Convenient article about him claiming to “be better off dead” the day before the sentencing. No attempt to influence a Judge there, nosiree. I’ not sure how many people get access to the media the day before their sentencing.
Well he was right on that count. A complete waste of space on this earth. I can’t see the Tory old-boys club taking his knighthood though. It was the same old-boys club that has kept him out of prison.
John Key has to go before National lose the government benches because if he waits, the current opposition, when government, will change the knighthood system again….
Last December a study from the The New Economics Foundation called ‘A Bit Rich’ came out that priced in the social, environmental and economic impacts of six professions by looking at how each produces value for society, or destroys value. For each activity, the analysis measured the conventional economic returns, including job creation, but adds in, for example, attributable environmental degradation, and changes in well-being (positive or negative) to individuals and communities.
The study reveals that for every £ earned:
– EliteCity bankers (earning £1 million-plus bonuses) destroy £7
– Hospital cleaners create over £10
– Advertising executives destroy £11
– Child care workers generate between £7 and £9.50.
– Tax accountants destroy £47.
– Waste recycling workers generate £12
They suggest jobs should be rewarded based on the social value they create and prices include a measurable social and environmental values and maximum pay differentials among a series of measures to create more equitable pay.
Yep, we’ve been getting our values seriously around the wrong way for a long time but I suspect that’s because the people in power have been the ones doing the valuing.
The present system ignores the anarchist notion that all property is theft. Locke is supposed to have said that property rights come from ‘work’. That a property right appears when effort is expended. Well if animals have rights, businesses are independent persons for legal purposes, then Gaia must have property rights too. And therein lies the mismatch between what many indigenous first peoples believe and what western fiscal cannibals hold true. Our elites all believe in a falsehood, that only they have property rights, and the planet has none. The SCOTUS decision to give businesses individual rights means the planet has rights. Welcome to the new world paradigm. Green Anarchism has come of age.
Yesterday I heard a senior figure in a government agency say that NZ’s public debt had gone up from $8billion in 2008 to $80 billion now. I think those were the figures, and if they are right that is really scary. That is why there is so much cost cutting throughout the public service, and why the assets are being sold.
If that is true where has all that money gone (can’t all be in tax cuts to the already well-off) and what value has NZ got from that borrowing? Can someone explain it to me?
Don’t give the NATs so many excuses Hilary. NZ is currently in a recession, the depth and length of which National has been worsening. In any recession, both company and personal income tax receipts to the Govt fall, while more people need assistance, hence the deficit increases.
This always happens in a recession, however the Govt has been worsening matters by increasing unemployment and channeling capital to the already very rich (via tax cuts) instead of back into general communities.
The free market ideology the NATs hold mean that doing anything to “intervene” in the market place – even to help rebuild Christchurch faster – is considered off the table.
As for the asset sales – selling your assets now and losing those income streams forever will only worsen NZ’s medium to long term position.
As for your question – where has all that money gone? It is being hoarded in small selected parts of the NZ economy, including an ongoing property bubble in Auckland. Also a billion dollars or so gone to well off investors in SCF. And a few billion a year in tax cuts to the top 10%.
But the majority of the deficit is being caused by poor economic conditions and the Government’s bad handling of that.
Tax cuts. 2 to 5 billion a year depending on who is massaging the statistics.
Recession stimulus?
Reduced tax take from the National induced continuing recession. Reducing social insurance and low incomes does not help local business have taxable income.
14 billion a year from the previous ACT(1984) Government and Nationals asset sales.
Huge increase in the invisibles deficit due to farming out jobs and profits to offshore.
EG. Giving the whole of our coastal shipping to MSC and Mearsk.
Including profits from now privatised, formerly State, enterprises, like rest homes.
Nationals borrowing for election bribes to farmers, speculators and financiers.
The Treasury figures indicates that the effect of the so called ‘fiscally neutral’ tax changes are costing 2.5% of GDP each year – about $5 billion a year. See earlier article on the Standard.
The tax cuts was interventionist, government intervened in the market to water down the economic stress to private borrowers in NZ who where heavily exposed in the global market collapse. Tax payers have bailed out the most indebted in NZ. a direct increase on those that saved, to benefit those that excelled at exposing NZ to debt implosion. Why did Winston get back in but for the retired realizing that a rise in GST was a tax on their savings from here on in.
All to support the lack of a CGT that has produced such windfalls to the NZ economy as leaky homes, poor safety in mines, pollution of water ways, lapsed earthquake building regulations – all under the demand for capital gains produce by this hole in the NZ tax regime.
Free markets to work need the government to stay out of the market and leave debtors to take their medicine. How can the market learn otherwise, all that is produced is more debt takers as they rush back in, knowing the government will again bail them out. And the reason they have not is because unlike government they know the growth paradigm based on growing cheaper energy has been swapped with a shrinking trending expensive energy economy.
All economists agree that tax cuts to the top rate don’t stimulate the economy but tax cuts tot he bottom do. The top either save, pay down debt or travel (removing money from the economy), the lower income use the money to pay all the bills on time, buy “extra” clothes for the kids, all of which stimulates the NZ economy. This Govt flew in the face of that AND borrowed to do it.
All economists agree that tax cuts to the top rate don’t stimulate the economy but tax cuts tot he bottom do.
All economists except the neoliberal ones employed by Treasury, all the big banks, most university faculty, the credit ratings agencies and the right wing think tanks.
Do you have any evidence there was a “miscount” as you claim? Seems to me you’re just asserting there was.
I would have figured that if such a miscount existed, the MP, or any other opposition party, would already have gone to the media to talk about it. Yet we’ve heard nary a peep.
Why won’t someone think of the children?
Given that there are no jobs out there, or policies to create them, just how does the govt plan on reducing the long tail in our education system. Stats show that the tail comes from those schools in the low decile areas, where unemployment and poverty hit the hardest. Therefore the obvious (to me)
solution would be to give schools the finance to maintain class sizes of 15 for Years 1-6, or employ Reading Recovery teachers.
Bill English has thought about the kids – it’s the quality of the teaching – class sizes don’t make a difference. That view is held by many contributors to these pages. Truth is that they are probably not teachers or they are former practitioners who have tried to cater for every need and have burnt out. Don’t forget also that schools are funded on “smaller” class sizes but of course the 1:20 – 1:25 ratios are based on teaching staff and include the principal and can include “walking” APs and DPs.
In breaking news Rob Campbell has resigned from the board of POAL. He was a CTU economist many years ago. Perhaps he could no longer stomach the union bashing?
As noted by another commentator here an hour or so ago, it would only take two National Party MPs to go, for this person to get back into Parliament via the National Party list.
The first cracks appear in the POAL board. Ex-unionist Rob Campbell resigns.
edit, I see I’ve been beaten to the punch by MS. My first thought was that he’s resigned not over the anti-union bias, but because they weren’t anti-union enough!
Whoops, MS has beaten me too it. Unlike Mickey, my feeling is that he’s probaly gone because the strategy wasn’t anti-union enough! Or, less sarcastically, because he knows that they are going to be done over in the court, and he doesn’t want to go down with the ship.
“down with the ship” haha, who wants to be on the losing team. Campbell turncoated on unions years back after he had a brush with cancer and just went apeshit aquiring directorships and business and shares.
Paywell. On TV7 there was a discussion of how writers should send copy to a paywell and get paid to give up their ability to persuade and have some fat white male sell their independence in how they choose what to publish and what not to publishing, to the highest bidder. The problem for paywells is the internet will always produce more content, more interesting content, more timely content, and more impartial. Paywells are all about being inside the belt way, the idea being that editors were gatekeepers of society nolonger holds. Information only has relevance if its distributed. Paywells are the last heave of the ultra neo-liberal thinking, when a conservatism agenda is see to die, it produces a even smaller clique of members who pay more and more to retain their established wisdom. It happens on the left too, all those communist pamplets. Neo-liberals is a cult, going that way.
I think you can take it from the lifting of the lockout that the ‘evidence’ was singularly lacking in legal weight, Ianmac. But if a report crosses my desk about what was raised, I’ll post it asap.
Edit: I gather the hearing, or at least that part, did not go ahead. POAL dropped it on the courthouse steps.
Well, it’s all falling apart now, isn’t it? This is the kind of bluster followed by abject failure I usually associate with the Black Caps batting lineup. Reading their press release is terrific fun. It’s one of those ‘tanks, what tanks?’ efforts that might have sounded plausable before they hit ‘send’ but doesn’t look so flash out in the real world.
Still, I’m sure all the righties will be on to this ASAP to sugarcoat it as a generous employer doing the right thing by it’s staff and customers. Any minute now … Hello? Anyone out there? Hmmmm, don’t like associating with losers, I guess.
Early days yet, but if MUNZ pulls this off, neo-liberalism is dead in this country. Plain and simple.
The PoA workers will go down in history as the men who finally stood up and said ‘no’ to privatisation, contracting out, and the erosion of wages and conditions.
if it’s not OK for Pullar and Boag to try and blackmail ACC, then why is it OK for ACC, specifically the managers at meeting in question, to buy into and be party to Blackmail? According the the email from Boag to Collins, this is what occured. The POlice were only called in way after the fact, meanwhile ACC seems to ahve been willing party to blackmail using public monies. WTF?? am i missing something here??
I went to Steven Price’s blogsite to see whether he had commented on the Collins/ACC saga, particularly the defamation issues.
He hasn’t, but his latest post entitled “Silliest statement by an Attorney-General ever?” may be of interest in terms of both the Collins/ACC saga and the apparent/perceived current modus operandi of trying to shut down discussion on contraversial issues.
His post addresses the A-G’s “contempt of court” assertions in the House in relation to Annette King’s comments re the Urewera raids.
Price’s view that the A-G’s final statement is tosh –
“This is tosh. Of course we can talk about court cases. The only thing we can’t do is publish things that cause real risk of prejudice to the administration of justice. That’s a pretty narrow category of things.
This is the sort of tosh usually dished up by those who simply don’t want to talk about the issues arising out of particular cases.”
Very predictable, the police appaer to have become an extension of the PM’s office serving their political will.
Aren’t those opinions wonderful…..act breached, no worries matey opinion says. The long arm of the law gives the nats another cuddle, cuppa tea anyone ?
John Banks has been reported as saying he will oppose legislation that will regulate the amount that dairy Giant Fonterra pays to its dairy farmer suppliers,
Anyone having read that and having an immediate vision of cheaper milk and cheese prices should forget that wee notion now,
We have as yet not ascertained the true intent of such an ”interesting” piece of legislation,on the one hand it could be being advanced on behalf of the actual dairy farmers in an effort to make damn sure that Fonterra and the speculative capitalists circling like hungry sharks cannot strangle the farmers cash-flow and force them to their knees,
On the other hand of course it could be legislation specifically befor the House designed to do just that,force the actual dairy farmers to their knees by restricting their cash flows to such an extent that they will in the end be forced to agree that Fonterra shares become a publicly listed trade on the Stock Exchange board,
There,s plenty more to come on this little gem of interference in the free market by the free marketeers and we wonder if Bank,s has jumped outta the blocks this quick in opposition as an attempt to distract people from the Tories other internal ructions or is He just feeling neglected these days…
Oh if what we ”believe” is happening here in that it is just another attempt to force the Fonterra shareholders,(Fonterra,s dairy farmer suppliers),to have Fonterra publicly listed on the Stock Exchange and the shares publicly traded, if successful would see the price of dairy products again jump by as much as 30%,
Fonterra laid the ”plan” to list on the Stock Exchange befor its share-holding suppliers a few years back and got told quite impolitely to ”go take a ffffing walk”,
This wee agenda tho is being run by Speculative Capitalists,you know the type,they dont actually own a business but have managed to collect unto themselves a pile of coin which simply allows them to be ”share-holders” as their business,they per se dont actually produce anything, just leach off of the production of others all the while demanding ”more” as a return for them having bought into an already productive business,
These Speculative Capitalists are a patient lot tho and we see here in this attempt at regulating what Fonterra pays its dairy farming shareholders and suppliers at the farm gate what could be a some-what strengthened plan to again push for the listing of Fonterra on the Stock Exchange,
Obviously if we are in fact right,and the next couple of months will tell us this,Speculative Capital is back with a brand new plan to have Fonterra listed upon the Exchange and this time round if this Legislation turns out to be what we think it is then this time round Speculative Capital will use a little more force upon the Dairy Farmers to get them to agree to having Speculative Capitals grubby little paws into the pie….
I have read and heard statements in the last two days from Boag and Key that he met Pullar once , their emphasis once. Tonight Key says a “few times”. Where are Duncan Garner and Fran Mould when they are needed …
‘some people name drop when it benefits them’. No hint of irony.’
I liked that too. As usual, it was all about him. Teflon, anyone?
BTW, he doesn’t have HER number but surely he must have Michelle Boag’s?
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Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
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. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
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 ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. 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 ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
Had to laugh at the headlines with regard to Duoug Grahams conviction, calls for him to hand in his knighthood.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/6663532/Lombard-fallout-Graham-urged-to-give-up-Sir
Quite frankly it just shows what a crock of proverbial the honours system is.
PS For all the RWNJs Jeffries did 3 terms in the right wing Douglas Labour government of the 80s, dont call him a leftie.
The Remuera 4.
Convenient article about him claiming to “be better off dead” the day before the sentencing. No attempt to influence a Judge there, nosiree. I’ not sure how many people get access to the media the day before their sentencing.
Well he was right on that count. A complete waste of space on this earth. I can’t see the Tory old-boys club taking his knighthood though. It was the same old-boys club that has kept him out of prison.
John Key has to go before National lose the government benches because if he waits, the current opposition, when government, will change the knighthood system again….
Last December a study from the The New Economics Foundation called ‘A Bit Rich’ came out that priced in the social, environmental and economic impacts of six professions by looking at how each produces value for society, or destroys value. For each activity, the analysis measured the conventional economic returns, including job creation, but adds in, for example, attributable environmental degradation, and changes in well-being (positive or negative) to individuals and communities.
The study reveals that for every £ earned:
– EliteCity bankers (earning £1 million-plus bonuses) destroy £7
– Hospital cleaners create over £10
– Advertising executives destroy £11
– Child care workers generate between £7 and £9.50.
– Tax accountants destroy £47.
– Waste recycling workers generate £12
They suggest jobs should be rewarded based on the social value they create and prices include a measurable social and environmental values and maximum pay differentials among a series of measures to create more equitable pay.
+100 If only!
yup, which is why they never will be when you consider which careers rise tot he top of power and influence.
Yep, we’ve been getting our values seriously around the wrong way for a long time but I suspect that’s because the people in power have been the ones doing the valuing.
The present system ignores the anarchist notion that all property is theft. Locke is supposed to have said that property rights come from ‘work’. That a property right appears when effort is expended. Well if animals have rights, businesses are independent persons for legal purposes, then Gaia must have property rights too. And therein lies the mismatch between what many indigenous first peoples believe and what western fiscal cannibals hold true. Our elites all believe in a falsehood, that only they have property rights, and the planet has none. The SCOTUS decision to give businesses individual rights means the planet has rights. Welcome to the new world paradigm. Green Anarchism has come of age.
Fascinating! Thanks, Rosy for the information…
Yesterday I heard a senior figure in a government agency say that NZ’s public debt had gone up from $8billion in 2008 to $80 billion now. I think those were the figures, and if they are right that is really scary. That is why there is so much cost cutting throughout the public service, and why the assets are being sold.
If that is true where has all that money gone (can’t all be in tax cuts to the already well-off) and what value has NZ got from that borrowing? Can someone explain it to me?
Don’t give the NATs so many excuses Hilary. NZ is currently in a recession, the depth and length of which National has been worsening. In any recession, both company and personal income tax receipts to the Govt fall, while more people need assistance, hence the deficit increases.
This always happens in a recession, however the Govt has been worsening matters by increasing unemployment and channeling capital to the already very rich (via tax cuts) instead of back into general communities.
The free market ideology the NATs hold mean that doing anything to “intervene” in the market place – even to help rebuild Christchurch faster – is considered off the table.
As for the asset sales – selling your assets now and losing those income streams forever will only worsen NZ’s medium to long term position.
As for your question – where has all that money gone? It is being hoarded in small selected parts of the NZ economy, including an ongoing property bubble in Auckland. Also a billion dollars or so gone to well off investors in SCF. And a few billion a year in tax cuts to the top 10%.
But the majority of the deficit is being caused by poor economic conditions and the Government’s bad handling of that.
Tax cuts. 2 to 5 billion a year depending on who is massaging the statistics.
Recession stimulus?
Reduced tax take from the National induced continuing recession. Reducing social insurance and low incomes does not help local business have taxable income.
14 billion a year from the previous ACT(1984) Government and Nationals asset sales.
Huge increase in the invisibles deficit due to farming out jobs and profits to offshore.
EG. Giving the whole of our coastal shipping to MSC and Mearsk.
Including profits from now privatised, formerly State, enterprises, like rest homes.
Nationals borrowing for election bribes to farmers, speculators and financiers.
Just for a start!
The Treasury figures indicates that the effect of the so called ‘fiscally neutral’ tax changes are costing 2.5% of GDP each year – about $5 billion a year. See earlier article on the Standard.
The tax cuts was interventionist, government intervened in the market to water down the economic stress to private borrowers in NZ who where heavily exposed in the global market collapse. Tax payers have bailed out the most indebted in NZ. a direct increase on those that saved, to benefit those that excelled at exposing NZ to debt implosion. Why did Winston get back in but for the retired realizing that a rise in GST was a tax on their savings from here on in.
All to support the lack of a CGT that has produced such windfalls to the NZ economy as leaky homes, poor safety in mines, pollution of water ways, lapsed earthquake building regulations – all under the demand for capital gains produce by this hole in the NZ tax regime.
Free markets to work need the government to stay out of the market and leave debtors to take their medicine. How can the market learn otherwise, all that is produced is more debt takers as they rush back in, knowing the government will again bail them out. And the reason they have not is because unlike government they know the growth paradigm based on growing cheaper energy has been swapped with a shrinking trending expensive energy economy.
All economists agree that tax cuts to the top rate don’t stimulate the economy but tax cuts tot he bottom do. The top either save, pay down debt or travel (removing money from the economy), the lower income use the money to pay all the bills on time, buy “extra” clothes for the kids, all of which stimulates the NZ economy. This Govt flew in the face of that AND borrowed to do it.
All economists except the neoliberal ones employed by Treasury, all the big banks, most university faculty, the credit ratings agencies and the right wing think tanks.
So agree with you, all except for those ones.
CV
You’ll find the economists in those organisations all agree, but the CEO and Chair of the boards do not.
You’ve just gotta be joking that all NZ Treasury economists think that way. Please name two.
And you have an idea that all economists agree on your point about tax cuts for the rich vs tax cuts for the poor?
Bottom line is that economics is a pseudoscience, and economists can hardly ever deliver on what they promise. They are faux experts in nice suits.
So why did the Osborne/Cameron (don’t they look like they have the same dressmaker as John Key) government cause an unnecessary petrol panic?
Here are some pointers. Granny tax, Pie tax, tax cut, 25 million pounds
Not that governments conspire against their own populations of course.
Since Auckland Wharfies get $90,000pa then a payout for a weeks work will be $1,730. Not bad. (They were getting $90,000 pa weren’t they?)
I know a lot of the wharfies. Still looking for the one on 91k a year.
Lumping in supervisors, planners and foremens pay as well does not give an accurate picture of wharfies pay.
Maori vote excluded
Passing the Search and Surveillance Bill is therefore in breach of parliamentary process because the vote was incorrectly counted…
Do you have any evidence there was a “miscount” as you claim? Seems to me you’re just asserting there was.
I would have figured that if such a miscount existed, the MP, or any other opposition party, would already have gone to the media to talk about it. Yet we’ve heard nary a peep.
Why won’t someone think of the children?
Given that there are no jobs out there, or policies to create them, just how does the govt plan on reducing the long tail in our education system. Stats show that the tail comes from those schools in the low decile areas, where unemployment and poverty hit the hardest. Therefore the obvious (to me)
solution would be to give schools the finance to maintain class sizes of 15 for Years 1-6, or employ Reading Recovery teachers.
Bill English has thought about the kids – it’s the quality of the teaching – class sizes don’t make a difference. That view is held by many contributors to these pages. Truth is that they are probably not teachers or they are former practitioners who have tried to cater for every need and have burnt out. Don’t forget also that schools are funded on “smaller” class sizes but of course the 1:20 – 1:25 ratios are based on teaching staff and include the principal and can include “walking” APs and DPs.
In breaking news Rob Campbell has resigned from the board of POAL. He was a CTU economist many years ago. Perhaps he could no longer stomach the union bashing?
I don’t think there’s too much to worry about, but…
https://www.ipredict.co.nz/app.php?do=contract_detail&contract=COLLINS.STANDARD
John Hartevelt points out that this guy ( http://t.co/mim3kjzC ) is only 2 resigning National mps away from being in parliament.
Well if this is true it has been an appallingly bad couple of weeks for the National Party.
Who’d have thunk it!!!!!!! http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10795212
Later article with the name – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10795555
As noted by another commentator here an hour or so ago, it would only take two National Party MPs to go, for this person to get back into Parliament via the National Party list.
The first cracks appear in the POAL board. Ex-unionist Rob Campbell resigns.
edit, I see I’ve been beaten to the punch by MS. My first thought was that he’s resigned not over the anti-union bias, but because they weren’t anti-union enough!
Whoops, MS has beaten me too it. Unlike Mickey, my feeling is that he’s probaly gone because the strategy wasn’t anti-union enough! Or, less sarcastically, because he knows that they are going to be done over in the court, and he doesn’t want to go down with the ship.
“down with the ship” haha, who wants to be on the losing team. Campbell turncoated on unions years back after he had a brush with cancer and just went apeshit aquiring directorships and business and shares.
Why does Hyde still get airtime, even if the message make sense, hearing it from him makes me laugh!
Paywell. On TV7 there was a discussion of how writers should send copy to a paywell and get paid to give up their ability to persuade and have some fat white male sell their independence in how they choose what to publish and what not to publishing, to the highest bidder. The problem for paywells is the internet will always produce more content, more interesting content, more timely content, and more impartial. Paywells are all about being inside the belt way, the idea being that editors were gatekeepers of society nolonger holds. Information only has relevance if its distributed. Paywells are the last heave of the ultra neo-liberal thinking, when a conservatism agenda is see to die, it produces a even smaller clique of members who pay more and more to retain their established wisdom. It happens on the left too, all those communist pamplets. Neo-liberals is a cult, going that way.
Things not looking good at PoAL. Rob Campbell resigns.
Edit: I’m way behind MS and TRP!
Crafar Farms back in the news too.
Another POAL story:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1203/S01090/poal-lifts-lockout-notice.htm
That has every appearance of total defeat. Apart from heads on spikes that is…
Good stuff, Complete and utter backtrack by POAL.
must search out the Q&A vid of Pearson “it’s all over, we are at the implementation phase now…”
POAL was going to produce evidence of threats to Health and Safety to the Court today.
Any sign of that?
I think you can take it from the lifting of the lockout that the ‘evidence’ was singularly lacking in legal weight, Ianmac. But if a report crosses my desk about what was raised, I’ll post it asap.
Edit: I gather the hearing, or at least that part, did not go ahead. POAL dropped it on the courthouse steps.
Well, it’s all falling apart now, isn’t it? This is the kind of bluster followed by abject failure I usually associate with the Black Caps batting lineup. Reading their press release is terrific fun. It’s one of those ‘tanks, what tanks?’ efforts that might have sounded plausable before they hit ‘send’ but doesn’t look so flash out in the real world.
Still, I’m sure all the righties will be on to this ASAP to sugarcoat it as a generous employer doing the right thing by it’s staff and customers. Any minute now … Hello? Anyone out there? Hmmmm, don’t like associating with losers, I guess.
Hey! That’s not fair! If they can’t associate with losers who’s left for them to support after this week?
Early days yet, but if MUNZ pulls this off, neo-liberalism is dead in this country. Plain and simple.
The PoA workers will go down in history as the men who finally stood up and said ‘no’ to privatisation, contracting out, and the erosion of wages and conditions.
And inspired others to do the same.
if it’s not OK for Pullar and Boag to try and blackmail ACC, then why is it OK for ACC, specifically the managers at meeting in question, to buy into and be party to Blackmail? According the the email from Boag to Collins, this is what occured. The POlice were only called in way after the fact, meanwhile ACC seems to ahve been willing party to blackmail using public monies. WTF?? am i missing something here??
I went to Steven Price’s blogsite to see whether he had commented on the Collins/ACC saga, particularly the defamation issues.
He hasn’t, but his latest post entitled “Silliest statement by an Attorney-General ever?” may be of interest in terms of both the Collins/ACC saga and the apparent/perceived current modus operandi of trying to shut down discussion on contraversial issues.
His post addresses the A-G’s “contempt of court” assertions in the House in relation to Annette King’s comments re the Urewera raids.
Price’s view that the A-G’s final statement is tosh –
“This is tosh. Of course we can talk about court cases. The only thing we can’t do is publish things that cause real risk of prejudice to the administration of justice. That’s a pretty narrow category of things.
This is the sort of tosh usually dished up by those who simply don’t want to talk about the issues arising out of particular cases.”
Full post here – http://www.medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=546
Note to self – figure out how to change text to italics and indent quotes.
Was unable to edit the above (told me I did not have permission).
Lead in to the quoted paras should read “Price’s view ‘is’ that the A-G’s final statement is tosh”.
One little word can make a big difference to meaning!
To change text to italics; put immediately before the relevant text and immediately after. Don’t know how to indent I’m afraid.
edit: that was an unexpected consequence.
After ‘put’ above goes . After ‘text and..’ goes . May have to delete because I suspect…..
Just read the FAQ
Many thanks!
Laila Harre signs up with the Greens
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6666257/Laila-Harre-signs-up-with-the-Greens
Hey Boss , I mean Prime Mincer, we got away with another heist
Gee, why am I not surprised?
At what stage will the cops just come out and admit they are only there as a tool of government!
And to collect revenue!
They must be feeling like a bunch of muppets by now!
Very predictable, the police appaer to have become an extension of the PM’s office serving their political will.
Aren’t those opinions wonderful…..act breached, no worries matey opinion says. The long arm of the law gives the nats another cuddle, cuppa tea anyone ?
What no police warning to not do it again – I thought they thought they were the judiciary.
Can a mouse roar???,
John Banks has been reported as saying he will oppose legislation that will regulate the amount that dairy Giant Fonterra pays to its dairy farmer suppliers,
Anyone having read that and having an immediate vision of cheaper milk and cheese prices should forget that wee notion now,
We have as yet not ascertained the true intent of such an ”interesting” piece of legislation,on the one hand it could be being advanced on behalf of the actual dairy farmers in an effort to make damn sure that Fonterra and the speculative capitalists circling like hungry sharks cannot strangle the farmers cash-flow and force them to their knees,
On the other hand of course it could be legislation specifically befor the House designed to do just that,force the actual dairy farmers to their knees by restricting their cash flows to such an extent that they will in the end be forced to agree that Fonterra shares become a publicly listed trade on the Stock Exchange board,
There,s plenty more to come on this little gem of interference in the free market by the free marketeers and we wonder if Bank,s has jumped outta the blocks this quick in opposition as an attempt to distract people from the Tories other internal ructions or is He just feeling neglected these days…
The price is rigged anyway so legislation would have little impact…..look what it’s done for power prices.
Oh if what we ”believe” is happening here in that it is just another attempt to force the Fonterra shareholders,(Fonterra,s dairy farmer suppliers),to have Fonterra publicly listed on the Stock Exchange and the shares publicly traded, if successful would see the price of dairy products again jump by as much as 30%,
Fonterra laid the ”plan” to list on the Stock Exchange befor its share-holding suppliers a few years back and got told quite impolitely to ”go take a ffffing walk”,
This wee agenda tho is being run by Speculative Capitalists,you know the type,they dont actually own a business but have managed to collect unto themselves a pile of coin which simply allows them to be ”share-holders” as their business,they per se dont actually produce anything, just leach off of the production of others all the while demanding ”more” as a return for them having bought into an already productive business,
These Speculative Capitalists are a patient lot tho and we see here in this attempt at regulating what Fonterra pays its dairy farming shareholders and suppliers at the farm gate what could be a some-what strengthened plan to again push for the listing of Fonterra on the Stock Exchange,
Obviously if we are in fact right,and the next couple of months will tell us this,Speculative Capital is back with a brand new plan to have Fonterra listed upon the Exchange and this time round if this Legislation turns out to be what we think it is then this time round Speculative Capital will use a little more force upon the Dairy Farmers to get them to agree to having Speculative Capitals grubby little paws into the pie….
bad, you post some interesting and thoughtful comments. Are there really 12 of you contributing to your comments?
John Key about to appear on Close Up re the Pullar affair. He must be getting worried to interrupt his golfing weekend 😉
Always good value to watch this when Key is under pressure on a subject of “knowing” the truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPgK3bf9_4
I have read and heard statements in the last two days from Boag and Key that he met Pullar once , their emphasis once. Tonight Key says a “few times”. Where are Duncan Garner and Fran Mould when they are needed …
One are doing a patsy interview with Key about Pullar (on Closeup now). Accuses her of name dropping. Best line so far:
‘some people name drop when it benefits them’. No hint of irony.
‘some people name drop when it benefits them’. No hint of irony.’
I liked that too. As usual, it was all about him. Teflon, anyone?
BTW, he doesn’t have HER number but surely he must have Michelle Boag’s?