The anxiety and emotion that pours into the headsets of crisis advice workers in this crowded fifth-floor Sheffield call centre offers a snapshot of the UK’s worsening homelessness crisis. Advisers at Shelter’s helpline are processing more calls than ever. Last year there was a 15% increase in the volume of calls – a reflection, staff think, of the degree to which people are struggling with rising house prices, soaring rents, cuts to housing benefit and the long shadow of the recession. A day spent at the centre provides a clear picture of the kinds of housing problems people face, as pressure on council house stock intensifies and radical changes to benefit entitlements are introduced.
Just, depressing stories of people – mostly with insecure incomes – with nowhere to live: people with partners who have left and now there’s no-one with an income to pay the rent; someone on a zero hours contract that landlords won’t let to because their income is too precarious…. on and on the stories go…..
The neolibs know no limits; they are both short sighted and disconnected. And despite the warnings of the Arab Spring, they view all these proles, their own people, as nothing except disposable. Days of destruction, days of revolt.
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
The only great job NAct is doing is keeping these stories off the tv and out of the newspapers. They can do it because we lack a Guardian, although we don’t lack our equivalent of the Murdoch gutter press.
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
????? , IT WENT WRONG.
Anyway to finish the numbers of NZers returning home is skyrocketing , all of this proves we have done reasonably well in the last few years when it all could have gone horribly wrong.
Its a lie karol. The standard for povertg is indias dump pikes. Se the uk and we are just being silly. Record shopping on boxing day so there cant be anyone suffering in godzone
however collins defined poverty on boxing day as a single parent bringing up 7 kids and cutting short their education to help feed the family… she and bennett really should talk.
So the definition of poverty in New Zealand is a single parent on the benefit with 7 children.
Does that mean to qualify for a benefit in future a couple will have to have 14 children? And just how did the “single parent” end up with 7 children? And what sort of accommodation can they expect, given that Housing NZ is down-sizing all it’s units?
I just love the spin this Government puts on things.
Perhaps we’ve just found New Zealand’s next Minister of Social Development – the caring, crusher Collins. Say good-bye to the evil, ranting, uninformed, former beneficiary, Paula Bennett.
“just how did a “single parent” end up with 7 children?”.
I don’t think you paid enough attention to the sex education classes you should have had at school.
Alternatively perhaps you went to a church run school and they didn’t teach you at all.
Oh well, perhaps it is best to leave you in a state of blissful ignorance about these things and let you think that they were found in the cabbage patch..
Well we all know “how” under a National-led Government a single parent can end up with 7 children. You’ve stated it so eloquently elsewhere alwyn, that the “woman’s place” is in the home, barefoot, pregnant, and under her master’s rule. And woe-betide her standing up to him, she deserves nothing but a slap. Not for her in an egalitarian society the comfort or security of the DPB. As for the “cabbage patch”, it’s just her duties to tend to masters needs, 24/7 each and every day.
OK Loud mouth. Put up or shut up.
Where did I ever say that a woman’s place is in the home, barefoot, pregnant etc?
A citation or an apology please you jerk.
The only thing I did here was to make a joke about the silly question you asked.
You’ve said on more than one occasion, you’d like to go back to the days before the DPB, which was a time when women were essentially “kept” at home, as almost domestic servants. Up until the advent of the Pill, most women gave birth, in one shape, form or another, every 18 months.
National fought tooth and nail to stop the introduction of the DPB, even today this Government has used it to victimize beneficiaries. Rape then, was not recognised within marriage.
I had a friend who fled an institution after being committed by her husband because she “stood up to him”, by walking out in her dressing gown and getting into a taxi, and going to her parents house. Her parents were unaware of what was going on.
Judith Collins says the “poverty” line starts with 7 children – wow, what a statement. Never heard of irony, alwyn? My uncle in the 70’s had a sister whose husband walked out on her, leaving her to raise 5 children – before the DPB came about – ask our whanau about poverty – everyone reached out to help her. So if you think you have all the answers, get off your smug arse.
I repeat my statement. Give me a citation to where I said what you claim?
All you mutter now is that “You’ve said on more that one occasion, you’d like to go back etc”. Come on Will. Where did I say I want women to stay home as domestic servants?
Put up or shut up. I’m certainly not the husband of the friend you mention and I certainly don’t hold any of those views. Now a reference to me saying any of these things or an apology please.
WW the definition of poverty in NZ is relative to median household income. It is essentially useless. Currently if your household earns somewhere between 800 and 1000 $/week or less (after tax) you are living in poverty. Which is rubbish. Accordingly if boom times next year meant average h/h incomes doubled you’d be in poverty at $2,000 net /wk. By definition we must always have the same number of people (give or take) in poverty.
If you can show me families with no mortgage, no TV, no car, no booze, ciggies, pokies who can’t feed their kids in NZ then I would admit that’s poverty. If it’s more than 4 kids you’ve got to ask some questions.
The Monitor shows a steady rise in children’s hospital admissions for a group of diseases sensitive to living in poverty. These include asthma, pneumonia, rheumatic fever and serious skin infections.
This group of diseases has risen in New Zealand children of all ethnicities since the recession began in 2008. Pacifica and Maori children are hospitalised at far higher rates than other children with proportionately more Pacifica and Maori children hospitalised now for these diseases than there were a decade ago. These statistics reflect deepening poverty and worsening inequality.
Child Poverty Action Group welcomes the inaugural Child Poverty Monitor and congratulates the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, the JR McKenzie Trust and the University of Otago’s NZ Child and Youth Epidemiology Service.
The Monitor puts all the known statistics about child poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand in one place along with current statistics on health outcomes. It provides New Zealanders with yet another reminder of our scandalous treatment of the nation’s poorest children and the severe, sometimes fatal consequences.
The report shows that 25% of New Zealand children fall under the standard 60% income poverty line and of these 10% are in severe and persistent poverty.
There was a rapid rise in child poverty in the early 1990s and then a fall in the late 1990s. The report says after “1998 however, as economic conditions improved, median incomes again rose, while incomes for many low-income households with children did not, resulting in a rise in child poverty up until 2004.”
[…]
“The fall in child poverty rates from 2004 to 2007 for children in one-Full Time -one-workless 2 Parent households was very large (28% to 9%), reflecting the Working for Families impact, especially through the In-Work Tax Credit.”
“From 2007 to 2012, [the poverty rates were] around six to seven times higher for children in workless households. This to a large degree reflects the greater Working for Families assistance for working families than for beneficiary families.”
Hide assumes that all households below the poverty line are getting the rate just below the poverty line cut off. Some are getting considerably less.
The Child Poverty report shows that 25% fall below that 60% cut off, with 10% being in “severe and persistent” poverty.
Because the poverty line in NZ is generally taken to be 60% of the median disposable household income, after housing costs, the amount of people below that line will differ, depending on the spread of such incomes: ie the people just below the poverty line (the one’s Hide are referring to, could be quite high for a small number of households, in comparison with the household disposable incomes of the rest.
Hide does not make this assumption but agreed there will be varying levels below this threshold. My point is someone in the upper level of “poverty” is earning an income which should be more than adequate.
You have avoided my challenge to provide examples of what you call “severe and persistent poverty”. I have visions of African babies with bloated bellies and flies in their unblinking eyes.
Helen Clark recently stated something along the lines of “No child in NZ lives on $2 a day. In fact no child in NZ lives on $5/ day”. HC is referring to poverty.
It doesn’t need to be famine level poverty to be poverty. The concerns are about poverty that impacts on health and life chances in education and work, length of life, etc. And this in turn impacts on our economy. The poor quality of housing has an impact on health for the least well off, too.
Income poverty: 265,000 children (one in four). This looks at the amount of money families have to pay bills and purchase everyday essentials. This is defined as having less than 60% of median household income, after housing costs are removed.
Material hardship: 180,000 children (17%). This means regularly going without things most New Zealanders consider essential – like fruit and vegetables, shoes that fit, their own bed and a warm house.
Severe poverty: 10% of children. This means they are going without the things they need and their low family income means they don’t have any opportunity of changing this. These are the children experiencing material hardship and who are in families in income poverty.
Persistent poverty: 3 out of 5 children in poverty are in poverty for long periods. These children are likely to live in poverty for many years of their childhoods. Persistent poverty is defined as having lived in income poverty over a seven year period.
Some people above the poverty line experience more hardship than those below the poverty line – though the ones above the line probably have more opportunity to get out of poverty.
Persistent poverty is more likely to result in negative impacts on things like health, education, etc.
I would say going without things you need means: missing meals; meals that lack sufficient nutrients; unable to afford sufficient electricity, heating, etc; poor sleeping arrangements that continually impact on sleep; and unhealthy living environment (overcrowding, damp etc causing illnesses); unable to afford medical attention and/or to travel to places where they can get the right attention;……. etc.
PS; You seem more concerned to find there is no poverty, than to attend to the actual struggles people in a relatively wealthy country like NZ. Like you are looking for a reason to deny poverty and hardship exists in NZ.
There are plenty of stories around – yet all the righties do is deny, deny, deny….. and no compassion or empathy.
I have plenty of empathy for people in genuine poverty. I have none for those in perceived or self imposed poverty. My years as a sheep shearer gave me an insight into a lot of things in a small rural community. There are workers and there are shirkers. And this has nothing to do with race just to save you the time.
There is a big difference between poverty and bad parenting and AGAIN you fail to give me an example of poverty whereby parents cannot feed their children in NZ. If this is not poverty then what is? Not having a TV? Not having an iPad?
I worked at Akld City Mission (sorry volunteered) and there are a lot of people who CHOOSE to live on the streets. Some are unfortunately addicts but you can’t blame the government for that. The Mission makes warm clothes and blankets free so somehow if the welfare state has failed them there is a backstop.
If we’re really talking about what I think we are then it’s multi-generational dependency on benefits and this will only be addressed by breaking the cycle. NOT throwing more money after bad. Sorry but it’s tough love.
I don’t agree with you’re views, but don’t accuse me of being in denial, having no compassion or empathy.
Northland was significantly impacted by the 2008-9 economic recession resulting in unemployment, mortgagee sales, business failures and bankruptcies. Despite the recession being officially ‘over’ there is a strong sense amongst the Whangarei community that things are not getting better. Tai Tokerau Emergency Housing Charitable Trust, the Salvation Army, Women’s Refuge, and several budgeting agencies are all facing increasing demand. Schools and community groups report growing numbers of families who are unable to provide enough food.
[…]
Due to the level of demand food parcel providers have had to develop criteria and put processes in place to limit the amount of food being distributed.
[…]
Recent data on the number of recipients by benefit type for Whangarei show that the numbers of those on unemployment benefit (UB) are relatively flat (2,002 in January 2010, 1,796 in September 2010 and 1,941 in September 2011). But the numbers receiving Domestic Purposes benefit (DPB) show an increase (from 2,874 in January 2010, to 3,030 in September 2010 and 3,259 in September 2011) which is likely to reflect the current lack of employment opportunities.
Latest research from the University of Auckland supports recent claims that many low-income families are unable to afford even a basic nutritious diet for their children. A paper published in Nutrition and Dietetics in December 2010 found that low-income families may not be able to afford meals recommended by the national nutritional guidelines, especially if there are teenagers in the household whose meals cost a lot more.
[…]
Professor Asher says, “In reality, rent is the highest cost faced by most families, closely followed by unavoidable expenses such as electricity, transport and school-related costs. This leaves little for a good diet, especially for older children who eat so much more.
Nutritious food for children is beyond the reach of many low-income families, especially those thousands of families ineligible for the full Working for Families package. This study clearly highlights that using food banks and purchasing cheap poor-quality food is not always a matter of choice. ”
There’s plenty of evidence out there. Open your eyes. And not an Ipad in sight!
My point is someone in the upper level of “poverty” is earning an income which should be more than adequate.
Only in your opinion – the research tells us otherwise (you really didn’t think that percentage of the median income had been pulled out of a hat did you?).
Helen Clark recently stated something along the lines of “No child in NZ lives on $2 a day. In fact no child in NZ lives on $5/ day”. HC is referring to poverty.
That’s probably because it’s impossible to do so. In fact, I’d say it’s impossible for a child in NZ to live on less than $20 per day.
Adequate Food: about $100 per week
Clothing: A low guess I'd say $20 per week
Then there’s doctors visits and other emergency bills associated with them.
Thing is, we already know that a number of children have less than that spent on them.
Your opinion really isn’t worth much. In fact, it should be actively avoided because it’s BS.
You may want to take a look at this from the another angle.
Raising a child to the age of 18 will cost the average parents almost $250,000.
The calculation, included in a draft study for the Inland Revenue Department, covers only expenses. It doesn’t count parents’ loss of income or childcare costs.
The income lost by one parent staying at home during that period would be almost $165,000, based on the national average wage calculated by Statistics New Zealand
An excellent point RL. “Raising a child to the age of 18 will cost the “parents” 250k.”
So who’s going to pick up the tab if the parents can’t. 4 kids = 1 million. It must take a lot of tax payers to pay for a single child when the parents can’t.
so what’s your alternative, saggy? Let’s go to the tory worst case and say someone chooses to be poor and raise, say, 4 kids. Other than the government picking up the tab, I see only a few options:
A) forced adoption,
B) forced abortion, or
C) punish the kids for their parents’ decisions.
Am I missing an ideal solution that doesn’t make you look like an arsehole? You’ve apparently identified a serious problem that is costing our country millons a year, so what solutions do you have for the problem?
Take a simple course on statistics, Saggy. The number of people stays the same if the distribution keeps the same shape. The median is the point where 50% lie above and 50% below. The “triumph” of neoliberal economics is that the distribution is heavily weighted towards the lower values, with a long tail at the top. Please feel free to comment when you have studied this sufficiently to reach the level of understanding of a moderately bright fifteen year old. At the moment, you are not even close.
The fact that you, and other readers of Kiwiblog, are not statisticians is what allows Farrar and Hide to get away with writing such rubbish. A contributor to The Standard has to know what they’re talking about (generally) because they’ll get pulled up by experts if they stray too far from accepted practice. It makes participating in this blog rather more challenging than, for example, commenting on WhaleSpew, where anything more sophisticated than “Rooting mayor. Lying lefty. Boardroom table. Sky dish. Judith Collins, oh my god…” gets you labelled as part of a pretentious liberal elite.
Ug, that article is an almost complete objectification of people who are homeless.
“Squatting was a “transitional problem” for the city, Sutton said, and it would improve as more life returned to the CBD and vacant homes were demolished.”
That’s right Mr Sutton, all those people will suddenly find homes when their squats are demolished and the CBD is revitalised.
hmmm, I think it’s more complex than that. For some reason we have this idea that MPs should be voted in and then left to it, as if they are competent to run the country by themselves. I’ve heard the argument that most people aren’t interested in politics… I’m not sure that is true, but if it is then isn’t that a problem? Shouldn’t we be aiming for direct engagement? Wasn’t MMP supposed to give more representation?
Who voted in the MPs that all these people no longer trust?
I also think it’s naive to think that MPs won’t have to compromise on their promises. People need to look at why that happens. We also need to look at the system we now dislike so much and what privileges it affords us that we might have to give up to get something better.
I don’t agree with Bomber’s framing of ‘fault’ but I do think it’s food for thought in terms of civic responsibility. When we abdicate our responsibilities we let power-mad money grubbers take over.
The govt should be our servants not a bunch of whatevers who can do what they like for 3 years. If they’re not doing what we want, what is OUR responsibility in this?
It’s a UK survey. Specific questions on the survey show that Labour voters are most angry, as well as northerners, young people, and men.
In England the north (and Scotland & Wales) is another country/ies that doesn’t get as much media and political attention as the south east – it’s all focus on Westminister & the city of London. Northerners tend to be more Labour, in the old industrial centres – more traditionally working class. I have heard – from a friend up there, that generally they are more left and feel ignored. I’m not sure how they can go about getting themselves heard.
Protests, campaigns, etc, don’t seem to have much impact on the political and media centres in the South East.
This is very telling:
“Israel considers Gaza a “hostile territory” after it was taken over by the anti-Israel Islamist Hamas movement in 2007″ – I thought they won a democratic election?
Neither side is in the right but only one side has the power and opportunity to be the first one to put down their big stick and actually make changes that might lead to a lasting peace.
“Neither side is in the right”? Israel is operating a brutal, illegal, internationally condemned blockade of Gaza, and you seem to be suggesting the victims of this crime are in some way culpable. I know you are not flippant or indifferent, but you need to be careful about using such glib and thoughtless phrases. The fact is: one side is wrong here; “neither side is in the right” is the kind of thoughtless comment one hears from talkback radio hosts and indolent politicians.
Who in their right mind would say yes to more taxes, the only way this result could be valid is if by some chance 40% of the participants are shop owners.
On another note, I notice David Parker sticking his oar in regarding overseas purchases, I assume from that nonsense he uttered that whacking gst onto overseas purchases is official labour policy.
Whats the tally so far.
Capital gains tax
Massive increases in environmental taxes
Gst on overseas purchases
Raising the age of super.
Wow, you’d have to be mad not to vote labour in 2014.
I will happily pay any and all taxes if it gets funneled in to government initiatives to raise the standard of living in this country rather than passed over to Sky City or other capitalist cronies.
It’s funny how the Righties believe in fiscal responsibility and are willing to paint the Left as the economically illiterate overspending bunch – but when it comes down to it, we’re the only ones willing to actually do what it takes to pay the piper.
The only reason the left needs to raise so much tax is because the left wants to turn NZ into some hard core socialist state, it has absolutely nothing to do with paying the piper.
Fuck that, anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election
Do you think that people are freer when they have an income from a job? Or when they don’t have a job and are receiving welfare?
How do governments ensure that all people have jobs without addressing anomalies as the above example?
They have to create a situation where the local businesses and foreign import businesses are on the same footing by being charged the same amount of tax (they could lower the tax of local businesses, not just raise the tax of the foreign ones) or they are creating a situation where local businesses have less custom/go out of business due to unfair advantage = job losses for NZers.
@BM “anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election”
I presume that your definition of freedom does not include freedom from surveillance of your metadata, or ability to protest within 500m of oil drilling rigs at sea or inability to make submissions on the TPPA before it is signed off by the cabinet.
If you vote blue at the next election, and the inequality continues to grow, then might I suggest that you may have to express your freedom by erecting razor wire around your private castle to keep out the starving hoards.
Let’s look at a different picture- one of a society in which all people are paid a decent wage so that they can support their families and afford housing. There would be less need for the razor wire. Can you honestly tell me that this would not INCREASE your sense of freedom and security?
Let’s look at a different picture- one of a society in which all people are paid a decent wage so that they can support their families and afford housing. There would be less need for the razor wire. Can you honestly tell me that this would not INCREASE your sense of freedom and security?
The only way to achieve anything like that is if we move heavily into mineral and oil extraction.
To have full employment the only way that is going to happen is if the government expands the public service massively, the only way that can happen is if the government brings in a ton more money.
From what I’ve read here that is not going to happen which leaves the only other option of taxing the crap out of the population which is just not going to fly.
Unfortunately for Labour, NZ is a capitalist country now, people do not want to have their arses taxed off and any government that tries to push that line will be voted into oblivion.
How else will the country raise money to pay for full employment.?
Pie in the sky stuff like “just create a huge tech industry” or some how massively expand tourism by 5000% just won’t cut it, you have to be realistic and go with the tried and true.
Oil and mining or massively intensifying our dairy industry are the only realistic way of achieving the full employment goal.
BTW, I’m a very creative person, but I try to temper my ideas with a bit of realism.
Pie in the sky stuff like “just create a huge tech industry” or some how massively expand tourism by 5000% just won’t cut it, you have to be realistic and go with the tried and true.
The “tried and true” has now been proven to be destroying the world’s ecology bringing about an extinction event eliminating 90%+ of life on Earth. That 90%+ would most likely include us.
Time to go for a sustainable economy and not continue with the delusional BS that we have now.
Oil and mining or massively intensifying our dairy industry are the only realistic way of achieving the full employment goal.
No it’s not as both will only produce another few thousand jobs and not the 170,000+ needed. The actual solution is to share the jobs around a bit more – I suggest 32 hour weeks with triple time paid for anything over that and that includes salaried positions as well.
BTW, I’m a very creative person, but I try to temper my ideas with a bit of realism.
Never seen anything real coming out of you. Take that BS about continuing as is despite it provably not working.
You’re a typical RWNJ completely divorced from reality.
Hate to break it to you, but all your ideas are complete bull shit.
The “tried and true” has now been proven to be destroying the world’s ecology bringing about an extinction event eliminating 90%+ of life on Earth. That 90%+ would most likely include us.
Over the top bull shit, waste of time discussing it.
Time to go for a sustainable economy and not continue with the delusional BS that we have now.
Ideological driven bull shit , reminds me of the same Chairman Mao wankery that ended up killing 50 million people,waste of time discussing it.
No it’s not as both will only produce another few thousand jobs and not the 170,000+ needed. The actual solution is to share the jobs around a bit more – I suggest 32 hour weeks with triple time paid for anything over that and that includes salaried positions as well.
Ridiculous pile of bullshit, waste of time discussing it.
Trans-national corporate capitalism is a global system of human and environmental destruction. I’m not surprised that you wish to avoid talking about it.
I think you are over compensating if you truly are a creative person.
Along with DTB’s points, the ‘tried and true’ way also is leaving some people with vastly greater sums of money than the majority of people.
These people with vast wealth apparently feel they have more to lose and in response are constantly looking for the most risk-free ways to ‘make money on their money’. This is leading them to invest on betting whether a business or commodity is going to fall or rise in value rather than genuinely creating value by investing in that business or any other productive enterprises.
Vast wealth quickly transforms into political power. The people with wealth are lobbying and supporting government policies that protect their wealth. They are disconnected from the common good for their communities because they no longer consider themselves part of the ‘common’
community – being extraordinarily wealthy and all.
This is all adding up to why, despite there being plenty of resources and money for all, there is a glut in one area and a famine in others and why resources that are being depleted continue to be used and our rivers continue to fill up with shit despite there being alternatives we could be developing yet are not.
The only reason you write a comment here believing that oil drilling ‘is the only way’ or that voting for policies that causes unemployment could in anyway ‘lead to freedom’ because somewhere along the line you have bought into the misinformation that people currently in power have fed you.
Wealth disparity is a large reason for why there are not enough jobs for all; why they are not being created.
Address this problem and you address the employment issues, environmental issues, energy issues et al.
Why do we not address this pivotal problem?
Because those with clout want to keep profiting in the industries and financial games that they are reaping profits from and are oblivious to how their fortunes are intimately connected with everyone elses’.
If we continue in the way we are going – the people with clout will lose that clout because they are thoroughly dependant on this society – they have gathered their wealth from this society, after all – if this society fails their fortunes go with it.
I suggest that you stop believing in the nonsense about ‘freedom’ that your masters spin, BM. It is a free-for-all mentality, that they speak of and you repeat, BM, not freedom.
Only very few in a society can enjoy a free-for-all. This is because one person’s freedom can cause anothers’ lack of it. If you wish to vote for freedom – vote for policies that allow freedom for everyone – not simply some.
“Fuck that, anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election”
,BM What are you john Keys personal arse Kisser and flag waver ?? Because i’l tell you this for nothing, voting for that fucking bunch of megalomaniacs is just asking for financial trouble. Key will be the second Nat thief to take too much cash out of the till, until the bills can’t be paid. Another Muldoon, a drunken incompetent, who has not got a clue.
Actually I’d be in favour of GST being charged, but only IF it could be done in a simple straightforward manner.
What I REALLY object to, is that you get charged duty, then GST charged on top of the duty, shipping and then a final fee to cover their collection costs.
It it were only 15% GST, I wouldn’t have a problem.
Example calculation from whatsmyduty.org.nz (Customs website):
This is on $227 NZ of menswear:
Duty calculation
Description Rate Est. duty
Original value 227.00 NZD
NZ$ value 1 227.00 NZD
Freight NZ$ 0.00 NZD
Duty 0.10 22.70 NZD
GST (val+dty+frght) 37.45 NZD
Sub total 60.16 NZD
IETF* 46.89 NZD
Estimated cost: 107.05 NZD
*Import entry transaction fee:
Once the threshold of $60 of duty and/or GST payable is reached, then an import entry transaction fee (IETF) of NZ$46.89 (GST inclusive) is also payable. This includes the Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity system entry levy of $17.63 (GST inclusive).
This adds up to a 47% tax, not the mere 15% of GST.
They generally don’t have a choice. Retail in NZ is already a razor-thin margin business.
International suppliers simply charge higher prices to NZ (and Australia) and the only option is to buy the product at the price they specify or go without.
Which is why parallel importing is so important to NZ, because it allows retailers to go around the usual suppliers and buy off 3rd parties. But this still doesn’t make up for the high prices the suppliers charge.
Who in their right mind would say yes to more taxes,
That’s a load of BS. A lot of people realise that it’s taxes that support society and that increasing taxes is probably a good idea. That said, I think you’ll find that a lot of people get rather pissed by people bypassing the taxes that they’re supposed to be paying.
I don’t support an extension of GST at all. I’d rather see it done away with altogether, although I notice that David Clark, the neoliberal Labour mouthpiece on this, wants to extend it. Ah well, if they want to be government, they’ll need to get someone else’s vote, because I’m so sick of their unchallenged Rogernomic bullshit and they won’t be getting either of mine.
A belated Merry Christmas to all. 🙂
As a society we are understanding the effects that alcohol has on us as: an individual and society. Millions are spent both to change our culture, laws etc yet here we have
“Getting drunk with Duncan Garner”. – from what one could say is a leading mag
“…After a dinner that included five bottles of red wine,”
Is this how we now achieve depth in reporting??? Get our subject plastered and pump them for info ?
Whats interesting to me is when the issue of why people don’t vote is brought the same old reasons are trotted out whereas what the poll is suggesting its the MPs themselves (on both sides of the house)
While its a UK poll I wouldn’t be at all if a poll was held here and we got similar results, the question is how to change it
for mp’s to win back respect from those who hold them in such (entirely-justified) contempt..
..i don’t think more randite-neo-lib is the answer..
..and this ‘but what can we do?’..helplessness-line is just utter bullshit..
..we look at those countries that are the most equal/happiest..
..and we do what they do..
..and a good income-generator to kick things off..of course..
..is a financial transaction tax on inter-bankster-dealings..
..(remember treasury research showed that would raise enough revenue to enable us to do away entirely with gst..if we so chose to use the income for that..so..?..)
..so..contrary to that rightwing-spin..
..there is much we can do..and it ain’t rocket-science..
..it is just monkey see..monkey do..
..but of course..the rightwing/neo-lib monkeys have their hands over their eyes..
Blinkered Monetarist
Those who pay no tax are being subsidized by those who pay tax.
Those who pay tax have to pay tax at a higher rate to make up the shortfall.
So your argument is flawed.
For starters, a full employment policy for those 25 and under. Secondly, a requirement that anyone contracting services to the government must do so with no less than 90% NZ staff. Thirdly, increase the minimum wage to $18/hr and enforce penalty rates to ensure the work available is spread around more fairly.
As an employer, I would be happy to see CV’s suggestions implemented. Full employment policy where one works for their income is something nobody could object to. I also cannot envisage anybody being worth less than $18ph. I think the effect on the economy would be positive and the effect of self esteem and crime very worthwhile.
Full employment policy where one works for their income is something nobody could object to.
The business people objected quite strenuously back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Once the neo-liberal paradigm had been set in place by Labour though and we now had an (undeclared) official policy of 6%+ unemployment they were quite happy as they drove down wages. Then they started to complain that the UB was too high and so Ruth Richardson cut those as well plunging us immediately into a recession. Now they’re still complaining that the UB is too high, to easy to get and that the minimum wage is too high.
The inevitable result of these complaints by business people is that all these things will be cut especially with a National government in power.
You do realise that this government is running policies that ensure 6%+ unemployment so as to fit the mythical NAIRU don’t you?
It’s not the beneficiaries draining the life out of NZ but the policies followed by all governments since the 1980s. Such policies inevitably get worse under National.
BM. Just watched The Tax Free Tour again. You might want to have a look – it might help you from continually making all these mistakes on the comments.
Bumptious Midden
Try cutting all beneficieries.
What happens is unemployment
goes up exponentially like in Argentina 1996-97 (ACT promoted this policy until the stays came in Prebble was saying cut all benefits and change our currency to the US dollar it failed completely.
ACT never mentioned it again)
But unfortunately Bleak Minion didn’t read the inhouse newsletter.
Well, I’ve had a read through of the festive time articles on TS, and taken on board some thoughts but what I am really curious about is the continuous presence of the regular RWNJ’s.
Don’t you folks take a break, or do you love TS so much you can’t tear yourselves away?
I thought you may have had baches to visit, jet skis to play on, or mall trawling to do.
If you’ve got the cash to splash, Rosie, games galore to be had. Mall trawling, now there’s a revelation, the modern elixir, the cure all for the modern day stresses, just chuck a few coins at some “poor” shop keeper.
As for a simple bach, “The Herald” ran a story on modern day baches. Rosie, in the “old day’s”, a bach was a simple get away, now is competes with an extensive mansion, nothing under a $1million will do. I hope yours is freehold – can we all come and stay – pot luck lunch will do?
And as for water sports around the beach, remember when body surfing was all the rage – cost nothing, but a costume to participate. Now jet skis, heli skis, the latest this and that, and don’t forget, if you really want the best, make sure the beach you’re at is really exclusive.
As I said at the start, if you’ve got the cash to splash, why not invite some poor urchins around to wash and tidy the place, let them swim in the sea before others in your gated community get to see, you’ve flaunted the rules of who gets in and who doesn’t, and maybe before you send them on their way, give them a feed, let them know there’s more to life than two-minute noodles and stale bread.
Good bless ya, Rosie.
I always see the mass appearance of the RWNJ’s as a sign that the discussion poses danger to them and we can’t be left unattended over the breaks. Some of the RWNJ’s on here are likely to be paid to do so, others are I suspect the wannabees. They admire the RWNJ authoritarian style, have a desire to control the lives of others starting but not ending with women, maori, beneficiaries, poor people and so on. Probably they conceal these attitudes poorly which will decrease their economic outcomes.
They gain their own internal feelings of satisfaction by actively putting others down to inflate their own sense of self worth and to convince themselves that they are not bottom of the heap. Such attitudes do not mean they are wealthy merely aspiring and often failing. Attitudes that mean they are probably lonely over the holidays, deprived of the usual sources of their fix so come here.
The rest of us see this as a chance to indulge in the alittle discussion unhindered by work.
Well, what got me started on baches was some RW’er expressing some smugness about his/her well appointed “bach” on karol’s “how was the year for you?” article awhile ago. It’s bigger than the first family home doncha know!!
And in the vein of karol’s articles, (‘shop till we all drop’) and your narrative above, how about that starve/binge dichotomy we have going on our little ol’ country these days. How about it eh.
TV and Poor people: the rule is don’t mention how they/we got that way, don’t mention the redundancy, don’t mention the lack of or substandard accommodation, don’t mention the unfair tax, don’t mention the unemployment, don’t mention the war on the poor, followed by the indigestion that was the boxing day mall sale frenzy coverage.
How much of that goes on a credit card anyway?
And lol, beach toys. As a kid back in the 70’s we were lucky enough to grow up over the road from the beach. Edgy fun was surviving a rip and and avoiding all those blue bottle stingy things
And I’m about the only one here who thinks that the rich need to be taxed out of existence because we can’t actually afford them. The rich truly are the one thing that no society can afford.
Mcgrath scottish aye.
You drive a cheap car have a cheap house obviously a cheap education so you want a cheap nasty govt.
Rarely do you get good things cheap.
You never get anything cheap. The RWNJs haven’t learned that yet despite the Leaky Building Saga (courtesy of them) and the Chorus Saga (also courtesy of them).
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
From The Guardian: “Despair on the frontline of Britain’s homelessness crisis”:
Just, depressing stories of people – mostly with insecure incomes – with nowhere to live: people with partners who have left and now there’s no-one with an income to pay the rent; someone on a zero hours contract that landlords won’t let to because their income is too precarious…. on and on the stories go…..
The neolibs know no limits; they are both short sighted and disconnected. And despite the warnings of the Arab Spring, they view all these proles, their own people, as nothing except disposable. Days of destruction, days of revolt.
Great that you need to go to the UK to get this sort of news, Karol!
Same shit’s happening here – it’s just not being reported upon.
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
The only great job NAct is doing is keeping these stories off the tv and out of the newspapers. They can do it because we lack a Guardian, although we don’t lack our equivalent of the Murdoch gutter press.
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
Makes NZ look great doesn’t it, this proves the NATIONAL govt are doing a grand job.
What’s even worse this is also a reflection on Europe , many Europeans have travelled to Britain searching for scarce work which has had the effect of forcing wages down.
Wages in Britain are sagging , a tradesman friend of mine was earning 2 pounds an hour less than when he was in Britain 3yrs earlier.
Another sign the NZ
The bottom line to all of this
????? , IT WENT WRONG.
Anyway to finish the numbers of NZers returning home is skyrocketing , all of this proves we have done reasonably well in the last few years when it all could have gone horribly wrong.
And the more we avoid the bankster led upward wealth transfering methodology of austerity, the further ahead of Europe and the USA we will be.
It must have crippled your ability to provide sources for your claims too, rto.
Oh, wait – you avoid doing that because it enables people to explain in detail what a fucking moron you are.
Its a lie karol. The standard for povertg is indias dump pikes. Se the uk and we are just being silly. Record shopping on boxing day so there cant be anyone suffering in godzone
however collins defined poverty on boxing day as a single parent bringing up 7 kids and cutting short their education to help feed the family… she and bennett really should talk.
Record shopping day when everything is 60% + off indicates desperation shopping?
60% off rrp, everyone goes mad when it’s realistically the same price as normal. People are suckers, simple as that.
So the definition of poverty in New Zealand is a single parent on the benefit with 7 children.
Does that mean to qualify for a benefit in future a couple will have to have 14 children? And just how did the “single parent” end up with 7 children? And what sort of accommodation can they expect, given that Housing NZ is down-sizing all it’s units?
I just love the spin this Government puts on things.
Perhaps we’ve just found New Zealand’s next Minister of Social Development – the caring, crusher Collins. Say good-bye to the evil, ranting, uninformed, former beneficiary, Paula Bennett.
“just how did a “single parent” end up with 7 children?”.
I don’t think you paid enough attention to the sex education classes you should have had at school.
Alternatively perhaps you went to a church run school and they didn’t teach you at all.
Oh well, perhaps it is best to leave you in a state of blissful ignorance about these things and let you think that they were found in the cabbage patch..
Well we all know “how” under a National-led Government a single parent can end up with 7 children. You’ve stated it so eloquently elsewhere alwyn, that the “woman’s place” is in the home, barefoot, pregnant, and under her master’s rule. And woe-betide her standing up to him, she deserves nothing but a slap. Not for her in an egalitarian society the comfort or security of the DPB. As for the “cabbage patch”, it’s just her duties to tend to masters needs, 24/7 each and every day.
OK Loud mouth. Put up or shut up.
Where did I ever say that a woman’s place is in the home, barefoot, pregnant etc?
A citation or an apology please you jerk.
The only thing I did here was to make a joke about the silly question you asked.
You’ve said on more than one occasion, you’d like to go back to the days before the DPB, which was a time when women were essentially “kept” at home, as almost domestic servants. Up until the advent of the Pill, most women gave birth, in one shape, form or another, every 18 months.
National fought tooth and nail to stop the introduction of the DPB, even today this Government has used it to victimize beneficiaries. Rape then, was not recognised within marriage.
I had a friend who fled an institution after being committed by her husband because she “stood up to him”, by walking out in her dressing gown and getting into a taxi, and going to her parents house. Her parents were unaware of what was going on.
Judith Collins says the “poverty” line starts with 7 children – wow, what a statement. Never heard of irony, alwyn? My uncle in the 70’s had a sister whose husband walked out on her, leaving her to raise 5 children – before the DPB came about – ask our whanau about poverty – everyone reached out to help her. So if you think you have all the answers, get off your smug arse.
I repeat my statement. Give me a citation to where I said what you claim?
All you mutter now is that “You’ve said on more that one occasion, you’d like to go back etc”. Come on Will. Where did I say I want women to stay home as domestic servants?
Put up or shut up. I’m certainly not the husband of the friend you mention and I certainly don’t hold any of those views. Now a reference to me saying any of these things or an apology please.
Well said only another 35yrs till the first labour govt
WW the definition of poverty in NZ is relative to median household income. It is essentially useless. Currently if your household earns somewhere between 800 and 1000 $/week or less (after tax) you are living in poverty. Which is rubbish. Accordingly if boom times next year meant average h/h incomes doubled you’d be in poverty at $2,000 net /wk. By definition we must always have the same number of people (give or take) in poverty.
If you can show me families with no mortgage, no TV, no car, no booze, ciggies, pokies who can’t feed their kids in NZ then I would admit that’s poverty. If it’s more than 4 kids you’ve got to ask some questions.
Poverty in NZ pretty well described here: http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/09/hide_on_child_poverty.html
And yet, diseases that are sensitive to poverty are on the increase:
The Monitor shows a steady rise in children’s hospital admissions for a group of diseases sensitive to living in poverty. These include asthma, pneumonia, rheumatic fever and serious skin infections.
This group of diseases has risen in New Zealand children of all ethnicities since the recession began in 2008. Pacifica and Maori children are hospitalised at far higher rates than other children with proportionately more Pacifica and Maori children hospitalised now for these diseases than there were a decade ago. These statistics reflect deepening poverty and worsening inequality.
And, no, the amount of people in measurable poverty does not stay the same, as indicated by the shifts in the amount of children living in poverty:
Hide assumes that all households below the poverty line are getting the rate just below the poverty line cut off. Some are getting considerably less.
The Child Poverty report shows that 25% fall below that 60% cut off, with 10% being in “severe and persistent” poverty.
Because the poverty line in NZ is generally taken to be 60% of the median disposable household income, after housing costs, the amount of people below that line will differ, depending on the spread of such incomes: ie the people just below the poverty line (the one’s Hide are referring to, could be quite high for a small number of households, in comparison with the household disposable incomes of the rest.
Hide does not make this assumption but agreed there will be varying levels below this threshold. My point is someone in the upper level of “poverty” is earning an income which should be more than adequate.
You have avoided my challenge to provide examples of what you call “severe and persistent poverty”. I have visions of African babies with bloated bellies and flies in their unblinking eyes.
Helen Clark recently stated something along the lines of “No child in NZ lives on $2 a day. In fact no child in NZ lives on $5/ day”. HC is referring to poverty.
It doesn’t need to be famine level poverty to be poverty. The concerns are about poverty that impacts on health and life chances in education and work, length of life, etc. And this in turn impacts on our economy. The poor quality of housing has an impact on health for the least well off, too.
So, it looks like I need to do all the work, then, Saggy. Definitions of the terms here:
Some people above the poverty line experience more hardship than those below the poverty line – though the ones above the line probably have more opportunity to get out of poverty.
Persistent poverty is more likely to result in negative impacts on things like health, education, etc.
I would say going without things you need means: missing meals; meals that lack sufficient nutrients; unable to afford sufficient electricity, heating, etc; poor sleeping arrangements that continually impact on sleep; and unhealthy living environment (overcrowding, damp etc causing illnesses); unable to afford medical attention and/or to travel to places where they can get the right attention;……. etc.
PS; You seem more concerned to find there is no poverty, than to attend to the actual struggles people in a relatively wealthy country like NZ. Like you are looking for a reason to deny poverty and hardship exists in NZ.
There are plenty of stories around – yet all the righties do is deny, deny, deny….. and no compassion or empathy.
I have plenty of empathy for people in genuine poverty. I have none for those in perceived or self imposed poverty. My years as a sheep shearer gave me an insight into a lot of things in a small rural community. There are workers and there are shirkers. And this has nothing to do with race just to save you the time.
There is a big difference between poverty and bad parenting and AGAIN you fail to give me an example of poverty whereby parents cannot feed their children in NZ. If this is not poverty then what is? Not having a TV? Not having an iPad?
I worked at Akld City Mission (sorry volunteered) and there are a lot of people who CHOOSE to live on the streets. Some are unfortunately addicts but you can’t blame the government for that. The Mission makes warm clothes and blankets free so somehow if the welfare state has failed them there is a backstop.
If we’re really talking about what I think we are then it’s multi-generational dependency on benefits and this will only be addressed by breaking the cycle. NOT throwing more money after bad. Sorry but it’s tough love.
I don’t agree with you’re views, but don’t accuse me of being in denial, having no compassion or empathy.
So you volunteered at the city mission and never saw a single case of genuine poverty where people couldn’t feed their kids?
But private charity is needed to “backstop” a welfare state?
And what you forget is that your “tough love” (as if there’s any fucking love) is inflicted on the children, as well as their parents.
Oh really? Self imposed poverty? What is the evidence for that.
Did you read what I wrote in my last comment. Have you read any of the stuff on poverty that’s been published?
When you actually won’t look at the evidence.
Where in my comment, with evidence, does it mention poverty is about not being able to afford an IPad? It mentions necessities, like food.
Have you not seen all the evidence of record queues at food banks? Do you think people suddenly got more lazy than previously?
Denial is exactly what you are doing.
And yes there are shirkers at all levels of society.
But most struggling below the breadline would do anything to have a better life.
Did you not read the bits about diseases of poverty?
here’s some more. But I don’t expect you to read and understand the evidence. You seem to have some preconceived prejudices.
Denial indeed.
Whangarei, 2012.
Full report
Inability to afford nutritious food for children: – or do you think it doesn’t matter if childern are fed, but are still mal-nourished?
There’s plenty of evidence out there. Open your eyes. And not an Ipad in sight!
Tough love? Yeah sure that’ll work 🙄
let the children starve – that’ll learn them!
What about providing some jobs? Decent levels of income? Hope to get out of poverty?
So “tough love” is going to solve addiction problems?
Only in your opinion – the research tells us otherwise (you really didn’t think that percentage of the median income had been pulled out of a hat did you?).
That’s probably because it’s impossible to do so. In fact, I’d say it’s impossible for a child in NZ to live on less than $20 per day.
Adequate Food: about $100 per week
Clothing: A low guess I'd say $20 per week
Then there’s doctors visits and other emergency bills associated with them.
Thing is, we already know that a number of children have less than that spent on them.
Your opinion really isn’t worth much. In fact, it should be actively avoided because it’s BS.
You may want to take a look at this from the another angle.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10591070
A simple spot of arithmetic gives an average of about $270 per week. So your numbers come in well below this.
An excellent point RL. “Raising a child to the age of 18 will cost the “parents” 250k.”
So who’s going to pick up the tab if the parents can’t. 4 kids = 1 million. It must take a lot of tax payers to pay for a single child when the parents can’t.
so what’s your alternative, saggy? Let’s go to the tory worst case and say someone chooses to be poor and raise, say, 4 kids. Other than the government picking up the tab, I see only a few options:
A) forced adoption,
B) forced abortion, or
C) punish the kids for their parents’ decisions.
Am I missing an ideal solution that doesn’t make you look like an arsehole? You’ve apparently identified a serious problem that is costing our country millons a year, so what solutions do you have for the problem?
That’s a Kiwiblog link and thus full of the lies and myth that is typical of the political right, i.e, it’s not worth the electrons it’s printed with.
Take a simple course on statistics, Saggy. The number of people stays the same if the distribution keeps the same shape. The median is the point where 50% lie above and 50% below. The “triumph” of neoliberal economics is that the distribution is heavily weighted towards the lower values, with a long tail at the top. Please feel free to comment when you have studied this sufficiently to reach the level of understanding of a moderately bright fifteen year old. At the moment, you are not even close.
Thanks, MO. I’m sure you realised that I was demonstrating the rather meaningless algorithm for defining poverty. I certainly am no statistician.
The fact that you, and other readers of Kiwiblog, are not statisticians is what allows Farrar and Hide to get away with writing such rubbish. A contributor to The Standard has to know what they’re talking about (generally) because they’ll get pulled up by experts if they stray too far from accepted practice. It makes participating in this blog rather more challenging than, for example, commenting on WhaleSpew, where anything more sophisticated than “Rooting mayor. Lying lefty. Boardroom table. Sky dish. Judith Collins, oh my god…” gets you labelled as part of a pretentious liberal elite.
Thanks Saggy for your best Paula Bennett impersonation.
Homeless people squatting in empty buildings in Christchurch – including in a former WINZ office.
Ug, that article is an almost complete objectification of people who are homeless.
“Squatting was a “transitional problem” for the city, Sutton said, and it would improve as more life returned to the CBD and vacant homes were demolished.”
That’s right Mr Sutton, all those people will suddenly find homes when their squats are demolished and the CBD is revitalised.
and in drug-news..
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/alternets-10-most-popular-drug-stories-year
one story is about 10 geniuses..
..and their drug(s) of choice..
..and another about the hysterical-irrationality of celebrating/normalising getting wasted on booze..
..’merry xmas!..hic..!..’
..and demonising the safest intoxicant of all..
..cannabis..
phillip ure..
Non voters not apathetic: they are furious with politics and politicians
A remarkable result and if it holds in NZ explains why the non-vote hurts Labour the most.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/26/fury-mps-not-voting-poll
hmmm, I think it’s more complex than that. For some reason we have this idea that MPs should be voted in and then left to it, as if they are competent to run the country by themselves. I’ve heard the argument that most people aren’t interested in politics… I’m not sure that is true, but if it is then isn’t that a problem? Shouldn’t we be aiming for direct engagement? Wasn’t MMP supposed to give more representation?
Who voted in the MPs that all these people no longer trust?
I also think it’s naive to think that MPs won’t have to compromise on their promises. People need to look at why that happens. We also need to look at the system we now dislike so much and what privileges it affords us that we might have to give up to get something better.
This link on TDB has me thinking today
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/12/28/monsanto-is-our-fault/
I don’t agree with Bomber’s framing of ‘fault’ but I do think it’s food for thought in terms of civic responsibility. When we abdicate our responsibilities we let power-mad money grubbers take over.
The govt should be our servants not a bunch of whatevers who can do what they like for 3 years. If they’re not doing what we want, what is OUR responsibility in this?
Also, not sure about how this points to non-Labour voters. I suspect that many are swing voters too.
It’s a UK survey. Specific questions on the survey show that Labour voters are most angry, as well as northerners, young people, and men.
In England the north (and Scotland & Wales) is another country/ies that doesn’t get as much media and political attention as the south east – it’s all focus on Westminister & the city of London. Northerners tend to be more Labour, in the old industrial centres – more traditionally working class. I have heard – from a friend up there, that generally they are more left and feel ignored. I’m not sure how they can go about getting themselves heard.
Protests, campaigns, etc, don’t seem to have much impact on the political and media centres in the South East.
What did she do, exactly?
Friday 27 December 2013
A three-year-old Gaza girl has been killed by Israel. The BBC says it was “retaliatory” but doesn’t say what she did.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25509644
This is very telling:
“Israel considers Gaza a “hostile territory” after it was taken over by the anti-Israel Islamist Hamas movement in 2007″ – I thought they won a democratic election?
Neither side is in the right but only one side has the power and opportunity to be the first one to put down their big stick and actually make changes that might lead to a lasting peace.
Neither side is in the right
“Neither side is in the right”? Israel is operating a brutal, illegal, internationally condemned blockade of Gaza, and you seem to be suggesting the victims of this crime are in some way culpable. I know you are not flippant or indifferent, but you need to be careful about using such glib and thoughtless phrases. The fact is: one side is wrong here; “neither side is in the right” is the kind of thoughtless comment one hears from talkback radio hosts and indolent politicians.
Israel is an attack and invasion of Palestine. The fact that it was mandated by the UN against its own charter makes it doubly atrocious.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11178261
– Nope I don’t support this at all
The thing I hate with that one is that their image for a “local” retailer is EB Games
They are as local to NZ as ANZ or Westpac are and all their profits go offshore as well.
I call bull shit on this poll.
Who in their right mind would say yes to more taxes, the only way this result could be valid is if by some chance 40% of the participants are shop owners.
On another note, I notice David Parker sticking his oar in regarding overseas purchases, I assume from that nonsense he uttered that whacking gst onto overseas purchases is official labour policy.
Whats the tally so far.
Capital gains tax
Massive increases in environmental taxes
Gst on overseas purchases
Raising the age of super.
Wow, you’d have to be mad not to vote labour in 2014.
I will happily pay any and all taxes if it gets funneled in to government initiatives to raise the standard of living in this country rather than passed over to Sky City or other capitalist cronies.
It’s funny how the Righties believe in fiscal responsibility and are willing to paint the Left as the economically illiterate overspending bunch – but when it comes down to it, we’re the only ones willing to actually do what it takes to pay the piper.
Bollocks.
The only reason the left needs to raise so much tax is because the left wants to turn NZ into some hard core socialist state, it has absolutely nothing to do with paying the piper.
Fuck that, anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election
BM,
Do you think that people are freer when they have an income from a job? Or when they don’t have a job and are receiving welfare?
How do governments ensure that all people have jobs without addressing anomalies as the above example?
They have to create a situation where the local businesses and foreign import businesses are on the same footing by being charged the same amount of tax (they could lower the tax of local businesses, not just raise the tax of the foreign ones) or they are creating a situation where local businesses have less custom/go out of business due to unfair advantage = job losses for NZers.
@BM “anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election”
I presume that your definition of freedom does not include freedom from surveillance of your metadata, or ability to protest within 500m of oil drilling rigs at sea or inability to make submissions on the TPPA before it is signed off by the cabinet.
If you vote blue at the next election, and the inequality continues to grow, then might I suggest that you may have to express your freedom by erecting razor wire around your private castle to keep out the starving hoards.
Let’s look at a different picture- one of a society in which all people are paid a decent wage so that they can support their families and afford housing. There would be less need for the razor wire. Can you honestly tell me that this would not INCREASE your sense of freedom and security?
The only way to achieve anything like that is if we move heavily into mineral and oil extraction.
To have full employment the only way that is going to happen is if the government expands the public service massively, the only way that can happen is if the government brings in a ton more money.
From what I’ve read here that is not going to happen which leaves the only other option of taxing the crap out of the population which is just not going to fly.
Unfortunately for Labour, NZ is a capitalist country now, people do not want to have their arses taxed off and any government that tries to push that line will be voted into oblivion.
“The only way to achieve anything like that is if we move heavily into mineral and oil extraction.” ~BM
i.e. There Is No Other Way – End of discussion
LOLZ!
Very limited and limiting view you hold there BM
Try widening your horizons and thinking creatively.
How else will the country raise money to pay for full employment.?
Pie in the sky stuff like “just create a huge tech industry” or some how massively expand tourism by 5000% just won’t cut it, you have to be realistic and go with the tried and true.
Oil and mining or massively intensifying our dairy industry are the only realistic way of achieving the full employment goal.
BTW, I’m a very creative person, but I try to temper my ideas with a bit of realism.
The “tried and true” has now been proven to be destroying the world’s ecology bringing about an extinction event eliminating 90%+ of life on Earth. That 90%+ would most likely include us.
Time to go for a sustainable economy and not continue with the delusional BS that we have now.
No it’s not as both will only produce another few thousand jobs and not the 170,000+ needed. The actual solution is to share the jobs around a bit more – I suggest 32 hour weeks with triple time paid for anything over that and that includes salaried positions as well.
Never seen anything real coming out of you. Take that BS about continuing as is despite it provably not working.
You’re a typical RWNJ completely divorced from reality.
Hate to break it to you, but all your ideas are complete bull shit.
Over the top bull shit, waste of time discussing it.
Ideological driven bull shit , reminds me of the same Chairman Mao wankery that ended up killing 50 million people,waste of time discussing it.
Ridiculous pile of bullshit, waste of time discussing it.
Trans-national corporate capitalism is a global system of human and environmental destruction. I’m not surprised that you wish to avoid talking about it.
BM, you just proved everything I said in your total denial of reality.
@ BM
I think you are over compensating if you truly are a creative person.
Along with DTB’s points, the ‘tried and true’ way also is leaving some people with vastly greater sums of money than the majority of people.
These people with vast wealth apparently feel they have more to lose and in response are constantly looking for the most risk-free ways to ‘make money on their money’. This is leading them to invest on betting whether a business or commodity is going to fall or rise in value rather than genuinely creating value by investing in that business or any other productive enterprises.
Vast wealth quickly transforms into political power. The people with wealth are lobbying and supporting government policies that protect their wealth. They are disconnected from the common good for their communities because they no longer consider themselves part of the ‘common’
community – being extraordinarily wealthy and all.
This is all adding up to why, despite there being plenty of resources and money for all, there is a glut in one area and a famine in others and why resources that are being depleted continue to be used and our rivers continue to fill up with shit despite there being alternatives we could be developing yet are not.
The only reason you write a comment here believing that oil drilling ‘is the only way’ or that voting for policies that causes unemployment could in anyway ‘lead to freedom’ because somewhere along the line you have bought into the misinformation that people currently in power have fed you.
Wealth disparity is a large reason for why there are not enough jobs for all; why they are not being created.
Address this problem and you address the employment issues, environmental issues, energy issues et al.
Why do we not address this pivotal problem?
Because those with clout want to keep profiting in the industries and financial games that they are reaping profits from and are oblivious to how their fortunes are intimately connected with everyone elses’.
If we continue in the way we are going – the people with clout will lose that clout because they are thoroughly dependant on this society – they have gathered their wealth from this society, after all – if this society fails their fortunes go with it.
I suggest that you stop believing in the nonsense about ‘freedom’ that your masters spin, BM. It is a free-for-all mentality, that they speak of and you repeat, BM, not freedom.
Only very few in a society can enjoy a free-for-all. This is because one person’s freedom can cause anothers’ lack of it. If you wish to vote for freedom – vote for policies that allow freedom for everyone – not simply some.
Fuck that, anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election
A pitch-perfect example of the libertarian/authoritarian inversion.
What BM means by freedom is that he wants to be able to abdicate his collective responsibility to pay tax.
At the same time his mind is the slave of a fairy-tale delusion called ‘free markets’.
+1
“Fuck that, anyone who values their freedom has to vote blue at next years election”
,BM What are you john Keys personal arse Kisser and flag waver ?? Because i’l tell you this for nothing, voting for that fucking bunch of megalomaniacs is just asking for financial trouble. Key will be the second Nat thief to take too much cash out of the till, until the bills can’t be paid. Another Muldoon, a drunken incompetent, who has not got a clue.
Actually, Muldoon is dead……….
Actually I’d be in favour of GST being charged, but only IF it could be done in a simple straightforward manner.
What I REALLY object to, is that you get charged duty, then GST charged on top of the duty, shipping and then a final fee to cover their collection costs.
It it were only 15% GST, I wouldn’t have a problem.
Example calculation from whatsmyduty.org.nz (Customs website):
This is on $227 NZ of menswear:
Duty calculation
Description Rate Est. duty
Original value 227.00 NZD
NZ$ value 1 227.00 NZD
Freight NZ$ 0.00 NZD
Duty 0.10 22.70 NZD
GST (val+dty+frght) 37.45 NZD
Sub total 60.16 NZD
IETF* 46.89 NZD
Estimated cost: 107.05 NZD
*Import entry transaction fee:
Once the threshold of $60 of duty and/or GST payable is reached, then an import entry transaction fee (IETF) of NZ$46.89 (GST inclusive) is also payable. This includes the Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity system entry levy of $17.63 (GST inclusive).
This adds up to a 47% tax, not the mere 15% of GST.
It could never be done in a simple matter. Need to move on. Retailers need to offer better pricing and realize they are in a global economy now.
They generally don’t have a choice. Retail in NZ is already a razor-thin margin business.
International suppliers simply charge higher prices to NZ (and Australia) and the only option is to buy the product at the price they specify or go without.
Which is why parallel importing is so important to NZ, because it allows retailers to go around the usual suppliers and buy off 3rd parties. But this still doesn’t make up for the high prices the suppliers charge.
Retailers need to be smarter then don’t they?
I’ve had to adapt to a global market. By doing so I’ve captured the market. Because everyone in NZ still thinks NZ is a NZ market.
all hail the neoliberal superman…
That’s a load of BS. A lot of people realise that it’s taxes that support society and that increasing taxes is probably a good idea. That said, I think you’ll find that a lot of people get rather pissed by people bypassing the taxes that they’re supposed to be paying.
And yet there’s no discussion of the actual solution – drop all sales taxes.
Consumption taxes are good as it discourages consumption.
Ah, no, really they don’t. What discourages consumption is lack of money.
I don’t support an extension of GST at all. I’d rather see it done away with altogether, although I notice that David Clark, the neoliberal Labour mouthpiece on this, wants to extend it. Ah well, if they want to be government, they’ll need to get someone else’s vote, because I’m so sick of their unchallenged Rogernomic bullshit and they won’t be getting either of mine.
have you all found ‘longreads’ yet..?
http://blog.longreads.com/post/longreads-best-of-2013-10-stories-we-couldnt-stop-thinking-about/
..it is part of my daily story-hunting round…
..and they have ‘good stuff’..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
A belated Merry Christmas to all. 🙂
As a society we are understanding the effects that alcohol has on us as: an individual and society. Millions are spent both to change our culture, laws etc yet here we have
“Getting drunk with Duncan Garner”. – from what one could say is a leading mag
“…After a dinner that included five bottles of red wine,”
Is this how we now achieve depth in reporting??? Get our subject plastered and pump them for info ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11178642
http://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/sites/default/files/NDF15730%20Factsheet%203%20-%20Marketing%20WEB.pdf
why so many of the current crop of labour mp’s must go..
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/the-story-of-a-neo-lib-labour-mp-in-a-safe-seat-and-how-that-mp-has-a-long-history-of-screwing-her-constituents-over/
(ed:..this is in britain..
..but it is also the story of far too many faces who still stare out at us from the labour benches in the new zealand parliament..
..and here’s the real funny story..
..they are so fucken deluded/drenched in hubris..
..that these failed-ideology-stained (proven) fools feel they have the right to be ‘given another go’..
..and get quite prickly when it is suggested to them that actually it is way past time..
..they just pissed right off..
..eh..?..)
“..My MP has a safe Labour seat.
She personally spearheaded the push for an all-recording – all-surveilling National Identity Card;
– voted for the Digital Economy Act;
– and was part of the New Labour government that went to war in Iraq;
– added fuel to the property speculation bubble;
– gutted unions’ right to strike;
– and let the finance industry confiscate the world’s wealth in a crooked unregulated casino game..”
(cont..)
you can make up yr own lists for our versions of this..
phillip ure..
Whats interesting to me is when the issue of why people don’t vote is brought the same old reasons are trotted out whereas what the poll is suggesting its the MPs themselves (on both sides of the house)
While its a UK poll I wouldn’t be at all if a poll was held here and we got similar results, the question is how to change it
Buggered if I know
for mp’s to win back respect from those who hold them in such (entirely-justified) contempt..
..i don’t think more randite-neo-lib is the answer..
..and this ‘but what can we do?’..helplessness-line is just utter bullshit..
..we look at those countries that are the most equal/happiest..
..and we do what they do..
..and a good income-generator to kick things off..of course..
..is a financial transaction tax on inter-bankster-dealings..
..(remember treasury research showed that would raise enough revenue to enable us to do away entirely with gst..if we so chose to use the income for that..so..?..)
..so..contrary to that rightwing-spin..
..there is much we can do..and it ain’t rocket-science..
..it is just monkey see..monkey do..
..but of course..the rightwing/neo-lib monkeys have their hands over their eyes..
,.and on purpose too..
phillip ure..
Bm
I suspect 40% say that because they dont buy overseas and want people to pay what they pay.
I dont want to live in a nz with your definition of freedom.narrow and entirely materialistic
Blinkered Monetarist
Those who pay no tax are being subsidized by those who pay tax.
Those who pay tax have to pay tax at a higher rate to make up the shortfall.
So your argument is flawed.
I couldn’t agree more, damn benes draining the life out of NZ, if only we could think of a way to get some use out of them, Hmmmmm.
For starters, a full employment policy for those 25 and under. Secondly, a requirement that anyone contracting services to the government must do so with no less than 90% NZ staff. Thirdly, increase the minimum wage to $18/hr and enforce penalty rates to ensure the work available is spread around more fairly.
As an employer, I would be happy to see CV’s suggestions implemented. Full employment policy where one works for their income is something nobody could object to. I also cannot envisage anybody being worth less than $18ph. I think the effect on the economy would be positive and the effect of self esteem and crime very worthwhile.
The business people objected quite strenuously back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Once the neo-liberal paradigm had been set in place by Labour though and we now had an (undeclared) official policy of 6%+ unemployment they were quite happy as they drove down wages. Then they started to complain that the UB was too high and so Ruth Richardson cut those as well plunging us immediately into a recession. Now they’re still complaining that the UB is too high, to easy to get and that the minimum wage is too high.
The inevitable result of these complaints by business people is that all these things will be cut especially with a National government in power.
You do realise that this government is running policies that ensure 6%+ unemployment so as to fit the mythical NAIRU don’t you?
It’s not the beneficiaries draining the life out of NZ but the policies followed by all governments since the 1980s. Such policies inevitably get worse under National.
BM. Just watched The Tax Free Tour again. You might want to have a look – it might help you from continually making all these mistakes on the comments.
Bumptious Midden
Try cutting all beneficieries.
What happens is unemployment
goes up exponentially like in Argentina 1996-97 (ACT promoted this policy until the stays came in Prebble was saying cut all benefits and change our currency to the US dollar it failed completely.
ACT never mentioned it again)
But unfortunately Bleak Minion didn’t read the inhouse newsletter.
Stays= stats
Well, I’ve had a read through of the festive time articles on TS, and taken on board some thoughts but what I am really curious about is the continuous presence of the regular RWNJ’s.
Don’t you folks take a break, or do you love TS so much you can’t tear yourselves away?
I thought you may have had baches to visit, jet skis to play on, or mall trawling to do.
I am genuinely intrigued by the motivation.
If you’ve got the cash to splash, Rosie, games galore to be had. Mall trawling, now there’s a revelation, the modern elixir, the cure all for the modern day stresses, just chuck a few coins at some “poor” shop keeper.
As for a simple bach, “The Herald” ran a story on modern day baches. Rosie, in the “old day’s”, a bach was a simple get away, now is competes with an extensive mansion, nothing under a $1million will do. I hope yours is freehold – can we all come and stay – pot luck lunch will do?
And as for water sports around the beach, remember when body surfing was all the rage – cost nothing, but a costume to participate. Now jet skis, heli skis, the latest this and that, and don’t forget, if you really want the best, make sure the beach you’re at is really exclusive.
As I said at the start, if you’ve got the cash to splash, why not invite some poor urchins around to wash and tidy the place, let them swim in the sea before others in your gated community get to see, you’ve flaunted the rules of who gets in and who doesn’t, and maybe before you send them on their way, give them a feed, let them know there’s more to life than two-minute noodles and stale bread.
Good bless ya, Rosie.
Spot on Rosie. My take on all this below.
I always see the mass appearance of the RWNJ’s as a sign that the discussion poses danger to them and we can’t be left unattended over the breaks. Some of the RWNJ’s on here are likely to be paid to do so, others are I suspect the wannabees. They admire the RWNJ authoritarian style, have a desire to control the lives of others starting but not ending with women, maori, beneficiaries, poor people and so on. Probably they conceal these attitudes poorly which will decrease their economic outcomes.
They gain their own internal feelings of satisfaction by actively putting others down to inflate their own sense of self worth and to convince themselves that they are not bottom of the heap. Such attitudes do not mean they are wealthy merely aspiring and often failing. Attitudes that mean they are probably lonely over the holidays, deprived of the usual sources of their fix so come here.
The rest of us see this as a chance to indulge in the alittle discussion unhindered by work.
Blessings right back ya Will@Willy.
Well, what got me started on baches was some RW’er expressing some smugness about his/her well appointed “bach” on karol’s “how was the year for you?” article awhile ago. It’s bigger than the first family home doncha know!!
And in the vein of karol’s articles, (‘shop till we all drop’) and your narrative above, how about that starve/binge dichotomy we have going on our little ol’ country these days. How about it eh.
TV and Poor people: the rule is don’t mention how they/we got that way, don’t mention the redundancy, don’t mention the lack of or substandard accommodation, don’t mention the unfair tax, don’t mention the unemployment, don’t mention the war on the poor, followed by the indigestion that was the boxing day mall sale frenzy coverage.
How much of that goes on a credit card anyway?
And lol, beach toys. As a kid back in the 70’s we were lucky enough to grow up over the road from the beach. Edgy fun was surviving a rip and and avoiding all those blue bottle stingy things
What is it about Socialists and more tax? “We’re going to tax the hell out of you” is not going to sway the undecided voter towards Labour.
[citation needed]
And I’m about the only one here who thinks that the rich need to be taxed out of existence because we can’t actually afford them. The rich truly are the one thing that no society can afford.
what is it about tory fucks and unsubstantiated assertions as the basis for their idiotic rhetorical questions?
Mcgrath scottish aye.
You drive a cheap car have a cheap house obviously a cheap education so you want a cheap nasty govt.
Rarely do you get good things cheap.
You never get anything cheap. The RWNJs haven’t learned that yet despite the Leaky Building Saga (courtesy of them) and the Chorus Saga (also courtesy of them).