Keep the Rebels gang out of New Zealand, John key...

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Members of the filthy Australian motorcycle gang, the Rebels, are invading our nation and turning it into a cesspit of crime and corruption. And now some soft ‘gang expert’ is trying to protect the scum. Dr Arthur Veno is claiming that not all members of the Rebels are criminals, and that we need to look at each case on an individual basis. Well, Dr Veno, I hope the Rebels move in next door to you.

The truth is, if you’re in a gang, you are an evil criminal. You’re an evil criminal who likes surround yourself with other evil criminals. And if you choose to associate with evil criminals, you deserve to be eradicated from society. Simple as that.

This is what you get with a government like the National Disgrace Party led by the biggest disgrace of all, John key. No Aussie criminal gangs in New Zealand - all gang members are criminals!

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John Key accused of backtracking over TPPA...

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John Key accused of backtracking over TPPA...

Key Backtracks, Says Foreign Firms Can Sue NZ Government Under TPPA

In November last year, Prime Minister John Key described as "far-fetched" the idea that investors could sue the New Zealand government directly in a secret international tribunal to enforce rules in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

This week, US trade negotiator Barbara Wiesel said that was no longer New Zealand's position, according to TPPA critic Professor Jane Kelsey.

In response to questions about New Zealand and Australian positions during a briefing to civil society in Washington on 31st January Ms Wiesel said "New Zealand had retracted the Prime Minister's statement. It is not their position."

Under standard US terms for such agreements, investors can claim millions in compensation from governments on the grounds that new regulation has adversely affect their investment. Under a TPPA that would apply to investors from all participating countries, including our largest sources of investment, the US and Australia, Jane Kelsey said.

"In other words, the Key government is happy for pharmaceutical firms in the US, Australian banks or Singapore-based Brierley Investments to sue the New Zealand government for millions in compensation if they think new laws or policies are unfair or unreasonable or erode their profitability", said Professor Kelsey.

"We saw with the Hobbit, just a threat from a foreign investor is often enough to see a government cave. The leverage of Warners over our labour laws and taxpayer subsidies will pale into insignificance with a TPPA."

Professor Kelsey speculates on three explanations for the flip-flop.

"Either John Key did not know what his negotiators were proposing to do when he described investor-state enforcement as "far-fetched"; or he was lying to the New Zealand public; or he has buckled to pressure from the US, and possibly his own Minister and officials, to agree."

"This proposed bill of rights for foreign investors is even more frightening when government has announced assets sales and privatisation of ACC, policies which failed in the past and required the government to step back in."

"The Prime Minister needs to be upfront about the government's real position before the next round of negotiations begins in Chile on 14 February and explain why he is prepared to give foreign firms the legal power to override New Zealand's sovereignty and extract settlements of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars".

Acknowledgements: www.voxy.co.nz

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NZ police have stopped the program to recover the 29 dead miners at the Pike River mine

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe NZ police have decided that the program to reclaim bodies of miners from the Pike River mine near Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island will cease.

PM John key claims that cost has nothing to do with the decision to halt proceedings at Pike River to make the mine safe for  a recovery team. A GAG jet engine on loan from Queensland in Australia has been used for a number of weeks to try and get some stability in the mine which is full of toxic gases, which caused the four explosions in the mine and the death of all 29 miners and contractors working in the mine a couple of months ago.

However, John Key has promised the families of the dead men they would get their men home!

John Key will suffer the political fallout of this decision - it is his ultimate decision not the police who have been   financing the operation at Pike River.  His Government will lose the West Coast seat at the next elections. The fallout may well have a snowballing effect that will destroy this government.

It will now be the decision of the receivers of the failed company, Pike River Coal, to consider the future. They only have $10 million dollars left in the kitty now.

The families of the dead men are shattered at the decision to stop any future recovery. The mine will be sealed. Any future decision will be subject to the Royal Commission of Enquiry in coming months.

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Invalids benefit cuts the real reason...

Image via WikipediaAbout 80,000 people now on sickness and invalid benefits could be shifted on to the unemployment benefit under radical welfare reforms proposed by the Treasury.


A Treasury report to the Government's welfare working group recommends reclassifying all 144,000 people on sickness and invalid benefits into three categories based on their ability to work, shifting those with some capacity to work in the near future on to the unemployment benefit.



It also recommends requiring sole parents to look for paid work before their youngest children turn 6, and contracting out most welfare services to private companies or charities.



But its hard line is softened by other proposals to extend sick leave and parental leave entitlements, and to let sickness beneficiaries earn more from part-time work before having their benefits cut.



The welfare working group, chaired by economist Paula Rebstock, has been given until next February to come up with proposals to reduce long-term benefit dependency.



Ms Rebstock said yesterday that the Treasury paper, presented at the group's latest meeting on September 3, was "just one of many inputs that the working group is getting".


"It was useful input but it would be premature as to what the welfare working group might be recommending," she said.



However, the 38-page paper provides the first concrete set of public proposals from any official source in the working group's review.



It draws heavily on recent reforms in Australia and Britain, which have both moved work-ready people off disability benefits on to the unemployment benefit. In Britain, the paper says, 69 per cent of previous disability beneficiaries were classified as "fit for work" and moved on to the dole.



"On the basis of the recent UK reforms, the reclassification of all sickness and invalid beneficiaries could result in more than 80,000 New Zealand beneficiaries moving on to the unemployment benefit," it says.



The move would make no difference to benefit rates for sickness beneficiaries because they already get the same as the dole. But the adult invalid's benefit of $243 a week is $49 higher than the $194 adult dole.



Shipley rides again!

NZ Actors equity union hits back at Peter Jackson...

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NZ Actors Equity union hits back at Peter Jackson...





The NZ Actors Equity union has hit back at Sir Peter Jackson’s claim their actions are threatening the continued filming of The Hobbit in New Zealand.



“The union is simply seeking an opportunity to sit down calmly with the producers to find a suitable solution,” says President Jennifer Ward-Lealand.



The union has taken advice from a barrister specialising in competition law and say:



“There’s no legal impediment to negotiating fair wages and terms for actors taken on as employees.



“Nothing in the Act prohibits us from having some meaningful engagement with the producers on non-price terms for actors taken on as independent contractors, such as rolling credits to acknowledge New Zealand actors' input into the movie.



“Nor does the Act prohibit us from discussing pricing in general terms with the producers to enable us to help our independent contractor members in their individual negotiations with producers. The union accepts that these could only be recommended prices - nothing more.”



In his earlier press release Jackson said the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s “demand that producers on the film enter into collective bargaining with NZ Equity/MEAA” was illegal under New Zealand law.



The stoush erupted when the Australian actor’s union, the MEAA, asked actors to boycott filming of The Hobbit until a standard employment agreement was reached. The union was concerned actors on the film were being employed on inferior non-union contracts.



Jackson says the union's actions could jeopardise the New Zealand movie industry, resulting in a long - term big budget movie drought. He has also threatened to move production of The Hobbit to Eastern Europe.



Ward-Lealand says the union just wants to secure a meeting with the production team for The Hobbit.



“I can assure the producers that our requirements are entirely reasonable. Many relate to basic conditions of engagement with no cost implications at all, and the overall impact of our demands is likely to be miniscule for a production of this scale.



“As we’ve been unable to secure a meeting with the production, Sir Peter does not yet have any idea of what we’re seeking,” she says.



However, Jackson says the Screen Production and Development Association (Spada) has tried to meet with the MEAA for 18 months without success.



Yesterday The Hobbit’s producers made several requests to attend a Wellington union meeting, at which some actors voted against the union’s proposals, but were refused entry shortly before it started.



It is not usual policy for management or owners to attend union meetings.



This dispute is undoubtably having some affect on Jackson's standing and mana within New Zealand.



Acknowledgements: 3 News /Reuters

Green and Green - NZ Greens congratulate Australians Greens on their success

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NZ Green Party Congratulates Australian Greens on their success...




 Russel NormanNZ Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman today congratulated his Australian Green counterparts on their involvement in Australia's next government.



"This is a great opportunity for Australia to begin moving ahead on climate change," said Dr Norman.



"11% of Australian's voted for the Greens in the recent election. Due to Australia's parliamentary system this did not result in proportional representation for those voters who supported the Green Party.



"However there is now a real opportunity to move ahead on tackling climate change due to the deal the Australian Greens signed with Ms Gillard."



Under the Australian Green Party's agreement with Prime Minister Gillard a well resourced climate change committee will be set up. The Committee will be resourced like a Cabinet Committee. Reducing carbon pollution by 2020 will likely require a carbon price according to this agreement.

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Julia Gillard is the first female prime minister of Australia...

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Julia Gillard is the new prime minister of Australia...


Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister today when Kevin Rudd stepped down, as the Labor government sought to avoid election defeat later this year by changing leaders.



Gillard is expected to present more of a change of leadership style than substance, but investors hope she will soften a controversial super profits mining tax, which is threatening $28 billion worth of investment and has rattled voters.



The Australian dollar briefly jumped after the leadership change, while shares in BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, and Rio Tinto rose around two percent, on hopes of a mining tax compromise.



"The market is going to assume that the (mining) tax is going to be amended, and hence the worst case outcome they were staring at is not going to eventuate," said Richard Schellbach an equity strategist at Citi.



Rudd become the shortest-serving Australian prime minister since 1972, with his leadership falling apart after a string of poor opinion polls showed him losing ground over recent decisions to shelve a carbon-reduction scheme and impose a new mining tax.



Government lawmakers believe Gillard has a better chance of winning back voters ahead of an expected October poll because she is a warmer personality who can sell policies more effectively.



Miners expect tax softening



Miners have launched multi-million dollar advertisements warning of widespread job losses, spooking voters, if the 40% tax goes ahead in its current form in 2012.



Global miners such as Rio Tinto, BHP, and Xstrata are expected to campaign strongly against the tax, if it is not changed, at the next election and help a resurgent conservative opposition's bid to oust Labor.



"If they've gone to the trouble to put a new leader in to get their re-election chances up, then obviously they're going to water down the mining tax as well - all part of that strategy to shore up voter support," said Mark Taylor, senior resources analyst at Morningstar.



"I think you'll find that they might do something fairly radical. They might either say they're going to put it on the backburner and look at the whole thing all over again from a fresh start, or they'll make a fairly large concession on the uplift rate or the headline rate."



Despite investor hopes that a leadership change might spell a major backdown on the mining tax, left-winger Gillard's backers expect her to mount a much more effective defence of it.



Some economic analysts expressed concern over Gillard's left-wing, trade union background.



"Clearly this is a positive for the Australian dollar and stocks in the short and medium term," said Su-Lin Ong, senior economist at RBC Capital Markets.



But Ong cautioned: "She has been more left-wing than Rudd; she favours more regulation and spending. So maybe it means the budget deficit shrinks more slowly than otherwise."


The big question in my mind is...when will John key follow suit?


One news/ Reuters

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Mining is not the answer John key - tourism is...

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The National Government is digging its own political grave with this mining debate that is not built on any outstanding need, but its rhetoric will help NZ catch up with Australia? Bollocks! Australia has a far greater population, is a richer country and has far greater supplies of mineral wealth around the country.

Nothing wrong with a stocktake, but New Zealand's economic  future is bound up with its greatest potential - tourism! Mining will defeat that very purpose in many parts of the country where mining is proposed. Coal supplies can remain until they are needed, not at present Mr John Key. Its money in the bank for a rainy day, and it isn't raining today!

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