“35. Zespri’s monopoly on the export of kiwifruit to markets outside Australia should be removed”

What? And let Turners & Growers tear the pipfruit export industry apart? Have NZ pipfruit exporters forced to undercut each other till they break? Then coperate raider Turners & Growers can pick up the ruins at fire sale prices? No thanks.

What? Allow growers to sell to whomever they wanted? Force intermediaries to innovate and compete for markets? It always astonishes me when (particularly the primary sector) suppliers think monopsonists are somehow good for them.

Would we rather he drew inspiration from the basket-case countries?..”

and..heh..!..number three..

“..cherry-pick the best-working policies from all round the world..”

here’s a thought..!

why not cherry=pick the ‘best’ working policies from those countries which self-evaluate as the ‘happiest’ countries in the world..?

wouldn’t that make some sense..?

but whaddaya know..!

those countries just happen to be those higher-taxing/higher social support/higher govt. spending as % of gdp..scandanavian countries..

y’know..!..where there are no underclasses for scum to exploit/demean/persecute/scapegoat on..eh..?

oh..!..guess what..!..those countries also come with low levels of crime/social unrest/child poverty etc..

hey..ansell..!..didyahear how the decades of your ‘wrong’ policies..(more on that later)..

have taken us to the top of the child poverty rates..?

we’re number one..!..we’re number one..!..noo zeeland..!

there’s a lot there to be proud of..

now..back to the ‘wrong’ policies..eh..?

you ansell..have obviously not yet seen the recant/mea culpa from allan greenspan..?

where he admits to a congressional inquiry..

that his life-long-held ‘freemarker’-beliefs..are..in his words..’wrong’..

and that those ‘wrong’ policies.. are what caused the american/global economies to implode..

i really think you need to go and see that mea culpa ..eh..?

and why don’t you take brash with you..?

eh..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

heh..!

phil(whoar.co.nz)

heh..!

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Unless we have the structural changes recommended in the Brash Report there is no hope for us.

Our best and brightest young people will head off shore never to return and we will be left with the unemployed the unemployable and the aging baby boomers who will demand and get very costly health care and superannuation paid from ever increasing tax rates as the tax paying pool diminshes.

Key and English both know this as does Cullen et al They dont care because it wont be their problem to solve.
They like almost all pollies are a selfish venal and feral bunch only looking to win the next election and retain the baubles of power.

They are intellectually lazy and too scared to take bold decisions in the best interests of the citizens.

They are the problem not the solution and until we can find some leaders with vision and principle we will continue to see our standard of living decline

It illustrates the pathetic performance of Nick Smith and his incompetence ind ealing with important matters. How can a government leave ACC, ETS legislation, and RMA reform in the hands of a quasi-moron like Smith?

The spineless John Key has a lot to answer for.

Message to Key and English. If you can’t take the necessary decisions then call a snap election for a mandate to do so. If you lose then the message will be clear that it’s time to book that one way flight to Aussie, but at least the waiting and wondering will be over.

If you lose such an election then you too can head for Aussie and leave the Greens and Labour to fight it out in poverty. But you will at least be able to sleep straight in your bed knowing you did your best. Right now your efforts are plain embarrassing.

And what do we think will happen to the Tasman wage gap if New Zealand has an ETS and Australia doesn’t?

He makes a lot more sense when he is not in denial mode over rising sea levels.

Why are you in favour of giving the highest paid Government employees ( who also have their own medical practices anyway) MORE cash.

Doctors can go and get fucked, the blackmailing pricks

I am unsure how much this differs from the RMA reviews underway.”

The present reforms mean we are fiddling while Rome burns. Nick Smith has promised the EDS that he will make NO changes to part 2 of the Rma which means he is just fiddling with process. And the last round of reforms have been seized on by local bodies to actually make things worse at the local level.
Take note of his objection I have just made to a consent to divide a single lot into two.

“5. These Compliance Costs Add Up.
We live near the tiny town of Kaiwaka in Northland trying to create a section on which to build a house for our retirement.
Before Council will give us title we have to make the following payments:
• a 5% reserve contribution estimate – say $10,000.
• a roading development contribution – $9,795.
• A double street crossing, estimate – $35,000.
• consent fees of $2,500 (just gone up) $2,500.
• surveyors fee estimate $6,000.
• challenge to consent conditions $600.
Total compliance costs $63,895.
SAY $64,000.
And we don’t have to pay our own consulting fees.
For most people who have to pay their consultants these compliance costs would be $70,000.
So this Kaiwaka lot has to carry $70,000 in compliance costs.
That does not include the cost of the land.
These costs add nothing to the value of the property. Indeed the gross Panzer Division Street Crossing will undoubtedly devalue both properties.
The charge for challenging these consent conditions is particularly galling because these conditions are almost certainly the result of the failure to visit the site as claimed in the report.
And the condition requiring the massive crossing is wrong in law.
In Houston, Texas, a fringe section costs US$30,000 – in a city of over five million with the fastest economic growth and highest employment growth rate in the US.
What are we doing to Kaiwaka?
And is this a taste of things to come?”

Does that answer your question DPF?