If National wins ...

[fungus pudding]

I'm not a socialist, merely concerned with how much better/fairer we could do things in NZ.

There is reason to be worried about the economy in the medium term. It's costing dairy farmers to put milk in the vat at the moment, if they are feeding supplements as well as grass. As Stephen Toplis from the BNZ says: NZ's export revenue will be $5.5billion less than the previous year if we are lucky, and that's twice the level of the Christchurch rebuild.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...economist.html

It would have made sense for the National govt to actively support manufacturing, for at least two good reasons. It provides jobs for those who are often otherwise unemployed, a net cost to the state instead of a revenue, and a stronger manufacturing base has the clear potential to add stability to our exports.

Supporting manufacturing doesn't mean that they turn up and pretend that they have had anything to do with an overseas firm buying in a massive robot that makes 100 people redundant in NZ. That's not it, and they know it.

Forget the government. The public will happily support manufacturing as long as it's competitive. Labour of course seem determined to destroy such industries by setting minimum wages rather than letting the market sort it out.

[westerly]

Forget the government. The public will happily support manufacturing as long as it's competitive. Labour of course seem determined to destroy such industries by setting minimum wages rather than letting the market sort it out.

The markets working well. We have xero contracts, petrol station workers paying for drive offs, very soon we will be totally competitive with the asian economies and will be making cars,tvs and all sorts of electronic goodies. FP ,Black Peter and the other far right centrists will be very happy.

westerly

[elZorro]

Forget the government. The public will happily support manufacturing as long as it's competitive. Labour of course seem determined to destroy such industries by setting minimum wages rather than letting the market sort it out.

FP, you don't have a clue about this area. Not as implied by your posts. The best manufacturing in NZ will all be exported. Nothing to do with how the NZ public views it. If Labour was so poor at encouraging the business sector over nine years, please explain why the no.of SMEs syrocketed, why there was recent-record unemployment, even though the minimum wage was increased by quite a percentage? On top of that, the Labour government easily met their own budgets for all nine years, and repaid a lot of historic debt. The market has no interest in the general voting public, that is surely the domain of the government though.

[fungus pudding]

The markets working well. We have xero contracts, petrol station workers paying for drive offs, very soon we will be totally competitive with the asian economies and will be making cars,tvs and all sorts of electronic goodies. FP ,Black Peter and the other far right centrists will be very happy.

westerly

I'm perfectly happy now thanks.

[BlackPeter]

The markets working well. We have xero contracts, petrol station workers paying for drive offs, very soon we will be totally competitive with the asian economies and will be making cars,tvs and all sorts of electronic goodies. FP ,Black Peter and the other far right centrists will be very happy.

westerly

Westerly, despite above being a quite confused post - it tells us a lot about yourself.

Somebody who puts people expressing liberal ideas "far right" must stand pretty much in the left corner of the political spectrum.

Ever thought about moving to North Korea? I heard they have a nice left wing government and great ways to deal with not conforming bloggers

[777]

The markets working well. We have xero contracts, petrol station workers paying for drive offs, very soon we will be totally competitive with the asian economies and will be making cars,tvs and all sorts of electronic goodies. FP ,Black Peter and the other far right centrists will be very happy.

westerly

What is a far right centrist?

[fungus pudding]

What is a far right centrist?

Me - apparently.

[westerly]

Westerly, despite above being a quite confused post - it tells us a lot about yourself.

Somebody who puts people expressing liberal ideas "far right" must stand pretty much in the left corner of the political spectrum.

Ever thought about moving to North Korea? I heard they have a nice left wing government and great ways to deal with not conforming bloggers

Saying you are Liberal can mean many different things, relying on the market to sort things out is generally a Libertarian principle. As a ”not conforming blogger “I suppose you mean I don,t agree with your ideas.
As for being in the left corner I am left handed but generally more likely to have trouble deciding whether to vote Labour or National.
At the moment I am hoping Labour can get their act together and provide an effective opposition to John Key who is in my view is quietly introducing far right policies while appearing to be a traditional National Govt. which was not to far from the centre.

777 - a far right centrist someonewho says they are centre right while espousing views more towards the Act side of the political spectrum. My definition

westerly

[elZorro]

I agree Westerly, that despite National implying they are centre right when close to the election dates, it's only later on in the terms that their more aggressive agenda comes out.

A slightly harried PM was on TV today admitting that he could have answered those Slater questions better (to journalists and the house). Well, yes, of course he could have. But at the time he thought he could simply lie his way out of it. He's also now kicking himself that he released a portion of his own txt messages to Slater, hoping to have his own mini-expose because he suspected Phil Goff of leaking a document. It left no doubt that he is communicating with Cameron Slater regularly, and in more than a cursory manner.

Recently Bill English has said that there will most likely be a budget surplus next year, we just have to wait until the end of next year to see if it occurs. That's because it'll be so small it'll be insignificant, and at that level they can manufacture one, by juggling a few expenses and incomes.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/bill...dwinds-6180062

Even Bill is saying that NZ needs more exports. You have to ask, after six years, what have they done on that front? It was one of their big targets.

[elZorro]

Wow, there are more links to interesting articles in this story from Bryce Edwards than you can poke a stick at. Recommended reading for all lefties. I especially liked the collection of comics. The press are really starting to enjoy themselves, and why not, they have been handed an easy job.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11367008

Bryan Gould with his take today. He is helping to review Labour's campaign.

http://thestandard.org.nz/supping-with-the-devil/

An increasingly hardnosed John Armstrong, still not calling for John Key to resign, but making a very good case for it.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11366095

An earlier article by Bryce Edwards on the report.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11365448