If National wins ...

[craic]

One on the left - Daytr - says he's a leader but he hates him. Another on the left says he's not a leader "but he keeps Labour in the doldrums" They even claim that the "business community" want Paula Bennet to be leader in place of John Key. Now I know that there are wild flights of fantasy or desperation on that side of the fence but no one has to keep labour in the doldrums it is their natural home recently. They come out sometimes to cut their leaders throat or to speculate on Winston Peters as a possible saviour. "if I could be sure he has a bottom line on most things and knew he wasn't going to side with Act or National" is about as clear a statement as a one-eyed Labour supporter could possibly produce. Would they offer him the leadership - the Prime Ministership? Would they give him all their marbles and other baubles just to get rid of John Key, a leader who has been screwing them at every turn?

[Daytr]

Ha ha Craic, I don't make the claim, it was a business survey.
Also I'm not a leftie, although I do advocate for what I think is the best from both the left & the right.
I voted for NZF, hardly a left leaning party.
Although compared to the extreme right wing policies of the National party I can see how you could get confused.

[BlackPeter]

Do a little bit of world travel - you will soon see that is one of the cleanest greenest counties you will find. If you really want to know what pollution is, try crossing a street in Bankok at rush hour. I can think of a hundred examples but just walking outside Auckland international and taking a deep breath quickly reminds e that I am home to a clean green place.

Hi craic,

sure, there are lots of places on this globe which are worse. I have not seen them all, but a good number of them. Agree as well with daytr (not often the case) that our short history and our quite limited population helps. However - if you look at pollution at a per capita level, than NZ does not look that flash in the international statistics - and even in absolute numbers: winter air pollution in some of our cities is getting better, but was still 10 years ago absolutely shocking for a first world country (and still is - ever visited Reefton in winter?). Rubbish production is ridiculously high - I mentioned plastic shopping bags and one way drinking containers before. Pesticide spraying seems to be ingrained into the genes of some locals - me shudders every time if I see some of our neighbours spraying away every weed and insect (using containers with a skull and crossed bones on them) without regard for human and animal life. They often don't even carry masks - so maybe at some stage nature will resolve this problem, but as innocent bystanders we have to inhale as well some of the poison they spread.

Farmers are worse - sometimes it smells on the Canterbury plains like in a chemical factory (and it is difficult to keep breathing when passing the treated fields) - but its just one of the local farmers "treating" their harvest. Just wondering who wants to eat this stuff afterwards, but lucky us, they export ...

I agree - having a stroll outside Auckland International Airport is nice (and much preferable to having a stroll say outside say Bangkok, LA, Chicago, Houston or Beijing International airport), but if this is the only way how you measure our "Green and Cleanliness", than you might be a bit one eyed.

[Major von Tempsky]

I recall getting back from a 2 week trip to Karachi and stepping onto the Auckland Airport tarmac and breathing in deeply, marveling at the clean, cool, Auckland air. And then ditto at Howick. And now in Christchurch at the clean cool Chch air vs Auckland.

But you still haven't solved my problem of who is the most left wing NZ Lab Party MP so I can vote for them to sabotage Labour.

Oh well, I can default to voting Cunliffe again as leader.

Surprises me that nobody knows who the most left wing Labour MP in NZ is - I would have thought there would be a lemming like rush to emulate Corbyn of the UK by now. Neat little article in The Press today on the totally destabilizing effect all this is having on the UK Labour Party :-)

[BlackPeter]

I recall getting back from a 2 week trip to Karachi and stepping onto the Auckland Airport tarmac and breathing in deeply, marveling at the clean, cool, Auckland air. And then ditto at Howick. And now in Christchurch at the clean cool Chch air vs Auckland.

But you still haven't solved my problem of who is the most left wing NZ Lab Party MP so I can vote for them to sabotage Labour.

Oh well, I can default to voting Cunliffe again as leader.

Surprises me that nobody knows who the most left wing Labour MP in NZ is - I would have thought there would be a lemming like rush to emulate Corbyn of the UK by now. Neat little article in The Press today on the totally destabilizing effect all this is having on the UK Labour Party :-)

Cunliffe certainly would be a good choice. Not sure, whether he is most left-wing, but he has proven experience in losing votes and elections. However - Labour typically only replaces their leaders during the term if the incumbent might have a real chance to win (remember - they replaced Shearer while his polling results have been in the mid 30'ies with Cunliffe, who ended up in the mid 20'ies. Not sure, whether Little will ever poll as high as Shearer - i.e. there might be no need for Labour to replace Little - he might be highly successful in defending his opposition placement

[Daytr]

MVT, how about the most right wing for National? Or just perhaps Paula Bennett?
What do you think National's chances would be with her as leader?

[elZorro]

Mood of the Boardroom yesterday, some various opinions, none more positive than the likes of Westpac and Phil O'Reilly. But apparently Grant Robertson did well in the debate with Bill English.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/economy/ne...14+August+2015

I think there is just one phrase with this market-led economy of ours at the moment: Old money will continue to do well. Older farming ventures, farming partnerships, those already in the property sector, established businesses in the right sectors, they'll continue to do well, might even do better than normal. It's the new entrants, the try-hards, they'll be in trouble. As they exit, shedding jobs and capital, the older businesses will hoover up the leftovers and the market share.

Maybe Solid Energy was a try-hard SOE. Bill English finally admits that the National Govt has to take some of the blame for its demise.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...-perfect-storm

[winner69]

EZ, how we going to stop this happening to NZ one day.

Inevitable if we keep borrowing as we do. What's government gone up to when national in power?

Another reason to get out and protest against TPPA today. Corporatracy is evil.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-10452068.html

[BlackPeter]

Outstanding opinion piece in NBR - written by Michael Hooton:

http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/key-goes-all-mccully

I think its currently unbarred, have a try.

The story in a nutshell: Michael Hooton points to the corruption and problems within the National government (not just the sheep saga), but highlights that the ineffective opposition we currently have basically allows National to drop the standards without fear of losing the control.

Meanwhile Labours leadership wannabes are just waiting for the next leadership challenge within their own party instead of focussing on doing a good opposition job. They see no point in supporting Mr. Little (well, I can somehow understand the latter), allowing National to drop the government standards as they please ...

Actually - a frightening article pointing to a broken system, but difficult to wrong.

[elZorro]

EZ, how we going to stop this happening to NZ one day.

Inevitable if we keep borrowing as we do. What's government gone up to when national in power?

Another reason to get out and protest against TPPA today. Corporatracy is evil.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-10452068.html

Yes, I agree, the Greeks must be feeling fairly rough about all this going on. The TPPA protest march in Hamilton is on soon, from 1.00. Trouble is I need to head in the opposite direction to do some maintenance work.. and fishing. The march is only at the north end of town (past the Base), not into the centre. It's a bit barren in the centre of town during the day, anyway.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times...ch-in-hamilton

There are more and more headlines about the dairy issue now, including this realistic one:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...15+August+2015

Note the cash shortfall for an average dairy operation, although I'm unsure why most of them would be paying rent. If it's interest of $232,000 then that's a $3.8mill loan at 6%. Drawings are still in the costs figure too.

Farmers with a basic operation who bought in several years ago or more, will be just fine for quite a while, as they have plenty of equity in the business now, and much lower interest costs.