If National wins ...

[elZorro]

Here is the situation with the public service size in NZ, for the last ten years or so. It has been capped at about 51,000 staff in total, with a big section of it, 37,000 staff, definitely capped. The State Services includes all these positions plus teachers and nurses etc, so is a lot bigger.

It's true that Labour increased staffing in the public sector by about 5% a year while they were in office. No doubt it had been pulled down in staffing level by the previous National Govt. National has dropped about 2000 staff from the public sector since getting into office, even though NZ's population has risen 1% p.a. The govt leases about 40% of Wellington's CBD when all is going well.

[westerly]

[QUOTE=Cuzzie;444103]You would take that attitude as Labour and their supports see nothing wrong with lying and name calling.


I too would rather talk about something else - investing and that's why I'm here. Problem is the Green Party and Labour are going all out to discredit the NZ oil industry with nothing but a bunch of misinformation and untruths. Charts that are non-relevant to low pressure oil fields was beyond me and a win win to showcase their B.S. Then Funnyciffe whoops I meant Cunliffe lies about a 70% figure for deep-sea drilling that was quoted for something entirely different to what he was connecting with. Keep it honest, keep it straight and Labour would not need the Greenies but they just can't help themselves. Kind of sad really, or not if you support an honest party.


Problem for National is so many Kiwis are hoodwinked by Labour and now the Greenies untruths. [/QUOTE

Of course National politicians do not resort to name calling and all the other behavior that puts politicians low on the respected occupation list.
Cunliffe had a point about drilling off Kaikoura as scientists warn a tsunami is possible if an earthquake happens along the deep trench off Kaikoura.
An earthquake could easily wipe out a pipe into the ocean floor. With a resultant oil spill.
Labour may not need the Green party anyway the way Nationals power company sales are losing their sharemarket value. More people pay power bills
than the relatively few who bought shares.
Westerly

[JBmurc]

Don't worry too much Westerly. English has taken only 5 years and during the World's biggest recession in our times, to balance the out of control books he inherited, even though deficits were forecasted for at least a decade when Clark got sent packing. English also sold a couple of assets to buy new ones (schools & hospitals) so we don't need to borrow so much. Economy now growing at one of the fastest paces in the western world so we are well positioned with him in charge

Yes the big picture is problem for many just look at loan rates while home values are booming South Island unemployment is round 4%
National took over some costly mistakes from the looneys ..the left love to put the boot in on the asset sales but nothing on the fact the average kiwi is paying less tax less home interest payments good employment when compared to the rest of the world ...so the looneys want the dead opposite ?

[iceman]

More people pay power bills
than the relatively few who bought shares.
Westerly

It is ridculous to suggest power prices will increase more with the SOE´s partially privatised, than they would if 100% Government ownership.
It ignores the fact that power prices rose 72% in 9 years under Clark. She needed to suck them for dividends to pay for electorate bribes !
This scaremongering by Labour will no doubt resonate with some of the public but it has no basis in fact, like most of the other things Labour & Cunliffe are saying at the moment !

[elZorro]

Yes the big picture is problem for many just look at loan rates while home values are booming South Island unemployment is round 4%
National took over some costly mistakes from the looneys ..the left love to put the boot in on the asset sales but nothing on the fact the average kiwi is paying less tax less home interest payments good employment when compared to the rest of the world ...so the looneys want the dead opposite ?

JB and Iceman, well worded there, but many of those facts would have had little to do with the Key/National administration. International money is cheap to borrow, has been since the GFC. Even that alone, low interest rates, was fairly certain to spike house prices at some point.

I don't think either of you will be able to show us where National has been able to lead NZ's business sector in a new direction that will protect our jobs and incomes in the future. No doubt we can build ourselves out of trouble?

Iceman, did you forget that gas wholesale prices doubled from an artificial low during Clark's tenure, as Maui ran down. There was no choice but to pass these costs on. That's why power prices went up, and any firms needing gas scrabbled around for whatever gas supply was left.

[iceman]

Iceman, did you forget that gas wholesale prices doubled from an artificial low during Clark's tenure, as Maui ran down. There was no choice but to pass these costs on. That's why power prices went up, and any firms needing gas scrabbled around for whatever gas supply was left.

EZ do you thinks price increases in the future will be explained by logic or do you think any prices will see Labour/Greens etc say "see we told you prices would go up after (part) privatisation" ? You are now explaining HUGE increases during last Labour tenure but I'm sure you will blame asset sales for all future increases !

Belg, I don't think the power generators and electricity users should be milked to fund unnecessary political pet projects !

[elZorro]

EZ do you thinks price increases in the future will be explained by logic or do you think any prices will see Labour/Greens etc say "see we told you prices would go up after (part) privatisation" ? You are now explaining HUGE increases during last Labour tenure but I'm sure you will blame asset sales for all future increases !

Belg, I don't think the power generators and electricity users should be milked to fund unnecessary political pet projects !

The wholesale gas price affected the price of NZ's most expensive power, largely coming from the Huntly Power Station. Now mainly running E3P which is more efficient, but with two out of four older turbines still operational in the main building. Huntly doesn't use coal very often now. Note that retail users of gas pay a lot more for each GJ of natural gas than large users do. Petrol is the nearly the highest price per GJ of heat energy, electricity is the highest. Both are very desirable and unavoidable sources of energy. So maybe there has been some profit taking, but note electricity prices haven't dropped when National got in, either. Still rising. There's a big part of the GST income right there. I think National put more excise taxes into petrol on their watch. Everybody's at it.

Note that Fonterra are behind the new coal mine in Maramarua, Waikato. This is a message to govt that if energy prices for gas etc go up any more, they'll happily mine their own energy, no matter how much greenhouse gases are given off. Gas gives off quite a bit less CO2 per GJ than coal.

[slimwin]

So gas fro Maui has declined and the Greens want to ban fracking. That should help the power prices aye.

[Cuzzie]

elzorro got any more good news Labour stories & bad news National stories from the last 14 years or so? Just wondering, because the more you talk up Labour and put down National the more you need to explain the Current account balance. You see this is the only graph you should be referring to as it tells the end story, not snip bits of this and that.
Here’s your problem - the more you praise Labour the worse they must of done to push down the % of GDP more into negative for any given year. On the other hand the more you downgrade National the better they must of done to bring back that GDP% towards zero.
So it’s real easy, the current account balance is the final data for all financial goings on for that party in power for that particular year. Forget about the rest, they are small parts of the story, the end data is the current account balance and that tells the full story. Not so good for Labour one must say.

GDP.jpg

That's why Labours colour is red, because they are always in it. Maybe this chart shows why they are always negative, because they take negative to new lows.

[elZorro]

elzorro got any more good news Labour stories & bad news National stories from the last 14 years or so? Just wondering, because the more you talk up Labour and put down National the more you need to explain the Current account balance. You see this is the only graph you should be referring to as it tells the end story, not snip bits of this and that.
Here’s your problem - the more you praise Labour the worse they must of done to push down the % of GDP more into negative for any given year. On the other hand the more you downgrade National the better they must of done to bring back that GDP% towards zero.
So it’s real easy, the current account balance is the final data for all financial goings on for that party in power for that particular year. Forget about the rest, they are small parts of the story, the end data is the current account balance and that tells the full story. Not so good for Labour one must say.

GDP.jpg

That's why Labours colour is red, because they are always in it. Maybe this chart shows why they are always negative, because they take negative to new lows.

It is red, it's more negative for Labour's term than National's term, but there are at least three good reasons why that won't be affecting the vote in 2014.

1. You should read this Wikipedia page Cuzzie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_account

2. NZ and Australia have historical current account deficits as the public borrow (often for property, but other assets too). Aussie is further in the red than us, but it hasn't stopped their economy growing briskly.

3. The change in the graph had very little to do with National, who stopped making payments into the super scheme, which didn't help. It was a sharp reaction from the public of NZ after the GFC, to rein in spending and save more. No govt could have made a swift change like that.

But was this behaviour linked to the collapse in manufacturing jobs, as older companies gave up on the notion of being able to make a profit from their exports to similarly affected countries? National just stood back, by and large, and watched those jobs disappear. To help it along, they sacked a few thousand people themselves.

From teara.govt.nz: