If National wins ...

[westerly]

Labour leaning candidates like Dalziel and Goff who both claimed to be running as independents and Goff even running on National blue hoardings. Those 2 ex Labour Ministers not exactly enthusiastic about being branded Labour are they ? Probably since they know what a damaged brand it is !!

Interesting you forgot about ex National mp Colin King standing as an independent mayoral candidate in Marlborough. I would have a guess that independent candidates through out the land would be would be more likely to support National than another party.
Incidentally King invited Simon Lusk to address a candidates seminar.

westerly

[elZorro]

Interesting you forgot about ex National mp Colin King standing as an independent mayoral candidate in Marlborough. I would have a guess that independent candidates through out the land would be would be more likely to support National than another party.
Incidentally King invited Simon Lusk to address a candidates seminar.

westerly

In Hamilton we have a leftie (Paula Southgate) with a National type (Andrew King) neck and neck for the vacated Mayor's spot. It could go either way by Thursday. I agree with your comment about independents, and Phil Goff would have used the blue colour to hold centre ground. He was still the Labour leader for a while, I think that rules out any chance he thought he was in the wrong party. Some people out there are delusional.. like FP.

Again National has to admit that their policy settings are a bit off.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/politi...f-new-migrants

Dropping immigrant numbers from 100,000 over 2 years to 95,000, it's a very tentative step in the right direction. After all, did any of us decide we want to increase the population of NZ by 4% a year, including natural increase? If net immigration dropped to zero, that would stop house price increases for sure. Within a couple of months or so, according to that chart I posted a while back. So announcing a policy change this far out from the 2017 elections means it's a small change, meant to show they are doing something, when really they aren't. Immigration must continue apace, if the govt wants to show a growing economy!

I'm contracting in one of these new immigrants for a few weeks. His wife is pregnant, they probably hope to stay here. I have trouble understanding him, he probably says the same about me, but he has trouble with the simplest jobs, and he works at about 1/2 the speed of a competent worker, yet he's trade trained. He's probably being paid well over twice the wage rate he got in his former homeland, but he'll need all of that for rent. I would not employ him, given the chance. Why was it a smart idea to allow him and his wife into NZ? Is this sort of process going to make us more productive here? He could well end up on the dole. I'm not sounding very Labour-Like am I? But these are National's policies, they'll end up biting us in the backside.

[iceman]

In Hamilton we have a leftie (Paula Southgate) with a National type (Andrew King) neck and neck for the vacated Mayor's spot. It could go either way by Thursday. I agree with your comment about independents, and Phil Goff would have used the blue colour to hold centre ground. He was still the Labour leader for a while, I think that rules out any chance he thought he was in the wrong party. Some people out there are delusional.. like FP.

Again National has to admit that their policy settings are a bit off.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/politi...f-new-migrants

Dropping immigrant numbers from 100,000 over 2 years to 95,000, it's a very tentative step in the right direction. After all, did any of us decide we want to increase the population of NZ by 4% a year, including natural increase? If net immigration dropped to zero, that would stop house price increases for sure. Within a couple of months or so, according to that chart I posted a while back. So announcing a policy change this far out from the 2017 elections means it's a small change, meant to show they are doing something, when really they aren't. Immigration must continue apace, if the govt wants to show a growing economy!

I'm contracting in one of these new immigrants for a few weeks. His wife is pregnant, they probably hope to stay here. I have trouble understanding him, he probably says the same about me, but he has trouble with the simplest jobs, and he works at about 1/2 the speed of a competent worker, yet he's trade trained. He's probably being paid well over twice the wage rate he got in his former homeland, but he'll need all of that for rent. I would not employ him, given the chance. Why was it a smart idea to allow him and his wife into NZ? Is this sort of process going to make us more productive here? He could well end up on the dole. I'm not sounding very Labour-Like am I? But these are National's policies, they'll end up biting us in the backside.

I agree with you on this EZ. I don't think there is any doubt that businesses are screaming out for more and better qualified people. But we also have many jobs, for example in many of our fast growing primary industries, that Kiwis simply don't want or those that want it are totally unreliable and in many cases can not pass drug tests. So immigration is a tough balance. Always has been and always will be.

[elZorro]

I agree with you on this EZ. I don't think there is any doubt that businesses are screaming out for more and better qualified people. But we also have many jobs, for example in many of our fast growing primary industries, that Kiwis simply don't want or those that want it are totally unreliable and in many cases can not pass drug tests. So immigration is a tough balance. Always has been and always will be.

Fair enough, Iceman. I have another immigrant contractor who is quite good, but he'd found a fulltime job before filling in at my work. A local NZ-born person supplied by the same agency turned up the first day, was then off sick for the next two days, worked one more day and then didn't turn up at all, not even to get his timesheet signed. They said he'd assured them that he would pass a drugs test. I don't normally even think about that. I don't normally have permanent staff turnover, so this has been an eye-opener for me. Must be the education system, and the parents! Kids growing up that think they'll go straight into a sweet job that lets you play around on your cellphone all day, and have a general chin-wag with other staff to pass the time. It's going to get harder to earn a living, not easier.

Phil Goff valedictory speech, excerpts.

[winner69]

@honbillenglish: Thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, the Crown accounts are looking healthy (ps: this year's pie was… https://t.co/DIRqCzjlwP

Thanks to the National-led Government's responsible economic management we've achieved a $1.8b surplus for 2015/16. youtu.be/yqDz75Y9Abw




Not really a good thing is it EZ

[elZorro]

@honbillenglish: Thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, the Crown accounts are looking healthy (ps: this year's pie was… https://t.co/DIRqCzjlwP

Thanks to the National-led Government's responsible economic management we've achieved a $1.8b surplus for 2015/16. youtu.be/yqDz75Y9Abw


Not really a good thing is it EZ

Yep, a $1.8B surplus, and yet the govt is still spending $1.3B more than it takes in. That'll be because of borrowing for interest costs on all the previous borrowings ($3bill p.a.?), which is outside the other data.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/gdp

GDP dropped last year, and even so the operating surplus was 0.2% of GDP then, maybe under 1% of GDP for this latest year. But Labour achieved a record plus 4.5% of GDP during their last term in office, and National also achieved a less exciting record recently, of minus 9% of GDP.

We also hear that some funds will need to be put into Housing NZ soon ($3bill?), that'll be because the govt pinched some money out from portfolios when they shouldn't have, to get to a budget surplus. Some business conglomerates work like that, pinching funds from profitable areas to bolster areas that shareholders might be worried about.

So no, I'm not that excited with their business prowess yet. Bill should have stuck with a mince pie for lunch.

Deliberate Nats policy on immigration, unpicked.

[craic]

el Zorro, when I pointed to the Islanders living in a state house shed forty years or more ago, you remark that the situation has not improved under Nationals watch. We have had more than one Labour Watch since then and they didn't achieve anything on that front. When I was in the British army, from 1955 there were homeless sleeping under the bridges in London and elsewhere. I know of one family in Christchurch who moved to a tent on the beach area at Sumner/New Brighton for the summer months. Some of the homeless could enjoy life in a tent to scrape up an ante for a few months. Father got up and went to work each day. Right next to them was a family who bought a house near the beach. to pay the mortgage, they planted the whole garden, front back and sides in asparagus.Up at the crack of dawn and down for a swim and then asparagus cutting in the season "till time for work. Apparently they paid the mortgage quickly - those sort of people usually do.

[elZorro]

el Zorro, when I pointed to the Islanders living in a state house shed forty years or more ago, you remark that the situation has not improved under Nationals watch. We have had more than one Labour Watch since then and they didn't achieve anything on that front. When I was in the British army, from 1955 there were homeless sleeping under the bridges in London and elsewhere. I know of one family in Christchurch who moved to a tent on the beach area at Sumner/New Brighton for the summer months. Some of the homeless could enjoy life in a tent to scrape up an ante for a few months. Father got up and went to work each day. Right next to them was a family who bought a house near the beach. to pay the mortgage, they planted the whole garden, front back and sides in asparagus.Up at the crack of dawn and down for a swim and then asparagus cutting in the season "till time for work. Apparently they paid the mortgage quickly - those sort of people usually do.

Good points, Craic, you know I'm not scared of a bit of work either. It's possible the housing situation will improve, but not if we continue bringing in a lot of immigrants the way we are doing at the moment. It'll need a breather of a year or two at least, to start making progress. And I would dispute that Labour has had no affect on the plight of the homeless and poor, it's mostly since National came in and concentrated on the big end of town, that manufacturing jobs have been lost in NZ.

Vernon Small comments on the Govt books.

[craic]

Well! it's all over bar the shouting! Dot com has announced that he is going to get rid of the government. Now that can only be sad news for Labour. He will either be Greens or Labour.

[GTM 3442]

. . . And I would dispute that Labour has had no affect on the plight of the homeless and poor, it's mostly since National came in and concentrated on the big end of town, that manufacturing jobs have been lost in NZ.[/URL]

Manufacturing employment has been in steady decline since the Muldoon administration began to dismantle "Fortress New Zealand" and introduce some rationality into the New Zealand economy.

The decline has continued irrespective of the party in power.