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6:00 am, May 29th, 2015 - 70 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Long weekend coming up.About time to bring on Honest, Smiling John to clean up the latest McCully shambles. It will be difficult for even him to say “nothing to see”. Or will it?
key will be hoping mccully hangs on, the last thing he needs is another unhappy ex minister sitting on the back benches.
McCully is protecting Key who made promises to the Saudis himself.
Yes you’re right but its always the capos who get it to protect the don.
I’m sure key will smile if it gets to the point of him sacking mccully .
Well that was sneaky. First dump the $1000, then introduce compulsory enrollment to Kiwisaver.
While I’m not necessarily against NZers saving, I have to wonder? If the country’s small employers were going to be bankrupted by any kind of rise to the minimum wage, how are they going to cope with the employer contributions to the Kiwisaver for employees?
Was thinking the same riffer. The same employers who are objecting to Health and Safety changes would surely kick up a stink if their contributions go up.
“…kick up a stink…”
Yeah right.
Labour Party: “hey, what do you guys reckon about paying wages and setting rostered hours that mean your staff can contribute to the overall value of your business?”
Employers: PISS OFF!
John Key: “Hey, um, could you guys maybe eat some of your own shit? That’d look so cool posted on facebook.”
Employers: “YES SIR HOW MUCH SIR THREE BAGS FULL SIR!”
I was referring to the delays caused by lobbying to National MPs by the business owners who don’t want the proposed changes to health and safety to go through. Some of National’s supporters are getting stroppy by the sound of it and those same employers are unlikely to want to pay out more money in kiwisaver employer contributions.
employer contributions won’t go up – there will just be no pay rises as they hand it over to KS not the employee as a heel of a lot of employment contracts are worded to allow that
I’ve noticed that in my job where I review a lot of contracts (total remuneration packages), but I also know that total remuneration packages can’t be used to drop the wages actually paid below minimum wage so a minimum wage employee gets the employer contributions as extra.
riffer: Kiwi Saver feeds hundreds of millions of dollars of workers money into financial institutions, hedge funds and Wall St casinos.
That’s what this move is about. Key helping his mates to gamble with other peoples money – clipping the ticket on the way.
+100
…….and once they reach a surplus or close to one, give tax cuts rather than restart contributions to the Cullen super fund.
Sorry my mokopuna’s but my needs for retirement will be your burden.
Labour want to get re elected …no need to reinvent the wheel.Just get the party strategists to watch the link someone provided to the Lynton Crosby dialogue…keep it simple…look after your base first,work on the swinging voters with emotive,clear messages,etc,etc.
jeeeez did Labour forget the ABCs somewhere on the way…
lolz. I really don’t think poor PR is Labour’s primary problem (although I pity the PR firm they do use).
AGREE
You forget discipline, Labour could get the best advice in the world and they still wouldn’t be able to implement it as someone like T. Mallard will bang on about moas or something
Labour don’t have any discipline
180 FAIFAX journalists to be restructured, jobs possibly lost. Sad but ironic that as the print media has turned to rubbish, the people involved may lose their jobs. Perhaps if there was a quality newspaper to read in NZ, readership may have increased ? Alt media is the only worthwhile media left. Perhaps TS could morph into a quality center/left linked media channel? Occasionally TS does offer this opportunity which is appreciated.
9 ha of land in West Auckland “previously set aside for a new secondary school which is no longer needed” is one of the planned new housing blocks that Nick Smith is talking about.
Q. With the population growing steadily, how does it happen that a planned new secondary school is no longer needed? Maybe it won’t be needed for 10 years and by then the current politicians figure it will be someone else’s problem? It would be nice if the journalists on the bus tour today asked questions like this.
How can we expect journalists to be concerned with journalism when the future of their gossip and disinformation industry is on shakey ground? Please, have some thought for the self-interest of the media!
[sarc]
Brief bio of Xi Jinping
This is what it takes to direct an ancient country of 1.4B people.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/why-xi-jinping-best-man-lead-china/ri7476
Very interesting, thanks.
Good content on his reading.
the article doesn’t mention how his family was torn apart in the cultural revolution, or the massive sense of entitlement instilled into the children of the elite in the leafy Beijing compounds that were inherited from the Qing imperial regime. however zealous for communism zhongxun’s generation was, their offspring are red aristocrats. so the sense in the article that there’s an intergenerational continuity of forged-in-fire commitment to the communist cause doesn’t really stack up. the more pertinent continuity is between the current entitlement-fueled absolutist political culture and the political cultures that preceded it in China’s classical period.
no time now but hopefully later i’ll get back and link to some stuff by geremie barme, who’s the total shizzles on china.
After checking out info from Robert Atack, Guy McPherson, Dmitry Orlov etc (who are all on the mildly pessimistic end of the scale IMO) I think that a 50% reduction in world population (relative to today) by 2100 is a realistic scenario to be considered.
With existing establishment choking life from the organic world I would say it is an absolute certainty
Variables of time-line and numbers
Regrettably too many have no idea the ‘war’ they are involved in which is why the distractions will continue to accelerate ultimately leading to a truncated time-line
The Extinction Survey
Interesting post from Dmitry Orlove. Find out if you are willing to contemplate the fall of human civilisation.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/the-extinction-survey.html
McPherson is talking about a 100% reduction by 2040 though, you would have to put him on the extremely pessimistic end of the scale.
indeed, the very pessimistic end of the scale.
The realistic scenario involves a drop to a global population of ~2b by around mid century. I’ve seen nothing to indicate that that number has changed any since the publication of Limits to Growth in the 1970s.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/27/labour-spain-podemos-winning-streak-inspiring-people Good article in the guardian about Podemos, Labour, the left, and communication.
@ Michael This bit in particular struck me as apposite to NZ:
“You can see how the already inward-looking left could become ever more insular, with leftwing meetings serving as group therapy rather than a means to win over the unconvinced or the unreached, and activists retreating into online “safe spaces” free of those who think differently.”
While the Standard is marvellous (we should all be using this word in our posts today) the level of infighting and navel -gazing gets to me sometimes. Policies and means of communicating them to potential Left voters needs to be the main focus.
I changed my name for today.
what a marvellous name you have now…do keep it…it suits you
I think policies should be a secondary focus.
Rebuilding and redefining a cultural connection with NZers as well as creating properly resourced left wing infrastructure needs to be the primary focus.
Yes ‘Marvellous BG’, you’d think the writer had been reading TS wouldn’t you!
It’s worth quoting on a bit…
” Social media abounds with activists attacking others on the left for failing to abide by the strict rules of communication.
Not speaking or writing in the correct way can be seen as suspicious at best, treacherous at worst. For millions of people who are not au fait with the latest queer theories, that means being written off……
How ironic that the right preaches rampant individualism but often displays great solidarity, while the left professes collectivism, but often operates in the most rampantly individualistic way.
Voices on the left who achieve any prominence whatsoever are castigated for careerism or other ulterior motives, or for failing to use their platform to promote the correct form of politics. Rather than seeing different strategies as complementary, an advocate of a different approach risks being accused of not acting in good faith.”
But can you honestly see this behavior changing among the NZ Left?
Because to change, you first of all need to accept that there is something wrong with the way you are acting, and I don’t see any evidence of the current Left being open to any significant level of genuine self examination.
The trend is in fact exactly as the writer suggests, to turn inwards, and go in the opposite direction altogether, actively retrenching and putting up barricades to protect the status quo.
The Left is facing death by dogma in other words.
I have a student loan from a long time ago. I don’t bother reading the statements because I’m under the repayment threshold and the interest gets written off. But I just looked at the one this week and see they charge a $40 admin fee, so the total is creeping up slowly. No idea how long they’ve been doing that, or how frequently the fee is applied, but am considering the sense of IRD sending out statements to someone who is not making payments and who will most likely never pay the loan back, and charging $40 for that service, which is essentially being covered by the government/themselves. Weird. Why they’re not using emailed, automated accounts by now is also very weird.
Qatar’s BBC-lite is firmly on message with the dictatorship which funds it.
Al Jazeera, Friday 29 May 2015
Here’s the topic for discussion on Al Jazeera’s The Stream today:
“Baltic states and their concerns over Russian military activities in the area.”
No doubt we can look forward to a discussion as fair and balanced as its coverage of Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Official non-response responses to the climate and energy crises
John Michael Greer hits the nail on the head again.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/
Actual link
Now for something very cheerful…
Tony Blair is gone!
’Hallelujah!’ Blair’s resignation as Middle East peace envoy prompts internet celebration’
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/vb.407570359384477/566518196823025/?type=2&theater
http://rt.com/uk/262729-tony-blair-internet-reaction/
Then there’s this:
lol
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/68957290/Jenny-Shipley-among-Mainzeal-directors-facing-legal-action
What a dodgy nat !! Surely not??
Shipley facing legal action over Mainzeal collapse
Just another run of the mill National Party MP.
If she’s found guilty I do hope that she loses the dame and rt honourable bit. Would be strange to call her rt honourable after she’s been found guilty of a crime.
Unfortunately there is no chance of justice being done people like her always get off.
Hopefully she’ll get some of the grief back that she handed out?
Because it’s friday, and well, we could do with a laugh. Mind you has been some good sheep jokes the last couple of days. I blame Mickey Savage for that – he should really keep it up.
And in other news, Auckland restauranteurs get home detention for over $1 million in undeclared income, undeclared worker’s wages and benefit fraud of some $40K in overpaid working for families payments.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/curry-house-owners-fail-declare-1million-cash-sales-6324945
At the same time, benefit fraud cost New Zealand $22 million in 2010, or around $5 for each New Zealander. While it is difficult to get accurate figures for tax evasion, the Tax Justice Network estimates New Zealand missed out on more than $7.4 billion of tax revenue in 2011, or around $1,500 per New Zealander.
Dr Lisa Marriott, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law at Victoria University, has analysed court data on the most serious offending from 2008–2011 showing that 22 percent of people found guilty of tax offences received a custodial sentence while 60 percent of benefit fraudsters were imprisoned.
Tax crimes are more costly, with those given custodial sentences committing offences valued at just over $800,000. Benefit fraud averaged $67,000 per offender.
Is this one sentencing for the rich and another for the poor?
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/research/expertise/business-commerce/fraud-sentencing
What a country we live in!
Not only is there ‘pie in the sky when you die”, but also now if only you donate to the Destiny Church.
Massey University history professor Peter Lineham, who wrote the 2013 book Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-made Apostle, told the Herald on Sunday last weekend that Destiny annual conferences normally netted the controversial church leaders up to $500,000 in offerings.
He expected Destiny to again cash in, telling the Herald many followers would heed to direct money messages linking potential blessings to what they offered the church financially.
Professor Lineham said under the Destiny Church philosophy “if you give generously to the church you can expect great prosperity in the coming year”.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/time-you-overtaken-destiny-church-conference-could-wellspring-6325574
A potent mix of desperation, hope and greed.
The Great Auckland Tree Purge continues unabated with yet another big old tree in my immediate neighbourhood being progressively dismantled with a chorus of chainsaws.
Where abouts Hoom?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/68812151/Unlikely-source-of-inspiration-for-Campbell
This bit made me laugh:
If just 50,000 of those who signed the various “Save Campbell Live” petitions agreed to pay a small monthly subscription then you would expect Campbell’s team would have enough to get a show going. And without network interference, they would be free to make exactly the kind of show they wanted.
The left putting their hands in their own pockets is just too funny
like the loan to mediaworks?
Paid back with interest
But onto more serious matters all the people need to do is put their money where their mouths are and Campbell can do what he likes about anything he likes
and isn’t that what you want?
Its not the government’s job to give non-credit worthy corporations sweetheart loans. If the corporation could not get financing through a retail bank it should have gone under. It’s called fiscal discipline.
+1
Funny how it’s the left who actually understand how the profit/loss/risk motivations of capitalism are meant to work.
Is that the best you can do.
Puppet of the corporates.
I’m going with PR here. I’ve said time and time again that if the Left got together and paid in $1 per week we’d have better finances than National and the RWNJs in general. It’s something that we used to know and have forgotten since the 1980s with the death of mass political parties.
I agree. I’ve been mulling over what Campbell could do if he was backed to do his own show.
NZ Football puts the boot into Blatter! Nice work, people.
http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/nzf-to-vote-for-change/
The Greens are live streaming parts of the their AGM, of special interest is the new male co-leader announcement/speech.
Cheers for that, I’ll definitely tune in for the announcement.
Looks like they’ll be interviewed on Q and A too (“first in depth interview”)
Forget all this petty argument the only question worthy of pondering this weekend is Who is on the honours list.
Maybe John will get his knighthood early because he was so nice to HM. when he visited her.
Then there is that nice man at Sky City who surely deserves a gong for stepping in and paying a little more for the Convention Centre.
Maybe another John to make up for all the nasty problems the Crown Prosecutor’s Office caused him.
Any other suggestions
Sir Mark Weldon?
Sir Jonah Lomu?
Dame Ruth Richardson — or would that be too toxic even for Key?
“Dame” Julie Christie for services to the corporate media?