Women wearing burquas refused entry onto NZ buses

Women wearing burquas refused entry onto NZ buses...

The two bus drivers who refused to accept passengers on their buses because they wore burquas didn't do anything wrong. If I was a bus driver and had a potential passenger wearing a burqua, hoody with dark glasses or a person with a handkerchief around their face, I would refuse them admittance too until they removed them. As far as Muslims wearing burquas goes, remember the adage, "when in Rome do as the Romans do." NZ is not a Muslim country, but we should remember also that the burqua is a cultural requirement, not the Prophet's. I don't have a problem with head scarves, because some Christian sects still wear them.
 
I don't appreciate the comments emanating from Saudi Arabia either about the veiled threats about 'paying students' from that country. We don't like being intimidated by people who won't even let their women drive in their home country.
 

But John Key is such a gutless wonder he won't stick up for NZ citizens either! Strange from a prime minister of Jewish descent too? 

Cunliffe addresses Key's lies...            

David Cunliffe has addressed Key’s truly uninspiring pre-budget speech this morning.
National have no economic plan, and it shows. Key’s tinkering to fix the massive economic gaps, and his only suggestions are a vague warning that National would reduce the member tax credit, and reverse its own earlier move to reduce the default contribution rate.
Yes: they plan to encourage savings by cutting savings.
But the speech was much more about blame-shifting on to the weather, the earthquakes, the GFC and the previous Government. After 2.5 years, we apparently still shouldn’t blame them.
Cunliffe addresses what he politely calls Key’s ‘misleading’ claims:

Rebutting false claims on Labour’s economic record in Key’s pre-Budget speech
1. Key says: “Government spending increased markedly in the mid-2000s”
Fact: Government spending was 31.0% of GDP in 2000 and 31.2% in 2008. Under National, spending as a percentage of GDP has exploded

Source: Parliamentary Library
2. Key says: “Government spending rose 50 per cent in just five years”
Fact: Between 2003 and 2008, core Crown spending grew 42.9% but this was before inflation and population growth. In real terms per person terms, spending grew by less than 20%, which was in line with economic growth. This money went into programmes like Kiwisaver, Working for Families, and increased infrastructure spending, which National hasn’t scrapped.
Source: Parliamentary Library

3. Key says: “Since 2004 almost 60 per cent of new jobs have been in heavily government-dominated sectors”
Fact: Key is counting the extra teachers, doctors, and nurses Labour funded as if they are ‘bureaucrats’. Core public servants remained roughly 2% of the workforce under Labour.

Source: State Services Commission, Human Resource Capability Survey of Public Service Departments; Statistics New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey. Compiled by the Parliamentary Library.
4. Key says: “export volumes grew only one per cent in total between 2004 and 2008”
Fact: Key is using selective dates and the impact of the global recession to mislead. In reality export volumes grew 42.2% in Labour’s first 8 years in office before shrinking 11 per cent during the recession. Under National, export volumes have just now regained the level they were at under Labour four years ago.

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Infoshare
5. Key says: “since the end of 2004, GDP per person have fallen by an average of 0.1 per cent a year – the weakest period since the late 1980s and early 1990s
Fact: Again, Key is using the recession and his own poor economic record and trying to attribute the blame to Labour. In reality, GDP per person grew 16.8% in the first 8 years under Labour. Since the recession, GDP per person has fallen 5%. National has made no progress on growth, with GDP per capita falling for 6 of its 8 quarters in government so far.

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Infoshare

[Update: now with graphs!]


Acknowledgements: The Standard

Beyond the HuttRiver

Diplomacy the quickest way to rid whaling, maybe yes maybe not...

Image via Wikipedia

Diplomacy quickest way to rid whaling, maybe yes, maybe not...

Government still prefers diplomatic action over the International Court of Justice to eliminate whaling in Southern Ocean.

The Foreign Minister says the Government still wants to eliminate whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Australia is threatening to take Japan to the International Court of Justice over its whaling, but New Zealand is not prepared to take that step just yet.

Murray McCully believes a diplomatic response is the quickest way to go about it, as International Court of Justice action could see the issue locked up for five years.

Mr McCully says if the diplomatic process does break down, we will know by mid-June and the Government has taken some preliminary advice on court action if that happens.

Diplomacy hasn't helped much in other areas recently.




Acknowledgements: 2010 NZCity, NewsTalkZB

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Kiwi anti-boy racing (hoons) legislation - long overdue...

New Zealand anti-boy-racer laws passed into law last night, banning cruising along some roads; car crushing legislation voted on today. Dealing to the hoons.

A major crackdown on boy racers comes into force in December, which will prohibit them from 'cruising' along some roads.

The anti-boy-racer legislation passed last night .

The Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act is one of six major law and order bills being pushed through Parliament under urgency over the next two weeks.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce says the new legislation will give greater powers for police to impound vehicles involved in street racing.

"It's been a long wait. There have been number of attempts in Parliament to deal with it. This is a major step forward I believe, in terms of tackling this issue, by dealing with the things that the illegal street racers hold dear - their vehicles and their licences."

Mr Joyce says cities which have constant problems with boy racers such as Christchurch, will also be able to put in place bylaws prohibiting them from driving along certain roads.

The act also features a ban on driving while affected by benzodiazepine, a prescription sedative and anti-anxiety medication that is often used as a sleeping pill.

The car crushing legislation will be voted on later today.

NZ mortgagee sales hit record high -

NZ mortgagee sales hit record high - life in "the brave new world" of a John key government...

Terralink International says mortgagee sales in New Zealand have hit an all time high for the month of june, 298 and rising

Mortgagee sales have hit an historic high, with numbers almost tripling since the same time last year.

Terralink International has released figures for registered mortgagee sales in June. It says there were 289 of them - against 98 registered sales in June 2008.

Managing Director Mike Donald says Queenstown, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Taranaki and Northland have been hardest hit. He says it is probably due to the recession starting to bite, with job losses and small businesses not generating enough for the owner to pay their mortgage.

Mike Donald expects mortgagee sales will continue to rise.




© 2009 NZCity, NewsTalkZB

Political firestorm - implicating national MP in possible immigration scam...

Political firestorm set to explode;

Labour will today release information from an informant which implicates a National MP in a possible immigration scam

Immigration New Zealand has asked police to look into the activities of an immigration consultant with connections to National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi.

The department says it received information last month concerning Mr Singh Bakshi and interviewed an informant. As a result it decided to refer the case to police.

It is understood the case centres on allegations false job offers have been used to secure visas and permits for immigrants.

Police confirm they are investigating an immigration consultant, but say the man has now left the country. They are not commenting further, nor making any statement about Mr Singh Bakshi's connection.

Mr Singh Bakshi is unavailable for comment, but he has previously denied he has broken any rules in relation to immigration matters. He is currently six weeks into an eight week absence from Parliament, as he recovers from heart bypass surgery.

The Labour Party will be gunning for the National MP in Parliament this afternoon. Labour MP Pete Hodgson says he will go public with a statement from an informant. His comments will be protected by Parliamentary privilege.




Acknowledgements: NZCity, NewsTalkZB

Big Brother is alive and well, and trawling social network sites...

Big Brother is alive and well, and trawling social network sites...

I was just reading a weekend paper here in Wellington, New Zealand, where an article reveals how "Big Brother" is alive and kicking and trawling social network sites to gain possible information on their members.

The article discussed how NZ government departments are trawling these sites for information that can be used against people on social welfare benefits for fraud purposes. One woman had been caught, redhanded you might say, because she admitted a relationship on the social networking site, and the department took a fraud case against her.

Even employers are in on the act looking for information to use against employees: In one case an employee was caught bragging on the site that he was taking a "sickie" from work because he still had a massive hangover.

If this is happening in a little country like NZ, just imagine on what scale it is being used in larger countries like Australia, Britain or in North America and Europe?

In my opinion they are just a pathetic and despicable bunch of Sebastians!

Anti-worker 90 day probation law under attack before it even comes in force...

Anti-worker and anti-democratic law that doe nothing to promote jobs...


Even before it becomes law, the new 90-day probation period has sparked noisy protests.

A march is underway in central Auckland against the measure, which allows businesses with fewer than 20 staff to fire people in their first 90 days of employment. Unions are calling it the "fire at will law."

In Christchurch, a group calling itself The Workers Rights Campaign has picketed National MP Nicola Wagner's office.

They plan to take their objections directly to the premises of employers making use of the law to sack people unfairly.

Another name for the law would be the 90 day Servants Act. Servants of their bosses!

Key the third politician to be insulted at Waitangi...

Oh dear me. Lightning not only strikes twice, but thrice! Key the third senior politician to be insulted, jostled or assaulted at Waitangi in recent years.

Look Waitangi is just not worth it or appropriate as our National Day. It is an important commemoration in our history, but should not and cannot be our national commemoration.

We need to look elsewhere and another day should be considered. New Zealand is no longer a bi-cultural dual partnership society - NZ is a multicultural society and our National Day should reflect this.

We need to consider our future as a society - what will happen after the current Queen Elizabeth the Second's death? What relevance will the British royality have for NZ? King Charles the Third? Yeah right!

Will we become a republic, with a new flag and national day? Perhaps!

Labour Day is a meaningless holiday in New Zealand...

Today is LABOUR DAY in New Zealand, celebrated on the fourth Monday of October every year. Once it celebrated the real value of workers to New Zealand society and the economy, now its a holiday with a very shallow meaning. To most workers its just another holiday off work. Most know their work is not really valued by their employers. In this the year of 2007 they are just another number, another commodity in the market economy.

Back in the new British colony of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1840, a carpenter by the name of Samuel Parnell( an existing suburb in Auckland was named after him)refused to work more than eight hours a day. He is famous for his statement that there is 8 hours to work, 8 for recreation and 8 hours for sleep. Parnell encouraged other tradesmen in the new colony to support him; and in October of 1840 a resolution was passed in support of his proposal.

On the 28 October,1890 the 50th Anniversary of Parnell's resolution was celebrated with a parade through the streets of the colony. In 1890 the Government of the now emerging dominion legislated for a public holiday from 1900. Because some shrewd seamen were celebrating the new holiday on different dates in diferent provinces, employers sought government help to curb the practice. As a consequence the holiday was 'Mondayised' from 1910.

It is, as I stated above,now just another holiday with no real meaning. The recognised eight hour day has long gone. The Employment Contracts Act of 1991, introduced by a New Right market- obsessed National Government, changed the face of employment law and employment practices in New Zealand, probably for ever. The fact of the matter is that in New Zealand, many workers work regularly more than an eight hours a day, and often for no extra pay or overtime, especially if they are salaried workers.

Samuel Parnell would turn in his grave today. Trade unions in New Zealand are still struggling to turn back the excesses of the 1990's and are slowly building up their membership, and continue to celebrate Labour Day and what it meant.

I know other countries celebrate a Labour Day. I wonder if their employment laws allow for an eight hour day? Some how I don't believe it! Enjoy your holiday when it comes round.

The Writers Lounge

Anti-smacking bill comes under attack from the public...

Anti-smacking bill comes under under attack from the public!

The New Zealand Government has apparently backed down a little by not forcing Parliament into urgency to debate the anti-smacking bill as a public backlash mounts againts the proposed legislation.Leaders of the minor parties were contacted by the leader of the House of Representatives that the Government was withdrawing its request for urgency, which would have forced Parliament to sit until the legislation was passed.The decision was made because of opposition to the bill and research which shows that an overwhelming number of New Zealanders oppose the Greens bill outlawing physical punishment, which opponents say would open the floodgates to prosecutions for smacking children.The bid for urgency was causing too much angst among the various minor parties which the Government was having discussions with.There are calls to make it a real conscience vote, not forcing MPs to vote on party lines, on both sides of the political divide.Opinion polls claim that about 80% oppose the bill which could be unforceable. It is also claimed the proposed legislation was not necessary - as police cannot get successful prosecutions under existing laws because case precedents have been developed so parents who assault their children with things such as riding crops can get off scot free, there are suggestions to amend existing laws.The bill returns to Parliament tomorrow for further debate. The result of the bill does not appear cut and dried as it did just days ago.

The National Party opposition is not really gaining much traction because the bill is under immense public pressure at present.