Don’t get your hopes up. The fix is in, you can see the Labour influence on Tea Party (the erstwhile kingmaker) from the leader to their latest MP.
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While the Left fantasise about the 'greedy' 311 'ultra-wealthy individuals' who were the subject of the Parker probe, they might like to consider just how much money wealthy people tend to give to philathropic and charitable causes.
If we look at the example of the USA, we find the following -
'High-income households provide an outsized share of all philanthropic giving. Those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (any family making $394,000 or more in 2015) provide about a third of all charitable dollars given in the U.S. When it comes to bequests, the rich are even more important: the wealthiest 1.4 percent of Americans are responsible for 86 percent of the charitable donations made at death, according to one study.'
And while the Left may daydream that they will 'end poverty' if they can just hammer the rich, we might also wonder why the seemingly unlimited borrowing they are undertaking is not making a dent in any of the issues they purport to be solving. In short, if Robbo has no compunction is borrowing enormous multi-billion slush funds to 'fight COVID' or 'build national resilience', what is constraining him from doing the same to 'end poverty'?
Is it the case that 'the rich' are just a convenient (and traditional) target to explain away Left wing failure and a constant 'chasing of the tail'? When you find out you are pursuing your ideological fixations and making no headway, it must be tempting to lash out with "Arrrrggghhhh, if only we could really get stuck into 'the rich' all our problems would be solved!!" Actually, this idea is at the centre of Left wing magical thinking. MMT was supposed to be the panacea, MMT clearly doesn't work, so they revert to type and start wailing about 'the rich'.
Perhaps 'the rich' can do more good through their philanthropic endeavours than this government can. A bequest of $45 million to a very worthy cause may do infinitely more good than government wastage of that $45 million on a 'cycle bridge' that will never be built.
The Left still assumes that they can create perfect fairness in society if only they just get 'more money'. But even when they go into over-drive on their borrow & spend mania, they still find that the wheels are spinning - and actually all they are doing is causing immense suffering via inflation.
Eric Crampton: More fuel to the fire
Dr Eric Crampton is chief economist with The New Zealand Initiative.
'There are a few budget and macroeconomic rules of thumb.
When the economy is running hot, a Reserve Bank that targets inflation responds by increasing interest rates. Government should not add fiscal fuel to those fires.
The budget projects substantial increases in gross and net debt as compared to the government’s December forecasts. By 2027, net debt is expected to be five percentage points higher, relative to GDP, than had been forecast – despite an improved overall economic outlook.
It makes sense to take on debt to deal with cyclone recovery. But workers and materials to do the work have to come from somewhere; debt doesn’t magic them into existence. And when the government is borrowing $160 million to hand to the video game industry, one wonders whether they are entirely serious.
The government now expects a small return to surplus in 2025/6: a little over half a billion dollars. But the government relies heavily on tobacco excise revenues: $1.7 billion per year, or about 1.1% of total tax revenue. Cigarettes with any substantial amount of nicotine in them are banned after April 1, 2025.
So if the new tobacco rules work as intended, there’s a cigarette burn mark in the accounts.'
Interesting to see Debbie Packer from Tea Party saying derisively the budget was for “the middle class and the rich”.
“Three years of a so-called wellbeing budget and the wellbeing of our people here in Aotearoa couldn’t be worse off” said co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
Presumably Māori people have kids to put into childcare and also have health needs requiring them to pay for prescriptions, presumably they use public transport, presumably they utilise new infrastructure etc etc etc.....
Aside from the 'goodies' dished out to all NZers (includes māori) there are also the below 'goodies' exclusively for māori -
'Budget funding for Te Matanini is part of just over $825 million allocated to Māori-focused initiatives.
It includes $200m to improve Māori housing through the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme, for long-term housing supply, capability building and whare repairs.'
A Budget for the Breeder Contingent - Folks ;)
Likely mostly all the Taxpayer Net Tax Reciprients too
(You know - all those who are Net Tax receive with W4F and Supplements thrown in on top rather than Net Tax Paid into the Coffers)
But alas increasing Rents, COL impact, Fuel Tax Ramp Ups, Interest Hikes, Soon to occur rising Unemployment
may render that target of Robbo's 2023 handouts a Null event as the rest of the year to October sees them
all steadily bitten harder and harder and they get more miserable on Misery Guts Robbo's Fudget prescription:)
This was the budget with 3 names: the 'bread and butter budget', the 'no frills budget', and the 'wellbeing budget'.
No matter how many names they gave it, it still wouldn't qualify as a 'fiscally responsible budget'.
3 more apt names for it would include 'the inflationary budget', 'the last roll of the dice budget', and the 'kick the middle class in the guts budget'.
Never in the course of human history has so much been borrowed, to be sprayed around so recklessly, to ultimately achieve so little.
In times of high inflation, Robertson responds by pouring a truckload more fuel onto that fire!? leaving Orr no choice but to raise RB rates higher than expected. This is insanity. Although I prefer David Seymour's description: "Robertson is financially incontinent".
It is insanity, but they will do whatever they can to 'protect' those they see as they see as 'their people'. The irony is that both 'their people' and all of us are going to pay the price with higher inflation, despite the laughable Treasury crystal ball gazing predictions today. This is a government that says they govern for us all, but they really don't. They believe in class warfare, hence the mounting rhetoric against 'the rich' and the obvious contempt for the middle class (they say 'bourgeoisie').
The middle class will now be crushed between inflation & interest rates, and this seems to be inevitable because there are now zero guardrails to prevent it happening.
Agreed we are in a class war and there are plenty of unashamedly misguided and/or disingenuous self-flagellating supporters of these destructive policies. The wealthy can avoid their shenanigans. The middle class cannot and as you say will get crushed. The poor have no skin in their game. Note to self that I should get Seymour's quote right....he said "fiscally incontinent". Although both descriptions are apt.
The casual contempt with which you dismiss the philanthropy of the wealthy (‘it’s just so they can feel good about themselves’) also reveals a flaw in your reasoning. Why would your (marxist) archetypes, seemingly without a care or a conscience in the world, be motivated to ‘do good’?
Really though, your limited views just go to show that you a certain type of Left wing conspiracy theorist - and as with all conspiracy theorists, you are simply not attuned to the real world with all its myriad complexities.
It’s all very well for the Left to thunder that NZ nurses ‘should be paid what they are worth’ and would be in a fair and just world, but I would argue that the only thing stopping Labour is their own choices. If Labour does not want to see billions blown on extra communications staff, middle managers, executives, ‘Maori health’ bureaucracy etc etc etc then it is entirely within their power to see that the money is spent instead on ‘doctors and nurses’. It is totally wrong-headed to blame ‘the rich’ for the ineptitude of the current government.
In todays ‘deluded Left’ cartoon from rabid socialist Sharon Murdoch - published on ‘Stuff - we see Robbo shovelling a minuscule pile of coal into a furnace marked with ‘Cost of living’ , ‘Health’ , ‘Education’ , ‘Housing’ , ‘Law & Order’ , ‘Defence’ , ‘Infrastructure’ , ‘Resilience’.
The furnace is emitting great billows of smoke labelled ‘Climate change poverty’.
Robbo is looking back over his shoulder, but despite his dwindling pittance of coal is saying “it’s ok, I don’t need more tax”.
So the obvious ‘point’ that Murdoch is making is that Robbo has almost no $$$$ on hand with which to combat things like ‘Housing’ (issues) and ‘Cost of living’. And he hasn’t raised new taxes on ‘the wealthy’ so therefore has a big smokey problem on his hands.
I’ve got two words for Murdoch: government borrowing.
Here are some more words (facts) -
‘Net core Crown debt stood at just under $58b after Grant Robertson delivered his third Budget in 2019; it is now forecast to top $151b in the year to June and nearly $179b a year later.‘
Blaming ‘the wealthy’ for the ineptitude and waste on this government just doesn’t fly. Robbo has known no constraints on his spending: he simply borrows and spends regardless of inflation and monetary policy. He doesn’t have a dwindling ‘pile of coal’ ($$$$), he has a mountain of the stuff. He feeds the furnace alright, but his government will have to own the fact that it doesn’t achieve tangible outcomes.
Cartoonists like Murdoch are frankly disingenuous. They are simply not being honest, and it is a great shame that cartoons like this get published.
The treasury filled with Act party types/sympathisers forecast a surplus in only a couple of years..
Any evidence to back your claim that Treasury is filled with ‘ACT party types / sympathisers’?
Keep your eye on that vaunted ‘credit rating’. Robbo yet to have the annual conversation with the ratings agencies & we all know the state of out balance of payments ledger.
Sickening article, if the attitude of this bloke epitomises the average kiwi voter. "What am I getting? What's in it for ME?" Nothing? oh well then I don't want to pay any tax. What a selfish self centred person he comes across as.
The bludger mentality is alive and well at all levels of NZ society, not just boomers.
Probably a nice enough guy but if that is the average voter that our politicians have to pander to then we can't expect much for the country as a whole.
Looking at his surname perhaps borrowing and spending without regard to the future and not wanting to pay tax is in the Greek DNA. Greece nearly went under but the central banks bailed out the people who lent to them back in 2009.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/natio...0782ec262&ei=8
It looks like he could cut some food from his household budget :p
With all due respect, while I agree with most of what you have said about this guy, I disagree on one point. I think we, as citizens of NZ, and voters, absolutely do have the right to consider what a particular political party, is likely to do to help us/have a positive impact on our personal situation. Right now, when many people are struggling, they have some justification in saying "what about me?" when a budget like this clearly focusses on only one sector of society, and pretty much ignores the rest.
I am hugely disappointed with this budget. Happy for those who will welcome the additional childcare funding - but it was very short sighted of the government to not start that now. My son could have done with this assistance, but by the time it kicks in next March, his two year old will be 3! So pretty useless to them now.
There is nothing in this budget that will help me personally. I am not on any regular medications so the "no prescription charges" is of no benefit to me. There is no public transport in my town, so that's something I can't really take advantage of either.
It is possible to be concerned about one's own situation and also be concerned for the rest of society.
Your comment about his nationality was unnecessary by the way. Judgments based on race say more about you than they do about the person.
‘What’s in it for me?’ is definitely the attitude in this day and age when it comes to the annual budget. Anyone ‘missing out’ on what the media describes as ‘treats’, ‘goodies’, ‘lollies’, ‘sweetners’ etc takes umbrage and stomps about in a state of high dudgeon. And even the people who ‘get something for free’ invariably claim that it wasn’t enough and the government is being stingy.
The annual budget is now seen as a mass giveaway. A sort of ‘Christmas Day’ where the government distributes presents because we’ve ‘done so well’. Just a reminder: the government is currently borrowing $1 billion a week. We are not ‘doing well’.
In our society if people enjoy some of the lowest interest rates in human history and bank eye-popping capital gains, no government intervention is required - because events have unfolded perfectly, and they ‘worked hard and are entitled to whatever they got’.
But if interest rates and inflation go up, government intervention is definitely required because ‘it’s not fair and I don’t like paying these higher costs’.
No matter what strata of society your are existing in, the mentality of the average Kiwi is that the government is a kind of ATM and back-stop that should step in and ensure that you are insulated from the consequences of your own behaviour. If we are not personally doing well then ‘lifes not fair’ and the government must step in. Past generations would have had a different view: they would have seen government as primarily being responsible for law and order & providing essential services such as healthcare, education, and common infrastructure.
In New Zealand when we had periods of very low inflation or even deflation, people were happy to bank gains. Now we have inflation, ‘the gummint’ must apparently insulate us from any pain. This is where the ‘my government is my ATM’ attitude comes in.
What every NZer needs to understand is that nothing is truly ‘free’. Higher government spending means higher inflation. Don’t kid yourselves about this. Higher government borrowing means higher debt servicing costs. A balance of payments deficit has consequences for the cost of our overseas borrowing. The piper always needs to be paid, one way or another. Many of us have been conned into believing there actually is such a thing as free lunch, despite the old adage. But there isn’t - someone always has to pay.
There was nothing in the budget ‘for me’ btw, and I don’t particularly care. I am not going to ever put myself in a position where I am substantively stuffed without government ‘goodies’. Rely on government largesse at your peril.
I have made it abundantly clear recently that I have zero intention of voting for Labour this time round. Had they stepped up and announced an appropriate package of assistance for aged care, including an increase to the care subsidy, they would have got my vote. But that was never going to happen.
I will also not be voting for National, or ACT.
At this stage it is likely that my vote will got to NZF because they are realistically the only other option.
I am racist as well as xenophobic. Anyone who says they are not racist is a liar. It is a matter of being aware of racist tendencies and not giving in to them.
Like I say I think this guys views and outlook epitomise the average kiwi voter no matter how rich or poor.
The Greece thing was to highlight how money printing and low interest rates have produced a lot of bludgers looking for easy answers to hard questions.
We seem to be in an era of profligacy with a borrow and spend attitude, I guess stand up Grant Robertson and Adrian Orr "Cometh the hour cometh the man."
‘"We are definitely a loser," Christodolou said. "There is nothing in the Budget that's going to affect me in any way."
He was really wanting a tax cut.’
————
We are borrowing $1 billion a week. National will bring back $5 prescription charges…with all due respect, that will not balance the books.
The Left are clamouring for tax hikes. The Right and the ‘ordinary Kiwis’ want tax cuts.
We currently cannot pay our way as a country. We want a bunch of things we simply can’t afford. We want to keep all our gains, and socialise all our losses. NZ is currently existing in a state where we simply seek to deny reality, and this virtually guarantees that things will get worse.
Reading comments from a visiting Aussie on Facebook, they were astonished that NZ is apparently in a ‘cost of living crisis’ yet the cafes and restaurants are still packed & the streets are full of the latest Range Rovers, Volvo’s, Tesla’s and the rest. They are scratching their heads.
Is it ‘doing it really tough’ if you are forced to cut some of the fat from your bloated spending?
From government to the general populace, it seems that we don’t like the medicine and are currently refusing to take it, but will probably be forced to at some stage.
If you are a happy consultant spend up large on restaurant meals - with perhaps a bottle of chardonnay to wash it all down - then you definitely will be contributing to inflation.
If you are one of the fortunate Kiwi’s who flipped your Auckland dwelling and banked an enormous capital gain and shifted to somewhere like Tauranga or Nelson, could I suggest that rather than cry for a tax cut you could instead sell the jet ski’s or the boat?
Just a thought.
You will do like the rest, watch your standard of living erode. If you have not noticed, the lack of nurses and doctors, skilled educators, and specialist health care, etc have flown to Australia? You also should be aware, those said stamp duty and land taxes do not apply to the principle residence home ; unless you are encouraging landlordism to remain in NZ?
You’ll find the majority of working Kiwi’s are prepared to pay taxes on wage and salary earnings. They just don’t want to pay taxes on their capital gains ‘earned’ from flipping their dwellings back and forth amongst each other.
In a country where you’d think you’d want to encourage saving - particularly in an inflationary environment - people get slugged with withholding tax simply for having their money in the bank, they get slugged with tax on their KiwiSaver accounts.
Perhaps as a nation we lack basic common sense.
SBQ this is not correct . They do apply,although there are some FHB exemptions and the taxes vary per State.
https://conveyancing.com.au/articles/stamp-duty
‘Years spent ignoring Māori homelessness and a failure to implement effective Māori housing policies breached Crown obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
That’s a finding from the Waitangi Tribunal’s latest report, which examined housing and policy services between 2009 and 2021.
It said the Crown had formulated a definition of homeless in 2009 through Statistics New Zealand without properly consulting Māori, with seven years of inaction over rising Māori homelessness to follow.
“It formulated a Māori housing strategy but did not implement it, and tightened access to the social housing register despite Māori reliance on social housing.”
———
When put together, the Crown’s actions breached the Treaty principles of active protection, equity, and good government, the tribunal said.’
This is one of the ridiculous taxes that needs to go altogether! Why the hell are people being taxed on minuscule amounts of deposit interest? It is costing the government money to collect these pathetic amounts of RWT, and as you say, does absolutely nothing to encourage saving. Nobody should be taxed on deposit income less than (say) $100 at a minimum. If I had my way, they would stop taxing it altogether. Let people who are saving, keep what little interest they earn.
Ok what % is my statement not correct? The FHB DO get exemptions and how about that land tax? You probably already looked that up to learn that it ONLY applies to properties that derive rental income (ie. like a mom and pop investor that buys another home, or in another way as I mentioned before, Land Tax is generally exempt from the principle residence home). The problem for Land Tax compared to NZ is it's charged every year... EVERY YEAR.
Should I clarify "do not apply" to be "Stamp Duty partially applies" but "Land Tax" does NOT apply. The general consensus is still, in Australia their gov'ts do not impose said taxation from Panda-NZ, in a way that discourages the principal residence home owner.
I'm not interested in what % is correct ,you can't make a blanket statement that contains a falsehood.
So you have a FHB exemption, first child come along you upsize .... you will be paying Stamp Duty.
"those said stamp duty and land taxes do not apply to the principle residence home "-Shouldn't Be Quoted
You earn the money and pay taxes on it, then put what’s left in the bank and then get taxed on any interest that’s generated. Our collective savings used to be ‘the fuel’ that funded what was called ‘the productive economy’: banks lent to businesses, savers got a decent return.
These days the retail banks get their money from a Reserve Bank ‘funding for lending’ programme so they can fund ‘residential housing’ so someone can flip that house for a fat *tax free* profit. Nothing productive anywhere to be seen. And savers get the middle finger from everybody.
The 'witholding' taxes are an international treatment of taxing fix incomes from bank deposits. Also it's very effective at collecting because it costs the gov't very little $ to have in place (unlike our Paye system). Sounds like you need would prefer the Canadian or Australian approach to taxation where low income earners get a tax CREDIT which would negate any of the tax witholding you paid to the bank. Our tax system in NZ is so old and out of date that none of our tax brackets are indexed to inflation. Canada has indexed tax brackets for as long as I can remember. So every so many years you have this problem where the working class doesn't have enough disposable income so like today, they go to the gov't and they prod along with a Budget to see if there's anything for the working class (because their incomes are stuck).
You're trying to perpetuate an issue that is generally accepted in Australia. People who own their 1st home, DO NOT pay Land Taxes. But since you're so critical on a small 1 timer stamp duty tax (which in some states in Australia will get exemptions); you believe my statement is NOT correct or not factual.
It would be more accepting to say, yes mostly true with the exception that some places levy Stamp Duty on 1st time home buyers. Your splitting fine hairs here against the general view.
Correct me but aren't all banks in NZ required to have a certain level of liquid cash deposits? The central bank requires the bank that borrows to have a 'ratio' of cash on the balance sheet. It's not like they can borrow 100% from the central bank for all the mortgages. There's a time when the bank should print $ and a time when it should not (QE and QT).
Second, you mention a person after tax income goes into a bank account, and then the interest it earns is whopped with another tax. My question is what about untaxed business income earning interest in a bank account? Usually these business accounts are large value figures so they tend to expect some interest return on the capital.
The ‘funding for lending’ programme was an outlier admittedly, but for 2 years (Dec 2020 to Dec 2022) the Reserve Bank did pump almost $20 billion into our retail banks, most of which flowed into property -
‘The curtain falls on the Reserve Bank's controversial Funding for Lending (FLP) Programme today (Tuesday), with banks having borrowed $19.021 billion through it.
The FLP was introduced in December 2020 with the aim of lowering interest rates and encouraging households and businesses to spend and invest.’
The madness of what the Reserve Bank has done is that they were still providing this stimulus even while ‘raising the OCR to fight inflation.’ -
‘The FLP was a stimulatory monetary policy tool that remained in use even while the Reserve Bank had been increasing the OCR by 400 basis points.’
——
As to your other point, I don’t have the answer sorry.
Another Reserve Bank / government snafu is the ‘LSAP’ programme which has so far incurred a loss of $8.8 billion.
————
‘New Zealand’s Treasury Department has begun payments to the Reserve Bank to offset losses on bonds the bank bought during its quantitative easing program in 2020 and 2021.
Monthly payments of between NZ$150 million and NZ$200 million ($125 million) began in May and are likely to continue until late 2027, according to a Treasury report dated April 13. The document was released Tuesday in Wellington after first being reported by the New Zealand Herald.
The government provided an indemnity for the RBNZ’s so-called Large-Scale Asset Purchase program, which grew to as much as NZ$53.5 billion before QE was halted in July last year. As interest rates have increased, the public liability has climbed to NZ$8.8 billion, according to central bank data.’
You would think that heads would roll over an $8.8 billion (and counting) mistake - but this is NZ. It barely gets reported and nobody really gives two hoots about it. I remember the absolute outrage (ongoing) about ‘wastage’ on the $26 million ‘flag referendum’. What a strange country this is. Not sure how many times $26 million goes into $8.8 billion but I reckon it would be a few.
The Wikipedia page on the ‘flag referendums’ states as follows -
‘Opposition parties, Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association (RSA) president Barry Clark and members of the public criticised the referendum plan for costing $26 million which could be spent on other issues.’
BTW, these days nobody bats an eyelid at $34 million for a Kapa Haka festival:
‘Over the next two years Te Matatini will get $34 million, up from $2.9 million a year.
The biennial national kapa haka festival received its biggest increase in funding since it first started 50 years ago in the latest Budget.
The financial injection has made many pukana with excitement.
"I'm just over the moon," Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross said. "I've had to shut my door because my staff are still jumping up and down outside."
Adrian Orr was rewarded for this massive and expensive mistake with another 5 year term at $800,000pa. I suppose this was because the only people to look more stupid than Adrian were Grant and Jacinda.
The $34million seems like a lot to me for a biennial festival especially if it has previously successfully operated at only one tenth of this funding, maybe Grant is trying to buy back the Maori seats after Meka Whaitiri's defection. Be interesting to know how the $34mill gets broken down and whether this is money well spent.
Spending like this makes voting difficult. You know we need taxpayers to cough up for infrastructure spending but then Grant tries to buy himself the Maori vote with our money. No wonder the taxpayers are only looking at what is in it for ME when they can see clear examples of Grant's largesse if he thinks it will buy him crucial votes.
Regarding the $5 prescription subsidy, I read it was removed because 135,000 prescriptions were not picked up because of cost. I hope someone checks this statistic a year after the subsidies go. As a miserable cynical btard I suspect you will find that the 135,000 does not change much as although there will be some genuine cases of hardship I suspect most of those missed prescriptions is because someone could not be fu*ked getting off their ar*e to get it. As they can just get another one when it suits them. They would not care about wasting doctors and pharmacists time as it is cheap and now free (to them anyway).
These days political party’s get judged societally from budget to budget on what they have ‘delivered’ (exclusively) for (= to) maori. The ‘delivered’ is a euphemism for how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been handed over in any given year. I never hear any talk of how much the government has ‘delivered’ for pasifika, or for the Indian community, or for the Chinese community etc.
The reality these days is all about ‘the maori people’ (in reality the descendants of Tangata Whenua and European ‘colonists’) trying to come to an arrangement with the NZ Government (= the British Crown apparently) on how NZ will governed. This is how it would seem to most NZers I feel, including all the large immigrant communities that exist in what is ostensibly supposed to be a modern democracy.
I wonder how a Ti Pati Maori MP can harangue the nation about the ‘evils of colonialism’ - about which we are meant to hang our heads in shame in perpetuity - when that person would themselves literally not exist if it was not for their colonial bloodline. It is the ultimate in self hate to reject everything about ‘evil colonialism’ when when you yourself are living and breathing product of the remarkable encounter that occurred between people that came from different ethnic origins.
Rather than celebrate the unique ethnic melting-pot that exists in many modern NZers - where their descendants hail from both sides of the signatory parties - we get this completely disingenuous denial of their European heritage, and this denial is supported at every level by the PTB - government, media, academia.
We are currently unable to have a national conversation about where our modern democracy is heading because the topic has been deemed closed by media, government, academia. They tell us everything has been settled and agreed upon, and then all hell breaks lose when the reality of ‘co-governance’ is revealed. And then the process of mollifying and quieting the general populace begins again.
We are simply unable to have this national conversation because anyone raising the topic is instantly branded ‘racist’ and a ‘dog whistler’ even though the race based policies are the ones being objected to!
Even asking a legitimate question such as why Ka Mate is not cancelled as it was created by a literal conqueror and enslaver is not permitted. The enormous burden and tidal wave of guilt and admonishment for ‘past wrongs’ is to be born by the Pakeha and the Pakeha alone. We are supposed to deny that the Māori lived by the ‘law of conquest’, even though it is an historical fact that they did.
Where is this shameful denial of large parts of the true history of New Zealand leading us? Why could defeated maori nation states confiscate land from others after wars, but Europeans doing the same is inherently ‘evil’? Why are we being taught to think of ourselves as shameful colonists who ‘stole’ land even when it was bought and paid for?
What a very strange country this is. I wonder how much celebrating of her Irish heritage Debbie Ngarewa-Packer does. Does she turn up in Parliament dressed in the green of the Emerald Isle, guinness in hand? I’m yet to see it.
She is literally fully one half Irish, her mother was an Irish immigrant. Packers recent links to Europe are stronger than mine as far as I can tell.
————
And what can you tell us about your mum?
“Well, my dad was Hemi Ngarewa and he met this fiery Irish redhead, Colleen Cleasby, when she was 16. She was the first non-Māori to marry into our whānau. Most of the relationships earlier were pre-arranged. But not this one. Mum married Dad and they lived in Pātea with our Koko. And she eventually became a much better reo speaker than Dad.”
Rawiri Waititi -
“Raised by an English Grandmother and very Maori Grandparents, all extremely knowledgeable in their own worlds, I am able to comfortably walk in both Te Ao Maori and the Pakeha world with confidence and ease.”
Also Rawiri Waititi -
‘Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi has called the British Crown “a thief, a murderer and a coward” ahead of King Charles III’s coronation this weekend.
Waititi made the comments during an online gathering of Indigenous peoples from 12 countries this morning, all calling on King Charles to acknowledge the impacts of colonisation during his coronation.’
Can 'they' explain to me why it would be racist to raise this stuff? She is the person who is literally leading a race-based party!
The other leader was raised by an English grandmother, and is directly inflammatory and intemperate language at an English King. Does his Maori half hate his English half? Does his Maori half demand reparations from his English half? Such an odd and disingenous situation!
Interesting little factoid on how the conqueror and slave-taker Te Rauparaha got his name -
'His name is derived from an edible plant called rauparaha. Soon after he was born a Waikato warrior who had killed and eaten a relation of his threatened to eat the child as well, roasted with rauparaha leaves; the child was called Te Rauparaha in defiance of this threat.'
Some information here about the 'horrors of colonisation' -
'After Te Rauparaha's sister, Waitohi, the mother of Te Rangihaeata, died in 1839 war broke out among the tribes allied to Te Rauparaha. A huge funeral gathering was held. A Rangitāne slave of Te Āti Awa, who had brought tribute from the South Island, was killed and eaten, against Te Āti Awa's wishes. Quarrelling at the feast led to renewed fighting between Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Raukawa, culminating in the battle of Te Kūititanga at Waikanae. Te Rauparaha crossed over from Kāpiti to assist Ngāti Raukawa, but had to escape in a whaling boat when they suffered a severe defeat. After the battle there was no looting of the dead or cannibalism, as Christian influences had been brought to Te Āti Awa by freed slaves returning from the Bay of Islands. Ngāti Raukawa dead were buried with their clothing and arms and ammunition.'
Labour's uneasy bedfellow Te Pati Maori in troubled waters over Waipareira Trust making loans to John Tamihere to fund political campaigning to the tune of 380k.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaAClAnEzSU
Since the Treaty of Waitangi was between individual Maori tribal groups and 'the British Crown', all state funding to 'honour the treaty' should by rights be routed only via Maori tribal entities.
Of course, many of the individual Maori tribal leaders never signed the Treaty of Waitangi, even though - to all-intents-and-purposes - modern New Zealand maintains the pretence that they did.
Saying 'no' Taraia Ngakuti Te Tumuhuia, a Ngāti Tamaterā leader in the Thames area, was one of several rangatira who declined to sign the Treaty. Others included Ngāi Te Rangi leader Tupaea of Tauranga, Te Wherowhero of Waikato-Tainui, and Mananui Te Heuheu of Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
Again, there has never been a homogenous 'Maori' nation-state in New Zealand. The closest entity is the Kingitanga - a post-colonial construct based on a European model.
One of New Zealand’s most enduring political institutions, the Kīngitanga (Māori King movement) was founded in 1858 with the aim of uniting Māori under a single sovereign. Waikato is the seat of the Kīngitanga.
Te Pati Maori can claim to represent all Maori, though Rawiri Waititi got 12,389 votes at the last election - enough to win the seat of Waiariki, Debbie Packer came into Parliament on his coat-tales with Te Pati Maori winning 1.2% of the overall vote, and Meka Whateri is a recent 'waka jumper' from Labour. People with a pitifully small mandate attempting to win outsized influence.
The Disinformation Project being further exposed for what they are: emotive Marxist activists with an "absence of verifiable evidence". Remembering they emerged from the Office of the PM under Ardern.
Retired judge Harvey who has a background being published in IT and legal issues hangs them out to dry. Not only their self identified motivations but also lack of research rigour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DkvxEWmd6U
Looks like the government is looking to hand them another 500k. The Disinformation Project's current funding is presently extremely opaque. Funny that.
'The Disinformation Project' would be an apt name for what has been going on in New Zealand in the modern era. Some aspects of our history are amplified, and others are buried. Why is that? Why must 'decendents of colonists' be constantly atoning for 'colonial wrongs', while people who practiced slavery, infanticide, and cannibalism as part of their societal fabric are never called on it? If I wanted to make a documentary series on the life and crimes of Te Rauparaha, would there be any appetite for it from the people who decide what is shown on our TV screens? What about a 5 part series on 'The Musket Wars', anyone keen?
Thousands of Māori died in the intertribal Musket Wars of the 1810s, 1820s and 1830s. Many more were enslaved or became refugees. Northern rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua led the way, but all the tribes were soon trading for muskets.
Muskets (ngutu pārera) changed the face of intertribal warfare, decimating some tribes and drastically altering the rohe (territorial boundaries) of others.
I think most New Zealanders would say that they want to live in a modern democratic country. And constitutionally it looks like we do live in one. But I do not know if this is actually the case now. I guess that 'full and final' Treaty settlements in the past - along with fullsome apologies - aimed to salve what was once referred to as 'the greviance industry', but I am personally unsure if that is the case. It seems that contempory ideas have moved some way past settlements to address past wrongs with a view to establishing New Zealand as a harmonious modern constitutional democracy. Now we have entered a new era where Maori ambition - with some governmental acquiesance - encompasses a view that they truly will govern New Zealand in conjuction with a government that is elected by all the citizens of New Zealand. And indeed, in many areas and in many ways Iwi groups actually do appear to be co-governing New Zealand along with the elected central and local government entities.
Moreover, we have crossed a line from a view of 'full and final' Treaty settlements to a kind of endless stream of 'reparations' (for want of a better term) for 'the harm wrought on the Maori people by colonisation'. (If you are endlessly referring back to 'colonisation', can you ever truly 'move on'?)
There are a lot of terms that have fallen out of favour in this new paradigm that we live in. It used to be fashionable to talk about a 'Treaty gravy train' or a 'Treaty industry'. These days the Waitangi Tribunal does its business quietly but perpetually. The Waitangi Tribunal seems to be an entity that has always been with us and will always be with us. Their 'work' seems to now consist of reporting on ways that 'the Crown' is 'failing in its Treaty obligations to Maori'. I think many people would have thought that the Tribunal was set up to negotiate on Treaty settlements, although maybe the ground has shifted and - once again - we are being introduced to a new reality.
If you listen to Te Pati Maori, then you would form a view that Maori in general have never been poorer or more down-trodden, and this is mainly due to the Crown who shirk their obligations at every turn. For an opposing view, we may consider that there was $1 Billion of funding specifically targeted at Maori in last years budget (as an example). And for another view again, we may consider the following -
The Māori economy is also diversifying, with new investment areas including geothermal, digital, services, education, tourism and housing. Chapman Tripp's 2017 “Te Ao Māori - Trends and Insights” estimated the value of the Māori asset base at over $50 billion.
Sometimes what is presented as 'truth' by a particular growth may be a form of lobbying or politiking. But to the forelock tugging and ever so 'umble general populace it seems that whatever is presented as truth in the case of Maori hardship is readily accepted, and the self-flagellation begins again. I don't really know where we are at with 'the process' of making the country into a place where Maori are truly content with their lives as a group. Chris Hipkins says there is still "much work to do"....perhaps he believes we are only at step one of a road that will never end.
I wonder where Rawiri Waititi thinks we are at with our 'process'. I wonder if we are salving a sense of greviance, or stoking and fuelling it. I wonder how many maori Waititi is speaking for when he says what he does say....
Waititi went on to say the British crown had “rained war on every continent on Earth” and “inherited power based on stolen wealth”.
“This Crown, both directly and through its successor colonial governments, continues to be an illegal occupation of … Indigenous nations throughout the world,” he said.
Perhaps over future decades the co-governance model with become embedded and accepted by all. Maybe the future is a place where the Maori economy continues to grown exponentially, from $50 billion of assets in 2017 to hundreds of billions by the year 2060. Maybe by then the Crown and Iwi govern the country arm in arm in perfect harmony, with both these parties assuming 50/50 responsibility for all citizens of New Zealand. Maybe in this New Zealand of the future the Maori half of the partnership is funded by burgeoning tribal revenues, while the Crown contributes the other 50% of funding. So in practice the Health system would be funded 50% from tribal revenues, 50% from the Crown accounts.
It's not really targeted either, like so much this government does. Winter energy payments for millionaires, clean car rebates for millionaires, subsidised hearing aids for millionaires, free school lunches for the kids of millionaires. It's a creeping socialism that's spreading its tentacles far and wide, and the result is mounting debt and inflation and a clouded economic outlook.
Haven’t seen anything in the media about the fact that Labour is severely cutting road maintenance in the Budget
This from the Mayor of Nelson:
“Shocked by massive cuts in road maintenance funding in this weeks Budget.
Found it on Vol1 Page 305 (copied below) that has Local Roads Maintenance cut $315 million (42%) and State Highway Maintenance cut $164 million (25%). The total cut is $479 million but to keep up with 7% inflation it would have needed to go up $98 m - so a cut in real terms of $577million.
This is a real worry for Councils. I am already getting a lot of criticism on state of our roads over potholes and insufficient maintenance. I will be asking questions through Regional Transport Committee and through LGNZ - I cannot see any logic in such dramatic reductions in basic road maintenance.”
In today’s ‘attack the opposition’ cartoon from rabid socialist media outlet ‘Stuff’, cartoonist ‘Jeff Bell’ has Nicola Willis his cross-hairs. He has her saying that ‘bread and butter’ is a nice to have and presents Nationals alternative budget: a bowl of flour & a jug of water.
This is the media reinforcing the Labour spin that Robbo produced a no-frills, ‘bread and butter’ budget. The reality is that it is anything but. Spending has blown out to the extent that the government will post a huge deficit next year -
‘A deficit for next year that is $7.1 billion higher than expected only six months ago is a pretty big number. Debt will remain higher for longer.’
I think NZ governments are certainly capable of producing no frills budgets, ones that don’t drive inflation & drive up interest rates & massively increase borrowing. But it hasn’t happened lately.
Past generations of New Zealand cartoonists certainly did take an even handed approach when it came to satirising politicians. The current crop - with the banished Tremain the only outlier - are so ideologically blinkered that it seems it is total anathema to them to balance out their criticism. They are actually active crusaders for the Left, right there in the trenches with party activists, rather than studied observers of the foibles of both sides.
The English language gifted to Te Reo the use of the letter R.
However Te Pati, in their wisdom, left out r in pati, as it would look Italian, and further demonstrate how contrived words such as timi etc are.
Pati in Italian means to depart, whereas parti means to suffer.
How appropriate.
NZ will wish Te Pati had departed, before we suffer any of their version of co governance!
Laser eyed Kiwi was (is) good. Iconic now in fact.
Not sure who wanted what but if you ask a Labour supporter why we are up to our ears in debt they’d probably say ‘the flag referendum’.
I know I certainly didn’t want the Reserve Bank & government to lose $8.8 billion between them on the QE idiocy but your average Kiwi won’t have a clue about it and if they did they probably wouldn’t give a stuff anyway. They’ve been programmed to believe Robertson is a ‘fiscally responsible’ fiscal maestro.
Meh it isn't real money.
The RBNZ owns the debt so the NZ govt has lent itself money.. which is a great deal for taxpayers when compared to the GFC response (...where we had to borrow from foreigners).
I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
There are more important things than making numbers line up on a page (considering the circumstances and with no credit rating agency highlighting any concern).
Esp when you would propose to impoverish millions of NZers with cuts to vital services.
Communications staff, government advertising, bureaucratic excess, consultants, working groups….the whole country can see that spraying billions around is producing no tangible outcomes. $45 million for a cycle bridge that will never be built was just an exercise in lining the pockets of consultants and planners, and this is probably 1 example from about 100,000 since this government took office. There is not a Kiwi alive who doesn’t want nurses and teachers to be well paid, but unfortunately $1 out of every $100 actually gets to the people on the front line, the rest just disappears into the monstrous bureaucratic edifice this government has created. $35 million for a 3 day Kapa Haka festival that is held only once every 2 years - a festival that should be funded from the $70 billion ‘maori economy’ asset base (it’s increased by $20 billion since 2017) and private sponsorship. We are absolutely being taken to the cleaners by this government, that wasn’t a ‘bread and butter’ budget, that was the ‘pork barrel’ budget!!
Don't worry, the impoverish are already covered by having their $5 prescription fees waived. :lol:
As for the GFC, the bail outs had to happen for the greater good of preventing an economic Armageddon (keep in mind GFC had little impact on NZ). But what Mr Robertson is doing is being irresponsible to future generations and ALL of the tax payers so i'm not sure how any debt borrowing is good for the tax payer?
Hmmmm….they announce funding increases, then they quietly cut them. Is this part of the so-called ‘savings’ Labour has found?
————
‘Road maintenance has been on the AA’s radar for a long time; it topped the 2020 Election Calls list of matters needing urgent consideration. Three years on, the situation needs more attention than ever.
Ahead of the last three-year funding cycle, the AA estimated that our roads needed an additional $300 million per annum to catch up on the backlog. The $500m in total announced by the Government was a marked improvement but $400m short of returning the roads to what the AA believes is needed.
A recent survey of our 10,000-person AA Member Panel put fixing road surfaces at the top of the list of potential transport improvements they supported; 85% want more done than the Government's current work.
The cost to individuals is also mounting. Repair shops in places such as Northland and Taranaki have reported big increases of people coming in for tyre and rim repairs, or suspension and alignment fixes - costs that households wouldn't have faced if the potholes weren't there.
The road network is one of New Zealand's biggest assets; roads are like 'shop windows' for regions. It is hard for people to feel good about their area and how they are being served by authorities when they’re driving on neglected roads.
Motorists pay more than $4 billion a year in fuel tax and Road User Charges, the AA says, and safe, well-maintained roads is the least we should expect.’
What a weak management ODT have. Mind you with newspapers throughout the country all becoming woke productions I shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps we could get him to become a member and publish here.
‘Auckland-based construction firm Construct Civil has been put into liquidation.
The company’s sole director, Barry Brady, said the firm had about 75 staff.
An application was placed to put Construct Civil into liquidation on March 17, according to the Government Gazette.
The application was brought by Promains, and on May 5 Christopher Carey McCullagh and Stephen Mark Lawrence were appointed liquidators.
There are warnings the construction sector is entering a bust cycle, with one law firm director recently reporting liquidations in the sector had grown from 25% of his firm’s business to 70%.
A separate analysis found 355 businesses failed in the three months to March 31.
Headwinds to buffet the industry in recent times included higher labour and material costs, and delays in receiving some products.’
‘A $25 million refurbishment of New Zealand's Moscow embassy has continued in the months after Russia invaded Ukraine, with Kiwi tradespeople and materials being shipped to the warring nation to finish the job.
New Zealand diplomats were moved out of their longstanding embassy building in Moscow in 2015 by the Russian government for strengthening and refurbishment works. But New Zealand’s part of the fit-out was halted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In July 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade restarted the $25.6m renovation of the art deco building, which a former ambassador to Moscow said was prized by the Russians, and it has continued as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted condemnation and sanctions from the Government.
National Party foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee said refurbishing the Moscow embassy amid the Ukraine war was “perplexing”, and the project should “absolutely” be put on hold.’
In today’s ‘attack the opposition’ NZ Herald cartoon by rabid socialist ‘Rod Emmerson’, a lady is telling an arrogantly pouting Chris Luxon (in a blazer with the Air New Zealand logo on it) that - with regards to his caucus - “your children are a little too old to qualify for free daycare…”. And there are caucus, depicted as a bunch of children with Judith Collins staring daggers dressed up as a Queen. The ‘point’ of the cartoon is that National are child-like, just a bunch of squabbling kids.
The hatred of ‘Emmerson’ towards those that threaten to take power from his beloved Labour really shows through, and it’s an attitude that The New Zealand Herald obviously endorses.
What this Labour government with its 4 police ministers in 1 year gives you :
Be kind and give criminals all the help they need to victimise and terrorise law abiding and hard working NZers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cri...-with-stabbing
Rubbish.https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118...lampoon-editor
westerly
It's true. If you go to Sir Bobs site you will see some great cartoons posted there.
Crocodile tears from the useless & clueless ex-Minister of Police, now equally useless PM :
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/prime-...KA6F3OED36BD4/
"Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the closure of a West Auckland NZ Post shop due to increasing crime was “heartbreaking” and the level of retail crime is “unacceptable”.
The owners of Titirangi Lotto and Post Shop told the Herald yesterday they were quitting after decades of running their business - frustrated by repeat destructive raids targeting their store.
Hipkins told the AM Show this morning that the news was “absolutely heartbreaking and totally unacceptable."
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...pg?format=500w
Here are the damning statistics of crime blossoming under the 4 Labour ministers of Police in 1 year :
1. Ram raids are up 500 per cent since 2018. ('New' Police Minister Andersen said that ram raids are continuing to trend downwards, ignoring that there were 51 ram raids in March this year, up by 24 per cent on the month before.')
2. According to the Salvation Army, the number of victimisations for violent crime has jumped 33 per cent since 2017. There are a lot more of them now and NZers are more likely to be one of those victims than ever before.
3. Police statistics report that there were 292 retail crime incidents every day in 2022.
4. There is a 61 per cent increase in gang members, in real numbers that is 300 more on the National Gang List in the last two months.
5. Text messages between Stuart Nash when he was Police Minister and the Police Commissioner five days after Cyclone Gabrielle hit his region. He asked the Commissioner to deploy more police to the area urgently and to get a senior officer to go and sort out the local gangs. He was ignored and Hipkins contradicted him in public - there's no serious crime post Cyclone Gabrielle.
And here they are - the 4 Useless Police Ministers in 1 year:
https://www.teaomaori.news/sites/def...?itok=Nbbd6oao
https://res.cloudinary.com/cognitive...FW23E1KE3h.jpg
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/conten...ptimize=medium
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/john-g...J7V27PR3Y5ORU/
John Gascoigne: How New Zealand fell to become one of the worst economies in the developed world
Excerpt : "Firstly, we have an increasingly undisciplined, dysfunctional multicultural population entirely lacking any sense of national purpose or common interest except sport.
Secondly, as a middle-income agricultural export nation, we simply do not have the massive industrial / high-tech or productive sector that is so striking a feature of all the tiny, high-income nations. Put simply, we just do not have the means to achieve the very high living standards enjoyed by those nations.
Pervasive anti-social behaviour in all its forms and escalating crime not only cancel out all quality of life but impose enormous costs on a nation. Add that stratum of unmotivated, undisciplined people, our expanding feral underclass, and our problems, both economic and social, are immeasurably compounded."
"To many New Zealanders success in international sport provides confirmation that, despite our sinking status, “we’re doing alright,” as one blinkered commentator recently put it."
Luckily for the young, skilled, motivated and experienced - Australia beckons and that's where most intelligent and forward looking NZers will eventually make their home in the nrxt ten years to be replaced by low skilled and semi-skilled migrants, and of course the hundreds of thousands of state dependent parasites and beneficiaries bred by the Labour Government for their obedient votes.
Enjoy!
And every day we get the increasingly desperate retail banks and property shills screaming increasing loudly that “we’ve hit the bottom!” of the housing market ‘slump’.
Fact: without dirt-cheap borrowed money, this country is clearly stuffed. For ideological reason the clowns in government shut down oil and gas industry, knocked coal on the head, and shuttered Marsden Point refinery. We are at the mercy of the wider world and the USD. We might sell some logs and farm produce, but the illusion of prosperity was provided by very low CPI inflation and ‘selling houses back and forth amongst each other for ever increasing amounts of money’. That illusion has now been shattered, and the apocalyptic weather and crime rampage are the kickers.
Here’s how brazen and fearless the criminals are now in NZ - three burglaries in 2 days for a young family and the police had done NOTHING.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cri...heir-own-hands
And how many Police Ministers have this Labour government had in 1 year?
FOUR!
4!
All useless and all clueless - just like the whole freaking cabinet of chaos.
So Labour grabs a big headline with it's Corporate Welfare announcement supposedly being great for NZ's emmissions targets while ensuring heavy use of electricity. Bit like Ardern's "nuclear free moment" announcement which has led to surety of energy supply problems on all sorts of fronts.
Today we have this in the Good Returns newsletter
"National grid operator Transpower said it is working closely with the electricity sector to manage potentially tight supply during cold snaps this winter, and consumers may be asked to cut back on power use at peak times."
More Indonesian coal anyone?
Transpower warning shows that NZ under this Labour/Green coalition of chaos is heading rapidly towards third world status when it comes to energy & electricity supply.
Where is the planning and contingencies to ensure that there’s more than electricity generation to keep householders and industries going when there’s spikes in demand (to be expected during cold winter days and months)?
The only option is Transpower telling consumers to cut back consumption or else there will be brown outs and potentially catastrophic blackouts!
The consequence of blindly going green without any idea of how to keep the lights on.
‘Labour is the government of infrastructure’ … kiss our arses, Hipkins.
One for Panda to take note of -
‘New Zealand's record current account deficit is significant in both a NZ and global context, and there are interesting comparisons to draw between 2023 and 2011 when S&P Global Ratings last downgraded NZ's sovereign credit rating, S&P's Martin Foo says.
The current account deficit, reflecting we're spending more than we're earning overseas, swelled to its highest dollar value of $33.8 billion last year. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), showing its significance in the context of NZ's overall economy, it weighed in at 8.9%, the highest it has been since the 1970s.’
Panda will say “it doesn’t matter - it’s not real money”. 😂