General Debate 10 November 2010

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment35

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (35)

Login to comment or vote

Brian Smaller

When I heard there was an insidious virus affecting a big chunk of our economy called PSA, I thought ‘Farking unions’.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:26am
Inventory2

You’re still probably pretty close to the mark Brian 😉
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:27am
jaba

ahhh, a proper day off for a change .. and a goodie to start Brian
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:28am
Brian Smaller

Thanks jaba. I got the week off – first full week off all year and got a cold. Why does that always happen?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:30am
Yvette

PSA – a part of a blood count that can indicate that you guys have your plumbing wrecked by cancer, so again the PSA can screw you, even worse than when they had all their assets frozen.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:41am
Manolo

What a wally! http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4328100/Minister-delivers-wrong-speech
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:44am
James Stephenson

Why does that always happen?

F-d if I know, but I always seem to get ill as soon as the stress and activity levels drop off too.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 8:52am
jaba

I see Pete Hodgson is back in the gutter regarding Pansy Wong. I thought it was Mallards job but then Gollum is on his way out so he may as well be the attack dog
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:01am
Brian Smaller

James – no wonder the bennies next door seem able to party all day and night. No stress from work.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:11am
Rodders

Manolo, perhaps he hasn’t fully recovered from http://tvnz.co.nz/content/910849/425825.html
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:15am
John Gibson

Beneficiary bashing is the act of a lazy mind. It shows a simplistic thought process. If people were so keen not to work then why did the unemployment rate get down to 2.5% during the economic boom times of the Clark government ? Surely if people didn’t want to work a strong economy would make no difference.

Bottom line, before a person can get a job there has to be an appropriate job to get.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:21am
Inventory2

John; there is an increasing number of people who CHOOSE not to work.

BTW, I wonder how Phillip Ure is doing, not being able to spend his days mindlessly defending the indefensible here ..
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:24am
Brian Smaller

John Gibson – the beneficiaries next door deserve bashing. THey are scum. Not one adult in the place works, the place is a tip, they vandalise their state house with apparent impunity and drink and party all night long. I might have a lazy mind but they have fat lazy arses.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:24am
Guy Fawkes

‘then why did the unemployment rate get down to 2.5% during the economic boom times of the Clark government ? ”

Those would be the economic boom times where we still lost ranking places to all our competitors, who were booming much faster and better than us.

Oh do keep up.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:30am
dime

Brian – I factor illness into my holidays! I havent had a proper break since Jan. This year Im taking 3 glorious weeks over Xmas. I expect week one to be taken up with sleeping and a cold..

Its just the body finally unwinding and letting its guard down.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 10:03am
tom hunter

I can’t help thinking that the following Irish Times article deserves a thread of its own here at Kiwiblog – Irish Bank Bailout.

With all the Greek insanity going on it’s been easy to treat the Irish downturn as just another recession story – but it’s far worse than that:

This €70 billion bill for the banks dwarfs the €15 billion in spending cuts now agonised over, and reduces the necessary cuts in Government spending to an exercise in futility. What is the point of rearranging the spending deckchairs, when the iceberg of bank losses is going to sink us anyway?

What is driving our bond yields to record levels is not the Government deficit, but the bank bailout. Without the banks, our national debt could be stabilised in four years at a level not much worse than where France, with its triple A rating in the bond markets, is now.

As a taxpayer, what does a bailout bill of €70 billion mean? It means that every cent of income tax that you pay for the next two to three years will go to repay Anglo’s losses, every cent for the following two years will go on AIB, and every cent for the next year and a half on the others. In other words, the Irish State is insolvent: its liabilities far exceed any realistic means of repaying them.

As one commentator on this article noted, the primary supplier of mortgages in the US is now the US government.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 10:07am
RightNow

John Gibson, regarding the shrinking availability of jobs the simple fact is that companies are making do with less staff, for various reasons. It’s all good if you have a job already and can retain it, because you’re likely to be getting pay increases of around 3% pa. If you don’t have a job and your skills aren’t in demand then you might as well book a flight to Oz.

There will continue to be less and less jobs available in the existing pool of businesses. Unless more businesses start up and mature to the point they can employ staff then there will be no increase in available jobs.

Suggestions to increase jobs are welcome. For my part I think we should be opening up opportunities in mineral exploration. It seems to be doing Australia some good.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 11:04am
RightNow

I read yesterday that Obama is saying that the US can consider high unemployment rates to be the norm for the foreseeable future. While ours are about 2/3 of the US, I think we can expect similar.

Growth areas in NZ exist in aged care and early childhood care. It would seem sensible for efforts to be put into training schemes and incentive schemes for suitable unemployed people to get into those areas. Of course some will be unsuited to caring for others, but there will be jobs available in those sectors for genuine caring job seekers.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 11:10am
backster

John GIBSON “If people were so keen not to work then why did the unemployment rate get down to 2.5% during the economic boom times of the Clark Government.”

Simple, by decree she had the un-employed transferred to Invalids and Sickness benefits or if they were lucky Acc. or else they were taken onto the State payroll in warm fuzzy unproductive sinecures.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 11:20am
Don the Kiwi

The other issue is employment law.
Things are so stacked against the employer that many will employ only when there is no other alternative.
A few years ago I fired a salesman because he defrauded my business, ultimately causing its liquidation. He complained to the employment tribunal and it cost me $7500 to get rid of him, despite all the evidence against him (legal fees – not paid to court or the salesman).

Until the bias in the court comes back to some balance, business people will prfer to spend on capital equipment, or employ contractors rather than employees – witness the commercial building sector ; the residential sector has been employing contractors for many years.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 11:38am
Fletch

The Canadian Prime Minister vows to defend Israel “whatever the cost”. Good for him! More need to stand up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUfFdhIOoQM&feature=player_embedded#!
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 11:55am
nickb

Good to see the Northland police and council don’t fuck around with PC sensibilities:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10686621
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 1:32pm
Manolo

How much backward-looking can Islam be? Not much different to the Catholic church’s opposition to women becoming bishops, I guess. The cults and myths.

“JAKARTA, Indonesia – A conservative Muslim government minister admits he shook hands with first lady Michelle Obama in welcoming her to Indonesia but says it wasn’t his choice.

Footage on YouTube shows otherwise, sparking a debate that has lit up Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere.

“I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched,” Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring told tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

While Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, the vast majority practice a moderate form of the faith. But Sembiring has flaunted his conservatism and says he avoids contact with women who are not related to him.”
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 1:43pm
MikeNZ

Manalo at over 100m even 10% of a moderate group is still 10 million.
The so called moderate 90M would know who the 10 million are around them but because the 10 million quote the same hadiths, sira and koran they are quiet.
Also any Indonesians who aren’t Muslim are in terms of sharia less than an Indonesian muslim with relation to law and human rights.

As a member of the OIC Indonesia also seeks to influence the UN for Islam’s gains, this means that non-muslims are sunjected to Islam’s worldview of the Kafir or unbeliever that is the thrust of Political islam and this from a territory which is considered moderate.

Like this, how the UN is fair and impartial.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=2&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=443&PID=0&IID=5214&TTL=Rachel%E2%80%99s_Tomb,_a_Jewish_Holy_Place,_Was_Never_a_Mosque
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 2:11pm
Gosman

The boys and girls over at The Standard are off on their usual rants about the Right wing Bloggers such as DPF being fed information by the National Party Research Unit. Of course they can’t produce any actual hard evidence to support this but hey when did that stop a lefty making an allegation.

Whereas this was all ho hum what caught my eye was the claim that the Labour Party doesn’t have a Research unit of their own. Surely they have a group of people in the party organisation that investigates and checks facts for political campaigns don’t they?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 2:46pm
jaba

Gollum getting a hammering from Bill English over his attempt to tarnish Pansy Wong .. the Labour Party have been nasty for years.
And Gerry got into Lockwood over the so called patsy question issue. A win for Gerry there as well.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 3:11pm
Manolo

Communist China, so repressive and too sensitive and ready to take offense: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/cameron-risks-spat-with-chinese-by-wearing-poppy-during-visit-to-beijing.html
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 3:13pm
MikeNZ

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=225317

yet another reason Obama isn’t fit to lead, but then neither is the USA, for they encourage this lot by hosting and paying for them.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 3:31pm
Fletch

Mike, also (and it’s hard to believe), Iran and Saudi Arabia, countries that systematically violate women’s rights, are now poised to become governing board members of the new U.N. Agency for Women’s Rights.

WTF?

A new facebook group has been started for those who disagree.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 3:40pm
Manolo

Striking resemblance to the plight of NZ Maori: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40095887/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 4:33pm
Ryan Sproull

yet another reason Obama isn’t fit to lead, but then neither is the USA, for they encourage this lot by hosting and paying for them.

Hosting them, maybe, but I don’t know about paying for them.

What should be done with world leaders accused of breaches of international law? Strongly worded letters?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 4:37pm
Pete George

Mac McCarten is campaigning in Mana on the $15 minimum rate. Attempted lolly scramble?

We believe that an adult in a full time job should have a reasonable standard of living without getting into debt or relying on charity or income support. $15 an hour – $600 a week – is a good start.

http://www.unite.org.nz/livingwage

Does anyone know what the $15 value is based on? Unite seem to make no attempt to justify it apart from it being “a good start” towards “a reasonable standard of living”. Is it just a nice round figure that’s easy to promote?

Has any analysis been done on the impact it would have on the viability of businesses, or on the likely affect on employment rates? Or should we all be able to just nominate amounts that sound nice – for paying tax, for National Super, DPB etc.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 4:52pm
nickb

A good start in the direction to everyone earning the exact same wage, Pete.

It is what the Alliance, Greens, and Matt McCarten stand for.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 4:56pm
big bruv

Did anybody else notice that Gerry Brownlee gave Dr, the hon, Lockwood Smith a bit of a serve today in the house?

I have to say that I agree with Brownlee, I have had enough of the pompous twat, I have had enough of him thinking that MP’s have a right to spend tax payer dollars on themselves but most of all I have had enough of Lockwood Smith bending over back wards to accommodate the Labour party.

We had years of Hunt and Wilson, it is time that the Labour low life experienced what it is like to live under a biased speaker.

I hope that Key “rewards” Lockwood Smith with an extremely low list ranking, so low that he has no chance of getting back in, his sense of entitlement and self importance are really beginning to get under my skin.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 6:55pm
Hurf Durf

Manolo – it’s funny, isn’t it? All this “outreach” crap. Ebola, the ultimate intellectual, seeks to spend his foreign policy capital on giving speeches that increases Pali approval of the US from 7% to a whopping 13% which then promptly sinks back to what it was before. How many more of these crappy little speeches is he going to give before he realises that it doesn’t matter what Le Roi Soleil thinks about the Israeli-Arab Conflict? His “golden touch” isn’t going to fix shit.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
November 10, 2010 9:47pm