Doesn't he imply by accident it targeted householders. Surely the readjustment is the opposite of the adjustment. I.e more money on people's pockets for a time when inflation was rampant. Is argument as you posted is illogical.
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sorry - nowhere to house them all & their dependents, who might prefer extended duration here on cheap ;)
bit cold & rough to put up 100,000 tents & outside amenities .. they may not like that :)
and then they might lay eyes on a Govt which likes doing Ram Raids - like yesterday's Fuel Tax Ram Raid,
the Residential Property Interest Ram Raid, and where Postal System can't even post itself out of paper bag without extortionate increases to cover it's own ongoing incompetence, etc etc .. ;)
Who like bunch of blind Labour Govt idiots who do and oversee that .. and only wake up later to fact they have large glaring problems all over place ? :)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/more-v...PY7DFZJVT2Z64/
More video of Auckland Harbour Bridge clip-on lanes swaying emerges
Quote:
More video has emerged of the Auckland Harbour Bridge clip-on lanes swaying as people walk on them.
Footage of a 50-millimetre gap opening and closing during an anti-mandate protest last year alarmed Waka Kotahi.
Documents showed the bridge’s operators had known about the wobble occurring during other mass walks, notably the hikoi led by Dame Whina Cooper in 1975.
Another previous land hikoi in 2004 also set it off, and Mike Millett of the North Shore caught it on camera.
At 1.05 minutes into his short Youtube video, the swaying can be seen.
“You can see the actual gap closing and opening and the crashing of signs on a truck parked up,” Millett said.
Engineers brought in by transport authorities came up with relatively simple options to damp down the swaying in a report in 2010.
She's right Bro - can't be serious .. The Waka of Roading Incompetence have not moveth to do anything .. must be waiting until it falls off .. or a Ministerial sticky beak crew turn up underneath for looksie :)
Looks like Woody the hapless halfwit Woodpecker dodged a collapsing bridge on this one :)
Couldn't agree more with Steven Joyce:
"The AA has done us all a service by highlighting the number of people being killed on our roads as a result of drunk driving. Last year was horrific: 111 deaths were caused by people who were either above the legal limit or refused a test. That’s double the number from 2013, just under a decade ago.The overall road toll was horrific too. We had 377 deaths on the road last year. In 2013, the recent low, just 253 died on our roads. Still too many, but 124 fewer. Something clearly has gone wrong.
It is fair to place some of the blame on our pandemic response. However successful it was in containing the spread of the virus, it appears to have caused untold harm to the fabric of our society. Whether it shows up in ram raids and delinquent behaviour, drinking and driving, or truancy from school, locking people in their houses for months on end seems to have torn the fabric of society and encouraged more risky and rebellious behaviour by a sizeable chunk of our population. I can only hope our Covid Royal Commission, which has been very quiet lately, is beavering away in the background grappling with some of these thorny issues."
I'm spending a few months in Europe during northern summer like we did last year and I really am seeing the difference in economic activity and optimism where we are (absolutely booming) and sad old NZ which is going down the gurgler on every front and no focus on matters that really matter. The real results of the crazy COVID response in NZ are starting to come through loud and clear.
Very sad to watch and I fear for our future generations.
In 2013 there were approx 3.4 million vehicles on our roads.
By 2023 that figure had increased to estimated 4.5 million vehicles on our roads.
That's whats gone wrong.
You don't think the extra million plus vehicles might have something to do with the increase in road toll ?
Would have thought the answer to that one was glaringly obvious.
Also remember back in the first decade of 2000's the road toll was higher than it is now.
And I should add, our infrastructure, roads, bridges, motorways haven't been able to cope with the increase.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/735099/new-zealand-currently-licensed-vehicles/
Happy School Holidays - folks
Labour delivers up Kindness in Election year:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132...s-of-subsidies
Petrol prices rise: Pumps are quiet as full taxes are re-applied after 18 months of subsidies
Leak … drip … drip … drip … leak …drip
Watch Hipkins and Kiri Allan dance the duck & dive routine so typical of this useless incompetent yet arrogant Labour government :
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/3009...in-the-balance
So, given most public servants’ instincts for an omerta-like approach to controversies, why have we seen the confirmation of “concerns about working relationships” by several departmental heads?
Perhaps they are getting ahead of a rumoured paper trail that will emerge.
The worry for Allan is that an apparent unanimity may have developed among several senior bureaucrats that things have crossed a line. That accusations of “yelling and screaming” as one senior official has told Stuff, were a rant too far.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/13245...t-at-the-pumps
‘Jason Crewe is seven cars back from the petrol pumps and seething.
Ahead, a man whose already topped up his van has now turned his attention to a collection of containers, filling them to the brim and pausing between each one to shrug a “sorry” at the waiting cars.
“This is going to save me about $15 at most,” says Crewe from his Holden, adding he’s not angry at his fellow motorists but at what they’re being forced to do.
“The country is stuffed... When you’ve got people queueing to save a few bucks on gas, it proves it.”’
Meanwhile, other countries are starting to phase in EV road charges to recognise that EVs also use roads & transport infrastructure and need to contribute to their upkeep.
Not so in NZ as this clueless Labour government know only to sting motorists via a multitude of charges via fuel at the pump.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/E...MR7ELSKB2Q.JPG
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/3009...in-the-balance
Labour minister Kiri Allan's future in the balance
Gone by lunchtime Monday ? ;)
Might have to deputise the Muppets in as Ministers to fill the gaps soon .. but then they would probably
be seen to have more intelligence than the excuses for talent given the boot ;)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/132...t-at-the-pumps
'The country is stuffed': Petrol pain is back and not just at the pumps
Quote:
Ahead, a man whose already topped up his van has now turned his attention to a collection of containers, filling them to the brim and pausing between each one to shrug a “sorry” at the waiting cars.
“This is going to save me about $15 at most,” says Crewe from his Holden, adding he’s not angry at his fellow motorists but at what they’re being forced to do.
“The country is stuffed... When you’ve got people queueing to save a few bucks on gas, it proves it.”
Quote:
And, as budgeting advisors warned the double blow will only worsen the lives of already struggling New Zealanders, Kiwis rushed to pumps around the country amid warnings not to stockpile.
Quote:
“People can’t afford to live any more. We're living week-to-week like everybody else, and cutting back where we can, but it’s not like I can say, ‘I can’t come to work because I can’t afford to get there’. Petrol is a necessity.”
Lara Dolan, chief executive of the Māngere Budgeting Services Trust, says that’s exactly the problem: transport is essential and Kiwis don’t have any fat left to trim from their expenses.
“What we can see is people currently spend about $50 -$100 per week on petrol... Bear in mind, those who access our service are already struggling.”
Dolan says that while the return of the fuel tax might seem paltry when compared to other costs, its effect shouldn’t be downplayed. ”It might only add up to $15, but that’s $15 people just don’t have.”
brought to everyone .. by a bunch of incompetent Labour clowns ;)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cri...dreds-affected
'Held to ransom': Immigration boss targets growing migrant scam, hundreds affected
Quote:
A rapidly-growing immigration scam targets overseas workers who pay big bucks to come to New Zealand, only to find themselves out of a job once they’ve arrived. Steve Kilgallon investigates.
“Sometimes,” says Liu*, “we think it would be better to jump into the sea.”
He’s been left penniless and starving by a new immigration scam that could be affecting hundreds of new migrants – with a senior official from Immigration NZ (INZ) admitting the problem is “number one on my list”.
Quote:
A statement from the newly-appointed Immigration Minister Andrew Little did not directly answer a question
Time for one of those "They are managing okay" moments - Andy ? ;)
In reality they probably properly skrewed .. but in eyes of a few asleep in Govt Beehive Seats .. that means okay and time to go back to snoring and dreaming away as if nothing happened ;)
Excuses excuses excuses for the failures wherever we look at this Government.
You may have missed the fact that safety features in cars have improved immensely in the last few years and many of us are now driving cars that are highly unlikely to crash into other cars or other road users barring some idiotic out of control moves.
The increased road deaths in NZ has come despite Waka Kotahi's ridiculous speed reduction campaign, not to mention the very expensive and infamous "Road to Zero" waste of time & money.
At the same time we have a Government that in 5 years has not started any new roading projects.
I just had a quick look at Norway with a similar population as NZ and slightly fewer cars and the trend is steadily down https://www.statista.com/statistics/...nts-in-norway/
Im not sure what the fuss is about, as I understand it (& happy to be corrected) the EV road user charges exemption has only been extended to next March, to incentivise NZ's fleet transition to EV's & hybrids which helps us reach our emissions targets.
It has less than a year to go.
Interested to see National's road user charges based on km's travelled, which overlooks the impact different size & weight & emissions of vehicles, have on road surfaces, other drivers & emissions targets.
All combustion engine car owners subsidise the trucking industry with the damage to roads caused by trucks far out weighing the contribution collected through RUC.
But let's focus on EVs that are actually good for the environment and light on road wear.
If trucks paid their fare share, the argument for more rail would be a lot stronger.
That's right, put over an extra million vehicles on our roads between 2013 & 2022 , 800,000 extra people, and the 124 higher road toll is all this governments fault!
And "most of us are driving cars that are highly unlikely to crash into other cars...." Really ?
C'mon mate, next you'll be telling us this weather, like everything else is all this govt's fault.
For a National ACT supporter, how about advocating for a bit of personal responsibility.
(And btw overall our road toll has been trending downwards, its lower now than it was in the early 1990's/ early 2000's but there will always be outlier years.)
Labour seem to now be running an ‘open borders’ immigration system, anyone and everyone flooding in & invariably there are very nasty scams emerging as a result. A Peruvian woman says: “But the agent promised that after one year, I could get residency and sponsor my parents and brother to move here too.”
So she was to come here for a year, then the parents and the brother get a ticket to NZ to burden our health and transport and housing infrastructure that they have paid nothing towards.
The immigration system itself is the scam: a scam on behalf of the greedy property industry, skin-flint employers, and our lazy and ineffectual government. A scam against NZ citizens who paid taxes all their lives for our hospitals, roads, wastewater services etc etc etc.
——————
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hold-h...NEAXF5OZDQV4Y/
‘A 24-year-old Peruvian woman who has resorted to sex work to repay loans she took out to move to New Zealand is among a spate of South American immigrants being duped by job and visa scams.
The head of an organisation helping victims says she is aware of about 250 people from South American countries who have arrived here since the beginning of the year on work and visitor visas — many of whom are victims of scams promising jobs that lead to residency.
The Peruvian woman borrowed close to $32,000 from gang-related loan sharks to pay an agent for an allegedly high-paying job and visa arrangements. After landing in New Zealand from Lima with just a visitor visa, the woman quickly realised there was no job and she had been scammed.
The woman’s South American family had thought she would be their ticket out of poverty, but they are now facing death threats after missing a payment of a loan amount that is increasing by the day. In desperation, the 24-year-old has turned to sex work - which is unlawful for migrants in New Zealand on temporary visas - to repay the debt.
The Peruvian woman said she was promised a job paying $43 per hour to manage Spanish-speaking migrant workers at a construction company.
“We needed about $32,000 to pay for the visa, agent’s fee, job offer, flight and one month’s accommodation. But the agent promised that after one year, I could get residency and sponsor my parents and brother to move here too,” she said.
“The only way we could get that money was to borrow from illegal money lenders, who are linked to gangs in Lima. When I arrived in Auckland in May, there was no job, no accommodation, nothing.”
The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said gang members threatened to shoot her father after they missed their first payment.
“I couldn’t stop crying, and when I shared my story with a Chilean lady I met at the backpackers where I stayed, she introduced me to sex work,” she said.
“I am desperate, I don’t know what else to do. I want to go home to be with my family, but if I do that, then maybe all of us will be dead.”’
An incorrect statement, and a common myth.
Even a small diesel car at an average weight of 1.16 tonne on 4 skinny tires as fitted, lays on the road at the same pounds per square inch, as a 44 tonne loaded truck sitting on 28 tires of at least double the width, and greater the circumference.
LTA, the waka people who collect Road User Charges have calculated this correctly.
If you further calculate that the car will have a horsepower ratio of at least 68 per tonne versus 10 to 14 for the truck, the car is far more likely to break traction, a wheelie, especially with front wheel drive, versus the truck, even though the truck is driven proportionately through less wheels.
If you further consider the truck spends some of its time running empty, or partly loaded, vs the 1.16 tonne tare weight car carrying 440kg of people and shopping, the trucks are seriously subsidising the cars!
Going back to the original statement, petrol combustion cars pay no RUCs whatsoever, so are getting a free ride, compared to the trucks!
Historically, 5 sixth of the cost of diesel has been in taxes, so the trucks are well and truly getting rorted!