Selling assets to pay for tax cuts for richest 1%

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 7:50 am, January 28th, 2011 - 171 comments
Categories: privatisation, tax - Tags: stats

John Key reckons he can raise $10 billion by selling our assets and their future profits. That’s probably very over-optimistic. But I got wondering, how does that one-off $10 billion compare to the cost of the tax cuts that National has given the wealthiest 1% of Kiwis, which they will continue to get year after year? Answer: not well.

Money now is worth more than money later – a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. To calculate the present value of future money you use a fancy formula (already handily contained in this online calculator) and the discount rate, which is the interest rate. For the government, the interest rate it pays for borrowing is about 5.5%. Which, it turns out, means $10 billion now is worth the same as $550 million each year forever.

Now, how much less tax are the wealthiest 1% of Kiwi taxpayers paying as a result of National’s income tax cuts in 2009 and 2010? IRD’s stats tell us the wealthiest 1% earn over $165,000 of taxable income. They also tell us how many taxpayers are in each band of $5,000 and how much taxable income each band has – allowing us to work out the average income of each band. We can then work out the tax cut for the average income in each band, times it by the number of people in each band, and get a grand total.

Which is $586 million.

The 36,000 people in the top 1% of income earners, with an average income of $289,000 have received, on average, a tax cut of $16,000 from Key’s National Government costing, in total, $586 million a year.

And they’ll keep on getting that $586 million every year. In fact, the size of the tax cut for the top 1% will grow with their incomes – but erring on the low side and just leaving it at $586 million a year, how much is that worth in present value using the government’s discount rate?

$10.6 billion.

In summary:

Present value (optimistic) of Key’s plan to sell our assets if he did it today: $10 billion
Present value of the tax cuts that Key have given to the wealthiest 1% of NZers: $10.6 billion

And this is an extremely generous calculation because I haven’t counted all the dividends we’ll lose if Key sells our assets. In fact, that alone, according to Bernard Hickey and others, makes the present value of Key’s plan less than zero.

This means that, if debt was really a concern, National could simply restore the taxation for the wealthiest 1% of New Zealander’s that they were able to live with very well before 2009 and raise more money than asset sales might and we get to keep our SOEs’ profits. Only people on incomes over $165,000 would be affected. The other 99% of us get to keep the assets, the profits from them that pay for our schools and hospitals, and our sweet, sweet tax cuts.

Now, some of you are saying ‘yes, Marty, but the government needs the money now, not in $586 million blocks every year forever’. To which there are two answers: 1) we wouldn’t be getting the asset sale money for years anyway because these things take time to organise, indeed the deficit will be all but gone by the time these sales are ready to happen 2) ratings agencies can do the maths too, they know that increasing the government’s revenue by $586 million per year every year is more than getting a one-off of $10 billion.

Why do you think National is determined to sell assets when undoing its own tax cuts for just 1% of the population would be so much easier and more beneficial to the country in the long-run? Could it be that this isn’t about debt at all?

Could it be that debt is just the excuse they came up with so that the rich can keep their enourmous tax cuts and buy our assets cheaply?

The thing I note about this picture: it’s the whole households’ floorboards but only the rich guy in the suit is being kept warm.

171 comments on “Selling assets to pay for tax cuts for richest 1% ”

Comments are now closed

LynW 1

28 January 2011 at 8:13 am

Thanks for such an excellent rationale and also enjoyed your very insightful comment on the cartoon!
tony 2

28 January 2011 at 8:27 am

Gota say…Cunliffe (sounding like Cullen) was great on Nat Rad this morning on the subject of Burning the Family’s Floorboards. I reckon he could wipe the smile off Key’s face given half a chance. English wouldn’t have a sh!t show.

Goff just needs to let him off the leash.
arants 3

28 January 2011 at 8:28 am

“Could it be that debt is just the excuse they came up with so that the rich can keep their enourmous tax cuts and buy our assets cheaply?”

Could it be that we’ve lost sight of the big picture. These measures are ‘forced’ on NZ by a strategic deficit representing the culmination of years of work by National & the Treasury. We’ve bought into it.

In using tax cuts as a central theme, Goff’s lame ‘State of the Nation’ address effectively embraced the whole strategic deficit narrative, handicapping those in his team that actually ‘get it’ in the privatisation battle and broader economic analysis. Clark & Cullen resisted tax cuts for a long time before caving in, but now the surrender is complete. While tax cuts remain central to the discourse there’s no way back for Labour and its values. Instead we’re left arguing technical details.
- ZeeBop 3.1
  
  29 January 2011 at 4:14 am
  
  We in NZ reward the bookerkeepers and the shopkeepers were happy, the farmers were happy, the house buyers were happy, but the manufacturers and innovators lost out. Good times are over. The Goof Ball years of living easy on cheap high density energy gushing from growing numbers of oil wells is over. Labour is right, it is the tax system stupid, yet Labours policy of how it is the tax system is still hard to work out for good reason. Is Goff a Goof ball?
  
  NZ’s are glib, they the two second experts on everything, they’re told they can assume that we have to pay for health care, that we have to help the innovators by ignoring the problem that innovators have because innovators are super human and just need better bookkeepers to throw money at them (fiscal controls and so future profits without the risk exposure to bookkeepers), and so innovators problems will go away with the savior bookkeepers around. Unfortuately its not that easy, you see fairness and science are one and the same. When you are being fair you have walked in the shoes of those you talk about, just as a good science tries to mind meld with their subject. NZ is not a fair society, since kiwis don’t think they have to know why (for instance) the UK has a universal free healthcare system that so utterly proves the assumption private is good public is wrong. The basic lack of willness to walk in the shoes of others, the basic undercurrent that being caught without a opinion (cloaked in the rightwing unfair ethos prevading NZ) is too much for most kiwis to bear. To actually do the scientific thing and investigate their own assumptions. Socrete’s put it something like this, the unreflected life is not worth living. Kiwis are breed to be flightless (those that fly do so early and get the hell out of here and aren’t called kiwi anymore). There’s a reason cultural shifts in NZ take 30 years to catch up with ROW, kiwis will point out how when NZ last had a spourt of innovation at the turn of the last century (when some british suffergettes got off the boat) how they as a society have been at the forefront ever since ;-).
  
  NZ is a great country, NZ is a beautiful country, far less stark than Australia but so much more depth, yet we sell if off in increasely bigger fire sales to feed the bookkeepers demand for more. It cannot go on, it will not go one since the era of cheap oil is over, so do with have to dither for thirty years or are we going to retool our financial system to suit the demands of the coming scarcity. Food price spikes is scarcity. Energy price spikes is scarcity. Unaffordable extreme Weather is scarcity of resilience. Rubbish is scarcity of imagination. Sustainability a scarcity of versatility. NZ is old, tired, all bones and little muscle (lots of bookkeeper muscle).
  
  NZ has no resilience when we rely on so few industries, and so few products in those industries (bulk commodities). National are the party of the bookkeepers, when Key wins relection which he will because the media will echo Key’s lies (for fairness – sic) even as Key statements are obvious flaws in reason and fact. The under current will be don’t be a loser, vote for the winner – Key. The same old plea to the weak who spend their whole lives being two second experts. A fair society walks in the shoes of its poorest, oh and frak off jesusfoids, NZ is old unfair and a joke.
  Please evolve NZ.
Kevin Welsh 4

28 January 2011 at 8:30 am

Its the old Strategic Deficit raising its ugly head once again.
- Jim Nald 4.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 3:13 pm
  
  John Key & mates:
  Manufacturing debt
  Manufacturing deception
  Manufacturing foreign dependence
  
  Say it simply, manufacturing bullshit
mickysavage 5

28 January 2011 at 8:43 am

Very good analysis.

So (looking for the optimal sound bite) if we sell $10b worth of electricity companies we lose at least $10b worth of of future income and all that we are doing is financing the tax cuts John Key gave to the richest 1% of taxpayers.

Disgusting.
- Pete 5.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:05 am
  
  Why not look at another income group?
  
  Someone on $45k earns $865 per week gross – PAYE/EP on that is $150
  
  If they have two children (quite a common family):
  Family tax credit, $115.00
  In-work tax credit, $60.00
  Total WFF credit $175.00
  So effectively they don’t pay any tax.
  
  On top of that they may get up to $100 per week housing allowance.
  They may also get childcare subsidies.
  If they are on Kiwisaver they get another $17.31 per week from the government.
  Plus doctor subsidies.
  And all the other things provided by people who do pay tax.
  
  They get back more than they pay in tax. They may not pay tax for 15 years. Is that fair?
  
  How much is paid to nil tax payers? ‘The rich” who actually pay a large proportion of the tax.
  - Marty G 5.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:11 am
    
    Pete also fails to address the point, which one can only take as conceding it
    
    Pete: if you took the tax levels for the wealthiest 1% of Kiwis back to where they were just two years ago – when, remember, they were already super-rich – then it would raise more money than asset sales, and we wouldn’t be giving up all those dividends.
    
    [lprent: pwned arguments aren’t allowed – even for you. ]
    - Pete 5.1.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 9:16 am
      
      You’re avoiding my point (by your definition that means you’re conceding it?) – is it “fair” that a significant number of people don’t pay any tax at all, guaranteed for a decade or two? That taxpayers have to keep paying them?
      
      It’s only fair that if you want to look at fair tax levels you look across the board and don’t select a narrow band for your convenience?
      - mickysavage 5.1.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:27 am
        
        Pete
        
        I would much prefer that my taxes went to lower to middle income working families so their kids can be raised properly than to go to the uber wealthy.
        
        Answer your question?
        
        Now about Marty’s post, do you want to address his point?
        
        Pete 5.1.1.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:36 am
        
        No, it doesn’t answer my question. I asked if it is fair to everyone, not just how you feel about it.
        
        I think those with families deserve some tax leniency. But paying nothing, next to nothing, or actually getting back more than they pay is absurd, and it grots a lot of people off big time.
        
        Fairness is not someone choosing who gets to pay nothing and who has to cover that. Fairness is about everyone doing their bit, at least paying part of their way.
        
        ZeeBop …
        
        29 January 2011 at 4:23 am
        
        People when they buy stuff add value, that’s why marketing companies seek out buying preferences!
        So for fairness sake will you stop ignoring the fact that removing support, reducing redistribution of wealth will make us poorer as a society. Rob peter to pay paul. Nobody want a less wealthy society.
        If we did away with progressive taxes, the lower and middle classes would take you fairness argument and demand they should not support services that the wealthy use routinely every month that they the majority may use once a year (if that)! If a wealthy person gets a subsidy from the tax payer – no GST – on flights to Sydney because they are ‘working’ to enlarge their personal financial portfolio, then why shouldn’t the average kiwi also get some income support???? Why would taxpayers want to support the wealthy to make more wealth for themselves, but the majority not to support themselves to get more wealthy! You see your fairness argument is a crock of sh*t, you not being fair.
      - Marty G 5.1.1.1.2
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:31 am
        
        Yes. It is fair.the point of the tax and redistribution system is to make the distribution of wealth fairer than naked capitalism would – thereby helping to preserve capitalism, which would otherwise be politically unsustainable.
        If you reduce tax on the rich it can be paid for by increasing tax on those less able to afford it, by cutting the social wage, borrowing, or selling public assets, which just lessens future government revenue.
        Such has been the scale of national’s enrichment of the rich it is doing all four. But that was always the plan.
        
        Pete 5.1.1.1.2.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:39 am
        
        “Fairer” is not having some elite choosing who gets everything for nothing, and who has to subsidise that.
        
        Especially when “those who might vote for the elite choosers” are those who are chosen not to pay anything.
        
        jimmy …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:57 am
        
        I think you will find there aint many libertarians here mate, ‘fair’ on paper doesnt mean squat in the real world.
        
        Blighty …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:15 am
        
        So, Pete is anti-democracy?
        
        Bazar …
        
        28 January 2011 at 5:52 pm
        
        Hell i’m anti-democracy, its the worst system out there, except for everything else that has been tried.
        
        And he has a fair point. Its NOT FAIR. Everytime i read this blog, its always tax the rich-picks, as they make the most. Its onyl fair they pay a disproportionate amount of tax….
        
        “The rich make the most money, therefore they should pay the most tax”.
        They already pay the most tax, but that doesn’t stop that arguement.
        
        Everytime i heard that arguement i have a hard time believing anything said isn’t just a form of low income greed. A more rational debate would be if they pay enough. But greed being what it is, it’ll always be easier to say the rich should pay more when you aren’t rich, more so when you can do it with other like-minded people.
        
        Anyway moving on.
        I actually appreate petes discuession here its been insiteful. But its worth pointing uot that higher tax rates might allow for a fairer tax system.
        
        If the rich were taxed more over, but the overall tax rate lowered for lower income famlies, then welfare could be removed for those low income famlies.
        
        Then we get a more transparent tax system.
        Of course thats just theorycrafting, the reality is labour will fight tooth and nail over welfare crutches, and even if such a system was introduced, it’d only be a matter of time before labour started handing out more welfare benifits.
        
        I’ve gone off topic far more then i thought, but i’ll actually post this.
        
        Oh, talking abuot transparent tax system i liked the tax change, lowering the tax rate for the rich to be in line with trust funds makes avoiding tax harder. Removing the tax expense that was depreceation on buildings is a huge tax bonus.
        I see it being about even. But i haven’t the figgures to back that up.
        
        I wonder why i never hear about the depreciation issue whenever the tax cuts are mentioned….
        
        [edit: Too tired to fix my grammer/spelling. Take it as it]
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 6:18 pm
        
        Hell i’m anti-democracy, its the worst system out there, except for everything else that has been tried.
        
        But we don’t have a democracy. We have a plutocracy.
        
        Roughly 5,000-10,000 people decide on the economic direction (and therefore the societal conditions) of the entire country at the moment. The other 4,300,000 NZ’ers living here have frak all say in it.
        
        The richest 20 NZ’ers personally control assets worth ~$30B. That exceeds the net worth of the bottom 50-60% of NZ’ers put together.
        
        Peter Jackson, a half billionaire, can get a law changed on the spot, to suit his companies better. I can’t. And neither can you.
        
        This ain’t no democracy, this is a plutocracy. (Or on the way to becoming one).
        
        Oh, talking abuot transparent tax system i liked the tax change, lowering the tax rate for the rich to be in line with trust funds makes avoiding tax harder.
        
        Yeah? Well increasing the trust tax rate to be in line with the income tax rate for the rich would also have made avoiding tax harder.
      - aj 5.1.1.1.3
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:24 am
        
        Pete @ 9:16
        
        They are paying tax. They pay GST, Fuel Tax, ACC levies etc
      - Graham 5.1.1.1.4
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:49 pm
        
        No it’s not fair for nobody to pay tax,
        but it is more fair than to have a significant number of people who are being under-paid for their hard work. We have the resources in New Zealand for everyone to have, at the very least, a simple, but comfortable, fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. It is a fact that many hard workers simply can’t afford this because a small group are taking many times more than their fair share. It is great that some people wish to work their way up the financial ladder but this needs to be regulated so that many others don’t miss out on their basic human rights.
  - Draco T Bastard 5.1.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:51 am
    
    Pete, you do realise that all those subsidies for the rich wouldn’t be necessary if people were actually paid a high enough income don’t you?
    - Pete 5.1.2.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 9:58 am
      
      You must mean subsidies by the rich?
      
      It’s fair to quibble about how much the rich should subsidise others. But that is only a small part of the total tax equation. I think it’s also fair to quibble about those that benefit, and how much they should benefit.
      - orange whip? 5.1.2.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:05 am
        
        You make it sound as if people have some sort of natural right to hoard the world’s resources for their own benefit at the expense of everybody else, and as if the rest of us are supposed to sit meekly and allow it without compensation.
        
        Where did you develop this perverse world view, Pete?
        
        Pete 5.1.2.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:12 am
        
        That’s a strange assumption ow, and wrong.
        
        I don’t think “the rest of us” should sit meekly accepting a free ride. I think that the starting point should be for everyone to do their bit and pay their own way, but allow for some assistance for people in real need.
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:35 am
        
        Disingenuous Pete, and transparent.
        
        It is the rich who are getting a free ride on the backs of the rest of us.
        
        Pete …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:39 am
        
        That’s a “perverse worldview” – the people who pay tax are getting a free ride of those who don’t pay tax?
        
        Draco T Bastard …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:25 am
        
        No, the people in the top 1% income get a free-ride on the bottom 90% by:
        1.) Structuring their income so as to not pay tax
        and
        2.) not paying enough in wages to cover costs.
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:37 am
        
        The people who are hoarding all the resources are getting a free ride on the people who do all the work.
        
        Those paying the most tax are doing so because they have most of the money, most of the resources, and most of the power to influence important decisions about how our society functions.
        
        You’re allowed, in this society, to become rich. To take more than your share. To take more than you need. To take from the rest of us.
        
        But you pay a bit of it back to the rest of us in taxes, and not much considering the grossly disproportionate amount of money, land, resources and power controlled by a few percent of the population.
        
        Most of society are living on a tiny amount of money with very little power and not much hope that things will improve. Meanwhile you, Pete, are voicing the concerns of the <5% of society who own almost everything. Why is that?
        
        Pete …
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:50 pm
        
        I don’t think I’m just voicing the concerns of “the <5% of society who own almost everything". I'm not one of them.
        
        There wil always be a few people who get rich, and quite a few more that will be very poor. That always happens, even in so-called communist countries.
        
        The poor should be helped to an extent. The moderately well off have opportunities for getting better off, but even if they don't manage it or don't want to, they should still be prepared to earn their own way through life and not expect and try to force richer people to hand over what they have.
        
        Phil Goff and David Cunliffe must feel that they deserve their salaries, or else they would redistribute most of what they earn to poorer people. Or do they just want to redistribute other people's money?
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 6:41 pm
        
        I never said you were one of the richest in our society, Pete. I said you’re voicing their concerns. As you seem to have trouble with what this means I’ll spell it out for you:
        
        There are many, many people in our society who work hard all week and are not paid enough even to rent a house and feed a family.
        
        The reason they aren’t paid enough to live is that the people they work for are taking many, many times their share.
        
        It really is that simple, Pete. There’s no shame in being on the side of the ruling class but you should have the dignity to admit it to yourself. Your duplicity in this regard is embarrassing.
        
        Pete …
        
        28 January 2011 at 7:09 pm
        
        It really isn’t that simple. Maybe one day you will have experienced enough of the world to see that.
        
        I voice my concerns and opinions. I know employers who work bloody hard for bugger all. Some make more than is fair, but within our system they can do that, and it would be less fair to arbitrarily take it off them because someone else deems it too much.
        
        The starting position for any adult should be to earn at least enough to cover their expenses, not to expect that a “decent wage” is automatically owed to them.
        
        Many poor people are not helped as much as they should be – partly because other “poor” people abuse and overuse the assistance of others.
        
        Pascal's bookie …
        
        28 January 2011 at 7:28 pm
        
        “Some make more than is fair, but within our system they can do that, and it would be less fair to arbitrarily take it off them because someone else deems it too much.”
        
        If some make more than is ‘fair’, and the system allows this, how can it not be ‘fair’ to make adjustments to the system?
        
        Many poor people are not helped as much as they should be – partly because other “poor” people abuse and overuse the assistance of others.
        
        Does the system allow this abuse? I don’t think you are being consistent here.
        
        But in any case, if people should be helped, then why shouldn’t they be helped again? Is it their fault that others abuse the assistance of others? How is it relevant? Or if it is relevant, then surely the ‘abuses’ by the wealthy of the system are relevant in the same way.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 7:44 pm
        
        I know employers who work bloody hard for bugger all.
        
        And that is because we are in a low wage economy and people with low wages have no discretionary income to spend money in shops or buy other services.
        
        That’s a “perverse worldview” – the people who pay tax are getting a free ride of those who don’t pay tax?
        
        And why do they have more tax to pay Pete?
        
        Could it be because they are the ones making shitloads of money?
        
        The only perverse world view here is yours: protecting the interests of the top 5% of income and wealth earners who surely do not need your help.
        
        Phil Goff and David Cunliffe must feel that they deserve their salaries, or else they would redistribute most of what they earn to poorer people. Or do they just want to redistribute other people’s money?
        
        Don’t be a dick.
        
        A higher earner income tax threshold and a CGT will affect their salaries and their investment properties like everyone else.
        
        Maybe one day you will have experienced enough of the world to see that.
        
        You condescending loser. Who are you? Papa Smurf?
        
        Stop championing for those on over $90K p.a. and think of the 50% of NZ’ers who earn less than $27500 p.a.
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 8:41 pm
        
        The starting position for any adult should be to earn at least enough to cover their expenses, not to expect that a “decent wage” is automatically owed to them.
        
        Finally you get to the point. A person deserves to be paid at least as much as it costs to live in the society in which they work to earn that pay. Anything less is servitude at best.
        
        The fact that they aren’t is the elephant you’re so careful to avert your eyes from.
      - Draco T Bastard 5.1.2.1.2
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:12 am
        
        No, I most definitely meant subsidies for the rich. GST went up which, due to it being a regressive tax, mostly falls upon the poor.
Gina 6

28 January 2011 at 8:57 am

Could it be the tax cuts were intended to put NZ in this position in the first place. Could it be that the Nats allways intended to use an increasing deficit to push state assett sales and welfare reform.
Could it be that Key’s Banker mates in “Standard and Poors” will threaten NZ’s credit rating to force the sale of NZ assetts.

I suspected this was what they were up to before the last election with their tax cuts. They actually allways wanted cuts for the wealthy but to get elected they had to pretend those cuts were for everyone.

I’m sure many of you suspected this but are too pollite to say it. Its just so corrupt that a party would engineer a deficit or a crisis to bring in reform.

I have feared since before the last election that the Nats would rigg the 2011 election because they know NZ will never accept what they really want to do. I still think that is a possibility. And we know if they do rig it the media will not report it.
Under the guise of saving money they have combined what used ot be 3 departments that used to administer elections into 1 department. much easier for Natinal to corrupt one department. With the combinig and so called reform it’ll be much easier to make sure their people are in.

Be on your guard NZ.
- mickysavage 6.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:00 am
  
  As Kevin Welsh said strategic deficit
  
  Be afraid NZ, be very afraid …
  - arants 6.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:15 am
    
    Be even more afraid as Labour assumes the patsy role in this scam.
    
    To borrow from Anrig’s ‘strategic deficit redux’, apparently Labour still haven’t learned even in the midst of an economic crisis that prioritizing deficit reduction is a game for suckers. Somewhere Ruth Richardson is having yet another laugh.
- Marty G 6.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:08 am
  
  “Could it be the tax cuts were intended to put NZ in this position in the first place”
  
  definitely. Eddie hit on it last year:
  
  “Let’s face it. A government doesn’t accidentally spend $15 billion more than its revenue while cutting billions in taxes. The unsustainably high deficit is intentional policy, not happenstance.
  
  In good times and bad, National’s answer is always to cut taxes:
  
  Economic good times and record surpluses? ‘Hardworking Kiwis are being overtaxed by that greedy Michael Cullen’
  
  Recession and record deficits? ‘We need tax cuts to boost the economy’
  
  It doesn’t seem to make sense that your answer to two diametrically opposite situations would be the same. Unless, of course, your objectives aren’t those stated.”
  http://thestandard.org.nz/starve-the-beast/
Colonial Viper 7

28 January 2011 at 8:59 am

Marty, your framing on the front page was succinct, to the point, and punched hard. Perfect, dude.

Damn, LAB could use more of this approach, much more.
big bruv 8

28 January 2011 at 9:07 am

Sigh…..The Standard, a truth free zone.

[lprent: big bruv – a fact free zone. *sigh* But I suppose even the mindless should have their say if it is within the behavior guidelines.. ]
- mickysavage 8.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:09 am
  
  Big bruv is up early today and has set out on his morning troll.
  - big bruv 8.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:25 am
    
    Morning Micky
    
    This is not early, I have already done a days work.
    
    An interesting concept work, you socialists should try it for a living.
- Marty G 8.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:09 am
  
  so, bug bruv has shown he has no rebuttal. Thanks for conceding the argument, BB.
  
  I mean, come on dude, with a comment like that you might as well have written: ‘you’re right but I can’t bear to admit it’
  - big bruv 8.2.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:21 am
    
    Marty G
    
    Labour (and its sycophants) have got nothing right since 1984 apart from the seabed and foreshore legislation.
    
    See, that is the difference between me and you guys, you blindly support Labour irrespective of the lies, irrespective of the corruption and irrespective of the appalling legislation they have passed or want to pass.
    
    Partially selling off SOE’s is a great idea, it would not kill you guys to admit it.
    - mickysavage 8.2.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 9:24 am
      
      And you Big Bruv blindly oppose Labour irrespective of National’s lies that you have fallen for and irrespective of the damage that has occurred to this country over the past two years.
      
      Admit it BB things were way better a few years ago.
      
      BTW paid your debt yet?
      - big bruv 8.2.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:32 am
        
        Micky
        
        “And you Big Bruv blindly oppose Labour”
        
        Given that you think 9.30am is early I will let that slide, I take it you missed the bit where I said that I supported Labour’s seabed and foreshore legislation.
        
        As for NZ being better now than it was two years ago, I do agree, while we have a gutless government who refuses to do anything about the parasites on benefits it is at least a government free of rampant corruption.
        
        Frank Macskasy 8.2.1.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:46 am
        
        Big Bruv, let me see if I can connect the dots…
        
        During a recession and a blow-out in government spending, the government gives a billion-dollars tax cut to the highest income earners in this country.
        
        To fund this, Key’s government borrows $300 million-plus each week to make up the balance. Essentially funding tax-cuts through borrowing.
        
        To pay for the interest on the borrowings that funded tax-cuts for the high-income earners, John Key is now stating that his government will partially-privatise our state assets.
        
        Does that about sum it up?
        
        big bruv …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:00 am
        
        Frank
        
        So far you are failing miserably to connect the dots, let me help you.
        
        The tax cuts were long overdue, they offered relief to the vast majority of Kiwis, you also continue to overlook that the vast majority of Kiwis pay 17c in the dollar.
        
        The real issue you have is the left wing hatred of those who you consider to be “rich pricks”, it is a uniquely Kiwi disease, you would rather see the “rich” hammered than see everybody earn more.
        
        I happen to agree with you that it is madness to borrow $300 million a week, these borrowings are needed because Key refuses to do away with the 2005 criminal election bribes offered by Clark and Cullen (WFF and Interest free student loans).
        
        We would be far better off if Key did away with those and kept the tax cuts.
        
        Tell me Frank, why do you persist with the blatant lie that the tax cuts were only for the rich?
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:53 am
        
        The tax cuts were long overdue,
        
        Bull shit. Cullen was saving for a rainy day – which poured down with the GFC – while Bill and John only cared about being spendthrift with our finances for their rich mates.
        
        Taxes are to be spent on all the people of the country, not just the wealthiest 1%. Who I am pretty sure laugh at serfs like you leaping to their defence.
        
        big bruv …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:10 am
        
        That is bollocks Viper.
        
        Cullen was/is an evil little man who refused to give tax cuts on idealogical grounds, there was no other reason.
        Cullen is also an economic illiterate, why on earth would you pay 1.2 Billion for a broken train set or make thousands of comfortable middle class Kiwis welfare beneficiaries, Cullen and Clark squandered the best economic conditions in living memory.
        
        Of course you will also refuse to admit that those economic conditions came about due to the reforms of Richardson and Douglas.
        
        About the only thing you did get right was the statement that tax’s are spent on everybody, what you fail to appreciate is that the wealthy already pay far more than their share of tax, in other words they have more money stolen from them than is fair.
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:42 am
        
        And they should pay far, far more seeing as how they own almost everything.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 1:08 pm
        
        Cullen was/is an evil little man who refused to give tax cuts on idealogical grounds, there was no other reason.
        
        Oh apart from saving for a rainy day, and of course John Key’s banking mates made sure it rained real hard.
        
        arants …
        
        28 January 2011 at 1:16 pm
        
        So ideology is evil and not a reason for doing things…? An ideology of preserving public assets for the public good seems a hell of a lot better than relying on expediency, cynicism and corruption for rationale.
        
        Sanctuary …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:01 am
        
        You missed one thing: We have a finance minister who genuinely believes that if he just wishes hard enough, magic will come true.
        
        Draco T Bastard 8.2.1.1.1.2
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:08 am
        
        while we have a gutless government who refuses to do anything about the parasites on benefits it is at least a government free of rampant corruption.
        
        There aren’t any parasites on benefits but there’s plenty that vote NACT and have multi-million dollar incomes for doing nothing whatsoever.
        
        This government is the most corrupt I’ve ever seen. The Blinglish housing rort, Worth using his ministerial position to promote his business and whatever else he did to get fired, Wong promoting her business with taxpayer funds, John Key lying about his shares, the firing of ECan because the farmers wanted the water and lots more I can’t remember ATM.
        
        Denying reality won’t make it go away.
        
        big bruv …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:38 am
        
        “This government is the most corrupt I’ve ever seen”
        
        Amazing!…Draco admits to spending nine years with his eyes closed.
        
        Draco T Bastard …
        
        28 January 2011 at 10:41 am
        
        Ah, no, fact is that the previous government had little to no corruption in it. This one, well, it appears that every single minister is corrupt.
        
        big bruv …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:12 am
        
        Draco
        
        Just because you keep telling lies about the Clark government does not make it true.
        
        Plenty of commentators have gone on record as saying that the Clark government was the most corrupt in this nations history.
        
        That is a statement of fact.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:19 am
        
        That is a statement of fact.
        
        No, saying that aliens from deep space have been watching human kind for thousands of years is a statement of fact.
        
        In comparison, yours is just fan fiction.
        
        Yes I know peeps, DNFTT…
        
        mickysavage …
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:12 pm
        
        A typical post on the Standard goes like this:
        
        “[Post content with detailed analysis backed by statistics, implications for New Zealand and suggested proposals for change]
        
        Big Bruv
        
        The Klark government was the most corrupt in the history of the world
        
        Exasperated leftie1
        
        No it was not because of
        
        a.
        b.
        c.
        d.
        
        And how about Key’s behaviour in doing
        
        e.
        f.
        g.
        h.
        
        Big Bruv
        
        It was the most corrupt
        
        Exasperated leftie2
        
        No it was not. Address the post bb
        
        What about StandardAuthor1’s points
        
        i.
        j.
        k.
        l.
        
        Big Bruv
        
        It was the most corrupt
        
        Exasperated leftie3
        
        No it wasn’t.
        
        Big Bruv
        
        Yes it was.”
        
        I think we should avoid commenting on BB’s comments at least until he pays his debt to Blip.
        
        big bruv …
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:33 pm
        
        Micky is feeling trapped, he knows that he cannot defend the corrupt Clark government so he is trying to shut down debate on the issue.
        
        Come on Micky, you know I am right about her rotten government, cleanse yourself mate, wash away the dirt that surrounded her nine disastrous years.
        
        mickysavage …
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:55 pm
        
        Stop digging BB, stop digging …
        
        jbanks …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:32 am
        
        The Man himself, John Key, sums up the incompetency of the previous Govt. quite nicely.
        
        The Government’s books had been left in a mess, with Treasury projecting no end to budget deficits and government debt spiraling out of control.
        
        Can’t argue with those facts.
        
        orange whip? …
        
        28 January 2011 at 11:45 am
        
        Bill English does. He says Labour left us in good shape.
        
        Just out of interest, are you named after John Banks or Joseph?
        
        Blighty …
        
        28 January 2011 at 12:06 pm
        
        The latest forecasts have the government back in surplus in four years (http://treasury.govt.nz/government/fiscalstrategy/model/fsm-hyefu10.xls) with 28.5% of GDP net debt – one of the lowest in the world and falling to 10% of GDP in a little over a decade
        
        When surpluses resume in four years’ time, dear jbanks, I assume you’ll start demanding tax cuts because you’re being over-taxed.
- big bruv 8.3
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:51 am
  
  Always the truth Iprent, always.
  
  Give it a crack some time, it is fun 🙂
  - lprent 8.3.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 2:06 pm
    
    Looks more like your unsubstantiated opinions to me. But because they are opinions or the vague even if you’re daft enough to consider them to be ‘facts’ they aren’t something I need to concern myself with when moderating.
Pete 9

28 January 2011 at 9:26 am

Selling assets to pay for tax cuts for richest 1%

That’s weird logic – asset sales and borrowing are required to cover those that don’t pay any tax and those who pay little tax and aren’t subsidised enough by those who do pay tax.
- Blighty 9.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 11:14 am
  
  If the tax cuts for the richest 1% didn’t exist, there woudl be no need to raise the $10 billion (not that theres’ actually any good reason anyway).
  
  Simple.
HC 10

28 January 2011 at 10:35 am

Let us feel compassionate for those poor sods representing the 1 % at the top! They are ruled by thoughts and feelings of greed, materialism, selfishness and the ones of them that work will do so 60 and more hours a week, not knowing what a balanced, private life is. We selfish poor and beneficiaries should feel good by sharing with them and give them a little compensation for all those personality ills they suffer from. I do not mind tightening the belt more down to the bones under my skin. Jonkey and Blinglish are such great thinkers of economic reason, they will go into the history books for selling the last bits of table silver that NZ’ers have. In Hades they will keep themselves warm around the fire together with Roger Dodger Douglas, Ruth the Euthanasian, Jenny Shapely and all the leaders of the Business Roundtable. Do not forget Fay and Richwhite, Brierley and others that so compassionately lightened us off the burdon of too much money to carry as a nation. They will all end up in the nice, warm and “cosy” Netherworld while we are freezing in the cold, because we will be without homes, clothes and food – due to having to pay the debts left behind. Amen!
- Colonial Viper 10.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 10:57 am
  
  Yeah with you on your sentiments.
  
  Its like the frakkin muscle for the gangs or the yakuza. They get treated like dirt and most of them get extincted on the way while still grovelling on their knees.
  
  But they think if they can last long enough and do enough wet work for the bosses, that they too will one day get a shot to sit at the top table.
PC Brigadier 11

28 January 2011 at 10:48 am

Good write up. AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO IS GETTING REALLY, REALLY ANGRY?
- Colonial Viper 11.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 10:50 am
  
  Nah dude, its definitely time to man the barricades.
  - patriot_nz 11.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 11:48 am
    
    I am absolutely furious. This is f***ing treason. John Key and every other politician of the past three decades who sold off New Zealand should get the Mussolini treatment. We need action. Once our hydro electricity is sold off we are finished- this plus the farmland sales makes these the final days for New Zealand.
    
    A note to Labour- I know we are only months out from an election, but get rid of Goff NOW. You cannot win with him there. As well as being pathetic and spineless, Goff is forever associated with the Labour government who started the sell off. You don’t have the option of cynically waiting for the next electoral cycle to do a painless transfer of power- it will be too late-we are out of time and Key’s government cannot be returned to power. Roll Goff now- put Cunliffe in. If you genuinely care that is, though to be honest you seem to me just to be National in red clothing.
    
    I am ready to march.
    - jbanks 11.1.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 1:23 pm
      
      Goff will not leave . Labour will lose. National will have some real fun next term.
      
      Bendover redrover.
      
      [lprent: I have no idea what the hell you mean, but from the context it looks like pointless gratuitous abuse and I see that you’ve done it on the previous comment as well. To discourage this rather disgusting habit from becoming part of your normal behavior here go away for a week to consider why I don’t want it here.. ]
      - mickysavage 11.1.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 1:35 pm
        
        By redrover I take it you mean ordinary kiwis?
  - Kevin Welsh 11.1.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 12:00 pm
    
    Prepare the lamposts, I say.
  - mickysavage 11.1.3
    
    28 January 2011 at 1:18 pm
    
    its definitely time to man the barricades
    
    Absolutely CV, see you there
Treetop 12

28 January 2011 at 11:53 am

15 billion forecast in the deficit will be the the highest deficit on record by any government.

Winston reminded me yesterday how anything over 25 % sold in shares could go belly up. Money mover Key is gambling with retaining 51 %. I have a suggestion retain 100 % of state owned assests because then they will belong to EVERYONE equally.
- Lanthanide 12.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 12:17 pm
  
  Winston was talking about BNZ being controlled by a 30% shareholder. That’s only because the remaining 70% of the shares were diluted amongst many investors.
  
  In Key’s proposal, 51% will be owned by the crown, so this technically can’t happen. Of course the crown could choose to side with the other 49% of the shareholders, against the taxpayers of NZ. While they can make those same sorts of decisions right now, there would be considerably more pressure for them to bow to the minorities demands – and they probably won’t even appear as ‘demands’, but as repeated publications in the media saying the government should do x or y, or that z is bad (even if it’s completely unreleted to power companies), so as to build public support for whatever it is they’re proposing, even if it’s against the publics best interest. See climate change + oil companies, and US republicans for examples.
  - Treetop 12.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 12:53 pm
    
    Didn’t Auckland airport get carved up? What was the margin? Fine to correct me as I am weak on financial matters other than my own.
tsmithfield 13

28 January 2011 at 12:25 pm

Marty “But I got wondering, how does that one-off $10 billion compare to the cost of the tax cuts that National has given the wealthiest 1% of Kiwis, which they will continue to get year after year? Answer: not well.”

Another fallacious argument from you Marty.

Firstly, any reduction in tax rates for the wealthy is largely offset by the increase in GST. (Yeah, I know that the poor pay a greater percentage of their income in GST, but not more in nominal terms than the rich). This is because the wealthy tend to have spend a helluva a lot more to fund their lifestyles. Thus, in nominal terms they pay a lot more in GST.

Secondly, the wealthy are more likely to have been hit by the removal of tax write-offs on property investment.

Before you can make any claim that the wealthy are better off in overall tax terms, you need to demonstrate that their gain on reduced tax-rates hasn’t been offset by increases in other areas, as I have pointed out above.

Thirdly, your claim that the income from sale of shares in SOE’s is for tax cuts for the rich is entirely arbitrary. It is equally valid to say the income generated is to pay for other assets.

In short, there is not a shred of validity in your argument.
- Blighty 13.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 12:41 pm
  
  “Firstly, any reduction in tax rates for the wealthy is largely offset by the increase in GST”
  
  Not at the top end. 2.5% increase in GST is like a 2% income tax increase. Above $70,000 you’re paying 6% less tax than when National came to power. And at the top end, you are likely to be saving a large portion of your income and so not paying GST on it. Remember, the 2009 and 2010 tax cuts weren’t fiscally neutral – the 2009 ones cost $1 billion a year with no offsettin tax rise and the 2010 ones raise $400 million less this year than they cost
  
  “the wealthy are more likely to have been hit by the removal of tax write-offs on property investment”
  
  very few of the very wealthy are in property investment. It’ a get-rich quick scheme for the aging middle class, not people with real money.
  
  “your claim that the income from sale of shares in SOE’s is for tax cuts for the rich is entirely arbitrary. It is equally valid to say the income generated is to pay for other assets.”
  
  and, yet, if those tax cuts for just 1% of the population hadn’t happened, the government would be in the same financial position as selling the assets (and that’s not even counting the lost dividends). You can’t deny there’s a trade-off at work here. Without those tax cuts, the asset sales wouldn’t be needed (indeed, they’re not needed anyway and won’t generate any net income anyway).
- orange whip? 13.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 1:24 pm
  
  This is because the wealthy tend to have spend a helluva a lot more to fund their lifestyles. Thus, in nominal terms they pay a lot more in GST.
  
  No, the poor HAVE to spend all of their income week to week just to survive.
  
  Over and above this, the rich can CHOOSE to spend as much or as little of their income – and therefore pay as much or as little GST – as they like.
  
  Big difference and not one that I’m certain you have the capacity to appreciate.
Graham 14

28 January 2011 at 12:34 pm

Tax the wealthiest 1% at 66%. Think of it as a “greed tax”. Most kiwis would be happy about this I’m sure. There will be a few tears “But it’s my right to exploit people and the environment to fulfill my cash and power addiction”! But the world can no longer sustain that kind of carry on.
- Colonial Viper 14.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 1:40 pm
  
  Not bad, but we have to tax land and assets – a lot of the wealthiest people in NZ have very little taxable income, but lots and lots of assets.
- Rosy 14.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 9:01 pm
  
  Is far as I can tell the richest one percent don’t pay any tax at all. If they do they either have ethics or bad accountants. So this whole argument is theoretical only. They probably don’t pay a helluva lot of GST either (buying overseas is so much more envy-enducing among the rich – and buying NZ-made so crass, unless it’s from the duty-free stores). It’s the ones that aspire to be in the top one percent that may pay the most tax. I can’t work out why they are getting so angry about the top tax rate seeing as if they get there they won’t pay it.
Krispy 15

28 January 2011 at 12:38 pm

The sale of a minority stake in SOE’s is a brilliant idea. The money raised from the sales will not be going to tax cuts as stated in the article, but instead will be used to invest in other assets and diversify our national interest in many assets. As long as the government maintains a 51% stake there is nothing to worry about. Private companies run much more efficiently than state owned companies do so it will be hugely beneficial.
- Kevin Welsh 15.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 12:47 pm
  
  Yeah, I’ve been really impressed how efficiently Telcom and TranzRail have been and were run under private ownership. All that investment Telecom did with fibre is saving us a bundle now.
- Lazy Susan 15.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 1:21 pm
  
  Hang on a minute – now the money raised from the sales is going into other assets? But didn’t Key say it was to pay down debt. Oh that’s right he said it was to do both – reduce debt and increase the net public asset base. Gee I wish I could do that at home!
- Draco T Bastard 15.3
  
  28 January 2011 at 2:01 pm
  
  More pure ideology from a RWNJ.
  
  Go check out history and you’ll find that private institutions run worse than government departments. AirNZ crashed when privately owned but came back to make a profit once it was government owned. Prior to Telecoms sale all of it’s profit (yes, it was making a profit throughout the 1980s) went into the network which is why you now have digital exchanges. After the sale that dropped to ~15% and the network degraded to the point that now we, as taxpayers, are having to put in another couple of billion dollars to get the network that we’ve already paid for.
  
  Reality – it has a radical left bias and fully contradicts anything the neo-liberals say.
Penny Bright 16

28 January 2011 at 1:02 pm

26 January 2010

‘Open Letter’/ Official Information Act to Prime Minister John Key:

“To whom exactly has NZ become indebted?”t

Dear Prime Minister,

You were quoted as saying, on 25 January 2011:

“Our high level of foreign debt is New Zealand’s biggest vulnerability.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10701948
Can you please uphold the principles of ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ government, and provide the following information:

1) On a ‘line-by-line’ accounting basis, provide the detailed information which shows EXACTLY to whom New Zealand has become indebted, since the National /ACT Government came to power in November 2008.

2) In particular, the information which confirms since the National /ACT Government came to power in November 2008, whether or not New Zealand has become indebted to the Bank of America, any subsidiaries of the Bank of America, or any lending institutions of any form, which have any connections to the Bank of America.

Yours sincerely,

Penny Bright
Media Spokesperson
Water Pressure Group
Judicially recognised Public Watchdog on Metrowater, water and Auckland regional governance matters.
“Anti-corruption campaigner”

Attendee: Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009. Attendee: Transparency International 14th Independent Anti-Corruption Conference 2010

Auckland Mayoral candidate 2010.
Independent candidate Botany by-election 2011.

http://waterpressure.wordpress.com
________________________________________________________________________

http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/MPP/MPs/FinInterests/8/c/3/00CLOOCMPPFinInterests20101-Register-of-Pecuniary-Interests-of-Members.htm

The reason why I have asked about the role of the bank of America is because John Key has listed in the above-mentioned ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament’ (pg 36) – an interest (such as shares and bonds) in the Bank of America.

Is John Key personally profiting from NZ’s growing indebtedness?

I’m not saying that he is – because I don’t know if this is the case.
But, I’ve asked him the question.

I think a lot of people will be interested in the reply to this OIA.

Penny Bright
- KJT 16.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 2:22 pm
  
  He has already. When he was in Merril Lynch. Shorting our dollar. The moral equivalent on a larger scale of taking an old Ladies life savings.
  
  Now they are having another go with whats left.
  - Colonial Viper 16.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 3:03 pm
    
    Although, there are some benefits to having our artificially strong and artificially highly traded currency fall in value. See the US, Chinese and Icelandic examples.
  - BHAT 16.1.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 5:34 pm
    
    Can you please explain how shorting kiwi, is theft.????
    - Colonial Viper 16.1.2.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 6:15 pm
      
      Easy: forcing a fall in the NZ dollar means that a NZ’ers assets are worth less in terms of equivalent international goods or US dollars.
      
      Really only matters for people wanting to take an overseas holiday or wanting to buy an expensive overseas item – a new Beemer or Merc for instance.
      - mcflock 16.1.2.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 6:51 pm
        
        Agreed CV – essentially it’s the equivalent of a middle-man skimming off the top.
        
        Regular speculation is bad enough, essentially skimming money off profits for added value into the market (i.e. newly produced goods and services are sold to exporters who sell to [SKIM POINT] importers who sell wanted goods and services to that other marketplace), but short-sellers exacerbate losses while producing nothing. Like if you mortgage your house and go belly-up (your risk, fair call), but your local dept-collector takes your car as well as your house. And the bank only gets the house.
        
        And, a necessary component of theft, we have no control over whether currency speculators can fuck up our domestic markets. They take their cut (usually risking other people’s money to do so), whether we want our profits or not.
        
        Colonial Viper 16.1.2.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 6:58 pm
        
        Like if you mortgage your house and go belly-up (your risk, fair call), but your local dept-collector takes your car as well as your house. And the bank only gets the house.
        
        Or in the case of transferable credit default swaps, where its like your neighbour takes out insurance against you not being able to make your regular mortgage payments and losing your house.
        
        Except your neighbour also happens to be your boss’ wife, you get your ass fired by him, and she collects big on the insurance policy when you lose the house.
        
        Money made on the back of real workers getting destroyed.
        
        And John Boy wants to make NZ a global centre of this shite.
        
        (I should say that another consequence of our dollar being forced to fall, is that as a country we will find it harder to pay off our USD denominated foreign debts)
- Descendant Of Smith 16.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 7:19 pm
  
  I came across this once and always though this was interesting as New Zealand specifically gets a mention as a borrower under some obscure war legislation.
  
  9 billion dollars
ianmac 17

28 January 2011 at 1:38 pm

Damn read this just now but not sure where:
“Our Crown debt is, by global standards, still low. Lumping these two types of debts together, as the Prime Minster is doing to attempt to justify this policy, is at best mischievous and at worst dishonest.”
Yes Key said that several times this morning and then he puts us in line with Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Wonder how we challenge him on this?
- ianmac 17.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 1:46 pm
  
  Found it. Simon Pellet Business Leader: http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/opinion-selwyn-pellett-argues-john-keys-smile-and-wave-asset-sales-wont-cut-mustard
Fisiani 18

28 January 2011 at 2:01 pm

[deleted]

[lprent: And that is trolling – it is exactly the same comment as you put here and I’d already requested substantiation on. Go away for a month for being stupid enough to copy and paste unsubstantiated assertions. ]
randal 19

28 January 2011 at 2:08 pm

ya should have heard the vultures on nat rad yesterday morning.
(they {vultures} have bald heads so they can eat the guts of carrion)
drooling at the thought of all that free money from their pal the PM.
never mind.
with the rate of regime change accelerating all over the globe the nats wont be round long enough to get in a bit of looting of the state treasury before they get the boot.
bobo 20

28 January 2011 at 4:28 pm

the rich guy and falling money pic 🙂 priceless, in regards to Key selling kiwi assets is like a slippery snake swallowing it’s tail..
burt 21

28 January 2011 at 6:33 pm

It’s such a shame that Labour left the cupboard bare with the economy in recession after 9 years of middle income tax pillage.

Oh well, it’s what NZ Labour parties do… spend like a drunken sailor to try and stay popular while growth stagnates and we slide into recession.

Will Labour be honest this time and promise a few terms of fiscal drag leading to recession if they get reelected or will they promise to “fix” things then revert to normal behaviour once they have the treasury benches and baubles ?
- Colonial Viper 21.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 6:45 pm
  
  It’s such a shame that Labour left the cupboard bare with the economy in recession after 9 years of middle income tax pillage.
  
  Meh. Labour ran 9 years of surpluses and repaid a large amount of foreign debt. In fact, NZ had no net debt by the time Labour left office.
  
  Bill and John – on the way to 3 deficit strikes out.
  - burt 21.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 7:22 pm
    
    Is this the same CV who has repeatedly detailed his own tax prescription which is very different from the one that labour used to stagnate the economy ?
  - burt 21.1.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 7:27 pm
    
    Under 9 years of fiscal drag the govt got rich and the people got poor. Guess that is how socialists like it eh.
    - mickysavage 21.1.2.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 8:17 pm
      
      When will you realise Burt that the Government is the people? And the big bad organisations intent on taking your money are the multinationals like Telecom (sort of multinational), McDonalds, IBM, Rio Tinto and a multitude of others.
      
      And when we pay money to the government it is like we are getting a benefit as shareholders, but if we pay money to the others we are seeing jack siht?
      
      Do you see this?
      
      Why do rwnjs think that the state is a foreign entity?
      - Pete 21.1.2.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 8:33 pm
        
        Jobs are jack shit? What sort of jobs is Labour thinking of creating? More non-productive?
        
        Colonial Viper 21.1.2.1.1.1
        
        28 January 2011 at 8:48 pm
        
        Hey Pete you noticed that NAT don’t care in the least about crisis levels of youth unemployment?
        
        And what do you mean by ‘more non-productive’?
        
        LAB has got a raft of policies and policy ideas about growing the real productive economy and the tradeables sector.
        
        What do you have? Pimples?
        
        Pete …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:14 pm
        
        Do you mean Labour plan on trying to encourage employers to create more jobs?
        
        The Nats are trying things with youth employment, new initiatives kick in this year, too soon to tell whether they will work. Labour had different ideas, mixed results. My wife works in that field so I do know a bit about it.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:21 pm
        
        Yeah I know the plan, get the young people to work on cycleways.
        
        Armchair Critic 21.1.2.1.1.2
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:19 pm
        
        How will privatising these four SOEs create an increased number of productive jobs?
        
        Pete …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:29 pm
        
        From what I’ve seen that’s not the main aim, but one possibility being suggested is it will make it easier for the SOEs to raise capital for expansion and projects, and that would create jobs.
        
        Armchair Critic …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:43 pm
        
        Because private businesses can raise capital more cheaply than the government? No?
        The electricity generators try to match generation capacity to demand. The privatisation won’t change demand, so I doubt it will affect expansion and projects, either in scope or timing.
        In short – these sales won’t create any productive jobs.
        
        mickysavage …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:45 pm
        
        But the SOEs have a really easy way to raise capital. Have a good business case and then persuade the Government to borrow it. After all the Government has relatively low debt (thanks Michael Cullen) and can borrow oodles and oodles of money because it is a sovereign state but if the politicians think that the state should do nothing at all and instead the rules should be changed so that their rich mates can skim the rest of us then I guess the state will not borrow the money.
        
        It is a pity really. Because if the state stayed involved we would retain control of the electricity generation system AND get all of the profits. I am happy to pay more tax so that this happens.
        
        EDIT – I agree with Armchair
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        28 January 2011 at 9:47 pm
        
        Because private businesses can raise capital more cheaply than the government? No?
        
        Yeah Pete is really struggling here with why we should sell off strategic energy assets during peaking oil production.
Uncle Helen 22

28 January 2011 at 6:45 pm

The top 10% of earners bare a disproportionate 78% of the total income tax burden.

That’s 68% more than our “fair share.”

Want as many votes as I have? Pay as much tax as I do.

Next.
- Colonial Viper 22.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 6:47 pm
  
  Uncle Helen making the case for plutocracy! A country ruled by the rich for the rich.
  
  Frak off. Your definition of fair seems to be – a rich person with a new Porsche should pay exactly the same amount of tax as someone in poverty who cannot afford the power bills.
  
  Someone hand me a Tui.
  
  80% of NZ’ers earn less than $60K p.a. We are a poor country, and we pay almost all our people poorly, except for the few sucking down the vintage Bolly at the top end.
  
  Our ‘leaders’ should be doing double time to push the pay rates of ordinary workers up the scale.
  
  In contrast the top 5 % of earners ($90K p.a. and over) need to pay ***more*** in tax, and currently untaxed land and capital needs to be caught by a CGT and an estate tax.
- joe90 22.2
  
  28 January 2011 at 6:53 pm
  
  Want as many votes as I have? Pay as much tax as I do
  
  …and you sling it over your shoulder and burp it….
- orange whip? 22.3
  
  28 January 2011 at 7:00 pm
  
  The top 10% of earners bare a disproportionate 78% of the total income tax burden.
  
  Um, that’d be because the top 10% have all the money, genius.
  
  Better trolls please.
  - Colonial Viper 22.3.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 7:09 pm
    
    How’d all you guys rebuke so succinctly??? I had to write an essay 😯
    - orange whip? 22.3.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 8:29 pm
      
      Haha, without your essay we wouldn’t have been able to 😉
      But also, he’s not worth it is he?
- mcflock 22.4
  
  28 January 2011 at 7:47 pm
  
  Hey Uncle, your figures seem to be wrong.
  
  I looked at IRD income distribution tables.
  
  The 2009 sheet seems to say that the top 10.16% of individuals earned 1/3 of all the taxable income and paid 44.5% (not 78%) of the tax. They earned $69,001 and up.
  
  The BOTTOM 10.14% earned 0.242% of all the taxable income and paid 0.119% of the tax. They earned $3,000 or under.
  
  So, source please.
  - Colonial Viper 22.4.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 7:49 pm
    
    Source? Probably out of his nether regions. Thanks for the fact check.
  - arants 22.4.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 8:31 pm
    
    These are TAXABLE income distribution tables. Not wealth and not gross income. The point is that there is no tax on wealth and that many of the most wealthy have no TAXABLE income. Even in terms of the income tables, I would wager that the highest GROSS income earners (eg law & accounting partners) are typically in the BOTTOM 10% of TAXABLE income earners and that many of the most successful self-employed have no TAXABLE income at all. When they do, it can be so low that they get WFF and their children qualify for student allowances.
    - McFlock 22.4.2.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 10:57 pm
      
      yep, that’s true enough as well.
      
      Bit of a conceptual leap for UH, though. Baby steps…
- mickysavage 22.5
  
  28 January 2011 at 8:57 pm
  
  I would like to say a couple of things to Uncle Helen.
  
  Firstly great choice of name. I felt like calling you a misogynist fucktard but I thought better of it and thought I should address your comments instead.
  
  Secondly you bare when you take your clothes off. You bear when you support. Your suggestion is that the wealthy get naked when they writhe in huge piles of money, I am not sure but you might be right.
  
  Thirdly you have got your maths wrong. See above.
  
  Fourthly we have a problem. Over the past couple of decades the wealthy have done really well but society has been going backwards. Society survives better when we share it round.
  
  Fifthly I bet I pay as much tax as you. Unlike you I would prefer to live in a community where I can go into the village and everyone is doing OK. I prefer this to buying the second BMW with a v8 motor. Some things are more important than other things.
  - Colonial Viper 22.5.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 8:59 pm
    
    I felt like calling you a misogynist fucktard but I thought better of it
    
    Why you are such a loving, restrained soul. I wouldn’t have been so kind, personally.
    - mickysavage 22.5.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 9:12 pm
      
      I was tempted …
  - tradittytard 22.5.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:33 pm
    
    wow I bet you’re a real poster boy for the law society.
- KJT 22.6
  
  29 January 2011 at 9:11 am
  
  I suspect I pay a lot more than you do if you are really one of the top 5% of the wealthiest people. Most of them structure their affairs so as to pay minimal tax as possible. From the tax working groups conclusions it is the bottom 10% of the top 15% who pay the most taxes. The really high earners can and do structure their affairs to pay little tax. Half the wealthiest people in NZ pay little tax. (Tax working group). As they benefit the most from tax payer supplied infrastructure they should be paying for it.
  It is people like Teachers, Small business owners, Doctors and highly skilled workers who pay most of the tax. Not the rich.
Draco T Bastard 23

28 January 2011 at 8:41 pm

Foreigners will buy asset shares – Treasury

Foreign corporates could end up with big stakes in state-owned power companies within a decade of them being partially-sold, according to a Treasury assessment.

Wonder if Jonkey is going to continue to say that “ma & pa” investors will buy them?

EDIT:

It effectively urges the Government to sell out of all its commercial interests, saying there is no compelling reason for it to stay involved.

”We think full private ownership for all companies over the medium term would be likely to result in moderate economic benefits compared with alternative institutional arrangements … We do not find any of the arguments for continued Crown ownership particularly convincing …”

PS, Somebody fire everyone at Treasury who are obviously no longer working in the best interests of the country.
- Colonial Viper 23.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 8:56 pm
  
  Maybe the Crown should divest itself from NZ. That would likely lower taxes a whole lot. Exactly as you do in a computer game, where you sell every building in your home base off and end up with a stack of folding stuff. But nothing else to do anything with.
  
  It effectively urges the Government to sell out of all its commercial interests, saying there is no compelling reason for it to stay involved.
  
  And hey what about that commercial analysis unit that the Government seems to use all the time…what’s it called again? Treasury, was it?
  
  Sell those frakkers off for a start*. They’re worse than worthless to us as a country.
  
  *Except no decent investment bank with a real analysis unit would touch it.
  - Armchair Critic 23.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 9:16 pm
    
    And hey what about that commercial analysis unit that the Government seems to use all the time…what’s it called again? Treasury, was it?
    Sell those frakkers off for a start*. They’re worse than worthless to us as a country.
    No, they are not worse than worthless. Sometimes they get it right.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/4594268/Foreigners-will-buy-asset-shares-Treasury
    - Colonial Viper 23.1.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 9:20 pm
      
      Could’ve been a fluke…and do we really need highly paid ‘experts’ to tell us things like this anyhows? I would’ve told you for a lager.
      - KJT 23.1.1.1.1
        
        29 January 2011 at 10:49 am
        
        Time they were sacked. A talking Roger Douglas doll would give the same advice so why employ people at high salaries to do so.
Nick C 24

28 January 2011 at 10:31 pm

Not directly related to the post but on the topic of asset sales: Did anyone else spot Dr Norman’s glaring error in this press release?

http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/asset-sales-pay-tax-cuts
- Colonial Viper 24.1
  
  28 January 2011 at 10:55 pm
  
  Possibly I’m going blind
  – Consumers already face monopoly power generators – no change there?
  – The assets are only being part privatised so the Govt will still receive some dividend?
  – John Key doesn’t drive a Porsche?
  
  Hmmmm not sure Nick, must be late.
  - Nick C 24.1.1
    
    28 January 2011 at 11:09 pm
    
    “Monopoly power generators”. If it were a monopoly there would only be one!
    - Lanthanide 24.1.1.1
      
      28 January 2011 at 11:50 pm
      
      Oligopoly then. Does it really make a difference? Answer: no.
      
      captcha: wires
  - McFlock 24.1.2
    
    28 January 2011 at 11:11 pm
    
    [attempts to channel RW PoV – eeeuuuw]
    
    I’m not going to number check each stat norman pulled up, but NickC might be referring to the line “Once the assets are privatised, government will no longer receive the dividends from the assets, and so the government’s fiscal position will be worse. ”
    
    You see, CV, what the average tory doesn’t get is that in order to sell something in a completely fungible environment (speculators don’t care what company a stock is in, they just want the share price to change), the buyer usually wants to pay less than the revenue that item will generate. This effect is moderated to a certain extent by the fact that the conventional trader will try to sell to someone who overestimates the true worth of the stock, but in a market with perfect knowledge the government would not sell the SOE stock because long term dividends, each and every time, would outnumber the short term “cash in hand” payoff that will burn a hole in Shonkey’s pocket.
    
    [edit: damn – it was “monopoly power generators”. ]
Deadly_NZ 25

28 January 2011 at 11:17 pm

And when even treasury are saying that the mom n Pop ain’t going to own the shares in about 10 years. But foreigners will . Now Smile and Wave that one away. But in the end they still say sell. Bloody Vultures.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/4594268/Foreigners-will-buy-asset-shares-Treasury
burt 26

29 January 2011 at 2:42 am

Did anyone follow Marty G’s link to IRD ?

If you did you may have noticed in the notes;

6. Income tax for individuals is calculated based on their taxable income. The table shows income tax before any allowances for tax credits such as imputation credits or Working for Families Tax Credits. The low income and tax credit and tax credit on the IR3 and personal tax summary have been applied, but the calculation does not include the donations, housekeeper or redundancy tax credits. For non-filers, income tax is calculated as if they had filed an annual return.

I wonder if Marty G saw it ?
- lprent 26.1
  
  29 January 2011 at 7:40 am
  
  Burt, you know how I’d hate to even suggest that you’re sometimes a bit of an idiot.
  
  But I can’t see the relevance of your carefully highlighted quote to Martys post about the reduced taxes on the wealthy (an asset sakes). After all the wealthy shouldn’t be getting WFF and imputation credits (presumably latgely from the banks) shouldn’t make that much impact. I also wouldn’t expect the wealthy to get much in the way of tax credits on income tax (they tend to get those through boondoggles on company tax regimes instead).
  
  Now you really should make whatever point you are trying to get across clearly. It makes it easier on we mere mortals, enhances the discussion, and we might actually get some value from your contributions (instead of thinking that you’re a bit of an idiot still locked into the last election)
  - burt 26.1.1
    
    29 January 2011 at 12:38 pm
    
    The point is pretty simple lprent, I’m surprised that you don’t get it. Marty G has posted a link to graphs that he uses to illustrate his “i can make up shit” point that the top 1% of tax payers are getting all the benefits using a graph (and data) that takes no account of tax credits, WFF etc.
    
    See the spike in the graph that meets his ideology of lots of tax being paid by lower earners would look very different if such things were accounted for. You do know that there are people on lower incomes paying no tax at all once WFF is taken into account don’t you?
    
    You once commented on the location I was posting from lprent so I think you know I know a bit more about this shit than the picture you like to paint with your “Burt, you know how I’d hate to even suggest that you’re sometimes a bit of an idiot” distraction.
    - Marty G 26.1.1.1
      
      29 January 2011 at 12:44 pm
      
      The IRD stats show the taxable income of people by income band. From that I calculate that the top 1% are getting $586 million a year as a result of the National government’s income tax cuts in 2009 and 2010.
      
      WWF has nothing to do with it because it is not part of that tax package. this is about the cost of cutting taxes for the very wealthiest New Zealanders.
      
      I hope I’ve explained that simply enough for you.
    - Marty G 26.1.1.2
      
      29 January 2011 at 12:46 pm
      
      maybe I should have linked to the excel table for you instead rather than the page with the link on it. I thought it was obvious since I’m only using the numbers to calculate the tax cuts for the top 1%. But never too obvious for burty boy.
      - burt 26.1.1.2.1
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:05 pm
        
        maybe I should have linked to the excel table for you instead rather than the page with the link on it.
        
        No, I found that pretty quickly. Perhaps you should have either read the notes on what the data actually was or if you did read it perhaps you should have not ignored it.
        
        The only thing you have proven is how inefficient churn is when the IRD can’t readily provide actual stats on tax paid by income band rather than just tax assessed before rebates, credits and other social policy handouts.
        
        Marty G 26.1.1.2.1.1
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:11 pm
        
        this post has nothing to do with WFF. the stats only serve to give us the taxable income of the top 1%. if you refuse to engage with the issue, i’ll move your comments to open mike and you can whine about the difference between net and gross tax for low income earners there to your heart’s content.
        
        burt …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:15 pm
        
        Marty G
        
        Move my comments if you can’t stand the heat. This post is about tax cuts and who they go to… sure I agree with that. But you have only looked at half the picture and it would be a lot easier if you acknowledge that rather than try and hide your failing because of blind ideology by removing my comments. Over to you – stand and debate or use your blog author position to pretend you didn’t make a fundamental blunder trying to spin shit to match your socialist failure world view.
        
        Marty G …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:28 pm
        
        this post is about the cost of tax cuts for the top 1% vs the money that could be raised from asset sales.
    - burt 26.1.1.3
      
      29 January 2011 at 12:47 pm
      
      Marty G
      
      From that you can calculate what gross tax is “assessed” based on income but you cannot calculate what net tax is “paid” because you are missing all the tax credits, WFF etc. Fail.
      - Marty G 26.1.1.3.1
        
        29 January 2011 at 12:55 pm
        
        1) People on the top 1% of incomes don’t get WFF or other income tax credits. It’s mathematically impossible, they’ve all abated to zero well below $165,000.
        
        2) WFF does not effect the size of the tax cut that anyone got, especially not the top 1%, which this post is about.
      - burt 26.1.1.3.2
        
        29 January 2011 at 12:58 pm
        
        Marty G
        
        It might be easier in the long run if you just admit you didn’t think enough about it before making this post. Here is a clue for you. What is the cost per year of WFF vs what was the cost per year of the tax cuts National have delivered over and above the cost of the tax cuts that Labour implemented in 2008 just before the election?
        
        Marty G 26.1.1.3.2.1
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:12 pm
        
        it’s irrelevant. if national hadn’t cut tax for the top 1% the crown would be $10.6billion better off in present value terms, negating any argument for asset sales.
        
        Marty G …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:14 pm
        
        you can similarly argue that the crown would be 10.6 billion better of in present value terms if it cut $586 million a year from health or education or wff. that’s your prerogative but you’re only serving to further undermine the privatisation argument.
        
        burt …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:16 pm
        
        So there were no adjustments to the WFF threshold then ? No other adjustments to other rebates etc ? ummm – FAIL.
        
        Marty G …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:27 pm
        
        none that affected the top 1% of income earners
        
        burt …
        
        29 January 2011 at 1:32 pm
        
        Marty G
        
        How stupid are you. The data provides you with the ability to determine what income bands got what value of tax cut but with no data provided for actual tax paid after the tax changes it is impossible for you to work out what the actual effect was by income band. Just keep using half the picture and slagging me off if you like, it’s your blog.
    - lprent 26.1.1.4
      
      29 January 2011 at 1:46 pm
      
      It was a description of what you looked like putting a comment up without an actual argument in it. I’m sure that you were aware in your own mind what you were talking about – but it wasn’t apparent to anyone else.
      
      So I put a spike into you to encourage you to say what you mean. I see that the treatment is at least partially successful. But it appears that you’re still not making any particular sense apart from saying that the information required is not publicly available. However all the authors can do here is to work on the information that is available. Perhaps you should ream the treasury and IRD for not providing more?
Jenny 27

30 January 2011 at 9:31 am

John Key has assured New Zealanders that the government will legislate against any foreign investor owning more than 50% of any privatised public asset.

But the continuing secret negotiations around the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership agreement is likely to give foreign investors the right to sue future New Zealand government’s if they try to limit foreign investment.

Trying to get to the bottom of this contradiction, Brian Fallow the Herald’s economics editor, on the fact that the secretive TPP agreement is likely to have an “investor-state” dispute mechanism, which allows foreign investors to sue a country if they try and regulate foreign investment.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/brian-fallow-on-the-economy/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502863&objectid=10688274

Companies investing in the other country can sue its government in an international tribunal for alleged breaches of the FTA, usually arising from some attempt by the government to regulate some part of its own economy.

These “investor-state” cases are litigated in international arbitration bodies of the World Bank or United Nations.

Public Citizen, the advocacy body Wallach and Tucker work for, has monitored 66 such cases brought under Nafta. Of the 25 resolved, the governments won in 14 cases and the investors in nine, requiring the governments concerned to pay more that US$300 million in compensation.

The chilling effect of giving multinational corporations the right to stand in the shoes of a sovereign state in this way can only be guessed at.

Australia is the exception; three of the other TPP countries have agreements with the US that include such a provision.

Asked this week about the possibility the TPP would also include it, Prime Minister John Key dismissed the idea as “far-fetched”.

But his reaction sounded more like “I have only just encountered this idea, but I wouldn’t have thought so” than “I have looked into this and I can assure you it won’t happen”.

Reassured?

John Key replied to a journalist who asked him if an “investor-state” dispute mechanism was being discussed in the secret TPP negotiations.

Key: “Not as far as I’m aware.”

Journalist: “And it’s being ruled out in that sense? The Australians apparently have ruled it out.”

Key: “I imagine we would too and I think it’s pretty farfetched.”

Despite questioning in the house by the Greens leader Russel Norman, the Government has refused to comment further.

Dr Russel Norman: Will the Prime Minister rule out signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership if the agreement includes investor-State disputes mechanisms that allow investors to sue Governments—yes or no?

Hon TIM GROSER: ….The Prime Minister has made the Government’s position quite clear. This is a far-fetched, hypothetical hunt, and I will not go beyond the statements the Prime Minister has issued.

Can we have any faith in John Key’s assurance that the government will keep a controlling share in our state assets, when his government refuses to say whether or not they will give foreign investors the right to over rule any such limitations on foreign investment?

Brian Fallow asked us. “Reassured?”

I don’t think so.
- Treetop 27.1
  
  30 January 2011 at 11:16 am
  
  Yes, always read the fine print when it comes to hidden costs and deception.

Links to post

The Standard: posted on 27 January 2011 at 6:49 pm
MS: posted on 28 January 2011 at 4:30 pm
Gabriella Turek: posted on 29 January 2011 at 6:35 am
Jessica 3: posted on 1 February 2011 at 4:21 am
No Aroha for Key « The Standard: posted on 7 February 2011 at 12:09 pm

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Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment: Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...

Skeptical Science

3 days ago
Join us at 5pm for 2024’s last Hoon

Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

3 days ago
Christmas Gifts: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.

“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...

Bowalley Road

3 days ago
GDP Figures No Christmas Present for New Zealand

Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...

NZCTUBy Stella Whitfield

4 days ago
Cheeseburgers and Stunt Monkeys

One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

4 days ago
MSD rejecting 220 pleas for food grants each day

Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

4 days ago
The Wing Parties’ Economic Policies.

It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...

PunditBy Brian Easton

4 days ago
Back on Track

This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tūī

4 days ago
Book Review: How Big Things Get Done

This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner Want to know how to do something big? Ask someone who has done it before! Professor Bent Flyvbjerg has spent his career studying megaprojects. In 2023, ...

Greater AucklandBy Guest Post

4 days ago
Gordon Campbell On Why We Can’t Survive Two More Years Of This

Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...

WerewolfBy ScoopEditor

4 days ago
Dragging our way towards the finish line, the end of this year can’t come soon enough for many…

Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...

exhALANtBy exhalantblog

4 days ago
Handling Democracy.

String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...

Bowalley Road

4 days ago
Open letter to the Minister of Dwindling Finances

Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...

More Than A FeildingBy David Slack

4 days ago
Open Government: The joke ends

The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

4 days ago
An unusual sort of press conference

Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

4 days ago
This substack has talked about this government’s seeming corruption & pro-corporate issues...

This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEO Our news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tūī

4 days ago
NZCTU: Minister needs to listen to the evidence on engineered stone ban

NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...

NZCTUBy Stella Whitfield

4 days ago
Wednesday 18 December

The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...

NZCTUBy Jack McDonald

4 days ago
Can the government change its mind on the ferries?

The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

4 days ago
Notes from Afar: Will Luxon Attend Waitangi Day? And Opposition Calls Out Nicola Willis for “C...

Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tūī

5 days ago
Member’s morning

Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

5 days ago
Going Backwards

We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

5 days ago
Blaming Treasury & Labour, Willis looks for even more Austerity

Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

5 days ago
December-24 AT Board Meeting

Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...

Greater AucklandBy Matt L

5 days ago
The Making of a Mental Health Rockstar

Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...

David FarrierBy David Farrier

5 days ago
It could have been worse

Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...

PolitikBy Richard Harman

5 days ago
The Deep Divisions of Local Government

The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

5 days ago
Willis’ austerity strategy just isn’t working

Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

5 days ago
Sabin 33 #7 – Are solar projects hurting farmers and rural communities?

On November 1, 2024 we announced the publication of 33 rebuttals based on the report "Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles" written by Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Andy Fitch, Matthew Ard, Kaya Sittinger & Samuel Lavine and published by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia ...

Skeptical Science

5 days ago
Join us for a pop-up Hoon at 5pm on HYEFU

Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

5 days ago
‘Ideas Worth Saving’: A Call for Papers

Some years ago, I found myself pondering the power of literature to endure. Or at least the power of some of it to endure, while the rest vanishes in mere decades: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty-and-despair-the-literary-future/. I have similarly had fun with the subject in some of my short stories, such as Another Alexandria ...

A Phuulish FellowBy strda221

5 days ago
Corrections is torturing prisoners again

In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

5 days ago
HYEFU and BPS data shows New Zealand is way off track

New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...

NZCTUBy Jack McDonald

5 days ago
“Better economic management”

At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

5 days ago
Shameless, clueless

AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...

More Than A FeildingBy David Slack

5 days ago
Minimum wage ‘increase’ is an effective cut

The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...

NZCTUBy Jack McDonald

6 days ago
Crazy ’bout a Sharp-dressed Man

Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

6 days ago
How much should you worry about a collapse of the Atlantic conveyor belt?

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson In this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...

Skeptical Science

6 days ago
8% ACT Party Creates One Ring To Rule Them All

In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour 1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tūī

6 days ago
When austerity worsens public debt & cuts GDP

Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

6 days ago
Govt to double number of toll roads

On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...

Greater AucklandBy Matt L

6 days ago
Luxon’s pre-emptive strike

The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...

PolitikBy Richard Harman

6 days ago
Gordon Campbell On The Coalition’s Empty Gestures, And Abortion Refusal As The New Slavery

This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...

WerewolfBy ScoopEditor

6 days ago
More public service contempt of parliament

Back in 2023 the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties raised concerns about the inherent conflict of interest involved in public service agencies supporting parliamentary select committees. Our parliament is run on a shoestring, so depends on the public service for advice. But public service agencies work for Ministers, not ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

6 days ago
If There Is A God

And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

6 days ago
A Lipstick Government

Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...

Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tūī

6 days ago
NZCTU open letter to Treasury on undue restrictions on restricted briefings

Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...

NZCTUBy Jack McDonald

7 days ago
Why you won’t hear me advocate for electric cars

This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate. I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...

Greater AucklandBy Guest Post

7 days ago
Coalition forced to back down on tolling Pahiatua track

A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...

The KakaBy Bernard Hickey

7 days ago
Thank You

Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

1 week ago
2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #50

A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...

Skeptical Science

1 week ago
Making Gravy

I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

1 week ago
Nothing here but the shadows

Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...

More Than A FeildingBy David Slack

1 week ago
The United Right: the FSU’s Continued Efforts to Undermine Academia

The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

1 week ago
Showing the Americans how to do it

Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...

No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant

1 week ago
2 Men, 1 Haircut

Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...

David FarrierBy David Farrier

1 week ago
Chris Penk’s Hate Parade

What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...

Sapphi’s SubstackBy Sapphi

1 week ago
Tell me a story

All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...

Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel

1 week ago

National’s Greatest Misses 2023-4

National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...

Labour Blog

2 days ago
Release: Minister’s plan for tertiary sector a backwards step

Returning to the model that was failing for most polytechnics and Institutes of Technology is not the answer. ...

Labour Blog

2 days ago
Release: National buries 1019 planned homes

It’s been revealed that National has cancelled 60 percent of its housing projects planned before mid-2025 amidst housing woes. ...

Labour Blog

3 days ago
Release: Rule-Czar bill a right-wing power grab

The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...

Labour Blog

3 days ago
Release: Why not both? Luxon shuns Waitangi celebrations

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is running away from problems of his own creation, with his decision not to go to Waitangi. ...

Labour Blog

3 days ago
Govt’s ‘free speech’ legislation stokes fear, not freedom

The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...

Greens

3 days ago
Release: Nicola Willis spirals country deeper into recession

The economy shrank 1% this quarter and New Zealand has tumbled into the depths of a recession of Nicola Willis’ making. ...

Labour Blog

3 days ago
Release: Hikes for company directors but not ordinary Kiwis

Working people are going backwards while company directors are being given huge pay hikes. ...

Labour Blog

4 days ago
ECE no place to cut corners

The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...

Greens

4 days ago
Release: Strengthening Justice Services for New Zealanders

A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...

Labour Blog

5 days ago
Release: Labour will continue fight against destructive projects

Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...

Labour Blog

5 days ago
Green Government will revoke dodgy fast-track projects

The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...

Greens

5 days ago
Government for the wealthy keeps pushing austerity

The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...

Greens

5 days ago
Release: Visa changes let migrant workers be paid less

The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...

Labour Blog

5 days ago
Release: Nightmare before Christmas for Nicola Willis

With more debt and a larger deficit, Nicola Willis’ reputation is in tatters after her failure to return the Government’s books to surplus. ...

Labour Blog

5 days ago
Warning to Fast-Track Applicants – ‘Exploit the Whenua, Face the Consequences’

Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...

Māori Party

5 days ago
Release: Govt cuts wages for lowest paid NZers… again

For the second year running, the government has effectively cut wages for the lowest paid workers in New Zealand. ...

Labour Blog

6 days ago
Govt’s miserly 1.5% minimum wage will take workers backwards

The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...

Greens

6 days ago
Release: Govt shirking responsibility for rate hikes

All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...

Labour Blog

6 days ago
Luxon’s ‘localism’ strikes again

The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...

Greens

6 days ago
Release: Govt breaks promise on EV chargers

The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...

Labour Blog

6 days ago
Greens call for end to subsidies for Methanex

The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...

Greens

6 days ago
Govt child poverty targets allow for increase in poverty

The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Release: Four weeks annual leave under threat

The Government’s attack on workers continues with news it is scrapping work on the Holidays Act. ...

Labour Blog

1 week ago
Govt’s emissions plan for measly 1% reduction

New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day

The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families

Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas

Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...

Greens

1 week ago
Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation

Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker

The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
One year on, still no progress on new ferries

Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more

After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban

The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...

Labour Blog

2 weeks ago
Greyhound racing industry ban marks new era for animal welfare

After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Rangatahi voices must be centred in Government’s Relationship and Sexuality Education refresh

In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Govt introduces archaic anti-worker legislation

The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
Winston Peters – Kinleith Mill Speech

Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...

NZ First Press Release

2 weeks ago
Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre

Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago
He Ara Anamata: Greens launch Emissions Reduction Plan

Today, the Green Party of Aotearoa proudly unveils its new Emissions Reduction Plan–He Ara Anamata–a blueprint reimagining our collective future. ...

Greens

2 weeks ago

Internationally-trained doctors jump at chance to boost health workforce

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

14 hours ago
PM appoints business leader to APEC Business Advisory Council

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
New intelligence oversight appointments

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
New housing developments able to progress more quickly

Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Actions to speed up air travel delivering results

The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Ending contracted emergency housing in Rotorua

The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

2 days ago
Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions

The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Reducing the environmental impact of synthetic refrigerants

The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Ngāruawāhia section of Waikato Expressway back to 4 lanes for Christmas

People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Appointments to the ENZ board

Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Government to celebrate Waitangi Day around NZ

The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
More gangs added to Gangs Act list

Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Judicial appointment announced

Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
GDP data highlights importance of growth

The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

3 days ago
Strengthening Free Speech in Universities

Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Launch of Emergency Cellular Priority Service

Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Minister reopens Mangamuka Gorge

State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Funding confirmed for second Ashburton Bridge

The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Government boosts support for avian influenza response

The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Levelling the playing field for media advertising

Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Inspector-General of Defence appointed

Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Fire and Emergency New Zealand final levy rates confirmed

Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
More AML relief on the way for Kiwi businesses

The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Hawke’s Bay Expressway moving at pace

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Government seeks partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned-land

The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Wide ranging legislation to make justice system more efficient

Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Diverse skills in community trust appointments

A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
Torture redress for survivors of the Lake Alice Unit

The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

4 days ago
A busy year in the House

It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Consultation opens on working with engineered stone

“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Greater reporting on Treaty settlement commitments

Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
New appointments to the Charities Registration Board

Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Building consent processing times improve

More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Faster access to support through Innovation Fund

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
New Zealand to assist Vanuatu on earthquake response

New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Government takes steps to reduce card fees for Kiwis

The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Review recommends ECE regulation shakeup

Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Offshore Renewable Energy Bill passes first reading

The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Local Government (Water Services) Bill passes first reading

Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago
Gene Technology Bill passes first reading

New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...

BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz

5 days ago

Vanuatu quake: Warnings as bad weather threat looms for Port Vila

By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

1 hour ago
Signs of the hīkoi: More than just ‘words on cardboard’

The placards seen at the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti conveyed "huge kōrero with immediacy", expert says: "People know the power of the word." ...

Radio NZ – political

10 hours ago
A final Ode to .. King Luxon

Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...

NewsroomBy Victor Billot

18 hours ago
A hater and an enthusiast review The Royal Free by Carl Shuker

Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...

The SpinoffBy Claire Mabey

19 hours ago
Survive to 25 (December, that is)

Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...

The SpinoffBy Anna Rawhiti-Connell

19 hours ago
All I want for Christmas is modern day slavery legislation

Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...

The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias

19 hours ago
Israeli-American historian describes attacks on Gaza as ‘war of annihilation’

Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

22 hours ago
NZ govt plans to make ‘heavy handed’ change to free speech rules for universities

The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

22 hours ago
Caitlin Johnstone: Where does the aggression really begin?

Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...

Evening ReportBy David Robie

1 day ago
OECD Report Highlights That More Is Needed

This report reflects that gap in our dealings overseas, and it shows that legislators, the public sector and businesses need to walk the talk. ...

Scoop politics

1 day ago
Government quietly scraps waste minimisation policies

The government has quietly cancelled plans to improve recycling and roll out a kerbside food scraps composting scheme. ...

Radio NZ – political

1 day ago
MEAA welcomes News MAP funding ‘leg up’ for Australian journalism

Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

1 day ago
Transmission Gully partnership breakdown will not hurt future public-private partnerships, Infrastru...

The roads partnership unravelled under a confidential settlement this week, meaning NZTA will now finish off what it had said was incomplete work. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Funding cuts to charity particularly felt over Christmas period

The number of people seeking help from Lifeline is expected to increase by 10 to 20 percent over Christmas. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Nelson Hospital conditions ‘unbearable’ – staff

One worker says the building is decrepit and falling down around them. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
The Secret Diary of .. Luxon at Xmas

MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...

NewsroomBy Steve Braunias

2 days ago
Stand by for cricket’s Smash Palace

It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...

NewsroomBy Aiden McLaughlin

2 days ago
Early-onset dementia under the microscope

Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...

NewsroomBy Shruti Sharma and Dr Brigid Ryan

2 days ago
Keeping the pirates at bay: Should the Australian ‘Blocking Order’ case prompt a discussion in N...

Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...

NewsroomBy Tania Goatley and Oscar Zambuto

2 days ago
‘We were as famous as Tom Cruise’: Craig Parker on 90s Shortland St fandom

As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...

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2 days ago
‘I prioritise the mission, not my health’: Adam McGrath’s perfect weekend playlist

The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...

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2 days ago
The rescue dog bringing joy to Christchurch retirement homes

Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes. Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...

The SpinoffBy Alex Casey

2 days ago
Fiji pro-Palestine nativity scene exposes Gaza as ‘hell on earth’ at Christmas

Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

2 days ago
Vanuatu quake: ‘Our shop was flattened like a deck of cards’

By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...

Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report

2 days ago
How diplomats have broken the law in NZ – and what happened next

A handful of foreign diplomats have misbehaved during their time here - and not all of them have been brought to justice. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Swim schools report sinking enrolments as downturn deepens

Being able to swim is often considered a life skill, but tough economic times are forcing many families to pull their children out of lessons. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
‘There will be deaths because of this’ – Warning over Health NZ IT cuts

A West Coast IT worker is warning patients will die as Health New Zealand aims to slash its data and digital staff. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Polytech sales possible but unlikely when Te Pūkenga disestablished – minister

In a surprise move, the sale of polytechnics will be on the table when the national institute of technology Te Pūkenga is disestablished. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Parliament’s final sitting day an insight into party factions

On Parliament's last day of the year, there was a rare glimpse of the factions within the major parties. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Former Labour MP, North Shore mayor Ann Hartley dies

Former Labour MP and mayor of Auckland's North Shore City Ann Hartley has died. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
The closest thing Australian cartooning had to a prophet: the sometimes celebrated, sometimes contro...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker. Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...

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Labour moves Speaker from the ‘nice’ to ‘naughty’ list

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Govt ends pilot programme for Māori and Pacific, sparking outrage

The Government announced the end of the programme that allowed Māori and Pacific people to acess bowel cancer screening at 50-years-old. ...

Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
Parliament fits an extra morning into final sitting day

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Radio NZ – political

2 days ago
The Friday Poem: ‘Bejeweled log’ by Holly Fletcher

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How does franchising work?

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The one episode of Shortland Street you need to watch this year

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2 days ago
The Unity Books bestseller chart for 2024

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2 days ago

Selling assets to pay for tax cuts for richest 1%

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