Zet, I take the point that National care less when one considers that Labour reduced unemployment by 100000 during 9 years of relative prosperity and good times. The big question is why in a country of 4 million a whopping quarter of a million (yes thats right 250000) were still out of work at the end of Labours run?
I would suggest that the continuation of new right economic orthodoxy under Labour has only been ramped up by National. When will a Labour Party commit to full employment policies in the way that Savages Labour Party did?
you’re conflating benefits with unemployment. Only 17K on the dole at the end under Labour. The rest were sickness, invalids, DPB
They got unemployment under 4% and joblessness under 150K. Not good enough in my books but ‘full employment’ according to the economists and a fuck load better than these days.
Thanks Zet, when I saw the graph I thought “jeez” thats not good. I take it back, the Nats are proportionally off the scale. Still want full employment as a plank policy though.
Zet, its even better with the table included. What it shows me is that we dont have “bludgers” as the Nats would insist but a lot of deserving recipients.
National dont see these as real people with real needs / circumstances, they only see them as a cost to avoid so that those who have most can have more. Its a sick philosophy for sick puppies based upon venality and avarice. Thats 100,000 extra years in Purgatory John…..
wow, check out the way unemployment benefit cost fell under Labour. All the costs have blown out with the Nats, $3.7 billion more in 3 years, only $1.5 billion from super.
I’d rather be spending that $2.2 billion on job creation than benefits. National has no vision.
It’s fucking laughable, all this focus on dole bludgers while the elephant in the room taking up nearly 50% of the spend keeps getting bigger and bigger.
And a recent poll reckons half of us think raising the age of eligibility to 67 is acceptable. But not the PM.
Long term welfare dependency for single people is tantamount to self imposed home detention since without spare money they have to stay in, unless mates and family help. There’s nothing essentially wrong in trying to help people into work, but it costs money. So National clamp down on bludgers would likely throwup more cost not less. The bludger myth came out of the surfer culture where some young very healthy man would be on a benefit while they went surfing every day. In those perverse tides of history, now we want beneficiaries to get and remain fit, and want them to enjoy surfing and turn it into a job. But the myth has been morphed into a tool, that is used to cut (rather than grow) our economy and its individuals potential. Lack of work should be rejoiced by society as a opportunity to grow, educate, re-skill, find what you love. But in the world of National Socialism as talked up by the media and both major parties, its all about workers fighting for the betterment of the economy even if in the same sentence the elites say they should do everything to avoid taxation. Will someone tell ACT that money is not just the only way government taxes the people! The writing is on the wall, energy will not cost less next year as it did last year, we do not have three decades of cheap middle east oil to come, the politics of tyranny for the greater good of the people’s republic where the elites can snob their noses up at avoiding paying their fair share are over. And so why are National so reckless in there pursuit of the bottom? Simple anyone who is hurting is getting a lesson in life, that in hard times you start looking after your neighbour than doing them injury, and National policies whether intentional or hopeless vacant of the reality coming. But alas I think National want citizens to move to Australia, because the big banks here like the status quo of profits flowing out to Aussie.
Our banks have an interest in keep NZ a back water economy, less churn means less uncertainty and greater profits for them.
So why is the NZ dollar so high? Could there be a wind of change in the NZ economy? What would happen if Labour-Greens won power and introduced a CGT. Well lots of debt would be less valuable as debt holding and more valuable paid down. And to stop a loss of wealth those who lent the debt would want to insure their investments and have to help the holders of the debt pay down their debt. Think US home owners and banks not foreclosing since then the property goes on the depressed market and the bank loses heavily across its mortgage portfolio when all the homes are downgraded in value.
So is National trying very hard to screw the economy now, just so they lose and middle NZ pulls its finger out, takes its debt medicine and puts in the adults to broaden the tax system?
Well if National fail, and are returned to office, kiwis will have chosen to delay inevitable and pay heavily in assets the world currently awash in cash wants to buy. Only the dullest of business people would want government to sell assets into this market.
The reforms in the 80’s and early nineties allowed Labour to prosper from 99 onwards. That was the point of the reforms. Policy takes years to manifest, and this is the best example. The opposite is now the case: The shoddy Labour government of 99-08 has led to terrible a terrible economy now. These things don’t happen overnight.
In your dream world, they created absolute hell at the time they were introduced but, by wonderful and mysterious coincidence, created growth and jobs for the exact period of the fifth Labour-led government. And then, equally mysteriously, stopped at exactly the point when Labour left government.
And Labour’s ‘terrible’ economic policy equals record growth, record low unemployment, record wage increases, record low government debt during the time Labour was in power but then manage to fuck up the economy after Labour left power.
How did the reforms know exactly when to work to apparently give the exact opposite impression to your hypothesis? Come on. Explain why the neoliberal reforms only worked from 1999 to 2008 and Labour’s ‘bad’ management had no bad effects until exactly after Labour led office.
And whether you look at the last 20 years or the last 70 years growth is significantly greater (by ~0.5%pa) on average under Labour governments. Presumably always a coincidence.
First time there’d been no net debt (in fact 6.7% of GDP in credit) since Vogel borrowed for a rail network in the 1870s? Also a coincidence, Labour clearly rubbish at managing the economy…
Wow, some reforms take 20+ years to come through (the RWNJ reforms) and others (The reforms done by a right of centre government that he sees as left) just days according Nick K.
He obviously failed to see the big problem caused by the 1980s/90s which is now called the GFC.
What the top graph cannot show is that the reduced number represented mainly people who spent only short periods relying on a benefit. The long term dependents which feature mainly amongst the DPB and IB remain. National’s reduction goal of 100,000 is too small. It can be achieved without touching inter-generational dependence.
“What the top graph cannot show is that the reduced number represent people who spent only short periods relying on a benefit”
that’s wrong. long term benefit numbers fell under Labour. There are now 40,000 more people who have been on a benefit for longer than a year than three years ago.
Will you grow up and admit that Labour has the better record on reducing benefit numbers?
Neither National nor Labour have anything but the most fleeting effect on the economy and employment numbers.
With a population and economy as small as ours we will always be more affected by externalities (apart from the impact of those rare occurrences like the Canterbury double earthquake)
“So, the clear and undeniable fact that benefit numbers go up under National and down under Labour is just a coincidence?”
Simple correlation does not = causation
“If National and Labourâs economic policies donât matter, then why do you support National?’
Perhaps you should check out my previous musings on political parties and politicians I’d hardly call myself a supporter of any of the retards in parliament.
Eddie, It is not a matter of growing up. The big drop under Labour, and I don’t mind admitting it, was in the unemployment benefit. That is where most short term receipt lies.
Under Labour the DPB dropped slightly but the sickness and invalid benefits grew. Those are the benefits where reform needs to be focussed.
Lindsay you’ve been repeating that myth like a mantra along with the rest of the fuckwitterati for a long time but the numbers simply don’t bear it out and it’s time you faced up to that.
For a while you just looked ignorant but it’s getting hard to see this behaviour as anything other than deliberate lying.
Why do you think I wouldn’t like it? I said it would be interesting, I didn’t say it would please me. I’ll look at it later when I have more time.
One neat graph does nothing to prove a government in waiting. I thought you might want to present a more complete picture to make a case. Do you mean you don’t like the result?
Try this one then seeing as they are supposed to influence our and the world economies so much – shows some similar (last 10 years) and some different trends for the US, .
Funny thing is they had righties while we had lefties.
The OECD area unemployment rate, at 8.2% in March 2011, was unchanged from February following three consecutive monthly decreases. The Euro area unemployment rate was also stable at 9.9%.
These countries must have even Toryer governments than ours:
Hungary (11.9%), Ireland (14.7%), Portugal (11.1%), and the Slovak Republic (13.9%). Spainâs 20.7%
Those totals are 000s, and there seems to be a distinct tweak in 2009 that Michael Mann would be proud of. Seems to correlate with Zetetic’s graph, but we know that correlation doesn’t mean anything.
PeteG. I can’t be bothered doing the whole graph for you, but each HLFS release from stats ranks NZ in the OECD countries for unemployment. In March, we were ranked 11th best. Three years ago, we were ranked 6th.
Yeah that would be interesting. Especially if you broke down the countries according to where they sit on the spectrum of being free market, mixed, or planned economies.
If the wingnut view of the world is right the number of bludgers has increased since the election of John Key by 100,000. Why would this have caused this massive outbreak of bludgerism?
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The level of bludgerism is going to be somewhat below the lowest number of unemployed during Labour’s nine years – a fair proportion of that base level will be churn, and there will also be a permanent level of unemployable.
There can be a fine line between trying to encourage people to go out and look a bit harder for jobs and being seen to be bene bashing.
Labour had money to help long termed unemployed into work. National doesn’t, and does not have the will to provide real opportunities. National purpose seems to be trying to shake the tree that even those who are ill make for the crossing to Australia. The great exodus continues. We will of course have a higher percentage in jails, and on benefits for health reasons since we export our brightest, healthiest and skilled. Even our migrants more here to move to Australia! And we all now that once a kiwi has a criminal record they aren’t let in. So when they do get caught in crime in Australia they will be sent back to NZ. Is like a bad farmer, pulling and eating the best crop and using the seeds from the worse of the crop to grow farm output.
National are fill with people who got where they are by being tough, single minded in a low energy, easy credit, when it mattered that you were a rock in the great wash of money and activity. But now with energy prices rising and credit hard to get (and keep) those in power are unless to our economy since their edicts no longer hold sway, their time has passed. Now we need people with business, not fiscal experience, we need people who think outside the ideological strapped box, we need people who worry about risk and real lost opportunities. The market has not got a lot of spare capacity, money, to suddenly fill the gaps. The tide is out, the rocks are now just rocks, not hidden channels of power and turbulence.
As someone pointed out, greed isn’t the problem, its people who define themselves by their greed, who make greed their virtue, their reason for living. We could sustain them when the cheese was overflowing and they seem to help make the mountains of excess cheese go down, but now they look like little mice starving and needing our charity to keep up their invincible supermen egos.
While I agree with Labours approach of removing barriers to work and creating incentives to work (over Nationals ‘make things harder as an incentive to change’) – I think that taking into consideration the boom-bust cycle of the economy would be more objective.
National ‘making things harder as incentive to change’
You mean:
Attacking peoples fundamental right to raise their own children and not have them raised by the state in child-care brainwashing centers (which the govt force parents to pay for by slaving away in a low wage economy)
Stigmatizing and demonizing beneficiaries by portraying them as lazy unmotivated druggies and alcoholics
Removing even the pretense of a ‘minimum wage’ through work for the dole type schemes.
In short trying their damnedest to make no job, no money = no rights.
The only genuine ‘incentives’ to work are fair pay, good working conditions and meaningful work, anything else is just a stick to beat people with.
There’s no such thing as a “boom-bust cycle of the economy”. That boom bust cycle belongs solely to the delusional capitalist paradigm. Get rid of that and the real economy, the environment and hard work, can supply us with everything we need to ensure that everyone has a good living standard.
so simple correlation does not equal causation?
then will someone explain the facts?
and.
we have record exports and overseas funds but the economy is tanking.
where the hell is the redqueen hiding?
Keep in mind that the further to the right you go, the greater the population is, so Labour’s reduction in people on benefits for that period, far outstrips the percentage ‘inflation’ you’d expect with a growing population
You forgot the arrow indicating when the global boom ended, and the worst recession since the ’30s hit. I wonder where that would be? And who was the Government at the time? And would it be fair to blame that Government, any more than to take credit for a global boom?
The record shows that Labour knows how to create government jobs that are an overhead.
I haven’t seen a record that shows Labour knows how to create productive jobs. The graph in the post only shows what happened across Labour’s terms, and before and after, not what caused the changes.
Not at all. Any Govt could “create” 100% employment immediately, if it wanted to. Just like any Govt could “create” surpluses by putting the tax rate up to 90%. The trick is making them real jobs and surpluses, and not destroying the economy.
You may not have noticed but NAct are doing their very best to destroy the economy by giving farmers a free pass to pollute and over-exploit it. They want to do the same for minerals as well.
The pattern goes back way, well before the 1990’s. While the business cycle has it’s own global rythyms, there is no denying that centre-left wing govts tend to get things moving.
Long ago it was Bob Jones who said he prefered Labour govts to Nat ones because the economy does better under Labour.
Yeah. Like Zetetic proposed a hypothetical solution.
S.T.Y.D.J.
Ah, no felix, many people with vested interests try and speak up their own party and speak down opposing parties. It can get a bit predictable, can’t it.
My “vested interests” are that I want a better society to live in. Selfish, I know.
My idea of “a better society” includes measures like more people in jobs and less on the dole. My bias must be palpable.
I’m truly sorry that I can’t just vote for everyone, Pete. I know they all deserve a crack. But I really think I should vote for the parties who serve these “vested interests” of mine or I’d be doing myself a disservice.
“The latest Labour Market Report tell us that the unemployment rate for 20-24 year olds is 12.5%. In reality the number of 20-24 year olds without a job is closer to triple that amount. 34.9% (110,100 out of 315,500) 20-24 year olds in New Zealand are currently not in paid work.”
In the 1980s the local Waikato MP said in public “That NZ needs at least 7% unemployment to be financialy sound . That’s the Tory philosophy .National despite its denials believes in unemployment.Why ? Because their rich mates can then reduce wages and hire low paid help.
It weakens their arch enemy the unions . They have a fear of working people demanding decent wage ,conditions and equality . The answer to these troubles for them unemployment!!.
PeteG can’t tell the difference between mentioning an event that epitomises a problem (and demonstrates its non-recent origins), versus using a low-incidence event to besmirch a larger group (e.g. saying too many undeserving people are on benefits because of the mythical “long term beneficiary”).
Yes because correlation implies causation, obviously this is air tight. Data on one labour government is obviously sufficient. Excellent analysis. Cannot think of any confounding factors at all.
It really is up to the proposer to prove the link rather than I to produce evidence for the null hypothesis.
But to entertain you first I’d like to say global financial crisis.
Second I’d like to say that the government in this country is functioning much the same as it was under labours last term. There have been changes but these are relatively minor in the scheme of things. You need to point out exactly what teh national government has done that a labour governmetn would have done differently and make a strong case that these differences could have such a dramatic effect.
Well, they wouldn’t have given tax cuts to the rich and then complained about government deficits. And then there’s the gutting of the public service, which is obviously good for the employment rate and the consumer demand of several thousand >=average wage earners. Let’s not forget building rail wagons overseas, when we have 2 very good local suppliers.
Â
Fuck, Key can’t even build a cycleway to get jobs going…
Eddie’s comment this morning is so fecking on the money I’m reposting it here:
I love these magical reforms.
In your dream world, they created absolute hell at the time they were introduced but, by wonderful and mysterious coincidence, created growth and jobs for the exact period of the fifth Labour-led government. And then, equally mysteriously, stopped at exactly the point when Labour left government.
And Labourâs âterribleâ economic policy equals record growth, record low unemployment, record wage increases, record low government debt during the time Labour was in power but then manage to fuck up the economy after Labour left power.
How did the reforms know exactly when to work to apparently give the exact opposite impression to your hypothesis? Come on. Explain why the neoliberal reforms only worked from 1999 to 2008 and Labourâs âbadâ management had no bad effects until exactly after Labour led office.
Yep it’s all a coincidence. Policy means nothing. Stated aims are irrelevant. Whatever happens happens and it doesn’t matter who’s in govt or what they do.
If you are old enough you might remember being sold the line that technological change would relieve us of the need to work so bloody hard and give us lots of leisure time and money to spend on it.
I can tell you now the technology to do this did arrive, but instead of more time at the beach / pub / golf it was harder work for the few of us not made redundant.
It was the same lousy fuckers who took the gains from the Roger revolution who had already taken those gains, and who today insist they should not be taxed. Who the hell else can we tax, they are the only ones left with money?????????
And it all went on under National Labour National Labour National….
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Chris Trotter writes –Â New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Keyâs flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMPâs five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as âits largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliffâ. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. Itâs important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the countryâs leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that âcorruptâ the nationâs ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealandâs growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesnât know or care about the frontline cuts sheâs making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. Â ...
Todayâs Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and itâs only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. âThis is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. âThe government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicineâ, said Ayesha Verrall âThis is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoonâs interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour childrenâs spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te PÄti MÄori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veteransâ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veteransâ affairs spokesperson Greg OâConnor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxonâs management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonightâs court decision to overturn the summons of the Childrenâs Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about MÄori without evidence, says Te PÄti MÄori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. âThe judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last yearâs severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labourâs environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our countryâs most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a âget out of jail freeâ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te PÄti MÄori Justice Spokesperson, TÄkuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, MÄori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te PÄti MÄori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. âThis act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.â Said Te PÄti MÄori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for TÄmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today.  "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Councilâs Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today.  Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. âThese reforms are long overdue. New Zealandâs insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. âThree years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. âBeing able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canadaâs refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ânext moveâ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Childrenâs Commissioner. âThe Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says.    âThe coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. âOur Governmentâs thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening â  Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealandâs foreign policy, weâd like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âCreating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northlandâs marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. âThis is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the countryâs total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. âThe beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ĺ-RÄkau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mĹ Ĺ-RÄkau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ĺ-RÄkau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Governmentâs plan to supercharge New Zealandâs EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four â and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Governmentâs plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. âI have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People â Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Governmentâs plan to restore law and order. âSpeaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealandâs human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). âNew Zealandâs goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. âIâm putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure âone stop shopâ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. âThe NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
WhÄnau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. âGiving these whÄnau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Governmentâs goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave OâSullivan (OBE). âOur sympathies are with the OâSullivan family with the sad news of Dave OâSullivanâs recent passing,â Mr Peters says. âHis contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmacâs largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff.  âAccess to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwisâ lives. Weâve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,â says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. âWe know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,â Dr Reti says. âEvery day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikoheâs new $14.7 million sports complex. âThe completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,â Mr Jones says. âThis facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Petersâ engagements in TĂźrkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges.  âReturning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,â Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen â good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood â a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - Â It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Â Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Â Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. âOur Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealandâs hydrogen future, with the opening of the countryâs first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. âI want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealandâs own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealandâs energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutorâs office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the âadministration of justiceâ by the worldâs permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A womenâs union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist ThĂŠrèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-CalĂŠdonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fijiâs ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fijiâs improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. Thatâs where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didnât feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when heâs in the great outdoors. âThe scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, âOh, thereâs that thing and thereâs another thing,â but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, âCool bush.ââ Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carterâs favourite way to unwind is⌠kicking goals. Why canât he get enough of it? And what itâs like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ĺtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling Iâve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNowâs new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNowâs new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, weâre finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff donât work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: donât ask him to adopt you. So, youâve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didnât know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions â the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapĹŤ, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are âgoâ for tonightâs launch of Chinaâs next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workersâ hostel. The partyâs 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day â May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. MÄtou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Booksâ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if thereâs something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatuâs former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down â just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABCâs Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
Whatâs to blame for the coalitionâs choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Actâs Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the governmentâs proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
Whatâs more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A âratâ was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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Zet, I take the point that National care less when one considers that Labour reduced unemployment by 100000 during 9 years of relative prosperity and good times. The big question is why in a country of 4 million a whopping quarter of a million (yes thats right 250000) were still out of work at the end of Labours run?
I would suggest that the continuation of new right economic orthodoxy under Labour has only been ramped up by National. When will a Labour Party commit to full employment policies in the way that Savages Labour Party did?
you’re conflating benefits with unemployment. Only 17K on the dole at the end under Labour. The rest were sickness, invalids, DPB
They got unemployment under 4% and joblessness under 150K. Not good enough in my books but ‘full employment’ according to the economists and a fuck load better than these days.
Thanks Zet, when I saw the graph I thought “jeez” thats not good. I take it back, the Nats are proportionally off the scale. Still want full employment as a plank policy though.
nah, fair enough. added a line to make it clear.
Zet, its even better with the table included. What it shows me is that we dont have “bludgers” as the Nats would insist but a lot of deserving recipients.
National dont see these as real people with real needs / circumstances, they only see them as a cost to avoid so that those who have most can have more. Its a sick philosophy for sick puppies based upon venality and avarice. Thats 100,000 extra years in Purgatory John…..
Is that a Plank policy, or something core? đ
(Agreed it should be core. Less keen on Key Plank stunt)
Thanks for the information. It would be good to know how much more National are paying out than what Labour did in its last three years..
good idea. added table from budget.
fuck, I must be in a good mood this morning.
wow, check out the way unemployment benefit cost fell under Labour. All the costs have blown out with the Nats, $3.7 billion more in 3 years, only $1.5 billion from super.
I’d rather be spending that $2.2 billion on job creation than benefits. National has no vision.
It’s fucking laughable, all this focus on dole bludgers while the elephant in the room taking up nearly 50% of the spend keeps getting bigger and bigger.
And a recent poll reckons half of us think raising the age of eligibility to 67 is acceptable. But not the PM.
Long term welfare dependency for single people is tantamount to self imposed home detention since without spare money they have to stay in, unless mates and family help. There’s nothing essentially wrong in trying to help people into work, but it costs money. So National clamp down on bludgers would likely throwup more cost not less. The bludger myth came out of the surfer culture where some young very healthy man would be on a benefit while they went surfing every day. In those perverse tides of history, now we want beneficiaries to get and remain fit, and want them to enjoy surfing and turn it into a job. But the myth has been morphed into a tool, that is used to cut (rather than grow) our economy and its individuals potential. Lack of work should be rejoiced by society as a opportunity to grow, educate, re-skill, find what you love. But in the world of National Socialism as talked up by the media and both major parties, its all about workers fighting for the betterment of the economy even if in the same sentence the elites say they should do everything to avoid taxation. Will someone tell ACT that money is not just the only way government taxes the people! The writing is on the wall, energy will not cost less next year as it did last year, we do not have three decades of cheap middle east oil to come, the politics of tyranny for the greater good of the people’s republic where the elites can snob their noses up at avoiding paying their fair share are over. And so why are National so reckless in there pursuit of the bottom? Simple anyone who is hurting is getting a lesson in life, that in hard times you start looking after your neighbour than doing them injury, and National policies whether intentional or hopeless vacant of the reality coming. But alas I think National want citizens to move to Australia, because the big banks here like the status quo of profits flowing out to Aussie.
Our banks have an interest in keep NZ a back water economy, less churn means less uncertainty and greater profits for them.
So why is the NZ dollar so high? Could there be a wind of change in the NZ economy? What would happen if Labour-Greens won power and introduced a CGT. Well lots of debt would be less valuable as debt holding and more valuable paid down. And to stop a loss of wealth those who lent the debt would want to insure their investments and have to help the holders of the debt pay down their debt. Think US home owners and banks not foreclosing since then the property goes on the depressed market and the bank loses heavily across its mortgage portfolio when all the homes are downgraded in value.
So is National trying very hard to screw the economy now, just so they lose and middle NZ pulls its finger out, takes its debt medicine and puts in the adults to broaden the tax system?
Well if National fail, and are returned to office, kiwis will have chosen to delay inevitable and pay heavily in assets the world currently awash in cash wants to buy. Only the dullest of business people would want government to sell assets into this market.
end rant
The reforms in the 80’s and early nineties allowed Labour to prosper from 99 onwards. That was the point of the reforms. Policy takes years to manifest, and this is the best example. The opposite is now the case: The shoddy Labour government of 99-08 has led to terrible a terrible economy now. These things don’t happen overnight.
I love these magical reforms.
In your dream world, they created absolute hell at the time they were introduced but, by wonderful and mysterious coincidence, created growth and jobs for the exact period of the fifth Labour-led government. And then, equally mysteriously, stopped at exactly the point when Labour left government.
And Labour’s ‘terrible’ economic policy equals record growth, record low unemployment, record wage increases, record low government debt during the time Labour was in power but then manage to fuck up the economy after Labour left power.
How did the reforms know exactly when to work to apparently give the exact opposite impression to your hypothesis? Come on. Explain why the neoliberal reforms only worked from 1999 to 2008 and Labour’s ‘bad’ management had no bad effects until exactly after Labour led office.
NickK obviously took the bluepill.
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Dig faster, and if we don’t see sunlight again its our own fault for not digging fast enough.
And whether you look at the last 20 years or the last 70 years growth is significantly greater (by ~0.5%pa) on average under Labour governments. Presumably always a coincidence.
First time there’d been no net debt (in fact 6.7% of GDP in credit) since Vogel borrowed for a rail network in the 1870s? Also a coincidence, Labour clearly rubbish at managing the economy…
Wow, some reforms take 20+ years to come through (the RWNJ reforms) and others (The reforms done by a right of centre government that he sees as left) just days according Nick K.
He obviously failed to see the big problem caused by the 1980s/90s which is now called the GFC.
What the top graph cannot show is that the reduced number represented mainly people who spent only short periods relying on a benefit. The long term dependents which feature mainly amongst the DPB and IB remain. National’s reduction goal of 100,000 is too small. It can be achieved without touching inter-generational dependence.
I also support raising the Super age.
“What the top graph cannot show is that the reduced number represent people who spent only short periods relying on a benefit”
that’s wrong. long term benefit numbers fell under Labour. There are now 40,000 more people who have been on a benefit for longer than a year than three years ago.
Will you grow up and admit that Labour has the better record on reducing benefit numbers?
Neither National nor Labour have anything but the most fleeting effect on the economy and employment numbers.
With a population and economy as small as ours we will always be more affected by externalities (apart from the impact of those rare occurrences like the Canterbury double earthquake)
So, the clear and undeniable fact that benefit numbers go up under National and down under Labour is just a coincidence?
If National and Labour’s economic policies don’t matter, then why do you support National?
“So, the clear and undeniable fact that benefit numbers go up under National and down under Labour is just a coincidence?”
Simple correlation does not = causation
“If National and Labourâs economic policies donât matter, then why do you support National?’
Perhaps you should check out my previous musings on political parties and politicians I’d hardly call myself a supporter of any of the retards in parliament.
I really hate idiots who quote cliches as indisputable facts.
Correlation is a prima facie case for causation. You show another explanation for the correlation.
Strange that, I really hate idiots who don’t know what a logical fallacy is.
Eddie, It is not a matter of growing up. The big drop under Labour, and I don’t mind admitting it, was in the unemployment benefit. That is where most short term receipt lies.
Under Labour the DPB dropped slightly but the sickness and invalid benefits grew. Those are the benefits where reform needs to be focussed.
I
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/02/ten-myths-about-welfare/
Lindsay you’ve been repeating that myth like a mantra along with the rest of the fuckwitterati for a long time but the numbers simply don’t bear it out and it’s time you faced up to that.
For a while you just looked ignorant but it’s getting hard to see this behaviour as anything other than deliberate lying.
Wow, spending on unemployment benefits has doubled since National took office. And meanwhile the spend on sickness and invalids continues to rise.
So much for the moronic right-wing myth that Labour only got unemployment so low by putting unemployed people on the sickness and invalids benefits.
Truth is they got unemployment so low by running an economy that created jobs.
It helped just a tad that they had the international economy going for them too. Didn’t it?
It would be interesting to compare that graph against the unemployment rates in other developed countries. Not just Australia.
make the graph, then. Stats NZ has the data on OECD unemployment rates.
I don’t think you’ll like the result.
Why do you think I wouldn’t like it? I said it would be interesting, I didn’t say it would please me. I’ll look at it later when I have more time.
One neat graph does nothing to prove a government in waiting. I thought you might want to present a more complete picture to make a case. Do you mean you don’t like the result?
Please do, Pete. Seriously.
You obviously have the required time on your hands. Chop chop.
Try this one then seeing as they are supposed to influence our and the world economies so much – shows some similar (last 10 years) and some different trends for the US, .
Funny thing is they had righties while we had lefties.
You were going to compare us to the rest of the OECD weren’t you?
Or are you stopping now?
Not so pretty but more meaningful:
These countries must have even Toryer governments than ours:
The current NZ rate is 6.6%
OECD total unemployment:
OECD – Total
2000 – 32,370.5
2001 – 33,201.2
2002 – 36,549.4
2003 – 37,566.0
2004 – 37,288.4
2005 – 36,484.1
2006 – 34,025.8
2007 – 31,848.7
2008 – 33,866.6
2009 – 46,714.6
Those totals are 000s, and there seems to be a distinct tweak in 2009 that Michael Mann would be proud of. Seems to correlate with Zetetic’s graph, but we know that correlation doesn’t mean anything.
Yes, correct, they are and they’re presently initiating strong austerity measures as recommended by the RWNJs around the world.
Have you given up on comparing NZ to the other countries in the OECD then Pete?
I’m still very interested to see the results as I’m sure you must be.
PeteG. I can’t be bothered doing the whole graph for you, but each HLFS release from stats ranks NZ in the OECD countries for unemployment. In March, we were ranked 11th best. Three years ago, we were ranked 6th.
Yeah that would be interesting. Especially if you broke down the countries according to where they sit on the spectrum of being free market, mixed, or planned economies.
I’m really looking forward to this graph you’re going to post PeteG, with all of felix’s ideas please, it’s going to be great…
Do you think you’ll have the graph done today Pete? Or will you be posting it as part of your early morning slew tomorrow?
Let us know, won’t you? Don’t want to miss it.
If the wingnut view of the world is right the number of bludgers has increased since the election of John Key by 100,000. Why would this have caused this massive outbreak of bludgerism?
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I don’t know which wingnuts you’re talking about.
The level of bludgerism is going to be somewhat below the lowest number of unemployed during Labour’s nine years – a fair proportion of that base level will be churn, and there will also be a permanent level of unemployable.
There can be a fine line between trying to encourage people to go out and look a bit harder for jobs and being seen to be bene bashing.
It’s a fine line if the jobs are there.
It’s a dark, thick, heavy line if they aren’t.
Agreed PeteG.
So you agree also that bene bashing is counterproductive and not called for and based on a mistaken view of reality?
Labour had money to help long termed unemployed into work. National doesn’t, and does not have the will to provide real opportunities. National purpose seems to be trying to shake the tree that even those who are ill make for the crossing to Australia. The great exodus continues. We will of course have a higher percentage in jails, and on benefits for health reasons since we export our brightest, healthiest and skilled. Even our migrants more here to move to Australia! And we all now that once a kiwi has a criminal record they aren’t let in. So when they do get caught in crime in Australia they will be sent back to NZ. Is like a bad farmer, pulling and eating the best crop and using the seeds from the worse of the crop to grow farm output.
National are fill with people who got where they are by being tough, single minded in a low energy, easy credit, when it mattered that you were a rock in the great wash of money and activity. But now with energy prices rising and credit hard to get (and keep) those in power are unless to our economy since their edicts no longer hold sway, their time has passed. Now we need people with business, not fiscal experience, we need people who think outside the ideological strapped box, we need people who worry about risk and real lost opportunities. The market has not got a lot of spare capacity, money, to suddenly fill the gaps. The tide is out, the rocks are now just rocks, not hidden channels of power and turbulence.
As someone pointed out, greed isn’t the problem, its people who define themselves by their greed, who make greed their virtue, their reason for living. We could sustain them when the cheese was overflowing and they seem to help make the mountains of excess cheese go down, but now they look like little mice starving and needing our charity to keep up their invincible supermen egos.
I say fire National, we can’t afford them.
While I agree with Labours approach of removing barriers to work and creating incentives to work (over Nationals ‘make things harder as an incentive to change’) – I think that taking into consideration the boom-bust cycle of the economy would be more objective.
National ‘making things harder as incentive to change’
You mean:
Attacking peoples fundamental right to raise their own children and not have them raised by the state in child-care brainwashing centers (which the govt force parents to pay for by slaving away in a low wage economy)
Stigmatizing and demonizing beneficiaries by portraying them as lazy unmotivated druggies and alcoholics
Removing even the pretense of a ‘minimum wage’ through work for the dole type schemes.
In short trying their damnedest to make no job, no money = no rights.
The only genuine ‘incentives’ to work are fair pay, good working conditions and meaningful work, anything else is just a stick to beat people with.
There’s no such thing as a “boom-bust cycle of the economy”. That boom bust cycle belongs solely to the delusional capitalist paradigm. Get rid of that and the real economy, the environment and hard work, can supply us with everything we need to ensure that everyone has a good living standard.
Lookng at this graph you’d think there was some sort of global financial crisis or something in 2008.
Lookng at this graph you’d think there was some sort of global financial crisis or something in 2008.
Indeed you would. Anything else you notice?
so simple correlation does not equal causation?
then will someone explain the facts?
and.
we have record exports and overseas funds but the economy is tanking.
where the hell is the redqueen hiding?
All these years randal… and I have to say you’ve grown on me. đ
Keep in mind that the further to the right you go, the greater the population is, so Labour’s reduction in people on benefits for that period, far outstrips the percentage ‘inflation’ you’d expect with a growing population
You forgot the arrow indicating when the global boom ended, and the worst recession since the ’30s hit. I wonder where that would be? And who was the Government at the time? And would it be fair to blame that Government, any more than to take credit for a global boom?
How? And why not 200K?
Yes we’re aware that YOU don’t know how to create jobs.
The record shows, however, that Labour does.
The record shows that Labour knows how to create government jobs that are an overhead.
I haven’t seen a record that shows Labour knows how to create productive jobs. The graph in the post only shows what happened across Labour’s terms, and before and after, not what caused the changes.
You’re right, it could be a coincidence that we always have high unemployment under right-wing govts and low unemployment under left wing govts.
And Labour’s stated goal of full employment, and National’s stated belief that this goal is unrealistic?
Probably coincidence too.
Not at all. Any Govt could “create” 100% employment immediately, if it wanted to. Just like any Govt could “create” surpluses by putting the tax rate up to 90%. The trick is making them real jobs and surpluses, and not destroying the economy.
You may not have noticed but NAct are doing their very best to destroy the economy by giving farmers a free pass to pollute and over-exploit it. They want to do the same for minerals as well.
Why not 170K, like the Nats “predicted” in this budget. Oh, in the last budget too. Which somehow didn’t happen.
Nah.. QstFarmer,
The pattern goes back way, well before the 1990’s. While the business cycle has it’s own global rythyms, there is no denying that centre-left wing govts tend to get things moving.
Long ago it was Bob Jones who said he prefered Labour govts to Nat ones because the economy does better under Labour.
Do you think the economy would always do better if Labour were always in government? Serious question, not just a ra ra Labour opportunity.
Or are government changes a part of the cycles?
“Do you think the economy would always do better if Labour were always in government?”
Based on the evidence, yes.
Where’s the evidence that under Labour we would have reduced 100k off the benefit if they won the last election?
Where’s the evidence that Labour have the policies to get 100k off the benefit if they win the next election?
You’re outdoing yourself today PeteG, asking for evidence to hypothetical questions. P.I.T.W.
Yeah. Like Zetetic proposed a hypothetical solution.
S.T.Y.D.J.
Ah, no felix, many people with vested interests try and speak up their own party and speak down opposing parties. It can get a bit predictable, can’t it.
Can you explain that? Sounds like sarcasm but it’s hard to tell.
If it is, can you explain what you mean by it? Do you think Zet should be proposing hypothetical solutions?
Bit of clarity would be helpful.
I don’t have a party to promote, Pete.
My “vested interests” are that I want a better society to live in. Selfish, I know.
My idea of “a better society” includes measures like more people in jobs and less on the dole. My bias must be palpable.
I’m truly sorry that I can’t just vote for everyone, Pete. I know they all deserve a crack. But I really think I should vote for the parties who serve these “vested interests” of mine or I’d be doing myself a disservice.
I’m a prick like that.
That’s obviously impossible to prove as it’s a hypothetical scenario.
However the record of each party speaks for itself.
“The latest Labour Market Report tell us that the unemployment rate for 20-24 year olds is 12.5%. In reality the number of 20-24 year olds without a job is closer to triple that amount. 34.9% (110,100 out of 315,500) 20-24 year olds in New Zealand are currently not in paid work.”
http://theglobalcircus.blogspot.com/2011/05/elephant-in-room-youth-unemployment.html
In the 1980s the local Waikato MP said in public “That NZ needs at least 7% unemployment to be financialy sound . That’s the Tory philosophy .National despite its denials believes in unemployment.Why ? Because their rich mates can then reduce wages and hire low paid help.
It weakens their arch enemy the unions . They have a fear of working people demanding decent wage ,conditions and equality . The answer to these troubles for them unemployment!!.
Interesting to hear that the whole future of Toryism is doomed by one statement by a local Waikato MP in the 1980s.
Bloody employers. If we didn’t have any of them everyone would have a decent job.
It’s true, they would. And no company tax at all. You may have stumbled onto utopia.
It was a statement echoed by the current finance minister who thinks our present low wage economy (caused by high unemployment) is a “competitive advantage” in the 1990s.
PeteG can’t tell the difference between mentioning an event that epitomises a problem (and demonstrates its non-recent origins), versus using a low-incidence event to besmirch a larger group (e.g. saying too many undeserving people are on benefits because of the mythical “long term beneficiary”).
PeteG couldn’t tell you the difference between a butch lesbian and a supermodel …
Yes because correlation implies causation, obviously this is air tight. Data on one labour government is obviously sufficient. Excellent analysis. Cannot think of any confounding factors at all.
So show us the rest of the data that disproves it JaJ. Pete’s been trying his best but he’s struggling.
It really is up to the proposer to prove the link rather than I to produce evidence for the null hypothesis.
But to entertain you first I’d like to say global financial crisis.
Second I’d like to say that the government in this country is functioning much the same as it was under labours last term. There have been changes but these are relatively minor in the scheme of things. You need to point out exactly what teh national government has done that a labour governmetn would have done differently and make a strong case that these differences could have such a dramatic effect.
They would have convinced everyone to spend up large to keep the economy moving rather than tighten their belts in tough economic times. Or something.
Well, they wouldn’t have given tax cuts to the rich and then complained about government deficits. And then there’s the gutting of the public service, which is obviously good for the employment rate and the consumer demand of several thousand >=average wage earners. Let’s not forget building rail wagons overseas, when we have 2 very good local suppliers.
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Fuck, Key can’t even build a cycleway to get jobs going…
Quite right JaJ, the govt couldn’t have possibly done anything differently that would’ve seen more people in jobs today.
Oh, apart from sacking all those people and destroying the economy of course.
Just a coincidence though I suppose, like everything else.
Eddie’s comment this morning is so fecking on the money I’m reposting it here:
Yep it’s all a coincidence. Policy means nothing. Stated aims are irrelevant. Whatever happens happens and it doesn’t matter who’s in govt or what they do.
Eejits.
If you are old enough you might remember being sold the line that technological change would relieve us of the need to work so bloody hard and give us lots of leisure time and money to spend on it.
I can tell you now the technology to do this did arrive, but instead of more time at the beach / pub / golf it was harder work for the few of us not made redundant.
It was the same lousy fuckers who took the gains from the Roger revolution who had already taken those gains, and who today insist they should not be taxed. Who the hell else can we tax, they are the only ones left with money?????????
And it all went on under National Labour National Labour National….