The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
The only union the Herald ever publishes.
Surprise surprise.
Their economist says a sugar tax won’t work.
Their economist is only just out of University.
The purpose of the sugar tax is ambitious – to reduce obesity – yet campaigners for New Zealand’s version of a sugar tax only want to tax soft drinks.
from article in NZH
Obesity is not the only reason. There is a link between gout In men and sugar In soft drinks. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96164.php
There is dental decay particularly in children attributed to soft drinks plus fruit juice.
The article in the Herald written by the economist representing the Tax Payers’ Union has this as the last paragraph:
There is an abundance of health advocacy and information on what we should and should not be eating and drinking. If people still choose to consume “unhealthy” products in spite of these health warnings then what right does the Government have telling people they are making the wrong choice. I certainly do not want government bureaucrats making health decisions on my behalf.
“what right does the Government have telling people they are making the wrong choice?” The government, which should represents the people, has the right because we, the tax payers, pick up the tab for the consequences, just as we have to treat those who have smoking related illnesses.
We also have a duty of care to prevent as far as possible the child’s rotting teeth, the gout, etc just as we have rules about smoke alarms, high viz vests, hard hats, etc.
The Tax Payer’s Union (Championing Value For Money From Every Tax Dollar) should be SUPPORTING A TAX ON FIZZY DRINKS.
”The Tax Payer’s Union (Championing Value For Money From Every Tax Dollar) should be SUPPORTING A TAX ON FIZZY DRINKS.”
for that to be true would have to believe the tax payers union is about helping tax payers , and not the spotty buck toothed illegitimate child of the nats and big business
So true. In fact the Herald article is such that if it was not credited to the economist from the TPU, it could have been paid content on behalf of the soft- drink companies.
“what right does the Government have telling people they are making the wrong choice?”
In Transactional Analysis, which shows you how to understand the points of view governing your mind and those you are talking to, that would be a comment coming from the Child self and particularly the rebellious Child, which is in all of us.
It’s definitely not a reasoned argument. After all who presents the different products that constitute the choice, why these types of products in this form, and who gains; if they are not wholly advantageous and healthy?
A battered car, blue paintwork chipped and faded, rattles its way aimlessly through a gloomy Deep South, swerving laboriously to avoid the deep and hidden potholes in the road. The driver’s window rolls down. The pallid light from the Southland dawn barely illuminates the sallow face of the man behind the wheel. He sets his jaw, squints into the gloom of an oncoming squall and tosses an expired cigarette butt out of the open window. The thin light of the car’s headlights picks out a finger-sign on a drunkenly-leaning lamppost ahead, “Dipton”.
Robert Guyton
That reads like a laconic tale of a PI in New York or in deepest USA rurality rather. The gumshoe type. Have you written any other short stories? I have a few of the great old Argosy periodicals where there was a market for these. When it is cold and wet perhaps you could pen a few for publication in NZ.
Ha! It’s not my genre really but Bill’s got the face for it. I’m more flippant and chirpy, by nature. I used to, btw, read Argosy, whenever I was staying at a friends bach at Kaiteriteri, back in the day. They had bookshelves stuffed with them and whenever it rained or it was too hot to go outside, I’d read’m.
While the MSM and the business commentators will continue having multiple orgasms about how winning the Americas Cup is a superior business leadership model and will save us all, back in the actual economy it just gets worse.
The export economy is simply not paying our way.
Imports of petroleum products and motor vehicles pushed our imports way up, far higher than 2016.
And we still generate roughly the same products that we did around World War One: dairy commodities in the form of milk powder, butter, and cheese. Plus other agricultural commodities: beef and lamb, forestry, fruit, and wine. What we make is great, it’s just not enough to raise the tax to run a society with the kind of services we deserve.
I would love to have business and government leadership in this country that can tell us we will get rich without screwing the land, or buying houses to rent, or just worshipping tiny teams of sportspeople as if means anything.
I would love to have business and government leadership in this country that can tell us we will get rich without screwing the land, or buying houses to rent, or just worshipping tiny teams of sportspeople as if means anything.
So would I but it can’t happen in a capitalist society which means that we’re on the path to complete collapse but probably only after we’ve seriously altered the balance of the environment.
Draco, how many New Zealanders will accept the idea ‘The state is going to cancel all property rights. The government will own all land and buildings?’
I think I could count them up without removing my shoes and socks.
Who said anything about cancelling all property rights?
BTW, the government already owns all the land and everything in it. That’s not going to change.
How many already pay rent? For a large number of people it would just be a change in landlords and for many of those it would be an improvement.
Is there anything inherently wrong with the government owning all buildings?
Is there anything inherently right about property rights that put a few people above everyone else, that then allows those few to become massive bludgers?
I don’t think we need to trial the State owning all buildings and land to see how it goes. We need only look to every other regime that has gone down that path. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places but I see an equality of misery and hardship every time.
Our current regime is so far from a revolution we can’t prompt a million people to go and tick a page one September morning.
Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places but I see an equality of misery and hardship every time.
And I see the same thing when looking at capitalism. And even more I see the destruction of society brought about by the greed of the capitalists.
Are you thinking that those 30% of children living in poverty and their parents are living bright, happy and fulfilled lives?
In fact, when you look at those couple of 20th century examples what you really see is state capitalism so it’s really not surprising, once you look at the true history of capitalism, that it failed.
Do you see an equality of misery and hardship all about you? Where do you live? I’m in NZ’s poorest region and I don’t. A million of us can’t be bothered voting.
I watched Simon Reeve walking around Cuba on the TV recently, a 2012 doco. I found the tentacles of capitalism rising in the streets fascinating. Obviously he could of skewed his show with bias but he seems like an upright sort of rooster. He found few upset to see capitalism rising.
Yes household poverty is a concern, the government taking control of all houses and distributing them via a show of hands is not a solution. It’s a path to bigger problems.
Do you see an equality of misery and hardship all about you?
No, I see a massive increase in poverty while a few bludgers get richer. Was about the same in the USSR, the DPRK and China as well. A few very well off while many aren’t.
Yes household poverty is a concern, the government taking control of all houses and distributing them via a show of hands is not a solution.
Why would the government be distributing them?
And isn’t that what ‘the market’ does?
Massive inequality is what capitalism does and it’s what eventually destroys a society. That bit hasn’t gone away as the rise in inequality and poverty prove. We’re still destroying ourselves to make a few greedy bludgers richer.
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Time for reassessment, back to the drawing board, with pencils and paper. Let’s get away from the heady field of computers. put the ideas, thoughts and suggestions down where everyone can look at a permanent physical list and plan.
Also look at the number of government departments and agencies. Gather a group of interested learners and experts to each one and make a plan that all agree would take us into the future in an affordable way. Then look at what government or their creatures are doing and the direction. Set up a think tank to push them in the right direction. Give monthly reports of what is being achieved. Get an enthusiastic following that likes the result or comments as to where it can be improved.
Get the people of NZ behind the roll-out watching and wanting NZ to do well as a total country not just an enclave of the self-anointed.
Time for reassessment, back to the drawing board, with pencils and paper. Let’s get away from the heady field of computers. put the ideas, thoughts and suggestions down where everyone can look at a permanent physical list and plan.
far easier and less costly to do all of that over the internet.
Also look at the number of government departments and agencies. Gather a group of interested learners and experts to each one and make a plan that all agree would take us into the future in an affordable way. Then look at what government or their creatures are doing and the direction. Set up a think tank to push them in the right direction. Give monthly reports of what is being achieved. Get an enthusiastic following that likes the result or comments as to where it can be improved.
Or we could all talk together, discuss what we all want and then hire people to bring that about.
ATM we have it backwards in that we hire people to tell us what to do.
DTB
Telling us what to do, instead of us taking the design and thought into our own hands. That’s what we are doing.
There are many free and fanciful thoughts though. That is why I think it would be good to put pen or pencil to paper and then face to face discuss the matters worked out at first individually. It would be a whole new experience for all the key tappers.
Considering that technology and smart alecing has got us so far up ourselves that we meet ourselves coming back again, quantum like, I think we should revert back to the styles used where our present policies are taking us, somewhere about the 1930’s (with huge human malpractices going on carefully unnoticed by the general public in an organised fashion.)
That is why I think it would be good to put pen or pencil to paper and then face to face discuss the matters worked out at first individually.
And how do you get face to face with three million people?
Considering that technology and smart alecing has got us so far up ourselves that we meet ourselves coming back again…
It wasn’t technology that did that but lack of being able to talk with each other because of lack of technology. Instead we ended up with a hierarchical system.
It’s technology that can bring about what you want. Trying to go back to the 1930s will prevent that.
DTB
You are overlooking the findings of numerous thinkers (who I can’t recall exactly) that most ideas and changes come from a very few people.
The three or so million that you refer to are those who are given the chance to vote for some idea in elections, and many of them hardly bother to think and just trot off along their well-oiled railroad track to the usual tick. Some don’t bother at all.
Poof to your 3 million. We need people who care to think, and then think right through to the end and understand and assess the pros and cons considering known facts, possibilities, past failures and successes and human nature’s ability to skew legislation and methods, and then we would get some good stuff. And I want to look at people’s demeanour to check out their plausability, even with skype people lack the ability to observe and judge, which is important in deciding who has depth and trustworthiness, reliability etc
You are overlooking the findings of numerous thinkers (who I can’t recall exactly) that most ideas and changes come from a very few people.
Not really. IMO, it’s wrong. All people have ideas all the time. The problem is that most of them aren’t heard.
The three or so million that you refer to are those who are given the chance to vote for some idea in elections, and many of them hardly bother to think and just trot off along their well-oiled railroad track to the usual tick. Some don’t bother at all.
That’s a matter of culture. Change the culture and we change society. Keeping it the same as is or taking it back to the 1930s isn’t going to bring about the changes that we need.
The solutions to the problems of the Now aren’t to be found in the Past.
We need people who care to think
We need to get everybody to care and to think. Then we’ll have the mass of ideas that will realise a solution.
And I want to look at people’s demeanour to check out their plausability, even with skype people lack the ability to observe and judge, which is important in deciding who has depth and trustworthiness, reliability etc
We already have personality cults – they don’t work.
What we need is people reading the scientific findings and then making sure that policy meets those findings.
DTB
Too much wishful thinking there. The world can’t wait for ideal situations to arise and I don’t trust the average person to turn into a research oriented decision maker.
Hi Draco, I’ve run out of reply buttons, I’m responding to this comment.
“Do you see an equality of misery and hardship all about you?
No, I see a massive increase in poverty while a few bludgers get richer. Was about the same in the USSR, the DPRK and China as well. A few very well off while many aren’t.
Yes household poverty is a concern, the government taking control of all houses and distributing them via a show of hands is not a solution.
Why would the government be distributing them?
And isn’t that what ‘the market’ does?
Massive inequality is what capitalism does and it’s what eventually destroys a society. That bit hasn’t gone away as the rise in inequality and poverty prove. We’re still destroying ourselves to make a few greedy bludgers richer.”
.
.
.
.
New Zealanders don’t want the Government owning everything Draco. I fear the good ideas you have are overshadowed by your extreme core solutions. Capitalism isn’t the culprit, we’re just doing it wrong. Your efforts should benefit my life and mine yours. We need to re-jig what we’ve got, not chuck it all out.
At the moment too much of the wealth we create and circulate leaves our country. We need to get better at using it to enhance each other’s lives.
I hear in the news today that Google got fined 3.7 billion dollars for directing searchers to retail websites they have an interest in. How much have they got away with? That’s where capitalism sux.
Me selling you a loaf of bread I made and you making sandwiches to sell to office workers…it’s not evil brother.
There are only 3 ways to grow any business, whether that business be a lawn-mowing round or a nation.
Get more customers.
Get more from the customers you’ve got.
Cut overheads.
I think we need to focus on the rate we gobble through our resources. Rather than giant slabs of 20,000 year old kauri being shipped to China. The ship’s hold should be filled with presentation boxes of 20,000 year old chop-sticks. Much of the appeal of this wood in China is due to it’s age. Chinese civilization dates back about 20,000 years too. There’s a great marketing story to tell.
Well done molly a very uninformed comment, let’s just stop human enterprise and improvement, business come and go if they stop providing value to me, you and everybody ie not productive or some one does it better , it’s not a zero sum game, think a little bit deeper
If that were true then the government and business wouldn’t be so concerned with increasing the number of people here or increasing the amount we export.
Having read more than a few economics books and studied economics and worked using economic theories and tools, I would suggest that as a starting point the definition of economic growth has little to do with innovation. As a method of increasing the rate of economic growth, innovation has a medium term to long term impact. A short term to medium term methods are as stated above:
Get more customers.
Get more from the customers you’ve got.
Cut overheads.
Human enterprise and improvement is independent of growth.
Both can be used to reduce use and impact. Growth is a ridiculous indicator to use for both improvement and enterprise, particularly if it is the only one.
Or use my consumer dollars to support those who already do? Unnecessary duplication often leads to unsustainability and more waste.
Setting up a business in a climate that rewards businesses that engage in paying non-livable wages, and have bad environmental practices does not appeal to me.
I prefer the utilising and participating in the volunteer and sharing sector. I am lucky in that I don’t “need” much more than what I already have.
Your response shows the limits to your perception of success and values alignment. Mine includes but is not limited to: owning a business.
I’m with you molly on this.
The mantra that “growth” is the only answer (whatever the question !) is just bullshit.
There are many paths to a better quality of life, exponential growth of consumption is not one .
I don’t think we should be shipping ancient or old wood, water or other resources to anyone. It just seems wrong. Those resources should only be able to be used by locals in the area who understand their value. There’s no reason why a local community can’t produce much of what it needs in terms of food, housing and clothing. This may sound foreign to our heavily financialised world, but one thing it is, is sustainable.
We’ve become heavily dependent on trade and the produce of other countries. We like electrical cable, Japanese cars and Spanish tomatoes in winter.
I don’t have a problem with trade and utilising our resources I just think we need to get much smarter with it and add more value.
Polar bears stay warm because their fur fibres are hollow. Their body warmth travels out through the fibre and creates a fabulous warm jacket for them. A jumper made of polar bear fur would be a natural garment with astounding natural body warming qualities. Scandinavians would pay about the equivalent of NZ$1000 for such a garment.
Polar bears share this near unique quality with one other creature: Possums.
“or just worshipping tiny teams of sportspeople as if [it] means anything”
Yes – I really do pity all those people who over the next few years will be required to attend ‘leadership workshops’ and be divided into groups and asked to come up with ideas on what it is about Team NZ that makes them ‘winners’, and then be asked to ‘present’ back to all the attendees on their findings and how they could be applied.
And there will be a well-dressed (and well-paid) external ‘facilitator’ and numerous post-it notes will be written and stuck around the walls.
And it will all mean absolutely f***ing nothing, and nothing will change and the few people with any originality will hate every minute of it and maybe stay sane by humming Tom Waits songs in their heads, or trying to remember a poem by Yeats about things falling apart.
Really I think that our sclerotic, conformist, hierarchical workplaces hold us back.
Well said Red and of course AB, I think we all have had experience of those over the years, though I thought it was a disease of the 80/90’s only, did not realise that crap is still going on.
Really I think that our sclerotic, conformist, hierarchical workplaces hold us back.
QFT
Went to one of those self-help things that tertiary institutions put on. It was supposedly all about making us stand out to employers but the reality was that it was all about getting people to conform and that conformity was dictated by those in power.
Capitalism is about conforming to the greedy and it really does hold us back.
Technically our product base has regressed massively when you consider the heavy industry capabilities we had until the 70s/80s. We built our own whiteware and textiles and even locomotives during the time you mention. Economically rather than diversifying NZ has pretty much shrunk the actual productive economy to barely beyond what pre-industrial societies were producing as their mainstay.
Bruce Plested ripping into National here. Plenty of soft National voters (i.e. those with a conscience and a vision beyond their own wallets) will hang off every word someone like Bruce Plested says.
Bruce says, “The problems could not be fixed by the market but were like law and order issues politicians should deal with.”
But Joyce/English/Key et al, all swear by Market Forces. They must be right.
Aren’t they?
The recipe for economic riches from laissez faire and muscular business individuality has apparently been wanting something. Rising powder?
Perhaps the ingredients have passed their use-by date and have lost their freshness and spark of energy after being bled and bleached for years, many just left sitting at dockside waiting for someone to pay the costs of importation.
It seems that young National Party MP’s are too hungover after a night’s partying to show up for work the next day. They may have to use migrant MP’s instead 🙂
we need indeed some migrant MP’s to fill the slots for which we can’t find qualified applicants with a clean police record and or at the very least an applicant who can hold his liquor and show up for work the next day.
Dam that’s inconvenient as reported by stuff.co.nz Labour also uses leadership budget to satisfy internal employment issues and ensure confidentiality I assume to avoid public scrutiny of a private matter (fair enough barring sanctimonious comments of many labour supporters here ) ) by avoiding going to court
[you want to make assertions of fact in this political climate, then put up a link and quote the relevant piece that supports your assertion (no, I’m not going to trawl an article to try and see what you mean). Otherwise I will considering you to be trolling and ban you. Consider this a warning. I’d also suggest using punctuation because once I get my moderator hat on if I have to read your comment 3 times in order to understand it, I consider that wasting my moderator time. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
That would have been 2001 ish, and the prediction is still running. But WTF if people want to gamble then go for it
7.3 billion or 9 billion people, it don’t matter to the planet we are all gone burger
I haven’t got kids so I don’t give a fuck, just like pointing out the obvious, you know stacking the ‘I told you so’s’
Quite simply the king has no clothes, but 99.4 ish of the pesants can see the brown eye the TPTB are shoving in your faces, the joke is on us all.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Maori Party makes another move to squeeze Winston out – Politik
The Maori Party are today unveiling another strategic alliance which National are quietly hoping will get the party enough votes, so National doesn’t need Winston Peters to form the next Government.
Today’s alliance will be with the One Pacific; a South Auckland-based Pacific Islands political movement
The goal is to make inroads in Labour’s fortress South Auckland seats and Pacific Island candidates will stand under the Maori Party banner.
The Maori Party leadership believe the partnership could make inroads into the 50,000 votes that Labour got in Mangere, Manukau East and Manurewa last election.
Dear oh dear – this The South Auckland Pasifikas are about to defect en masse meme gets trotted out almost each and every Election (also in the 2010 Mana By-Election in terms of Porirua East Pasifika voters) and always gets dutifully regurgitated by the MSM.
Yet strangely enough these highly excitable predictions Never Ever seem to come true.
All us nobreeders (currently about 3 billion of us) are victims of our parents egos
I didn’t ask to be born, and have done my best not to add to this clusterfuck
Parents are a major part of the problem ….. thanks mum
And before a dickhead suggests I kill myself … it is not my fault.
But yes sucide is very much in my future, as it will be for most people
See 22After.Com warning don’t watch this alone 😉
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
One of the reasons I find greenpeace easy to resist: a friend of mine signed a petition, then got cold-called in the middle of a meeting by someone shilling for gp donations. I’m amenable to some of their causes, but their marketing techniques are corporate mercenary through and through.
It was used as a incendiary munition. An important distinction.
Now folks this is being led by NZ, and they are killing civilians. If this is what Key meant by getting some guts. Then God help us all. This is what the rabbit hole looks like.
Oh, and here is the piece where they admit they are using it in civilian areas.
I admire Michelle Boag’s ability to do impersonations. I particularly like the fine nuances she can bring to them.
She’s just been doing an impersonation of a slime-ball on RNZ and was bloody brilliant. What really took it to a higher level was the way she finished it off wth the touches of ‘arrogant hag.’ Bravo Michelle.
Sorry, I don’t know how to select part of a video – or even if this is possible – but listen to the first 13 minutes of Thom Hartman and Dr. Richard Wolff discuss the American health care system.
I thought, this man (Wolff) is talking about New Zealand – especially in relation to the Employment Contracts Act!
Just watched John Campbell visit the Marae where the students are staying. Looks pretty good to me. The students were not allowed to speak during the visit but a small group will be on air after 6pm.
Gives a balance after the political storm created by Government sources.
(Mr Phillips points out that most groups are there for just a few days so communal living is a bit harder for longer stays.)
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What do Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and your daily newspaper all have in common? They all tell tales of imaginary worlds.In Game of Thrones the honourable Stark family find themselves in deadly conflict with the ruthless House of Lannister.In the NZ Herald the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins finds himself ...
What do Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and your daily newspaper all have in common? They all tell tales of imaginary worlds.In Game of Thrones the honourable Stark family find themselves in deadly conflict with the ruthless House of Lannister.In the NZ Herald the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins finds himself ...
In 2022 the government announced a periodic review of the Intelligence and Security Act, the legislation governing New Zealand's spies. Yesterday the review presented its report, Taumaru: Protecting Aotearoa New Zealand as a Free, Open and Democratic Society. Its a chunky read, and I'm not finished yet, but from the ...
The Charities Services decision to require the Waipareira Trust to claw back $385,000 of interest-free loans from John Tamihere brings renewed attention to the links between Whānau Ora and the Trust.Thomas Cranmer writes – Revelations earlier this month in the Herald that the social services charity Waipareira ...
National has developed a novel election strategy. It involves being both for and against almost every issue that comes down the pike. The use of te reo on public signage? Recently National Party leader Christopher Luxon came out against the bi-lingual use of te reo in the naming of government ...
Anti-densification residents’ and ratepayers’ groups are cock-a-hoop over National’s partial backflip on MDRS over the weekend and have ramped up their campaigns to stop densification in their areas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: NIMBY groups are cock-a-hoop this morning, calling on councils and the Government to completely abandon the MDRS housing ...
It’s been two months but today the Auckland Transport board meet for again. There’s a lot on the agenda so I can’t cover it all in this post but here are some of the highlights from their regular board papers. The open session starts at 9am and can be watched on ...
This story by Aaron Cantú was originally published in Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Monic Uriarte was thrilled to get approved for an affordable apartment in Los Angeles’ University Park, close to USC. But soon after she and her ...
This incomplete picture speaks of everything we love most about a summer holiday in Aotearoa: The bach, the beach, the barbecue, the sand, the christmas ham sandwiches, the serenity.We love it, don’t we, Aotearoa? Getting away to somewhere warm and quiet with a high tide and a hammock. And if ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers who took time out from the Labour Party congress to attend to portfolio duties were focused largely on promoting the country’s interests overseas. The statements with the widest implications dealt with: Trade – Damien O’Connor joined ministerial representatives at a meeting in Detroit, USA, ...
In the last year of a second term in government. the election outcome shouldn’t even be close. All that’s required for a competent Opposition to be streets ahead in the polls, is an ability to look like a credible government-in-waiting. Instead, we’ve got a very tight contest. There’s a reason ...
The Herald reports that WINZ debt has reached the staggering total of $2.4 billion, with the usual racism and sexism in who owes and how much they pay: Anti-poverty groups say the poorest Kiwis are caught in a debt trap as the total amount of money owed to the ...
There was a poll last week which asked if now was the right time for a tax cut. Which is quite an odd thing to ask really, don’t you think?We’ve got to pay back the money used to keep paying people and stop businesses going under during the pandemic. Our ...
The Treasury released its budget economic forecasts. What do they say about the economy over the next four months?Brian Easton writes – Let me begin me with an irritation. One post-budget headline was ‘Treasury optimistic over recession risk in Budget 2023‘. Treasury being optimistic is almost an ...
As a politician swallowing a rat under a very public spotlight, Chris Bishop gave a spirited and relatively smooth account of himself yesterday. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Chris Bishop has detailed National’s new housing policy for Election 2023 that confirms a National Government would not force councils ...
After signalling it a week ago, yesterday National launched their new housing policy which abandons their support for the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) that they had worked with the government to deliver back in 2021 and shifts the focus to more sprawl. Overall there are three key areas National ...
The audacity of National’s “u-turn” over housing intensification is an extraordinary slap in the face for Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis. If it does nothing else, it raises questions about their political judgement, not for the first time.. Some in the Caucus have still not forgiven them for their ...
As the general election approaches, the Association of Former Members of the Parliament of New Zealand has organised an essay competition to to foster democracy. Secondary school students are being challenged to identify the important elements of a successful democracy, explain their value and consider whether they can be improved ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: For paying subscribers, here's my pick of the week’s top six news developments, quotes and charts of the week with my personal reflections, plus my suggestions for Sunday reading and listening. There’s also one fun thing. In summary this week, my six takeaways were:Christopher ...
With Open Arms: Is it at all reasonable to suppose that a colonial society in which whites traditionally occupied all the upper rungs of the ethnic hierarchy, and where the colonised were relegated to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, will respond positively to a concerted indigenous push from below, ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update that Webworm won “Best Team Investigation” last night at the Voyagers.This means a lot, especially considering we were up against giant newsrooms like Stuff and TVNZ:WINNER: David Farrier and Hayden Donnell | Webworm – The Downward Spiral of Arise ChurchJUDGES: Alan Sunderland and Ali Ikram“This ...
May 28, 2025.Ladies and gentlemen. It’s a beautiful clear morning here in Auckland City. We’re heading for a maximum temperature of 14 degrees, and the local time is now 10:30am. Please remain seated if you’d like to, or get up and walk around the plane if you prefer. New regulations ...
Somebody has made a new survey and it tells us this little waterlogged nation of ours is rocketing up the misery charts. Maybe they took it before the sun came back out.Or maybe they took it any time in the last two years. Because negativity is quite surely the new ...
The appointment of Elizabeth Longworth as Chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO was one of just two press statements on the government’s official website today. Perhaps that’s because ministers have been busy preparing speeches for the Labour Party faithful who have gathered in Wellington for the party’s ...
Alarm bells have been rung by the department after its Deputy Director-General for Operations warns, ‘the initial view shows that we do not have sufficient funding to cover our basic running costs’.Thomas Cranmer writes – Following last week’s budget, alarm bells have been rung by the Department ...
Luxon went after the NIMBY vote, declaring National’s 2021 bipartisan deal with Labour to make it much easier to put three townhouses on a regular section ‘wrong’. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included:The Labour ...
Hello! This is the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.Here’s what you may have missed.Last Sunday’s column was about the budget A big chunk of this year’s budget coverage was brought to us by the words crass, gauche and venal. The big questions ...
Hi,Usually Webworms are quite focussed — this one is the opposite. No rhyme or reason. A bit like my brain: sometimes ultra-focussed, other times utterly unable to settle on a goddamn thing. And as we head into the weekend, there are a bunch of things buzzing around in my head ...
The Mainstream Media, and especially the New Zealand Herald, regularly carry misinformed columns on the causes of the country’s low-grade economic performance over recent years. One old codger, John Gascoigne, who describes himself as “a Cambridge-based economic commentator” (not the university, alas!) correctly told us early this week that New ...
The Treasury released its budget economic forecasts. What do they say about the economy over the next four months?Let me begin me with an irritation. One post-budget headline was ‘Treasury optimistic over recession risk in Budget 2023'. Treasury being optimistic is almost an oxymoron. They fire down the centre.It is ...
Photo by Ron Fung on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests:5.00 pm ...
1. Who most likely gave LOTO Luxon the idea to pull the rug on the urban density policy?a. A leading thinker on affordable housing b. A leading thinker on 15 minute cities c. A leading thinker on sustainable urban planning d. National-Party-supporting property developers2 . With what was this illustration made?a. Artificial inseminationb. ...
Buzz from the BeehivePoint of Order tallied $314.4 million of spending in the latest ministerial statements posted on the government’s official website. This includes a lump of money to – yes, really – help identify businesses in tourism and hospitality which treat their staffs well and to fund the ...
It’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour from midday (my apologies for the late start today), including:the Government’s payment of $130 million of Climate Emergency Fund money to NZ Steel to help it cut ...
National/ACT would have 62 seats in a 120 seat Parliament if the latest poll results were replicated in the October election, but micro-movements around the median and the size of Te Pāti Māori’s caucus will decide who governs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: National/ACT could govern alone after October ...
Welcome to Friday – again! Hard to believe we’re almost in June. Here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. The Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Matt covered the transport highlights from this year’s Budget. On Tuesday, Matt asked if the end is ...
What should one make of the Reserve Bank Governor’s extraordinary donation of a hostage to fortune in forecasting an end to interest rate hikes? Conspiracy theorists will be scratching their tinfoil hats and mumbling about positioning for a whacking great payoff on being forced out by a new government. ...
Shocking The Pakeha: An entirely forgivable impulse, some might say, given how easily so many Pakeha are shocked. Merely to suggest that Te Tiriti o Waitangi should be taken seriously is sufficient to set some Pakeha off. Others are shocked by the inclusion of more than a word or two ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those previous nine years of neglect saw a ‘tag ...
Katie Kenny from Stuff published an article today with a lazy attempt at so-called ‘fact checking’ my recent comments on the World Health Organisation’s concerning new regulations being developed. What is most surprising is that throughout this entire ‘fact checking’ process, Kenny never once rang me asking for my side ...
The National Party has released another confused and rushed policy that will only further worsen the inequality that is driven by unaffordable housing. ...
Welcome to sunny and calm Wellington, which I know those of you who are visiting would of course expect to be the case. It’s been a busy week since we put forward the 2023 Budget. Labour MPs have been out across the motu giving the good oil on the Budget. ...
Kia orana, Talofa lava, Mālo e lelei, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Noa’ia e mauri, Ni sa bula vinaka, Kia ora, Tena Koutou Katoa. Labour Party President Jill Day, Prime Minister Hipkins, Party faithful, delegates and comrades, whānau and friends, it’s a privilege to be here today. I begin my ...
One of my kaumātua up North stood before the Waitangi Tribunal and said: ‘He aha kē ahau, te tangata kore hara i mua i te Atua, e tu nei kia whakawaatia e koe, te tangata tāhae, te tangata hara, te tangata kore tikanga?Ko koe kē te tika, kia tū ...
New Zealanders will be highly concerned that the World Health Organisation proposes to effectively take control of independent decision making away from sovereign countries and place control with the Director General. W.H.O International Health Regulations on future outbreaks of disease aim to give the Director General extraordinary and wide-sweeping powers. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate. ...
The Green Party has released its list of candidates for the 2023 election. With a mix of familiar faces, fresh new talent, and strong tangata whenua voices, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to set the direction of the next Government. ...
Thank you for your invitation to be here, after yesterday's budget, and for the opportunity to talk with you. In the economic and social turmoil following the arrival of COVID 19 in New Zealand many concerns emerged. How would we keep our economy going and maintain our exports which are ...
At the heart of Budget 2023 is a cost of living package, designed to ease the pressure on New Zealanders in the face of global inflation and the challenges of rebuilding from extreme weather events. It provides practical cost of living relief across some of the core expenses facing Kiwis ...
A long standing Green Party policy has been extended yet again in this year’s Budget. This will deliver warmer homes for thousands of people, lower power bills, and cut climate pollution. ...
The Green Party is fully on board with free bus and train travel for under 12s and half price travel for under 25s - next stop, free travel for all under 18s, students, and apprentices. ...
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced a billion dollar flood and cyclone recovery package as part of Budget 2023. This is about doing the basics - repairing and rebuilding what has been damaged and making smart investments, including $100 million of protection funding to ensure future events don’t cause ...
The Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill would: boost New Zealand’s fuel supply resilience and economic security enable the minimum stockholding obligation regulations to be adapted as the energy and transport environment evolves. “Last November, I announced a six-point plan to improve the resiliency of our fuel supply from ...
The Government is making sure those on low incomes will no longer have to wait five weeks to get the minimum weekly rate of ACC, and improving the data collected to make the system fairer, Minister for ACC Peeni Henare said today. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) ...
A compulsory code of conduct will ensure school board members are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected standard of behaviour, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said. It’s the first time a compulsory code of conduct has been published for state and state-integrated school boards and comes into effect on ...
Tena koutou katoa and thank you, Mayor Nadine Taylor, for your welcome to Marlborough. Thanks also Doug Saunders-Loder and all of you for inviting me to your annual conference. As you might know, I’m quite new to this job – and I’m particularly pleased that the first organisation I’m giving a ...
The Government will enter into a funding arrangement with councils in cyclone and flood affected regions to support them to offer a voluntary buyout for owners of Category 3 designated residential properties. It will also co-fund work needed to protect Category 2 designated properties. “From the beginning of this process ...
The Government has announced changes to strengthen requirements in venues with pokie (gambling) machines will come into effect from 15 June. “Pokies are one of the most harmful forms of gambling. They can have a detrimental impact on individuals, their friends, whānau and communities,” Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said. ...
The total Police workforce is now the largest it has ever been. Police constabulary stands at 10,700 officers – an increase of 21% since 2017 Māori officers have increased 40%, Pasifika 83%, Asian 157%, Women 61% Every district has got more Police under this Government The Government has delivered on ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta met with Korea President Yoon, as well as Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, during her recent visit to Korea. “It was an honour to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the first Korea – Pacific Leaders’ Summit. We discussed Pacific ambitions under the ...
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months. "Research and innovation are essential in helping us meet the biggest challenges and seize opportunities facing New Zealand. It’s fantastic ...
The next ‘giant leap’ in New Zealand’s space journey has been taken today with the launch of the National Space Policy, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds announced. “Our space sector is growing rapidly. Each year New Zealand is becoming a more and more attractive place for launches, manufacturing space-related technology ...
A new Year 7-13 designated character wharekura will be built in Pāpāmoa, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The wharekura will focus on science, mathematics and creative technologies while connecting ākonga to the whakapapa of the area. The decision follows an application by the Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore ...
Protecting the environment by establishing a stronger, more consistent system for freedom camping Supporting councils to better manage freedom camping in their region and reduce the financial and social impacts on communities Ensuring that self-contained vehicle owners have time to prepare for the new system The Self-Contained Motor Vehicle ...
A new law passed last night could see up to 25 percent of Family Court judges’ workload freed up in order to reduce delays, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said. The Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill will establish a new role known as the Family Court Associate. The ...
New Zealand businesses will begin reaping the rewards of our gold-standard free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK FTA) from today. “The New Zealand UK FTA enters into force from today, and is one of the seven new or upgraded Free Trade Agreements negotiated by Labour to date,” Prime ...
The Government will reform outdated surrogacy laws to improve the experiences of children, surrogates, and the growing number of families formed through surrogacy, by adopting Labour MP Tāmati Coffey’s Member’s Bill as a Government Bill, Minister Kiri Allan has announced. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little departs for Singapore tomorrow to attend the 20th annual Shangri-La Dialogue for Defence Ministers from the Indo-Pacific region. “Shangri-La brings together many countries to speak frankly and express views about defence issues that could affect us all,” Andrew Little said. “New Zealand is a long-standing participant ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang met in Wellington today and affirmed the two countries’ long-standing science relationship. Minister Wang was in New Zealand for the 6th New Zealand-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation. Following ...
5 percent uplift clearer and simpler to navigate Domestic productions can access more funding sources 20 percent rebate confirmed for post-production, digital and visual effects Qualifying expenditure for post-production, digital and visual effects rebate dropped to $250,000 to encourage more smaller productions The Government is making it easier for the ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) Carmel Sepuloni will represent New Zealand at Samoa’s 61st Anniversary of Independence commemorations in Apia. “Aotearoa New Zealand is pleased to share in this significant occasion, alongside other invited Pacific leaders, and congratulates Samoa on the milestone of 61 ...
The Government is continuing to support retailers with additional funding for the highly popular Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme, Police and Small Business Minister Ginny Andersen announced today. “The Government is committed to improving retailers’ safety,” Ginny Andersen said. “I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do ...
The Government has received the first independent review of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The review, considered by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, was presented to the House of Representatives today. “Ensuring the safety and security of New Zealanders is of the utmost ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has expressed condolences on behalf of New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga following the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili. “New Zealand sends it’s heartfelt condolences to the people of Tonga, and to His Majesty King Tupou VI at this time ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has expressed condolences on behalf of New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga following the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili. “New Zealand sends it’s heartfelt condolences to the people of Tonga, and to His Majesty King Tupou VI at this time ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little and Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta have today announced the extension of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) deployment to Solomon Islands, as part of the regionally-led Solomon Islands International Assistance Force (SIAF). “Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of working alongside the Royal Solomon ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to the Republic of Korea today to attend the Korea–Pacific Leaders’ Summit in Seoul and Busan. “Korea is an important partner for Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific region. I am eager for the opportunity to meet and discuss issues that matter to our ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor joined ministerial representatives at a meeting in Detroit, USA today to announce substantial conclusion of negotiations of a new regional supply chains agreement among 14 Indo-Pacific countries. The Supply Chains agreement is one of four pillars being negotiated within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ...
Our most spoken Pacific language is taking centre stage this week with Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa – Samoa Language Week kicking off around the country. “Understanding and using the Samoan language across our nation is vital to its survival,” Barbara Edmonds said. “The Samoan population in New Zealand are ...
Over 90 per cent of New Zealanders are expected to receive this year’s nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert system tonight between 6-7pm. “Emergency Mobile Alert is a tool that can alert people when their life, health, or property, is in danger,” Kieran McAnulty said. “The annual nationwide test ...
ENGLISH: Whakatōhea and the Crown sign Deed of Settlement A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Whakatōhea and the Crown, 183 years to the day since Whakatōhea rangatira signed the Treaty of Waitangi, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Whakatōhea is an iwi based in ...
Elizabeth Longworth has been appointed as the Chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, Associate Minister of Education Jo Luxton announced today. UNESCO is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting cooperative action among member states in the areas of education, science, culture, social science (including peace and ...
Tourism and hospitality employer accreditation scheme to recognise quality employers Better education and career opportunities in tourism Cultural competency to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces Innovation and technology acceleration to drive satisfying, skilled jobs Strengthening our tourism workers and supporting them into good career pathways, pay and working conditions ...
Tourism and hospitality employer accreditation scheme to recognise quality employers Better education and career opportunities in tourism Cultural competency to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces Innovation and technology acceleration to drive satisfying, skilled jobs Strengthening our tourism workers and supporting them into good career pathways, pay and working conditions ...
Greater access to primary care, including 193 more front line clinical staff More hauora services and increased mental health support Boost for maternity and early years programmes Funding for cancers, HIV and longer term conditions Greater access to primary care, improved maternity care and mental health support are ...
Greater access to primary care, including 193 more front line clinical staff More hauora services and increased mental health support Boost for maternity and early years programmes Funding for cancers, HIV and longer term conditions Greater access to primary care, improved maternity care and mental health support are ...
The Government continues progress on the survivor-led independent redress system for historic abuse in care, with the announcement of the design and advisory group members today. “The main recommendation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Abuse in Care interim redress report was for a survivor-led independent redress system, and the ...
Aotearoa New Zealand is providing NZ$7.75 million to respond to urgent humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Horn of Africa is experiencing its most severe drought in decades, with five consecutive failed rainy seasons. At least 43.3 million people require lifesaving and ...
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall has opened two new state-of-the-art mental health facilities at the Christchurch Hillmorton Hospital campus, as the Government ramps up its efforts to build a modern fit for purpose mental health system. The buildings, costing $81.8 million, are one of 16 capital projects the Government has funded ...
The Government is continuing to invest in our regional economies by announcing another $24 million worth of investment into ten diverse projects, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. “Our regions are the backbone of our economy and today’s announcement continues to build on the Government’s investment to boost regional economic ...
An $8 million boost to New Zealand Māori Tourism will help operators insulate themselves for the future. Spread over the next four years, the investment acknowledges the on-going challenges faced by the industry and the significant contribution Māori make to tourism in Aotearoa. It builds on the $15 million invested ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the first 18 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles for the New Zealand Army, alongside personnel at Trentham Military Camp today. “The arrival of the Bushmaster fleet represents a significant uplift in capability and protection for defence force personnel, and a milestone in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet Victoria Lewis. Carmine well – the cherries appeared quietly there on the kitchen bench as if to smile and say i love you,and you dared to forget those gleaming fruit form a prayer, a devotion bloody on the inside, taut on the out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra nitpicker/Shutterstock By coincidence, the furore around the consultancy firm PwC is raging just as the National Anti-Corruption Commission is gearing up for its start of business on July 1. The PwC scandal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ricardo Villegas, Senior Lecturer of Law, University of South Australia Today, Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko handed down his long-awaited judgment in the defamation case that Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living former SAS soldier, brought against the Age, the Sydney Morning ...
Wayne Brown has named and attempted to shame councillors who oppose the sale of the council's airport shares, but some are returning fire, saying he does not have the votes to pass his plan. ...
Some certainty has arrived for those impacted by severe weather events earlier this year but the bulk of the detail for a buyout scheme affecting at least 700 homes is a work in progress, writes political editor Jo Moir.Analysis: Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson has been determined since February ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Rolph, Professor of Law, University of Sydney At the heart of the spectacular defamation trial brought by decorated Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith were two key questions. Had the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times damaged his reputation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Bateson, Professor of Practice, University of Sydney Shutterstock Australians’ access to a range of contraceptive options depends on where they live and how wealthy they are. A recent parliamentary inquiry recommends ways to end this “postcode lottery” for people ...
Labour's campaign chair is standing by a social media post which likens National's prescriptions policy to dystopian TV show and novel The Handmaid's Tale. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition’s decision to oppose the Voice to Parliament has put its moderate members in a jam. Some moderates are active yes advocates, while others are trying to keep low profiles. Bridget Archer, the outspoken ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling out the agriculture industry’s "undue influence" over the Government’s agricultural emissions policy, saying that " predatory denial and delay " have stalled the development of plans to price and reduce ...
“The huge fire in South Auckland illustrates the serious human health risks of incinerating flock, the residual material left over from the scrap metal process. It is one reason we will be opposing the building of a waste incinerator in Te Awamutu ...
It’s reassuring to think that by paying for private treatment you’re ‘freeing up a bed’ in a public hospital. But the reality is private beds don’t free up public beds, they replace them. Ethicists argue that healthcare is special. Unlike other consumer goods, its availability and accessibility should be based ...
The office of mayor Wayne Brown has hit back at criticism journalists were “cherry-picked” for this morning’s budget announcement. A number of media outlets, including The Spinoff, Stuff, TVNZ and Newshub, were not invited to hear Brown’s budget address. Some, however, made it into the room after Brown had started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Klugman, Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains mention of the Stolen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sudyumna Dahal, PhD Student, Australian National University Shutterstock The human costs of tobacco and smoking worldwide are huge. 1.3 billion people use tobacco, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. More than 8 million people die prematurely because of tobacco, at ...
Today, the Government released a discussion document: Safer Online Services and Media Platforms. It aims to reduce people’s exposure to harmful content, and create a system that is easier to navigate if people need to report harmful content. The ...
The Act Party’s compared a proposal to improve online safety to the government’s doomed hate speech laws, and pledged to “kill” it off as well. Consultation is set to begin on a Department of Internal Affairs proposal to change how online content is regulated in New Zealand. But David Seymour ...
A new report from the Auditor-General on four initiatives to improve outcomes for Māori has highlighted the importance of strong relationships between public organisations and Māori, and of taking the time needed to build these relationships. However, ...
The Broadcasting Standards Authority welcomes today’s launch of the public discussion document, Safer Online Services and Media Platforms, on a proposed new content regulation framework. The Authority has long been an advocate for a more flexible regulatory ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Clement, Research Associate in the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology, Author providedPalaeontology is the study of evolution and prehistoric life, usually preserved as fossils in rocks. It combines aspects of geology ...
Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono welcomes the release of the Safer Online Services and Media Platforms report from Te Tari Taiwhenua, dealing with content regulation for media and social media. “We welcome the move to an independent regulator that ...
The drearily titled “Safer Online Services and Media Platforms” document has just been released. Here’s a TLDR summary from The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias: The suggested changes are pretty different from what we have right now. All digital industries that publish content, including overseas companies like Meta and Google and local ...
The drearily titled “Safer Online Services and Media Platforms” document has just been released. Here’s a TLDR summary from The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias: The suggested changes are pretty different from what we have right now. All digital industries that publish content, including overseas companies like Meta and Google and local ...
The Safer Online Services and Media Platforms document has just been released by the government’s Content Regulatory Review. It does more than capitalise nouns – here’s what you need to know about what’s inside. What is this document with the world’s most boring name?It’s a proposal from the Department ...
The Safer Online Services and Media Platforms document has just been released by the government’s Content Regulatory Review. It does more than capitalise nouns – here’s what you need to know about what’s inside. What is this document with the world’s most boring name?It’s a proposal from the Department ...
The 2010s musical theatre phenomenon has finally made it to Spark Arena. Does does it live up to the years of expectation? This Angelica Schuyler is transcendent Full disclosure: I am overly familiar with Hamiton without being a full-on Hamilstan. I’ve listened to the cast recording countless times, watched it ...
The 2010s musical theatre phenomenon has finally made it to Spark Arena. Does does it live up to the years of expectation? This Angelica Schuyler is transcendent Full disclosure: I am overly familiar with Hamiton without being a full-on Hamilstan. I’ve listened to the cast recording countless times, watched it ...
Members of the press being turned away from the door distracted from the announcement of asset sales and inflation-pegged rates in Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s final budget proposal Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown didn’t mince words at a fiery press conference this morning where he confirmed he’d be calling for a ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those ...
The government and councils will offer a buyout option to property owners whose land is too risky to rebuild on, and co-fund protection works for those who need it. ...
The government will work with councils to offer a “voluntary buyout” for owners of homes written off by Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent severe weather. About 700 category three properties – those where it’s deemed the risk of future severe weather cannot be sufficiently mitigated – are expected to be ...
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
The only union the Herald ever publishes.
Surprise surprise.
Their economist says a sugar tax won’t work.
Their economist is only just out of University.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11882517
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/macmckenna
from article in NZH
Obesity is not the only reason. There is a link between gout In men and sugar In soft drinks. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96164.php
There is dental decay particularly in children attributed to soft drinks plus fruit juice.
The article in the Herald written by the economist representing the Tax Payers’ Union has this as the last paragraph:
“what right does the Government have telling people they are making the wrong choice?” The government, which should represents the people, has the right because we, the tax payers, pick up the tab for the consequences, just as we have to treat those who have smoking related illnesses.
We also have a duty of care to prevent as far as possible the child’s rotting teeth, the gout, etc just as we have rules about smoke alarms, high viz vests, hard hats, etc.
The Tax Payer’s Union (Championing Value For Money From Every Tax Dollar) should be SUPPORTING A TAX ON FIZZY DRINKS.
”The Tax Payer’s Union (Championing Value For Money From Every Tax Dollar) should be SUPPORTING A TAX ON FIZZY DRINKS.”
for that to be true would have to believe the tax payers union is about helping tax payers , and not the spotty buck toothed illegitimate child of the nats and big business
So true. In fact the Herald article is such that if it was not credited to the economist from the TPU, it could have been paid content on behalf of the soft- drink companies.
“what right does the Government have telling people they are making the wrong choice?”
In Transactional Analysis, which shows you how to understand the points of view governing your mind and those you are talking to, that would be a comment coming from the Child self and particularly the rebellious Child, which is in all of us.
It’s definitely not a reasoned argument. After all who presents the different products that constitute the choice, why these types of products in this form, and who gains; if they are not wholly advantageous and healthy?
Strange because economists have been saying such things work for ages.
Given that I suspect that it’s just lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot8LNlN-PGI
A battered car, blue paintwork chipped and faded, rattles its way aimlessly through a gloomy Deep South, swerving laboriously to avoid the deep and hidden potholes in the road. The driver’s window rolls down. The pallid light from the Southland dawn barely illuminates the sallow face of the man behind the wheel. He sets his jaw, squints into the gloom of an oncoming squall and tosses an expired cigarette butt out of the open window. The thin light of the car’s headlights picks out a finger-sign on a drunkenly-leaning lamppost ahead, “Dipton”.
Dipton–pop 0.
Haunting. Enjoyed that, thanks.
Me too. I assume it was the aftermath of a dark and stormy night…
You mean a stormy and dark night don’t you…
Tempestuous and tenebrous… ?
Robert Guyton
That reads like a laconic tale of a PI in New York or in deepest USA rurality rather. The gumshoe type. Have you written any other short stories? I have a few of the great old Argosy periodicals where there was a market for these. When it is cold and wet perhaps you could pen a few for publication in NZ.
Ha! It’s not my genre really but Bill’s got the face for it. I’m more flippant and chirpy, by nature. I used to, btw, read Argosy, whenever I was staying at a friends bach at Kaiteriteri, back in the day. They had bookshelves stuffed with them and whenever it rained or it was too hot to go outside, I’d read’m.
While the MSM and the business commentators will continue having multiple orgasms about how winning the Americas Cup is a superior business leadership model and will save us all, back in the actual economy it just gets worse.
The export economy is simply not paying our way.
Imports of petroleum products and motor vehicles pushed our imports way up, far higher than 2016.
And we still generate roughly the same products that we did around World War One: dairy commodities in the form of milk powder, butter, and cheese. Plus other agricultural commodities: beef and lamb, forestry, fruit, and wine. What we make is great, it’s just not enough to raise the tax to run a society with the kind of services we deserve.
I would love to have business and government leadership in this country that can tell us we will get rich without screwing the land, or buying houses to rent, or just worshipping tiny teams of sportspeople as if means anything.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/OverseasMerchandiseTrade_HOTPMay17.aspx
Media release:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/OverseasMerchandiseTrade_MRMay17.aspx
Anyone with a plan, now’s your time.
So would I but it can’t happen in a capitalist society which means that we’re on the path to complete collapse but probably only after we’ve seriously altered the balance of the environment.
Draco, how many New Zealanders will accept the idea ‘The state is going to cancel all property rights. The government will own all land and buildings?’
I think I could count them up without removing my shoes and socks.
Who said anything about cancelling all property rights?
BTW, the government already owns all the land and everything in it. That’s not going to change.
How many already pay rent? For a large number of people it would just be a change in landlords and for many of those it would be an improvement.
Is there anything inherently wrong with the government owning all buildings?
Is there anything inherently right about property rights that put a few people above everyone else, that then allows those few to become massive bludgers?
What percentage of New Zealanders do you think would go for the State controlling all land, buildings?
Don’t know but I suspect that it would be more than expected. It may even be a majority as it is.
A good explanation as to why it’s necessary would probably change that.
BTW, do you have any intention of answering the questions I asked?
I don’t think we need to trial the State owning all buildings and land to see how it goes. We need only look to every other regime that has gone down that path. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places but I see an equality of misery and hardship every time.
Our current regime is so far from a revolution we can’t prompt a million people to go and tick a page one September morning.
In Draco(nian) dream land the state would own everything, even all the underpants.
Guess who owns all the world now?
And have a look at all the poverty and restriction that it produces.
And I see the same thing when looking at capitalism. And even more I see the destruction of society brought about by the greed of the capitalists.
Are you thinking that those 30% of children living in poverty and their parents are living bright, happy and fulfilled lives?
In fact, when you look at those couple of 20th century examples what you really see is state capitalism so it’s really not surprising, once you look at the true history of capitalism, that it failed.
Do you see an equality of misery and hardship all about you? Where do you live? I’m in NZ’s poorest region and I don’t. A million of us can’t be bothered voting.
I watched Simon Reeve walking around Cuba on the TV recently, a 2012 doco. I found the tentacles of capitalism rising in the streets fascinating. Obviously he could of skewed his show with bias but he seems like an upright sort of rooster. He found few upset to see capitalism rising.
Yes household poverty is a concern, the government taking control of all houses and distributing them via a show of hands is not a solution. It’s a path to bigger problems.
No, I see a massive increase in poverty while a few bludgers get richer. Was about the same in the USSR, the DPRK and China as well. A few very well off while many aren’t.
Why would the government be distributing them?
And isn’t that what ‘the market’ does?
Massive inequality is what capitalism does and it’s what eventually destroys a society. That bit hasn’t gone away as the rise in inequality and poverty prove. We’re still destroying ourselves to make a few greedy bludgers richer.
Ad
Time for reassessment, back to the drawing board, with pencils and paper. Let’s get away from the heady field of computers. put the ideas, thoughts and suggestions down where everyone can look at a permanent physical list and plan.
Also look at the number of government departments and agencies. Gather a group of interested learners and experts to each one and make a plan that all agree would take us into the future in an affordable way. Then look at what government or their creatures are doing and the direction. Set up a think tank to push them in the right direction. Give monthly reports of what is being achieved. Get an enthusiastic following that likes the result or comments as to where it can be improved.
Get the people of NZ behind the roll-out watching and wanting NZ to do well as a total country not just an enclave of the self-anointed.
far easier and less costly to do all of that over the internet.
Or we could all talk together, discuss what we all want and then hire people to bring that about.
ATM we have it backwards in that we hire people to tell us what to do.
DTB
Telling us what to do, instead of us taking the design and thought into our own hands. That’s what we are doing.
There are many free and fanciful thoughts though. That is why I think it would be good to put pen or pencil to paper and then face to face discuss the matters worked out at first individually. It would be a whole new experience for all the key tappers.
Considering that technology and smart alecing has got us so far up ourselves that we meet ourselves coming back again, quantum like, I think we should revert back to the styles used where our present policies are taking us, somewhere about the 1930’s (with huge human malpractices going on carefully unnoticed by the general public in an organised fashion.)
And how do you get face to face with three million people?
It wasn’t technology that did that but lack of being able to talk with each other because of lack of technology. Instead we ended up with a hierarchical system.
It’s technology that can bring about what you want. Trying to go back to the 1930s will prevent that.
DTB
You are overlooking the findings of numerous thinkers (who I can’t recall exactly) that most ideas and changes come from a very few people.
The three or so million that you refer to are those who are given the chance to vote for some idea in elections, and many of them hardly bother to think and just trot off along their well-oiled railroad track to the usual tick. Some don’t bother at all.
Poof to your 3 million. We need people who care to think, and then think right through to the end and understand and assess the pros and cons considering known facts, possibilities, past failures and successes and human nature’s ability to skew legislation and methods, and then we would get some good stuff. And I want to look at people’s demeanour to check out their plausability, even with skype people lack the ability to observe and judge, which is important in deciding who has depth and trustworthiness, reliability etc
Not really. IMO, it’s wrong. All people have ideas all the time. The problem is that most of them aren’t heard.
That’s a matter of culture. Change the culture and we change society. Keeping it the same as is or taking it back to the 1930s isn’t going to bring about the changes that we need.
The solutions to the problems of the Now aren’t to be found in the Past.
We need to get everybody to care and to think. Then we’ll have the mass of ideas that will realise a solution.
We already have personality cults – they don’t work.
What we need is people reading the scientific findings and then making sure that policy meets those findings.
DTB
Too much wishful thinking there. The world can’t wait for ideal situations to arise and I don’t trust the average person to turn into a research oriented decision maker.
Hi Draco, I’ve run out of reply buttons, I’m responding to this comment.
“Do you see an equality of misery and hardship all about you?
No, I see a massive increase in poverty while a few bludgers get richer. Was about the same in the USSR, the DPRK and China as well. A few very well off while many aren’t.
Yes household poverty is a concern, the government taking control of all houses and distributing them via a show of hands is not a solution.
Why would the government be distributing them?
And isn’t that what ‘the market’ does?
Massive inequality is what capitalism does and it’s what eventually destroys a society. That bit hasn’t gone away as the rise in inequality and poverty prove. We’re still destroying ourselves to make a few greedy bludgers richer.”
.
.
.
.
New Zealanders don’t want the Government owning everything Draco. I fear the good ideas you have are overshadowed by your extreme core solutions. Capitalism isn’t the culprit, we’re just doing it wrong. Your efforts should benefit my life and mine yours. We need to re-jig what we’ve got, not chuck it all out.
At the moment too much of the wealth we create and circulate leaves our country. We need to get better at using it to enhance each other’s lives.
I hear in the news today that Google got fined 3.7 billion dollars for directing searchers to retail websites they have an interest in. How much have they got away with? That’s where capitalism sux.
Me selling you a loaf of bread I made and you making sandwiches to sell to office workers…it’s not evil brother.
There are only 3 ways to grow any business, whether that business be a lawn-mowing round or a nation.
Get more customers.
Get more from the customers you’ve got.
Cut overheads.
I think we need to focus on the rate we gobble through our resources. Rather than giant slabs of 20,000 year old kauri being shipped to China. The ship’s hold should be filled with presentation boxes of 20,000 year old chop-sticks. Much of the appeal of this wood in China is due to it’s age. Chinese civilization dates back about 20,000 years too. There’s a great marketing story to tell.
Or consider not growing business at all.
Well done molly a very uninformed comment, let’s just stop human enterprise and improvement, business come and go if they stop providing value to me, you and everybody ie not productive or some one does it better , it’s not a zero sum game, think a little bit deeper
Molly didn’t say anything about stopping enterprise or improvement. Just to stop growing business.
Reality is a zero sum game. Believing otherwise is delusional.
When we stop growing we ripen, when we ripen we rot.
We’d continue developing – we’d stop getting bigger.
Except the definition of economic growth is more to do with innovation than in using more of something.
If that were true then the government and business wouldn’t be so concerned with increasing the number of people here or increasing the amount we export.
Having read more than a few economics books and studied economics and worked using economic theories and tools, I would suggest that as a starting point the definition of economic growth has little to do with innovation. As a method of increasing the rate of economic growth, innovation has a medium term to long term impact. A short term to medium term methods are as stated above:
Human enterprise and improvement is independent of growth.
Both can be used to reduce use and impact. Growth is a ridiculous indicator to use for both improvement and enterprise, particularly if it is the only one.
Excellent idea. Why don’t YOU set up a business to do just that?
Or use my consumer dollars to support those who already do? Unnecessary duplication often leads to unsustainability and more waste.
Setting up a business in a climate that rewards businesses that engage in paying non-livable wages, and have bad environmental practices does not appeal to me.
I prefer the utilising and participating in the volunteer and sharing sector. I am lucky in that I don’t “need” much more than what I already have.
Your response shows the limits to your perception of success and values alignment. Mine includes but is not limited to: owning a business.
I’m with you molly on this.
The mantra that “growth” is the only answer (whatever the question !) is just bullshit.
There are many paths to a better quality of life, exponential growth of consumption is not one .
I’ve got all the business I want in my chosen field Gosman. So why don’t YOU do it.
I don’t think we should be shipping ancient or old wood, water or other resources to anyone. It just seems wrong. Those resources should only be able to be used by locals in the area who understand their value. There’s no reason why a local community can’t produce much of what it needs in terms of food, housing and clothing. This may sound foreign to our heavily financialised world, but one thing it is, is sustainable.
We’ve become heavily dependent on trade and the produce of other countries. We like electrical cable, Japanese cars and Spanish tomatoes in winter.
I don’t have a problem with trade and utilising our resources I just think we need to get much smarter with it and add more value.
Polar bears stay warm because their fur fibres are hollow. Their body warmth travels out through the fibre and creates a fabulous warm jacket for them. A jumper made of polar bear fur would be a natural garment with astounding natural body warming qualities. Scandinavians would pay about the equivalent of NZ$1000 for such a garment.
Polar bears share this near unique quality with one other creature: Possums.
“or just worshipping tiny teams of sportspeople as if [it] means anything”
Yes – I really do pity all those people who over the next few years will be required to attend ‘leadership workshops’ and be divided into groups and asked to come up with ideas on what it is about Team NZ that makes them ‘winners’, and then be asked to ‘present’ back to all the attendees on their findings and how they could be applied.
And there will be a well-dressed (and well-paid) external ‘facilitator’ and numerous post-it notes will be written and stuck around the walls.
And it will all mean absolutely f***ing nothing, and nothing will change and the few people with any originality will hate every minute of it and maybe stay sane by humming Tom Waits songs in their heads, or trying to remember a poem by Yeats about things falling apart.
Really I think that our sclerotic, conformist, hierarchical workplaces hold us back.
I sympathise and share your view on leadership conferences AB
Well said Red and of course AB, I think we all have had experience of those over the years, though I thought it was a disease of the 80/90’s only, did not realise that crap is still going on.
QFT
Went to one of those self-help things that tertiary institutions put on. It was supposedly all about making us stand out to employers but the reality was that it was all about getting people to conform and that conformity was dictated by those in power.
Capitalism is about conforming to the greedy and it really does hold us back.
Technically our product base has regressed massively when you consider the heavy industry capabilities we had until the 70s/80s. We built our own whiteware and textiles and even locomotives during the time you mention. Economically rather than diversifying NZ has pretty much shrunk the actual productive economy to barely beyond what pre-industrial societies were producing as their mainstay.
Bruce Plested ripping into National here. Plenty of soft National voters (i.e. those with a conscience and a vision beyond their own wallets) will hang off every word someone like Bruce Plested says.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/94132260/mainfreight-founder-turns-eye-to-social-and-environmental-issues
Pleated and Braid have been sane voices in an insane economy.
Ahem. Plested.
This is the self same Mr Plested who is on record as a large donor to the National Party.
And braids minfreight doing very nicely out of the ‘anti rail’ policies national have, heavier trucks, lower real wages etc
Bet they both fall into line with the old ‘they listened and we’re backing them now’ bs these shills switch to on the GE run in.
Bruce says, “The problems could not be fixed by the market but were like law and order issues politicians should deal with.”
But Joyce/English/Key et al, all swear by Market Forces. They must be right.
Aren’t they?
The recipe for economic riches from laissez faire and muscular business individuality has apparently been wanting something. Rising powder?
Perhaps the ingredients have passed their use-by date and have lost their freshness and spark of energy after being bled and bleached for years, many just left sitting at dockside waiting for someone to pay the costs of importation.
RE: Todd Barclay.
It seems that young National Party MP’s are too hungover after a night’s partying to show up for work the next day. They may have to use migrant MP’s instead 🙂
No they will leave that to the Labour party as they have experience of doing that.
We are all immigrants here, some just arrived later then others. Where’s your cut off point on becoming tangata whenua, 1/5/10/100+ years?
it’s as the double dipper said
Kiwi blokes are useless…….
we need indeed some migrant MP’s to fill the slots for which we can’t find qualified applicants with a clean police record and or at the very least an applicant who can hold his liquor and show up for work the next day.
Yes and they would probably come cheaper. All around NZpollies don’t shape up well on the political olympics.
Dam that’s inconvenient as reported by stuff.co.nz Labour also uses leadership budget to satisfy internal employment issues and ensure confidentiality I assume to avoid public scrutiny of a private matter (fair enough barring sanctimonious comments of many labour supporters here ) ) by avoiding going to court
[you want to make assertions of fact in this political climate, then put up a link and quote the relevant piece that supports your assertion (no, I’m not going to trawl an article to try and see what you mean). Otherwise I will considering you to be trolling and ban you. Consider this a warning. I’d also suggest using punctuation because once I get my moderator hat on if I have to read your comment 3 times in order to understand it, I consider that wasting my moderator time. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
For people they don’t employ?
got a link? It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I don’t trust your grip on reality.
I don’t trust them or their grip on reality.
CNN gets caught out pushing the unbelievable bullshit “It’s all Russia’s fault” line. Not that this should be surprising.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-27/cnn-exposed-undercover-sting-producer-admits-russia-story-fake-news-pushed-ratings-0
That would have been 2001 ish, and the prediction is still running. But WTF if people want to gamble then go for it
7.3 billion or 9 billion people, it don’t matter to the planet we are all gone burger
I haven’t got kids so I don’t give a fuck, just like pointing out the obvious, you know stacking the ‘I told you so’s’
Quite simply the king has no clothes, but 99.4 ish of the pesants can see the brown eye the TPTB are shoving in your faces, the joke is on us all.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
This is interesting, just before the election as well.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/333995/nz-officials-told-to-release-info-on-us-billionaire
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/326696/thiel's-nz-citizenship-one-of-a-kind
From young Ricky Harman at Politik
Maori Party makes another move to squeeze Winston out – Politik
Dear oh dear – this The South Auckland Pasifikas are about to defect en masse meme gets trotted out almost each and every Election (also in the 2010 Mana By-Election in terms of Porirua East Pasifika voters) and always gets dutifully regurgitated by the MSM.
Yet strangely enough these highly excitable predictions Never Ever seem to come true.
I think ordinary families can see it for what it is – National elites and Maori elites and Pacific elites all lining their own pockets.
All us nobreeders (currently about 3 billion of us) are victims of our parents egos
I didn’t ask to be born, and have done my best not to add to this clusterfuck
Parents are a major part of the problem ….. thanks mum
And before a dickhead suggests I kill myself … it is not my fault.
But yes sucide is very much in my future, as it will be for most people
See 22After.Com warning don’t watch this alone 😉
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Anyone know how to make Greenpeace’s URLs into ordinary ones instead of the client ID tracking ones?
Click on one of these campaigns to see what I mean
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/
One of the reasons I find greenpeace easy to resist: a friend of mine signed a petition, then got cold-called in the middle of a meeting by someone shilling for gp donations. I’m amenable to some of their causes, but their marketing techniques are corporate mercenary through and through.
They could have at least use a URL that could be edited. Don’t know what their thinking is, maybe they care if people link them.
*don’t care.
Not sure if this is the right site anymore for a topic like this.
Brig. Gen. Hugh McAslan (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11824303) has said that we are using white phosphorus on civilian targets.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/wp.htm
It was used as a incendiary munition. An important distinction.
Now folks this is being led by NZ, and they are killing civilians. If this is what Key meant by getting some guts. Then God help us all. This is what the rabbit hole looks like.
Oh, and here is the piece where they admit they are using it in civilian areas.
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/06/13/532809626/u-s-led-coalition-has-used-white-phosphorous-in-fight-for-mosul-general-says
seems an appropriate topic for here.
Sobering, saddening.. Technology and (false) news dissemination improve, but if anything human behaviour seems to flatline at bottom.
I admire Michelle Boag’s ability to do impersonations. I particularly like the fine nuances she can bring to them.
She’s just been doing an impersonation of a slime-ball on RNZ and was bloody brilliant. What really took it to a higher level was the way she finished it off wth the touches of ‘arrogant hag.’ Bravo Michelle.
Just heard the Miserable Michelle Boag on RNZ twisting the “facts” against Nigel Haworth. Spiteful I think?
Can’t imagine why Mora has her on the panel
Sorry, I don’t know how to select part of a video – or even if this is possible – but listen to the first 13 minutes of Thom Hartman and Dr. Richard Wolff discuss the American health care system.
I thought, this man (Wolff) is talking about New Zealand – especially in relation to the Employment Contracts Act!
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBigPictureRT
Just watched John Campbell visit the Marae where the students are staying. Looks pretty good to me. The students were not allowed to speak during the visit but a small group will be on air after 6pm.
Gives a balance after the political storm created by Government sources.
(Mr Phillips points out that most groups are there for just a few days so communal living is a bit harder for longer stays.)
So a small group of “pIcked” students were allowed to talk and shin horror stayed on the prescribed message.
If it was balanced they would have allowed access to any of them. Gutless.