Hmm someone named Gaylord talking about a soft cock.
I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere but…nope, too easy, i’m sure there are better things to do with my time.
I often wonder if the left are just so deliberately dim when it comes to economic matter – or if the left really are totally economically illiterate?
The problem with any stimulas package is that it is done off the back of borrowing money. Money that does need to be paid back – with interest – a couple of months before the election Clark was harping on about the evils of borrowing more money. Thanks to the fical fool cullen that is exactly what has had to happen, but Bill English is sensibly doing the minimum in order to smooth the roughest edges of the recession – but NZ is but a cork bobbing on the ocean of the worldwide recession.
The National Government is using this time to position NZ in the best possible position to benefit when recovery happens. Borrowing money for short term gain is not a good idea – and will do nothing but delay the turnaround as the borrowed money must be paid back.
But then again if Labour was in Government (thank god they are not) the writers of the Standard would no doubt be applauding the fiscal fool Cullen no matter what he did.
Monty, the government borrows to stimulate the economy in such a way that we are better prepared to make the most of the next upswing. The analogy isn’t exact but think of it as being like a business raising capital to upgrade plant and equipment. Sure the money needs to be paid back but the upgrade means that not only will the payments be easier to make but there will be profit on top.
Of course we could do what we did in the 90’s and exercise fiscal restraint but what happened then is that restraint further contracted the economy and deepened and lengthened the recession.
That meant we lost skilled workers to stronger economies and that infrastructure and productive capital were run down. That’s a good part of why we have lower wages than Aussie, why we had a massive skills shortage (and still do in some industries) and why we have low productivity.
You’re arguing for a repeat of that fiasco. It makes me wonder if you are being deliberately dim.
monty, I won’t berate you with “fical fool cullen” – gee I make enougfh typos myself – but you do deserve to know how the world today is not command-control anymore for, as they say in silicon valley, it is all about interconnectedness.
Bill English and highly likely the government’s whole leadership – (PM on through all ministrys) is follow a leader C-C – and I would hope they transition quickly to being part of the total solution and not out on their own-ee-oh!!!
You said Borrowing money for short term gain is not a good idea and how right that is, though only virtual collapse of the global banking sector (among which in enzed the government’s lead party would resource major support) has drawn this rather obvious conclusion. Personally I would call that the irresponsibility of follower-dom today.
lprent, not criticising y’follow, but has the type here been set lower ( and changed to sans ) or do I need bigger magnification in my reading glasses..?.
The problem with National doing the bare minimum in terms of stimulating the economy is that it seems their plan is predicated on the idea that this particular economic downturn is only going to last another couple of months and at the most a year.
Talk to anyone who went overseas over summer, like say someone who went to America, and they’ll tell you the recession has hit the country with real power. They’ll also tell you that while masses of people were being fired, laid off and made redundant over there, NZ was basically on holiday and now the reality of the situation is becoming all too clear: the job market has become incredibly competitive with jobs scarce and full-time work a luxury, many companies have put a freeze on pay raises if they’re not making people redundant.
Taking the “sharpest edges” off the recession is not working and won’t work because it’s taking the edges off for people who already have money and high paying jobs, the tax cuts are going to have little or no effect as the cuts are – once again – targeted at the wrong income bracket, it’s kind of like giving a band aid to someone with a bruise while someone with a deep wound bleeds all over the floor.
The Labour government steered the country well by paying down debt so we have the ability to borrow when we need to, around a month ago English almost applauded them for this and said, “This is the rainy day the government planned for,” and yet we have little or no real plans for spending – a cycleway here, a bridge here, a new (un-needed i might add) motorway there – what we have is talks of cuts to public spending like ACC privatization, dropping out of the cullen fund, while reducing workers’ rights and sending people to WINZ. As others have said we need to super-charge the economy with money so we can ride out the recession and be in a better position when the market rebounds, if a large part of our society is unemployed and probably sick because of no ACC or limited healthcare what will we do? Borrow money.
Yes we have to pay back our loans with interest; however, isn’t better to borrow when you need the money to maintain jobs rather than wait until the storm is over and then figure out what needs to be done. National’s plans are going to do nothing but prolong the recession and then when the market gains confidence again it will waste time figuring out what to do and spoil a year or two of economic growth.
whats the number of that apollo that blew up? i notice the cartoonist left that off the “stimulus” rocket. and what happens when you get blasted to space? what exactly has nasa achieved in space for all the trillions they have spent? have they found life on mars, well kind of almost. have they discovered other intelligent life forms out there? no. have they managed to make a return on all that money they pumped in? well, not even slightly. this cartoon is a terrible analogy. at least if the NZ rocket explodes we can pick up the pieces and try again. if the “stimulus” rocket explodes, well i dare say too much would have been invested to do anything but sell anything salvageable to the chinese. kind of like the wellington power system last year.
For a brief moment I thought Tighty had made an overnight transformation from a complete fuckwad into a brilliant satirist. But no, it’s all kinds of fail.
all kinds of fail? you know, what if im wrong, i’ll eat my words. thats an election promise i’ll keep, my pledge card if you will
the obamamessiah has fucked it up. the economic arguments put forward by this website and other left commentators are one-sided and therefore flawed. to increase capacity you can borrow from the bank, but when revenue drops, you cut costs and look at ways to increase future revenue out of current income. only a very fucking stupid stupid bank lends to people/organisations that won’t be able to pay it back. so the “borrow to spend” argument is doubly fucked because, and apparently everyone agrees on this, it’s one of the major causes of why we are in the shit anyway. i wouldn’t expect anyone who supports this to get that though.
of course governments just do what they want, but the long term effects will be the same.
“only a very … stupid stupid bank lends to people/organisations that won’t be able to pay it back”
So if the Government is the only organisation able to ‘pay it back’ (heh, remonds me of something else) does it not make sense for the government to act and keep things moving? Unless you’re Iceland, the Governmet may be the only party able to do anything – is that not a good thing, then, if it acts?
if the borrowing bankrupts the economy, the any bank/organisation/that has lent will be very fucking stupid. well actually it won’t matter as everyone will be screwed six ways from sunday anyway.
Felix, jealous you crack ho? need a hit? go hit manchester street and hang out with your pipe fiendish sister, she might take pity and shout you a blast.
Tighty,
You can’t make “election promises” you fucking moron. You’re not contesting an election, you’re an idiot on a blog and you write like you’ve been up all night on the pipe. You should expect piss to be taken.
ho ho ho, original, get that off the latest mtv bullshit you obviously subscribe too?
do you know how i know your lying though? last time i was balls deep in your mums mudbutton she told me your still a virgin.
[lprent: Have you been reading the ‘sod? For a second I thought… Read the policy and tone it down or go to a blog where that kind of comment is tolerated.]
yep Obamas putting a Big Rocket = Big Bang into the US economy
Jonkeys putting a sky rocket into our economy with the explosive power of a TOM THUMB (Now I’m showing my age)
that’s a mighty expensive rocket the USA have there, and they don’t have the money to pay for it so they’re going to consign themselves to decades more of debt. Short term gain, long term pain.
I’m so glad we’re not following that lead and only have one decade of deficits to deal with. Anyone who is able to manage their own money knows it should be short term pain, long term gain.
What would make a better cartoon is something concerning Winston Peters NZF most recent election funding rort (no wonder he is loathed).
And also something about Labour’s admission in its return that it cannot be sure of the definition of what is and isn’t an electoral expense, etc. That has to be the biggest joke of the lot. And it is like a smack to the chops imo for those who contend Clark is one the greatest NZers alive. ha ha ha ha ha ha…
really, vto? The electoral return of a party that is no longer in parliament is more important that the global economy?
I don’t think the criteria for Greatest Living New Zealander is “ability of the political party you previously led to interpret the EFA.” otherwise Hillary wouldn’t have been in the picture when he was alive. A bit trite, don’t you think?
MP, you know exactly what I am saying you twister.
Helen Clark and the Labour Party govt rammed through a law which Helen Clark and the Labour Party couldn’t even understand themselves. That is both pathetic and terrible.
And if you think Winston Peters and NZF are more important than the world economy then that’s your prerogative.
Why not a film about the 19th century missionaries? They must have had some fascinating experiences, travelling the world and interacting with different cultures.
Yes Tim, let’s all think in the short term and look for quick fixes.
What’s the old saying? “what got you into this mess will get you out of this mess”.
oh wait – I just made that up and it’s absolute rubbish. Hmm… Maybe a different approach is needed.
I love the talk of this ‘fiscal fool Cullen’ coupled with a stern lecture about how bad debt is. How does that work, Munty? Cullen doesn’t trash our economy, instead he spends surpluses on getting rid of debt. Now we have proportinally low levels of debt and are in a good spot, compared to other countries, because debt is bad, right? Yet Cullen is a fiscal fool – for doing what you’ve just said is good.
Your monocular vision sure has played havoc with your peripheral vision, Monty.
Matthew you appear to be (how to put this delicately)… stupid. Short term pain, long term gain is what I’m advocating. Instead of massive borrowing to try to stimulate the economy we’re better off with a smaller program that doesn’t raise our debt levels through the roof.
Are you telling me you want massive debt?
You’re welcome to think Cullen did something wonderful for us but all I see is squandering of surpluses and criminal covering up of projected deficits. Oh yeah, and being taken for a sucker by Toll.
You’re trying to have it both ways Matthew, and it’s pretty transparent that you simply take an opposite view of whatever the National government does as your viewpoint. It must really piss you off that Key’s government is doing so well 🙂
It makes me laugh, because you can’t help taking the opposite stance and it makes you look (how to put this delicately)… stupid.
Tim, you’re not just stupid, you are really thick (bugger the delicate bit). Please go and learn how to read a balance sheet – comment when you know what in the hell you’re talking about…
You are totally wrong. In essence there were no surpluses.
That was a public perception formed by the Nat’s and Act lying through their teeth and selectively picking the accounts to show what they wanted to see – ie on a Profit & Loss level. If you took it out into the Balance sheet level and looked at longer-term liabilities, you get the specter of liability of the superannuation system that National gave us in 1975. That wasn’t fully funded and without the superannuation fund (that the robber baron Nats wish to raid) would look even worse.
If you looked at that within the mix, then we have been effectively in deficit until some time after 2050. Taxes should have been raised rather than reduced to cover for that liability. The later it is left, then the higher the cost will be to the taxpayers in a few years.
Usually at this point I hear the mantra of better productivity from the right – but that is a matter of faith rather than practice. A prudent government doesn’t cast dice on future generations. Similarly it shouldn’t write budgets with future possible gains being inked in to pay for future liabilities. If you haven’t already realized the gain then it doesn’t exist in prudent accounting.
The fact remains that since 1975 we had rising debt to ridiculous levels. The Nats in the 1990’s managed to slow the rate of increase. Cullen managed to drop it down. This managed to massively increase the effective productivity of the state sector because we stopped paying 25% or so in our fiscal budget on interest repayments (which is what it got to at peak).
Of course I suspect that what we’re going to get from these bozo’s in government now is a merchant bankers budget. Long on speculative hope based on faith, debt and high on risk. But that describes the NACT’s doesn’t it.
vto – course I do – but the interpretation of that is exactly what I said.
I can’t imagine the Peters’ think making a good cartoon though – how would you go about it? I suppose there could be a ‘no’ sign, it’s almost obligatory. Maybe something about him being asked whether he filed his return properly, before he dashes away in a helicopter…
ha ha Felix, don’t know as I haven’t followed that. But if so same call of ‘terrible and pathetic’ applies. Bloody dipshits wasting all our hard-earned taxes on crap for selfish political purposes.
But you imply that you agree that the EFA is/was a joke and terrible and pathetic. Excellent.
edit: dont understand your 1.24 comment but sounds worthy
hang on hang on, you’re taking me off track. All parties engage in legislation for crap self-serving political purposes.
The point, and difference, with the EFA is that the Labour govt couldn’t even understand the law itself. Really, why pass something that is incapable of interpretation? Bad governance in the extreme. That is the biggest joke.
It is like a massive prang to the side of the Clark credibility jalopy.
I haven’t seen the story about Labour not understanding it – but I still don’t think it would rank up there among Clark’s acts, good or bad, as you describe it. Of course it’s your 2c, as you say, and maybe you feel electoral funding really affects your life, somehow. That’s the problem with ‘Greatest’ anything – it is very subjective. I mean hell, people can’t even agree that the Amazon is the ‘Greatest’ river.
MP, its in a statement from the labour party’s auditors in their electoral returns. It was in the media this morning.
You really don’t think passing a law that you don’t understand doesn’t rank up there? I consider it mind-blowingly reckless, criminal, unconstitutional and extremely bad governance. It stinks to high heaven and just rides arrogantly over the people and all who came before Clark in setting up the current governing structure we live under. It aint just my 2c, it’s my $2billion.
Of course nobody on here will admit such. Which weakens this site’s cred as well. But that’s par for the course.
Bit more MP.. You say “maybe you feel electoral funding really affects your life, somehow”. Classic case of MP distortion. It isn’t the electoral funding issue that affects my life, it is the bad governance. Riding roughshod like that is on the path to dictatorship. Recall how many have described and consider Clark? That H….r word that can’t be used on here?
Of course nobody on here will admit such. Which weakens this site’s cred as well. But that’s par for the course.
hah. If people don’t agree with your opinion, then that is damaging to their cred, and just goes to show their arrogance. Good one.
I’ve had the day off, went and saw a band last night, stayed out well past beer o’clock, so I’ve missed this awesome admission from Labour.
But I’m guessing it says something like that they couldn’t always be sure what was an election expense? That’s not an admission that they didn’t understand the law, it’s an admission that they were unsure about how relevant third parties would interpret the law. It’s sort of the opposite of arrogance isn’t it?
I seem to remember that in the big to do about the Auditor General last time around, he was including things as election expenses that made all sorts of people’s eyebrows twitter. If an MP flew back to his electorate for a clinic, but had a campaign meeting on the same trip, the travel costs were counted as election expenses. That sort of thing.
Are you confident that you could detail everything that someone else would consider an election expense?
And politicians pass laws all the time that are interpreted by the enforcement agencies in ways the pollies didn’t anticipate. ‘unconstitutional’ nope.
And the reason I won’t ‘admit’ such, is because I don’t think it’s true. So go drink your beer, and come back when you might want to explain your position, listen to others and accept that people can honestly have different opinions about things than you. You arrogant fuck.
go and check it yourself. It’s the fucking truth. Thats why the last lot got people’s blood boiling and they were turfed out of office.
Its labour that were the arrogant fucks.
They were hated by an awlful lot of NZ that previously had time for them. Clark lost it at the end. This was one of the prime reasons. You still don’t realise that.
Nah not hungover at all. Are you drunk enough to start making sense yet? 😉
“go and check it yourself.”
Learn how to post a link if you want people to know what it is you are talking about.
It’s the fucking truth. Thats why the last lot got people’s blood boiling and they were turfed out of office.
What’s the fucking truth? That no one here will ‘admit’ things you believe to be true but won’t explain, because it’s just your 2c or your too busy at the moment or whatever.
When you first showed up here you were going to ‘educate’ us lefties as I recall. How is that not arrogant? Are you starting to understand that ‘Arrogance’ is a perception thing.
We all get that you think Labour was arrogant. Good for you. So what? All politicians are arrogant. What could be more arrogant than putting yourself up for the job of running the country because you think you know how to it better than everyone else. When an electorate goes sour on politicians for any reason they start to see them as arrogant. It’s not the big causative deal that you seem to think it is. The fact that they were getting tagged as arrogant, is a symptom of their problem, and a magnifier of it, rather than the main cause.
And how is telling me what I don’t realise not arrogant? I know full well that that is how Labour was seen. Big deal.
What I’m wanting to know is why this particular thing that you are talking about today is arrogant, and unconstitutional and what have you. I note you didn’t bother responding to that part my of my comment. If I might be so arrogant, can I ask if I was close in my guess of what it was about?
Yes, my comment was hot tempered, but read your comments today. What got my blood up was your insinuation that commenters here are being dishonest because we don’t say we agree with you.
If you don’t care to apologise, that’s fine, perceptions can be changed to account.
sheesh you guys are sensitive sometimes. the threads posted on here are equally provocative etc at times. what’s the matter, can’t handle your own medicine? i think p’s b you have slanted off on one sentence of mine and gone all unstable.
I addressed as much of your comment as I could vto. Read both my comments and I think I explain my position fairly clearly.
I’m still not quite sure what your point is though. I know you think that the Labour were all evil and arrogant. But you don’t seem to be able or willing to expand on that. And yet you call me a liar if a disagree with you, claiming that I know these things but won’t ‘admit’ it. Or you make big pronouncements about how I am not aware of things, just because I haven’t mentioed them.
I can handle my medicine vto, but can you justify administering it?
I don’t really think the two packages are comparable. New Zealand’s entire population is the equivalent of a large SUBURB of a major US city, with a completely different political atmosphere (the Dems are probably to the right of National, to be honest) and completely different issues. They are really really in the shit over there, they are thinking of nationalizing the banks for goodness sake.
Different stimulus packages represent the different scenarios countries are facing – and it still remains to be seen whether or not Obama’s will work. How much money is involved means jack when we’ve yet to see the results – more money does not nescessarily mean more stimulus. Especially when Americans don’t have a federal welfare system or federal healthcare entitlement which are things we take for granted here in New Zealand. Obama s cutting taxes for 95% of American workers – but that’s like putting a Band Aid on a gushing wound. Increased social spending won’t create jobs when they are losing nearly a million a month.
I don’t think the two packages are really comparable because the situations are entirely different and therefore the packages are too.
Who took a jet around NZ to show how rich he was? Key. Talk about Key’s arrogance, swanning around NZ when he has already been recorded as knowing the recession (depression) was coming over a year ago. (or did Ashcroft help by paying for the fuel?)
Clark was accused of being arrogant because two bodyguards closed off a doorway for the safety of the PM and inadvertently stopped a disabled person from parking closer. Apart from the fact she had no say in it, do you finally get the drift of the worst case of arrogance.
KEY?
You’re right Vto.
Go to the top of the class for finally getting the fact that arrogance is in the eye of the beholder but it is also about Kiwi fairness.
said “Hmm someone named Gaylord talking about a soft cxxk.
I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere but nope, too easy, i’m sure there are better things to do with my time.”
Bloody idiots. I made one highly specific point re labour passing a law which it didn’t understand, and all that flowed from that, including bad governance in the extreme, arrogance, indicative of why they lost support, smashed cred., etc.
It is pretty simple to understand what I was saying.
You guys think you have addressed all the bits and bobs? You’re just all hooked up on the charge of arrogance.
You clearly see no problem with a govt passing a law which it didn’t understand.
The EFA and labours involvement in it was total bullshit.
and jumskull, show where I referred to any arrogance or lack of of Key? I was talking about labour towards the end. Nothing else. Don’t imply things that I haven’t said.
Now who can’t take his own medicine? You called everyone here a liar.
I’ve explained in my first comment about the ‘not understanding the law’ business. Perhaps you missed it.
But I’m guessing it says something like that they couldn’t always be sure what was an election expense? That’s not an admission that they didn’t understand the law, it’s an admission that they were unsure about how relevant third parties would interpret the law. It’s sort of the opposite of arrogance isn’t it?
I seem to remember that in the big to do about the Auditor General last time around, he was including things as election expenses that made all sorts of people’s eyebrows twitter. If an MP flew back to his electorate for a clinic, but had a campaign meeting on the same trip, the travel costs were counted as election expenses. That sort of thing.
Are you confident that you could detail everything that someone else would consider an election expense?
Care to address it, or are you still just hung up on me calling your own arrogance out?
oh bloody hell. I did read that but didn’t feel it covered my point so didn’t reply. Do you not recall Kings “law of common sense” call? That was because she could not be sure how the law would apply. You miss my point. The labour govt passed a law it did not understand. That was known at the time (King’s admission). The labour party has then again admitted such in its electoral return last week.
If the govt did not understand the detail of how the law would apply then it should not have passed the law. That is my point. It is bad governance in the extreme. And that is where the charge of arrogance arises.
Not understanding the detail of a law at the time of passing is quite different from a court or A-G making its own interpretation of a law subsequently. The difference is a subtle but major point.
As for my own arrogance??? Ffs you took one sentence where I suggested nobody here would admit that labour conducted such reckless and shit governance and strung that out to …
I absolutely did not call everyone on here a liar.
First answer the question about whether or not such was in fact bad governance. If you decide it is then call the labour lot out on it. If you think it is fine law-making then that is fine but I disagree vehemently. Your answer to this main question, which you re-posted above does not address this subtle question, as I explained. And nobody else has tried to answer it.
No one says that the law was completely well done. Yes Labour bears blame for that, but there is a hell of a lot to go around. The highly partisan nature of the way things went down didn’t help, nor did the media with it’s retarded ‘democracy under attack’ horseshit.
These sorts of laws are always complicated. Always. there will always be grey areas. this is what National seized on, grey areas, that would normally be left up to the enforcement agencies to rule on, in the spirit of the act, with commomn sense applying and what have you, and made out that every instance should be black and white.
Ever bought a beer in a pub when you’re intoxicated? Or with the intent to become intoxicated? Did the bar lose it’s license and have to pay a big fine? No, even though that’s what the law says. See, grey areas, common sense. Bad governance? You make a perfect law.
So, your ‘not understanding’ the law overplays it IMV. you obviously disagree.
So, could have been better, but far from the appalling bad governance you make it out to be. Definitely an improvement on the old Act. It’ll be interesting to see how the Nat’s deal with it.
You keep saying that this was the thing that brought Labour down, but there is no evidence for that. You obviously thought it was akin to H8LER, but that doesn’t mean most people did. There were polls before the election about what voters thought the most important issues were, and the EFA hardly even made the list.
Re you calling folks here liars, which you now deny:
Here is what you said:
“Of course nobody on here will admit such. Which weakens this site’s cred as well. But that’s par for the course.”
In my book that most definitely is calling everyone a liar. You may not have meant it, or just considered it a throwaway, but tough.
Call me a liar, based only on the fact that I don’t agree with you, and I’m going to call you out on it. Yes it is arrogant. Actual arrogance based on a belief that your opinion is the obvious truth that no one could honestly question.
Yes that “fire at will” act, passed without select committee due process seems to have all of those problems. What are the implications for benefits? Will it cause people to avoid employers who offer it (I will) etc etc. NACT doesn’t understand the implications because they didn’t look at them prior to passing the pile of bollocks.
I suppose that you approve of that act’s process right?
No I absolutely do not lprent. If any party or govt does that shit then I will call it shit, be it nats, labour, maori, act etc. They are mostly as bad as each other but Clark and the EFA was up with the worst of the worst in NZ history. Ps b, who cares what the old act said, in case you still haven’t got my point – it is the way in which the law was enacted that shit stinks, not the law itself, which is and has always been my point. (I think the law falls short as well, but that is another story)
Reading your post above, imo you either don;t quite understand the detail of the system and how it should work, or you simply underestimate what went on re the EFA. For partisan reasons it would seem.
Our system has major flaws which allow this obscene concentration of power in the hands of the few at the top. In the end Clark was taking advantage of those flaws. If Key does the same then he will be a smelly arse as well. Muldoon was one.
(fuck this is a good ding dong – reckon we still be cyber friends in the end?)
Anything Labour puts forward is positive and will help people help themselves = economic progress for all.
Anything NAct puts forward is negative and helps only itself, at the expense of those who can least afford it = economic recession for all except those who were quick enough to stow their millions in safe tax havens.
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. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of plenty, there was so much economic instability, inequality, corruption and political turmoil. His conclusion was basically ...
Parliament will be leading by example and adjourning tomorrow after a special sitting to consider an epidemic notice and state of emergency. Day-to-day oversight of the government will be delegated to a select committee. But that's not the only overight mechanism. The OIA will still be law, and (so far) ...
Michael Baker, University of OtagoOverjoyed. That’s not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that’s how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about New Zealand’s COVID-19 shutdown of everything except essential services for at least four weeks from midnight on Wednesday. More than anything, I just ...
How much homelessness is caused by house hoarding? We're about to find out. The pandemic has destroyed tourism, which means that house hoarders who put their hoarded properties up as short-term tourist rentals are now offering them on the ordinary rental market:Property investors are pulling properties from Airbnb to offer ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman It seems like such a simple, straightforward, empowering idea: plant trees – a lot of trees – all over the world, and watch the planet’s temperature fall. Who doesn’t love a tree or two, even far more – the right ...
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...
We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to lift the testing and treatment efforts. We don’t want to be playing this game running backwards. Best to play it solidly forward, from ...
Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Michael Baker, and Prof Nick WilsonThe NZ Government must do more to clearly articulate its COVID-19 strategy: eradication or ‘flattening the curve’ mitigation. But to do so means understanding the maths and ethics of both these strategies. In this blog, we adapt our work for ...
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of DisastersThe likelihood of extreme events ...
Last week, the government announced a $12 billion initial package to support people during the pandemic. Today, the Reserve Bank is buying government bonds - effectively printing money - to keep up the money supply during the crisis. Normally such moves would have the right apoplectic. Instead, the National Party ...
I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...
I recently encountered the following prescription from a Faculty of Education at a leading New Zealand University. At first I wondered if it was another product of the postmodern generator (http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/), designed to create gibberish in the postmodern form, but I’m told it is real: The “schooled” society: Towards the ...
The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...
COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...
For the last few weeks, I’ve been urging you to prepare yourself, your family, business, and community for Covid-19. Now it’s time for real action. Yesterday the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced another 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, bringing our total to date to 52. ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 15, 2020 through Sat, Mar 21, 2020 Editor's Pick Now Isn’t the Time to Forget About Our Climate Change EffortsTasha Tilberg, Lindsey Wixson, and Liu Wen photographed ...
by Jan Rivers The article has been corrected to show that it was Ewen MacAskill, former Guardian journalist and not Luke Harding who travelled to meet Edward Snowden with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras. Some of the Guardian’s well-known journalists who did not sign the protest letter are ...
by Cultural Worker Late March 2020 amidst the virus. With gigs crashing and burning all around it was without much hope that I called a long standing rest home booking: “ Hi, I’m supposed to be entertaining at your place this afternoon – is it still on?” “”If you don’t ...
Whenever people demand real change from their politicians, we're told that "politics is the art of the possible". The implication is that change isn't possible, so we'd better just get used to the sucky status quo. But now that there's a pandemic, a lot of things we were previously told ...
Together: In leading New Zealand through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Prime Minister could do a lot worse than allow herself to be guided by the spirit of collective sacrifice and co-operation that animated the New Zealanders of 80 years ago. Most Kiwis alive today have had no opportunity to prove their ...
It is said that generals fight the last war. In the case of the early stages of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) they had learned from the Great Depression of the 1930s and they fought intelligently and successfully. Later their advice would be ignored in favour of the Austerians who ...
Solidarity Forever: All over the world, the arrival of the Covid-19 virus has exposed the fragility of the walls we erect around ourselves and our loved ones. It has shattered our illusions of autonomy and revealed to us how utterly dependent we all are on other human-beings. Finally, we see ...
Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...
by Daphna Whitmore Abortion is no longer in the Crimes Act in New Zealand. The law reform passed yesterday and now abortion is a medical matter between a woman and her doctor. Many women’s groups and progressive people have campaigned for reform for decades. The women’s liberation movement and some ...
Doug Specht, University of Westminster and Julio Gimenez, University of Westminster When fake news, misreporting and alternative facts are everywhere, reading the news can be a challenge. Not only is there plenty of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other scientific topics floating around social media, you also ...
Michael Baker, University of Otago and Nick Wilson, University of OtagoWith some of the toughest border restrictions and a newly-announced NZ$500 million boost to health services, New Zealand is among a small number of countries with a strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand is also fortunate in ...
As expected, the government has introduced a sessional order to allow Parliament to operate during the pandemic. You can read it on the Order Paper here, but the short version is that questions and motions can be filed electronicly, select committees can work remotely, and the the Business Committee can ...
Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology; Timothy Graham, Queensland University of Technology, and Tobias R. Keller, Queensland University of Technology News and views about coronavirus has spread via social media in a way that no health emergency has done before. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ...
So you’ve recently returned from overseas, come into contact with someone who tested positive, got a bit of a dry cough yourself or perhaps just want to self isolate for 14 days to avoid other people who might have COVID-19. Here are a few tips and tricks to help get ...
Our Good Fortune: Precisely because she has never been an ideologue (she calls herself a “pragmatic idealist”) Jacinda Ardern has a political nimbleness and spontaneity which, when infused with her exceptional emotional intelligence, produces spectacular demonstrations of leadership. Jacinda's empathic political personality contrasts sharply with the less-than-sunny ways of her ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill has just passed its third reading, 68-51. NZ First MPs bailed because their referendum amendment didn't pass, but there were plenty of MPs to provide a majority without them. The bill is a long way from perfect - most significantly, it subjects pregnant people who need ...
As most of the world tries to suppress the coronavirus spread, some countries are going it alone – trying to manage the pandemic through so-called “herd immunity”. Herd immunity means letting a large number of people catch a disease, and hence develop immunity to it, to stop the virus spreading. ...
So, as I sit at home with a very, very slight headache (i.e. not at work when I would otherwise be so), the now familiar figure of Ashley Bloomfield reports eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19 including two in Waikato. A surprise, given that we had just twelve yesterday? No. ...
Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
We know some people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill drawn from the ballot today seeks to overhaul the youth justice system by instigating a system of demerit points for offences committed by young offenders. “The ‘Youth Justice Demerit Point System’ will put an end to ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign AffairsHonourable Ministers, Members of Parliament, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished guests and official delegates, ladies and gentlemen – Welcome to you all.We are also privileged to have with us here today Ms Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Disarmament and Arms ControlThe Public Advisory Committee for Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC) is holding a Parliamentary Symposium on Tuesday to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) hosted by PACDAC Chair and Under-Secretary for Disarmament and ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentThe Provincial Growth Fund is investing $6 million in a land-based aquaculture pilot to see whether yellowtail kingfish can be commercially farmed in Northland, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today.A recirculating land-based aquaculture system will be built and operated ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for ForestryForestry Minister Shane Jones has announced two One Billion Trees programme grants of more than $1.18 million to help hapu and iwi in Northland restore whenua and moana.“Many communities around Aotearoa have benefited from One Billion Trees funding since the programme was launched ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign AffairsAhead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to establish truth, accountability and justice for the downing of Flight MH17 ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterThe Government is investing $19.9 million through the Provincial Growth Fund in a game-changing hydrogen energy facility in South Taranaki, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters announced today.“The development of alternative energy initiatives like this one is vital for the Taranaki region’s economy. ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Minister for Foreign AffairsForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand is partnering with countries in the Pacific to ensure they are prepared for, and able to respond to the global threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19).“There are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...
New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...
Good afternoon The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19. Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...
The Government is announcing significant further support for the economy, workers and businesses as the country unites to prepare for Alert Level 4 in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet today agreed to remove the cap on the Government’s wage subsidy scheme, which will inject a further $4 billion into the ...
The Government is backing the Reserve Bank’s latest action to support the economy by reducing longer-term interest rates, meaning lower costs for businesses and mortgage holders, and a lower currency to help our exporters. The Minister of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of indemnity with ...
The Government has asked the Commerce Commission to take account of the exceptional circumstances created by COVID-19 when monitoring business behaviour in coming weeks. “The purpose of my request to the Commerce Commission is to make sure businesses can work together in ways that will allow them to provide ...
The New Zealand Government has temporarily closed its High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados and its Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Due to the increasing scarcity of air links in and out of Bridgetown and Yangon, and the pressure COVID-19 is placing ...
Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare has today announced the Government’s plan to support Māori communities and businesses in the face of COVID-19. “Our Government’s $12.1 billion economic package will help many Māori whānau, workers and businesses, whether it’s through wage subsidies, income support and worker redeployment, or ...
The Government and the hospitality industry have worked together to produce guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of COVID-19, Health Minister David Clark announced today. The guidelines developed between the Government, Hospitality New Zealand and SkyCity Entertainment Group, set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and ...
Four stage Alert System for COVID-19 announced New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact New Zealanders over 70 and those with certain medical conditions told to stay at home as much as they can to reduce risk of contact with the virus Workplaces to implement ...
Kia ora koutou katoa I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders today to give you as much certainty and clarity as we can as we fight Covid-19. Over the past few weeks, the world has changed. And it has changed very quickly. In February it would have seemed unimaginable to ...
New Zealand and Singapore have jointly committed to keep supply chains open and to remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker welcomed the commitment. “This is an important collective response, and ...
JOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY SINGAPORE AND NEW ZEALAND AFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIVITY AMIDST THE COVID-19 SITUATION The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis. As part of our collective response to combat COVID-19, Singapore and New Zealand are committed to maintaining open and connected supply chains. We ...
Travel restrictions, closing our border to almost all travelers came into force from 23:59 on Thursday 19 March 2020 (NZDT). All airlines were informed of these restrictions before they came into force. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says “The transit of passengers between Australia and New Zealand has been agreed upon and ...
The Government has allocated $100 million to help redeploy workers affected by the economic impact of COVID-19, with the hard-hit region of Gisborne-Tairāwhiti to be the first helped, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, Forestry and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. Phil Twyford ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is ramping up support for Tairāwhiti’s wood processing sector to bolster the region’s economy at a time of heightened uncertainty, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Following earlier announcements today of a regional support package for Tairāwhiti, Minister Jones has also announced a ...
The Coalition Government has stepped in to protect Air New Zealand with a significant financial deal that protects essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. The Government and Air New Zealand have agreed a debt funding agreement through commercial 24-month loan facilities of up to $900 million*. The ...
The Government has taken further measures to protect New Zealanders from the COVID-19 virus, effectively stopping all people from boarding a plane to New Zealand from 11:59pm today, except for returning New Zealanders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. New Zealanders’ partners, legal guardians or any dependent children travelling with ...
The Government has reinforced its commitment to protecting the health of New Zealanders from COVID-19 through the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people. “Protecting the health of New Zealanders is our number one priority, and that means we need to reduce the risks associated with large gatherings,” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Omar Mubin, Senior Lecturer in human-centred computing & human-computer interaction, Western Sydney University The Australian government has launched an app offering up-to-date advice and information on the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus Australia app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, ...
The Prime Minister has praised Australia's move to make some Kiwis eligible for its wage subsidy scheme, which Australia's PM says is "more generous" than New Zealand's one. ...
Russia Today (sometimes referred to as Kremlin TV) does not have a widespread reputation as a fair and balanced news source. But occasionally if they say it’s raining, you might want to check outside to see if you need an umbrella.So there is some interest in its reporting of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Physical Culture, University of Waikato During New Zealand’s four-week lockdown, all sporting facilities, back-country walking trails and parks are closed to stop the spread of coronavirus and avoid injuries. But New Zealanders have high ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Hamilton, Visiting Scholar, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The A$130 billion payment will be benefit six million of Australia’s 13 million employees through their employers. It will ensure each employee kept on in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The secret sauce in the government’s A$130 billion JobKeeper payment is that it will be retrospective, in the best possible way. It’ll not only go to employers who have suffered ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michaela Pascoe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Exercise and Mental Health, Victoria University Medicare-subsidised psychology and psychiatry sessions, as well as GP visits, can now take place via phone and video calls – if clinicians agree not to charge patients out-of-pocket costs for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Sedger, Senior Lecturer, Head of the Viruses and Cytokine Biology group in the School of Life Science, University of Technology Sydney While many scientists are working on developing a coronavirus vaccine, others are busy testing antiviral drugs. Vaccines are generally only ...
Alex Casey delivers her last power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where Lily and Lesina make their final decisions. Click here for previous instalments. Well me homies, we have reached the end of our journey together. At times it was slow, like a food tech teacher dragging his brogues through the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Morrison government will provide a flat $1,500 a fortnight JobKeeper payment per employee for businesses to retain or rehire nearly six million workers, in a massive $130 billion six-month wage subsidy scheme to limit ...
David Downs - who doesn't even drink coffee - explains his plan to ensure some favorite cafés are still around when we emerge from lockdown Are you already sick of instant coffee, and missing your morning brew? Well, while you may have to suffer barrista-withdrawal symptoms for few more weeks, moves ...
By RNZ News The Auckland girl’s secondary school Marist College has New Zealand’s biggest Covid-19 cluster with 47 confirmed and probable cases. It is the biggest cluster of infection being tracked by NZ health authorities. The board chairperson Stephen Dallow said the confirmed cases included teachers, students and adults ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Irving, Adjunct Professor, University of Technology Sydney Blood is like milk, not toilet paper. You can’t just buy a lot of it and save it for later – you need to have a regular, fresh supply for patients who need it. ...
Newsroom Pro’s Bernard Hickey and Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr zoom out to lunch to talk about the Reserve Bank’s latest move to help banks lend to corporates. The Reserve Bank announced on Monday it would lend to banks dealing with distressed corporate borrowers, opening a new weekly Open ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacinta Carroll, Senior Research Fellow, Counter Terrorism and Social Cohesion, National Security College, Australian National University There are now nearly 300 cases of COVID-19 linked to passengers who disembarked from the Ruby Princess cruise ship without any health checks from authorities. Amid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Brayshaw, Lecturer, Fashion and Design History, Theory, and Thinking, University of Technology Sydney Once again, global crafting communities are stepping up to help in a crisis, sewing face masks desperately needed in American hospitals to help stop the spread of COVID-19. ...
Retailer Smiths City has reached an agreement with ASB Bank to delay a $1.5 million dollar repayment of a loan due tomorrow. It also said it is starting talks with potential investors to support the business. The company said Covid-19 has caused an unforeseen and unprecedented shock to the business, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University In 1997, a bestselling book by Jared Diamond purported to explain how the West “won” world dominance based on the good luck ...
Figures from around the world show that Covid-19, while vicious and contagious, does behave like other infections, rampaging quickly through a community, hospitalising a small percentage and causing death in an even smaller percentage. The World Health ...
Video of PM Ardern’s Post Cabinet Press Conference is available here: New Zealand Labour Party - #LIVE: Post-Cabinet Press Conference 2 March 2020 Today Cabinet was focused on the response to protect NZers from COVID-19. Ardern outlined ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin To get a correct picture, we need regional data – indeed sub-regional statistics – because the virus does not respect political boundaries. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get regional data from European countries. The Johns Hopkins data – most widely used by the media (and ...
An extract from Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader, the brand new biography of the prime minister by Madeleine Chapman, formerly of this parish.Out today, Madeleine’s biography of the prime minister is magnificent. We cracked up. We had a wee cry. We’ve never read a political biography like it. Tomorrow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Misha Ketchell, Editor & Executive Director, The Conversation You might have seen recent mediareports in various outlets of a paper, commissioned by the federal government, reporting the coronavirus advice of a group of experts from Group Of Eight universities. Dated March ...
Analysis: On the face of it, New Zealand's epidemic curve is going exponential. But are case numbers really rising for the same reasons as overseas? If you've been following any news about Covid-19 over the past three months, you've heard of The Curve. It looks, variously, like a sky-high pillar ...
MediaRoom column: A decision to block publication of community newspapers under the State of Emergency could be changed tomorrow. Tim Murphy reports. A decision to stop community newspapers from circulating in the country's suburbs, towns and settlements appears to have been an example of officials scratching their regulatory itch. On Friday, ...
A Waikato berry grower has been ordered to pay over $76,000 for employment law breaches. Olde Berry Farm has been fined $50,000 and forced to pay over $16,000 in unpaid wages and holiday pay. Its managing director, Andrew Molly, has been made personally responsible fo an additional $10,000 in penalties. ...
The Government has set up a dedicated service for reporting fears of price gouging, as Jacinda Ardern flags the expansion of "essential services" Kiwis concerned about potential price gouging at supermarkets during the coronavirus lockdown can now report the issue directly to government officials, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. Ardern ...
A new report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment into the ban on new petroleum exploration permits outside onshore Taranaki has been welcomed by the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ). "This ...
The takeover offer for Abano Healthcare is off the table - a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company said the $150-million takeover scheme agreement with Adams NZ Bidco Ltd. was terminated, with no fees payable by either party, as a result as the material adverse change to the company's ...
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contribution to the successful mission to train members of the Iraqi Security Forces to combat ISIS is at an end and the first troops from the final contingent have arrived home. Since December the NZDF has had 45 personnel ...
On Sunday it was reported there is a high demand for New Zealand Police's online form to report lockdown breaches. This news should act as a red flag, signalling the potentially corrosive effects on public trust within Aotearoa that may occur in these troubled times. Concerns have already been expressed ...
The Prime Minister is giving the latest updates on the government's fight against the impact of Covid-19 at her weekly post-Cabinet media conference. Watch live here. ...
Watch the replay of our fourth live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact ...
Recognising how much of the burden women are carrying in this crisis - and how much they always carry - may take us closer to a society in which caring work is seen and valued for the essential work it is, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw COVID-19 has thrown a window wide ...
You’ve lost your job and your income has reduced due to the Covid-19 crisis, so how do you hold onto your home? Mortgage adviser Cameron Marcroft talks to Bonnie Sumner.Tell us about the changes you’ve seen since the lockdown began. We’ve had many enquiries coming through from both existing ...
When officials – including police themselves – don’t seem clear on the rules around movement, it makes it harder for everyone to do the right thing, writes Andrew Geddis.Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to eradicate the virus that causes Covid-19 from its shores. To do that, as a ...
The EMA is urging the Government to postpone the planned significant increase to the minimum wage on Wednesday, as employers grapple with keeping their doors open amid COVID-19. Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says that while it may be politically ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Wark, Conjoint Professor, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle As the number of COVID-19 cases around the world continues to climb, hospitals are under increased pressure to provide emergency care for the most severely ill patients. What does ...
Philanthropy New Zealand will release a weekly update to share philanthropic and grantmaking activity and insight as the sector seeks to support communities in the wake of COVID-19. This update is a general public document, provided to Ministers, ...
By Elias Nanau in Port Moresby Indonesia has issued a stern warning over illegal border crossers from Papua New Guinea. This follows Indonesia stepping up its security measures at the border in response to the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. The First Secretary to the governor for West Sepik, Adam ...
As two staff members test positive for Covid-19, police are grappling with ways to keep their workforce safe while still enforcing the rules of the lockdown, Marc Daalder reports Two police staff have tested positive for Covid-19, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said Monday, while nearly 400 others are now in self-isolation ...
The Covid-19 crisis in media has claimed New Zealand’s last surviving radio station solely dedicated to sport. Amid a wider crisis in media funding right now, the first outlet has been forced to close the doors – and it isn’t likely to return.Staff at Radio Sport have been told that the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute New Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates paint a grim picture of the direct economic costs of public health measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, and the need for more government support ...
Tips on how television can help educate your kids, for parents who have to keep working.It feels as if a great many parents are simply flourishing during this lockdown with fairy gardens, bird song and mason jars, daily bongo drum dancing and essays written by three-year-old prodigies about how satisfying ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 76 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, up from the previous day's 63 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now being ...
Supermarkets and some publishers are favoured by the government’s imposition of severe restrictions on what we can do and from whom we can buy during the Covid-19 lock-down. But one consumer watchdog is challenging the legality of an edict by Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi which favours supermarkets while Act leader ...
Robyn Hunt writes on the challenges facing disabled people and what needs to be done to support them as we go into lockdown, and beyond.Disabled people at higher risk need more help. Many of the almost one quarter of New Zealanders who are disabled are doing it hard as the ...
An online focus is coming back to bite newspaper companies, the Otago Daily Times’ editor says. David Williams reports. Despite advertising falling off a cliff, and its community papers dormant, the group editor of the country’s third-biggest publisher says there haven’t been layoffs and it’s unlikely any of its newspapers ...
Cabinet ministers will patch into a video conference this afternoon to discuss the Covid-19 lockdown, including complaints about high prices at supermarkets. ...
Talks will be ongoing between local leaders and Government in an effort to have them deploy both personnel and other resources to Tairāwhiti to support regional measures to contain COVID-19. Mayor Rehette Stoltz, Gisborne District Council ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is joining calls for the Government to extend submission deadlines for Select Committees during the immediate fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. New Zealand Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Old political ...
FIRST Union welcomes the announcements made by supermarket chains Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises that workers will receive lockdown pay increases but is cautioning that the details of these promises matter and all essential workers should be earning ...
By Imelda V. Abano in Manila The novel coronavirus now sweeping the globe has left many countries struggling to cope with rising numbers of infections and journalists grappling with how to best cover this evolving public health crisis. In addition to questions about how governments, health care systems and ...
The government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight in and out of the country - with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight. ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Kia ora e te whānau, welcome to MME with me! I know a lot of us have this little green book on our shelves. Maybe you bought it and never got round to opening ...
The Free Speech Coalition is preparing to launch an urgent judicial review of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage’s decision to deem non-daily newspapers and publications not an essential service for the purposes of the COVID-19 Level-4 nationwide shutdown. ...
Increasingly concerned home support workers are worried that without adequate personal protective equipment and mandatory protocols for risk assessments, they may end up spreading COVID-19 around the homes and communities they work in. The news that 21 ...
The kiwifruit industry is fighting for survival as it tries to pick and pack the season's crop while enforcing Covid-19 restrictions. The apple industry is also predicting problems with at least 10 percent of the crop not likely to be picked. The nationwide lockdown has come right in the middle ...
The Reserve Bank is ramping up support for businesses and banks by accepting corporate debt and other assets as security for loans to banks. The latest measure is designed to pump more money into the economy through the banking system. Assistant governor Christian Hawkesby said the aim is to encourage ...
The first days of national lockdown have truly brought out the best in our social media stars. Alex Casey counts down the classics. Yesterday I got served with the Instagram notification that normally only pops up around Christmas-time. “You’re all caught up!” it chirps, “you’ve seen every post from the last ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun goes full epistolary, with a letter to Hone Tūwhare – and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions.Kia ...
By John Gerritsen of RNZ News The $5 billion foreign student industry is facing a massive downturn with as many as half of this year’s enrolments now in doubt. Immigration New Zealand figures show that of 76,203 valid study visas at 15 March, 60,348 were in New Zealand, and ...
As New Zealand looks toward an uncertain future in all areas of life, Auckland school principal Claire Amos sees an opportunity to change high school education for the better. The last week has been an interesting one for school leaders. Monday arrived, it was all on – schools were closing the ...
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report, she’s expecting the country to be restricted to visitors for some time after the lockdown period ends. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University 2019 was the year Australians confronted the fact that a healthy environment is more than just a pretty waterfall in a national park; a nice ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yale Z Wong, Research Associate, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney ZMinimising health risks has rightly been the focus of discussion during the coronavirus outbreak. This includes efforts to protect both frontline public transport employees and the travelling public. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tyler Riordan, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Along with home delivery of groceries, pharmaceuticals and alcohol, demand for food delivery is booming. Services such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo have become essential to cafes and restaurants that can now only sell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nishanathe Dahanayake, PhD Candidate, Ethics/Philosophy, University of New England The coronavirus pandemic is challenging our health, work, family, food and fun. It’s also disturbing our peace of mind and forcing us to question our own existence. We are each asking our own ...
ASB sees 6 percent GDP fall in 2020; Chorus, King Salmon and Stride reassure their profits are still on track; Augusta withdraws fund on rent relief fears; US stocks slide again; US jobs data looms ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Conditions for leaving lockdown explored, nation’s first death from Covid-19 reported, and Australian govt continues to discriminate against NZers.When will the Covid-19 lockdown across New Zealand end? Short answer – when it’s actually safe to do so. Officially, the current state ...
Worth a thousand words 
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...6 hours ago
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...8 hours ago
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...9 hours ago
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...10 hours ago
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...11 hours ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...11 hours ago
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...1 day ago
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...1 day ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020 Articles Linked to on Facebook Sun, Mar 22, 2020 In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...2 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...2 days ago
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...3 days ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...3 days ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...3 days ago
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...3 days ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...5 days ago
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...1 week ago
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...1 week ago
I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...1 week ago
The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...1 week ago
COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...1 week ago
Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...2 weeks ago
Some fave speeches: ...2 weeks ago
Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...2 weeks ago
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark. "Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...6 hours ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...2 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...5 days ago
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Omar Mubin, Senior Lecturer in human-centred computing & human-computer interaction, Western Sydney University The Australian government has launched an app offering up-to-date advice and information on the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus Australia app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, ...24 mins ago
The Prime Minister has praised Australia's move to make some Kiwis eligible for its wage subsidy scheme, which Australia's PM says is "more generous" than New Zealand's one. ...29 mins ago
Russia Today (sometimes referred to as Kremlin TV) does not have a widespread reputation as a fair and balanced news source. But occasionally if they say it’s raining, you might want to check outside to see if you need an umbrella. So there is some interest in its reporting of ...50 mins ago
Alex Casey delivers her last power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where Lily and Lesina make their final decisions. Click here for previous instalments. Well me homies, we have reached the end of our journey together. At times it was slow, like a food tech teacher dragging his brogues through the ...3 hours ago
David Downs - who doesn't even drink coffee - explains his plan to ensure some favorite cafés are still around when we emerge from lockdown Are you already sick of instant coffee, and missing your morning brew? Well, while you may have to suffer barrista-withdrawal symptoms for few more weeks, moves ...3 hours ago
Newsroom Pro’s Bernard Hickey and Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr zoom out to lunch to talk about the Reserve Bank’s latest move to help banks lend to corporates. The Reserve Bank announced on Monday it would lend to banks dealing with distressed corporate borrowers, opening a new weekly Open ...5 hours ago
Retailer Smiths City has reached an agreement with ASB Bank to delay a $1.5 million dollar repayment of a loan due tomorrow. It also said it is starting talks with potential investors to support the business. The company said Covid-19 has caused an unforeseen and unprecedented shock to the business, ...6 hours ago
Figures from around the world show that Covid-19, while vicious and contagious, does behave like other infections, rampaging quickly through a community, hospitalising a small percentage and causing death in an even smaller percentage. The World Health ...6 hours ago
Analysis: On the face of it, New Zealand's epidemic curve is going exponential. But are case numbers really rising for the same reasons as overseas? If you've been following any news about Covid-19 over the past three months, you've heard of The Curve. It looks, variously, like a sky-high pillar ...6 hours ago
MediaRoom column: A decision to block publication of community newspapers under the State of Emergency could be changed tomorrow. Tim Murphy reports. A decision to stop community newspapers from circulating in the country's suburbs, towns and settlements appears to have been an example of officials scratching their regulatory itch. On Friday, ...6 hours ago
A Waikato berry grower has been ordered to pay over $76,000 for employment law breaches. Olde Berry Farm has been fined $50,000 and forced to pay over $16,000 in unpaid wages and holiday pay. Its managing director, Andrew Molly, has been made personally responsible fo an additional $10,000 in penalties. ...6 hours ago
The Government has set up a dedicated service for reporting fears of price gouging, as Jacinda Ardern flags the expansion of "essential services" Kiwis concerned about potential price gouging at supermarkets during the coronavirus lockdown can now report the issue directly to government officials, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. Ardern ...7 hours ago
The takeover offer for Abano Healthcare is off the table - a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company said the $150-million takeover scheme agreement with Adams NZ Bidco Ltd. was terminated, with no fees payable by either party, as a result as the material adverse change to the company's ...7 hours ago
On Sunday it was reported there is a high demand for New Zealand Police's online form to report lockdown breaches. This news should act as a red flag, signalling the potentially corrosive effects on public trust within Aotearoa that may occur in these troubled times. Concerns have already been expressed ...7 hours ago
Watch the replay of our fourth live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact ...7 hours ago
Recognising how much of the burden women are carrying in this crisis - and how much they always carry - may take us closer to a society in which caring work is seen and valued for the essential work it is, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw COVID-19 has thrown a window wide ...8 hours ago
You’ve lost your job and your income has reduced due to the Covid-19 crisis, so how do you hold onto your home? Mortgage adviser Cameron Marcroft talks to Bonnie Sumner. Tell us about the changes you’ve seen since the lockdown began. We’ve had many enquiries coming through from both existing ...8 hours ago
As two staff members test positive for Covid-19, police are grappling with ways to keep their workforce safe while still enforcing the rules of the lockdown, Marc Daalder reports Two police staff have tested positive for Covid-19, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said Monday, while nearly 400 others are now in self-isolation ...9 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 76 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, up from the previous day's 63 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now being ...10 hours ago
Supermarkets and some publishers are favoured by the government’s imposition of severe restrictions on what we can do and from whom we can buy during the Covid-19 lock-down. But one consumer watchdog is challenging the legality of an edict by Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi which favours supermarkets while Act leader ...10 hours ago
An online focus is coming back to bite newspaper companies, the Otago Daily Times’ editor says. David Williams reports. Despite advertising falling off a cliff, and its community papers dormant, the group editor of the country’s third-biggest publisher says there haven’t been layoffs and it’s unlikely any of its newspapers ...10 hours ago
Cabinet ministers will patch into a video conference this afternoon to discuss the Covid-19 lockdown, including complaints about high prices at supermarkets. ...10 hours ago
The kiwifruit industry is fighting for survival as it tries to pick and pack the season's crop while enforcing Covid-19 restrictions. The apple industry is also predicting problems with at least 10 percent of the crop not likely to be picked. The nationwide lockdown has come right in the middle ...12 hours ago
The Reserve Bank is ramping up support for businesses and banks by accepting corporate debt and other assets as security for loans to banks. The latest measure is designed to pump more money into the economy through the banking system. Assistant governor Christian Hawkesby said the aim is to encourage ...12 hours ago
Supermarkets are set to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday as the Government places extra scrutiny on their behaviour and pricing. ...14 hours ago
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report, she’s expecting the country to be restricted to visitors for some time after the lockdown period ends. ...14 hours ago
ASB sees 6 percent GDP fall in 2020; Chorus, King Salmon and Stride reassure their profits are still on track; Augusta withdraws fund on rent relief fears; US stocks slide again; US jobs data looms ...16 hours ago
IrishBIll: you were banned some time ago. Go have sock puppet conversations with yourself elsewhere.
My thoughts exactly…let the baying begin.
Soon you will see the ill effects of obamas way. Size does matter.
Good cartoon.
While I agree stimulus packages are needed, what is being done about the root causes of what has gone wrong?
Are the same bunch of corporate crooks still going to be running the show five years down the track?
Are they just “waiting for the dust to settle” before its back to business as usual?
“Are the same bunch of corporate crooks still going to be running the show five years down the track?”
Yep. Nothing is really going to change, no “democratic” government in the world has the stones to take complete control of the economy.
Hmm someone named Gaylord talking about a soft cock.
I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere but…nope, too easy, i’m sure there are better things to do with my time.
I often wonder if the left are just so deliberately dim when it comes to economic matter – or if the left really are totally economically illiterate?
The problem with any stimulas package is that it is done off the back of borrowing money. Money that does need to be paid back – with interest – a couple of months before the election Clark was harping on about the evils of borrowing more money. Thanks to the fical fool cullen that is exactly what has had to happen, but Bill English is sensibly doing the minimum in order to smooth the roughest edges of the recession – but NZ is but a cork bobbing on the ocean of the worldwide recession.
The National Government is using this time to position NZ in the best possible position to benefit when recovery happens. Borrowing money for short term gain is not a good idea – and will do nothing but delay the turnaround as the borrowed money must be paid back.
But then again if Labour was in Government (thank god they are not) the writers of the Standard would no doubt be applauding the fiscal fool Cullen no matter what he did.
Monty, the government borrows to stimulate the economy in such a way that we are better prepared to make the most of the next upswing. The analogy isn’t exact but think of it as being like a business raising capital to upgrade plant and equipment. Sure the money needs to be paid back but the upgrade means that not only will the payments be easier to make but there will be profit on top.
Of course we could do what we did in the 90’s and exercise fiscal restraint but what happened then is that restraint further contracted the economy and deepened and lengthened the recession.
That meant we lost skilled workers to stronger economies and that infrastructure and productive capital were run down. That’s a good part of why we have lower wages than Aussie, why we had a massive skills shortage (and still do in some industries) and why we have low productivity.
You’re arguing for a repeat of that fiasco. It makes me wonder if you are being deliberately dim.
Great graphic!
monty, I won’t berate you with “fical fool cullen” – gee I make enougfh typos myself – but you do deserve to know how the world today is not command-control anymore for, as they say in silicon valley, it is all about interconnectedness.
Bill English and highly likely the government’s whole leadership – (PM on through all ministrys) is follow a leader C-C – and I would hope they transition quickly to being part of the total solution and not out on their own-ee-oh!!!
You said Borrowing money for short term gain is not a good idea and how right that is, though only virtual collapse of the global banking sector (among which in enzed the government’s lead party would resource major support) has drawn this rather obvious conclusion. Personally I would call that the irresponsibility of follower-dom today.
lprent, not criticising y’follow, but has the type here been set lower ( and changed to sans ) or do I need bigger magnification in my reading glasses..?.
The problem with National doing the bare minimum in terms of stimulating the economy is that it seems their plan is predicated on the idea that this particular economic downturn is only going to last another couple of months and at the most a year.
Talk to anyone who went overseas over summer, like say someone who went to America, and they’ll tell you the recession has hit the country with real power. They’ll also tell you that while masses of people were being fired, laid off and made redundant over there, NZ was basically on holiday and now the reality of the situation is becoming all too clear: the job market has become incredibly competitive with jobs scarce and full-time work a luxury, many companies have put a freeze on pay raises if they’re not making people redundant.
Taking the “sharpest edges” off the recession is not working and won’t work because it’s taking the edges off for people who already have money and high paying jobs, the tax cuts are going to have little or no effect as the cuts are – once again – targeted at the wrong income bracket, it’s kind of like giving a band aid to someone with a bruise while someone with a deep wound bleeds all over the floor.
The Labour government steered the country well by paying down debt so we have the ability to borrow when we need to, around a month ago English almost applauded them for this and said, “This is the rainy day the government planned for,” and yet we have little or no real plans for spending – a cycleway here, a bridge here, a new (un-needed i might add) motorway there – what we have is talks of cuts to public spending like ACC privatization, dropping out of the cullen fund, while reducing workers’ rights and sending people to WINZ. As others have said we need to super-charge the economy with money so we can ride out the recession and be in a better position when the market rebounds, if a large part of our society is unemployed and probably sick because of no ACC or limited healthcare what will we do? Borrow money.
Yes we have to pay back our loans with interest; however, isn’t better to borrow when you need the money to maintain jobs rather than wait until the storm is over and then figure out what needs to be done. National’s plans are going to do nothing but prolong the recession and then when the market gains confidence again it will waste time figuring out what to do and spoil a year or two of economic growth.
Vinsin. Great summary! I wish I could do that but my brain hurts at the vast conflicts of economic opinions.
whats the number of that apollo that blew up? i notice the cartoonist left that off the “stimulus” rocket. and what happens when you get blasted to space? what exactly has nasa achieved in space for all the trillions they have spent? have they found life on mars, well kind of almost. have they discovered other intelligent life forms out there? no. have they managed to make a return on all that money they pumped in? well, not even slightly. this cartoon is a terrible analogy. at least if the NZ rocket explodes we can pick up the pieces and try again. if the “stimulus” rocket explodes, well i dare say too much would have been invested to do anything but sell anything salvageable to the chinese. kind of like the wellington power system last year.
My god, i think the rocket went completely over your head Tighty. Fail!
I want some of what you are on. Thanks.
Pretty sure it’s meth.
Hahahahahaha!
For a brief moment I thought Tighty had made an overnight transformation from a complete fuckwad into a brilliant satirist. But no, it’s all kinds of fail.
Oh, and nice comment vinsin, spot on.
all kinds of fail? you know, what if im wrong, i’ll eat my words. thats an election promise i’ll keep, my pledge card if you will
the obamamessiah has fucked it up. the economic arguments put forward by this website and other left commentators are one-sided and therefore flawed. to increase capacity you can borrow from the bank, but when revenue drops, you cut costs and look at ways to increase future revenue out of current income. only a very fucking stupid stupid bank lends to people/organisations that won’t be able to pay it back. so the “borrow to spend” argument is doubly fucked because, and apparently everyone agrees on this, it’s one of the major causes of why we are in the shit anyway. i wouldn’t expect anyone who supports this to get that though.
of course governments just do what they want, but the long term effects will be the same.
“only a very … stupid stupid bank lends to people/organisations that won’t be able to pay it back”
So if the Government is the only organisation able to ‘pay it back’ (heh, remonds me of something else) does it not make sense for the government to act and keep things moving? Unless you’re Iceland, the Governmet may be the only party able to do anything – is that not a good thing, then, if it acts?
if the borrowing bankrupts the economy, the any bank/organisation/that has lent will be very fucking stupid. well actually it won’t matter as everyone will be screwed six ways from sunday anyway.
Felix, jealous you crack ho? need a hit? go hit manchester street and hang out with your pipe fiendish sister, she might take pity and shout you a blast.
Good idea, I’ll do that as soon as I’ve finished with your Mum.
[lprent: Felix – there is no call for that. Tone it down]
Tighty,
You can’t make “election promises” you fucking moron. You’re not contesting an election, you’re an idiot on a blog and you write like you’ve been up all night on the pipe. You should expect piss to be taken.
Perhaps a liver too, mines playing up.
ho ho ho, original, get that off the latest mtv bullshit you obviously subscribe too?
do you know how i know your lying though? last time i was balls deep in your mums mudbutton she told me your still a virgin.
[lprent: Have you been reading the ‘sod? For a second I thought… Read the policy and tone it down or go to a blog where that kind of comment is tolerated.]
The words are to, you’re and Mum’s. Moron.
yep Obamas putting a Big Rocket = Big Bang into the US economy
Jonkeys putting a sky rocket into our economy with the explosive power of a TOM THUMB (Now I’m showing my age)
Every one of NASA’s Saturn V rockets flew successfully, even in testing.
P.S. CAPTCHA: organization women.
(Today being http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/ pay equity faxathon day)
that’s a mighty expensive rocket the USA have there, and they don’t have the money to pay for it so they’re going to consign themselves to decades more of debt. Short term gain, long term pain.
I’m so glad we’re not following that lead and only have one decade of deficits to deal with. Anyone who is able to manage their own money knows it should be short term pain, long term gain.
That is a partial cartoon and misses a whole lot. I don’t rate it
Aww, did you want to see all of the big shiny rocket?
(sorry vto, couldn’t resist)
ha ha, silly.
What would make a better cartoon is something concerning Winston Peters NZF most recent election funding rort (no wonder he is loathed).
And also something about Labour’s admission in its return that it cannot be sure of the definition of what is and isn’t an electoral expense, etc. That has to be the biggest joke of the lot. And it is like a smack to the chops imo for those who contend Clark is one the greatest NZers alive. ha ha ha ha ha ha…
really, vto? The electoral return of a party that is no longer in parliament is more important that the global economy?
I don’t think the criteria for Greatest Living New Zealander is “ability of the political party you previously led to interpret the EFA.” otherwise Hillary wouldn’t have been in the picture when he was alive. A bit trite, don’t you think?
MP, you know exactly what I am saying you twister.
Helen Clark and the Labour Party govt rammed through a law which Helen Clark and the Labour Party couldn’t even understand themselves. That is both pathetic and terrible.
And if you think Winston Peters and NZF are more important than the world economy then that’s your prerogative.
vto,
Why not a film about the 19th century missionaries? They must have had some fascinating experiences, travelling the world and interacting with different cultures.
What great stories!
Yes Tim, let’s all think in the short term and look for quick fixes.
What’s the old saying? “what got you into this mess will get you out of this mess”.
oh wait – I just made that up and it’s absolute rubbish. Hmm… Maybe a different approach is needed.
I love the talk of this ‘fiscal fool Cullen’ coupled with a stern lecture about how bad debt is. How does that work, Munty? Cullen doesn’t trash our economy, instead he spends surpluses on getting rid of debt. Now we have proportinally low levels of debt and are in a good spot, compared to other countries, because debt is bad, right? Yet Cullen is a fiscal fool – for doing what you’ve just said is good.
Your monocular vision sure has played havoc with your peripheral vision, Monty.
Matthew you appear to be (how to put this delicately)… stupid. Short term pain, long term gain is what I’m advocating. Instead of massive borrowing to try to stimulate the economy we’re better off with a smaller program that doesn’t raise our debt levels through the roof.
Are you telling me you want massive debt?
You’re welcome to think Cullen did something wonderful for us but all I see is squandering of surpluses and criminal covering up of projected deficits. Oh yeah, and being taken for a sucker by Toll.
You’re trying to have it both ways Matthew, and it’s pretty transparent that you simply take an opposite view of whatever the National government does as your viewpoint. It must really piss you off that Key’s government is doing so well 🙂
It makes me laugh, because you can’t help taking the opposite stance and it makes you look (how to put this delicately)… stupid.
Tim, you’re not just stupid, you are really thick (bugger the delicate bit). Please go and learn how to read a balance sheet – comment when you know what in the hell you’re talking about…
You are totally wrong. In essence there were no surpluses.
That was a public perception formed by the Nat’s and Act lying through their teeth and selectively picking the accounts to show what they wanted to see – ie on a Profit & Loss level. If you took it out into the Balance sheet level and looked at longer-term liabilities, you get the specter of liability of the superannuation system that National gave us in 1975. That wasn’t fully funded and without the superannuation fund (that the robber baron Nats wish to raid) would look even worse.
If you looked at that within the mix, then we have been effectively in deficit until some time after 2050. Taxes should have been raised rather than reduced to cover for that liability. The later it is left, then the higher the cost will be to the taxpayers in a few years.
Usually at this point I hear the mantra of better productivity from the right – but that is a matter of faith rather than practice. A prudent government doesn’t cast dice on future generations. Similarly it shouldn’t write budgets with future possible gains being inked in to pay for future liabilities. If you haven’t already realized the gain then it doesn’t exist in prudent accounting.
The fact remains that since 1975 we had rising debt to ridiculous levels. The Nats in the 1990’s managed to slow the rate of increase. Cullen managed to drop it down. This managed to massively increase the effective productivity of the state sector because we stopped paying 25% or so in our fiscal budget on interest repayments (which is what it got to at peak).
Of course I suspect that what we’re going to get from these bozo’s in government now is a merchant bankers budget. Long on speculative hope based on faith, debt and high on risk. But that describes the NACT’s doesn’t it.
Obama like Key is in the business of stimulating profits.
Have a read of Michel Chossudovsky’s recent article
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12517
vto – course I do – but the interpretation of that is exactly what I said.
I can’t imagine the Peters’ think making a good cartoon though – how would you go about it? I suppose there could be a ‘no’ sign, it’s almost obligatory. Maybe something about him being asked whether he filed his return properly, before he dashes away in a helicopter…
MP, do you not agree that a govt ramming through a law that it doesn’t understand itself and is incapable of interpretation is a joke?
Are you talking about the Wanganui gang insignia law? I fully agree.
ha ha Felix, don’t know as I haven’t followed that. But if so same call of ‘terrible and pathetic’ applies. Bloody dipshits wasting all our hard-earned taxes on crap for selfish political purposes.
But you imply that you agree that the EFA is/was a joke and terrible and pathetic. Excellent.
edit: dont understand your 1.24 comment but sounds worthy
Was just being a smart arse really – don’t mind me.
Yeah the “fire at will” act really tops the cake for that approach.
hang on hang on, you’re taking me off track. All parties engage in legislation for crap self-serving political purposes.
The point, and difference, with the EFA is that the Labour govt couldn’t even understand the law itself. Really, why pass something that is incapable of interpretation? Bad governance in the extreme. That is the biggest joke.
It is like a massive prang to the side of the Clark credibility jalopy.
I haven’t seen the story about Labour not understanding it – but I still don’t think it would rank up there among Clark’s acts, good or bad, as you describe it. Of course it’s your 2c, as you say, and maybe you feel electoral funding really affects your life, somehow. That’s the problem with ‘Greatest’ anything – it is very subjective. I mean hell, people can’t even agree that the Amazon is the ‘Greatest’ river.
MP, its in a statement from the labour party’s auditors in their electoral returns. It was in the media this morning.
You really don’t think passing a law that you don’t understand doesn’t rank up there? I consider it mind-blowingly reckless, criminal, unconstitutional and extremely bad governance. It stinks to high heaven and just rides arrogantly over the people and all who came before Clark in setting up the current governing structure we live under. It aint just my 2c, it’s my $2billion.
Of course nobody on here will admit such. Which weakens this site’s cred as well. But that’s par for the course.
Anyway, its almost beer o’clock.
Bit more MP.. You say “maybe you feel electoral funding really affects your life, somehow”. Classic case of MP distortion. It isn’t the electoral funding issue that affects my life, it is the bad governance. Riding roughshod like that is on the path to dictatorship. Recall how many have described and consider Clark? That H….r word that can’t be used on here?
hah. If people don’t agree with your opinion, then that is damaging to their cred, and just goes to show their arrogance. Good one.
I’ve had the day off, went and saw a band last night, stayed out well past beer o’clock, so I’ve missed this awesome admission from Labour.
But I’m guessing it says something like that they couldn’t always be sure what was an election expense? That’s not an admission that they didn’t understand the law, it’s an admission that they were unsure about how relevant third parties would interpret the law. It’s sort of the opposite of arrogance isn’t it?
I seem to remember that in the big to do about the Auditor General last time around, he was including things as election expenses that made all sorts of people’s eyebrows twitter. If an MP flew back to his electorate for a clinic, but had a campaign meeting on the same trip, the travel costs were counted as election expenses. That sort of thing.
Are you confident that you could detail everything that someone else would consider an election expense?
And politicians pass laws all the time that are interpreted by the enforcement agencies in ways the pollies didn’t anticipate. ‘unconstitutional’ nope.
And the reason I won’t ‘admit’ such, is because I don’t think it’s true. So go drink your beer, and come back when you might want to explain your position, listen to others and accept that people can honestly have different opinions about things than you. You arrogant fuck.
woooo… still hungover P’s b?
go and check it yourself. It’s the fucking truth. Thats why the last lot got people’s blood boiling and they were turfed out of office.
Its labour that were the arrogant fucks.
They were hated by an awlful lot of NZ that previously had time for them. Clark lost it at the end. This was one of the prime reasons. You still don’t realise that.
“woooo still hungover P’s b?”
Nah not hungover at all. Are you drunk enough to start making sense yet? 😉
“go and check it yourself.”
Learn how to post a link if you want people to know what it is you are talking about.
It’s the fucking truth. Thats why the last lot got people’s blood boiling and they were turfed out of office.
What’s the fucking truth? That no one here will ‘admit’ things you believe to be true but won’t explain, because it’s just your 2c or your too busy at the moment or whatever.
When you first showed up here you were going to ‘educate’ us lefties as I recall. How is that not arrogant? Are you starting to understand that ‘Arrogance’ is a perception thing.
We all get that you think Labour was arrogant. Good for you. So what? All politicians are arrogant. What could be more arrogant than putting yourself up for the job of running the country because you think you know how to it better than everyone else. When an electorate goes sour on politicians for any reason they start to see them as arrogant. It’s not the big causative deal that you seem to think it is. The fact that they were getting tagged as arrogant, is a symptom of their problem, and a magnifier of it, rather than the main cause.
And how is telling me what I don’t realise not arrogant? I know full well that that is how Labour was seen. Big deal.
What I’m wanting to know is why this particular thing that you are talking about today is arrogant, and unconstitutional and what have you. I note you didn’t bother responding to that part my of my comment. If I might be so arrogant, can I ask if I was close in my guess of what it was about?
Yes, my comment was hot tempered, but read your comments today. What got my blood up was your insinuation that commenters here are being dishonest because we don’t say we agree with you.
If you don’t care to apologise, that’s fine, perceptions can be changed to account.
sheesh you guys are sensitive sometimes. the threads posted on here are equally provocative etc at times. what’s the matter, can’t handle your own medicine? i think p’s b you have slanted off on one sentence of mine and gone all unstable.
I addressed as much of your comment as I could vto. Read both my comments and I think I explain my position fairly clearly.
I’m still not quite sure what your point is though. I know you think that the Labour were all evil and arrogant. But you don’t seem to be able or willing to expand on that. And yet you call me a liar if a disagree with you, claiming that I know these things but won’t ‘admit’ it. Or you make big pronouncements about how I am not aware of things, just because I haven’t mentioed them.
I can handle my medicine vto, but can you justify administering it?
I don’t really think the two packages are comparable. New Zealand’s entire population is the equivalent of a large SUBURB of a major US city, with a completely different political atmosphere (the Dems are probably to the right of National, to be honest) and completely different issues. They are really really in the shit over there, they are thinking of nationalizing the banks for goodness sake.
Different stimulus packages represent the different scenarios countries are facing – and it still remains to be seen whether or not Obama’s will work. How much money is involved means jack when we’ve yet to see the results – more money does not nescessarily mean more stimulus. Especially when Americans don’t have a federal welfare system or federal healthcare entitlement which are things we take for granted here in New Zealand. Obama s cutting taxes for 95% of American workers – but that’s like putting a Band Aid on a gushing wound. Increased social spending won’t create jobs when they are losing nearly a million a month.
I don’t think the two packages are really comparable because the situations are entirely different and therefore the packages are too.
Vto
Who took a jet around NZ to show how rich he was? Key. Talk about Key’s arrogance, swanning around NZ when he has already been recorded as knowing the recession (depression) was coming over a year ago. (or did Ashcroft help by paying for the fuel?)
Clark was accused of being arrogant because two bodyguards closed off a doorway for the safety of the PM and inadvertently stopped a disabled person from parking closer. Apart from the fact she had no say in it, do you finally get the drift of the worst case of arrogance.
KEY?
You’re right Vto.
Go to the top of the class for finally getting the fact that arrogance is in the eye of the beholder but it is also about Kiwi fairness.
vinsin
March 6, 2009 at 8:54 am
said “Hmm someone named Gaylord talking about a soft cxxk.
I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere but nope, too easy, i’m sure there are better things to do with my time.”
Who let vinsin loose with time travel?
Captcha: 18th MADMAN
Bloody idiots. I made one highly specific point re labour passing a law which it didn’t understand, and all that flowed from that, including bad governance in the extreme, arrogance, indicative of why they lost support, smashed cred., etc.
It is pretty simple to understand what I was saying.
You guys think you have addressed all the bits and bobs? You’re just all hooked up on the charge of arrogance.
You clearly see no problem with a govt passing a law which it didn’t understand.
The EFA and labours involvement in it was total bullshit.
and jumskull, show where I referred to any arrogance or lack of of Key? I was talking about labour towards the end. Nothing else. Don’t imply things that I haven’t said.
Now who can’t take his own medicine? You called everyone here a liar.
I’ve explained in my first comment about the ‘not understanding the law’ business. Perhaps you missed it.
Care to address it, or are you still just hung up on me calling your own arrogance out?
oh bloody hell. I did read that but didn’t feel it covered my point so didn’t reply. Do you not recall Kings “law of common sense” call? That was because she could not be sure how the law would apply. You miss my point. The labour govt passed a law it did not understand. That was known at the time (King’s admission). The labour party has then again admitted such in its electoral return last week.
If the govt did not understand the detail of how the law would apply then it should not have passed the law. That is my point. It is bad governance in the extreme. And that is where the charge of arrogance arises.
Not understanding the detail of a law at the time of passing is quite different from a court or A-G making its own interpretation of a law subsequently. The difference is a subtle but major point.
As for my own arrogance??? Ffs you took one sentence where I suggested nobody here would admit that labour conducted such reckless and shit governance and strung that out to …
I absolutely did not call everyone on here a liar.
First answer the question about whether or not such was in fact bad governance. If you decide it is then call the labour lot out on it. If you think it is fine law-making then that is fine but I disagree vehemently. Your answer to this main question, which you re-posted above does not address this subtle question, as I explained. And nobody else has tried to answer it.
Is it bad law-making or not?
No one says that the law was completely well done. Yes Labour bears blame for that, but there is a hell of a lot to go around. The highly partisan nature of the way things went down didn’t help, nor did the media with it’s retarded ‘democracy under attack’ horseshit.
These sorts of laws are always complicated. Always. there will always be grey areas. this is what National seized on, grey areas, that would normally be left up to the enforcement agencies to rule on, in the spirit of the act, with commomn sense applying and what have you, and made out that every instance should be black and white.
Ever bought a beer in a pub when you’re intoxicated? Or with the intent to become intoxicated? Did the bar lose it’s license and have to pay a big fine? No, even though that’s what the law says. See, grey areas, common sense. Bad governance? You make a perfect law.
So, your ‘not understanding’ the law overplays it IMV. you obviously disagree.
So, could have been better, but far from the appalling bad governance you make it out to be. Definitely an improvement on the old Act. It’ll be interesting to see how the Nat’s deal with it.
You keep saying that this was the thing that brought Labour down, but there is no evidence for that. You obviously thought it was akin to H8LER, but that doesn’t mean most people did. There were polls before the election about what voters thought the most important issues were, and the EFA hardly even made the list.
Re you calling folks here liars, which you now deny:
Here is what you said:
“Of course nobody on here will admit such. Which weakens this site’s cred as well. But that’s par for the course.”
In my book that most definitely is calling everyone a liar. You may not have meant it, or just considered it a throwaway, but tough.
Call me a liar, based only on the fact that I don’t agree with you, and I’m going to call you out on it. Yes it is arrogant. Actual arrogance based on a belief that your opinion is the obvious truth that no one could honestly question.
Yes that “fire at will” act, passed without select committee due process seems to have all of those problems. What are the implications for benefits? Will it cause people to avoid employers who offer it (I will) etc etc. NACT doesn’t understand the implications because they didn’t look at them prior to passing the pile of bollocks.
I suppose that you approve of that act’s process right?
No I absolutely do not lprent. If any party or govt does that shit then I will call it shit, be it nats, labour, maori, act etc. They are mostly as bad as each other but Clark and the EFA was up with the worst of the worst in NZ history. Ps b, who cares what the old act said, in case you still haven’t got my point – it is the way in which the law was enacted that shit stinks, not the law itself, which is and has always been my point. (I think the law falls short as well, but that is another story)
Reading your post above, imo you either don;t quite understand the detail of the system and how it should work, or you simply underestimate what went on re the EFA. For partisan reasons it would seem.
Our system has major flaws which allow this obscene concentration of power in the hands of the few at the top. In the end Clark was taking advantage of those flaws. If Key does the same then he will be a smelly arse as well. Muldoon was one.
(fuck this is a good ding dong – reckon we still be cyber friends in the end?)
Monty
March 6, 2009 at 9:15 am
I always thought economics was really easy.
Anything Labour puts forward is positive and will help people help themselves = economic progress for all.
Anything NAct puts forward is negative and helps only itself, at the expense of those who can least afford it = economic recession for all except those who were quick enough to stow their millions in safe tax havens.
That applies to countries as well as people.
Jum
do you have a brain? can you think for yourself?
Or is it simply a case of labour good, national bad with you?
If ever there was an example of a sheep from Animal Farm its you.
Ha! You’re using lines from burt! And you’re calling people stupid? If I may quote we burty back at you – pot/kettle…
Again, love this reply function – it lets me be very clear which rightard I am schooling…
Robinsod
who is this Burt and what lines am I using?
I was replying to Jum, and I have not called anyone stupid. How are you schooling me?
Suggest you need to read what is written a bit more carefully before you reply.
vto
Have a cup of tea and a lie-down.
ha ha, been trying but the steam coming from my ears has clouded the way to the kitchen. tell me – is jum a type of banana?