Saving the world from sanctimonious bearded men. One whisker removed at a time.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
X Factor Exclusive - New Zealand Link
Two of the funniest yet most awful contestants currently on X Factor are John and Edward Grimes, 18, Irish twins that only their mother and Noelle McCarthy could possibly love.
Well New Zealand can now lay claim to their (only slightly looking) older long-lost brother and The A List regular, David Ring
The Apprentice New Zealand version has missed out on Bob Jones' skills and talents.
Bummer.
To earn "6 figures" - I need only ask high or low? And assume very low, these wanna be twits would have been taken to the cleaners by Jones.
In a country as small in size and opportunity as New Zealand you don't go working for six figures as a wage slave when you wish to be an entrepreneur. You just go and do whatever you want.
The show has chosen Terry Serepisos (because he needs and wants a nickname - aka "the Poo" or "the Piss" depending how you announce him). Terry is facing the near impossible task of choosing an Apprentice to replace his deceased brother. A loser for the show right then and there. No female can possibly win the competition.
Not much is known about this mysterious chap, The Poo, who looks like he could be an actor playing one of the Ibrahim's in Underbelly III but apparently has made a fortune as all New Zealanders seem to do - developing property. I've compiled an episode structure for the producers based on Terry's unique attributes and like NZ's Next Top Model - obvious Keewee budgetary restraints.
Sample Episode 1 - the Poo skype conferences his best mate Phil Jones with wife Corinna who have taken their unique style of club membership mentoring for the infirm and stupid to the USA after it was rejected in New Zealand due to too many members with names like Vicky-Lee, Sheryl-Ann, Darren and Sharon.
When Corinna finishes her video skype strip tease, Phil sets the task for the two teams creatively known as "Kia" and "Ora" to come up with an event where remaining New Zealand Richmastery members can learn the basics in home ownership.
Team Kia convince Bill English to speak at their event and resoundingly thump Team Ora who could only get the local BNZ bank manager to front to talk about LAQC's to Truth readers. The Poo naturally fires the ugliest woman from Team Ora, but manages to get his PA to ask for her number.
As their reward Team Kia get a tour of Parliament, where the Poo is welcomed by Labour politicians especially Shane Jones as an old friend and requests are made to see Winston Peters, but the Poo is informed he has left the building.
Both teams then retreat to their luxurious accommodations at the James Cook Hotel.
Sample Episode 2 - the Poo sets the teams a challenge of arranging a sports event on short notice with al funds to go to a charity of their choice. Team Kia wheel out Inga, Michael Jones and Peter Fats with a video skype in from David Tua. They buy a local netball team, invite Trevor Mallard to play Centre and donate the proceeds to the Samoan Tsunami fund.
Team Ora suck up to the Poo and get his David Beckham signed shirt to auction for charity while they charge $15 for the public to watch the Parliamentary Rugby team take on the Wellington College 1st XV.
In the true traditions of New Zealand sporting events, both events make a loss so the Poo fires the ugliest women on Team Kia and Ora.
Neither team wins the reward which was set lunch at Dockside with the Poo,
Sample Episode 3 - The Poo gives both Team Kia and Ora a lesson about the "tall poppy" syndrome and how to spot it when they become successful working for him. The Poo gives natural insights into what side of the face you should pose with in society pages when your face isn't balanced and takes both teams to two sides of a luxury car yard where they are given the task of selling luxury motor vehicles in Wellington.
Team Ora by this stage need to play dirty so have a member of Ngai Tahu on their team who calls his Uncle and the tribe buy the Poo's red Ferrari 430F1, the only business of the month for the car yard due to the financial downturn.
Team Kia take revenge on Team Ora by tipping a tin of white paint in their leased car. Although Team Kia got the wrong Kia and actually sunk their own car.
There is no reward as the insurance policy on the lease does not cover intentional damage.
The Poo then has to, like the Phoenix, resurrect the show by injecting more money into his self-promotional tool.
Perhaps the infamous Jo Blogs would like to review the series. It should be a cracker in the cringe stakes and compulsory viewing.
After attempting to star in an interview of someone else, Mike Hosking asked the question of Rodney Hide along the lines of:
"Could I go to my boss and argue I want to take my partner anywhere I wanted so I could give a better interview with you next time"
Rodney missed the killer blow, which would have been
"You don't need to travel overseas for tips on how to be a better interviewer, she's on the other side of your bed"
Lucky man Hosking.
As for the Royal "House"(sic) Guards Hotel in London that Hosking quotes as $NZ365. Hello? Has he been to London? That room rate is that of a budget hotel in Central London, despite a self-rating five star, it is not five star. "Oh my God it looks like a palace"...yeah to someone from a highly leveraged home in Auckland who has never seen European architecture.....
I doubt Kate would let Mike take her there and the rooms are far too small for the twins and others.
I still cannot see how this trip cost $50,000 if the average hotel per night was $300 x 10 nights = $3000. Someone at Parliamentary Services is utter crapola at getting efficiently priced airfares or on the take from the travel agencies/airlines they are using. Or the Herald are just exaggerating.
I will say it again, I travelled for 2 months around the world in business class and staying in hotels more expensive than this one and my bill was $29,000 with excessive champagne which neither Hide or Partner partake in.
And could I have done it if I didn't take my partner? Hell no, and completely why I am single and have the job in the first instance. No man could stay faithful if a woman left him for two months while she trotted off around the world, let alone the woman who met hundreds of men in that two months.
In the spirit of fairness to all who come in front of the judiciary of one on Asian Invasion, I say to Rodney Hide this was a bad call - no biscuit.
But no biscuit to the Herald either for fucking up the figures.
The Act leader and Minister for Local Government sidestepped Mr Key's directive by keeping Ms Crome's business-class flights off his ministerial tab, instead claiming them as part of his MP's perk of 90 per cent subsidised international travel for partners.
Mr Hide's own flights and the accommodation on last month's trip to London, Canada and the United States was $26,872 - meaning a total bill of up to $52,000 for the taxpayer.
The 10-day trip was a Super City fact-finding visit to London, where Mr Hide met Mayor Boris Johnson, then went on to Toronto, Portland and Los Angeles.
But isn't the Herald's math a little off? If Hide's part of the trip cost $26k then there is no way having a partner accompany him cost $25k unless their expenses mirrored each other's and they stayed in separate rooms. This may have been common practice under the Helen Clark/Peter Davis regime, but I have it on good authority the two named here are sharing a room.
So we had a look at this $25,163 figure and it was found here. And rates comparably favourably with other MP's on the list down that column.
Actually the $25k included flights domestically from July to September, well apparently. The NZ Herald once again reaches for the bucket headline. Having the partner on this trip could not have cost $25k. The $25,163 referred to was actually from the Members expense disclosure and includes Hide's own travel which considering his electorate is in Epsom it is reasonable he has to travel back to.
A business class round the world fare does not cost $25k and the route that they took appears to be an anti-clockwise round the world fare. These fares should be written into Parliamentary Services' Guide. I am a firm believer in their use and soak up a couple a year myself. You save tens of thousands of dollars using them on the Star Alliance or One World networks.
Once again - the trip is beneficial to Hide's role in the Supercity - yes. Should he be on the trip? - yes. Under John Key's business direction Hide could not take a Partner for free, Key instructs Ministers to pay for the Partners themselves.
Hide's Ministerial expenses compare very favourable to others in the Executive as well.
Which leaves this silly 90% subsidised travel that MP's get if they were voted in before 1999. Hide qualifies for this.
I don't like this perk. I have posted on it before and how MP's should not be using it at the very least while they are still an MP. The last time bagging Sir Roger for using the perk.
Yet the perk remains because MP's as a group are ALL troughers. They just have varying scales of troughing.
Rodney Hide's best argument however is that as a total I imagine he's used very little of this perk. Being separated and divorced then single and then very busy at work tends to limit the opportunity to use such a perk with your partner/wife or husband.
But the left will only pick on Hide today then because he is heterosexual and his girlfriend is significantly hotter than Chris Carter's. ;)
Looks like Trevor has been out training again for his match up with Nikki Kaye. As we know when Trevor meets the general public, the result can be negative.
Sounds like a classic piece of road rage. Trevor clearly has anger management issues. But so do we all when pissed off. Why people waste Police time with this sort of nonsense is beyond reprehension. There was no victim here, no injury, just a bit of argy-bargy, some swearing and on with their lives. It's woosy girly behaviour to go to the Police over such an incident.
A man then got out of the car and swung a bag at Mr Mallard.
When asked if he hit or grabbed the man, the MP said: "No, I defended myself against him. I didn't touch him at all."
When asked if the man hit him, he said: "Yes, he did hit me with his bag."
Mr Mallard said there was shouting from both sides over the incident, and he rode off.
He considered going to police himself, but decided against it. He was not aware of a complaint being lodged and had not been contacted by police.
"I think this might end up being a criminal matter for him and I'd prefer not to go into any more detail," he said.
The big question remains - who was the driver? Whaleoil? Tau?
It is hard to analyse where someone sits who both the left and right of the political spectrum are starting to ask questions of.
Just because both ends of the spectrum are questioning his ability, does not make him a centrist. For centrists actually do take policy positions and have a vision.
About the only vision we have seen from Bill was in desperation getting into and clobbered out of a boxing ring before Helen Clark did it again on election day. That was all we have seen of a "man with a plan". And to think, we gave up Don Brash and have Sir Roger Douglas on the backbench, for this clown?
I want to examine what is wrong with Bill. In Plain English.
"Together us Kiwis can do it" is just another sloppy, silly phrase of Plain English that does not mean anything. Aucklanders and Wellingtonians at least do not speak like this. Where did English think he was for heaven's sake? In New York on Letterman?
Add it to a myriad of nonsense such as "fair and equitable" and our one analysed from yesterday "legitimate avoidance behaviour" and you start to get the picture that Plain English is bastardising the entire vocabulary. Fair and equitable to whom? By what standard? What are we measuring this "fairness and equity" against?
Issue
In John Key the National Party have found a leader who is popular. He is rating for National at 60%. He can do anything he wants presently and his ratings and that of the party keep going up.
If any PM had a larger window of opportunity to be visionary and lead by example, then right now is the time.
But to do that he has to make very large decisions based on the Nation's finances in the area of English's portfolio - Finance.
Bill English seems intent on having absolutely no vision in the portfolio at all. He is the one who outside of Key has the most important job in Cabinet, yet his flustering can only match his efforts as Leader of National.
Ironically in August 2008, English was taped by Kees Kaizer as stating National wish to sell Kiwibank. It took a subversive taping for any of us to realise English perhaps had an idea. So what has happened to that idea and expanding on others related?
Predecessors
In my lifetime I have seen Muldoon, Douglas, Caygill, Richardson, Birch and Cullen in the position of Finance Minister. It is a powerful pivotal role. Regardless of your political persuasions you cannot argue that with the exception of Caygill and English, all of the rest have stamped their mark on the portfolio with actual vision. Even if the vision was completely erroneous and damaging to the country. They will all go to their graves believing they stood for something.
Cullen's legacy was Working for Families, the Cullen Fund and the train set. All potentially sick-making for someone of the centre-right political persuasion but at least Cullen took a position, made reasonably radical changes to the country and will be remembered as having done something.
Negativity
Right now Bill English projects negativity. Lets say he was meeting three lobby groups. The Business Roundtable meet with him and tell him to cut and flatten taxes. English says no. The CTU meet with him and tell him to raise the top tax rates. English says no. The third lobby group is the "Citizens for Doing Nothing". One wonders if he would say no to them as well.
I bet right now with all the criticism levelled at him, Bill English is also thinking that he is not being given a "fair go". Such an entitlement mentality earned from someone who was allowed back from the political abyss with a twenty one percent election night drubbing when leader of the National Party. The National Party eats its own for poor performance and English was given another chance. They will regret this chance.
Entitlement Mentality
Bill English is from an entitlement mentality which explains much of his behaviour and attitude to date. Because he is from a rural background and not a city slicker, people tend to miss it. Farmboys have as large entitlement attitude as any beneficiary. While much is made of his experience as a treasury analyst and supposed "commercial background", Bill English spent just two years at Treasury before running back to Dipton and the family farm. Hence English has just two years of work and life experience outside of being involved in a family farm that he didn't build and National Party politics at age 29. Bill English comes from a time in the National Party where anyone with a University degree who knew how to jump a fence in gumboots was deemed smart. The Party is now a far more sophisticated and broader church. Bill English compared with other prospects in the National Party looks very average, even academically.
In Plain English
Bill English is a terrible communicator. He is awful in front of a television camera and the TVNZ7 ad is a classic example of this. Wooden, voice like a drone. The only good thing about English is how he wears pin-striped suits.
But his largest crime for anyone who is interested in centre-right politics and getting ahead is that he is an observer.
He has the chance to do something significant with National polling so well and Labour doing such a dreadful job in opposition of being popular. His own Federated Farmers gave him the opportunity when they put a 10% spending cut on the table which would speed up the dire 20 year prognosis for when New Zealand will recover from the global downturn. "Too hard" said English.
But likewise he would reject a 10% increase in government spending from the left. All he does is preside, observe and criticise.
Yes, Bill English with skills like that (if he showed any ability to write) would be a good blogger. Unfortunately eventually politicians are required to "do".
He has done nothing of consequence and substance in one full year now.
International Economies
So what to do? Let us look at some examples from wealthy first world nations who despite adversity have excelled with low tax rates and incredible infrastructure.
Can you imagine in 1965 when Singapore was booted from Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew saying, well it will take 20 years for us to recover meanwhile we wont change one policy and I will waffle?
Imagine Hong Kong saying in 1984 after The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed stating "oh no business confidence will collapse because the evil bloody Commies are taking over?". Back in the days when China really was Communist. Instead Hong Kong said, onwards, upwards and lets get richer.
And lets do it without taxing our people to death and creating the largest welfare state that we can.
The English Problem
It is quite obvious that the Key-English combo does not work. Key is a political moderate/statesman. He is allowed to be, and he must be as he's the Boss. The Finance Minister cannot be less than a political moderate - an observer. The Finance Minister cannot take a front role as a pretend statesman.
Bill English clearly harbours some deep resentment that he is not the Leader of the National Party. He is harbouring it by trying to play safely and hoping Key slips up.
Ironically the only way Key will slip up is having a lame duck Finance Minister thieving oxygen from the National Party policy platform that they eventually will need.
Bill English needs to step aside and let someone take the Finance role who will actually get off the observer's bench, step up and get on the paddock.
"They asked if they could kiss him," Mr Mansfield said.
He said two of the girls walked down an alley-way with the man and he made a series of "crude propositions". They were then joined by a third young woman before the man forced her head towards his genitals.
"It caused offence to all three young women present. He mis-read the occasion that was occurring," Mr Mansfield said.
From what we know here
A barely famous New Zealand "musician" is giggled after by three silly girls out at 3.30am, he was then asked to kiss them, gets horny and takes two voluntarily down an alleyway.
A third joins and he grabs her towards his cock. One assumes if the other two were that offended by the act, that his pants were actually still on, else it would presuppose sexual activity was taking place.
So fucking what? There were three girls and one pissed chap, she was never in danger of being raped or anything really other than a drunk grope. He has a very good case to charge them for sexually inappropriate behaviour for taking advantage of his drunk state.
The girls all need to grow up. And the young chap needs to stop being a dickhead and out alone at 3.30am.
Why waste the Courts time with this sort of nonsense?
She should have taken the $5,000 on offer. Even if she splits it with the other two girls, it will be the most they make for not even having sex or being sexually assaulted.
This sort of silliness belittles women who actually suffer from serious sexual offences.
Which eccentric Wellington tycoon is now the subject of thickening rumour in politico/legal circles that despite a litany of failed relationships and marriages, he was too incapacitated with lust to insist on a relationship property agreement and now faces battling legal issues with a woman whose name closely resembles that of an entree at an ethnic restaurant?
We think, shame on good common sense if this one is true as she's going to turn you into a very hot soup that's for sure.
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: Taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.“
- Honorable Learned Hand, U.S. Appeals Court Judge, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809 (1934).
Bill English HAS to go. There are no two ways about it.
The more I think about his comments about tax and trusts the more I am convinced that Bill English is the National Party's largest liability. That they can control. He's already lost the election for National once as leader, he has the potential to do it again as Deputy.
The Labour Party can complain all they like about TVNZ apparently running advertising for Bill English, but the best advertisement for the Labour Party currently IS Bill English. So their argument falls over on its tits right then and there before I even research into what happened. They should encourage him to be in front of the public more often.
As a proven trougher, rorter and by his own description a "legitimate" tax avoider, Bill English cannot speak with any authority about trusts, taxation or apparent "rorting" or avoidance of the system. But he does, and now even the left's best blogger in New Zealand history and my new biggest fan, Trevor Mallard agrees with me.
Bill English fails politics largest test. He is a hypocrite. He wants you all to pay your taxes like good little blue smurfs so he can blow your money by borrowing $40 billion more of it to fund his spending plans. Because Bill English knows how to spend your money better than you. Yet he uses systems himself and for his family that he now calls a "rort".
Bill English's own website in campaign mode states:
The Government's medium-term goal remains to align and reduce the top rate of personal tax, trust, and company tax rates at a maximum rate of 30 per cent.
Now if there was an intention that this really was English's plan we would not have silly comments coming from him this weekend:
English said large-scale "legitimate avoidance behaviour" by higher-income earners undermined the goodwill of lower-income earners.
So what is this phrase "legitimate avoidance behaviour"? Because English has included in the definition those who use a company or trust when they can receive income as a PAYE earner. Which is interesting as English has stated that in the medium-term the National government actually intend to close the "loophole" by lowering personal, trust and company rates to an even 30%.
Therefore English's own party's policy is to reduce taxes to an even level to close the discrepancy between the rates. So far with English in charge I fear this is one of those
Avoidance is NOT legitimate behaviour in New Zealand law.
Just this March the IRD were thumped for trying to charge two orthopedic surgeons on this point that English has raised that he wants to close down:
At the heart of the case is the fact that the two surgeons had formed companies, and paid themselves salaries (of about $100,000 a year) out of the profits. The salaries were taxed at the domestic rate of up to 39 cents in the dollar. The rest of the profits were taxed at the then corporate rate of 33c.
The IRD said the surgeons should have paid themselves higher salaries (it calls them "commercially realistic" salaries). In this way, the percentage of their profits being taxed at the higher rate would have been increased. It calculated the surgeons owed $166,140. The surgeons disagreed, arguing they had the right to set salary levels in their business.
There is no such thing as a "legitimate avoidance behaviour" when it comes to taxes for if the behaviour falls outside the ambit of the Income Tax Act and the laws that prohibit it including the general anti-avoidance provisions, then the behaviour cannot be avoidance can it? As "avoidance" is defined, if not covered by general provisions.
tax avoidance includes—
(a)directly or indirectly altering the incidence of any income tax:
(b)directly or indirectly relieving a person from liability to pay income tax or from a potential or prospective liability to future income tax:
(c)directly or indirectly avoiding, postponing, or reducing any liability to income tax or any potential or prospective liability to future income tax
tax avoidance arrangement means an arrangement, whether entered into by the person affected by the arrangement or by another person, that directly or indirectly—
(a)has tax avoidance as its purpose or effect; or
(b)has tax avoidance as 1 of its purposes or effects, whether or not any other purpose or effect is referable to ordinary business or family dealings, if the tax avoidance purpose or effect is not merely incidental
Therefore when the IRD cannot find the avoidance behaviour to be in breach of the Act, then the behaviour must be legitimate and not avoidance at all.
So English's comment should have been
English said large-scale "legitimate behaviour" by higher-income earners undermined the goodwill of lower-income earners.
Which means that to rectify it Bill English has to either
a) lower the personal and trust tax rates to match the company tax rate b) raise the company and trust tax rate to bring them in line with the top personal rate
And the answer has to be a) as his Boss has already spouted about international tax competitiveness with Australia so New Zealand's company tax rate must be in line with Australia.
So cheers Bill - where's your trust and personal rate cuts?
Bill English has absolutely no right to talk about Trusts with any authority ever again. He set the Endeavour Trust up with the purpose of using it as a vehicle for not only home ownership but rorting the taxpayer of their subsidy on housing. This is beyond what English says he is now targetting - the age old fair practice of using companies or trust to lower the top personal tax rate from the high thirties to the low thirties. Still too bloody high.
So imagine people spluttering into their cornies on a Sunday when they read this in the newspaper:
English said large-scale "legitimate avoidance behaviour" by higher-income earners undermined the goodwill of lower-income earners.
"As a country, we want families, businesses, accountants and lawyers looking at how to unlock greater income and productivity, not working out how to minimise their tax.
"We don't want people spending their time and resources trying to avoid tax. We also don't want IRD devoting all its time to chasing tax and compliance issues."
There is just too much hypocrisy in these comments to begin a fisk of them. Red Alert may try but alas they will fail as the task is too large to get all your points in.
Every dollar I can save for my client in tax is a dollar that they can unlock greater income and productivity for themselves which in turn assists job creation and growth in the economy.
Businesses create this, not governments and definitely not hypocritical idiots like English.
The easiest way to get rid of "legitimate" tax avoidance is to lower the tax rate to a fair one then people will pay the tax ather than pay advisors like myself to lower their taxes.
Happily for our industry, there is a better chance of Phil Goff ever being Prime Minister and the All Whites winning the Soccer World Cup than this happening.
Not content with political and economic power, he's now got enough power to write his own break-up story! I wonder which sentence of these two did Carolyne Meng-Yee and then Bob himself write?
The two first met in a restaurant in Parnell, she said, and she fell in love with Jones' intellect and quick wit. If they did get back together, she said, they were likely to sell Jones' mansion overlooking the Hutt Valley and move to Auckland.
Don't bank on a reunion anytime soon.
Bob Jones living in Auckland? Pussy whipped to moving there by a woman!!!
Now we know the reason Labour were so obsessed with deflecting a non-issue on ACT last week.
For this week the Granny Herald has discovered the new Labour activity - fake polling.
Fake polling endorsed by Rick Barker, Darren Hughes and run out of Phil Goff's office.
If anyone wishes to pass me the rules regarding misuse of parliamentary resources and any other possible breaches, I am more than willing under the palm tree on a Sunday afternoon to give Labour another shallacking this week.
Andrew Little has already run a mile from it
Labour Party president Andrew Little last night said all polling was out of Phil Goff's Leader's Budget. Little said he knew nothing about the operation. "It would concern me very deeply," he said.
Darren Hughes is however in donkey-deep.
Labour whip Darren Hughes, who sits on the party's leadership council, said he was aware of the polling. He said Barker had spearheaded three polls.
And Rick Barker runs for the truth after lying his ass off.
Two hours later, Barker rang and admitted he had encouraged the use of false names by callers. He said he did so to make people feel more comfortable cold-calling.
"I told them: 'You could use another name, if it makes it easier for you to make phone calls. For example, I could be Bill'."
One idiot in Parliament called Bill is bad enough and he's in charge of the books.
Tune in to Kiwiblog for I am sure much larger coverage - David P. Farrar being a polling expert and all........
No more. This STUPID comment needs calling out. Which means English will now be on my watchlist of STUPID politicians.
Bill English is "relaxed" about the high dollar. Well good on ya Bill you clearly are NOT an exporter trying to keep their heads above the "tsunami" (don't you love how every bloody thing is now a "tsunami"?).
"The dollar is one way the market is telling us Australia and New Zealand have performing economies, because relatively speaking we are," Mr English told Canterbury business leaders yesterday.
Taking a five-year average, the New Zealand dollar was the highest it had been since the 1960s so concerns about the dollar did have some historical basis, Mr English said. "What can we do about this? In many respects not much. We've just got to make sure we've got the story clear."
No Bill English the high dollar means New Zealand is a pimple on the ass of the world's casino and so with a floating dollar and a miserably small economy relative to the rest of the world is the gambler's preferred currency.
In one paragraph he claims the dollar is a measure of achievement of the economy then in the next paragraph he tells us there's nothing much he can do about a high dollar.
No more.
If the Nats won't sack this twit then we should just start a facebook page.
I'm busy today before my visit to Phuket to bask in third world labour, a nice beach and luxury resort.
So I thought I would just republish Whaleoil's entire post on these sad sacks in Labour who are STILL cranking on about breakfasts. I bet you my hotel in Phuket has a better breakfast than any of theirs. And it probably is more than $45.
Labour are clearly jealous they only sold FOUR tickets to hear Fool Goff, their leader! Even English manages to take the proverbial out of them.
Labour has been squealing for days now about ACT and Rodney Hide charging entry for fundraisers. Especially the paid lap-bloggers of The Standard who are seeing corruption all about them.
No siree, that’s just fine with them, but if ACT or National do it then its corruption. They forget too the Chinese fundraisers where all the money “gets mixed up” in a bowl so no one knows who gave what.
Hon Rodney Hide: Could the Prime Minister confirm that when Ministers in this Government attend public meetings, they need to ensure that more than four people will turn up, so that they do not end up in the very embarrassing situation that Labour leader Phil Goff had in Rotorua when the local chamber of commerce could sell only four tickets, with one of those being sold to Steve Chadwick, and, not surprisingly, the event had to be cancelled?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: It is quite possible that Steve Chadwick bought all the tickets, because she takes her job as a whip seriously. But I can advise the member—
Labour just can’t get to grips that the public are over them, over their antics and want to see some serious atonement for the nine years of economic destruction they wrought on the country that were mitigated only by the best economic conditions the country had enjoyed in more than 50 years.
NOW can you put the BLOODY Hokey Pokey chips back in the NZ Natural export icecream before they google search you and find this product failing for the World event in Monaco!!!
Forget piddly little breakfasts chaps, here is one that will REALLY get under the skin of the leftie wet dribblers out there. Two centre-right wing think tanks have come together for this fundraising extravaganza.
The day after the ACT conference those adventurous types will be jetting back up to Auckland to visit the ranch of our spiritual leader Alan Gibbs. At the ranch shall be a champagne lunch (memo to organisers - Deutz is NOT champagne unless its the French Deutz) where we get to be entertained by this star studded line-up
Alan Gibbs, Don Brash and Roger Douglas will all explain what they would do if they were New Zealand’s dictator for a year!
A celebrity auction will be held, featuring an exclusive selection of highly desirable items!
Alan will share his vision for the Farm and describe the journey to date!
This is a rare opportunity to bask in the glory of not being a member of the left-wing. Because the best part is the "donation" for entry is sufficiently high for New Zealand standards such that it will by natural selection exclude the dribblers.
For $1,000 you can choose between
A guided tour of the works of art by jeep.
A ride in the Aquada on the lake.
A helicopter flight over the farm.
For $250 you get the lunch, entertainment and access to the sculptures and rare animals (possibly even a rare sighting of our own political animal, Brian Nicolle). I'd also be gunning to get Gibbs to open up the military side of the farm and encouraging him to shoot at something for fun - some leftie protestors outside would be good.
A silly post from the next Auckland Central Labour candidate - Phil Twyford calling for Rodney Hide to resign because he was "corrupt" for speaking at a breakfast where those attending pay $45 and in return received breakfast and a talk from Rodney.
Labour of course don't know the first thing about corruption given their financial ties to Unions, large property portfolio, their policy of busing and feeds at KFC to voters, not to mention the definition of "koha" that is frequently pulled to its extreme.
Hone Harawira of the Maori Party says he accepts koha.
So I have read all the argument on the Stranded and Red Alert today. It's been of pretty low quality.
The Cabinet manual has been quoted by Paul at Red Alert, which was about the only sensible inclusion to the debate:
Fees and other payments 2.91 Ministers often appear at conferences or other gatherings to explain and discuss government policies and plans. This is an integral function of government, for which the state would expect to meet expenses and no appearance fee would be expected or accepted.
2.92 If an appearance fee or other personal payment for any non-ministerial activity is offered to a Minister, the Minister may accept it only with the agreement of the Prime Minister. Such a payment must be declared in that member’s annual disclosure of pecuniary interests. Unsolicited payments should be returned. With the agreement of the Prime Minister, fees may be accepted and donated directly to a recognised charity, but must still be declared (with an explanatory note).
2.93 Where travel and accommodation expenses are incurred by a Minister undertaking non-ministerial activities, they may be met by:
the organisers; the Minister personally; or the Crown, initially, in which case reimbursement must be made to a Crown bank account by the person or organisers concerned. 2.94 Ministers asked to address fundraising functions for their own electorate or that of another member of Parliament may donate any fee received to the electorate organisation involved.
Point is Rodney himself is not charging an attendance fee and pocketing the money for himself, so he is speaking for free as is required under 2.91. The rule is silent about charging people to attend the function. And even if he was deemed to be receiving a fee rule 2.94 seems to dictate he could donate that to the electorate organisation in any instance.
John Key for example has admitted he has been paid to speak and donates the money to charity which follows the above rules.
Twyford rants on
This is a misuse of Hide’s role as Minister of Local Government. Why should the people of New Zealand, let alone elected councillors, have to shell out $45 to hear the Minister talk about his portfolio?
If he was speaking just as the ACT Leader and talking about politics generally I don’t think anyone would complain. But as a Minister to charge your stakeholders for the opportunity to hear you talk about your plans for the portfolio. That is just wrong.
The thing is Phil they don't have to pay $45 a head to listen to Rodney do they? It is optional. As for the bleating Councillors, they are not that special, the invite is open to anyone to attend - pretty much like any ACT event, we are an inclusive bunch as long as you pay your share to defray costs. In this case, breakfast.
As for the title "Minister" well how many times was Helen Clark announced in brochures for fundraising events by the Labour Party as "Prime Minister"? Plenty I imagine. Even at Labour Party conferences which are also user-pays.
Rodney won't announce any new policy at this breakfast I imagine it will be the standard run of the mill ACT event where he gives a rousing speech about the party, events in the electorate and what he's been doing. Which mainly has been developing the Supercity legislation. ACT events are usually user-pays to defray expenses and donations to the Party.
As for such nonsense as "having access to a Minister", hello? How much access and with it influence, do you get at a breakfast for 50 or so people to talk to the Minister? None. "Access" is what staff at the Beehive are paid for to ensure lobby group and stakeholders get (or don't get as the case may be).
If the Councillors are so affronted by this then why don't they show some initiative and invite Rodney to an event in Christchurch that they put on? One assumes he will attend that if time permits in his schedule and will of course do so for free.
So if I stay out of New Zealand until I am 65, having lived in New Zealand just 7 of the years from 20-65 years, I get an allocated pension.
Does this mean that welfare beneficiaries who have contributed nothing to New Zealand, infact taken away from the New Zealand tax pool during that time, will have an equal deduction for their lack of contribution?
Fundamental Differences Between ACT and the Maori Party
ACT believes in hard work and discipline to succeed at something in life
The Maori Party believe in short cuts to keep theirs
The ACT Party chucked out its cheat who stole taxpayers money for "mana enhancement"
The Maori Party support those who seek to waste taxpayers money on their RWC "mana enhancement"
The ACT Party stood up and said they would give up the baubles for a matter of principle
The Maori Party won't ever put theirs on the line
The ACT Party wish ACC changes to benefit all New Zealanders
The Maori Party see the changes as a chance for more Maori troughing.
The Maori Party will not rule out supporting moves to open accident compensation to competition, saying it could benefit Maori providers and have a flow-on effect to Maori workers.
ACT believes in a sensible rational approach to Emission Trading.
The Maori Party are so stupid that they cannot even see how the ETS will affect their own people
One of the weekly challenges is to strike poses in front of a big fan. So basically, this week the production budget can afford air that moves really fast. I believe that is all that really needs to be said.
And this gem
Colin Mathura-Jeffree, you are BREAKING MY EYES. When you stand in front of a wind tunnel wearing a cape (and let’s face it, who isn't), you look like an intensely gay bin liner that’s been blown against a tree-branch in a storm.
This could be Peter Cavanagh's finest moment yet. Even better than spending on a junket for himself while telling Radio NZ's staff they can't go to the Awards "ball".
This is the finest moment right here:
But RNZ said Hill and Laidlaw were entertainment presenters, whereas Plunket was a news presenter, so there were different ethical responsibilities in their roles.
First up - I find Kim Hill not in the least bit entertaining. Chris Laidlaw, well "pinko sooky drone" is about the best description, if he was a stand-up comic the tomatoes would soon be replaced by eggs thrown at his silly dribble.
Second - Kim Hill will have a dart board with Cavanagh's face in it for demeaning her with this genre.
I don't known if Cavanagh has actually listened to Plunket and his side-kick whose name I can't bloody remember and don't really need to as I fast forward the pod-casts when he comes on, but news presenter? Hello?
Radio New Zealand goes to "extraordinary lengths" to ensure its reporters don't express opinions in stories, and it would be a conflict of interest for Morning Report host Sean Plunket to write a political column for Metro magazine,
Again has Cavanagh not listened to say Kathryn Ryan, with her hoitiness in tone when she jumps on her high horse in questioning those on her show? Kim Hill's leftist leanings and opinions all over the place. Has he not read Noelle McCarthy's advice column in the Herald? Fortnightly "expressing her opinion" on matters?
I sense a secondary motive here and one that I actually quite like. Cavanagh is forcing out all his "stars" such as Plunket, Kim Hill, Laidlaw and co to save the country millions of dollars. Well, I guess that's if they are paid that much.
Cavanagh's last act once he's cleaned out all his senior staff is to sack himself.
Not being a Union advocate, but having your stars needing to work second-jobs to make ends meet is hardly the sign of a good employer. Refusing them permission to work those jobs just makes you look like a vengeful twat wasting taxpayers money being taken by an employee to court who in writing a column or doing a few speaking appearances would not be costing Radio NZ anything at all.
I wondered who this Cavanagh chap was, did some research and found this picture
He has a beard.
I stopped looking for the answer. That and short-man's syndrome would just about cap it off.
Whaleoil would say that Krillen's incident was inevitable, silly name syndrome and all. But I like cats so I shall run the story.
Poor Krillen spent 19 hours in a freezer and had to be thawed out....slowly..so full marks to the owners who knew what to do. However he still may have internal damage from his frosting.
Fortunately, Sid, 28, knew it was essential to raise the body temperature of hypothermia sufferers slowly. So he put the cat under his shirt and got into bed with him.
The dairy farmer kept Krillen under blankets and against his bare chest for three hours until he thawed out.
"I was sitting on the other side of the bed and the whole bed was vibrating from this cat shaking," said Sarah.
Imagine Krillen would have been buggered had he lived with townies. Still, he's lucky not to have ended up in the dryer or hung on the washing line.
While now is the best time to kick out a partner that you think is either after your money or you are sick of, it is also the time most dependent women hang on in there.
Simply because there is nowhere else to go!
In a recession the supply of available and liquid men willing to spend on luxuries such as an expensive girlfriend or wife, goes down. Do not mistake loyalty to you while you are struggling to make ends meet for desperation as there's no one else to trade up to.
But whatever happens, it is no excuse for violence
She stresses money issues are no excuse for violence, and that there is support available. "People often blame losing control on lack of money and stress. We say everyone can control themselves, it's a choice they make."
- Jandals. Thongs. Flup-Flops. It doesn’t matter how you say it, none of these words scream ‘expense’. The girls scream a lot, though, when they’re running up a beach towards a rack of thongs with their names on them, to see if they’ve made the cut. Next week, I assume the eliminated contestant will just be the girl left over after a game of musical chairs.
- The walking challenge is staged in a vineyard, however not a single grape makes it onto camera. I suspect this bit was filmed in a warehouse in South Auckland, staged by the same people who faked that whole moon-landing thing.
Her reviews are legendary in slaying the crap that appears on your screens weekly, engrosses you with its grossness and makes you reach for the Eskimo Pies and L&P to drown your sorrow of being a Kee-wee.
Personally I think NZNTM need to fly her across to Auckland and VIP her on a jetboat before she ruins what is left of their show's chances to be re-newed in 2010.
So hosting this will now cost $39 million? Double that for poor ticket sales and cost over runs as there is still 2 years to go and you could be looking at $80 million of which the government has underwritten 2/3rds.
Again - what's so great about hosting the Rugby World Cup?
Hell, New Zealand should be thankful it is too small to host an Olympics!
And the Labour Party's stance? I have been told their response from their resident sporting jock to John Key was along the lines of:
"Don't worry mate you spend as much as you want."
Even as a sports fan I cannot see ticket sales matching the expectations. The prices quoted might be fine for European supporters, but New Zealanders are not used to or trained to pay that much for sporting fixtures in New Zealand.
It seems Busted Blonde has incurred the wrath of a Bob Jones outburst while she's on her 199th lunch for the year. The write up is fabulous.
Jones fixed his beady eyes on Busted Blonde and blathered on for a minute or so...
He reminded us of the old priest in Father Ted who used to yell out Feck.. Jones just mumbled and all we heard was mumble mumble Sunglasses! mumble , mumble sunglasses!
Like some ancient tourettes sufferer..
Coddington pushed him on gently as you would an old fart with diminished senses and sensibility.
Busted Blonde in a ranting match with Bob Jones.......it would be a very tough call, the bout would last longer than Tua v Cameron that's for sure!
Roarprawn aka Busted Blonde is our token Maori VRWC member. We don't admit anyone else like her as Maori like to line up at the trough.
We don't mind her as she generally pays her share of the bar tab, is fucking funny and introduces us to some pretty hilarious Maori mates of hers. Not to mention her family are all good and deep down there is a white woman there trying to break out.
I have always had questions such as:
a) Do you know any Maori in the private sector? b) Why are you flinching walking into Kermadec? c) Shut the fuck up and drink the Ruinart it is better than Veuve or Moet. d) I shagged him before you did and I'm two decades younger. e) Just tell those Queenie bitches to fuck off.
You see Busted Blonde is my token Maori. I don't care how much she troughs, or even her mates she introduces me for fun troughs because she's a good c**t and all her friends have been good c**ts who admittedly on my part I have tried to talk into working in the private sector but the fuckers cannot get their snouts out of the trough. Such as the one I met (and you know who you are) at the failing Dockside. You are fucking talented, literate, presentable, stop working for unappreciative Maori interests at the trough and work for yourself in a private company owned and funded by yourself.
And you know, if she and her good c**t mates arent doing it, then some other Maori who are not such good c**ts will be doing it. So bless it is a Maori who loves Southern Glory (surely we should get a Maori discount or first rights to the line of supply when she's at the table with me Shed 5 and Euro) and Champagne to drink with me.
I enjoyed the Maori TV bid as it is what it is - troughing but it is countering white man's troughing. It shows up what is wrong with the system. It was fucking brilliant. Cheeky and absurd. I even admired it as lets face it - Maori low income/beneficiaries/solo parents have disproportionately taxpayer funded Sky TV and so can see the matches live on Sky anyway. And if Maori can join together to get rights to second-hand TV coverage, imagine what they can do when they get together to combat gangs, child abuse, welfare abuse and men who run off leaving their women to raise the babies? They could collectively solve Maori problems overnight.
The National Party just didn't know what the fuck to do. It had them in stitches to the point they dragged the Prime Minister in? Holy fuck. Too funny. John Key now has to reach down and drag Maori TV bidding out of his Remuera arse. Seriously why is the Prime Minister involved? It is second-hand TV coverage. Why is our nation's most important person even commenting on it? It is like re-runs to Close Up? Who gives a f**k.
The bid was not only thinking outside the black box, it was skin diving into the Marlborough Sounds and finding the black box and hiding it in the Marae under the Elder before the white guys even knew the plane had crashed. It was orchestrated, contrived, probably illegal and a breach of employment law based on insider information but it was in-your-face fucking brilliance from a bunch of Maori who shall get away with it because we let them because they are Maori. And it upset Murray McCully.
I especially liked it because it upset Murray McCully.
Choice.
But David Farrar he is a disgrace,
David Farrar is now out of the VRWC for fraternising with the Maori Party and pro-Maori TV people to cut the RWC deal. David Farrar is now abandoned. Desolate. Even my Facebook page where David's oldest political buddies have come out in support of ditching Farrar. I hope Maori have co-opted him with a Chiefly title as he is now gone. Disowned,
David Farrar should have been at Chow at the tightarse Wednesday special teaching Murray McCully and Gerry Brownlee about how to do their jobs. Instead he was at the Green Parrot with his new Maori Party friends.
It is a disgrace David Farrar. For that you as only Whale can do - can Meet the Troughers
During some R&R with a visiting friend this afternoon catching some pollution-friendly rays of sunshine in what HK deems the "Gold Coast", I closed my eyes and drifted away for a moment.
In the drifting the Auckland DHB by some stretch of lunacy had given around 10-15% of their laboratory testing contract back to DML. Not the 10-15% that interacts with the public where complaints, bitching and video taping had occurred. But specialist high-end work. It had breached the contract of Labtests. It made no sense to do it that way as all the complaints seemed to come from the retail end of testing. Something was wrong.
The images were like a movie flashback skipping to Tony Ryall and plotting Tories. They were huddled over a table planning on what to do with the Health system. Tony didn't seem to wish to do much but hike levies and spend more money. He wasn't much of a reformer Big Tony. The others wanted the Labour appointed DHB gone so they can put their own lackeys in. But didn't quite know how to do it.
Then came the idea to co-opt a man whose face I didn't immediately recognise. He was a shifty clever young little bugger. Punched above his height. It looked a lot like someone I've met before. But I could have been mistaken, he was standing up but the height of men next to him sitting down.
The young man had the answer, pitch to DML to let him take over their PR on the basis it was clear they were failing and needed help with sabotage. His brief was to mess it all up on purpose. Aggressively create mayhem and havoc in Auckland. Too smart to sacrifice his own soldiers he would even use the left to do it. He would pit the left against the left and use a desperate CEO in Arthur Morris to achieve the goal. Discredit the DHB into fucking it all up and give Big Tony a reason to pressure the DHB and its Labour lackey appointees into disintegration. The Tories once again couldn't believe the genius of the young man. Glasses were raised, calls to DML were made.
The fix was in.
Tony realised he couldn't do better himself and gave the word. "Do it". Big Tony doesn't like making big decisions, but let nature take its course.
The DHB were rudderless. Evil forces took hold. The Herald even got involved pitting themselves through their long lunch association with DML firmly in the camp of team anti-DHB.
The Tory masterplan was unfolding.
Use a multi-million dollar contract, generate and encourage the mishandling of the handover of it, diminish public confidence and clean out the DHB of appointed members by forces of nature. The end goal was fitting of the corporate chaos ensuing.
I woke up just as the sun disappeared in the mist of the dark art of pollution.
Apparently the name for spoilt brat children is now a "Me-We".
I ask, so what?
As a purveyor of observation on OPC (other people's children) I can see absolutely no differences between the current generation, mine and my parents. Such generational snobbery and downright defamation towards any generation of children is silly. We were all the same. The only difference is today's kids have a choice of cooler shit to play with and is forced to stay in education longer. Oh, and the drugs are apparently now more dangerous than the heroin and weed gone before us....but still drugs have always been around and always will be.
The We Generation is a reaction to the individualism we've handed them. As sociologist Zygmunt Bauman tells us, we are in a time of liquid modernity. Everything we assumed was solid is in flux: identity, community, geographic boundaries, loyalties.
Utter nonsense.
Children ARE all self-centered. Take this example.
Go buy six presents for children, take them to a household with say three children and hand them all to one child. Tell them that they can keep all six presents or share them however they want.
The child will without question contemplate first keeping the lot. Then when physical force, Mother's blubbing to share, or coercion via screaming is used, she or he may give the least favoured presents to the other two children. I've never met three children socialised enough to divide the six presents equally between themselves so everyone is happy.
It's a shame they don't keep that attitude when they make money, else a left-wing government would never be elected. They will be self-centred when given gifts but not with their own money later in life when they actually have to earn it.
Children are greedy. And why shouldn't they be? They are JUST children.
Family Therapist Michael Ungar (thee who makes his living out of creating problems and giving them a flash name so he can cure them) reckons it is ours and our parents self-centred approach that the children are inheriting. He's even giving talks to parents about this subject.
I say nonsense to that. Teaching individualism is not the problem.
It is parents actually teaching their children about the environment, to share and all the fluffy green rubbish that is making children these days SOFT and that they think they actually have adult rights without adult responsibility. Parents have pandered to their children so much now that they have become uncontrollable, yet incapable of dealing with conflicts and anything outside of their parents sphere of influence.
If children were actually individualistic then they wouldn't succumb to peer pressure and do "P" would they? They would be strong enough to make up their own minds and do what they know is right and sensible. Strong enough not to share their money and time with losers.
It's got nothing to do with the children themselves, they are popped out much the same as children always have been. The poor blighters are confused with the mixed message softness from those educated under "Tomorrow's Schools".
The flip side of being a self-centred shitbox and practising individualism is that parents should teach their children that there is a price to pay, and it's called paying for your self-centredness. Plenty of these Me-We's are mistaken to think that Dad's wallet is actually an extension of their own backside, hence the attitude towards other adults ie. teachers and school Principals. They actually think they as children are higher achievers than those adults.
So until a child can pay for all their desires and demands then they remain firmly beneath the adult and should be treated as such and not pandered to. But no we have to call them the "future of the planet", "tomorrow's leaders" and other titles of grandeur. Not I. Just like I shall not pander to a beneficiary or bludger, I shall never pander to any child.
They should not be treated as a little adult who needs running around after and having an adult's life fit into theirs, or getting priority queuing or treatment at airports but what they actually are - a subspecies, not special - just another bloody kid.
Who without their parents money is at this point in time completely and utterly useless to productive society.
We can extend this principle to big kids who are still living off their parents income as well.
It was an utterly boring game from a football sense. So much so I slept at halftime and woke 20 minutes from the end.
No goals. No real skill level.
The commentators on Star Sport were tearing their hair out watching Bahrain and New Zealand.
But for sheer fighting glory, this was better than an All Blacks match. There was more at stake. 180 minutes from a Football World Cup, New Zealand battled and battled and shredded kilograms in the heat.
The All Whites almost scored. I sat on the couch at some ungodly hour thinking this was such a fabulous occasion that all one needed was a drink and a few others to share it with.
And I was.
Soccer mad New Zealanders would be watching. Probably with better picture quality and commentary.
The whistle blew and the hard work is over. A 0-0 draw in Bahrain and now the return tie in Wellington.
It will be a sell-out. Wellingtonians will make sure of that.
Cheering for 90 minutes that could see the All Whites return for the first time since 1982 to the greatest sporting tournament on the planet. In South Africa.
Qualifying for a Football World Cup is harder than winning the Rugby World Cup. Made harder that the NZ Football more incompetent than every with suspended goal keeper Glen Moss' appeal failed to be lodged in time over Christmas as the office had gone on holiday. He misses Bahrain and the first 2 games of the World Cup if we qualify, effectively making him baggage to carry.
But that this team is even doing this well is a miracle for a piss-poor funded organisation with a team on a minimum wage payroll for the football world.
And the superstar Ryan Nelsen is our Dan Carter and Richie McCaw. He earns more playing for Blackburn what they both do put together. And seems worth every cent.
We will all become closet Blackburn fans if the club release him fit and early for the return match. New Zealand's most important in 27 years.
For not only pinching my Developergate series (which is understandable as it was fun), but having the audacity to actually name developers along the deceased who are not even bankrupt yet and then rubbing her theft in by using a quote from my series.
Such sensationalism for naming those who are not totally FUCKED or at the stage of having proceeding against them to be FUCKED (liquidation or receivership is not a personal bankruptcy) can only lead to them now being FUCKED with the circulation of such rumour now in print.
Bad manners and irresponsible for mainstream media. Even the humble blogger was careful not to pop that line even going to length to edit comments.
National have stupidly bought in to a cataclysmic battle with the Maori Party, Maori TV and other complete inconsequentials allowing them posturing points with their electorate.
What we are arguing about here is the free-to-air rights. In other words, people too tight to have Sky where the games will be live and in English. This silliness could be eliminated by cutting free-to-air coverage out altogether and selling the live rights for a larger exclusive price.
Real rugby fans have Sky.
Lets face it, sport-loving Maori rugby fans are well-represented in those who have Sky anyway so will get to see the games. It's not about race, or whether people will be (shock horror) exposed to Maori language, it's just about some cheeky bro's in the Maori Party and Maori TV having yet another giggle at the taxpayers expense so they can get free tickets in a corporate box to the Rugby World Cup.
The free-to-air coverage should just go to the channel that doesn't bludge off the taxpayer. And Maori TV's audacious bid has put this into the spotlight.
"new and exciting stupid ways to steal nicely from you to start then nastily when you are not looking"
While Kiwiblog is delighted at the prospect of more taxes as he believes in Santa insofar that income taxes may reduce and stay reduced. Not PC stays strong and true with this gem:
What New Zealand needs is not new taxes. It’s not a “broader tax base.” It’s not “slower growth in government spending.”
What it needs – especially at a time that businesses are struggling with lower returns – is drastically reduced government spending. It’s the urgent removal of all the regulatory handbrakes on real production.
The correct response to calls for new taxes and a broader tax base is not “Go Treasury Go ,” but No Treasury No!
Forget saying no to "P" and other drugs of choice. Say "No" to new taxes. They are potentially far more harmful for government spending addicts.
This is what happened Hong Kong when we were asked to "broaden the tax base", from the HK University deputy vice-chancellor of all people re-emerging from more than a decade ago.
Never has a more beautiful quote emerged from academia:
He added: "So long as the government seeks to balance the budget over the business cycle rather than from year to year, there is really no cause for alarm. History has shown the best budgetary policy is to contain spending, not to increase revenue. Small government budgets survive external shocks better. Taxes should be cut during good years and spending reduced during bad years to keep governments small."
Little nice middle class people buying their one registered box of cold treatment from Chemists aren't the bloody problem. Shipments of pseudo arriving from overseas through New Zealand's ports are the problem. Dodgy Police are the problem. Tip toeing around distribution and manufacturing gangs are the problem. Piss poor money laundering laws are the problem.
Oh and the criminalisation of drugs full stop - that's the problem.
A $100 Doctors appointment to get effective cold treatment! Ridiculous. And yet another strain on the GP system and public health for those who qualify for a taxpayer handout.
And what's going to happen to all the tourists who bring in their pack of pseudo bought in a country without a Nanny State where the citizens are not all guilty until given a script? Do I have to declare it along with Rodney's oats?
Andrew Krukziener - CLENCHING his butt for almost a decade now!
Ironically had Krukziener simply let himself be bankrupted first up, he probably would be infinitely better off after defaulting on bond repayments back in 2001 relating to Metropolis. He stands head and shoulders above all of those against him in the battle to keep the wolf from the door. Every time the wolf attempts to bankrupt him and I think we are now up to half a dozen time, he fights, negotiates and "wins".
He is a monument to I guess as a developer what you shouldn't do - hang on in there!
He's tried to sell off property to repay debts, lived a life on shitty credit. All in the name of not being taken down. Ironically as Metropolis outwardly is still a beautiful structure, inside it is deteriorating with low-grade tenants and bad hotel/apartment management but that is not Krukziener's fault. I tried it out one day and there was little difference between staying in the Metropolis and what I imagine a Hong Kong public housing estate would be like. I was expecting incense to be burned in the hallways as I smelt the healthy aroma of burning cabbage from a tenant. Better than napalm in the morning you think?
Compare this behaviour and tenacity of Krukiener to repay debts with a new wave coming through of three more lesser lights in charge of big money then....some of whom are receiving more than a "you deserve it" gentle jab from those bankrupting them.
"The insolvents have not explained how they got into this position - it's insufficient to say the market crashed and $140 million has gone west. Borrowed funds have evaporated" - Counsel for the Bank.
The judge adjourned the hearing to Friday 6 November for completion
"Property developers cannot do business on the basis that the market will always be buoyant. Nielsen must take responsibility for being, at best, imprudent or, at worst, commercially irresponsible."
It has been a bad week for property developers. Worse is to come no doubt but the roll call in the past seven days reads a who's who of some of the most notable buildings over Auckland and indeed New Zealand.
Jamie Peters - FUCKED
"I am exposed to personal liability for debts in excess of $100 million as a direct function of the current global credit crisis which I simply do not have the ability to repay," Peters said yesterday.
"This issue has similarly affected other individuals involved in development, as well as large organisations such as my primary funder Bank of Scotland International [BOSI]."
David Henderson - About to be FUCKED
"I don't think you'd find many property developers around Auckland that aren't in a similar situation to myself. You're only really as good as your last deal and if it's not successful you've got to find something that is successful.
David Henderson - Fighting hard not to be FUCKED
Henderson told The Press yesterday: "These are simple commercial issues that flow from what are very tough times and mostly get worked out in a commercial way.
"There is no real story here – not today anyway."
These guys are the risk-takers who put together deals that make the cities they are developing in expand, grow and in many cases look better.
I ask and I am not suggesting they should at all bail them out but if the government is in the process of bailing out finance companies, why isn't it bailing out property developers? If they give sympathy and lee-way to farmers, why not these guys?
For without the developers we have no buildings. And unlike the Crafar's, none of them seem to harm small animals. Their biggest crime is usually living in a nice property and driving a fancy car and having an unmitigated lack of fear for risks that if they didn't have, nothing would ever get built by the private sector. Governments would be designing most of the buildings we live in.
I shall add to the roll call of developers as news comes in of their impending doom. We should not be celebrating that these guys are rolling over and being clipped, we should be worried of the flow-on effect all through the economy of the IRD or creditors tipping them over.
One suspects that the IRD tipping them over is self-defeating as they will call bankruptcy and their trade creditors don't have a chance of being paid meaning the IRD won't get paid tax from the flow-on effect.
But the IRD enjoys self-defeating behaviour frequently so watch this space as this is where most will get caught as they pay the Revenue last.
One thing I've found blogging is precisely what Bernard Hickey found last week.
Run a story and people like it when they read it and when they trust you and like your style, they will dump information the size of an entire Crafar herd's cowpats into your inbox. However means possible. Hotmail, gmail, through people you know or even relatives. You follow up the source the best you can within your time constraint to ensure the information is accurate and then ask yourself where that fits into your initial objective.
When I started investigating the affairs of NZX I was bombarded with anonymous email after email, two PR operators pleading with me to rough the ship up further so they could convince Weldon he needed their external services, information, leaks, senior brokers and scuttlebutt. You know that what you are writing is being read and people are thinking about the content. The subject of your attention is mentally rather grossly inconvenienced with thoughts of what the **** will come out next.
So how far is too far?
There's a fine balance between running the story and follow ups as they come in, and then looking like you are just picking on the poor bloke or blokess. I've had one vibrant dissenter, daytrader and former blogger "Ruth" who thinks I declared Jihad personally on Weldon. While I respect Ruth's background and opinion in the Finance Markets, she's dead wrong. Just like a Muslim, when I declare Jihad on someone they know it as does the whole world.
The flipside is that you will open a Pandora's box and naturally that becomes very attractive to search through for another story to go with the first. I know things about Mark Weldon that he won't know I know. Quite possibly those who work with him do not know. There's no way I would publish this information as it oversteps my objective which was to do pretty much what has already happened. Except NZX handing all their regulatory function over to either the Securities Commission or independent agency. To start running stories unrelated to the objective to attempt to make the man's life a misery crosses that line. My objective isn't as sinister to get the man sacked or personally discredited for things unrelated to his job. Neither Jane Diplock whom I've only really parodied for effect. I have yet to have time to read the report completed recently on the Securities Commission and so will not post on it until I've thoroughly briefed myself on it.
The Crafar's are however such a pack of halfwits and dairy farming is so vital to the NZ economy that it makes the line invisible.
Despite the criticism he is getting Bernard should just keep going. There's not a lot that's off limits there. People are interested and there's probably an excellent argument for Bernard's civic duty to clear these goons out of farming.
But that's it.
At that point you have to back off and let them live their lives. They are already broke, already discredited in their community and already looking firmly up shit creek. Crafar has already spoken in his only sincere moment to date about a fellow farmer counselling a young indebted farmer who then took his own life. We don't wish that to the Crafar's. Any of them. They aren't the worst family in NZ by any stretch of the imagination. But banks haven't loaned $200 million to the other families!
The Crafar's engaged Bernard by first having a servant smack over Bryan Spondre and then give interview after interview without media training. None of which he's come out looking more like a meaner and much poorer Jed Clampett.
So go hard or go home and Bernard's chosen to go hard.
Just like Phil Kitchin and Winston Peters.
Phil will have more personal information about Winston and dodgy dealings, his personal and professional life. Phil closed up Pandora's box when Winston disappeared from the national political stage. He let him live his life hoping Winston will see the error of his ways and grow old gracefully. After of course dedicating years of his and the Dominion Post's resources into the story which I'm convinced cost Winston and NZ First re-election in 2008.
It appeared to be near obsessional but only because it had to be. Winston up to that point had lived a life in teflon coated heaven.
Winston's not listening and now it seems a hell of a lot of people associated with Winston Peters, including former MP's are suffering the indignity of Police investigation, the SFO looking at their affairs and being turned over under dodgy name suppression headlines.
courtesy The A List
