they approve as left wing enough”. Right wing is not acting to improve housing, not lifting incomes, not making sure schools and public hospitals are properly funded,
A scab is someone who betrays his or her fellow workers. Nick Leggett has never violated a strike, to my knowledge, so of course Andrew Little would not call him a scab.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan White House official, talks about the state of Anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world.
Russia:
Gangster state led by a KGB dictator where political opponents and non compliant journalists just disappear, get murdered or are jailed.
Initiates an aggressive expansionist policy, which threatens several independent sovereign nation states on it’s borders who commit to and view western Europe as their ally, as is their given right.
Sanctions and tactical slashing of oil prices hit the bank balance of Putin and his crony pet pussy cats, and faced with diminishing wealth, and above all, dents to his ruskie male chauvinist ego, he sets in motion a plan to destabilize.
During the Arab spring, in Syria, instead of supporting the popular people led call for regime change he frustrated attempts in order to protect his energy deals and local influence, which in turn caused the vacuum in which isil filled and has led to propping up a barrel bombing, chlorine gas using murderer who because of this has no hope of ever running a united country, ever, no matter how many hospitals or aid convoys the Russian military can target and destroy.
Best you stick your “anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world” up your agenda motivated cossack.
A perfect summary of false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda, thank you.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
It has become more self reliant on localised manufacturing and technology, accelerate its military modernisation and to seek new ties to India, China and South East Asia.
Who you spin and shill for and why you’ve accepted the mission is your call, but don’t expect all the people all the time to be as dimwitted and gullible as you’ll need them to be to have your version of history regarded as fact. There just isn’t enough RT propaganda around to do it.
So yeah, insert your “false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda” up your swollen Gorky.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
Most of us don’t need “Russophobic PR” to tell us that an authoritarian right-wing kleptocracy in charge a huge military isn’t a good thing. Also, it’s superfluous to say “Russia” has been forced to diversify “its” economy, as though it had some kind of representative democracy running it. Putin and his cronies have been forced to diversify their economy – no need for euphemisms.
You have to recognise that other countries, not just ours, have legitimate national and security interests. With NATO moving more and more forces and bases to within 100km of Russian borders, of course Russia will respond accordingly.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
However, Putin has far higher public approval and favourability ratings than either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – neither of whom the American people would choose if they had a true choice.
In contrast, most Russians would far more enthusiastically vote for Vladimir Putin.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
“…not managed in the same way.” Ah, yes – let’s draw a discreet false-equivalence veil over the hugely consequential difference between an actual democracy and a pretend one, because… well, damned if I know why you do it, unless you’re a right-wing authoritarian yourself.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership. From failed oligarchic state to prosperous re-emerging super power in under 20 years.
Having said that most Russians do seem to think that the machinery of their government remains bureaucratic, slow and inevitably corrupt to one degree or another.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership.
So was Hitler. Which I mention not to compare Putin to Hitler, just to illustrate that a leader’s popularity or lack of it says nothing useful about quality of governance. As a general rule, Big Brother making the trains run on time isn’t a substitute for rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom and a functioning democracy.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
Especially compared to the 1990s. When a disastrous US engineered post-Soviet collapse put Russia in the hands of a dozen hand picked oligarchs loyal to foreign powers and criminal ethnic mafias causing havoc in local communities.
And the Russian people credit Putin for putting that disintegrating chaotic country back together.
One more point. I’m quietly confident that the rest of the world has had quite enough of western colonialists trying to tell them how to behave and how to run government.
Especially given the incompetent rigged display of a US democratic debacle this year.
When I was a teenager my day would be given a magazine smuggled out of Czechoslovakia by one of his friends who was a communist. I remember it well, for it contained wonderful descriptions of the superb life the people there enjoyed under the Russian rule. Of course it was all bull shit.
RT delivers much the same now.
You know Macro, I tire of old cold war types and old cold war stereotypes.
If you can’t understand that Putin’s Russia is a completely different nation to Yeltsin’s Russia, which was completely different to the Soviet Union which was a completely different nation to Tsarist Russia, there is no way that you can make sensible judgements on important issues to do with that nation.
Anyway for a laugh, here is Steven Seagal receiving his Russian citizenship from Putin this week.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
I’m not sure what you mean by “getting its act together,” since Russia is deteriorating on all those counts a lot faster than any western democracy and from a much lower base.
…western colonialists…
Just for giggles, how do you think the Russian Federation got to be the size it is today? And why do you think it considers various of its neighbours to be part of its “sphere of influence?”
falling apart – ha! the 5 year plan is well above target, everyone is happy and well fed and everyone love vlad oh yes that is the truth I am not being forced to say this…
As I said where? The Russian Federation isn’t falling apart. Russia could continue to deteriorate on those good governance measures to the point where it’s one of the shittiest countries in the world and still not fall apart – in fact, it’s already done that once, as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Putin’s got a long way to go before he could even aspire to the same league as earlier Russian efforts at bad governance.
It’s what Russia always needed, to get out more and smell the roses. Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda aside. Who do think Russia’s new ties with India, China and South East Asia will really benefit ?
Mostly the 50%-60% of the world’s population living right there.
This is an Eurasian 21st Century.
Marked by the return of the old civilisations of the world: Russia 1100 years old, China 3000+ years old, India 3000+ years old, Persia 2500+ years old.
NZ, while remaining aligned with our strong US-Anglo roots, has to realise that we have to be flexible and adaptable to the change at hand.
You really embarrass yourself every time you come on this messageboard. I cannot imagine you spouting such ignorant comments in any half sane work place, so the question arises: Are you a radio talkback host?
You use that ‘you embarrass yourself’ line a lot and, in context, it doesn’t bother me a bit what you think. I can easily live with your fragility.
I’m not the one whose been stalking a radio show for years and years. lol
I guess it would be difficult for anyone to match the breadth of your research on the subject, extending as it does all the way from John Pilger to Russia Today…
The RWNJs go on about the oppression of the USSR, China, DPRK etc and then they go round doing this sort of shit:
Last week, the U.K.’s Parliament approved the Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the “Snoopers’ Charter” by critics. The law, which is expected to come into force before the end of the year, was introduced in November 2015 after the fallout from revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden about extensive British mass surveillance. The Investigatory Powers Bill essentially retroactively legalizes the electronic spying programs exposed in the Snowden documents — and also expands some of the government’s surveillance powers.
And then they wonder why we compare them to Hitler and Stalin.
As Paul Craig Roberts states, the few countries left with independent foreign and monetary policies (Iran, Syria, Russia, China, and formerly Libya and Iraq) must be demonised and destabilised.
But you get a total pass if you are a co-operative part of the Anglo-US empire.
Big business bristles at possible $86m tax crackdown (from Granny Herald)
“Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the delays made it seem that Inland Revenue had double standards in tax enforcement.
“What it looks like is the Government is sending in metaphorical SWAT teams to catch beneficiaries and student loan borrowers, while they’re letting [large taxpayers] not pay millions of dollars in taxes, year after year,” he said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said Woodhouse “needs to decide whose side he’s on. Is he on the side of working New Zealanders who pay their PAYE every week and do the right thing, or is he on the side of companies who seek to limit their tax paid in New Zealand?”
On a similar note from Bernard Hickey (also on Granny Herald)
“The default position for many now is to distrust apparently rootless multinational companies who have played countries off against each other to reduce their tax bills and generate ever-bigger profits for their equally rootless investors.
Prime Minister John Key has his ear close to the ground and this week he told Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to win back the trust of the globalised masses by paying its taxes.
“I think if they don’t, the same people who are its users will wake up one day and say, ‘Why do I have to pay my tax if this company is not going to?'” Key said.
It’s a bit late for that now. People are wide awake. Key hopes the social contract supporting globalisation here can be repaired with a few tweaks and some good PR.
The trouble is globalisation is global. It only works when everyone globally believes in that social contract, and that is broken.”
More profiteering on apartments – so helpful for first home buyers (sarc) (from Granny herald)
“At the St James Suites planned for Queen St, a buyer who in 2014 signed a contract to pay $775,000 was stunned last week when that figure escalated to $999,000 for exactly the same two-bedroom place.
Across in Takapuna, one buyer at The Sargeson apartment project told how the price of a unit was rising from $465,000 to $535,000, while at Rose Gardens Apartments in Albany, where work is well advanced, buyers were being asked for 15 per cent more.
Rising construction costs, funding cost hikes and difficulty getting access to funding are some of the issues being mentioned in letters sent to buyers, citing clauses which allow changes, offering to cancel and pay interest on deposits.
Auckland apartment developer Marty Kells said some overseas players were ratcheting up unit prices.”
Those developers are getting screwed by the materials suppliers; in particular Fletchers and its subsidiaries in cement, steel, hardware, and wood.
They are also having their construction workers sucked away by the big public sector infrastructure jobs.
While interest rates stay low, immigration goes high, and demand for housing continues to climb and climb, prices will continue to escalate by the month.
Also it is not just ‘bodies on the build’ – it is the level of building skills that’s lacking – they should never have taken away the apprentices and so forth.
But I think the main factor going up is materials not labour. But MSM does not talk about that as nobody is lobbying for cheaper materials and investigations into building monopolies and price fixing.
It seems that there is price fixing going on at all the major building firms. As soon as one puts up the prices the rest follow.
The Army Corps of Engineers has issued an eviction notice to one of the Standing Rock camps (which is on Indian land, but the govt think it’s theirs). They’re meant to leave by 5th Dec. As far as I can tell the camp is continuing to build in prep for winter.
This impressive rant from a US Navy Vet on what’s going down,
/ In his meetings, Flynn is said to have claimed Trump’s controversial campaign-trail remarks were merely part of the rhetoric needed to secure an election win, according to informed sources. His actual policies after taking office would be different from what he said to galvanize his support base, Flynn predicted.
… Frydl too saw the Trump win in such areas as a vote against the status quo in the same way that a vote for Obama was in 2008. In that way, she thinks Trump’s upset is a “de facto” judgment on Obama’s failure to be the “change agent” many thought they were voting for.
“The people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the steel belt that voted for Trump were aware that the steel mills closed in 1983,” she said. “They were aware of that in 2012 when they voted for Obama. There is something specific to the opioid crisis in the last four years that is a social policy failure that deserves to be treated as discrete.”
Frydl, who has written a history of the drug war in America, believes that the Obama administration’s response to the opioid crisis signaled to many addiction-ravaged areas that “their suffering was not registering with the Democratic Party establishment.” …
… After decades of systemic economic decline and the government’s failure to address the subsequent public-health crisis, Trump’s outsider campaign was perfectly primed to capitalize on the so-called Oxy electorate’s fears about foreign influence and loss of status.
Every time Trump turned up in New Hampshire he would talk about stopping drugs coming in from Mexico, he would talk about stamping out the heroin/opioid problem, he would talk about getting addicts proper treatment and making sure they get better and that they could get good jobs again, he would meet with public officials and community groups dealing with this problem.
More than 50,000 abusive and offensive tweets were sent celebrating Labour MP Jo Cox’s murder and lauding her killer, Thomas Mair, as a “hero” or “patriot” in the month following her death, prompting calls for the government to do more to tackle hate speech online.
It’s a difficult line to draw but there has to be some limits to free-speech. It’s this type of stuff that leads to stuff like this:
They include the killing of 77 and injuring of 242 people in Norway by Anders Breivik in July 2011 in shooting and bomb attacks fuelled by his rightwing views and belief in the Islamisation of Europe.
If it translates into the voting pattern next year, it will mean more homeless working families and dead children, and you’ll have something to celebrate.
I am not envious of policies that can only achieve economic growth through increasing immigration. Nor do I envy the wealth that goes with crony capitalist corruption: I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks.
If you had a rebuttal to my valid criticism you’d have stated it. Instead you chose to attack me.
Thanks for conceding my point so quickly. Console yourself with your feelings for Dear Leader.
Pragmatically speaking that would lead to a Labour/NZF government with the Greens providing confidence and supply. However, I note that you seem much more confident in your opinion of what Winston will or won’t do than I am, so perhaps it is you who needs your head read.
I’d be surprised if National don’t win out right next year.
Apart from the left being a joke, Key has finally realised the jokey jokey stuff with the media isn’t the best idea as he loses control of the narrative so has peeled that right back.
From now on the message will be Key the dependable, the guy you can rely on etc, Angry boy really doesn’t have a chance, if he was honest the best thing he could do is throw the towel in now and save the country quite a few million.
Hey, OAB. Is it true you have hired Dr Death to relieve you of your miserable existence after the next election is won by National? I say that because you seem to be an abusive prick who is exempt from moderation and offers little to a debate. You also make a mockery of the good behaviour rule for this thread. Or doesn’t that apply to you?
Outgoing PMs popularity is trending downwards and has been for some time. JS
Arrogance does not keep a government in power, Northland springs to mind, and if the current government was any good (popular) they would be able to take Mt Roskill, but they won’t because they aren’t.
Don’t rely on the polls, Brexit and Trump should have taught everyone that lesson by now.
But hey if all you want to do is gloat, then gloat away, makes you look foolish considering the information I’ve just provided.
Dude, don’t make fun of suicide, the stats in our country are naught to be proud of, thanks to the current government, taking ones own life has never been more popular.
Key’s Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined average is now just under 38% (for 2016)
So he’s Down 15 points on 2011,
11 points on 2010
and 14 points on 2009
His 2/2 of 2016 combined average is now just under 37%
In reality, he’s probably down a little more than that. Key is usually slightly weaker in the Reid Research polls. And an unusually small number of RR polls have been carried out this year (2 to Colmar Brunton’s 5). Usually these 2 Pollsters conduct roughly the same number of polls each year.
Based off what Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said about Hillary Clinton’s popularity.
Does Labour’s polling appear to be benefitting from Key’s weakening ratings relative to 2011?
Or is Labour’s polling still demonstrating a polling ceiling (that I would place at roughly 28% to 30%) which it cannot seem to break through and stay through, even as Key’s support declines?
And finally – is Little’s numbers going up as Key’s numbers over the last 2 years has been going down?
(2) Da (although has occassionally broken through to 32/33% over last 2 years)
(3) Nyet !!!
You’re quite right, of course, CV. I should point out here that I was simply backing up Cinny’s broad point – largely with a view to irritating our regular Tory chums.
Still looking just a teensy weensy weensy weensy bit grim for Labour and the Left at this juncture.
Kellyanne Conway, who also runs her own polling organisation, said that they noticed every time their candidate Trump got hit hard with a new media revelation his poll numbers would briefly dip.
But those dips almost never translated into boosts for Hillary Clinton who they saw had a pretty hard polling ceiling of 45% to 46%.
So they knew that she was vulnerable to undecideds and wouldn’t tells moving against her.
The big difference is that while Key’s a bit of a dick who harms the country, he’s not quite the same level of racist fascist imbecilic fraudster who makes voters voters ashamed to admit what they intend to do in a secret ballot.
I wonder then why the outgoing government appears to be underfunding our National Parks aka DOC?
No doubt many come here for the scenery.
Government is happy to exploit the tourism income earner, but it appears they are not so happy to keep our parks up to scratch.
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Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
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“It’s probably necessary to stop here and point out a couple of things. First of all, the fact that free trade is bad policy doesn’t mean that every kind of trade barrier is good policy. The habit of insisting that the only possible points along a spectrum are its two ends, common as it is, is an effective way to make really bad decisions; as in most things, there’s a middle ground that yields better results than either of the two extremes. Finding that middle ground isn’t necessarily easy, but the same thing’s true of most economic and political issues.”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2016/11/the-free-trade-fallacy.html
deja vu…..plus climate change
Is Seismic blasting a good idea in Napier and Kaikoura?
https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1939&ea.campaign.id=58837&ea.tracking.id=facebook_promotion&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=climate&utm_term=fbstatoilchevron03&utm_content=paid_promo
Inside The Invisible Government: John Pilger On War, Propaganda, Clinton And Trump
https://newmatilda.com/2016/10/28/inside-the-invisible-government-john-pilger-on-war-propaganda-clinton-and-trump/
Andrew little showing his class. Might as well have called him a scab.
Makes him look like the “union man” he is.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/nick-leggett-wasnt-true-labour—andrew-little-2016112615
That link was discussed here yesterday. Glad you brought it up again.
Excerpt:
Andrew Little is bang on. Pseudo supporters who are only in the party for what they can get out of it. Having used Labour to its fullest capacity, they then scarper off to greener pastures. I think you could put people like Phil Quin and Josie Pagani into much the same boat.
I note on Q&A today that Pagani has given herself a new title – Public Affairs specialist.
Ah, so she’s gone full RWNJ.
Yeah, Labour can afford to be really picky about who they approve as left wing enough.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin and the other 10-15% of voters that Labour has lost are all dispensable. If they lose some all they need to do is accept their reduced party status and use Greens and maybe NZ First to make up the difference.
Labour moving away from the RWNJ’s (Leggett, Pagani, Quin) will mean the missing millions might feel confident voting for them again..
Good luck with that one. It’s a strategy that has failed before, but maybe if it’s repeated enough times it will work eventually.
The problem is that Labour seems to expect the non-voters to understand them and support them. They don’t seem to try let alone succeed in understanding the non-voters.
Repeatedly trying to sell a a failed product to very reluctant buyers is a bit of a challenge.
Were the Greens not left enough for the missing million, were Internet Mana too right wing?
Its not like there weren’t options for the voters, I think the idea that the missing million are all disaffected Labour voters is pie in the sky stuff
If two terms of key’s government wasn’t enough motivation to get the missing million off their bums on election day and voting for any opposition party to prevent a third, then their hearts, and minds, really can’t be in it.
I wouldn’t advocate writing them off, they’re still a huge potential voting block, but I wouldn’t build a campaign around them or labour under the expectation they’ll all of a sudden engage.
Labour/Greens just need to keep the policy coming.
For a start there aren’t millions of missing voters .
Arrogantly assuming there are and not only that they will vote left is silly.
Are you saying this indolent class of person who can’t get of there arse to vote , ipso facto demonstrating left wing characteristics .
Aren’t there any indolent right wing voters?
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s the “Labour” Party – even for someone as incapable of understanding what people are telling him as you are, that name should be a bit of a giveaway as to whom the part exists for. Just in case you are as obtuse as ever, it’s for people who are on the side of labour – Leggett, Pagani et al are not and should be pissing into someone else’s tent.
Oh FFS yourself.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin, Shane Jones, the Maori MPs et al are people who helped get Clark’s Labour into Government and stay there for for nine years.
If Labour wants to ditch it’s ‘broad church’ appeal and piss on anyone who won’t accept their narrowing appeal without criticism then they are heading towards voluntary minor party status.
They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.
Oh ffs again. Legget is considering standing for National. So unless you think that Labour should be so broad as to also be National, you’re spouting a self-serving, the centre is god mythology that isn’t born out by what is happening in the world.
“They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.”
Telling lies this early on a Sunday Pete, really. (that or you simply don’t understand the MoU and what it means).
National and Labour are not mutually exclusive, as has been pointed out here many times. There’s quite an overlap in the centre and has been for a long time.
And get stuffed with your accusing me of lying just because you happen to disagree. Try arguing on the issue, if you have an argument.
🙄
So you don’t understand the MOU or what it means. It’s more charitable to assume you’re a liar instead.
No, you keep calling anyone a liar you try and set up for weka to ban.
Can you clearly explain what the MoU means to the Greens, and to Labour?
Poor little martyr battles evil conspiracy 🙄
Have you even read the MOU (pdf)? I doubt it, because it’s written in plain English.
Which particular clause or clauses are you incapable of grasping?
Yes, I’ve read it, it’s so vague that you can’t clearly explain it.
It appears to mean that Greens and Labour are open to building relationships with other parties, people and organisations that share their goal but recognise that is a decision for themselves.
Unless Greens and Labour have decided they are from the Maori Party, the Mana Party, or are amongst the 15% of voters who have previously voted for Labour or Greens, but have now been deemed to be RWNJs?
3 b) has some points you could learn something from, if you understand it.
“We support each other’s right to express alternate views”. And “we agree to articulate differences in a collegial and respectful manner”.
Incapacity it is then.
Wilful ignorance.
At least we have this though. PG has just admitted he doesn’t understand the MoU, which makes his original statement about Labour having ditched Labour and is not L+G a confirmed idiocy.
I didn’t admit I don’t understand the MoU. I said it appears to be too vague for OAB to explain it, but OAB seems to rarely try and explain anything, they seem more intent on playing dirty.
The way Labour and Greens have worked with each other and not worked with each other suggests to me that it isn’t a hard and fast agreement, it is simply a general understanding that they will try and work together better until the election to present a Labour+Green alternative to voters and to defeat National.
Can you explain what the MoU means to you weka?
Meanwhile, on Earth, I encouraged this dishonest bore to explain which clauses he can’t understand. It’s written in plain English. Instead, the lying troll puts words in my mouth.
It’s because he’s an astroturfing waste of bandwidth.
There’s nothing vague about agreeing to work together in Parliament and select committees, for example, unless you’re a lying trolling petty poison-pen.
There’s nothing vague about “no surprises”, unless you are pretending to be an illiterate idiot to advance your ongoing unoriginal repetition of right wing smears.
There’s nothing vague about monthly meetings, unless you have no original thoughts of your own and a list of right wing memes to faithfully copy.
No wonder people 🙄 whenever his latest ban expires.
It’s vague where it’s most critical – what Labour and Greens might do after the election.
The MoU seems to be an attempted con, selling Labour+Greens as a viable alternative to National (Labour having conceded they can’t go head to head with National any more) but with no indication what the end coalition would look like.
That’s been Winston’s trick in the past (and still is, the ‘wait until the voters decide’ trick, but the voters don’t know what to base their decision on).
More venomous lies then.
No concession from Labour: a recidivist liar made it up.
No “attempted con” either – the MOU means exactly what it says. Unless you’re determined to bad-mouth the parties in question, that is. Because you’re motivated by hate.
Yes: the reason Petty George runs these plagiarised lies is pure and simple: malice, and a desperate cry for attention.
The comparison with NZF is a lie too, because unlike Peters, L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.
Can’t really fault the rest of your assessments OAB, although I would say the nasty comes from fear of the left and wanting to consolidate power in the centre because that’s the only place he can tolerate.
No, Pete, I’m not going to tell you how I understand the MoU, because you are a troll who looks intent on running attack lines against the left.
“L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.”
That doesn’t look up front to me.
Can you show where Labour or Greens have been up front about what they would do after the election?
“That doesn’t look up front to me.”
Yes, we’ve already established you either have no idea what is going on or are lying.
I”m not going to show you anything because you are a troll.
Labour and the Greens were explicit that the MoU lasted until the election and that any coalition deals would be negotiated after the election. And they’ve also been explicit that they are willing to work together in government. And they’ve also been explicit that they’re not guaranteeing that, because obviously how the voting goes will have a big impact on who gets to form govt. Duh.
Only a fucking idiot* would criticise them for not having a coalition deal 12 months out from an election.
*or troll, and round and round we go.
I haven’t seen anyone say they should have a coalition deal before the election. No one does that, it would be absurd to even suggest it.
Yes Labour and Greens have indicated they would work together in Government – maybe. Greens will almost certainly need Labour if they still won’t work in government with National.
But Andrew Little wouldn’t rule out jilting the Greens and doing a deal with Winston if that allowed him to form a government.
🙄
Only you needed half a day to state the bleeding obvious. You just prefer to lie and smear along the way.
Even this “statement of the bleeding obvious” is barbed with Petty’s feeble smears – “jilting” – seriously? Is Petty George in fact a teenage fashion victim with a very unfortunate skin condition?
Blairites.
Power for power’s sake.
Haven’t you learnt from Brexit and Trump yet?
I think it would be more useful for New Zealand if Labour and National just went into a long-term coalition. Spare me the tedium of another election.
National under Key have hardly cracked down on social welfare as they have done, accelerated resolution of Maori issues, retained all the Helen Clark government’s innovations and in some places improved them, plus the earthquakes and Auckland’s needs have simply forced Key to become more and more Keynesian as he stays on.
Whereas Labour in policy terms are about the same as when Helen Clark left – even dumping the 90 day fire at will clause was beyond fighting.
Sure, there’s lots to differ on, but it’s too small and country, and our politics overall now too centrist.
Labour and National’s caucuses should simply get together over Christmas, share a good long bong session, and move in together.
We’ve been waiting for a long-term compact that would steady the country and push it along harder. Well, Labour and National, do it.
@ Petey boy:
Leggett, Pagani and Quin are dispensable. No-one in the LP has shed any tears at their loss Pete dear. Labour has not been so unified since the departure of these trouble makers, but we know that is all a bit hard for someone like you to comprehend.
Unified at 28% support compared to National on 50% (Greens 11%, NZF 10% in the latest Colmar Brunton poll). Labour+Greens are 11% behind.
I guess those left in Labour can rejoice in their unity.
Pete thinks effect = cause. Nothing else has happened since Clark to drop Labour’s vote.
And there it is: Petty’s concern trolling at it’s maximum strength: point two on the Richter scale.
“picky about who they approve as left wing enough”. Right wing is not acting to improve housing, not lifting incomes, not making sure schools and public hospitals are properly funded,
@Anne
James thinks Leggett saying Labour are anti immigration and anti free trade is going to win-over voters.
Like Leggett, he’s out of touch.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/poll-kiwis-want-to-cut-immigration-2016080915
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/kiwis-still-to-be-convinced-on-tpp-2015112017
A scab is someone who betrays his or her fellow workers. Nick Leggett has never violated a strike, to my knowledge, so of course Andrew Little would not call him a scab.
Your comment is ignorant.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan White House official, talks about the state of Anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world.
‘The west is about to devour itself.’
An excellent talk.
Russia:
Gangster state led by a KGB dictator where political opponents and non compliant journalists just disappear, get murdered or are jailed.
Initiates an aggressive expansionist policy, which threatens several independent sovereign nation states on it’s borders who commit to and view western Europe as their ally, as is their given right.
Sanctions and tactical slashing of oil prices hit the bank balance of Putin and his crony pet pussy cats, and faced with diminishing wealth, and above all, dents to his ruskie male chauvinist ego, he sets in motion a plan to destabilize.
During the Arab spring, in Syria, instead of supporting the popular people led call for regime change he frustrated attempts in order to protect his energy deals and local influence, which in turn caused the vacuum in which isil filled and has led to propping up a barrel bombing, chlorine gas using murderer who because of this has no hope of ever running a united country, ever, no matter how many hospitals or aid convoys the Russian military can target and destroy.
Best you stick your “anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world” up your agenda motivated cossack.
A perfect summary of false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda, thank you.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
It has become more self reliant on localised manufacturing and technology, accelerate its military modernisation and to seek new ties to India, China and South East Asia.
“By the way” lmfao
Who you spin and shill for and why you’ve accepted the mission is your call, but don’t expect all the people all the time to be as dimwitted and gullible as you’ll need them to be to have your version of history regarded as fact. There just isn’t enough RT propaganda around to do it.
So yeah, insert your “false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda” up your swollen Gorky.
You still believe the corporate media after ‘weapons of mass destruction.’
You are either a fool or a shill.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
Most of us don’t need “Russophobic PR” to tell us that an authoritarian right-wing kleptocracy in charge a huge military isn’t a good thing. Also, it’s superfluous to say “Russia” has been forced to diversify “its” economy, as though it had some kind of representative democracy running it. Putin and his cronies have been forced to diversify their economy – no need for euphemisms.
You have to recognise that other countries, not just ours, have legitimate national and security interests. With NATO moving more and more forces and bases to within 100km of Russian borders, of course Russia will respond accordingly.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
However, Putin has far higher public approval and favourability ratings than either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – neither of whom the American people would choose if they had a true choice.
In contrast, most Russians would far more enthusiastically vote for Vladimir Putin.
Kool-aidski for sale. Who will by my lovely Kool-aidski? Someone please drink the Kool-aidski lol
Who pays you to come on this site?
Who’d pay me to leave? Is the question deserving of an answer.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
“…not managed in the same way.” Ah, yes – let’s draw a discreet false-equivalence veil over the hugely consequential difference between an actual democracy and a pretend one, because… well, damned if I know why you do it, unless you’re a right-wing authoritarian yourself.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership. From failed oligarchic state to prosperous re-emerging super power in under 20 years.
Having said that most Russians do seem to think that the machinery of their government remains bureaucratic, slow and inevitably corrupt to one degree or another.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership.
So was Hitler. Which I mention not to compare Putin to Hitler, just to illustrate that a leader’s popularity or lack of it says nothing useful about quality of governance. As a general rule, Big Brother making the trains run on time isn’t a substitute for rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom and a functioning democracy.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
Especially compared to the 1990s. When a disastrous US engineered post-Soviet collapse put Russia in the hands of a dozen hand picked oligarchs loyal to foreign powers and criminal ethnic mafias causing havoc in local communities.
And the Russian people credit Putin for putting that disintegrating chaotic country back together.
One more point. I’m quietly confident that the rest of the world has had quite enough of western colonialists trying to tell them how to behave and how to run government.
Especially given the incompetent rigged display of a US democratic debacle this year.
When I was a teenager my day would be given a magazine smuggled out of Czechoslovakia by one of his friends who was a communist. I remember it well, for it contained wonderful descriptions of the superb life the people there enjoyed under the Russian rule. Of course it was all bull shit.
RT delivers much the same now.
You know Macro, I tire of old cold war types and old cold war stereotypes.
If you can’t understand that Putin’s Russia is a completely different nation to Yeltsin’s Russia, which was completely different to the Soviet Union which was a completely different nation to Tsarist Russia, there is no way that you can make sensible judgements on important issues to do with that nation.
Anyway for a laugh, here is Steven Seagal receiving his Russian citizenship from Putin this week.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
I’m not sure what you mean by “getting its act together,” since Russia is deteriorating on all those counts a lot faster than any western democracy and from a much lower base.
…western colonialists…
Just for giggles, how do you think the Russian Federation got to be the size it is today? And why do you think it considers various of its neighbours to be part of its “sphere of influence?”
If Russia really is falling apart as you say, then the Anglo-US empire just needs to wait it out.
falling apart – ha! the 5 year plan is well above target, everyone is happy and well fed and everyone love vlad oh yes that is the truth I am not being forced to say this…
If Russia really is falling apart as you say…
As I said where? The Russian Federation isn’t falling apart. Russia could continue to deteriorate on those good governance measures to the point where it’s one of the shittiest countries in the world and still not fall apart – in fact, it’s already done that once, as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Putin’s got a long way to go before he could even aspire to the same league as earlier Russian efforts at bad governance.
It’s what Russia always needed, to get out more and smell the roses. Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda aside. Who do think Russia’s new ties with India, China and South East Asia will really benefit ?
Mostly the 50%-60% of the world’s population living right there.
This is an Eurasian 21st Century.
Marked by the return of the old civilisations of the world: Russia 1100 years old, China 3000+ years old, India 3000+ years old, Persia 2500+ years old.
NZ, while remaining aligned with our strong US-Anglo roots, has to realise that we have to be flexible and adaptable to the change at hand.
You really embarrass yourself every time you come on this messageboard. I cannot imagine you spouting such ignorant comments in any half sane work place, so the question arises: Are you a radio talkback host?
You use that ‘you embarrass yourself’ line a lot and, in context, it doesn’t bother me a bit what you think. I can easily live with your fragility.
I’m not the one whose been stalking a radio show for years and years. lol
But you clearly are not in any way informed on this matter.
Do you read widely on the issue or is ZB your one source on this matter?
I guess it would be difficult for anyone to match the breadth of your research on the subject, extending as it does all the way from John Pilger to Russia Today…
In a nut shell. Narrow world view.
Thanks CV. It was a good listen.
The RWNJs go on about the oppression of the USSR, China, DPRK etc and then they go round doing this sort of shit:
And then they wonder why we compare them to Hitler and Stalin.
As Paul Craig Roberts states, the few countries left with independent foreign and monetary policies (Iran, Syria, Russia, China, and formerly Libya and Iraq) must be demonised and destabilised.
But you get a total pass if you are a co-operative part of the Anglo-US empire.
Well done guys. Only trouble is too many in the west think like Peter Swift does !
Think is not the verb I would use.
Big business bristles at possible $86m tax crackdown (from Granny Herald)
“Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the delays made it seem that Inland Revenue had double standards in tax enforcement.
“What it looks like is the Government is sending in metaphorical SWAT teams to catch beneficiaries and student loan borrowers, while they’re letting [large taxpayers] not pay millions of dollars in taxes, year after year,” he said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said Woodhouse “needs to decide whose side he’s on. Is he on the side of working New Zealanders who pay their PAYE every week and do the right thing, or is he on the side of companies who seek to limit their tax paid in New Zealand?”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11754352
On a similar note from Bernard Hickey (also on Granny Herald)
“The default position for many now is to distrust apparently rootless multinational companies who have played countries off against each other to reduce their tax bills and generate ever-bigger profits for their equally rootless investors.
Prime Minister John Key has his ear close to the ground and this week he told Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to win back the trust of the globalised masses by paying its taxes.
“I think if they don’t, the same people who are its users will wake up one day and say, ‘Why do I have to pay my tax if this company is not going to?'” Key said.
It’s a bit late for that now. People are wide awake. Key hopes the social contract supporting globalisation here can be repaired with a few tweaks and some good PR.
The trouble is globalisation is global. It only works when everyone globally believes in that social contract, and that is broken.”
More profiteering on apartments – so helpful for first home buyers (sarc) (from Granny herald)
“At the St James Suites planned for Queen St, a buyer who in 2014 signed a contract to pay $775,000 was stunned last week when that figure escalated to $999,000 for exactly the same two-bedroom place.
Across in Takapuna, one buyer at The Sargeson apartment project told how the price of a unit was rising from $465,000 to $535,000, while at Rose Gardens Apartments in Albany, where work is well advanced, buyers were being asked for 15 per cent more.
Rising construction costs, funding cost hikes and difficulty getting access to funding are some of the issues being mentioned in letters sent to buyers, citing clauses which allow changes, offering to cancel and pay interest on deposits.
Auckland apartment developer Marty Kells said some overseas players were ratcheting up unit prices.”
Those developers are getting screwed by the materials suppliers; in particular Fletchers and its subsidiaries in cement, steel, hardware, and wood.
They are also having their construction workers sucked away by the big public sector infrastructure jobs.
While interest rates stay low, immigration goes high, and demand for housing continues to climb and climb, prices will continue to escalate by the month.
What Ad said. As far as I can tell, “Rising construction costs” = the rort that exists within the materials supply chain.
I heard that the cost per m2 of building has gone up some astronomical amount this year. I tried to find the article but it’s disappeared.
It’s also not the cost of new builds effected, but the costs of upgrading older houses too (aka rentals).
The cost of wool, timber and steel all the raw materials that we produce seem to be rising…
Materials are run by the duopoly. Which is bad.
What is the killer is shortage of staff and hence labour rates going through the roof.
Labour rates are about 20% more than when i was building. Hardly through the roof.
Materials, however, have more than doubled.
Also it is not just ‘bodies on the build’ – it is the level of building skills that’s lacking – they should never have taken away the apprentices and so forth.
But I think the main factor going up is materials not labour. But MSM does not talk about that as nobody is lobbying for cheaper materials and investigations into building monopolies and price fixing.
It seems that there is price fixing going on at all the major building firms. As soon as one puts up the prices the rest follow.
The price of building is lower in Australia, still!
Despite labour costs being much higher in Australia.
The Army Corps of Engineers has issued an eviction notice to one of the Standing Rock camps (which is on Indian land, but the govt think it’s theirs). They’re meant to leave by 5th Dec. As far as I can tell the camp is continuing to build in prep for winter.
This impressive rant from a US Navy Vet on what’s going down,
https://www.facebook.com/kashjackson2016/videos/573518852854067/
Hmmm saw this decision come out last night. The Commander and Chief Barack Obama could of course rescind this order with a phone call. I hope he does.
Was Trump lying then, or is he lying now?.
/
In his meetings, Flynn is said to have claimed Trump’s controversial campaign-trail remarks were merely part of the rhetoric needed to secure an election win, according to informed sources. His actual policies after taking office would be different from what he said to galvanize his support base, Flynn predicted.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Trump-adviser-meeting-pays-off-for-Suga?
The revenge of ‘the Oxy electorate’ helped fuel Trump’s election upset
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2016/11/25/why-the-deplorables-voted-for-trump/
Every time Trump turned up in New Hampshire he would talk about stopping drugs coming in from Mexico, he would talk about stamping out the heroin/opioid problem, he would talk about getting addicts proper treatment and making sure they get better and that they could get good jobs again, he would meet with public officials and community groups dealing with this problem.
Jo Cox’s murder was followed by 50,000 tweets celebrating her death
It’s a difficult line to draw but there has to be some limits to free-speech. It’s this type of stuff that leads to stuff like this:
Latest Colmar Brunton poll has Labour at 28% and Andrew Little at 8% as preferred PM. Surely an outlier?
If it translates into the voting pattern next year, it will mean more homeless working families and dead children, and you’ll have something to celebrate.
Just stating the results, OAB. I hope you don’t choke on your own bile.
These sorts of poll results just confirm that your odious politics of envy type of approach can’t get any traction.
I am not envious of policies that can only achieve economic growth through increasing immigration. Nor do I envy the wealth that goes with crony capitalist corruption: I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks.
If you had a rebuttal to my valid criticism you’d have stated it. Instead you chose to attack me.
Thanks for conceding my point so quickly. Console yourself with your feelings for Dear Leader.
“I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks”.
Get you. The Big Noise!
I note that your feeble and derivative attempt to invoke the politics of envy exposes your bad faith again.
😜
Polls should be a tool, not a a crutch.
However, the outgoing PM appears to be on a downward spiral.
Yep. 36% vs 8% for Andy.
I’m sure the PM will be battling to sleep a wink tonight.
Cue the line about whoever is oppo always having single figure favourability numbers.
It can’t be an outlier, OAB is even more stupid than usual.
Even a complete thicky like me can spot the connection between the National Party and preventable infectious diseases.
Don’t worry, the market will provide for the first time in history: magical thinking is the answer.
Well, I suppose the polls were wrong about Trump, so there may be hope for you yet.
50% playing 28% does seem a tad unfair though.
In fact, 28+10+11=49.
It’s nice that you tried to pretend MMP still exists though. It demonstrates that you are either dishonest or stupid.
I’m going to be charitable and assume you’re dishonest
The last time I checked, MMP does still exist.
28+10+11=49. Go Einstein. And the Nats are on 50 in the latest poll.
You’ve gone full retard OAB.
I’m so retarded, I got you running away from your 28 vs 50 boast in the space of one comment. Thanks for your contribution. It’s so valuable.
What am I running away from? My view hasn’t changed.
If you think you can lock Winnie in to your bloc of lightweight numbers, then Dale Kerrigan would have some advice for you.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jL2DH-nKBeA
🙄
If you think Winston will join a govt with the Greens you need your head read
Pragmatically speaking that would lead to a Labour/NZF government with the Greens providing confidence and supply. However, I note that you seem much more confident in your opinion of what Winston will or won’t do than I am, so perhaps it is you who needs your head read.
I’d be surprised if National don’t win out right next year.
Apart from the left being a joke, Key has finally realised the jokey jokey stuff with the media isn’t the best idea as he loses control of the narrative so has peeled that right back.
From now on the message will be Key the dependable, the guy you can rely on etc, Angry boy really doesn’t have a chance, if he was honest the best thing he could do is throw the towel in now and save the country quite a few million.
Quavering wet says Dear Leader can’t control the narrative.
Keys biggest weakness, far too trusting.
After the soap rape debacle he’s finally realised certain sectors of the media really aren’t his friend and he shouldn’t waste his time with them.
He’s going to be near on impossible to beat next year, tough times being a leftie that’s foe sure.
Not as tough as being a child in a homeless working family. I’m sure he’ll cope somehow. Avoid any substantive long-form interviews is my advice.
It won’t help him though.
Hey, OAB. Is it true you have hired Dr Death to relieve you of your miserable existence after the next election is won by National? I say that because you seem to be an abusive prick who is exempt from moderation and offers little to a debate. You also make a mockery of the good behaviour rule for this thread. Or doesn’t that apply to you?
Your little violent fantasies say something about you, saddo.
I heard he doesn’t trust the treasury, well at least not all their figures, he only trusts the figures that paints the outgoing government in a positive light. As demonstrated on the Nation yesterday morning.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/interview-john-key-2016112611
BM why is Keys popularity on a downward trend?
He’s been around a long time, still light years in front of David Little though.
BM you believe that Keys popularity has been dropping because he has been around for too long?
I do agree with you, he has been around for way to long
Outgoing PMs popularity is trending downwards and has been for some time. JS
Arrogance does not keep a government in power, Northland springs to mind, and if the current government was any good (popular) they would be able to take Mt Roskill, but they won’t because they aren’t.
Don’t rely on the polls, Brexit and Trump should have taught everyone that lesson by now.
But hey if all you want to do is gloat, then gloat away, makes you look foolish considering the information I’ve just provided.
Much love. Cinny x
If those thoughts keep you from dissolving into a weeping suicidal mess, I’m not going to burst your bubble.
Yeah, that David Little, he’s going to be PM and it’s going to be amazing.
Dude, don’t make fun of suicide, the stats in our country are naught to be proud of, thanks to the current government, taking ones own life has never been more popular.
What a douche.
You haven’t provided information, you’ve provided a completely subjective rant.
You must be an MSM journalist!
Keys popularity on a downward trend..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11643893
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/poll-john-key-could-lose-grip-on-power-2016080815
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1609/S00346/rmr-poll-national-415-labour-335-up-8-greens-125.htm
Not to forget the recent poll where he has dropped 2%
Mt Roskill…
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/mt-roskill-election-has-labour-got-video-6505792
Pollsters get it wrong for Trump and Brexit..
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/donald-trump-win-pollsters-wrong-161109225338646.html
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/pollsters-know-why-they-were-wrong-about-brexit-2016-7?r=UK&IR=T
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/how-did-media-pollsters-get-election-so-wrong
Colmar Brunton Polls: Key – Preferred PM
2016
Nov 36%
Sep 38%
May 39%
April 39%
Feb 40%
2015
0ct 40%
Sep 40%
July 40%
May 44%
April 42%
Feb 41%
2014
Sep (late) 43%
Sep (mid) 46%
Sep (early) 48%
looking like a trend
For a rough comparison with previous years …
From my comment here in April 2016
Preferred PM Averages – John Key
(Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined)
…………………………Average……………High……….Compare 2/2 2015-16
2/2 2015-16………..39………………………40…………………………..-
1/1 2015……………..42………………………44…………………..Down 3 Points
2014…………………. 45………………………48……………………Down 6 Points
2013…………………..41………………………44……………………Down 2 Points
2012…………………..43………………………48……………………Down 4 Points
2011…………………..53………………………59……………………Down 14 Points
2010…………………..49………………………54……………………Down 10 Points
2009…………………..52………………………56……………………Down 13 Points
Key’s Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined average is now just under 38% (for 2016)
So he’s Down 15 points on 2011,
11 points on 2010
and 14 points on 2009
His 2/2 of 2016 combined average is now just under 37%
In reality, he’s probably down a little more than that. Key is usually slightly weaker in the Reid Research polls. And an unusually small number of RR polls have been carried out this year (2 to Colmar Brunton’s 5). Usually these 2 Pollsters conduct roughly the same number of polls each year.
Let me ask you a question, swordfish.
Based off what Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said about Hillary Clinton’s popularity.
Does Labour’s polling appear to be benefitting from Key’s weakening ratings relative to 2011?
Or is Labour’s polling still demonstrating a polling ceiling (that I would place at roughly 28% to 30%) which it cannot seem to break through and stay through, even as Key’s support declines?
And finally – is Little’s numbers going up as Key’s numbers over the last 2 years has been going down?
(1) Nyet !!!
(2) Da (although has occassionally broken through to 32/33% over last 2 years)
(3) Nyet !!!
You’re quite right, of course, CV. I should point out here that I was simply backing up Cinny’s broad point – largely with a view to irritating our regular Tory chums.
Still looking just a teensy weensy weensy weensy bit grim for Labour and the Left at this juncture.
Aaaaah thanks swordfish. That was my gut feeling.
Kellyanne Conway, who also runs her own polling organisation, said that they noticed every time their candidate Trump got hit hard with a new media revelation his poll numbers would briefly dip.
But those dips almost never translated into boosts for Hillary Clinton who they saw had a pretty hard polling ceiling of 45% to 46%.
So they knew that she was vulnerable to undecideds and wouldn’t tells moving against her.
The big difference is that while Key’s a bit of a dick who harms the country, he’s not quite the same level of racist fascist imbecilic fraudster who makes voters voters ashamed to admit what they intend to do in a secret ballot.
Undercover Trump voters had had enough of nasty lefty bullyshaming and condescension.
Bullyshaming and condescension that you still think is quite righteous and justifiable, by the sounds of it.
Undercover trump voters were cowards who knew that they were supporting a fascist idiot and did it anyway.
At least the “red meat” deplorables baying for blood were too dumb to realise how contemptable they were.
Thanks SwordFish, for all those stats, really really appreciate it big time, you’ve put much work into supplying that info. Cheers.
More good news for NZ
For the fourth consecutive year, Telegraph Travel readers named New Zealand their favourite country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/telegraph-travel-awards-2015-16-winners/
Awesome, tourism is our number one export earner.
I wonder then why the outgoing government appears to be underfunding our National Parks aka DOC?
No doubt many come here for the scenery.
Government is happy to exploit the tourism income earner, but it appears they are not so happy to keep our parks up to scratch.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86702463/the-price-of-paradise-new-zealands-great-walks-are-losing-millions-of-dollars