I think the problem with PG Tips is that everything is so bloody wishy-washy and qualified that tedium rises instantly to the surface leading to complete and utter frustration. It is like the ultimate fence-sitting, discussing discussions, and never actually achieving anything. Or even ffs, never actually saying anything. Nothing is ever said methinks.
There would seem to be no solution for these types, other than to banish them to local council ward board committee meetings about whether pansies or petunias should be planted in the roundabout.
Yep. He seems to be on a one man crusade to wreck the left’s chances in the next election. His behaviour improved for a while but I agree that he is back to his disruptive worst.
The problem is his control of the politicheck website. He has come out with a doozie this morning claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax. The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small. But by applying a rather extreme interpretation and taking a few very short comments out of context he claims that Labour is not telling the truth.
This site works best when there is an unfettered sometimes robust exchange of ideas. But I have seen a number of discussion streams get wrecked.
Tax raised from Property Speculation and volume of cases nationally by tax year:
Year Ending 30 June 2011 386 Cases and $33,817,271
Year Ending 30 June 2012 232 Cases and $23,069,492
Year Ending 30 June 2013 (to 31 December 2012) 115 cases and $12,025,889
Cases closed at 30 June 2013 – 450 cases
If a 15% capital gains tax was applied instead those amounts would approximately halve.
Also from that article:
Property speculators targeted by IRD
Inland Revenue is cracking down on people who do not declare tax on properties they have made a profit on.
Under New Zealand Income Tax law, if you intend to make a profit on a property transaction, you are required to pay income tax.
“The urban myths that abound, if you own a property for six months, or 18 months or two years and you live in it as a family, then you are outside the net. Those are not true,” Tony Wilkinson, Buddle Findlay Tax Partner told ONE News.
Inland Revenue is drawing a hard line on property speculators, receiving a $6 million annual funding boost to audit property transactions.
IRD is doing something, and National appear to be boosting what they do.
Pete you should have done the research before making your claim doncha think? So a couple of hundred cases a year. And the figures are small when you compare them to the total tax take. Thanks for confirming my previous statement.
The CGT will apply across the board apart from the family home. Over time it will raise significant amounts of money.
And did you see how the number of cases is decreasing each year, interestingly at the same time that there have been cuts to IRD’s staff. National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.
“National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.”
In the link just above that you have just replied to:
Inland Revenue is drawing a hard line on property speculators, receiving a $6 million annual funding boost to audit property transactions.
The expectation is that this will recover about $45m.
It’s impossible to know how much potential tax revenue is going into a black hole, but it is certainly substantial. A clue can be found in this year’s budget, which provided an extra $6.65m to chase property investment tax compliance. The expectation is it will return about $45m a year.
Inland Revenue’s general reckoning is that the department will return in revenue five times the extra amount invested to investigate big-ticket areas such as property, the hidden economy and claimed losses.
the problem with property speculators and paying income tax in our country is that the vast bulk of rental property owners are simply dishonest lying bastards and bastardettes. They nearly all buy with a view to banking the gain in value and have little concern in the rent.
Most NZ property investors simply lie about their intent when purchasing property. Liars.
It is the single biggest rort in NZ and I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
Avoidance or evasion on property transactions has been a problem for yonks, and there’s a big grey area on ‘intent’ but governments have gradually been addressing it.
Because proof of intent at the time of buying a property is central to whether tax should be paid, liability is not clear without some investigation and resources are always best directed to areas where the potential return is greatest.
Investigators are more likely to be on the trail of dealers or speculators turning over several properties a year than the little guy who, over a lifetime, buys a couple of do-ups on rising markets and makes a nice little tax-free earner.
However, don’t count on that so much in the future.
The department receives data on every property transaction in New Zealand and says that after a few years focusing on education and awareness, it is moving to “a targeted audit response” with “increased risk assessment and profiling of cases along with developing a range of tools including complex data-matching, analysis, research and evaluation”.
And it adds: “By improving our approach and techniques regarding compliance, we are able to better identify those who may be deliberately breaking the rules.”
Pete, it is only a problem of enforcement, not a problem of existence, as your quote indicates. My point stands.
Bottom line though – government raises revenue by taxing people who make money. Problem is that they only tax some of the money-making, i.e. wage and salary and income earners. There are several other ways of making money which are not taxed, such as making money by capital. Example: Some make money by pouring all their income into the capital value of their farm and minimise their income. Why should they be exempt and bludge off the wage and salary earner? Another rort.
If the government is to raise revenue by taxing money-making then all forms of money-making should be taxed. For consistency and credibility purposes ….
I don’t think anyone is ever going to read ScrittiPolitti.
But yep, Pete is on a mission to make this site unreadable. I have no idea why he is tolerated. He has no interest in or sympathy for the labour movement whatsoever.
When did thestandard become a free-for-all for right-wingers?
As for PG (Personal Grievance). I’ve been coming here on and off for two and half years and particularly enjoyed the time when PG was “on leave”. There was a time leading up to that “leave” where there was a loose consensus among commenters to simply adopt the 🙄 as a response to anything he said. Not only was it entertaining and humourous to see a huge line of 🙄 all down the page it also took all the power away from him and minimised the disruption.
I humbly would make the suggestion that the 🙄 exercise is revived.
Yep. As far as I can see, PG’s problem is a tendency to use slippery logic and very shallow analysis. It is why I rarely read or comment on his comments these days – waste of my time. More important things to focus on.
Ironic felix. You’re not trying to tell authors or moderators what to do are you? Sounds a bit like it. Contributing something positive is less stressful.
So Pete while you are here your latest politicheck post (http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed) is full of bunkum. Basically you are saying that because there is an obligation for speculators to pay capital gains tax they all pay capital gains tax. But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small and if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.
So you have twisted the words out of shape and then come out with an adverse conclusion.
And looking at the site you are wrecking it. There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.
Go on. Concisely justify your latest claim. Use figures and stuff. Then compare this with Labour’s draft figures from last time.
” if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
That’s not correct.
If you buy a property intending to:
– resell it, or
– you intend to sell it after making improvements to it
you’re likely to be a speculator or a dealer. Renting your property temporarily doesn’t change your tax treatment either – you’re still a speculator or a dealer.
How long do I need to hold the property to make it a capital gain?
There is no time limit. If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable (and any loss may be tax-deductible).
Example
You buy a property with a firm plan to resell it for a profit. The property market falls and you decide to hold onto it instead. You rent it out for 15 years and then sell it when the prices are again rising rapidly. Any gain on that sale 15 years later is likely to be taxable.
Um, you can buy a house intending to rent it and intending to sell it for a capital gain. Read the IRD link.
Do you think speculators wouldn’t rent out a house if they intend to sell it? Unless it was a very quick flick that doesn’t make business sense much if not all what you gain in capital you would lose in cost of capital and non-earnings.
Lol. By all means adopt that statement weka. My hazy memory tells me that the 🙄 was previously adopted because it was non verbal and non aggressive. Also, very it’s funny, a massive army of 🙄 marching on for miles down the page. It says so much.
If you’re an investor you buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale. The property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable (apart from clawing back any depreciation, which is now recoverable).
Pete have you actually read what you are typing? It makes no sense. My head hurts …
I am sorry everyone I have sparked this totally unproductive complete waste of time debate. It is as if the protagonists are arguing in different languages …
Yes, that refers to an investor, which IRD clearly differentiates from speculators and dealers.
A few posts up thread, MS posted, “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
You replied to that post, quoting those very words, stating, “That’s not correct.”
With me so far?
I quoted an extract from the IRD guidelines you quoted, showing that MS was correct and you were wrong – if someone buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.
You comprehend that the words I have marked in bold (which are taken near verbatim from the extract I quoted) confirm that if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then capial gains taxis not payable?
Virtually the same words that MS used, and which you said were wrong and which you now say are right, but only for investors, even though that is clearly what MS means because what on Earth do you think “buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on” means?
But “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable” is not correct.
If someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then tax on capital gain may not be payable, or it may be payable, depending on other circumstances and intent.
As I showed, immediacy doesn’t matter, nor does an intent to rent.
You understand what “if someone buys a house to rent” means, yeah?
It means the reason for buying the house was to rent it out. So “the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.”
Where as a speculator buys with the intention to sell it. that’s their purpose in buying the house, and their anticipated source of profit. Even if they don’t immediately realise that intention, due to the market collapsing or what have you it is still treated differently for tax purposes: “If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable”
” There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.”
To see the truth in that statement, scroll through the posts and look at the ratio of Politicheck articles that focus on the opposition parties and not the Government.
OppositionCheck would be a more accurate title.
But he is what he is and now, like many wiser heads, I will be doing my damnedest to step over every syllable he soils the site with. He has had so many chances to join in and help build the dialogue but he is a wrecker, and only wants to be the loudest voice at the table.
Still wonder how his Budget for Poor People was shaping up though.
But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small
You appear to be talking about tax avoidance and evasion, i.e. lack of tax income, rather than a lack of tax code. That’s a different issue altogether.
Good stuff from Labour on the exchange rate. Plenty of commentators saying it’s not a populist issue. Clearly they don’t get the knowledge all our commodity producers (esp farmers) have of exchange rates and their personal financial interests.
Looks like a great week for Labour, with a series of announcements and media hits.
Lets see, for those on low incomes Labour is proposing a rise in the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, yay hurrah, but wait, there is more,
Labour is also proposing ”compulsory” retirement savings which i will speculate will be at least 2% of income, so scratch any benefit low income workers will gain from any pay rise to the new 15 dollar minimum wage,(and the flow on effect in wages above 15 bucks an hour if any),
i could go on, but why bother, it looks like business as usual from where i sit…
According to their website it’s 3% and increasing yearly to 9%. To get this across they’re going to have to raise the minimum wage to at least $17 per hour or go for a Universal Income.
Ouch thats really going to hurt people’s day to day living even 17ph is barely enough to scrape by in Auckland with two incomes at this level.
I can imagine that the employer contribution will be the effective pay rise for the next few years… unless they have some kind of abatement for a couple it will leave a large hole in take home pay.
The other thing I am extremely wary of is political interference in the coming years who is to say the eligibility age won’t be pushed out further etc. I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
That wouldn’t surprise me 🙁
That said, I don’t think saving does anything for the economy except slow it down and boost returns to the financial sector which results, inevitably, in the economy collapsing again.
Id tend to agree with that better to spend it now and the govt collects an appropriate amount of tax to fund super. Personal savings should be personal with the ability to use them as you wish
I was reading an article yesterday suggesting that we need to ‘encourage’ people to trade their KiwiSaver for annuities at retirement, because, in essence, we can’t ‘trust’ them to spend the money ‘wisely’. It’s an incredibly patronizing attitude.
Pretty much nothing. In fact, it’sl to hurt them in the short term but over the medium to long term it should increase work here and highly paid work at that.
Of course, the real problem is that our exchange rate is set incorrectly (it’s based upon speculation rather than actual trade) and that our entire economic system is bunkum to boot.
The massive increases are going to happen one way or another as we’ve been living well beyond our means due to the misaligned exchange rate. National are, of course, promising that we can continue to live beyond our means forever.
+1 Agree, however it’s early in the day of politic’s, let alone the week.
The PR spin merchants within National will be plotting with bullshit snake oil ready to feed their gushing shill media fan-club. Just heard the Nationals Minister of War on Terrorism, Coleman just bait Goff into commenting on their huge military spend up announcement. By Coleman’s quip of the Government is just following through on the previous Governments commitment.
A little harsh on Cunliffe Phil, it’s thanks to members of the Labour party like my vet nurse flatmate that campaign for animals rights and put forward well considered remits to be thrashed out. I give DC credit for responding to F/B private messages regarding another issue of concern to her, my opinion (which was ok anyway) of him rose as a result of his long thoughtful responses. Before a some fool (not you) fires a cheapshot that it was probably someone else, the typo’s & odd spelling mistake told me it was him, had the same lol.
as i say skinny..i am optimistic the gaze (not only of cunnliffe) will now switch to this vivisection abomination..i do mean that..
(see..!..i am blocking my usual/deep cynicism that the circus will move on..and this ‘deep’/important issue..will become yesterdays’ shane jones..and the torturing/killing will just continue..unabated..)
..and i don’t really mind how it comes about/who gets credit..
..and i tip my hat to those like yr friend..those active inside (blind/unthinking) organisations like the labour party..
..who are fighting for these same reforms this situation is calling/screaming out for..
..(trying to end the usual practice of green party bbq’s..when there..i am afraid burnt me out on that route..)
What are the alternatives? Use products that don’t require animal testing. For instance there is a huge amount of information showing that marijuana is far safer than these synthetic substitutes…no testing required.
Animal rights. Mr Key slid by yesterday saying that the excuse for not acting sooner on legal highs was his concern that animals might be used for testing. Smart move. Appeal to the Animal rights people and lets him off the hook.
But wait. Mr Cunliffe agrees that he has a concern for animal rights. Check. Your next move John?
Too right phillip. I hear that Massey Uni in Palmy is one of our worst offenders for animal testing. Is that correct?
I also think that is the place where the HRT medicine is made from mare’s urine. The mares are kept permanently in stalls, they don;’t get out at all and are kept pregnant so the levels of oestrogen necessary for the production of the medicine remain high. A tragic life for an animal who is so sensitive and emotional. (I have a strong connection with equines)
Sorry, no link for that. I just recall an article on tv about it years ago and it stayed with me
I think I heard some chap on Tv saying that they could get quite good results from testing this Sh*t on poor crustaceans! Poor crabs, prawns and snails! Oh dear. Next they will think of testing it on some bacteria and broccoli.
Quite agree Phil, it is a disgusting practice that needs to stop. These sick scientists who manage to convince themselves that it is unfortunate but necessary to torture animals need to be made to account for their actions. Good to hear David speaking up against it and informing the public it is possible to do this research using computers. This will win him votes.
Sure is Bella, I read some posts on facebook by some rat club people who were giving DC the voters nod after watching his interview on the tv news covering the issue.
Got a laugh watching slippery Key who looked deceitful doing a flip flop, fronting the media with his bullshit ‘personally’ I’m uncomfortable with animal testing that’s the real reason for the hold up (funny he forgot to tell Dunne that porky, Pete didn’t utter a word about this to the press) umm not on rabbits, certainly not dogs, rodents yeah thats OK. A dog whistle to anymore nat rats thinking of jumping ship. Oh the pits, poor Johnny has to import dirty rats these days.
..who is/are the einstein/s that decided that david parker appearing on a political talkshow on sunday..
..was not a good enough platform for the announcement of new economic-policy..?
..who decided ‘no no!..we’ll put out a press-release on tuesday…!.’…was the better option..?
..and i guess it is a byre the bye..that after parker ‘teasing’ about his big tuesday announcement..(yep..!..we’re all wetting our pants in anticipation here..dave..)..that then there was nothing..
..the ensuing vaccuum leaving plenty of time/opportunity for parker to be pulled backwards thru a blackberry bush..
..over his/labours’ epic-fail/vote-killing policy to raise the age of the pension..
..who was/were the einsteins(s) who made that call..?
..you don’t need to answer that question..
..but you really need to do what needs to be done..eh..?
..you are getting some really shit tactic-advice..from whomever…
Perhaps the reason for not launching the policy on Sunday was so that the launching was controlled- an uninterrupted speed followed by question and answers. Political talk shows are very dependent on the line of questioning by the interviewer who can derail the launch. If you consider the quality and motives of most of the panellists who take part in the post interview discussion, then the wisdom of using a breakfast speech launch becomes much more attractive.
David Parker effectively states that if elected he will dip into your paypacket and leave you worse off. Is he one of the ABC majority in caucus? Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition.
Are you seriously claiming that ex-employees of a tobacco company are not supposed to be candidates? Should they be forced to wear a yellow star to let us know their sin.
The government is a fabulous manager of the economy. Just watch for the Budget.
On 20th September we have a stark choice.
Forward to a brighter and brighter future or back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.
“back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.”
like the Central Plains Water scheme, backed by your government, stealing private land and using my pay packet to finance pet irrigation ideas (which are so woeful in terms of financial return that they cannot raise the money to pay for it within their dear private sector, hence steal from taxpayers. Total failure of your political philosophies fisiani. fail fail fail)
Hey wingnut, listening to RNZ morning report, Slugger Bill Churlish saying NO to everything N-Spinner is front footing him on . Copped a bit of stick comparing the LP policy of raising to 9% super contribution, Bill got a hiding when comparing to the Ozzies 13%. Nice.
Key-Joyce and their spin merchants will be sitting slumped in their chairs cursing English’s poor showing.
Expect cheerleaders Hooton & Shrillands to turn up to try prop up PG who is already getting a pasting on here.
Exporters see their profits disappear as printed money comes crashing through the NZ dollar door.
Where have National been, we’re not talking about what may happen in the fruit loopy way National declares all Labour’s policies as awful, we’re talking how they failed in the housing market, failed exporters, failed children.
And National are worried, Labour are aim full square at craving off exporters from the National party.
Retailers are next when they realize Key’s aiming the economy at an almighty housing crash, with his high govt debt, do nothing and wait for thr GFC to have worked through and watch while milk, timber, are all sourced elsewhere.
You have to pretty dumb to think that hot money isn’t holding up our economy.
That hot money needs exchange goods, and so is buying up the cheapest bulkiest
items on the economic menu and hurting our added value sectors.
And t will all stop when the global banking system rights itself, then the banks
will come for our homes.
Most days I wake up feeling just fine, have a good breakfast, attend to my ablutions and then turn to The Standard for my daily share of intelligent comment (especially from karol) on matters political.
Why is it that time and time again I then find the whole morning ruined by comments, if they can be called that, from someone called Pete George? There is something so snide, so dog-whistling about this person’s contributions that I end up having my day shattered. There is no end to his self-assumed expertise on everything, his implied criticisms disguised as something unbiased and apparently reasonable.
Please, Pete George, for the sake of at least one person’s sanity – – – go away!
i see him as being the legal-high of political-dialogue..
..imitating the real thing..
..and getting it so so wrong…
..what particularly grates with him is the bullshit concern-tr*lling..the many ‘faces’..
..’faces’ dependant on the audience/issue being faced at that moment..
..if he came here and vigorously argued rightwing ‘ideas’..fair do’s..
..but it is the faux-concern/centreist poses he constantly strikes..
..and his never answering reasoned-challenges..
..in short..his outright/wholesale dissembling..
..(and this is kinda off the wall..i dunno a lot about astrological-profiles..but from what i do know/have observed in others..i reckon he is a virgo with taurus rising..
..or some such swamp-person mix…
..any other guesses..?..)
..and to end on a positive-note..
..like with the legal-highs..there will come a breaking-point..
..the queues of complainers will get too long/rowdy..
..we can but hope that comes soon..eh..?..
..’cos credit where credit is due..
..he is quite good at it..
..that dissembling..
..he is like an energy-sucking black hole on many threads..
..his paymasters should be rewarding him well..
..(and what’s with that edwards-the-younnger seriall=linking/being a fanboy of georges’ drivel..?
Yes, why does Bryce Edwards link “Your NZ” in his weekly round up. Not sure of the motivation or reasoning for that, but it does reduce his credibility.
I can never understand why the debate with Pete continues. He is as slippery as John Key. And the issues he seems to raise are never resolved. I tend to skip all the comments and replies after his name. Must be too old to bother.
Don’t let PG ruin your morning wyndham. There’s too much good thing going on, on this site. I share your frustration, however I when I see his name and a giant disrupted thread trailing in his wake. I just scroll- on- by until I get to something relevant . I have made a suggestion to readers and commenters at 1.2.3.1 at 9.52 am above.
Yes -i’ve noticed that Open Mike has become a PG hour and its booooorrrrrrrrrring. Boring, Boring.
Not at all what it was a few weeks ago. Is it time for the moderators to step up and put a ban on him for a while ? ?
That seems a little unfair JK, I note that the first comment was by felix today, fairly well inciting PG into making a comment. Yesterday’s (was it yesterday, can’t be arsed going to check) Open Mike was all about PG and he hadn’t even commented!
I don’t agree with all Pete George says or his tactics at times, however a lot of the noise recently has been to do how people are responding to him, rather than due to PG. Some of his comments do assist some pretty important debates.
It would be good if those responding to and inciting PG got a grip and thought a bit about how their own actions are affecting this ‘issue’…because it is starting to look more like a schoolyard dynamic that bring to mind a certain statement that Dick Emery was famous for more than anything else.
There are some pretty important events occurring in this country, if you wish to focus on them – focus on them.
I think you underestimate how distruptive many people find PG. For those that don’t mind him so much, your comment makes sense. For those of us that see him as an out and out tr8ll*, then the upscaling of antagonism to him recently also makes sense.
I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.
Sometimes DFTT is in order.
Sometimes that doesn’t cut it but…
I think it is getting a bit rubbish to incite him to comment and then complain about Open Mike being dedicated to him, when he hasn’t even started the subject. JK @ 8.2 didn’t do this – but this is what has occurred twice now on Open Mike.
DFTT implies that he is in fact a tr8ll. Which means the normal rules of discourse don’t apply.
“I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.”
Everything PG does and says is bullshit. Even on the occasions that his comments make sense, it’s still bullshit because it’s part of the whole centrist, I’m more of a reasonable person than anyone else persona that masks the fact that he is right wing and undermines the left at any opportunity he gets. That persona does damage. He is not someone I am willing to take a face value, comment by comment, because every commment he makes is part of a larger context of clusterfucked communication and bullshit.
All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit. This demonstrates your intolerance and nastiness towards alternatives and helps highlight the issues being raised. It doesn’t seem to be a very smart approach but may reflect frustration at a lack of success with your own agenda. If you had a good case to argue that’s what you’d do instead of lashing out at different views and approaches.
Anger doesn’t make a good argument. It’s curious to see such bitter anti-centrists.
1) No, it shows that weka understands you very well. Probably better than you do.
2) It’s not your “views”, it’s your behaviour, The only views you have ever put forward are the occasional bit of racism.
3) You have never, ever offered an “alternative” to anything.
4) You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has observed your behaviour online over a couple of years who wouldn’t agree with weka. You’ll always be able to fool a few noobs though.
felix and weka, speaking for just about everyone. Very funny. Keep trying felix, that’s all you seem to do. I presume it amuses you but you seem to get more frustrated than anything. You know what they say about repeating the same mistakes.
Breaking news on TVNZ – The Government has announced it’s investing $100.9 million into strengthening the Defence Force.
So what’s that then? Using not having money as an excuse to fund social welfare projects or night classes and the like, and after running the military down to save costs, they find enough to stump up enough to buy some nod doubt American made nonsense or half a wing of one of the Australian fleet that doesn’t work properly.
Can’t wait for the spin show to start. My guess is Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific, in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
China won’t like that.
We are being caught in a vice between two powers trying to control the Pacific.
Key’s subservient approach to both will cost us big time in the future.
And they will grip hard too. My best suggestion would be to declare NZ neutral, failing that, and the opposite of Key, choose the winning side at the UN and have productive trade negotiations minus the taste of corruption lingering on the lips of cabinet ministers.
The article says $535m over four years, so that’s a full wing of a wonky Joint Strike Fighter.
After reading what Coleman says, I’m amending my spin guess a little. I now pick Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific under a cloak of aid and relief to the islands in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
At least Key didn’t buy as much as Abbott during his free round of golf time share presentation with the president. He got suckered for $24 billion.
There are some strong advantages to remaining allied to the west, albeit we need to bolster our reputation as fair and honest brokers in all international affairs.
what’s happened to our benign strategic environment? (one of Helen Clark’s most gob-smackingly silly utterances, and there weren’t too many of those..)
I’ve not googled it yet, so I don’t know. But milk, food and kiwi ingenuity to all who come in peace sounds better than the mess trying to butter both sides of the bread will make.
Been coming across a lot of Pikkety lately. For those who haven’t, his book ” Capital in the Twenty First Century” has a central argument/observation that any democracy we have is inevitably devolving into plutocracy.
Piketty’s argument is that, in an economy where the rate of return on capital outstrips the rate of growth, inherited wealth will always grow faster than earned wealth.
Piketty’s prescription includes (to quote from Bill’s link) ‘an 80% tax on incomes above $500,000 a year in the US, assuring his readers there would be neither a flight of top execs to Canada nor a slowdown in growth, since the outcome would simply be to suppress such incomes’.
Labour and the Greens should adopt this as policy.
It will not raise a lot in revenue in New Zealand, but that is not the point.
These excessive salaries are immoral and extortionate.
And even the CEOs themselves are starting to acknowledge the fact – The Warehouse boss Mark Powell recently described his $1.7 million salary as a ‘ridiculous amount’.
Piketty’s ideas are decent, but they are 25 years too late. We’ve actually moved far past the time the assumptions he uses will actually hold. Care of one of favourite websites Zerohedge:
By Charles Hugh-Smith:
The real problem with Piketty’s taxation/social welfare solution to wealth inequality is that it does nothing to change the source of systemic inequality, debt-based neofeudalism and neocolonialism. Simply raising more taxes to fund more social welfare programs leaves the unjust, rapacious, and ultimately destabilizing Status Quo entirely intact.
I have laid out another path in my books: refuse serfdom, abandon participation in neofeudalism and neocolonialism, and build parallel systems of cooperation and wealth-building that are not debt-dependent.
I doubt that the Warren Buffets and Jamie Dimons of the world will see their wealth confiscated via some new policy of the Internal Revenue Service — e.g. the proposed “tax on wealth.” Rather, its more likely that they’ll be strung up on lampposts or dragged over three miles of pavement behind their own limousines. After all, the second leading delusion in our culture these days, after the wish for a something-for-nothing magic energy rescue remedy, is the idea that we can politically organize our way out of the epochal predicament of civilization that we face. Piketty just feeds that secondary delusion.
In relation to today’s conversations, my view is that Reserve Bank goals and interest rate settings are akin to trying to cleverly keep steam pressure up on the Titanic’s engines while the compartments are filling up with water. At this point nothing apart from getting ready for fossil fuel energy depletion, climate change, GFC II and permanent global economic contraction matters one whit.
I don’t think that PG ruins the site. He’s a bit pompous – and his theme song could be ‘I can see clearly now the brain has gone’ – but I think he’s an excellent example of a right-whinger trying hard to prove that he occupies the political centre – and that’s always good for a laugh.
Why do those survey firms who phone and ask for a portion of your day to answer their questions never pay for the service? I make a point of responding “yes sure, I can participate but like you we charge for our time, so if you can give me a name and address for sending an invoice we can proceed”
the responses range from a laugh to a pause to a short no. it brings the call to a rapid end.
can I recommend that others take such an approach?
Interesting article in the Grauniad about the difficulties of dealing to the racist party UKIP. One conclusion is very relevent to the upcoming election here; that attacking UKIP for being racist implies that voters attracted to them are also racist. The lesson for NZ? Attacking Key can be counter productive because it can seen as an attack on swinging voters who like him, even if it’s not in their interests to vote for him.
Disappointing to see your negative comment on Monetary policy, Karol. As several Labour MPs noted recently, you have to generate income before you can redistribute it. I am making no aims as an economics expert but it looks like Parkers ideas are bold and very smart. Not more handouts or bleeding interest payments to foreign banks, instead he proposes to channel inflation control back into the local economy though kiwisaver. Note he has written in out clauses for low income earners Karol. Overseas banks will hate ths policy expect some vicious attacks by corporate interests. But the main thing is this will be great for higher wage employment and local industry. The guy is a genius and the miracle is that it didn’t get leaked. Key was left blundering around suggesting old hat mortgage controls. Well done Labour.
In the meantime that hoary old line that a gumboot could get elected in Clutha-Southland if it was a National gumboot should be revisited on the basis that a gumboot would have a more benign public safety record.
Plenty of campaign fodder here. Has a Green candidate been selected for Clutha-Southland yet?
I see another tobacco industry lobbyist, Chris Bishop, is contesting Hutt South for the Nats. Wonder if they will throw Carrick Graham a seat as well?
Lolz, i lived in Clutha-Southland for a couple of years, Greens are more than frowned on down there, i remember walking into the post-shop the morning after 9/11 and one old bloke had to be quieted by the postie as he started whining in a loud voice that i was ”one of them”…
All the old hippies are coming out the wordwork down there, so I think things have changed a bit in recent years. Robert Guyton’s just been elected to his second term on the regional council and he doesn’t seem to hide his green light under a bushel 😉
Chris Bishop has not been selected. The National Party has a lot of potential candidates and not one is a union hack and no one cares about their sexuality.
Of course National is full of union hacks – they’re just called business associations instead. National are quite fine with their own unions, they just don’t like the workers having theirs.
“This significant investment in our defence force, combined with the savings and reinvestment achieved through recent reforms, means the Government is addressing the long term funding gap which we inherited,” Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman said.
Because I’m pretty sure that Labour ramped up defence spending after National ran it down in the 1990s. It’s why we have the LAVs, the new aircraft and the new patrol boats. I’d heard that National had run it down from their first budget this term as well.
NACTs have just announced that they are obtaining more defence infrastructure “which Labour had ordered”. Like spending is something that Labour does, the profligate wasters, whereas the high-minded wisearses of NACT make considered investments when they spend the taxpayers money in a very tight-fisted manner. Such poseurs.
dv
Are you trying to make sense of it all? If you haven’t so far then don’t think too hard, it can seem like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland where they all shift around one place every so often. At least that seems to have been the case in the recent past. Now we might change the scenario, and myself I’d prefer to move away from Alice’s arena this time.
Allow me to answer for Pete: ‘National didn’t completely de-fund the defence force when they got in to power so it’s inaccurate to say they ran down the budget. And Labour didn’t completely fund every single thing the defence force wanted with a few spare million on top, so it may be accurate to say they left a funding gap.’
“Today’s pre-Budget announcement shows the Government has been forced to admit the damage it has done in Defence. Minister Jonathan Coleman’s cuts have put our Defence Force at risk and seriously undermined our armed services.
“Funding of about $134 million a year is less than half the amount the Government sought to cut from the Defence Force with its cost cutting target of $350 million a year.
Yeah, that’s what I thought – National, despite always going on about having a decent defence force, had been cutting the defence budget again.
National have been like rats in the pantry busy eating away at things behind the scenes.
Quietly cutting spending on everything desperately in order to make up for the fact that they haven’t got enough revenue to achieve the targets they promised re returning to surplus – due to their stupid tax cuts and asset sales.
It is a great pity people didn’t vote for a left-wing government last time around – who were making more conservative promises- that they most-likely would have achieved – and without doing the damage that National have done and are doing to our country.
Politicians – WTF
In the discussion on synthetic marijuana moves I heard John Key say he was uncomfortable about something. Was that reported in the MSM? I realised a simple fact about the PM.
He works on a simple binary principle – comfortable/uncomfortable!
And the good old USA is stirring up controversy and commenting from its superior high ground on both the Russian/Ukraine afffair that the USA has had some effect on warming up through its activities along with its NATO sidekicks, and now on the China-Philippines argument over sea area control around their coastlines. UbiquitoUSA.
Great comment from John Banks a few minutes ago on TV3 news, re: testing synthetic drugs on animals….”rats need to live in dignity too” While to some extent I agree with him I think he should know best.
New Zealand infant formula exporters are having to take “corrective actions” over issues ranging from a dirty computer keyboard to factory air quality and temperature control in order to comply with strict new Chinese import regulations, a top official says.
The Government announced last week that 12 of this country’s 13 baby milk manufacturers had to carry out changes at their production facilities before they could become registered for export under the rules that come into force on Thursday.
The 13 manufacturers include Fonterra, South Island dairy processors Westland Milk Products and Synlait, as well as Auckland-based exporters Sutton Group and New Image. A ministry spokesman declined to name the one manufacturer that had been immediately able to comply with the new regulations.
Who is the one manufacturer that met with the new regulations? Are there any ties to a certain company staring with “O” and linked to a compromised cabinet minister?
FYI – Just posted this on Kiwiblog in response to this article:
“Crime reduction targets on track
April 29th, 2014 at 10:00 am by David Farrar
Judith Collins announced:
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the latest Justice sector Better Public Services results for reducing crime and re-offending, are the best quarterly results since the targets were set.
The Better Public Services (BPS) targets set a goal of a 15 per cent reduction in total crime by June 2017, compared to baseline figures from June 2011.
“It’s fantastic news that our latest Justice sector BPS results show the total crime rate has reduced by 14 per cent between June 2011 and December 2013,” says Ms Collins.
“The latest results for this period also show the youth crime rate has dropped by 27 per cent, violent crime is down 10 per cent and overall re-offending is down by 11.7 per cent.
“New Zealand now has the lowest crime rate since 1978 but most importantly, the results mean New Zealanders are experiencing around 56,000 fewer crimes a year, leading to fewer victims of crime. ….”
MY COMMENT:
Where are the ‘white collar’ crime statistics?
Are there any?
How about ‘bribery and corruption’ statistics?
How come on the watch of Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins , New Zealand has STILL not ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)?
How come Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins promised Transparency International last year, that her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ would be presented to Parliament in 2013, and it STILL has yet to surface in the NZ Parliamentary legislation ‘sausage machine’?
Ten years after signing UNCAC in 2003, New Zealand appears almost ready to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption. New Zealand’s failure for a decade to take action to ratify the UN Convention disappointing for a country that prides itself on its clean international image. TINZ has actively encouraged ratification for the last 10 years as noted in our letter to several ministers in August.
In a much welcomed development in a letter to Transparency International New Zealand dated 7 August 2013, the Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Justice, states that she has “announced a package of legislative reforms that will allow New Zealand to ratify UNCAC.”
The necessary amendments to make New Zealand’s domestic law compliant with the treaty obligations will be included in the Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Bill. Once passed, the minister has confirmed that “officials will promptly take steps to deposit New Zealand’s instrument of ratification of UNCAC.”
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins and her (in my considered opinion) CORRUPT conflict of interest, in TOADYING for her friends and husband’s private company – Oravida?
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for BRIBERY (oops! ) Foreign Affairs – Murray McCully, with his, in my considered opinion offer of a job ( errr…. BRIBE) as ‘Pacific Economic Ambassador’ to shifty Shane JUDA$ Jones – treacherous, whopper waka swapper?
After looking at the Transparency International New Zealand website – I see nothing covering these developments.
I guess that if Transparency International New Zealand starts doing some REAL anti-corruption ‘whistleblowing’ – they might lose their Government funding from a variety of sources?
Actually if you work with police prosecutors on a daily basis as I do you’d know that the word from on police high is that now people gotta be given ‘warnings’ first off rather than charging and proceeding to court.
Don’t really want to say – ‘unless you’re young, black and scum’ – but that’s the guts of it.
The Milky Bar Krud is cooking the books. While keeping the confidence of Serco’s shareholders more or less
Edit: sorry, this was meant to be a response to DTB below.
xox
Did you know NZ has an arrangement for 1000 young Chinese to stay/work in NZ for one year? This has been going for a few years now. I spoke to one last weekend. Most illuminating. The offer is online in China and is snapped up in 5 minutes! I was lucky to talk about what is happening in China from a well spoken, albeit with an American accent, young guy about global and internet issues. A real highlight of my visit to Christchurch.
Hahahahaha ! What a Dork Dunney ? Gets nothing right. Except the salary and the super’ and the spot at the trough. And lay preacher at some bilious bastion of anal white privilege white wooden church somewhere out Karori way.
Nearly sixty years ago there was a fulla used to turn up at Ellerslie Primary School where I started my education. Called the ‘Funny Doctor’ – wore a bow tie, clown’s nose, drove a little round mudguards Austiny thing – magic tricks – bold checked pants – we loved him us easily pleased five year olds.
Reckon Petey’s the dodgy remittance man of that family.
Paul Henry. TV3. Tonight. Vicious Old Visceral Tory Queen ! On 3 Hundy. Couldn’t give a fuck about ChCh. Where he and his darling ShonKey Python don’t live. But Oh How They Care ! Piece of shit is that Old Queen.
… a New Zealand government using immigration to keep house prices low? Yeah right. Everyone knows that every government opens the immigration taps 12-18 months out from an election. Helen Clark did it. John Key is doing it right now. As long as immigration sits at around 30,000 p.a. then we have upward pressure on house values, and that keeps everyone voting for the incumbent government no matter what.
I just do not believe that a Labour government would not again open the immigration taps to enhance their chances of re-election in the future.
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 ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 2 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood and Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99) 3 A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 4 Waitohu by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $35) ...
Pete laid down the law last night.
Authors take note, you don’t get to tell him what he can or can’t do here. He makes the rules for the site now.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28042014/#comment-805885
I think the problem with PG Tips is that everything is so bloody wishy-washy and qualified that tedium rises instantly to the surface leading to complete and utter frustration. It is like the ultimate fence-sitting, discussing discussions, and never actually achieving anything. Or even ffs, never actually saying anything. Nothing is ever said methinks.
There would seem to be no solution for these types, other than to banish them to local council ward board committee meetings about whether pansies or petunias should be planted in the roundabout.
+1 Well said vto.
Yep. He seems to be on a one man crusade to wreck the left’s chances in the next election. His behaviour improved for a while but I agree that he is back to his disruptive worst.
The problem is his control of the politicheck website. He has come out with a doozie this morning claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax. The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small. But by applying a rather extreme interpretation and taking a few very short comments out of context he claims that Labour is not telling the truth.
This site works best when there is an unfettered sometimes robust exchange of ideas. But I have seen a number of discussion streams get wrecked.
The politicheck reference is at http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed
It may be time to factcheck the politicheck website.
“claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax”
I didn’t claim that.
“The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small.”
Facts would help your case.
I thought you were the fact checker Pete. Or do you ignore the facts that do not support your world view?
You made the claims. You should back them up.
If a 15% capital gains tax was applied instead those amounts would approximately halve.
Also from that article:
IRD is doing something, and National appear to be boosting what they do.
What % of your fact checks are made of National Party claims?
None.
Says it all.
Pete you should have done the research before making your claim doncha think? So a couple of hundred cases a year. And the figures are small when you compare them to the total tax take. Thanks for confirming my previous statement.
The CGT will apply across the board apart from the family home. Over time it will raise significant amounts of money.
And did you see how the number of cases is decreasing each year, interestingly at the same time that there have been cuts to IRD’s staff. National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.
“National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.”
In the link just above that you have just replied to:
The expectation is that this will recover about $45m.
That’s doing something, a boost. Not nothing, not “into reverse”.
the problem with property speculators and paying income tax in our country is that the vast bulk of rental property owners are simply dishonest lying bastards and bastardettes. They nearly all buy with a view to banking the gain in value and have little concern in the rent.
Most NZ property investors simply lie about their intent when purchasing property. Liars.
It is the single biggest rort in NZ and I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
Lol.
Ta.
Avoidance or evasion on property transactions has been a problem for yonks, and there’s a big grey area on ‘intent’ but governments have gradually been addressing it.
Pete, it is only a problem of enforcement, not a problem of existence, as your quote indicates. My point stands.
Bottom line though – government raises revenue by taxing people who make money. Problem is that they only tax some of the money-making, i.e. wage and salary and income earners. There are several other ways of making money which are not taxed, such as making money by capital. Example: Some make money by pouring all their income into the capital value of their farm and minimise their income. Why should they be exempt and bludge off the wage and salary earner? Another rort.
If the government is to raise revenue by taxing money-making then all forms of money-making should be taxed. For consistency and credibility purposes ….
I don’t think anyone is ever going to read ScrittiPolitti.
But yep, Pete is on a mission to make this site unreadable. I have no idea why he is tolerated. He has no interest in or sympathy for the labour movement whatsoever.
When did thestandard become a free-for-all for right-wingers?
I like the Scritti Politti reference Felix.
As for PG (Personal Grievance). I’ve been coming here on and off for two and half years and particularly enjoyed the time when PG was “on leave”. There was a time leading up to that “leave” where there was a loose consensus among commenters to simply adopt the 🙄 as a response to anything he said. Not only was it entertaining and humourous to see a huge line of 🙄 all down the page it also took all the power away from him and minimised the disruption.
I humbly would make the suggestion that the 🙄 exercise is revived.
Whaddya’s reckon?
Is that < arrow, eyeroll (one word) arrow > ?
Haven’t had to use the eyeroll tag since the last time, so I’ve forgotten
Use a colon before and after roll
:roll followed immediately by another colon
Ta, Karol.
Testing;
🙄
: roll :
– without the spaces
🙄
With thanks to One Anonymous Bloke and Tracey for teaching me that trick recently 😀
🙄
Jest rolling. Oops, just jest testing.
Yes Rosie I reckon too.
Yep. As far as I can see, PG’s problem is a tendency to use slippery logic and very shallow analysis. It is why I rarely read or comment on his comments these days – waste of my time. More important things to focus on.
Ironic felix. You’re not trying to tell authors or moderators what to do are you? Sounds a bit like it. Contributing something positive is less stressful.
Where did I do that, Pete? Link or apology please.
1 “Authors take note”
🙄 Learn english, moran.
What is it I’m “telling” anyone to do?
🙄
So Pete while you are here your latest politicheck post (http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed) is full of bunkum. Basically you are saying that because there is an obligation for speculators to pay capital gains tax they all pay capital gains tax. But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small and if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.
So you have twisted the words out of shape and then come out with an adverse conclusion.
And looking at the site you are wrecking it. There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.
Go on. Concisely justify your latest claim. Use figures and stuff. Then compare this with Labour’s draft figures from last time.
It’s true if you’re a legitimate property developer, spec builder etc you pay tax on any profit made.
How else do you claim your building expenses, if you’re not legit.?
” if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
That’s not correct.
http://www.ird.govt.nz/property/property-common-mistakes/mistake-dealing-with-investment/
Um it is correct. If you buy the house intending to rent it then by definition you are not intending to resell it.
Um, you can buy a house intending to rent it and intending to sell it for a capital gain. Read the IRD link.
Do you think speculators wouldn’t rent out a house if they intend to sell it? Unless it was a very quick flick that doesn’t make business sense much if not all what you gain in capital you would lose in cost of capital and non-earnings.
what the fuck does that mean.
you are just spouting nonsense.
why dont you fuck off.
Lol @ hook. I reckon we should use that for Rosie’s suggestion rather than 🙄
Everytime PG says something, anything, respond with
Because it’s an appropriate response to pretty much everything he says.
+1
I may not have been here long but I agree.
PG talks absolute crap
Dont feed it . it might go back under its rock
Lol. By all means adopt that statement weka. My hazy memory tells me that the 🙄 was previously adopted because it was non verbal and non aggressive. Also, very it’s funny, a massive army of 🙄 marching on for miles down the page. It says so much.
I like the simplicity and ease of 🙄 too. Maybe we keep hook’s quote for special occasions.
lol
From your own link, pete:
Yes, that refers to an investor, which IRD clearly differentiates from speculators and dealers.
Pete have you actually read what you are typing? It makes no sense. My head hurts …
I am sorry everyone I have sparked this totally unproductive complete waste of time debate. It is as if the protagonists are arguing in different languages …
I am going back to performing paid work …
Property or tax?
🙄
A few posts up thread, MS posted, “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
You replied to that post, quoting those very words, stating, “That’s not correct.”
With me so far?
I quoted an extract from the IRD guidelines you quoted, showing that MS was correct and you were wrong – if someone buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.
You comprehend that the words I have marked in bold (which are taken near verbatim from the extract I quoted) confirm that if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then capial gains taxis not payable?
Virtually the same words that MS used, and which you said were wrong and which you now say are right, but only for investors, even though that is clearly what MS means because what on Earth do you think “buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on” means?
But “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable” is not correct.
If someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then tax on capital gain may not be payable, or it may be payable, depending on other circumstances and intent.
As I showed, immediacy doesn’t matter, nor does an intent to rent.
You understand what “if someone buys a house to rent” means, yeah?
It means the reason for buying the house was to rent it out. So “the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.”
Where as a speculator buys with the intention to sell it. that’s their purpose in buying the house, and their anticipated source of profit. Even if they don’t immediately realise that intention, due to the market collapsing or what have you it is still treated differently for tax purposes: “If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable”
” There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.”
To see the truth in that statement, scroll through the posts and look at the ratio of Politicheck articles that focus on the opposition parties and not the Government.
OppositionCheck would be a more accurate title.
But he is what he is and now, like many wiser heads, I will be doing my damnedest to step over every syllable he soils the site with. He has had so many chances to join in and help build the dialogue but he is a wrecker, and only wants to be the loudest voice at the table.
Still wonder how his Budget for Poor People was shaping up though.
bye bye Pete
You appear to be talking about tax avoidance and evasion, i.e. lack of tax income, rather than a lack of tax code. That’s a different issue altogether.
You can’t avoid non-existent taxes, after all.
Good stuff from Labour on the exchange rate. Plenty of commentators saying it’s not a populist issue. Clearly they don’t get the knowledge all our commodity producers (esp farmers) have of exchange rates and their personal financial interests.
Looks like a great week for Labour, with a series of announcements and media hits.
As far as I can see the policy benefits the middle class property buyers/owners and export businesses. What’s in it for those on low incomes?
“What’s in it for those on low incomes?
More expensive everything.
Lets see, for those on low incomes Labour is proposing a rise in the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, yay hurrah, but wait, there is more,
Labour is also proposing ”compulsory” retirement savings which i will speculate will be at least 2% of income, so scratch any benefit low income workers will gain from any pay rise to the new 15 dollar minimum wage,(and the flow on effect in wages above 15 bucks an hour if any),
i could go on, but why bother, it looks like business as usual from where i sit…
According to their website it’s 3% and increasing yearly to 9%. To get this across they’re going to have to raise the minimum wage to at least $17 per hour or go for a Universal Income.
Ouch thats really going to hurt people’s day to day living even 17ph is barely enough to scrape by in Auckland with two incomes at this level.
I can imagine that the employer contribution will be the effective pay rise for the next few years… unless they have some kind of abatement for a couple it will leave a large hole in take home pay.
The other thing I am extremely wary of is political interference in the coming years who is to say the eligibility age won’t be pushed out further etc. I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
That wouldn’t surprise me 🙁
That said, I don’t think saving does anything for the economy except slow it down and boost returns to the financial sector which results, inevitably, in the economy collapsing again.
Id tend to agree with that better to spend it now and the govt collects an appropriate amount of tax to fund super. Personal savings should be personal with the ability to use them as you wish
I was reading an article yesterday suggesting that we need to ‘encourage’ people to trade their KiwiSaver for annuities at retirement, because, in essence, we can’t ‘trust’ them to spend the money ‘wisely’. It’s an incredibly patronizing attitude.
Pretty much nothing. In fact, it’sl to hurt them in the short term but over the medium to long term it should increase work here and highly paid work at that.
Of course, the real problem is that our exchange rate is set incorrectly (it’s based upon speculation rather than actual trade) and that our entire economic system is bunkum to boot.
Yeah, massive increases in living costs, nice one Labour.
The massive increases are going to happen one way or another as we’ve been living well beyond our means due to the misaligned exchange rate. National are, of course, promising that we can continue to live beyond our means forever.
+1 Agree, however it’s early in the day of politic’s, let alone the week.
The PR spin merchants within National will be plotting with bullshit snake oil ready to feed their gushing shill media fan-club. Just heard the Nationals Minister of War on Terrorism, Coleman just bait Goff into commenting on their huge military spend up announcement. By Coleman’s quip of the Government is just following through on the previous Governments commitment.
i am still reeling from the transformation of david cunnliffe into an animal rights activist..
..and am i silly to hope that the disgust expressed by cunnliffe on testing legal highs on rats/rabbits/dogs..
..that this will also apply/spread to the (approx) 370,000 such animals that are vivisected/tested to death..?
..(‘testing’ yr cosmetics/dishwashing liquids/makeup etc etc..)
..especially as as cunnliffe said..there is no need to test these on animals..when computer-models etc. can do the job..
..’cos..y’see that ‘no need’ also applies to most/all? of those over 370,000 animals that are tortured..and then killed..each and every year..
..computor-modelling etc would also do the job there..
..so why don’t they use computors then..?..i hear you ask..
..money..money..money..
..these vile excuses for human beings are part of a self-perpetuating industry..
..an unholy/bloody alliance between the torturers/breeders/’researchers’..
..a lot of money is made from being an animal-torturer..(they don’t want no computer-models messing with their gigs..
..it’s ‘a good little earner’..being a vivisecter..
..(the universities in nz alone vivisect 300,000 animals each and every year..’research/training’ being the reasons given for the/that need..)
..(what these stats/facts mean is that over 1,000 animals each and every day are killed after they have been used/tortured/vivisected..)
..so..as i say..i welcome the expected scrutiny/spotlight being shone on these torturing scumbags..
..by david cunnliffe/labour..
..in his/their reborn animal rights dudes roles…
A little harsh on Cunliffe Phil, it’s thanks to members of the Labour party like my vet nurse flatmate that campaign for animals rights and put forward well considered remits to be thrashed out. I give DC credit for responding to F/B private messages regarding another issue of concern to her, my opinion (which was ok anyway) of him rose as a result of his long thoughtful responses. Before a some fool (not you) fires a cheapshot that it was probably someone else, the typo’s & odd spelling mistake told me it was him, had the same lol.
as i say skinny..i am optimistic the gaze (not only of cunnliffe) will now switch to this vivisection abomination..i do mean that..
(see..!..i am blocking my usual/deep cynicism that the circus will move on..and this ‘deep’/important issue..will become yesterdays’ shane jones..and the torturing/killing will just continue..unabated..)
..and i don’t really mind how it comes about/who gets credit..
..and i tip my hat to those like yr friend..those active inside (blind/unthinking) organisations like the labour party..
..who are fighting for these same reforms this situation is calling/screaming out for..
..(trying to end the usual practice of green party bbq’s..when there..i am afraid burnt me out on that route..)
what are the alternatives …?
..testing on people.. ?
.. a new role for those on Paula’s benefit .. perhaps …?
What are the alternatives? Use products that don’t require animal testing. For instance there is a huge amount of information showing that marijuana is far safer than these synthetic substitutes…no testing required.
Animal rights. Mr Key slid by yesterday saying that the excuse for not acting sooner on legal highs was his concern that animals might be used for testing. Smart move. Appeal to the Animal rights people and lets him off the hook.
But wait. Mr Cunliffe agrees that he has a concern for animal rights. Check. Your next move John?
Too right phillip. I hear that Massey Uni in Palmy is one of our worst offenders for animal testing. Is that correct?
I also think that is the place where the HRT medicine is made from mare’s urine. The mares are kept permanently in stalls, they don;’t get out at all and are kept pregnant so the levels of oestrogen necessary for the production of the medicine remain high. A tragic life for an animal who is so sensitive and emotional. (I have a strong connection with equines)
Sorry, no link for that. I just recall an article on tv about it years ago and it stayed with me
I think I heard some chap on Tv saying that they could get quite good results from testing this Sh*t on poor crustaceans! Poor crabs, prawns and snails! Oh dear. Next they will think of testing it on some bacteria and broccoli.
Quite agree Phil, it is a disgusting practice that needs to stop. These sick scientists who manage to convince themselves that it is unfortunate but necessary to torture animals need to be made to account for their actions. Good to hear David speaking up against it and informing the public it is possible to do this research using computers. This will win him votes.
Sure is Bella, I read some posts on facebook by some rat club people who were giving DC the voters nod after watching his interview on the tv news covering the issue.
Got a laugh watching slippery Key who looked deceitful doing a flip flop, fronting the media with his bullshit ‘personally’ I’m uncomfortable with animal testing that’s the real reason for the hold up (funny he forgot to tell Dunne that porky, Pete didn’t utter a word about this to the press) umm not on rabbits, certainly not dogs, rodents yeah thats OK. A dog whistle to anymore nat rats thinking of jumping ship. Oh the pits, poor Johnny has to import dirty rats these days.
a question for the ‘strategists’ in labour..
..who is/are the einstein/s that decided that david parker appearing on a political talkshow on sunday..
..was not a good enough platform for the announcement of new economic-policy..?
..who decided ‘no no!..we’ll put out a press-release on tuesday…!.’…was the better option..?
..and i guess it is a byre the bye..that after parker ‘teasing’ about his big tuesday announcement..(yep..!..we’re all wetting our pants in anticipation here..dave..)..that then there was nothing..
..the ensuing vaccuum leaving plenty of time/opportunity for parker to be pulled backwards thru a blackberry bush..
..over his/labours’ epic-fail/vote-killing policy to raise the age of the pension..
..who was/were the einsteins(s) who made that call..?
..you don’t need to answer that question..
..but you really need to do what needs to be done..eh..?
..you are getting some really shit tactic-advice..from whomever…
“Nothing”, Phil?
Are you sufficiently versed in economics to make that judgement?
What were you expecting? It’s finance policy.
Parker raised interest in the proposal on Sunday. Today it’s getting headlines and has induced another of Key’s trademark lies:
“What will make a difference is Labour spending so much money, rates will rise faster.”
Fact: rates have risen “faster” since 2009.
Pretty sure the Oravida party is spending more too.
no..oab..
..he had nothing to talk about..hence the blackberry-bush episode..
..did you see it..?
..tell me how i have got that wrong..
Perhaps the reason for not launching the policy on Sunday was so that the launching was controlled- an uninterrupted speed followed by question and answers. Political talk shows are very dependent on the line of questioning by the interviewer who can derail the launch. If you consider the quality and motives of most of the panellists who take part in the post interview discussion, then the wisdom of using a breakfast speech launch becomes much more attractive.
David Parker effectively states that if elected he will dip into your paypacket and leave you worse off. Is he one of the ABC majority in caucus? Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition.
concern-tr*lling there..fisi..?
Fisiani, wouldn’t it be better if you concerned yourself with problems the Nats have, as you are one of their supporters?
Is it a concern that they are taking on tobacco lobbyists?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/9984445/Ex-lobbyist-to-contest-Englishs-seat
Is the government a competent manager of the economy having blown out the debt to over $60 billion?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9380846/Public-debt-climbs-by-27m-a-day
Just a couple of more important things for you to be concerned about…
Are you seriously claiming that ex-employees of a tobacco company are not supposed to be candidates? Should they be forced to wear a yellow star to let us know their sin.
The government is a fabulous manager of the economy. Just watch for the Budget.
On 20th September we have a stark choice.
Forward to a brighter and brighter future or back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.
$60 billion debt and growing.
Wonderful.
“back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.”
like the Central Plains Water scheme, backed by your government, stealing private land and using my pay packet to finance pet irrigation ideas (which are so woeful in terms of financial return that they cannot raise the money to pay for it within their dear private sector, hence steal from taxpayers. Total failure of your political philosophies fisiani. fail fail fail)
The fact that you believe that shows just how disconnected from reality you are.
Has the 170,000 jobs from National’s budgeting turned up yet?
Thread officially Godwinned. Recommended course of action: nothin’ but 🙄
Hey wingnut, listening to RNZ morning report, Slugger Bill Churlish saying NO to everything N-Spinner is front footing him on . Copped a bit of stick comparing the LP policy of raising to 9% super contribution, Bill got a hiding when comparing to the Ozzies 13%. Nice.
Key-Joyce and their spin merchants will be sitting slumped in their chairs cursing English’s poor showing.
Expect cheerleaders Hooton & Shrillands to turn up to try prop up PG who is already getting a pasting on here.
English was as usual very predictable. Had to turn him off. Good to hear Cunliffe putting espiner in his place. GE got quite cross.
“.. Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition..”
let’s hope national are up to the task..eh..?..
Exporters see their profits disappear as printed money comes crashing through the NZ dollar door.
Where have National been, we’re not talking about what may happen in the fruit loopy way National declares all Labour’s policies as awful, we’re talking how they failed in the housing market, failed exporters, failed children.
And National are worried, Labour are aim full square at craving off exporters from the National party.
Retailers are next when they realize Key’s aiming the economy at an almighty housing crash, with his high govt debt, do nothing and wait for thr GFC to have worked through and watch while milk, timber, are all sourced elsewhere.
You have to pretty dumb to think that hot money isn’t holding up our economy.
That hot money needs exchange goods, and so is buying up the cheapest bulkiest
items on the economic menu and hurting our added value sectors.
And t will all stop when the global banking system rights itself, then the banks
will come for our homes.
Most days I wake up feeling just fine, have a good breakfast, attend to my ablutions and then turn to The Standard for my daily share of intelligent comment (especially from karol) on matters political.
Why is it that time and time again I then find the whole morning ruined by comments, if they can be called that, from someone called Pete George? There is something so snide, so dog-whistling about this person’s contributions that I end up having my day shattered. There is no end to his self-assumed expertise on everything, his implied criticisms disguised as something unbiased and apparently reasonable.
Please, Pete George, for the sake of at least one person’s sanity – – – go away!
+100
He ruins this site.
i see him as being the legal-high of political-dialogue..
..imitating the real thing..
..and getting it so so wrong…
..what particularly grates with him is the bullshit concern-tr*lling..the many ‘faces’..
..’faces’ dependant on the audience/issue being faced at that moment..
..if he came here and vigorously argued rightwing ‘ideas’..fair do’s..
..but it is the faux-concern/centreist poses he constantly strikes..
..and his never answering reasoned-challenges..
..in short..his outright/wholesale dissembling..
..(and this is kinda off the wall..i dunno a lot about astrological-profiles..but from what i do know/have observed in others..i reckon he is a virgo with taurus rising..
..or some such swamp-person mix…
..any other guesses..?..)
..and to end on a positive-note..
..like with the legal-highs..there will come a breaking-point..
..the queues of complainers will get too long/rowdy..
..we can but hope that comes soon..eh..?..
..’cos credit where credit is due..
..he is quite good at it..
..that dissembling..
..he is like an energy-sucking black hole on many threads..
..his paymasters should be rewarding him well..
..(and what’s with that edwards-the-younnger seriall=linking/being a fanboy of georges’ drivel..?
..and here is the scary bit..
..that edwards-the-younger moulds young/impressionable brains..
..at a university..(!)
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..does he have the unmentionable one as a guest-speaker..?
..does he scar their minds this way..?..
Yes, why does Bryce Edwards link “Your NZ” in his weekly round up. Not sure of the motivation or reasoning for that, but it does reduce his credibility.
+100
Have had the same reaction, but am trying now to use the glimpse of his avatar to practise empathy and compassion for those that are “without”.
Will keep you updated on how I go…
I can never understand why the debate with Pete continues. He is as slippery as John Key. And the issues he seems to raise are never resolved. I tend to skip all the comments and replies after his name. Must be too old to bother.
Don’t let PG ruin your morning wyndham. There’s too much good thing going on, on this site. I share your frustration, however I when I see his name and a giant disrupted thread trailing in his wake. I just scroll- on- by until I get to something relevant . I have made a suggestion to readers and commenters at 1.2.3.1 at 9.52 am above.
I would love to see the 🙄 response reignited.
Open mike is rapidly degenerating into the Pete George hour.
Totally. Is he related to m hooton?
To be honest, I think that may be an insult to Hooton.
Naa Hooten writes Hootens Horse shit on NBR.
Petey writes Horse shit where ever he goes. He’s like a Puppy dog He just can’t help pissing on the carpet.
Yes -i’ve noticed that Open Mike has become a PG hour and its booooorrrrrrrrrring. Boring, Boring.
Not at all what it was a few weeks ago. Is it time for the moderators to step up and put a ban on him for a while ? ?
Banning him for awhile doesn’t make any difference – you just feel the same pain when he comes back.
That seems a little unfair JK, I note that the first comment was by felix today, fairly well inciting PG into making a comment. Yesterday’s (was it yesterday, can’t be arsed going to check) Open Mike was all about PG and he hadn’t even commented!
I don’t agree with all Pete George says or his tactics at times, however a lot of the noise recently has been to do how people are responding to him, rather than due to PG. Some of his comments do assist some pretty important debates.
It would be good if those responding to and inciting PG got a grip and thought a bit about how their own actions are affecting this ‘issue’…because it is starting to look more like a schoolyard dynamic that bring to mind a certain statement that Dick Emery was famous for more than anything else.
There are some pretty important events occurring in this country, if you wish to focus on them – focus on them.
I think you underestimate how distruptive many people find PG. For those that don’t mind him so much, your comment makes sense. For those of us that see him as an out and out tr8ll*, then the upscaling of antagonism to him recently also makes sense.
I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.
Sometimes DFTT is in order.
Sometimes that doesn’t cut it but…
I think it is getting a bit rubbish to incite him to comment and then complain about Open Mike being dedicated to him, when he hasn’t even started the subject. JK @ 8.2 didn’t do this – but this is what has occurred twice now on Open Mike.
DFTT implies that he is in fact a tr8ll. Which means the normal rules of discourse don’t apply.
“I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.”
Everything PG does and says is bullshit. Even on the occasions that his comments make sense, it’s still bullshit because it’s part of the whole centrist, I’m more of a reasonable person than anyone else persona that masks the fact that he is right wing and undermines the left at any opportunity he gets. That persona does damage. He is not someone I am willing to take a face value, comment by comment, because every commment he makes is part of a larger context of clusterfucked communication and bullshit.
All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit. This demonstrates your intolerance and nastiness towards alternatives and helps highlight the issues being raised. It doesn’t seem to be a very smart approach but may reflect frustration at a lack of success with your own agenda. If you had a good case to argue that’s what you’d do instead of lashing out at different views and approaches.
Anger doesn’t make a good argument. It’s curious to see such bitter anti-centrists.
1) No, it shows that weka understands you very well. Probably better than you do.
2) It’s not your “views”, it’s your behaviour, The only views you have ever put forward are the occasional bit of racism.
3) You have never, ever offered an “alternative” to anything.
4) You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has observed your behaviour online over a couple of years who wouldn’t agree with weka. You’ll always be able to fool a few noobs though.
felix and weka, speaking for just about everyone. Very funny. Keep trying felix, that’s all you seem to do. I presume it amuses you but you seem to get more frustrated than anything. You know what they say about repeating the same mistakes.
🙄
🙄
🙄
“All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit.”
Pretty strange coincidence then that of all the people on this site that I disagree with, the only person I call a tr*ll is you.
Breaking news on TVNZ – The Government has announced it’s investing $100.9 million into strengthening the Defence Force.
So what’s that then? Using not having money as an excuse to fund social welfare projects or night classes and the like, and after running the military down to save costs, they find enough to stump up enough to buy some nod doubt American made nonsense or half a wing of one of the Australian fleet that doesn’t work properly.
Can’t wait for the spin show to start. My guess is Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific, in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
China won’t like that.
We are being caught in a vice between two powers trying to control the Pacific.
Key’s subservient approach to both will cost us big time in the future.
And they will grip hard too. My best suggestion would be to declare NZ neutral, failing that, and the opposite of Key, choose the winning side at the UN and have productive trade negotiations minus the taste of corruption lingering on the lips of cabinet ministers.
The article says $535m over four years, so that’s a full wing of a wonky Joint Strike Fighter.
After reading what Coleman says, I’m amending my spin guess a little. I now pick Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific under a cloak of aid and relief to the islands in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
At least Key didn’t buy as much as Abbott during his free round of golf time share presentation with the president. He got suckered for $24 billion.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/government-invest-100-9-million-in-defence-force-5943266
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s3990812.htm
NZ’s only real option at this point in time is to declare ourselves completely, totally and utterly neutral. Nothing less will do.
There are some strong advantages to remaining allied to the west, albeit we need to bolster our reputation as fair and honest brokers in all international affairs.
I can’t think of any. Did you read this? I have a tendency to agree with him about our Western allies.
THanks for the link, DTB
Probably buying Australia’s F/A18’s after they buy the new F35 JSF.
Doesn’t really matter what it is though as the end result will be more dependence upon the US for defence and a totally useless defence capability.
what’s happened to our benign strategic environment? (one of Helen Clark’s most gob-smackingly silly utterances, and there weren’t too many of those..)
I’ve not googled it yet, so I don’t know. But milk, food and kiwi ingenuity to all who come in peace sounds better than the mess trying to butter both sides of the bread will make.
The global economy is collapsing and, yeah, it was a rather stupid thing for Clark to say.
‘
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/9987907/US-braces-for-more-tornados
With more energy in the system, will Auckland see its third deadly tornado in three years?
Been coming across a lot of Pikkety lately. For those who haven’t, his book ” Capital in the Twenty First Century” has a central argument/observation that any democracy we have is inevitably devolving into plutocracy.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomas-piketty-capital-surprise-bestseller
pikettys’ book is the most important tome in a long time…
..put that together with the spirit level..
..and you have your rationales/a blueprint for a new/much better way of doing things..
..i consider myself an early-adopter of piketty..
..here is what i have found/collected…
..a (rough) primer/archive of his words/ideas..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=piketty
Yep, really need to read that one but, then, I’ve been saying that the biggest problem we have is the rich for years.
Thanks for the tip.
Piketty’s prescription includes (to quote from Bill’s link) ‘an 80% tax on incomes above $500,000 a year in the US, assuring his readers there would be neither a flight of top execs to Canada nor a slowdown in growth, since the outcome would simply be to suppress such incomes’.
Labour and the Greens should adopt this as policy.
It will not raise a lot in revenue in New Zealand, but that is not the point.
These excessive salaries are immoral and extortionate.
And even the CEOs themselves are starting to acknowledge the fact – The Warehouse boss Mark Powell recently described his $1.7 million salary as a ‘ridiculous amount’.
In NZ, anything over about $500k should be taxed at 90% or more.
snap
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26042014/#comment-804540
Piketty’s ideas are decent, but they are 25 years too late. We’ve actually moved far past the time the assumptions he uses will actually hold. Care of one of favourite websites Zerohedge:
By Charles Hugh-Smith:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-28/critique-pikettys-solution-widening-wealth-inequality
And by James Kunstler:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-28/second-biggest-delusion-us-culture
In relation to today’s conversations, my view is that Reserve Bank goals and interest rate settings are akin to trying to cleverly keep steam pressure up on the Titanic’s engines while the compartments are filling up with water. At this point nothing apart from getting ready for fossil fuel energy depletion, climate change, GFC II and permanent global economic contraction matters one whit.
I don’t think that PG ruins the site. He’s a bit pompous – and his theme song could be ‘I can see clearly now the brain has gone’ – but I think he’s an excellent example of a right-whinger trying hard to prove that he occupies the political centre – and that’s always good for a laugh.
Why do those survey firms who phone and ask for a portion of your day to answer their questions never pay for the service? I make a point of responding “yes sure, I can participate but like you we charge for our time, so if you can give me a name and address for sending an invoice we can proceed”
the responses range from a laugh to a pause to a short no. it brings the call to a rapid end.
can I recommend that others take such an approach?
Surprisingly good editorial in the Dom Post today on Dunne’s actions re the Psychoactive Substances bill. A good read:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/9986208/Editorial-Dunne-drops-synthetics-ball
Interesting article in the Grauniad about the difficulties of dealing to the racist party UKIP. One conclusion is very relevent to the upcoming election here; that attacking UKIP for being racist implies that voters attracted to them are also racist. The lesson for NZ? Attacking Key can be counter productive because it can seen as an attack on swinging voters who like him, even if it’s not in their interests to vote for him.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/28/ukip-european-election-accused-of-racism
Disappointing to see your negative comment on Monetary policy, Karol. As several Labour MPs noted recently, you have to generate income before you can redistribute it. I am making no aims as an economics expert but it looks like Parkers ideas are bold and very smart. Not more handouts or bleeding interest payments to foreign banks, instead he proposes to channel inflation control back into the local economy though kiwisaver. Note he has written in out clauses for low income earners Karol. Overseas banks will hate ths policy expect some vicious attacks by corporate interests. But the main thing is this will be great for higher wage employment and local industry. The guy is a genius and the miracle is that it didn’t get leaked. Key was left blundering around suggesting old hat mortgage controls. Well done Labour.
Southland Times editorial on new Nat Clutha/Southland candidate Todd Barclay (tobacco industry lobbyist)
OPINION: The staff of legal high shops up and down the country might suddenly find themselves contemplating a change of career. Can we suggest they consider trying for a National Party candidacy somewhere?
It worked for Todd Barclay.
Hard on the news that all legal highs will be off the shelves in a couple of weeks, what with them being so harmful and everything, the Nats have chosen for one of their safest seats, Clutha-Southland, a man whose job it was to represent the interests of the tobacco industry.
The one that kills about 5000 of us each year.
Not that Barclay’s employer, Philip Morris, is denying any more that tobacco is a dangerous product. It now openly acknowledges as much.
The thing is, this oh-so-slowly dawning self-awareness hasn’t stopped the company defending, as best it can, its right to keep making money from the stuff anyway.
Because, after all, it’s legal.
Can we at least muster a sharp intake of breath, perhaps followed by a wheezy cough, at the audacity of this candidacy selection?
To be fair, Barclay has come and gone from Philip Morris in short order. He had his tobacco job for eight months and says he joined the company to learn about corporate politics. In fact, he says he doesn’t condone smoking. (Small point: if you don’t condone something you really shouldn’t make money in its service.)
There are things that an eager-to-learn young man should want to know about the tobacco industry even before he gets into it. And one of those, surely, would be the legitimacy of that whole “millions of dead people” kerfuffle. Was he really untroubled by that? Does he know something reassuring the rest of us don’t?
Before this, Barclay was a Beehive insider. A 24-year-old who grew up in the south, he has worked for Cabinet ministers Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Hekia Parata. Make what you will that after those three Big Tobacco seemed an agreeable next step.
The extent to which his electorate will be willing to set aside this poisonous background remains to be seen. It’s up to Clutha-Southland voters to determine what significance, if any, to afford the fact that Barclay chose that career move, however temporarily. But it must be said that for a man barely in his mid-20s, he has a past to live down.
In the meantime that hoary old line that a gumboot could get elected in Clutha-Southland if it was a National gumboot should be revisited on the basis that a gumboot would have a more benign public safety record.
As for Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne’s announcement that, come to think of it, by golly it would be better if all legal highs were taken off the shelves and returned only once their safety was proven — that’s a case of better late than never. But not nearly as good as getting it right the first time.
The grace period that had allowed 41 legal highs to keep being sold before the new testing regime was in place was far too long and intense public unhappiness resulted.
Dunne’s insistence that had his hand not been forced by Opposition pressure the law change would still have gone ahead, but without warning and therefore without stockpiling, may be true. But the Opposition can hardly be blamed for preparing its own policy to do something the public wanted but the Government had not displayed any interest in doing.
And something, we might and, that it had previously portrayed as pretty much impossible. Turns out where there’s a will, there’s a way.
– © Fairfax NZ News
Plenty of campaign fodder here. Has a Green candidate been selected for Clutha-Southland yet?
I see another tobacco industry lobbyist, Chris Bishop, is contesting Hutt South for the Nats. Wonder if they will throw Carrick Graham a seat as well?
Lolz, i lived in Clutha-Southland for a couple of years, Greens are more than frowned on down there, i remember walking into the post-shop the morning after 9/11 and one old bloke had to be quieted by the postie as he started whining in a loud voice that i was ”one of them”…
All the old hippies are coming out the wordwork down there, so I think things have changed a bit in recent years. Robert Guyton’s just been elected to his second term on the regional council and he doesn’t seem to hide his green light under a bushel 😉
Chris Bishop has not been selected. The National Party has a lot of potential candidates and not one is a union hack and no one cares about their sexuality.
indeed.
But in Clutha-Southland, national selected a corporate tobacco salesman and Labour selected a specialist in public health.
Says it all, really.
Good point – it should be stressed.
“no one cares about their sexuality”
Well, apart from hoping that none of them will breed……..
chortle
Of course National is full of union hacks – they’re just called business associations instead. National are quite fine with their own unions, they just don’t like the workers having theirs.
Here’s something that needs fact checking:
Because I’m pretty sure that Labour ramped up defence spending after National ran it down in the 1990s. It’s why we have the LAVs, the new aircraft and the new patrol boats. I’d heard that National had run it down from their first budget this term as well.
NACTs have just announced that they are obtaining more defence infrastructure “which Labour had ordered”. Like spending is something that Labour does, the profligate wasters, whereas the high-minded wisearses of NACT make considered investments when they spend the taxpayers money in a very tight-fisted manner. Such poseurs.
“”“which Labour had ordered”.
So why did we bother to change to NACTs?
dv
Are you trying to make sense of it all? If you haven’t so far then don’t think too hard, it can seem like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland where they all shift around one place every so often. At least that seems to have been the case in the recent past. Now we might change the scenario, and myself I’d prefer to move away from Alice’s arena this time.
Allow me to answer for Pete: ‘National didn’t completely de-fund the defence force when they got in to power so it’s inaccurate to say they ran down the budget. And Labour didn’t completely fund every single thing the defence force wanted with a few spare million on top, so it may be accurate to say they left a funding gap.’
if only there were an impartial,/i> fact checking website for NZ political claims…
Labour’s response
Yeah, that’s what I thought – National, despite always going on about having a decent defence force, had been cutting the defence budget again.
+1 DTB
National have been like rats in the pantry busy eating away at things behind the scenes.
Quietly cutting spending on everything desperately in order to make up for the fact that they haven’t got enough revenue to achieve the targets they promised re returning to surplus – due to their stupid tax cuts and asset sales.
It is a great pity people didn’t vote for a left-wing government last time around – who were making more conservative promises- that they most-likely would have achieved – and without doing the damage that National have done and are doing to our country.
Politicians – WTF
In the discussion on synthetic marijuana moves I heard John Key say he was uncomfortable about something. Was that reported in the MSM? I realised a simple fact about the PM.
He works on a simple binary principle – comfortable/uncomfortable!
And the good old USA is stirring up controversy and commenting from its superior high ground on both the Russian/Ukraine afffair that the USA has had some effect on warming up through its activities along with its NATO sidekicks, and now on the China-Philippines argument over sea area control around their coastlines. UbiquitoUSA.
and John Kerry is saying Israel is at risk of becoming an apartheid state.
Past tense must mean something different in the northern hemisphere
Great comment from John Banks a few minutes ago on TV3 news, re: testing synthetic drugs on animals….”rats need to live in dignity too” While to some extent I agree with him I think he should know best.
I didn’t hear it but am somewhat cynical. He has been in a position for years when he could have done something about it but hasn’t.
banks is an example of the premise that nobody is all bad..
..he had tears in his eyes when speaking opposing this bill..
..and on the grounds of his objections to dogs/animals being tortured/overdosed to death..
..testing this crap..
..so i don’t doubt his sincerity on that/then..
..and auckland has a lot of dog parks..
..and that is down to banks when mayor..
..(but that’s pretty much all i’ve got..)
(oh..!..and i know he has given money to/supported animal rights groups..in a variety of ways..)
..but funny thing..i think he still eats them..(maybe not dogs..)
From the Herald today:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11245825
Who is the one manufacturer that met with the new regulations? Are there any ties to a certain company staring with “O” and linked to a compromised cabinet minister?
FYI – Just posted this on Kiwiblog in response to this article:
“Crime reduction targets on track
April 29th, 2014 at 10:00 am by David Farrar
Judith Collins announced:
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the latest Justice sector Better Public Services results for reducing crime and re-offending, are the best quarterly results since the targets were set.
The Better Public Services (BPS) targets set a goal of a 15 per cent reduction in total crime by June 2017, compared to baseline figures from June 2011.
“It’s fantastic news that our latest Justice sector BPS results show the total crime rate has reduced by 14 per cent between June 2011 and December 2013,” says Ms Collins.
“The latest results for this period also show the youth crime rate has dropped by 27 per cent, violent crime is down 10 per cent and overall re-offending is down by 11.7 per cent.
“New Zealand now has the lowest crime rate since 1978 but most importantly, the results mean New Zealanders are experiencing around 56,000 fewer crimes a year, leading to fewer victims of crime. ….”
MY COMMENT:
Where are the ‘white collar’ crime statistics?
Are there any?
How about ‘bribery and corruption’ statistics?
How come on the watch of Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins , New Zealand has STILL not ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)?
How come Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins promised Transparency International last year, that her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ would be presented to Parliament in 2013, and it STILL has yet to surface in the NZ Parliamentary legislation ‘sausage machine’?
(I double-checked with her Parliamentary Office).
http://www.transparency.org.nz/UNCAC-Ratification
Most Recent Report on UNCAC Ratification:
New Zealand Almost Ready to Ratify UNCAC!
Ten years after signing UNCAC in 2003, New Zealand appears almost ready to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption. New Zealand’s failure for a decade to take action to ratify the UN Convention disappointing for a country that prides itself on its clean international image. TINZ has actively encouraged ratification for the last 10 years as noted in our letter to several ministers in August.
In a much welcomed development in a letter to Transparency International New Zealand dated 7 August 2013, the Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Justice, states that she has “announced a package of legislative reforms that will allow New Zealand to ratify UNCAC.”
The necessary amendments to make New Zealand’s domestic law compliant with the treaty obligations will be included in the Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Bill. Once passed, the minister has confirmed that “officials will promptly take steps to deposit New Zealand’s instrument of ratification of UNCAC.”
http://www.transparency.org.nz/docs/2013/UNCAC-Letter-%20to-Hon-Ministers-McCully-Collins-Groser-30-May-2013.pdf
http://www.transparency.org.nz/docs/2013/Hon-Judith-Collins-Minister-of-Justice-Letter-to-TINZ.pdf
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins and her (in my considered opinion) CORRUPT conflict of interest, in TOADYING for her friends and husband’s private company – Oravida?
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for BRIBERY (oops! ) Foreign Affairs – Murray McCully, with his, in my considered opinion offer of a job ( errr…. BRIBE) as ‘Pacific Economic Ambassador’ to shifty Shane JUDA$ Jones – treacherous, whopper waka swapper?
After looking at the Transparency International New Zealand website – I see nothing covering these developments.
I guess that if Transparency International New Zealand starts doing some REAL anti-corruption ‘whistleblowing’ – they might lose their Government funding from a variety of sources?
Of which there seems to be a considerable amount?
http://www.transparency.org.nz/Partners-and-Sponsors
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’.
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
www,dodgyjohnhasgone.com
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz
Actually if you work with police prosecutors on a daily basis as I do you’d know that the word from on police high is that now people gotta be given ‘warnings’ first off rather than charging and proceeding to court.
Don’t really want to say – ‘unless you’re young, black and scum’ – but that’s the guts of it.
The Milky Bar Krud is cooking the books. While keeping the confidence of Serco’s shareholders more or less
Edit: sorry, this was meant to be a response to DTB below.
xox
Did you know NZ has an arrangement for 1000 young Chinese to stay/work in NZ for one year? This has been going for a few years now. I spoke to one last weekend. Most illuminating. The offer is online in China and is snapped up in 5 minutes! I was lucky to talk about what is happening in China from a well spoken, albeit with an American accent, young guy about global and internet issues. A real highlight of my visit to Christchurch.
Ah, Serco, the little big company that just couldn’t.
Public purse private sector parasite
Outsourcing eh? A begging bowl held by private firms to collect the public’s money.
Aue ! This lady is pissed off…….wonder why ? That it might simply be ‘balance’ is a horrible thought.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/9989399/Legal-highs-about-face-a-mockery
Hahahahaha ! What a Dork Dunney ? Gets nothing right. Except the salary and the super’ and the spot at the trough. And lay preacher at some bilious bastion of anal white privilege white wooden church somewhere out Karori way.
Nearly sixty years ago there was a fulla used to turn up at Ellerslie Primary School where I started my education. Called the ‘Funny Doctor’ – wore a bow tie, clown’s nose, drove a little round mudguards Austiny thing – magic tricks – bold checked pants – we loved him us easily pleased five year olds.
Reckon Petey’s the dodgy remittance man of that family.
Paul Henry. TV3. Tonight. Vicious Old Visceral Tory Queen ! On 3 Hundy. Couldn’t give a fuck about ChCh. Where he and his darling ShonKey Python don’t live. But Oh How They Care ! Piece of shit is that Old Queen.
Dull Old Parker. Had VOQ backing off a bit there. Well done DOP. Sad for you VOQ. On two and a half hundy now darling.
This is a likely story http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9992233/Immigration-controls-to-dampen-house-prices
… a New Zealand government using immigration to keep house prices low? Yeah right. Everyone knows that every government opens the immigration taps 12-18 months out from an election. Helen Clark did it. John Key is doing it right now. As long as immigration sits at around 30,000 p.a. then we have upward pressure on house values, and that keeps everyone voting for the incumbent government no matter what.
I just do not believe that a Labour government would not again open the immigration taps to enhance their chances of re-election in the future.
It is the oldest trick in the book.