Lupine – of or relating to or characteristic of wolves; savage; ravenous; predatory; Any of numerous plants of the genus Lupinus in the pea family, having palmately compound leaves and variously coloured flowers.
Southland party at Parliament
23/08/2012Invercargill MP Eric Roy is reviving the Southland party at Parliament:
Oysters, chocolate, meat and “sheep on a spit” will be a few of the delicacies National MP Eric Roy will be serving in Parliament next month to bring displaced Southlanders together for a night of cheese rolls and southern company.
Mr Roy said the Southland Party in the banquet hall of the Parliament building used to be an annual evening.
However, it had died out about seven years ago.
In its heyday, the night attracted about 400 Southland people to the Beehive, he said.
“It’s about networking and showing off Southland. It was always a good way for us to reconnect – people are saying it’s time we did it again.”
Mr Roy was calling on any Southlanders based in Wellington, as well as any Wellingtonians with Southland connections, to come out and party “Southland-style” in the capital.
A very protein-laden meal was promised with lots of hay bales, swedes and cheese rolls, he said. . .
I’m not sure about the protein content of hay bales but presumably they’re for sitting on not for eating.
The party’s Facebook page is here.
Thursday’s quiz
23/08/20121. Who said: “There are flood and drought over the eyes and in the mouth, dead water and dead sand contending for the upper hand. The parched eviscerate soil gapes at the vanity of toil, laughs without mirth. This is the death of the earth.”?
2. Which group had a hit with Love is all Around Us and the song track for Four Weddings and a Funeral?
3. It’s pluie in French, pioggia in Italian, lluvia in Spanish and hāuaua in Maori, what is it in English?
4. How long did it rain after Noah and the animals entered the Ark?
5. Where is the wettest place (on land) in New Zealand?
Why wait?
23/08/2012There are so many questions which could be asked about the case of James Robertson Parker, the former deputy principal who has admitted multiple charges of sexually abusing children.
But the two which baffles me most are prompted by this:
Teachers’ Council director Peter Lind said the council was made aware of the case when it went before the courts.
Because he was unlikely to be out of jail in the next few months and will not pose a direct threat to children – the Council would wait for the full police investigation to be completed before they decided whether Parker would keep his registration.
The man has admitted multiple charges and the Teachers Council is waiting before they decide whether he keeps his registration.
The questions are:
1. Why wait?
2. If this isn’t enough to result in deregistration, what is?
Comparing apples with milk – updated
23/08/2012Update: The tech fairy is playing games with this post.
It first made the comments I wrote below the picture, which I found on Facebook, disappear. Then it got rid of the all the links in the side bar.
Because of that I’ve dumped the picture and typed what it said:
If everyone went vegan, would it destroy our economy?
The milk industry uses 1,638,706 hectares of land. With this it employs 45,000 people and earns, $NZ10.4b in profit annually.
Per hectare of land that is:45000/1638706 = 0.027 employees and 10.4×106 = $6.346.47 in profit.The horticulture industry uses 121,000 hectares of land. With his, it employs 50,000 people and earns $NZ 4b in profit annually. Per hectare of land that is 50000/121000 = 0.4 employees and 4×106 /121000 = $33.057.85 in profit.
Changing land from dairy to horticulture would employ 15 times as many people and improved New Zealand’s profit 5-fold.
No it would probably improve it.
In-work payments for those in work
23/08/2012The Green Party don’t appear to understand the reason that in-work tax credits go only to people in work for a very good reason although Finance Minister Bill English gave a good explanation yesterday:
. . . But the first part of the question, I think, demonstrates the difference in views about how to deal with poverty. The Government is focusing on mobility—that, in fact, a lot of families who at some times and in some periods experience low incomes actually get out of that situation. The in-work tax credit is designed to encourage people from benefits into work, and reward them for making the choice of going into work, because that is the best decision they can make to improve the incomes of their household and their children.
Holly Walker: What if a parent cannot find work? Do their children still have the same basic needs for food, shelter, warmth, and clothing that they would have if their parents were working?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes, their children do have basic needs that ought to be met, and that is why the Government has throughout the last 4 years, since the beginning of the recession in 2008, protected the real value of the incomes of all our low-income households. But I would repeat for the member that those levels of income are part of the story. The other part of the story is to maintain the ability of families and individuals to move on to higher incomes. The analysis of New Zealanders’ time on low incomes shows that a relatively small number stay on low incomes for a long time, and even of those who are on low incomes only a proportion of those suffer the symptoms of persistent deprivation, which is the worst aspect of poverty. . .
. . . Holly Walker: Since children have the same basic needs regardless of the income status of their parents, will he support the Green Party bill to replace the in-work tax credit with a payment for all children who need it, and eliminate a blatant discrimination against some of our poorest children?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: No, we will not. In fact, on the issue of discrimination, this case has been to every tribunal it can go to and no one has found that the difference in payment is discriminatory. We will stick by the policy that has been in place for some time, put in place by the previous Labour Government—that is, maintaining the in-work tax credit.
What is it the left do not understand about the danger of snaring people in the welfare trap?
Some people will need a permanent benefit. But most will be in temporary need of assistance and the sooner they are helped to move from a benefit to work the better for them, their family and society.
Keeping people on benefits when they could be working isn’t good for them and it isn’t fair on those who pay the taxes to support them.
This view isn’t the preserve of the right wing. Labour MP Trevor Mallard made this point on Facebook yesterday.
The post has now disappeared but Keeping Stock took the precaution of taking a screen shot.
In-work tax credits provide an incentive to work by ensuring people who earn a living are better off than those on benefits.
If people can get a similar income on a benefit than they can from working too many wouldn’t bother to work.
The solution to poverty is not to make life on a benefit more comfortable but to help those who could work to work.