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.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
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.