Postcards from the “brighter” future

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, March 10th, 2012 - 24 comments
Categories: economy, jobs, john key, national - Tags: , ,

Treasury warns of deficit blowout

Treasury says the government’s corporate tax take may miss forecasts for the rest of the financial year, leaving the Crown vulnerable to a bigger-than-expected annual deficit.

The government’s tax revenue was 2.9 percent short of forecast at $31.36 billion in the seven months ended Jan. 31.

The Treasury said tepid wage growth and employment sapped source deductions, while insurance companies sought GST refunds, and companies paid less tax than forecast.

New strikes threaten autumn of discontent

A triple-whammy of strikes pushed labour relations into the national spotlight, sparking a debate about whether it is coincidental or a sign of employers being emboldened by National’s re-election. …

Locked out indefinitely
762 workers at five Affco plants, at Moerewa, Horotiu, Wairoa, Feilding and Wanganui.

Striking
• Up to 900 more Affco workers for 24 hours from 5am today at the above sites and three others, including Wiri and Rangiuru (Te Puke), most of which will be picketed.
• About 300 Auckland port workers, from last Friday, until March 23.
• About 700 employees of rest-home chain Oceania, including about 200 in Auckland, for two hours yesterday and six hours next Wednesday.

Defence Force morale at all-time low

A major restructure of the NZ Defence Force has seen 655 fewer roles in less than two years, staff morale at an all-time low and a major challenge to keep the quality staff they have left, Defence bosses say.

Students flee NZ over job fears

Finding a job is one of the biggest worries for today’s tertiary students – so much so that many are planning to leave the country when they finish studying. …

“Concerns about just getting a job – any job – featured overwhelmingly high on a number of the questions we asked, much more than the usual student concerns of debt and what to do next. It is no surprise, then, that heading overseas is the plan for many.”

Mfat staff told ‘pray, get a pet’ to cope with job losses

Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff, stressed by the possibility of losing their jobs, have been told to “pray, do yoga or get a pet” …

Brain drain to Australia hits decade-high

New Zealand recorded its biggest annual loss of migrants since August 2001, as Kiwis continued to jump the ditch seeking a better standard of life and higher-paying jobs in Australia.

Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”? Hey National voters – was this what you voted for?

24 comments on “Postcards from the “brighter” future ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. headbanger 1
    10 March 2012 at 11:57 am

    But this is what everyone voted for, so what’s the problem?

    After the 2008 election there were more marches and protests than I’ve ever seen, but by 2011 that was all forgotten and everyone went back to the polls to ask “please sir, can I have some more?” Low wages, uncertainty around employment and loss of individual rights is core National ideology.

    This is what people voted for.

    National has never had a clear financial plan and anyone looking at the growing deficit, billion dollar hole in the budget, and lack of new income after the assets have been sold knows this. Think times are tough now? Wait until 2016! Look at how Greece has done with austerity and you’ll have an idea of where John is going with this.

    This is what people voted for.

    At least it won’t come down to ‘last one out, turn out the lights’, because the last one out will be handing over the keys to the foreign buyers moving in.

    Thanks everyone for voting National the opportunity to stuff up everything that is good about New Zealand (or sitting on your backside and letting it happen). I’m off to buy medical insurance and I suggest you do too.
     

    • bbfloyd 1.1
      10 March 2012 at 1:18 pm

      at least our grandchildren will be healthier for doing all that labouring on road maintenence and bush clearing for the new mansions that will need to be built for the new owners…..lots of fresh air and exorcise….. and enough food rations to keep them working…. yum!

      and it should be a point of pride that we kept the country in such good condition in readiness for the resettlement.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      10 March 2012 at 2:44 pm

      National has never had a clear financial plan…

      Wrong, National have always had the same financial plan – shifting all of the money into the hands of the few, their rich mates and themselves. They’re doing this by cutting taxes for the rich, increasing taxes for the poor (GST) and selling off state assets.

      • headbanger 1.2.1
        10 March 2012 at 7:23 pm

        You’re right. Thinking that they are stupid or careless is foolish. They do care a lot, they just think in a completely different way that involves looking after the elite while keeping the rest of the population under their boot-heels.

        Thanks for the correction. 

  2. RedLogix 2
    10 March 2012 at 12:08 pm

    What we are seeing is New Zealand slowly and unthinkingly drifting into the political/social model of Tonga… albeit on a somewhat more cosmopolitan scale.

  3. mac1 3
    10 March 2012 at 2:50 pm

    Rick Santorum, the ultra-conservative hopeful Republican candidate for the US presidency spoke of a “brighter future” for the next generations, also using the same meaningless comparative redolent of marketing soap powders getting things whiter, cleaner, faster.

    And as with Key, we have the same froth, bubble and foam.

    • the pink postman 3.1
      10 March 2012 at 3:47 pm

      Both are members of the powerfull DemocraticPacific Union,The National party and the Republican Party very often have similar
      policies . They certainly share slogans and there ia a strong belief That the Republican party has made donations to National. Its believed that the Republican Party paid for the vote winning Cossack TV adverts. Its also interesting that they are organized by Crosby -Textor , by the way dont forget the Pacific Union meeting with Brash’s “Gone by Lunch Time’ .

      • Vicky32 3.1.1
        11 March 2012 at 4:40 pm

        Its believed that the Republican Party paid for the vote winning Cossack TV adverts.

        I remember those bizarre adverts. Sadly, they convinced the ex-husband and his cronies…

        • Populuxe1 3.1.1.1
          11 March 2012 at 9:22 pm

          They were ideological crack, but like Leni Riefenstahl’s photographs, you do have to admire the technical and aesthetic brilliance of it. Personally I always found the dancing cossacks cute. Of course the irony was that Muldoonian NZ was pretty much East Germany without the plastic bag Stasi executions. 

  4. tsmithfield 4
    10 March 2012 at 5:28 pm

    “Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”?…”

    What a stupid question.

    It is logically impossible to experience a “brighter future”.

    • RedLogix 4.1
      10 March 2012 at 5:35 pm

      Then ‘logically’…wtf was National blithering on about?

      • tsmithfield 4.1.1
        10 March 2012 at 5:46 pm

        I thought that slogan was fairly twee and boring myself.

        However, it is a promise that National can always keep. They promised a brighter future. So, no matter how crap it is now, they can always point to a brighter future. Hence, they are always keeping their promise.

        • RedLogix 4.1.1.1
          10 March 2012 at 7:27 pm

          In other words… a promise National never had any expectation of delivering on eh?

          • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2012 at 7:37 pm

            ts is trying to be yoo clever…”tommorow will always be better than today” – a statement which can never be disproven because tomorrow never comes.

          • mouse 4.1.1.1.2
            10 March 2012 at 9:19 pm

            Tragically, it is becoming patently clear to the populace that Nationals 2011’s “A Brighter Future” Slogan, is nothing more than “Ideology without Vision”.

      • mik e 4.1.2
        10 March 2012 at 7:19 pm

        We can all pitch a tent in Hawaii on Shonkeys back lawn. The only chance of a brighter future under National!

  5. starlight 5
    10 March 2012 at 11:58 pm

    NZ’ers who voted for key,voted because they got sucked into his ‘Brighter Future’
    promise,a short space of time after that rhetoric worked to get him elected,he sticks
    it to at least three quarters of the population,its a pity that the people of nz cannot
    demand key and co step down because their report card for managing our economy
    and country scores an f-,an early election and a demand that key leaves the beehive
    and returns to his mates in goldman sachs in auckland or america, NZ is ours mr key,
    our assets are ours mr key,the brighter future you offer is not real,for us at least.

    • headbanger 5.1
      11 March 2012 at 9:19 am

      No, people were not “sucked in”.

      That statement dodges responsibility and indicates that it’s the politicians fault that people voted for them. Anyone who voted for National either agreed with their ideology (channeling resources away from the general population to the elite), didn’t bother to do enough research before ticking the form, or has a very short memory.

      Either way they are fully responsible for the vote they gave so don’t try to push the blame onto politicians. 

      People voted for lower wages, for less jobs, for lower taxes and for less money to go into government services like health and education. That is and has always been basic National ideology. Knowing this was your responsibility as a voter, and you failed to meet that responsibility. Politicians always say stuff, it’s up to you to check behind the headlines to find the truth, but most people couldn’t be arsed.

      Anyone who bothered to do some research would know that these policies only benefit the 1% (and really benefit the 0.1%) but that’s what many regular working people wanted: to channel their resources to the 1%. Very generous but perhaps misguided. The 1% thank you.

      Everyone who sat on their backsides and didn’t bother to vote also effectively voted for these policies, but they don’t have a right to complain.

      I’m sick of hearing that people who voted for National didn’t bother to actually check anything and just voted for “that nice man Mr. Key” – like the kids working at the supermarket who had never heard of “youth rates”.

      Rather than watching people try to justify or dodge responsibility for being lazy and stupid can we please just introduce a test to check awareness of basic political issues and ideology before allowing them to vote?   

      • Vicky32 5.1.1
        11 March 2012 at 5:16 pm

        I’m sick of hearing that people who voted for National didn’t bother to actually check anything and just voted for “that nice man Mr. Key” – like the kids working at the supermarket who had never heard of “youth rates”.

        Yes! From what I heard last year at the time of the election, those who were ‘sucked in’ seem to have been the youth… It seems to me that 10 IQ points can be deducted for every year under 30. Nice clothes, lots of alcohol, a good boy/girlfriend, seems to be all that ‘yoof’ (whatever their SES) care about. (This is not true of all 20-somethings, I know 1 or 2 exceptions) but most are very stupid and very self-centred. A case in point – a colleague, a 20 something self-described girl, who had voted for that nice Mr Key because he gave his parliamentary salary to charity. She couldn’t tell me what charity of course!

    • tc 5.2
      11 March 2012 at 1:02 pm

      they won because nearly a third of the electorate didn’t bother voting and an onside MSM who never hold them to account.

      Just one decent journalist could’ve brought the house of cards crashing down by focusing on the deliberate lies around transrail, blind trusts, beemers, S&P ratings etc etc then there’s the fraud on their guesstimated budget. It’s depressing how easy they get away with it.

  6. starlight 6
    11 March 2012 at 7:56 pm

    John Key borrows $380 mil a week from the bank of america ,a bank that he has shares in,
    corrupt or good business practice.
    The ‘brighter future’ is all John Key’s while he takes nz onto a path of total destruction.

    • Colonial Viper 6.1
      11 March 2012 at 8:15 pm

      its ok because Key doesn’t really know whether or not he still has shares in them, his investments are in a “blind trust” after all hahahaha

  7. BLiP 7
    12 March 2012 at 12:58 am

    More of National Ltd™’s “bright future” for our kiddies with news that Paula Bennett says the children of beneficiaries don’t need known-to-family, or even qualified, and reference-checked baby sitters.

    “Ms Bennett said formal early childcare education was not always the best way for children to be looked after.” . . . ( especially if they are the children of beneficiaries)

    Speaking of Basher, anyone know if she’s faced accountability for that breach of privacy yet?

  8. starlight 8
    12 March 2012 at 4:53 pm

    What a complete and utter mess nz is in,you can take a swizzle stick and spin around
    and it would strike something wrong in every direction.
    Has nz a future under key,NO,has key got the know how, other than scare tactics,NO,
    has key been really honest with nz,NO,were his placards during the election false,YES,
    Have a large proportion of nz’ers still got confidence in the key govt elected just approx
    3mths ago,NO,Does there need to be a demand that key and co step down and a new
    election called,DEFINATLEY YES.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.