Point 1. Yes, there were some serious injustices done to Maori and these have been or should be addressed.Point 2. In many cases however, Maori ought not be blaming todays NZers of European descent for the loss of their land. Instead, they should be blaming their own ancestors for voluntarily selling it for (by todays reckoning) a song. There is blame on both sides, something often forgotten in the quest for cultural sensitivity.Point 3. Even where land was siezed by the crown and compensated for at the going rate, there can be no come-back... any more than my grandchildren will be able to claim compensation if my own property was taken under the relevant legislation for public works and I was compensated according to current property values. This is the law of the land and the Treaty was a recognition that Maori would fall under that law.Point 4. Everyone has to acknowledge that in 2018, nobody alive today was responsible for any of the crimes or misdeeds of the past and thus should not be held accountable (fiscally or otherwise) for those actions. If we do not draw a line in the sand and move forwards, there will never be cultural harmony in New Zealand. When I first arrived here in 1977 (yes, Im an import), I was overwhelmed by the one-ness of the Kiwi population. Everyone, regardless of their skin-colour or ancestry, considered themselves a kiwi. Not so today. The nation is becoming divided by a culture of entitlement based on race. We may have gained many things, but the loss of this one people aspect of NZ is the saddest thing Ive seen in the 40 years Ive been here.
Pull it down... but buy your kids a drone and let them *really* show the neighbours what a loss of privacy looks like. The good thing is that, so long as they stay below the height of that tree and hover over your property -- theres not a single thing the neighbours (or the council) will be able to do about that drone. Some people (the neighbours) need to be taught that it is often better just to keep your mouth shut, lest the results be worse than before.
Theo obviously knows the secret of how to make a company modestly succesful -- start with one that is astonishingly successful and just sit back on an obscene salary package until youre rumbled.
Because all of those things would require a fresh, brave new approach and they are not the sort of things a monoply needs to waste their time contemplating. Sadly for SkyTV, they dont realise that the monoply days are gone. Theyll probably turn up for work one day and wonder where all the customers have gone ;-)
Yes, one of the biggest differences (which really impacts low-income earners) is that in many of those other countries, people are not taxed a cent until their income reaches a certain threshold. For example, Australians can earn up to A$18,200 (NZ$19,822) before theyre required to pay a single cent of tax.By comparison with most other countries, NZs low income-earners are not only whacked with low wages but with hideous amounts of tax on the money they do earn. Instead of raising the minimum wage by $0.50 an hour from time to time, why doesnt the government just let the poor keep the money they so badly need to pay for the basics?
I like Netflix, not so much for the content, but for the complete absence of advertising. From this perspective, TVNZs VOD offerings just cant compete.
There aint no cure (or software update) for stupid and the laws of physics havent yet been rewritten to allow you to take a 40mph corner at 108mph -- no matter what kind of car youre driving!
Although it used to be 1 that Windows was clunkier than Apples desktop environment, thats no longer really 1. Also, if youre buying a desktop because you want more bang for your buck then an Apple (for all its many virtues) will likely not deliver the best bang for that buck.People ought not forget the option of Linux as an OS. I have been using Linux for many years and these days it works just like Windows and you get just about every piece of software (baring games) that youll need for free.
The government also needs to be aware that any downturn in the economy could strip it of huge tax revenues because if youre going to tax a capital gain, you must also provide tax credits for capital losses. This would mean that just at the very time when tax revenues become most important, they could fall significantly.
Its funny how our politicians had no problems with Kim being here, while he was splashing his money around and making them look good. However, as we all know, politicians are fair-weather friends and as soon as they received their orders from Uncle Sam, everything changed.
When I was at school (in the 1960s), French was a compulsory part of the professional stream in high school. I always thought it was stupid to learn French -- what good would that be to my future?Well now, half a century later I look back and realise that I was dead right. I have *never* used a word of French since the day I left HIgh School.If we really want to consider giving our kids maximum opportunity when they leave school, wed be far better off (IMHO) making sure they can speak and write English properly (which many cant). Te Reo is an important part of the Maori culture but I dont think theres much to gain in forcing it upon *everyone* -- any more than it was a good idea to force French down our necks half a century ago.
I pitty the poor online retailers in years to come. If, as this, as Mr Trumpitas suggests the rest of the globe is going in this direction then anyone exporting stuff at a retail level from NZ could find themselves responsible to dozens of tax authorities from other countries to which they send stuff. Imagine having to collect and remit GST to Australia and Canada, VAT to the UK and sales taxes (at different rates) to the 50 states of the USA. What a huge compliance overhead. This alone could really stifle international trade and the so called march towards globalism. I t hought NZ was all in favour of free trade.... I guess not.
That strategy never works with organisations (such as councils) which have the legal power to steal from your bank account or sell your property out from under you if you dont pay them their annual stipend.
Let me loose with my racing drone and Ill clear most of those pigeons out of there (without harming any of them). This strategy has worked a treat at clearing the local airfield here of birds (gulls, pluvers, ducks, magpies etc).
Perhaps the most important issue raised by this article is: why do NZers get such lousy pay and why is our standard of living so low? It cant be due to a small population because were about the same as Singapore and they do *very* nicely thank-you. It also cant be a lack of productivity because people are doing the same jobs in London/Switzerland/wherever and getting paid far more. Is it just that NZs economy is so distorted that the wealth is going to a very few and the rest just have to make do with breadline incomes?
And how much are former MPs and ministers who served 3 terms still raking in by way of post-employment travel perks courtesy of the taxpayer?Gravy train? Yesssss!
Time to bring back subsidies and/or price controls? What was the nations health like back in the 1960s when milk was just 4c a pint (under 7c a litre)? Is the 1 cost of our expensive milk best measured by the cost of our chidrens health for lack of the affordable wholesome nutrition milk represents?
That would also just be a waste of taxpayers money. Every time this country has had a referendum where the result was not aligned with the agenda of the government, those results have been ignored. eg: reduce the number of MPs? The country overwhelmingly said yes... government said no. To be of an value, referenda must be binding and neither National nor Labour have any appetite for letting the people decide their own future. Democracy? (LOL -- cue Tuis ad).
Sorry but car-makers have been investigating and researching hydrogen as a fuel for over a decade yet weve seen no commercially available offerings because it is a fuel with a multitude of practical problems. Meanwhile, battery technology has come on in leaps and bounds and were now seeing a growing number of car makers actually manufacturing and selling EVs. It is clear where the future is -- and it is *not* hydrogen. What a shame the government is so keen to hand over taxpayers money to anyone who tells a good story :-(
Does this mean our local council (South Waikato) will be phasing out their single-use refuse bags in favour of wheelie-bins or something. Most plastic bags are single use so were not just talking about the ones from the supermarket here. What will be the 1 effect of such a ban?
Nothing wrong with dairy farming, man has been doing it for centuries.*INTENSIVE* dairy farming however, is a different kettle of fish and represents a law of diminishing returns where the costs (environmental and otherwise when taken over time) rise at a rate which far exceeds the extra milk (aka: export dollars) produced.Instead of trying to wring the last drop of blood from the dairy-industry stone, how about we focus on diversification and value-add. Thats the future -- if we want to preserve our environment.
I bought my 1994 Toyota Hilux ute for $5,000 about four or five years ago and it has only cost me two oil-changes a year and a set of tires (plus rego, warrant, fuel). Depreciation during that period is almost certainly near-zero because *any* Toyota Hilux in good working order will sell for at least $5K these days. Imagine what I could do with the $85K I saved over buying one of these VWs! :-)
Surely someone in South Auckland can offer this needy couple some space in their garage, in with the aunties and children that are currently forced to stay there for lack of suitable housing. Mr Hoskings must be so proud of the last National government, under whose proud stewardship, the problem grew enormously. Dont smirk Jacinda... I dont see much improvement over the past year!
This sounds like an envy-tax to me. Surely, if its a house, its burden on council services is the same -- whether its being lived in by the owner, rented to a tennant on a long-term basis or operated as an AirBnB. In fact, from a council perspective, the latter is probably a better option because the occupancy will unlikely be 100% so it will produce less sewage/rubbish and produce less use of other rate-funded services by its transient occupiers.Then theres also the issue that councils are supposed to be promoting their towns and districts to tourists -- which most AirBnB users are.Has the ACC lost site of its actual raison detre?
Binnsie, overall our taxes may be low but low-income earners are often *much* worse off in NZ than elsewhere. If you live in Australia, you pay *no* tax at all on your first A$18,200 (NZ$19,807) of earnings each year and in the UK the first 11,800 UK pounds (NZ$22,781) of annual earnings are untaxed. Here in NZ, you pay tax on every single cent you earn. The Aussies also only pay 10% GST, Kiwis pay 15%. Yes, low-income earners are really hit hard by our tax system when compared to other countries even though the tax-rate for higher-income earners may be relatively low. This is one of the reasons why, in NZ, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
One of the key reasons so many Kiwis find themselves in need of welfare support despite being in full-time employment is the fact that we pay tax on *every* dollar we earn. More enlightened countries allow workers to keep the first $10K (or so) of their income free of tax and that can make a huge difference to low-income earners. Here in NZ however, we prefer to tax every dollar and then hand it back by way of WFF or whatever. Of course given the inefficiencies involved, all this does is create more jobs in the public service -- which is another form of welfare.
Does this mean theyll stop using Gynecologists to assess brain injuries, as they did in my wifes case which required a very protracted series of appeals to get treatment cover -- by which time it was too late to see any real improvement?
What happened to the NZ company that sold her the heatpump... surely she didnt buy it directly from Oz? Under NZs consumer protection laws, spare parts must be available for a reasonable time and, in the case of a heat pump, less than 9 years is *not* a reasonable time.
Under their Skinny brand, Spark offers a 4G wireless service with a data-cap of 240GB for just $59 a month. Thats pretty competitive but dont expect too much in the way of the advertised speeds at peak hours (can you say overcommitted?).
Hang on, didnt the last government tell us that this tax avoidance by multinationals was too difficult for NZ to deal with and wed have to wait for the rest of the world to come out with regulations that would solve the problem? How odd it is that Labour seem to have been able to at least start sorting out the issue within months of being elected. You know, its almost as if we were being lied to by a group with a vested interest -- but that would NEVER happen :-)
Any organisation or body that has the power to pick your pockets (using powers provided by the law) has no incentive to be efficient with the funds it obtains by such means. Just look at the salaries of those at the top of such organisations and youll get a good idea why rates are rising so much and why the services provided are not rising in concert with those rates.
Instead of taking with one hand, only to waste a fair percentage with bureaucratic overhead, before handing back whats left by way of a benefit or subsidy -- why doesnt NZ do what most of the rest of the world do and make the first $xx,000 of peoples income tax-free?A tax-free threshold means that many of the poor will be able to keep every dollar they earn (rather than giving 20% of it to the government to pay the salaries of an army of paper-pushers) and that alone will move many out of the poverty trap.Also, why arent we means-testing things like the winter heating supplement? There are *plenty* of superannuitants who are doing very nicely thank you and dont need (or even want) an extra $38 a week during winter.And to prove that Im not just full of hot air... I qualify for Super but dont claim it. Id rather pay my own way for as long as I can, even though I dont own my own home and I drive a 25 year old vehicle -- its just the way I was bought up.
If its down to economies of scale which allow the overseas supermarkets to buy our lamb cheaper than local supermarkets can then I for one cant wait for some UK/European supermarket chain to set up here and break the oligopoly that currently exists. If a name like Asda set up here then they could make a killing. Theyd also be able to sell our lamb and dairy cheaper than any of the existing players here because they could just tack the NZ supply onto their existing orders with Fonterra etc and get it at the same price.
Geez, if theyd waited a few months they would have been *paid* to pick them and been able to pocket some legitimate cash. Oh, but that would involve actually working I guess -- so for some (a very small minority) thats just unacceptable. Id say to the orchard owner, get yourself some nice big dogs for next year and ignore the screams when they try to raid your trees again.
How ironic that those who have been *proven* to have broken the law in the Dotcom case (the police, GCSB and other agencies of the NZ government) are let off scott-free, without any form of censure or punishment -- while Kim Dotcom (who is merely *accused* of crimes that some say are trumped up) looks as if hes going to be carted off in chains. The law? Perhaps. Justice? Absolutely not.
The sagging NZ dollar should help mitigate this somewhat. Maybe this is why the Reserve Bank made it clear that interest rates are on hold -- as a method of depressing the dollar and effectively supporting NZ exporters (especially dairy).
We do not need to worry... it was just a few short years ago (well maybe 18 years or so) that we were told by the government of the day that NZ was going to chase the knowledge wave and that we would be diversifying into areas that didnt put us at a disadvantage due to our geographical remoteness. They told us that we were so smart we could sell our ideas and technological developments to the world -- from the convenience and comfort of a desk right here in NZ, via the internet.What a huge shame that grand promise wasnt actually followed-through by walking the walk.
Kolin, I *am* sticking to the facts. 10% of $14,000 is a hell of a lot of money to a family on the breadline -- an extra $27 a week in the hand. As Lanthanide also pointed out, our rate of GST in NZ is 50% higher than the Australian GST rate as well... so it all adds up to a huge burden on the poor.
ACC sent my wife to a gynecologist for expert opinion on a brain injury. They took the word of the GP with a diploma in gynecology over that of the two expert neurologists we had gone to.Eventually it had to go to appeal and (after 3 years), we won -- but at what cost. After 3 years the window of opportunity for effective treatment had lapsed and now she is on employment related compensation for the rest of her life.Penny wise -- pound foolish.
Absolutely. Remember, many countries have a sensible tax-free income threshold which means that (for instance) Australians pay no tax on the first $18,200 of their annual earnings (and they only pay 10% GST). If NZ did the same thing, the poor would be *much* better off and those who can better afford to do so (due to their higher incomes) would shoulder a little more of the burden.
Why does everyone keep saying that supermarket bags are single-use and not re-usable. Our supermarket bags get used again... for wrapping lunches, for lining our bins, for loose-wrapping stuff to go in the freezer (theyre easy to write on), etc. The bags that *are* restricted to single-use are, paradoxically, the local councils (much bigger and thicker) refuse bags which line the curbs on a Thursday. Lets deal with the real problems first shall we?
Thats a cool trick... get rid of 140 full-time jobs whilst promising more staff on duty to serve you at peak times. I guess were talking zero-hour contracts and casual labour for this? Is that a good thing?
Renting in NZ is a joke. With far too many landlords only renting their properties while they wait for a suitable capital gain (and thus sell them), its almost impossible to get decent tenure, which means families face the need to move at regular intervals -- causing massive stress and disruption. Sometimes kids end up having to change schools because the limited supply of rentals means shifting across town as well. This never used to be too much of a problem because the number of renters in NZ was small, we were a nation of home-owners. However, in 2018, that has changed dramatically and now we have a real need for the type of professional approach to rentals that is common/mandated in countries with similar levels of tennancies.
Flight instruction is simply a role that many pilots are forced into so as to get enough hours to qualify for the real jobs. As a result, the pay is crap. Employers take advantage of these (usually) young people in a big way (IMHO).
Im going to sound like a boring old fart but please, indulge me for a moment...Back in the 1960s, there *was* crime... but there was also a far greater sense of community and personal responsibility. As a kid, I used to often see cars parked in town outside the shops on the main street -- with keys in the ignition and motor running. The owners had probably just ducked into a shop to grab something. Despite this reckless behaviour, the rates of car conversion were nowhere near as bad as today -- because people had greater respect for others and their property. We would also go on holiday and leave the house unlocked with windows open. Neighbours would just wander in and water the plants -- yet burglaries were virtually unheard of.Yes, crime has always been around but the concept of I dont want to know, its not my problem is something that was rare in the 1960s but quite commonplace now. We also didnt have the same culture of entitlement back in the 60s. People knew that they had to work for what they wanted and that simply taking it was unacceptable.Can we ever get back to those days when community spirit was strong and people took responsibility for themselves, their neighbours and their friends?Sadly, I doubt it.
I love to string these scammers along for as long as possible. For some strange reasons, these (often quite protracted) sessions usually end with the person on the other end of the line uttering these as their final words: and your sister!. Ah, baiting them is a chore but someone has to do it ;-)
What are you worried about. Back at the turn of the century, the government told us that we would be riding a knowledge wave by now and that wed be engaged in environmentally friendly activities which created intellectual property that would be sold over the internet for a fortune. Governments really dont have a clue, do they?
Id say to them get out while you can. The future of FTA TV broadcasting is dire and has peaked some time ago. The future is video on demand via streaming and once people have had a taste of an ad-free service like Netflix, it becomes *very* hard to go back to content that is constantly interrupted with boring, repetitive advertisements. Realise what value you can from your TV broadcasting assets before its all gone!
While the rich get richer (thanks to tax-free capital gains on property) the poor get poorer (and less able to afford a property of their own). This does not sound like a good recipe to me.
Looking at how much we get ripped for our electricity (compare us to the USA), I think the shift to EVs will be out of the frying pan (of oil oligopolies) into the fire (of power company oligopolies). And just imagine how crippling it will be when we have another long summer and low-lake levels creating electricity shortages. We need to invest in expanding our electricity infrastructure NOW rather than later. That money should come from power companies slashing dividends and reinvesting those profits -- not from simply putting prices up to a captive audience.
I remember (probably in the early 1960s) my father saying the same thing about these god-awful car radios that were coming on the market. Pay attention to the road he said. I wonder if hes spinning in his grave right now.
That would be of no value, these people use internet telephony services and spoof (fake) their phone numbers. The number that comes up on the caller-ID is just some random number theyve chosen and cant be used to identify them.
So if direct imports are to go up by 15% due to GST being levied at source, you can almost bet your bottom dollar that local prices for the same goods will also go up in concert. The end result: consumers pay more to purchase a product whether they get it in NZ or from offshore.
New Zealand has never been corruption-free, or even below average in the corruption stakes. Were just naive to believe theres no corruption when those (generally the corrupt) tell us so. Shell be right is the mantra that is killing this country.
Hell no, we should all be chewing on broccoli and drinking water! These foods are simply contributing to the obesity epidemic... now pass my chips and coke :-)
They are programme promotions -- not independent advertisements. But then again, anyone whos watched Discovery on SkyTV will know just how irritating these can be!
If anyone reading this thinks that things are unfair then theyre more than welcome to make ex-gratia payments to their local iwi from their own pockets. Likewise, anyone who thinks that we pay out too much in super is welcome to not take up their entitlement when they reach the qualifying age. And, for what its worth, I qualify for Super but I have no intention of applying for it until such time as I am unable to support myself and my wife through my own efforts -- I consider that a matter of principle. Lets see others who are complaining also show (by their actions) that theyre prepared to put their money where their mouth is -- or do you expect others to do that for you?
The choice between a comfortable rural lifestyle and UFB is a tough one -- but in most cases, its a decision that has to be made. Because Im a full-time YouTube content creator, I find myself stuck in a built-up area even though Id much rather live away from the crowds and surrounded by rural splendor. And no, wireless isnt an option either -- I use far too much data each month for it to be economically viable and already (as mentioned in this article) too many of the RBI wireless services are over-committed which results in rather poor performance at peak times.
Perhaps Stuff would like to do a scare-piece on Planet Nibiru. I think theyll find all the proof (at least to the level of a tabloid) that Nibiru is going to destroy us all by looking on YouTube. The sky is falling (in more ways than one?).
But add in insurance, petrol, depreciation, wear-and-tear (EVs are often heavier than the petrol counterparts and thus are harder on tires), etc -- then $400/month starts to look pretty damned good.
Blame NZs ridiculously high electricity prices (given that were generating most of that power from renewables coming out of plant and equipment which has been paid for by previous generations of Kiwis).
But when it comes to political crimes (and Mannings surely was one of these) then todays villain is tomorrows hero -- depending on who is in power at the time. Ask yourself why her sentence was commuted by the (then) president of the USA. This was very much a political crime.
They just dont make cars that are both beautiful and elegantly simple like the E-type any more.I remember lusting after that 0-50mph time of 5.5 seconds when I was a teenager!
Oh come on Stuff... wheres the mention of the risk drones pose to aircraft and how some woman somewhere in suburbia found a drone hovering out side her window. Wheres the usual hysteria that appears in almost every drone story you publish? Surely youre not going all objective and factual on us NOW are you?
Heres an idea... how about restrict helicopter flights to the hours of 10am to 2pm and allow tourists to fly their (comparatively very quiet and safe) drones from sunrise to 10am and from 2pm till dusk. This would also eliminate the alleged problem of drones flying too close to helicopters in the area. Time to think outside the box people!
Hey, property is still being confiscated by the crown to this day -- but virtualy all of those who suffer at the hands of the public works act are grown-up enough to simply accept the fact and move on. Lets hope they never want to build a motorway through your property eh?
Stuff... do some actual research on this. Check the CAA incident reports and you will find that many of those so called drone incidents contain phrases such as The pilot initiallythought it might be a white plastic bag but another aircrew member on the flight deck thought it was a small drone and an unidentified object passed below the aircraft flying level in the opposite direction and The pilot reported that on a visual approach into Wellington they had a near miss with what appeared to be either a kite, balloon, model plane or a drone. Clearly, the threshold of evidence for a drone near miss is very low and even those filing the reports often concede in their statements that it might not have been a drone at all. Before the drone age, pilots used to file similar reports citing unidentified flying objects but now *everything* is considered a drone, regardless of whether it was positively identified or not.To be very clear, NOBODY endorses the actions of real idiots who *do* fly drones in the wrong places and without due care and attention but the reality is that there are more authenticated near miss incidents between manned aircraft and other manned aircraft than between manned aircraft and drones. CAA... get the manned aviation community sorted please because they pose a far greater risk to human life than responsible drone operators ever will.And CAA need to be informed that a social media campaign involves a hell of a lot more than just sticking up a website. One tiny website is not social media, which is why most people reading this story havent heard of that social media campaign before.
There were only 8 drone incidents meriting investigation by CAA in the past 12 months -- yet in the last quarter alone, there were eight incidents (according to CAAs own quarterly incident reports) involving close-encounters between manned aircraft and other manned aircraft in New Zealand. Clearly, other manned aircraft represent a far greater danger to manned aircraft than drones do -- so where are all the newspaper stories about that far greater risk? Come on Stuff, lets see some balance and investigative journalism here please.
Correction: he is an *alleged* crook and a theif in respect to the charges presented to NZ authorities at present. He has not been found guilty by a court and therefore the presumption of innocence must be accepted. However, the courts have ruled that the police, the GCSB and other agencies of the NZ government *DID* break the law when dealing with this case -- so why arent you crying for them to be punished (which they never have been in this instance). Hardly *justice* is it?
If the company had sole someone something (even via TradeMe) then a relationship between that customer and PBTech had been formed. So long as they honoured unsubscribe me requests, I dont see the problem.
Spark (under the Skinny branding) have been agressively pushing their fixed-location 4G broadband product for some time. I signed up quite a while ago and at first it was great but now, at peak times, you might as well use semaphore. It seems they did too good a job and Im now seeing nothing like the throughputs I was getting (and promised) in the early days.
But theyre not bound by our trading rules or laws -- they dont have a presence here. Should a small mom and pop convenience store in the USA be bound by NZ rules, regulations and laws if/when it sells a cup of coffee to a New Zealand tourist?
Swore off McDs here in Tokoroa after finding that my takeout order was *always* wrong and usually missing at least one ordered (and paid for) item. The response of come back and well supply the missing item(s) doesnt really cut it when youve driven 15 minutes to get home and one of the family finds out that their food is missing. Tok has more takeaway outlets (per head of population) than any other town/city in NZ so there are plenty of more reliable options with better food for that occasional treat.
Because Amazon isnt a New Zealand company, has no presence in NZ and employs nobody in NZ. If Amazon should pay GST, then so should all the US companies who transact more than $60K per year with NZ tourists in that country (and there are a few). How would you feel if NZ retailers were required to collect tax for the tax departments of the USA, Australia, the UK, France, South Africa etc. Any profits would soon be lost in the massive amount of paperwork and time spent processing that overhead. Its lunacy!
Do you want a bet? Im pretty sure thered be a long list of friends of council whod be lining up to buy those houses at a knock-down price then sell them back to you in a little while with a huge markup. Its not *what* you know that matters in local government matters....
Treaty of Waitangi: What was lost
Point 1. Yes, there were some serious injustices done to Maori and these have been or should be addressed.Point 2. In many cases however, Maori ought not be blaming todays NZers of European descent for the loss of their land. Instead, they should be blaming their own ancestors for voluntarily selling it for (by todays reckoning) a song. There is blame on both sides, something often forgotten in the quest for cultural sensitivity.Point 3. Even where land was siezed by the crown and compensated for at the going rate, there can be no come-back... any more than my grandchildren will be able to claim compensation if my own property was taken under the relevant legislation for public works and I was compensated according to current property values. This is the law of the land and the Treaty was a recognition that Maori would fall under that law.Point 4. Everyone has to acknowledge that in 2018, nobody alive today was responsible for any of the crimes or misdeeds of the past and thus should not be held accountable (fiscally or otherwise) for those actions. If we do not draw a line in the sand and move forwards, there will never be cultural harmony in New Zealand. When I first arrived here in 1977 (yes, Im an import), I was overwhelmed by the one-ness of the Kiwi population. Everyone, regardless of their skin-colour or ancestry, considered themselves a kiwi. Not so today. The nation is becoming divided by a culture of entitlement based on race. We may have gained many things, but the loss of this one people aspect of NZ is the saddest thing Ive seen in the 40 years Ive been here.
Council orders removal of 'non-compliant' Dunedin tree house
Pull it down... but buy your kids a drone and let them *really* show the neighbours what a loss of privacy looks like. The good thing is that, so long as they stay below the height of that tree and hover over your property -- theres not a single thing the neighbours (or the council) will be able to do about that drone. Some people (the neighbours) need to be taught that it is often better just to keep your mouth shut, lest the results be worse than before.
Fonterra loss reminiscent of a failed All Blacks World Cup campaign
Theo obviously knows the secret of how to make a company modestly succesful -- start with one that is astonishingly successful and just sit back on an obscene salary package until youre rumbled.
Sky TV's figures suggest it can improve its frightening trajectory
Because all of those things would require a fresh, brave new approach and they are not the sort of things a monoply needs to waste their time contemplating. Sadly for SkyTV, they dont realise that the monoply days are gone. Theyll probably turn up for work one day and wonder where all the customers have gone ;-)
It's time for business to take responsibility for low wages
Yes, one of the biggest differences (which really impacts low-income earners) is that in many of those other countries, people are not taxed a cent until their income reaches a certain threshold. For example, Australians can earn up to A$18,200 (NZ$19,822) before theyre required to pay a single cent of tax.By comparison with most other countries, NZs low income-earners are not only whacked with low wages but with hideous amounts of tax on the money they do earn. Instead of raising the minimum wage by $0.50 an hour from time to time, why doesnt the government just let the poor keep the money they so badly need to pay for the basics?
Government tackles tyred old problem
No, it wont be a tax... itll be a levy. Clearly youre not thinking like a politician!
Here's why I'm walking away from Netflix, and into the arms of The OC
I like Netflix, not so much for the content, but for the complete absence of advertising. From this perspective, TVNZs VOD offerings just cant compete.
The shed that saved Clarrie Merrick
A maker-space for the elderly. Brilliant!
Tesla traveling 186 km per hour before crash that killed 2
There aint no cure (or software update) for stupid and the laws of physics havent yet been rewritten to allow you to take a 40mph corner at 108mph -- no matter what kind of car youre driving!
A desktop computer can be a better option than a laptop
Although it used to be 1 that Windows was clunkier than Apples desktop environment, thats no longer really 1. Also, if youre buying a desktop because you want more bang for your buck then an Apple (for all its many virtues) will likely not deliver the best bang for that buck.People ought not forget the option of Linux as an OS. I have been using Linux for many years and these days it works just like Windows and you get just about every piece of software (baring games) that youll need for free.
Capital gains tax valuation day will cost Kiwi businesses billions of dollars
The government also needs to be aware that any downturn in the economy could strip it of huge tax revenues because if youre going to tax a capital gain, you must also provide tax credits for capital losses. This would mean that just at the very time when tax revenues become most important, they could fall significantly.
Dotcom should not be handed over to face Trump's idea of justice
Its funny how our politicians had no problems with Kim being here, while he was splashing his money around and making them look good. However, as we all know, politicians are fair-weather friends and as soon as they received their orders from Uncle Sam, everything changed.
Green Party starts new push for compulsory te reo
When I was at school (in the 1960s), French was a compulsory part of the professional stream in high school. I always thought it was stupid to learn French -- what good would that be to my future?Well now, half a century later I look back and realise that I was dead right. I have *never* used a word of French since the day I left HIgh School.If we really want to consider giving our kids maximum opportunity when they leave school, wed be far better off (IMHO) making sure they can speak and write English properly (which many cant). Te Reo is an important part of the Maori culture but I dont think theres much to gain in forcing it upon *everyone* -- any more than it was a good idea to force French down our necks half a century ago.
"Internet shopping tax change unites politicians but divides consumers",
I pitty the poor online retailers in years to come. If, as this, as Mr Trumpitas suggests the rest of the globe is going in this direction then anyone exporting stuff at a retail level from NZ could find themselves responsible to dozens of tax authorities from other countries to which they send stuff. Imagine having to collect and remit GST to Australia and Canada, VAT to the UK and sales taxes (at different rates) to the 50 states of the USA. What a huge compliance overhead. This alone could really stifle international trade and the so called march towards globalism. I t hought NZ was all in favour of free trade.... I guess not.
Retirees spend $20k battling to remove council's wilding pines
That strategy never works with organisations (such as councils) which have the legal power to steal from your bank account or sell your property out from under you if you dont pay them their annual stipend.
Government tackles tyred old problem
Even if the rubber itself is hard to recycle (due mainly to the steel belts inside), you think they could at least recycle the hole in the middle eh?
Potters Park's pigeon poo predicament
Let me loose with my racing drone and Ill clear most of those pigeons out of there (without harming any of them). This strategy has worked a treat at clearing the local airfield here of birds (gulls, pluvers, ducks, magpies etc).
"Do Kiwis really get a $32K pay rise by moving overseas?
Perhaps the most important issue raised by this article is: why do NZers get such lousy pay and why is our standard of living so low? It cant be due to a small population because were about the same as Singapore and they do *very* nicely thank-you. It also cant be a lack of productivity because people are doing the same jobs in London/Switzerland/wherever and getting paid far more. Is it just that NZs economy is so distorted that the wealth is going to a very few and the rest just have to make do with breadline incomes?
Internet society fears 'Five Eyes' could be about to undermine the Net
Funny how *we* arent allowed any secrets -- but if someone leaks a governments dirty secrets, they end up in jail. Props to Chelsea and Edward!!!!
Full list of MPs expenses shows spending topped $2.1 million
And how much are former MPs and ministers who served 3 terms still raking in by way of post-employment travel perks courtesy of the taxpayer?Gravy train? Yesssss!
Milking it: NZs milk price: Whos getting rich?
Time to bring back subsidies and/or price controls? What was the nations health like back in the 1960s when milk was just 4c a pint (under 7c a litre)? Is the 1 cost of our expensive milk best measured by the cost of our chidrens health for lack of the affordable wholesome nutrition milk represents?
Officials advised the Government to keep quiet about large Treaty of Waitangi payments, unless asked
That would also just be a waste of taxpayers money. Every time this country has had a referendum where the result was not aligned with the agenda of the government, those results have been ignored. eg: reduce the number of MPs? The country overwhelmingly said yes... government said no. To be of an value, referenda must be binding and neither National nor Labour have any appetite for letting the people decide their own future. Democracy? (LOL -- cue Tuis ad).
'Genuine victims' can no longer bank on being reimbursed for internet banking fraud
Come on, nobody is going to guess that my password is password. :-)
Could hydrogen turn Taranaki into the Norway of the Pacific?
Sorry but car-makers have been investigating and researching hydrogen as a fuel for over a decade yet weve seen no commercially available offerings because it is a fuel with a multitude of practical problems. Meanwhile, battery technology has come on in leaps and bounds and were now seeing a growing number of car makers actually manufacturing and selling EVs. It is clear where the future is -- and it is *not* hydrogen. What a shame the government is so keen to hand over taxpayers money to anyone who tells a good story :-(
National wants Chelsea Manning barred from New Zealand
So the Nats have a thing against whistle-blowers eh? In the immortal words of John Key Only those with something to hide....
New Zealand to ban single-use plastic bags
Does this mean our local council (South Waikato) will be phasing out their single-use refuse bags in favour of wheelie-bins or something. Most plastic bags are single use so were not just talking about the ones from the supermarket here. What will be the 1 effect of such a ban?
Milking it: The true cost of dairy on the environment
Nothing wrong with dairy farming, man has been doing it for centuries.*INTENSIVE* dairy farming however, is a different kettle of fish and represents a law of diminishing returns where the costs (environmental and otherwise when taken over time) rise at a rate which far exceeds the extra milk (aka: export dollars) produced.Instead of trying to wring the last drop of blood from the dairy-industry stone, how about we focus on diversification and value-add. Thats the future -- if we want to preserve our environment.
Meet the fastest, most powerful one-tonne ute you can buy in NZ
I bought my 1994 Toyota Hilux ute for $5,000 about four or five years ago and it has only cost me two oil-changes a year and a set of tires (plus rego, warrant, fuel). Depreciation during that period is almost certainly near-zero because *any* Toyota Hilux in good working order will sell for at least $5K these days. Imagine what I could do with the $85K I saved over buying one of these VWs! :-)
'Genuine victims' can no longer bank on being reimbursed for internet banking fraud
Many banks now charge a hefty fee for over the counter transactions so you will still be lining their pocekts if you follow the advice youve given.
Kate Hawkesby bemoans state of rental market
Surely someone in South Auckland can offer this needy couple some space in their garage, in with the aunties and children that are currently forced to stay there for lack of suitable housing. Mr Hoskings must be so proud of the last National government, under whose proud stewardship, the problem grew enormously. Dont smirk Jacinda... I dont see much improvement over the past year!
Auckland Council cannot find all online accommodation providers subject to new rates
This sounds like an envy-tax to me. Surely, if its a house, its burden on council services is the same -- whether its being lived in by the owner, rented to a tennant on a long-term basis or operated as an AirBnB. In fact, from a council perspective, the latter is probably a better option because the occupancy will unlikely be 100% so it will produce less sewage/rubbish and produce less use of other rate-funded services by its transient occupiers.Then theres also the issue that councils are supposed to be promoting their towns and districts to tourists -- which most AirBnB users are.Has the ACC lost site of its actual raison detre?
It's a hard life living on the pension
Binnsie, overall our taxes may be low but low-income earners are often *much* worse off in NZ than elsewhere. If you live in Australia, you pay *no* tax at all on your first A$18,200 (NZ$19,807) of earnings each year and in the UK the first 11,800 UK pounds (NZ$22,781) of annual earnings are untaxed. Here in NZ, you pay tax on every single cent you earn. The Aussies also only pay 10% GST, Kiwis pay 15%. Yes, low-income earners are really hit hard by our tax system when compared to other countries even though the tax-rate for higher-income earners may be relatively low. This is one of the reasons why, in NZ, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
New Zealand has issues, but the idea it is a 'low-wage economy' is a myth
One of the key reasons so many Kiwis find themselves in need of welfare support despite being in full-time employment is the fact that we pay tax on *every* dollar we earn. More enlightened countries allow workers to keep the first $10K (or so) of their income free of tax and that can make a huge difference to low-income earners. Here in NZ however, we prefer to tax every dollar and then hand it back by way of WFF or whatever. Of course given the inefficiencies involved, all this does is create more jobs in the public service -- which is another form of welfare.
"Tax-free internet shopping to end next October",
Hmm... what about second-hand goods bought on overseas auction sites such as EBay. Second hand goods are supposed to be exempt of GST in NZ.
ACC 'doubles down' with $669m transformation project
Does this mean theyll stop using Gynecologists to assess brain injuries, as they did in my wifes case which required a very protracted series of appeals to get treatment cover -- by which time it was too late to see any real improvement?
Buyer beware message from freezing pensioner with broken heat pump
What happened to the NZ company that sold her the heatpump... surely she didnt buy it directly from Oz? Under NZs consumer protection laws, spare parts must be available for a reasonable time and, in the case of a heat pump, less than 9 years is *not* a reasonable time.
Spark ups price of copper broadband by $5 a month
Under their Skinny brand, Spark offers a 4G wireless service with a data-cap of 240GB for just $59 a month. Thats pretty competitive but dont expect too much in the way of the advertised speeds at peak hours (can you say overcommitted?).
Bill to end multinational tax avoidance passes in Parliament
Hang on, didnt the last government tell us that this tax avoidance by multinationals was too difficult for NZ to deal with and wed have to wait for the rest of the world to come out with regulations that would solve the problem? How odd it is that Labour seem to have been able to at least start sorting out the issue within months of being elected. You know, its almost as if we were being lied to by a group with a vested interest -- but that would NEVER happen :-)
Affordability of rates worsens, new figures show
Any organisation or body that has the power to pick your pockets (using powers provided by the law) has no incentive to be efficient with the funds it obtains by such means. Just look at the salaries of those at the top of such organisations and youll get a good idea why rates are rising so much and why the services provided are not rising in concert with those rates.
Cautious optimism as New Zealand families get boost to pay packets
Instead of taking with one hand, only to waste a fair percentage with bureaucratic overhead, before handing back whats left by way of a benefit or subsidy -- why doesnt NZ do what most of the rest of the world do and make the first $xx,000 of peoples income tax-free?A tax-free threshold means that many of the poor will be able to keep every dollar they earn (rather than giving 20% of it to the government to pay the salaries of an army of paper-pushers) and that alone will move many out of the poverty trap.Also, why arent we means-testing things like the winter heating supplement? There are *plenty* of superannuitants who are doing very nicely thank you and dont need (or even want) an extra $38 a week during winter.And to prove that Im not just full of hot air... I qualify for Super but dont claim it. Id rather pay my own way for as long as I can, even though I dont own my own home and I drive a 25 year old vehicle -- its just the way I was bought up.
Why Kiwis pay so much for beef and lamb
If its down to economies of scale which allow the overseas supermarkets to buy our lamb cheaper than local supermarkets can then I for one cant wait for some UK/European supermarket chain to set up here and break the oligopoly that currently exists. If a name like Asda set up here then they could make a killing. Theyd also be able to sell our lamb and dairy cheaper than any of the existing players here because they could just tack the NZ supply onto their existing orders with Fonterra etc and get it at the same price.
Avocados worth $100,000 stolen from Far North farm
Geez, if theyd waited a few months they would have been *paid* to pick them and been able to pocket some legitimate cash. Oh, but that would involve actually working I guess -- so for some (a very small minority) thats just unacceptable. Id say to the orchard owner, get yourself some nice big dogs for next year and ignore the screams when they try to raid your trees again.
Dotcom should not be handed over to face Trump's idea of justice
How ironic that those who have been *proven* to have broken the law in the Dotcom case (the police, GCSB and other agencies of the NZ government) are let off scott-free, without any form of censure or punishment -- while Kim Dotcom (who is merely *accused* of crimes that some say are trumped up) looks as if hes going to be carted off in chains. The law? Perhaps. Justice? Absolutely not.
Fonterra units fall to three-year low following downgraded forecast
The sagging NZ dollar should help mitigate this somewhat. Maybe this is why the Reserve Bank made it clear that interest rates are on hold -- as a method of depressing the dollar and effectively supporting NZ exporters (especially dairy).
Silly car question #43: can I coast in Neutral to save fuel?
So what about shifting into neutral, turning off the motor and putting the keys in the glove-box for those long down-hill stretches? :)
Dairy prices tumble 5 per cent at latest auction
We do not need to worry... it was just a few short years ago (well maybe 18 years or so) that we were told by the government of the day that NZ was going to chase the knowledge wave and that we would be diversifying into areas that didnt put us at a disadvantage due to our geographical remoteness. They told us that we were so smart we could sell our ideas and technological developments to the world -- from the convenience and comfort of a desk right here in NZ, via the internet.What a huge shame that grand promise wasnt actually followed-through by walking the walk.
It's time for business to take responsibility for low wages
Kolin, I *am* sticking to the facts. 10% of $14,000 is a hell of a lot of money to a family on the breadline -- an extra $27 a week in the hand. As Lanthanide also pointed out, our rate of GST in NZ is 50% higher than the Australian GST rate as well... so it all adds up to a huge burden on the poor.
Christchurch nurse declined ACC compensation over earthquake trauma
ACC sent my wife to a gynecologist for expert opinion on a brain injury. They took the word of the GP with a diploma in gynecology over that of the two expert neurologists we had gone to.Eventually it had to go to appeal and (after 3 years), we won -- but at what cost. After 3 years the window of opportunity for effective treatment had lapsed and now she is on employment related compensation for the rest of her life.Penny wise -- pound foolish.
NZ Super isn't enough for 'no frills' lifestyle, but Kiwis are bridging the gap
Absolutely. Remember, many countries have a sensible tax-free income threshold which means that (for instance) Australians pay no tax on the first $18,200 of their annual earnings (and they only pay 10% GST). If NZ did the same thing, the poor would be *much* better off and those who can better afford to do so (due to their higher incomes) would shoulder a little more of the burden.
A third of Countdown stores are plastic free at checkouts
Why does everyone keep saying that supermarket bags are single-use and not re-usable. Our supermarket bags get used again... for wrapping lunches, for lining our bins, for loose-wrapping stuff to go in the freezer (theyre easy to write on), etc. The bags that *are* restricted to single-use are, paradoxically, the local councils (much bigger and thicker) refuse bags which line the curbs on a Thursday. Lets deal with the real problems first shall we?
The Warehouse to cut up to 140 jobs in store leadership restructure
Thats a cool trick... get rid of 140 full-time jobs whilst promising more staff on duty to serve you at peak times. I guess were talking zero-hour contracts and casual labour for this? Is that a good thing?
'Degrading' adverts that outraged renters are shown the door
Renting in NZ is a joke. With far too many landlords only renting their properties while they wait for a suitable capital gain (and thus sell them), its almost impossible to get decent tenure, which means families face the need to move at regular intervals -- causing massive stress and disruption. Sometimes kids end up having to change schools because the limited supply of rentals means shifting across town as well. This never used to be too much of a problem because the number of renters in NZ was small, we were a nation of home-owners. However, in 2018, that has changed dramatically and now we have a real need for the type of professional approach to rentals that is common/mandated in countries with similar levels of tennancies.
Overseas student pilots fill training spaces Kiwis can't afford
Flight instruction is simply a role that many pilots are forced into so as to get enough hours to qualify for the real jobs. As a result, the pay is crap. Employers take advantage of these (usually) young people in a big way (IMHO).
Woman's tiny house stolen in Auckland weeks before she was to move in
Im going to sound like a boring old fart but please, indulge me for a moment...Back in the 1960s, there *was* crime... but there was also a far greater sense of community and personal responsibility. As a kid, I used to often see cars parked in town outside the shops on the main street -- with keys in the ignition and motor running. The owners had probably just ducked into a shop to grab something. Despite this reckless behaviour, the rates of car conversion were nowhere near as bad as today -- because people had greater respect for others and their property. We would also go on holiday and leave the house unlocked with windows open. Neighbours would just wander in and water the plants -- yet burglaries were virtually unheard of.Yes, crime has always been around but the concept of I dont want to know, its not my problem is something that was rare in the 1960s but quite commonplace now. We also didnt have the same culture of entitlement back in the 60s. People knew that they had to work for what they wanted and that simply taking it was unacceptable.Can we ever get back to those days when community spirit was strong and people took responsibility for themselves, their neighbours and their friends?Sadly, I doubt it.
Here's what happens when a scammer tries to trick the police
I love to string these scammers along for as long as possible. For some strange reasons, these (often quite protracted) sessions usually end with the person on the other end of the line uttering these as their final words: and your sister!. Ah, baiting them is a chore but someone has to do it ;-)
What grows the grass thick can turn our streams toxic and green
What are you worried about. Back at the turn of the century, the government told us that we would be riding a knowledge wave by now and that wed be engaged in environmentally friendly activities which created intellectual property that would be sold over the internet for a fortune. Governments really dont have a clue, do they?
Channel Three owner MediaWorks raises possibility it might have to pull out of television
Id say to them get out while you can. The future of FTA TV broadcasting is dire and has peaked some time ago. The future is video on demand via streaming and once people have had a taste of an ad-free service like Netflix, it becomes *very* hard to go back to content that is constantly interrupted with boring, repetitive advertisements. Realise what value you can from your TV broadcasting assets before its all gone!
Properties give their owners a tax-free windfall - is that fair?
While the rich get richer (thanks to tax-free capital gains on property) the poor get poorer (and less able to afford a property of their own). This does not sound like a good recipe to me.
Suspected meteor causes 'sonic boom' over North Canterbury
Was it business confidence crashing and burning???? :-)
How much will an EV really cost to run?
Looking at how much we get ripped for our electricity (compare us to the USA), I think the shift to EVs will be out of the frying pan (of oil oligopolies) into the fire (of power company oligopolies). And just imagine how crippling it will be when we have another long summer and low-lake levels creating electricity shortages. We need to invest in expanding our electricity infrastructure NOW rather than later. That money should come from power companies slashing dividends and reinvesting those profits -- not from simply putting prices up to a captive audience.
How Apple and Google are taking over car infotainment
I remember (probably in the early 1960s) my father saying the same thing about these god-awful car radios that were coming on the market. Pay attention to the road he said. I wonder if hes spinning in his grave right now.
Here's what happens when a scammer tries to trick the police
That would be of no value, these people use internet telephony services and spoof (fake) their phone numbers. The number that comes up on the caller-ID is just some random number theyve chosen and cant be used to identify them.
"Imposing GST on overseas internet shopping has benefits, says Trade Me
So if direct imports are to go up by 15% due to GST being levied at source, you can almost bet your bottom dollar that local prices for the same goods will also go up in concert. The end result: consumers pay more to purchase a product whether they get it in NZ or from offshore.
Drivers still getting pinged on T2, even though it's not their fault, they say
Simple solution... just make it illegal to turn into Library Lane during peak hours of traffic.
Study suggests US$1 billion in profits shifted from NZ to tax havens over 12 months
New Zealand has never been corruption-free, or even below average in the corruption stakes. Were just naive to believe theres no corruption when those (generally the corrupt) tell us so. Shell be right is the mantra that is killing this country.
Why Netflix is finally giving Kiwis the service they deserve
Get out of here Mr Fellet :-)
Recipes: wedges, shakes and lamingtons for movie night
Hell no, we should all be chewing on broccoli and drinking water! These foods are simply contributing to the obesity epidemic... now pass my chips and coke :-)
Sky TV announces $241m loss and falling subscriber numbers
They are programme promotions -- not independent advertisements. But then again, anyone whos watched Discovery on SkyTV will know just how irritating these can be!
The amount allocated to Treaty of Waitangi settlements is tiny, compared with other Government spending
If anyone reading this thinks that things are unfair then theyre more than welcome to make ex-gratia payments to their local iwi from their own pockets. Likewise, anyone who thinks that we pay out too much in super is welcome to not take up their entitlement when they reach the qualifying age. And, for what its worth, I qualify for Super but I have no intention of applying for it until such time as I am unable to support myself and my wife through my own efforts -- I consider that a matter of principle. Lets see others who are complaining also show (by their actions) that theyre prepared to put their money where their mouth is -- or do you expect others to do that for you?
$35K to install fibre in Auckland suburb just 15 minutes from business centre
The choice between a comfortable rural lifestyle and UFB is a tough one -- but in most cases, its a decision that has to be made. Because Im a full-time YouTube content creator, I find myself stuck in a built-up area even though Id much rather live away from the crowds and surrounded by rural splendor. And no, wireless isnt an option either -- I use far too much data each month for it to be economically viable and already (as mentioned in this article) too many of the RBI wireless services are over-committed which results in rather poor performance at peak times.
Wind will determine fate of North Island cities in massive Central Plateau eruption
Perhaps Stuff would like to do a scare-piece on Planet Nibiru. I think theyll find all the proof (at least to the level of a tabloid) that Nibiru is going to destroy us all by looking on YouTube. The sky is falling (in more ways than one?).
'Genuine victims' can no longer bank on being reimbursed for internet banking fraud
McD, that hasnt stopped organise gangs from raiding ATMs using nothing more than a USB stick with the right code on it. Security is an illusion.
People will 'subscribe' to EVs the same way they do for Spotify and Netflix
But add in insurance, petrol, depreciation, wear-and-tear (EVs are often heavier than the petrol counterparts and thus are harder on tires), etc -- then $400/month starts to look pretty damned good.
How an electric vehicle has made our winter warmer
Blame NZs ridiculously high electricity prices (given that were generating most of that power from renewables coming out of plant and equipment which has been paid for by previous generations of Kiwis).
Why NZ is letting Chelsea Manning apply for a visa when Australia won't
But when it comes to political crimes (and Mannings surely was one of these) then todays villain is tomorrows hero -- depending on who is in power at the time. Ask yourself why her sentence was commuted by the (then) president of the USA. This was very much a political crime.
'Mischievous' data dump reveals 4850 local council employees earn more than $100,000
Exactly... you pay peanuts and you get monkeys. If you pay more peanuts (without doing your HR job properly) you just get more well-fed monkeys.
Me and my car: sold one Jaguar E-Type, now I've got another
They just dont make cars that are both beautiful and elegantly simple like the E-type any more.I remember lusting after that 0-50mph time of 5.5 seconds when I was a teenager!
Farmer uses drone and dirtbikes to keep pregnant ewes on their feet
Oh come on Stuff... wheres the mention of the risk drones pose to aircraft and how some woman somewhere in suburbia found a drone hovering out side her window. Wheres the usual hysteria that appears in almost every drone story you publish? Surely youre not going all objective and factual on us NOW are you?
Helicopter noise at Franz Josef called 'elder abuse' as spotlight thrown on enforcement
Heres an idea... how about restrict helicopter flights to the hours of 10am to 2pm and allow tourists to fly their (comparatively very quiet and safe) drones from sunrise to 10am and from 2pm till dusk. This would also eliminate the alleged problem of drones flying too close to helicopters in the area. Time to think outside the box people!
Carmakers struggle to hire hackers, the hottest job in the industry
Do they have an operating system just for the windows? :-)
Treaty of Waitangi: What was lost
Hey, property is still being confiscated by the crown to this day -- but virtualy all of those who suffer at the hands of the public works act are grown-up enough to simply accept the fact and move on. Lets hope they never want to build a motorway through your property eh?
Drone users urged to toe the line after a record number of near misses with aircraft
Stuff... do some actual research on this. Check the CAA incident reports and you will find that many of those so called drone incidents contain phrases such as The pilot initiallythought it might be a white plastic bag but another aircrew member on the flight deck thought it was a small drone and an unidentified object passed below the aircraft flying level in the opposite direction and The pilot reported that on a visual approach into Wellington they had a near miss with what appeared to be either a kite, balloon, model plane or a drone. Clearly, the threshold of evidence for a drone near miss is very low and even those filing the reports often concede in their statements that it might not have been a drone at all. Before the drone age, pilots used to file similar reports citing unidentified flying objects but now *everything* is considered a drone, regardless of whether it was positively identified or not.To be very clear, NOBODY endorses the actions of real idiots who *do* fly drones in the wrong places and without due care and attention but the reality is that there are more authenticated near miss incidents between manned aircraft and other manned aircraft than between manned aircraft and drones. CAA... get the manned aviation community sorted please because they pose a far greater risk to human life than responsible drone operators ever will.And CAA need to be informed that a social media campaign involves a hell of a lot more than just sticking up a website. One tiny website is not social media, which is why most people reading this story havent heard of that social media campaign before.
Aspirin disappoints for avoiding first heart attack, stroke
I took an aspirin once and I havent had a heart attack since (or before) so it *must* work!Aint science wonderful?
Drone users urged to toe the line after a record number of near misses with aircraft
There were only 8 drone incidents meriting investigation by CAA in the past 12 months -- yet in the last quarter alone, there were eight incidents (according to CAAs own quarterly incident reports) involving close-encounters between manned aircraft and other manned aircraft in New Zealand. Clearly, other manned aircraft represent a far greater danger to manned aircraft than drones do -- so where are all the newspaper stories about that far greater risk? Come on Stuff, lets see some balance and investigative journalism here please.
Dotcom should not be handed over to face Trump's idea of justice
Correction: he is an *alleged* crook and a theif in respect to the charges presented to NZ authorities at present. He has not been found guilty by a court and therefore the presumption of innocence must be accepted. However, the courts have ruled that the police, the GCSB and other agencies of the NZ government *DID* break the law when dealing with this case -- so why arent you crying for them to be punished (which they never have been in this instance). Hardly *justice* is it?
PB Tech gets triple tick-off over warranties, spam and alleged bait advertising
If the company had sole someone something (even via TradeMe) then a relationship between that customer and PBTech had been formed. So long as they honoured unsubscribe me requests, I dont see the problem.
Better copper broadband helps Chorus stem defections
Spark (under the Skinny branding) have been agressively pushing their fixed-location 4G broadband product for some time. I signed up quite a while ago and at first it was great but now, at peak times, you might as well use semaphore. It seems they did too good a job and Im now seeing nothing like the throughputs I was getting (and promised) in the early days.
Amazon warns NZ on internet shopping tax change
But theyre not bound by our trading rules or laws -- they dont have a presence here. Should a small mom and pop convenience store in the USA be bound by NZ rules, regulations and laws if/when it sells a cup of coffee to a New Zealand tourist?
Customers on legacy broadband plans 'pay too much'
Seriously??? Even Spark offers 100/30 fibre broadband with no data-cap for about $70 a month. Lightwire sounds hideously expensive!
Spark secures NZ rights to Premier League with 'more deals' to come
To fix something, first it must exist. Spark Customer Service is an oxymoron.
McDonald's gives away 25,000 free Big Macs to mark burger's 50th
Swore off McDs here in Tokoroa after finding that my takeout order was *always* wrong and usually missing at least one ordered (and paid for) item. The response of come back and well supply the missing item(s) doesnt really cut it when youve driven 15 minutes to get home and one of the family finds out that their food is missing. Tok has more takeaway outlets (per head of population) than any other town/city in NZ so there are plenty of more reliable options with better food for that occasional treat.
Warm weather for most, but rain will batter West Coast
Heres hoping for a long and hot summer. Remember, theres no such thing as too long or too hot - thats what beer and swimming were invented to prevent!
Amazon warns NZ on internet shopping tax change
Because Amazon isnt a New Zealand company, has no presence in NZ and employs nobody in NZ. If Amazon should pay GST, then so should all the US companies who transact more than $60K per year with NZ tourists in that country (and there are a few). How would you feel if NZ retailers were required to collect tax for the tax departments of the USA, Australia, the UK, France, South Africa etc. Any profits would soon be lost in the massive amount of paperwork and time spent processing that overhead. Its lunacy!
'Mischievous' data dump reveals 4850 local council employees earn more than $100,000
Do you want a bet? Im pretty sure thered be a long list of friends of council whod be lining up to buy those houses at a knock-down price then sell them back to you in a little while with a huge markup. Its not *what* you know that matters in local government matters....
Treaty of Waitangi: What was lost
hosam... tell that to the flat-earthers :-)
Farmer uses drone and dirtbikes to keep pregnant ewes on their feet
No, there is no minium age.
Sluggish start to spring with high likelihood of El niño, and a dry summer
I love it when they make a long-term forecast with a low degree of confidence. Why even bother?
Bowls players quit after finding their car park used for selling unregistered cars
Crackerjack (the movie)
Pink stops Brisbane show to give grieving girl a hug on stage
Contrast and compare: Pink... Madona.... Pink for the win!
Why NZ is letting Chelsea Manning apply for a visa when Australia won't
Did I miss a bunch of *FREE* concerts somewhere in NZ???