General Debate 7 February 2011

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Pete George

Waitangi has been associated with protest for a long time, and Waitangi day has always been used to carry on that tradition. It will probably always be a contentious day. I can’t see it ever be a unifying positive day to celebrate.

We need a New Zealand day, one that can be a joint celebration. The best way to do this would be to change Queens Birthday to a national day – Queens Birthday isn’t even held on the queen’s birthday and it is simply a holiday, I doubt anyone lights a candle to it.

Otherwise Anzac Day will probably be the most important national (half) day we recognise, and it’s worthy of it’s own significance as a time of remembrance.
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February 7, 2011 8:11am
Inventory2

First?

Not quite; ah well; at least I got in before the library opened this morning 😉
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February 7, 2011 8:11am
Pete George

I know what you mean, but the ‘net is the Big Apple of libraries, The Library That Never Sleeps.
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February 7, 2011 8:17am
peterwn

See:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10704614
Rental market madness

It seems almost impossible to rent an ‘ordinary’ house at a reasonable rental in Auckland. I predicted that this sort of thing would happen with the tax crack-down on residential landlords. It is all very well for Bernard Hickey and others (who no doubt own their own houses) carrying on about over-heated housing markets, etc and how the bubble has to burst, etc, etc. The philosophy was that the move would dampen down house prices, rents, etc. In practice it has hit prospective tenants between the eyes – not the ones wanting state houses, but the ones who for whatever reason are in no position to buy (eg still saving, short term requirement, needing the money for a business etc).

The problem as I see it too from National’s perspective, is it has hit those who are would be National voters. Or perhaps there are insufficient numbers to make a difference.

Air New Zealand is offering specials to Sydney, Brisbane, etc. Perhaps these people would improve their long term prospects by calling in at Air NZ rather than the local letting agent.
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February 7, 2011 8:20am
MT_Tinman

Why do we need a New Zealand day?

Isn’t every day New Zealand day?
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February 7, 2011 8:21am
James Stephenson

Glad it’s not a holiday today, at least the office has air conditioning.

RIP Gary Moore isn’t a good start to the week though.
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February 7, 2011 8:22am
Murray

Waitangi has NOT been associated with protest for the long time. Thatsd bullshit. Waitangi has been associated with protest for a very short time unless you’re a pimply faced yoof with the memory of a concust bumble bee.

For well over half my life it was a national day and it was much enjoyed holiday which for me included on most years a trip to Waitangi during which my father commanded the flag cermony in the evening.

This stone age abuse and threats display for the cameras is a recent afectation of the abuse and victim industry who would piss the hell right off if the cameras were turned off. Intill such time as we stop tolerating seperatism and poltiically motivated showmanship by a minority determined to hijack our national we will not have one.

Get a longer memory.
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February 7, 2011 8:24am
david

peterwn – there might also be an influence of the start of the University Year and all those students who left it till now to look for a flat, but that is too logical and doesn’t let the noisemakers have their 15 minutes.
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February 7, 2011 8:25am
Pete George

Waitangi has been associated with protest for a very short time unless you’re a pimply faced yoof with the memory of a concust bumble bee.

From 1971, Waitangi and Waitangi Day became a focus of protest concerning treaty injustices, with Nga Tamatoa leading early protests.

After the 1972 election of the third Labour government under Norman Kirk, it was announced that from 1974 Waitangi Day would be a national holiday known as New Zealand Day.

Attempts at vandalism of the flagstaff are often an objective of these protests, carrying on a tradition that dates from the 19th century when Hone Heke chopped down the British flagstaff in nearby Russell.

Pimples have been around for a long time too.
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February 7, 2011 8:33am
Nookin

Key summed it up this morning. There is a lot of fun happening but the cameras don’t show it. They only show the protesters. When the cameras are turned off, the protesters go home. The media, having set the scene, then bitch that Waitangi Day is all about protest. Duh!
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February 7, 2011 8:45am
peterwn

david – it may be that the students going flatting are making things tough for families looking for 3-4 bedroom houses. Four students are often prepared to pay more in aggregate than a family, and it is accepted that ‘groups’ pay higher rentals than families because the risk to the landlord is slightly higher.
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February 7, 2011 9:04am
Poliwatch

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2011/02/07/hone_harawira_rejects_maori_party_ultimatum

Interesting interview with Hone this morning. He has all the confidence of the “chosen” one – count the number of times he has used the word.
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February 7, 2011 9:09am
Chuck Bird

I received my Telecom bill along with an $11 fine as I missed paying the last account. I have changed from Telecom for mobile and email some time ago.

Competition is great for these services but not very good for landlines. An $11 dollar fine for late payment amounts to 20%. This would not happen where there is genuine competition.

Is it is any wonder Telecom is such a poor preforming company when they spend millions on advertising but go out of their way to antagonise? I would bet that Telecom would not pay their own accounts nearly as promptly as the demand their customers pay theirs.

I will be moving house shortly and plan looking for another provider for my land line.

I hope the new CEO who advertises personally on TV would look this but I doubt if a letter of complaint would be brought to his attention.
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February 7, 2011 9:17am
pdm

Drop in at The Sports Geek for my review of the first round of the 6 Nations Rugby.
http://scarletmanuka.blogspot.com/
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February 7, 2011 9:18am
dime

ah fuck! Gary Moore died?? thats sucks 🙁

RIP Mr Moore
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February 7, 2011 9:20am
Pete George

And later on NatRad an interview with someone from Te Tai Tokerau. She kept repeating how they must korero with kaumatua and use kaipapa Maori but it all sounds like fluff – and it certainly ain’t working.

Too much culture, too little common sense?

Re Gary Moore – Still Got the Blues is my favourite bassline, and some mean gat too.
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February 7, 2011 9:23am
philu

http://whoar.co.nz/2011/pentagon-inc/

“…Oh, the nostalgia of it all!

As Nick Turse reminds us in his book The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives –

– when the media went after the Pentagon in the 1980s for outrageous spending –

– at stake was “a $7,600 coffee pot, $9,600 Allen wrenches, and — the most famous pork barrel item of them all — those $640 toilet seats.”

Same in the 1990s with the $2,187 the Department of Defense doled out for a C-17 door hinge otherwise purchasable for $31 –

– the $5.41 screw thread inserts worth 29 cents – and the $75.60 screw sets priced in the ordinary world at 57 cents.

Weren’t those the good old days?

Now, few take out after the DoD for such minor peccadillos, not when a $75.60 screw set looks like a bargain-basement deal compared to a Pentagon that has already invested $20 billion in training the Afghan military and police –

– and is prepared to pay $11.6 billion this year – and possibly $12.8 billion in 2012 for more of the same; –

– or to an intelligence outfit, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency –

– that doesn’t hesitate to sink $1.8 billion into an all-new headquarters complex in Virginia for its 16,000 employees –

– and its estimated black budget of $5 billion;…

… or to the close to $200 million that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has, according to a McClatchy News investigation, sunk into construction projects in Afghanistan that “have failed, face serious delays, or resulted in subpar work”; …

… or to a Department of Homeland Security that thought it a brilliant idea to fund an “emergency operations center” in Poynette, Wisconsin (population 2,266) to the tune of $1 million;…

… or to General David Petraeus who, in 2008 as Iraq War commander, invested $1 million in turning a dried-up lake in Baghdad into an Iraqi water park to win a few extra hearts and minds.

(Within two years, thanks in part to neighborhood power cuts, the lake had dried up again – and the park was a desolate wreck.)

Where, in fact, are those Allen wrenches now that we need them –

– now that Congress has insisted that an alternate second engine (being built by Lockheed Martin) should be kept in production for the staggeringly costly, ever-delayed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter –

– which already has an engine (being built by Pratt & Whitney)?

Even the Pentagon doesn’t want that second multi-billion dollar engine built – the White House has denounced it –

– but Lockheed is still being paid…” (cont..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:29am
starboard

Pathetic how the retarded NZ media follow harawira around like trained seals hanging off his every shitty word. The guys a flake.
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February 7, 2011 9:35am
TripeWryter

I see that John Key says he shouldn’t have ‘minced’ on the catwalk last year, but that he hasn’t backtracked on his remarks about Liz Hurley being ‘hot’.

The prime minister is being criticised in some media for both things.

A few weeks ago I was talking to a New Zealander who left this country in the 60s and had only just returned for a visit — her first in more than 40 years.

She said that one of the reasons she left New Zealand was because of the ‘small-mindedness’ and ‘conformist’ attitudes of the populace then. “It was very suffocating then. No-one was allowed to be different.”

I wonder what she would make of the business of the prime minister. What harm did his remark about Liz Hurley do, and to whom? It seems that Sue Kedgeley never even had heard Key make the remark on Tony Veitch’s radio show until a hack or hackette rang her for a comment. Note: I don’t share the prime minister’s opinion of Liz Hurley, but that’s me.

I could not believe the tut-tutting in parts of the media over the weekend about this, and about his mincing on the catwalk. For heaven’s sake. The Forces of Conformity were in their element, because, after all We Must Conform. The New Zealand Herald even devoted a sub-leader to him.

The Forces of Conformity in the media tut-tutted about the ‘appropriateness’ of the prime minister being on Tony Veitch’s radio show because Veitch has been convicted on charges over the beating and injuring of a former partner.

I never trust anyone who tries to bolster their case by using the club-word ‘appropriate’ or ‘appropriateness’. It means they’re trying to beef up an already weak case.

Tony Veitch was convicted and paid a hefty penalty — monetary, and personal. It seems some of the media, particular them’s in the print (Fairfax and APN) feel they need to remind us over and over again that Veitch is a Bad Person.

He might be. I don’t know the man. But I don’t know if those who stand on their hind legs and beat their chests and bray about him are any better.

He’s been through the legal process. Presumably he has paid his debt to society.

Presumably his detractors can shut up now.
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February 7, 2011 9:36am
Hagues

ok team, I have FF and the RIP add-on, would someone be so kind as to tell me how to add people on so that I don’t have to scroll through their rubbish, cheers.
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February 7, 2011 9:53am
philu

parliament starts again tomorrow…

i think i will start doing a commentary on each question-time….again…

it is building to be an interesting year in politics…

..and the question-time dynamics will be worthy of report/comment…

( i wonder if key will still try to blame labour for everything…?

..he may not be able to get away with that for much longer….eh..?..

..given it’s his third year with the reins…)

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:54am
joana

RIP Gary Moore.
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February 7, 2011 9:54am
hj

“High immigration to New Zealand has contributed to the country’s national savings woes by increasing Government spending, business borrowing costs and pumping up house prices, according to a taskforce charged with finding solutions to rising foreign debt.”
Among a raft of other recommendations aimed at boosting the country’s flagging savings rate, both nationally and at a household level, the Savings Working Group (SWG) suggests Government give the matter of immigration some “serious consideration.”

In its 160-page report to Finance Minister Winston Peters tabled this week in Wellington, the SWG suggests greater control of migration could be a means of reducing house prices and ramping up national savings.
http://www.interest.co.nz/kiwisaver/migration-policy-linked-inflated-housing-prices-government-spending-and-low-savings
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February 7, 2011 9:55am
philu

that’s a bit harsh on old star-bored there..hagues…

..i know that all he/she has shown is how much they love to hate..

..but y’know..!

..free-speech..?…and all that..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:57am
philu

which band was gary moore in…?

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:58am
big bruv

Gary Moore the ex Mayor of Christchurch?

[DPF: No – the former Thin Lizzy guitarist]
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February 7, 2011 10:00am
big bruv

Tripe

“Tony Veitch was convicted and paid a hefty penalty — monetary, and personal. It seems some of the media, particular them’s in the print (Fairfax and APN) feel they need to remind us over and over again that Veitch is a Bad Person.”

Vietch did NOT pay a hefty penalty, Vietch stayed out of court because he is rich and because he is white.

IMHO the prick should still be locked up in a prison cell, and yes, Vietch is a bad person.
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February 7, 2011 10:04am
Christopher Thomson

So there is nothing wrong with the PM holding hands with that convicted criminal Harawira though?
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February 7, 2011 10:10am
Christopher Thomson

So where do I get the ‘rip’ for FF? Is it an add-on?
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February 7, 2011 10:11am
kiwi in america

Today is Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. The inestimable Powerline blog in the US paid tribute to Reagan’s famous “Tear Down this Wall” speech by quoting from the memoirs of one of Reagan’s speechwriters Peter Robinson http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/02/028298.php

The story behind this speech is fascinating and I quote portions of it verbatim from Robinson’s book “How Ronald Reagan changed my life”:

“In April 1987, when I was assigned to write the Brandenburg Gate address, I spent a day in Berlin with the White House advance team, the logistical experts, Secret Service agents, and press officials who went to the site of every presidential visit to make arrangements. In the evening, I broke away from the advance team to join a dozen Berliners for dinner. Our hosts were Dieter and Ingeborg Elz, who, after Dieter completed his career at the World Bank in Washington, had retired to Berlin. Although we had never met, we had friends in common, and the Elzes had offered to put on this dinner party to give me a feel for their city. They had invited Berliners of different walks of life and political outlooks–businessmen, academics, students, homemakers.

We chatted for awhile. Then I explained that, earlier in the day, the ranking American diplomat in West Berlin had told me that over the years Berliners had made a kind of accommodation with the wall. “Is it true?” I asked. “Have you gotten used to it?”

The Elzes and their guests glanced at each other uneasily. Then one man raised an arm and pointed. “My sister lives twenty miles in that direction,” he said. “I haven’t seen her in more than two decades. Do you think I can get used to that?” Another man spoke. As he walked to work each morning, he explained, a soldier in a guard tower peered down at him through binoculars. “That soldier and I speak the same language. We share the same history. But one of us is a zookeeper and the other is an animal, and I am never certain which is which.”

Our hostess broke in. A gracious woman, Ingeborg Elz had suddenly grown angry. Her face was red. She made a fist with one hand and pounded it into the palm of the other. “If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of glasnost and perestroika,” she said, “he can prove it. He can get rid of this wall.”

Back at the White House I adapted her comment, making “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” the central line in my draft. On Friday, May 15, the speeches for the President’s trip–he would be traveling to Rome and Venice before reaching Berlin–were forwarded to the President, and on Monday, May 18, the speechwriters joined him in the Oval Office. My speech was the last we discussed. “Mr. President,” I said, “I learned on the advance trip that this speech will be heard not only in West Berlin but throughout East Germany. Is there anything you’d like to say to people on the other side of the Berlin Wall?”

The President cocked his head and thought. “Well,” he replied, “there’s that passage about tearing down the wall. That wall has to come down. That’s what I’d like to say to them.”

With three weeks to go before it was delivered, the speech was circulated to the State Department and the National Security Council. Both attempted to suppress it. The draft was naive. It would raise false hopes. It was clumsy. It was needlessly provocative. State and the NSC submitted their own alternate drafts–my journal records that there were no fewer than seven. In each, the call to tear down the wall was missing.

When in early June the President and his party reached Italy (I remained in Washington), Ken Duberstein, the deputy chief of staff, sat the President down in the garden of the palazzo in which he was staying, then briefed him on the objections to my draft. Reagan asked Duberstein’s advice. Duberstein replied that he thought the line about tearing down the wall sounded good. “But I told him, ‘You’re President, so you get to decide.'” And then, Duberstein recalls, “he got that wonderful, knowing smile on his face, and he said, ‘Let’s leave it in.'”

The day the President arrived in Berlin, State and NSC submitted yet another alternate draft. Yet in the limousine on the way to the Berlin Wall, the President told Duberstein he was determined to deliver the controversial line. Reagan smiled. “The boys at State are going to kill me,” he said, “but it’s the right thing to do.”

Here is the link to the famous speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYdjbpBk6A&feature=player_embedded
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February 7, 2011 10:11am
adze

Christopher Thomson – being pragmatic means that sometimes ya gotta eat the shit pie and say ‘yummy’.
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February 7, 2011 10:12am
Christopher Thomson

Yes, but I meant all the comments that lambaste Veitch but nary a contrary word about Harawira who has been cuddling up to the current and the former PM every February 7. Perhaps I should repost the description of what she did to get gaol.
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February 7, 2011 10:23am
tom hunter

Hagues

Enter “RIP Options” (under Tools in the Firefox menu, don’t know about other browsers), which opens a window. There you will see a small box on the right hand side of the window with three buttons “AddXPath”, “EditXPath” and “DeleteXPath.

Hit “AddXPath” and a sub-window will open up.

Then enter the following:
//li[cite[contains(.,’philu’)]] into the first text box labeled “XPath”, and then
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz* into the second text box labeled “Page to Use”. That generic page reference means it will roll over the years with no need to further update.

Hit “Ok” to get out of that sub-window and the “OK” again to exit the first window you entered from Tools-RIP Options. In that first window you’ll probably have to fill out the name of this RIP filter (which can contain multiple XPath entries) and the generic URL.

You’ll have to re-load the page to check that it works. From there on you can just go in “EditXPaths”, copy the piece above and change only the name within.

One final – or I should say starting point. If you try and start from scratch it can be a problem, so just bring up the standard FF option window and you’ll see (on the most recent FF versions anyway) the option “Remove this permanently”, which you can use to automatically insert a RIP filter that you can then dive in to modify.
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February 7, 2011 10:25am
starboard

..that Phil Ure…aint he a card..what a top bloke , so witty and entertaining. Love to have a mung bean smoothie with him one day and chew the fat. Big ups Phil.

There ya go Philly..Im not such bad bloke. Really…you just have to get to know me a bit better.
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February 7, 2011 10:25am
BeaB

I can’t stomach Veitch or anyone else who has to resort to violence but Sue Kedgeley missed the point completely, dear old ex-beauty queen that she is.

If John Key has ranked his women staff or MP’s in order of hotness, that would have been sexist and beyond the pale. But Hurley, Jolie etc are women who unashamedly make their living promoting their faces and figures, they base their celebrity and their fortunes on their beauty. Whatever we think of Key’s preference, it isn’t sexist or even a matter of concern for his wife.

Personally I like Colin Firth and my husband isn’t at all threatened or angry.

But our media reliably beat up an issue where none exists and lack the intellect to raise a discussion on the nature of real sexism.
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February 7, 2011 10:31am
wreck1080

If the government is increasing funding for early childhood education (as national were saying last week), then, why are kindergartens saying their funding has been cut? Therefore, they are asking for ‘donations’ this year.

I don’t get it, how does a funding increase result in less money?
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February 7, 2011 10:37am
Goon

Hmmm….wonder when the greens will correct their little faux pas from last week. Oh well…it was new something afer all..

http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees
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February 7, 2011 10:38am
Christopher Thomson

Repeaters; not reporters. Why am I not surprised.
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February 7, 2011 10:52am
Christopher Thomson

And I am still desperately seeking the name of the add-on to get the ‘rip’ function.
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February 7, 2011 10:53am
Christopher Thomson

“Rock guitarist and former Thin Lizzy star Gary Moore has died in Spain, British media reported on Sunday. The Belfast-born musician was 58. ”

From Stuff.co.nz
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February 7, 2011 10:56am
Manolo

A feminist Labourite writes:

My 13-year-old granddaughter, who is intensely interested in issues of discrimination, recently asked me what I thought was the most damaging and pervasive kind of such behaviour.

She was a little surprised when, after a moment’s reflection, I replied that, in my view, discrimination against women was the most significant. All forms of discrimination are deeply offensive and damaging to their victims.

So why – given the wounding treatment of minorities on racial, religious, sexual orientation or disability grounds – do I think that discrimination against women is the most serious?

In purely numerical terms of course, discrimination against women, affecting as it does over half the world’s population, must take pride of place, not just for its impact on those billions of individuals but also on the societies in which they live. But it is not merely the numbers that count.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10704548
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February 7, 2011 10:57am
RightNow

Christopher Thomson:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/remove-it-permanently/
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February 7, 2011 11:01am
AlphaKiwi

If we were to have a true New Zealand celebration day, then two dates stand out. 26th September when NZ was granted status of dominion of the British Empire (previously we were a colony), or November 25th, when we received full sovereignty as a nation when we adopted the Westminster Act.
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February 7, 2011 11:12am
Hagues

Thanks tom hunter got it!
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February 7, 2011 11:18am
Pete George

Gordon McLauchlan: Tauranga populated by obsessives

For example, Tauranga raises its angry head again this week in my email inbox in the shape of Mr Russell Fletcher, who fulminates at my suggestion last week that there is something engagingly anachronistic about the word “commie”, specifically when it was used to describe Waitakere City, whose council, I would have thought, was notably free of reds under beds – although Mayor Bob Harvey has a sense of humour which I have sometimes thought refreshingly subversive.

But beware of commies as much as ever, according to our Russell Fletcher. He sent me one of those rabid, right-wing tirades from the internet which explains that communists haven’t gone away, they have just transmuted into all those people its author hates.

A vast network of reds pretending to be another colour threatens our “civilisation”. He says that “in the remote chance” that I read the article, “the knowledge might prevent you from offering such outdated, uninformed, apologist, leftist garbage in the future”.

That sounds strangely familiar (or should that be strange and familiar?).

Strange political obsessives like Russell Fletcher are present in small numbers throughout the country, but they do seem to be disproportionately represented in Tauranga.

So, Taurangans, when you take your morning tea or coffee on the sundeck this week, whether you live in Paranoia Place or Angry Ave, remember the enemy is everywhere.

Smoulder away. Be frightened and accept that hatred is a healthy byproduct of fear. Don’t count your blessings or enjoy your enormous luck in living in one of the world’s loveliest and most peaceful environments.

And don’t, whatever happens, have a happy New Year. You might be caught unawares by a disguised commie or a nasty peace protester, a creepy Green, a sneaky Asian or a lethal Muslim. They look different from you as part of God’s early warning system, so you know whom to hate and can get in first.

Funny.
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February 7, 2011 11:32am
Redbaiter

Farrar should retract and apologise to Sherril
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February 7, 2011 11:32am
Redbaiter

“Funny.”

You smug easily lead fool. I do not live in Tauranga and have never lived in Tauranga.
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February 7, 2011 11:34am
Christopher Thomson

Red, I don’t see the connection at all. Rather a long bow to draw connecting shoddy ‘Chinese’ restaurants in Auckland with a Cambodian in Waitara.
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February 7, 2011 11:44am
Redbaiter

I think if you read it carefully, the collective description in the Herald article is “Asian”.
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February 7, 2011 11:46am
Christopher Thomson

“An Inland Revenue Department crackdown on Chinese restaurants has shocked the Chinese hospitality industry, …”

The very first line from the article on your site!
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February 7, 2011 11:48am
Christopher Thomson

The article uses the word Chinese 5 times and the word Asian 1.
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February 7, 2011 11:50am
adze

Pete George: It’s more than funny. On another level it displays a remarkable irony that it shares with similar commentary from other modern liberals.

In condemning stereotypes and prejudice toward certain groups, they unblinkingly attempt to create new ones: “Tauranga is full of obsessives” (what is it about Tauranga? People in Tauranga are strange and must be mocked!). Christchurch, and smaller provincial towns are other common targets.

I wonder if people like McLaughlan are aware of their subtle hypocrisy.
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February 7, 2011 11:51am
Pete George

Redbaiter, maybe you should retract and apologise for your post Repellent Hate Mongering By Kiwiblog “Liberals” – even for you that’s the height of hypocrisy, labeling all Asians (and Kiwibloggers) with the same hate.

If you hate it so much here, why come?
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February 7, 2011 11:51am
bhudson

Red,

That article has nothing to do with Sherril. So what is your evidence that Sherril is not racist. Oh that’s right she said she wasn’t. She just said she didn’t want “them” in Waitara. Whoever “they” are. What was her proof Red? Did she say “some of my best friends are Asian”?

Sherril George did not protest with a sign saying that business that do not pay paye should not operate in Waitara. Nor did she claim that was the issue when interviewed.

Your distortion of facts would made Luc Hansen proud.
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February 7, 2011 12:08pm
RightNow

philu frequently posts links to his website here on kiwiblog, without any links from his site to kiwiblog in reciprocation. RedBaiter is just doing the same.
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February 7, 2011 12:12pm
Lance

So Rightnow

You saying philu = RedBaiter

Yep.. have to agree there ;-P
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February 7, 2011 12:27pm
Pete George

Is this what “Russell Fletcher” was based on?

“The Fletcher Memorial Home”

take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
and build them a home a little place of their own
the fletcher memorial
home for incurable tyrants and kings
and they can appear to themselves every day
on closed circuit t.v.
to make sure they’re still real
it’s the only connection they feel
“ladies and gentlemen, please welcome reagan and haig
mr. begin and friend mrs. thatcher and paisley
mr. brezhnev and party
the ghost of mccarthy
the memories of nixon
and now adding colour a group of anonymous latin
american meat packing glitterati”
did they expect us to treat them with any respect
they can polish their medals and sharpen their
smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for a while
boom boom, bang bang, lie down you’re dead
safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
with their favourite toys
they’ll be good girls and boys
in the fletcher memorial home for colonial
wasters of life and limb
is everyone in?
are you having a nice time?
now the final solution can be applied

– Pink Floyd

Written in the days before online blogs.
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February 7, 2011 12:32pm
Luc Hansen

So nice to be mentioned in despatches, even in my absence, bhudson.
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February 7, 2011 12:58pm
starboard

Ngai Tahu are exempt from paying tax…why do the chinese have to pay tax?
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February 7, 2011 1:06pm
Luc Hansen

Pike River Coal Mine

I have hesitated to post my thoughts on re-opening the mine, for obvious reasons. It’s a sensitive issue for the coal mining community.

However, now the idea of open cast mining is being bandied around, there is a need to speak up.

Our coal should be left in the ground. Period. We are a wealthy enough country to divest ourselves entirely of the need to burn coal for our own energy needs, and we should make a principled stand in the project to reduce our greenhouse gas emission.

Close the Pike River Mine as a permanent memorial to our dead, and leave our lignite coal in the ground, as well. It’s true that our overseas client countries will simply source their coal from elsewhere, but we can’t control that. In the absence of a meaningful global deal reducing emissions, we can make a difference, even if it is largely symbolic in practical terms.

Maybe we can build a new industry exporting efficient, small scale hydro-power, wind power or solar powered generators. China is acting to reduce and even eliminate its dependence on coal, and India will follow suit. It’s a sunset industry. we need to look to the future.

Naturally, we can’t expect the fossil-fuel loving Nats to agree with this.

But it was pleasing to hear the boss of Suncorp join the dots of all these extreme events occurring with increasing frequency, just as climate models have long predicted, as it is becoming a huge problem for the insurance industry. The CEO of BHP has urged the Australian government to organise itself and act to reduce emissions.

These guys don’t live in some blogosphere fantasyland!
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February 7, 2011 1:13pm
jackp

John Key is misleading the taxpayers again just like the foreshore and seabed. He doesn’t care that the taxpayers will have to pick up the tab. He really is selling taxpayers down the drain:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1102/S00052/key-backtracks-foreign-firms-can-sue-nz-govt-under-tppa.htm
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February 7, 2011 1:19pm
dime

Anyone here a fan of the Onion?

They now have a tv show in the US. its freakin great.

One of the “stories” from last night… “450 coal miners trapped.. in their jobs” baha

Luc is right. NZ is fully cashed up! we dont need no stinkin mining! Just tax Dime more and all will be good! We can also invest in the high yeild green technology…
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February 7, 2011 1:25pm
kowtow

John Key on Breakfast (yeah I know ,get a life) admitting camping it up was a mistake. He should not have gone along with the crowd or words to that effect.

If the man is so easily led by the crowd,why didn’t he sort out the anti smacking debacle after the referendum?

It was a very bad look,both the camp and this mornings’ interview. The media will use this lots. Oh dear.
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February 7, 2011 2:08pm
Redbaiter

“John Key on Breakfast (yeah I know ,get a life) admitting camping it up was a mistake. He should not have gone along with the crowd or words to that effect.”

He’s a vacuous empty lightweight and he needs to resign whatever the cost. Popularity for its own sake is not government, it is cowardice.
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February 7, 2011 2:11pm
Lance

Luc wrote;
“We are a wealthy enough country to divest ourselves entirely of the need to burn coal for our own energy needs”

Bra ha ha ha ha ……………..

Only if we dump the bulk of the dole (etc) bludgers, slash govt spending viciously including education + health and other billion dollar handouts.
The wailing and gnashing of teeth would be deafening.
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February 7, 2011 2:11pm
Manolo

Criticism of the Luddite Mayor of Wellington:

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade- Brown is turning out to be a transformational visionary: one thinks of Mahatma Gandhi and local genius Sir Roger Douglas.

I find the photos of her very exciting, rising like Aphrodite from the harbour bottom clutching a rusty bicycle or cycling along a Cook Strait foreshore collecting empty beer bottles and discarded hypodermic syringes. Alas, we never saw any other mayoral eminence diving or collecting detritus at the beach, probably because they were deeply imbued with gravitas.

I was touched, though, by a mayoral comment that the plight of any troubled citizen distresses us all. So if I see Blanket Man perched on the back of Ms Wade- Brown’s bicycle heading to Isand Bay for a wholesome meat-free dinner and a glass of organic tap water, I shan’t be the least bit surprised.
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February 7, 2011 2:13pm
Manolo

Prime Minister John Key has admitted he was a bit stupid to mince down the catwalk during the unveiling of Rugby World Cup volunteers’ uniforms last week.

Mr Key modelled the uniforms and camped it up for the audience by mincing down the catwalk.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/4624669/Key-Catwalk-mincing-a-bit-stupid/

Less mincing and more action. Grow a pair, Prime Minister!
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February 7, 2011 2:20pm
Dirty Rat

Ha ha ha ha

Ironic, NZICA just disciplined an IRD officer for an Ethics breach

NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS ACT 1996
IN THE MATTER Mr X
Applicant
AND
IN THE MATTER Professional Conduct Committee
Respondent

DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
26 November 2010
Hearing: 26 November 2010
Tribunal: Mr RJO Hoare (Chairman), Prof D Macdonald, Mr P Scott and Ms Angela Hauk-Willis (lay member)
Legal Assessor: Mr B Corkill QC
Counsel: Mr M Reed QC for the Professional Conduct Committee
Mr T Smith [Crown Law] for Mr X and for the Commissioner of Inland Revenue

BACKGROUND
This is an application for a permanent stay of proceedings.
The Tribunal received submissions from Mr Smith representing both the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and the member (Mr X), and from Mr Reed for the Professional Conduct Committee (the PCC). (The Tribunal note that Mr X is represented by Crown Law arranged under an indemnity given by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.)
The Legal Assessor’s advice had been provided to counsel in advance of the hearing, which resulted in further submissions from Mr Smith and Mr Reed.
Upon application by counsel for the member, the Tribunal ordered that this application be heard in private and granted an interim suppression of the member’s identity.

THE CHARGES
The application for a permanent stay of proceedings arose from the charges laid against the member which were:-
THAT in terms of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Act 1996 and the Rules made thereunder, and in particular Rule 21.30 you are guilty of:
(1) breaching the Code of Ethics of the Institute, specifically:
(a) the Fundamental Principle of Quality Performance [particular (a)]
(b) and/or Rule 9 – Due Care and Diligence [particular (a)]
(2) breaching Rule 21.3(d) of the Institute’s Rules [particular (b)]

IN THAT in your role as a Chartered Accountant employed by the Inland Revenue Department as the Area Investigations Manager ultimately responsible for Mr Y , the case manager responsible for Company A:
(a) Despite correspondence from Mr Z dated 23 November 2007, you failed to identify and/or address the following errors made by Mr. Y:
i. Mr Y issued an agreed adjustment form in August 2007 which required a response within two weeks (when the IRD’s best statement practice recommends at least 28 days), thereby allowing the taxpayer insufficient time to respond; and/or
ii. Mr. Y departed from Standard Practice Statement Inv-251 in that he required the taxpayer, in his letter dated 20 November 2007, to submit a formal notice of proposed adjustment when IRD was required, in the circumstances, to prepare this document; and/or

(b) You failed to attend the final determination hearing before the Professional Conduct Committee on 18 May 2010, despite being required to do so by the Professional Conduct Committee.
LEGAL ASSESSOR’S ADVICE REGARDING SECTION 81

For this application to succeed the member must establish that section 81 of the Tax Administration Act [“Section 81”] precludes a reasonable defence by the member.
Section 81 and the exceptions were summarised for the Tribunal by the legal assessor in the following terms:-
It is necessary for the Tribunal to have a clear understanding of the scope, and issues relating to, the application of section 81. l turn therefore to an analysis of the section.

It relevantly provides:
“81. Officers to maintain secrecy –
(1) Every officer of the Department-
(a) Shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of all matters relating to –
(i) The Inland Revenue Acts, including all Acts (whether repealed or not) at any time administered by or in the Department; which come to the officer’s knowledge, and shall not, either while the officer is or after the officer ceases to be an officer of the Department, communicate any such matters to any person except for the purpose of carryinq into effect the Acts referred to in subparagraphs (1), (ii) and (2)(a) or any other enactment imposing taxes or duties payable to the Crown …
(3) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), no officer of the Department shall be required to produce in any Court or Tribunal any book or document or to divulge to any Court or Tribunal any matter or thing coming under the officer’s notice in the performance of the officer’s duty as an officer of the Department, except when it is necessary to do so for the purpose of-
(a) Carrying into effect –
(i) The Inland Revenue Acts, including all Acts, whether repealed or not, at any time administered by the Department ….” (emphasis added)

Sections 6 and 81:
In BNZ Investments Ltd,5 the Court stated:”There are, however, important new provisions in the Tax Administration Act which form part of the context against which section 81 must now be read. Section 6 was replaced and section 6A inserted shortly after the Act came into effect. These changes were proposed by an organisational review of the Department chaired by Sir Ivor Richardson. The purpose of section 6 is to incorporate protection of the integrity of the tax system in terms that clearly define what is sought to be protected.” (emphasis added)

Accordingly, as the Supreme Court stated, the other provisions in the Tax Administration Act bearing on secrecy are those which appear in Part 2 headed “Commissioner and Department”, and in particular section 6:
“6. Responsibility on Ministers and officials to protect integrity of tax system – (1) Every Minister and every officer of any government agency having responsibilities under this Act or any other Act in relation to the collection of taxes and other functions under the Inland Revenue Acts are at all times to use their best endeavours to protect the integrity of the tax system.

(2) Without limiting its meaning, the integrity of the tax system includes –
(a) Taxpayer perceptions of that integrity, and
(b) The rights of taxpayers to have their liability determined fairly, impartially, and according to law; and
(c) The rights of taxpayers to have their individual affairs kept confidential and treated with no greater or lesser favour than the tax affairs of other taxpayers; and
(d) The responsibilities of taxpayers to comply with the law; and
(e) The responsibilities of those administering the law to maintain the confidentiality of the affairs of taxpayers; and
(f) The responsibilities of those administering the law to do so fairly, impartially, and according to law.” (emphasis added)

18. Compliance with professional obligations may, in a particular case, be relevant to the question of whether an officer has acted “fairly, impartially or according to law”. An issue of compliance with professional obligations could therefore be viewed by the Tribunal as a matter going to “the integrity of the tax system”. If so it is to be considered as part of the context against which section 81 is to be interpreted.

The exception:
19. Turning to section 81 itself, if it does apply (noting that the PCC states that there are acts and omissions on the part of the member that are not caught by the section at all), it would then be necessary to consider whether the exception referred to in section 81 applies. Is a defence of disciplinary proceedings, involving the professional obligations of the member when acting as an officer of the Department, to be regarded as “carrying into effect the Inland Revenue Acts”?

DECISION
This case raises important public interest issues regarding the application of the Code of Ethics to the several hundred Institute members employed by the Commissioner.
For this application to succeed the member must establish that section 81 of the Tax Administration Act [“Section 81”] precludes a reasonable defence by the member. This, in turn, requires that the subject matter of the charges falls outside the exceptions which are permitted under the Act.

The PCC say that:
a satisfactory defence may be available to the member without breaching section 81 at all or, in the alternative (without hearing the evidence we cannot determine whether a satisfactory defence might be available);
the subject matter of the charges is analogous to the exceptions detailed in the various cases – in that they are integral to the administration of the tax system.

The applicant maintains that:-
these are proceedings to which, unlike the case precedents tabled, the Commissioner is not a party; and:-
these matters relate to the personal relationship between NZICA and the member and thus do not bear on the administration of the tax system.

We are influenced by the use of the indemnity given to Mr X, and by the decision in Knight v CIR – in particular, the following passages:
Cooke P where he said –
“An enquiry into alleged maladministration or proceedings seeking a remedy for maladministration involve, I think, a carrying into effect of the Acts, no less than would the granting of an injunction or declaration to prevent future maladministration.”
and Hardie Boys J where he said –
“The Commissioner is a statutory officer whose duties, and the duties of whose staff, derive from the Inland Revenue Acts. Whatever they do, unless plainly beyond the bounds of their statutory duties, may properly be said to be done for the purpose of carrying the Acts into effect.”
The Tribunal sees the charges in this case as falling squarely within these interpretations.
Accordingly, the application for a permanent stay of proceedings is declined.

COSTS
Costs are reserved and all or any issues relating to costs can be dealt with at the substantive hearing.

PUBLICATION
By consent the hearing was held in private. Given that the issues in this case are of public interest, the Tribunal proposes to publish this decision in the Journal and on the Institutes’ web-site with suppression of the identities of the applicant and all other parties mentioned in the charges and particulars.
If counsel wish to be heard on this matter, they should file their submissions within seven days of the receipt of this decision (3 December 2010). No submissions were received.

R J O Hoare
Chairman
Disciplinary Tribunal
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February 7, 2011 2:31pm
Lance

Dearest Hone is suspended

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10704716
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February 7, 2011 2:34pm
dime

Hone gettng what he wants. If he can get them to actually kick him out, he can really place himself as a man of the people.. the maori people.. not you white motherfuckers
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February 7, 2011 2:40pm
paws

RIP Gary Moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsIubn5Pp6s
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February 7, 2011 2:42pm
RightNow

Superbowl: Green Bay Packers 21, Pittsburgh Steelers 17.
Watching on jaketv.co.uk (sky sports 1)
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February 7, 2011 2:43pm
Dirty Rat

Obviously the Irony flew waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy over the head of the average ACT voter
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February 7, 2011 3:13pm
Manolo

A good line from Michelle Malkin’s blog regarding the (false) Messiah and the Super Bowl:

Oh, and incidentally, after the O’Reilly interview, POTUS will watch the game with Jennifer Lopez. I’m told that Obama may invite Rep. Anthony Weiner just so J-Lo doesn’t have the biggest ass at the party.
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February 7, 2011 4:06pm
peterwn

chuck bird – re Telecom ‘fine’. If I were in Telecom’s shoes, the only customers I would be interested are those who pay their bills the old fashioned way – on time – every time. I would add a bonus – even better if they pay by direct debit. I would even give those customers a confidential 0800 number that goes straight to the top of the call centre queue.
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February 7, 2011 4:58pm
pentwig

philu (9,811) Says:
February 7th, 2011 at 9:54 am

“parliament starts again tomorrow…

i think i will start doing a commentary on each question-time….again”

As long as you do it on your own blog you parasite.

I noticed in your 9:29 drivel you used commas. The bullshit that fly from your fingers at the public library – eh.
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February 7, 2011 5:48pm
starboard

aint ya beautiful Annette Sykes…
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February 7, 2011 6:02pm
nickb

It seems almost impossible to rent an ‘ordinary’ house at a reasonable rental in Auckland. I predicted that this sort of thing would happen with the tax crack-down on residential landlords. It is all very well for Bernard Hickey and others (who no doubt own their own houses) carrying on about over-heated housing markets, etc and how the bubble has to burst, etc, etc. The philosophy was that the move would dampen down house prices, rents, etc. In practice it has hit prospective tenants between the eyes – not the ones wanting state houses, but the ones who for whatever reason are in no position to buy (eg still saving, short term requirement, needing the money for a business etc).

I agree entirely peter. It makes Goof’s banging on about “property tax avoiders” all the more cynical and idiotic. What does he propose? Ring fencing of tax losses? Watch as rents skyrocket for Labour’s core supporters. Of course most of them are so fucking dumb they would keep voting for him anyway and blame it all on rogernomics or similar.
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February 7, 2011 7:05pm
philu

my boy has been kicked up into an accelerated maths class…

(how cool is that…?..color me proud-dad…)

..he is moaning that he is in a class with every geek/nerd in the school…

..phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 8:47pm
starboard

..whats he like at chemistry Dad..?
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February 7, 2011 8:48pm
philu

pentwig..can i anagram yr name…

..and call you ..wept gin…”

it sorta fits better…eh..?

(hic..!….eh..?..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 8:51pm
Viking2

]Great news for the unemployed!!

Q: ]What do you do when you have a whole lot of things left on your shelf that you simply can’t sell?

A: You raise the price.

If that sounds counter-intuitive, or even dumb, that’s because it is.

Yet that’s precisely what New Zealand’s sellers of labour have just gone and done. At a time when unemployment is going up and more and more would-be labourers are being left on the shelf, they’ve gone and raised the price of their labour. Or rather, they’ve had it raised for them.

http://pc.blogspot.com/2011/02/great-news-for-unemployed.html
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February 7, 2011 8:53pm
philu

he’s good at chemistry…

..he’s good at most things…writes up a storm too…

..and has the ability to make jokes/crack me up…

i did a deal with him when he was about twelve..

..(that i wd recommend to other parents…)

..i sat him down and proposed a deal to him….

…i told him that looking at a future leavened with homework arguments was not something i was prepared to do..

…so i told him that he could have complete control of how he used his time..

…he cd choose when he did any required homework…when he did whatever…

..the only condition was that his school reports had to be excellent…and that excellence had to continue…

..if the excellence slipped…the whle shebang wd change..

..he took to the self-responsibility like a duck to water….

it’s worked well….we have no reasons to bitch at each other…and he has been holding his end up scholastically…

..it wouldn’t work for all children..but wd for many…

..feel the peace…!

(homework is total bullshit..b.t.w…for a raft of reasons…but that’s another story..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:01pm
starboard

…”he’s good at chemistry”

…crack”..

..sounds like a winner…
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February 7, 2011 9:04pm
philu

oh..i get it star-bored..you are insinuating a narcotics-manufacturing dynasty…

..how witty/classy of you…

once again..

your words have you come out looking the lesser…

..(lucky you hide/snivel behind a fake-name..eh..?

..so nobody who knows you knows what a piece of shit you are..eh..?

..but they wd know anyway..eh..?

..what a piece of shit you are…

..i’m sure your alter-ego is only a whisker from you…

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 9:16pm
Hurf Durf

Hey Philip, who looks after your son while you’re in the library watching TV and abusing their computer facilities?
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February 7, 2011 9:45pm
bhudson

Paws the dog perhaps?
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February 7, 2011 9:46pm
Viking2

Why would you vote for National or for that matter Labour and its friends?

Tough Times: the plight of small business

Michael has been in the hospitality industry for 30 years. He’s a good operator. The awards displayed on his wall prove it.

It was three years ago that he bought his current establishment. That was before the recession hit. In each of the last two years his turnover has dropped by about 10 percent. The prospects for the year ahead are not encouraging.

The plan was that after three years he’d be sitting pretty with an increased turnover and a better bottom line with which to pay off the debt that funded the purchase. The business was his retirement savings plan.

The reality Michael faces today is not what he had planned. He’s now working more than 60 hours a week. The business is struggling and unlikely to return a profit this year. Debt has increased. Michael worries the bank manager will pull the plug after the annual visit which is scheduled for April. He is not able to sleep properly and his health is suffering

Michael used to hire young people on the youth wage for some of the basic jobs like dishes and cleaning. He liked giving youngsters without too many skills a start on the employment ladder. However, once the youth rate was scrapped and they had to be paid adult wages, he had to let them go. The jobs were not worth the higher wage costs, especially when young people need more supervision

the abolition of the youth wage has been responsible for youth unemployment skyrocketing. Despite this, and despite the government knowing this, National has opted to leave Sue Bradford’s socialist law in place and leave our kids on welfare.

http://www.nzcpr.com/weekly263.htm
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February 7, 2011 9:49pm
Viking2

Youth Unemployment
Dr Eric Crampton
6 February 2011

Minimum wages are a bit like minimum speed limits. For a while, they can seem not to matter too much. Then all of a sudden they start to bite.

It was disappointing but not surprising that National killed Sir Roger Douglas’s bill that would have allowed the youth minimum wage to diverge from the adult rate. Few of the kids currently unemployed would have credited a National change in policy with their employment, but both they and their parents might have blamed the policy for lower wages. It might have been the right political decision. But it sure wasn’t the right decision for those kids likely to suffer a lifetime of lower earnings as consequence.

http://www.nzcpr.com/guest227.htm
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February 7, 2011 9:54pm
bhudson

Viking2,

If Michael is such a good operator with 30 years experience, why did he have to borrow to purchase the new business. Why did he have to get so deep into hock that a downturn would threaten his business.

I suggest there is more to this story than what was published. Perhaps Michael’s limited liability company is deep in debt, but the fruits of his 30 years of success are safe in his personal savings/investment account or Family Trust.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but if it is the case, or if Michael isn’t the operator painted to be, then the story looks a bit of a distortion, not unlike Kevin Hague’s deforestation piece.
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February 7, 2011 9:59pm
RightNow

.(lucky you hide/snivel behind a fake-name..eh..?

..so nobody who knows you knows what a piece of shit you are..eh..?

..but they wd know anyway..eh..?

..what a piece of shit you are…

I’d be more inclined to buy him a beer
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February 7, 2011 10:10pm
philu

of course you would…turds bouncing together…

..i am sure you have much in common…

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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February 7, 2011 10:31pm
RightNow

Annette King is promising to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr by the end of Labour’s first term back in government (so not for a while). They must have realised they can’t fund any more promises from the public purse and have co-opted business owners to foot the bill for their bribe.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Minimum-wage-increase-to-13-pitiful—Labour/tabid/421/articleID/197454/Default.aspx

I can’t see them picking up much extra support over this. Anyone who thinks suddenly raising the minimum wage to $15/hour is a good idea is likely already firmly on the left. Perhaps it’s a preemptive strike to ward off the fabled new left party.
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February 7, 2011 10:45pm
starboard

geez philwhore..ya not very quick off the mark are ya…
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February 8, 2011 6:57am
Manolo

Future criminals got their comeuppance. Good riddance.

A drunk 16-year-old driver charged with the manslaughter of two friends was pressured into driving because she was the least intoxicated of a group of seven, a court has been told.

Tuoho Marire Ta Moko Tini Christy, now 17, is on trial in the High Court at Napier for the manslaughter of Robert Waikari and Max Harman, both 17.

The teens died when they were thrown from a van that ploughed into an approaching car on a bridge on State Highway 50 near Napier at 2am on October 31, 2009.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4627979/Accused-teen-wasn-t-keen-to-drive
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February 8, 2011 7:40am
Viking2

bhudson. Perhaps if you forsook your computer screen for real life experiences and went out and talked to the many small business owners round the country you would find about 90% of them in the same boat, i.e. those that are still left standing.
I talk to people in this situation everyday and its truly real for many many people.
Hop on out and knock on a few doors and see for yourself.
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February 8, 2011 8:02am
bhudson

Viking2,

Anyone that chooses to establish a business with high debt levels is taking a larger risk. It is analogous to buying a home on 100% mortgage and then complaining that the price of petrol goes up and you can’t afford the payments.

Michael chose a high risk profile and now it is hurting. (although I do suspect he personally us doing ok as he will be using a limited liability structure to reduce his personal savings exposure – though the bank will probably be able to call on that through a personal guarantee.)

As for your comment about seeing the real world, I think I have a very good grasp on that. I am not the one who blindy swallowed the nzcpr ACT advertisement which can be seen to be potentially full of holes.

(Also, my comments do not deny small businesses ate struggling, nor that it is a bad thing. That doesn’t mean we should accept political distortions)
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February 8, 2011 8:16am
Viking2

No political distortions just the real world which you still see through rosy glasses. You are making assumptions that you cannot verify to justify you opinion. Nowwhere does it say hehad high debt levels to start. Limited liability companies for small business owners are a farce as most small business owners don’t get finance without strings and Personal Gaurantees attached. Try it sometime.
As for high profile, all business needs to have a profile and his does especially as it requires lots of walk in customers.
Clearly you have no understanding at all of business in NZ and even worse youspout your rubbish as though you know what you are talking about. you don’t.
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February 8, 2011 8:51am
bhudson

Viking2,

You posted the detail – you are the one who doesn’t know what they are talking about.

The plan was that after three years he’d be sitting pretty with an increased turnover and a better bottom line with which to pay off the debt that funded the purchase.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Yet he is supposed to be a “good operator” with 30 years experience.

Viling2, what I do or do not know may well be debatable, but it would seem that it is clearly more than you
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February 8, 2011 8:58am
bhudson

As for limited liability company structure not helping small businesses, that is ignorant nonsense. Finance companies are not the only creditors businesses have
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February 8, 2011 9:01am

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