Word of the day

Deterge – cleanse thoroughly; cleanse of impurities or undesirable matter, as a wound; clear away foul matter from the body; wash away or wipe off.

Rural round-up

Co-operation at a strategic level – Glenys Christian:

There could be downstream as well as upstream benefits to Fonterra’s $615 million deal with Chinese infant food manufacturer Beingmate, starting at the onfarm level in that country.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson said after the announcement of the move was made on Wednesday that discussions had been held about how the co-operative could help out in other areas.

“Beingmate has its own farms,” he said.

That meant there were opportunities to look at the two companies joining together more in farm management with Fonterra already having one hub of dairy farms up and running in China, a second hub started, and commitment to a third. 

“We’ve had discussions about more alignment,” he said.

“There may be benefits upstream and downstream in the future.” . . .

Honour for noted sheep breeder – Jon Morgan:

In 1956, 23-year-old romney stud breeder Roger Marshall sold his first rams at the Manawatu and West Coast Ram Fair in Feilding. The Rangitikei Mail reported that when the first ram was knocked down at 1400 guineas after spirited bidding the large bench of buyers broke into spontaneous applause.

“I remember being quite worried because it had rained for several days before the sale, and all my rams had wet wool, but to get 1400 guineas was terrific – that was the price of a new Holden car in those days,” the quiet- spoken farmer says. “It was a great incentive for me.”

It was a sparkling opening to a career in sheep breeding that eventually took him to the other side of the world in search of new blood to rejuvenate the sheep industry. . .

A2 poised for US start – Alan Williams:

The strong NZ dollar has cut into reported profits but A2 Milk Company remains confident it can fund development of three new markets from its existing cash and cashflows.

A2 had $16 million cash in the bank at June 30 and is booking strong Australian sales and operating cashflows.

It will use them to build on its slowly developing markets in China and the United Kingdom and to begin sales in the United States next year. . .

Manuka honey sector gets boost with trial expansion:

The lucrative Manuka honey healthcare market is set to expand after New Zealand’s largest farmer, Landcorp Farming, announced it’ll be planting an additional 93 hectares of mānuka honey trees.

The new plantings are part of the High Performance Mānuka Plantations programme — a seven year Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) between the mānuka honey industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to increase the yield and reliability of supply of medical grade mānuka honey.

The PGP trials, involving Landcorp, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Comvita, Aborex Industries, Don and Conchita Tweeddale and Nukuhau Carbon Ltd, were launched in 2011 to increase the value of the mānuka honey industry from an estimated $75 million towards $1.2 billion per annum by 2028.

Maori Trustee Te Tumu Paeroa is also a shareholder in the programme. . .

Californian drought is so severe it’s ‘causing the ground to move’:

Vanishing water is causing the ground to rise in the western United States, according to a new study.

 Scientists estimate that 63 trillion gallons of water has been lost in the west over the past 18 months. 

The surface of the Earth is much more springy than you might think. When you put something very heavy on it, there’s a good chance the ground will sink at least a little bit. And in the same way, when you remove something very heavy, the ground will lift.

As it turns out, 63 trillion gallons of water is pretty heavy. . . .

Rural Women Drive Post-conflict Recovery in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Food tank:

The International Fund for Agricultural Development‘s (IFAD) Livestock and Rural Finance Development Project has helped transition rural businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the initial stages of post-conflict recovery to long-term sustainable development. The program has financed rural infrastructure redevelopment and provided credit and training to small business owners. This program has particularly focused on reengaging women in the workforce.

On a macro-level, the program has helped to improve producer access to markets. At the local level, the program has encouraged the formation of producers’ associations and helped provide individuals with machinery and technical support services. For example, members of the Nevesinje’s Producers’ Association have received credit and trainings on food safety, handling, and storage of their product from the program.

The program has also helped open up a discriminatory workforce to women. In the decade following the Bosnian War, there was a marked decrease in women in the workforce and a resurgence of traditional attitudes about gender roles. . .

 

National working for and in the south #21

New Age

 

We’re already in the new age, she said. What does that mean? I said. It means we can stop waiting & start living, she said but after she left, I still waited a little while more just to be safe.

New Age ©2014 Brian Andreas – published with permission.

If you’d like a daily dose of whimsy like this, you’ll find where to sign up by clicking on the link above.

$22.5m for forestry

National’s Forestry Spokesperson, Jo Goodhew announced plans to invest invest $22.5 million over five years to further encourage and support the planting of new forests if the party is back in government:

Mrs Goodhew made the announcement at Knapdale Eco Lodge in Gisborne with Prime Minister and National Party Leader John Key, National’s Primary Industries spokesman, Nathan Guy, and local East Coast MP Anne Tolley.

The Afforestation Grant Scheme (AGS) is a grant to help landowners to establish new forests of between five and 300 hectares.

“The previous AGS wound up last year. Through National’s responsible economic management we are able to commit to extending this worthwhile scheme for a further five years,” says Mrs Goodhew.

“Our commitment to afforestation is another example of National’s long-term economic investment in regional New Zealand.

“Other examples are our recently announced $150 million investment in the Rural Broadband Initiative, our $212 million investment in new regional roading projects, the investment of $120 million into new irrigation projects, and initiatives like the recovery of windblown timber on the West Coast.

“Contrast that with Labour and the Greens – they would stifle the regions by bringing in a big new carbon tax, imposing large water resource levies, and introducing a capital gains tax on 100 per cent of productive businesses,  including farms.

“National backs the country’s regions to succeed.

“The start-up costs for forests can be a huge barrier, as forestry is a long-term game. It can be 25 to 30 years before forests are ready to be harvested and generate value. That’s why National wants to lower those cost barriers for regional New Zealand and make planting new forests easier,” says Mrs Goodhew.

The scheme will build on the success of the earlier AGS, but will be improved and simplified to make participation easier.

“We have looked at how the scheme could be further enhanced, to make it more accessible and flexible for applicants,” says Mrs Goodhew.

“The scheme is projected to result in around 15,000 hectares of new forest being established. Much of this is expected to be on low-quality land not ideal for farming.”

The criteria for the new scheme will include:

Individual parcels of land between 5 and 300 hectares per grant application

Planting must be on land that is not already forestry land

A flat grant rate of $1300 per hectare from one funding pool for all applicants.

In return for a grant, grantees will forfeit carbon credits to the Crown for up to a decade.

“We expect the majority of people taking up this scheme will be farmers and other landowners wanting to diversify and better use marginal land,” says Mrs Goodhew.

“The grant will go some way to alleviating the start-up costs of new planting, but we expect grant recipients to meet the long-term costs associated with developing and sustaining a forest.”

Forests have a number of environmental benefits. New planting will help property owners address soil erosion, water quality and biodiversity.

“The removal of carbon by forests plays an important role in helping New Zealand meet its long-term climate change commitments. Planting new forests contributes positively to reducing New Zealand’s net emissions.”

The Afforestation Grants scheme complements work already undertaken in this area, including the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative, the Erosion Control Funding Programme on the East Coast and the Hill Country Erosion Fund.

 

 

 

What matters

Trans Tasman on what matters to voters:

The vital factor for NZers as they come to vote are issues which impact on their lives: the trajectory of the economy, jobs, living standards, inflation, house prices, education and health services. Voters’ assessments on the credibility, competency and leadership of the parties weigh equally heavily. And a primary concern is stability of the Govt to be elected under the MMP system. . .

Anyone who understands the issues, the policies, the parties has a clear choice.

A stable, National-led government will continue with the policies which are working in these important areas; a weak unstable Labour-led government propped up by the Green, New Zealand First and Internet Mana parties won’t.

There are major differences in policies too, not the least of which is tax:

Where Labour is talking of raising taxes, National is dropping broad hints it wants to lower taxes by revising tax thresholds to provide some relief for those on low and middle incomes.  . .

The PREFU supported the government’s claims that the books will be back in surplus.

There is no justification for increasing tax rates. If conditions allow, there could be a case for some reductions, if only to counter bracket creep.

The only justification for adding a new tax would be by taking away an existing one.

Labour and its left-wing cling-ons want to increase tax rates and introduce new ones as extras not replacements.

High tax and high spending under the last Labour-led government put New Zealand into recession long before the rest of the world. That they haven’t learned from that mistake shows they can’t be trusted with the public purse again.

In stark contrast National has spent the last six years working for New Zealand with policies that are working for New Zealanders and this week announced more of its plan for the next three years:

Better, sooner, healthier

Health Minister Tony Ryall  has announced faster access to treatment for people whose doctors suspect have cancer:

If your doctor suspects you have cancer, the Government will ensure you see a cancer specialist and receive treatment faster than ever before.

Health Minister Tony Ryall announced a new faster cancer treatment target will be introduced from 1 October during a visit to the Cancer Society’s Domain Lodge this afternoon with Prime Minister John Key.

“The new target will extend the scope of the current health target so people with suspected cancer receive faster access to all services from diagnostic tests to surgery or other treatment,” says Mr Ryall.

“Waiting for a cancer diagnosis is a very stressful time for people and their families.

“We inherited cancer services which were failing New Zealanders. Patients were waiting months for treatment and some had to travel to Australia because of lengthy delays here. Thankfully those days are over – all patients now receive radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment within four weeks of being ready to treat.

“We will build on our successful plan and introduce a new national health target which will ensure cancer patients receive their diagnostic tests, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy even faster.

“If your GP suspects you have cancer, you should see a cancer specialist within two weeks. Diagnostic tests and clinical investigations will be completed in a faster, more streamlined way and our goal is for patients to receive their first cancer treatment within a maximum 62 days of their original GP’s referral.

“The new target is much broader than the current cancer health target, which focuses on how long patients wait to start their chemotherapy and radiotherapy when ready to treat. The current cancer target didn’t include surgery, which is often the first treatment step for patients, or the time patients wait to see a cancer specialist and have tests done.

“The maximum 62 days is an international gold standard for cancer treatment. Currently in New Zealand around 60-65 per cent of patients receive their first cancer treatment within this time.

“The new target will be for 90 per cent of patients to receive their first treatment within a maximum 62 days of seeing their GP by June 2017.

“Having a similar target has had a big effect in other countries. When the measure was introduced in the UK in 2001, about 60 per cent of cancer patients received their first treatment within a maximum 62 days – by the end of last year this had risen to over 85 per cent.

Mr Ryall says New Zealand will see similar improvements here.

“This Government has invested more than $100 million extra to support people with cancer and improve services – and we have already made significant progress.

“It is only through the sound economic management of the National-led government that we have been able to invest in, and deliver world-class cancer services.”

Implementing the new target is part of the faster cancer treatment initiative already budgeted for – the Government has already spent $19 million and will spend a further $41 million over the next three years.

“The new maximum 62 day faster cancer treatment target will build on the gains we have made over the past five years and provide New Zealanders with even faster cancer services,” says Mr Ryall. 

Better, sooner and more convenient treatment for health problems was one of the promises National made before becoming the government and it’s one that’s working thanks to the Minister and the health professionals who have accepted the challenge of meeting the targets.

Another improvement announced this week is the introduction of a single patient information system for all hospitals in the South Island:

“The South Island Patient Information Care System (SI PICS) will connect hospitals and health services in the South Island so health professionals can share information securely and provide patients with better care,” says Mr Ryall.

“Replacing each district health board’s patient information system with a single streamlined regional system will provide health professionals with more accurate information, and allow them to spend less time on administration and more time on caring for patients.

“It will also manage a number of patient services for district health boards (DHBs), including patient appointments, admissions, discharges, and transfers.

“The new system will also be more timely and cost-efficient than the patient information systems it replaces. Together, the DHBs are expected to save around $40 million over the next 15 years,” says Mr Ryall.

SI PICS will be introduced throughout South Island hospitals in stages, beginning in 2015 with Burwood Hospital in Christchurch and then with hospitals in the Nelson/Marlborough region.

The South Island Alliance, a collaboration of the five South Island DHBs, is working with Orion Health to develop and implement SI PICS. . .

If re-elected National is promising to invest $50 million extra of new money over the next three years in a plan to help New Zealanders live free from bone, muscle and joint pain and provide thousands more people with elective surgery.

 

“It is estimated up to a quarter of GP consultations are related to arthritis, lower back pain, orthopaedic or other bone, muscle and joint conditions,” says Mr Ryall.

“Experts tell me with earlier intervention we could improve the quality of life for many people suffering from what’s termed musculoskeletal pain, such as osteoarthritis.

“We will invest $6 million to create primary care based early intervention teams that will identify patients who are likely to suffer from bone, muscle & joint conditions in the future and support them to make changes to help prevent patients heading down the path towards surgery.

“The teams will work with a range of community health services such as GPs, dieticians and physiotherapists and will be coordinated through general practice. There will also be close links with hospital services such as rheumatology, orthopaedic and pain services.

“They will provide nutrition and lifestyle advice, assist with pain management and provide education so patients can better manage their condition themselves.

“This approach will enable some patients to be treated early enough to maintain independence. Others however will require surgery.

“To ensure the people requiring surgery receive it faster, we will invest $30 million of the new money to further lift our record numbers of orthopaedic operations – delivering an extra 2250 hip, knee and other orthopaedic operations over the next term in addition to the usual increases.

“The remaining $14 million will deliver more than 1500 extra general surgeries, such as hernia, gallstone and vein conditions.

“As a result of this initiative, plus our normal annual elective surgery increases, we will be providing an extra 14,500 elective operations a year by 2016/17.

“Reducing pain, increasing patient mobility and independence, and increasing elective surgery is a priority for this National-led Government,” says Mr Ryall.

“Thanks to our strong economic management, we have been able to increase our investment in health by an average of $500 million every year we have been in government, and this year the health budget will be a record $15.6 billion.”

This is why National is focussed on the economy, not as an end but the means to better public services and that focus is working for New Zealand.

Sunday soapbox

Sunday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse.

August 31 in history

12 Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor, was born (d. 41).

1218 Al-Kamil became Sultan of Egypt, Syria and northern Mesopotamia on the death of his father Al-Adil.

1422  Henry VI became King of England at the age of 9 months.

1803 Lewis and Clark started their expedition to the west.

1841 – The brig Sophia Pate, was wrecked on a sandbar at the entrance to the Kaipara Harbour with the loss of 21 lives.

1870 Maria Montessori, Italian educator, was born (d. 1952).

1876 Ottoman sultan Murat V was deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.

1880 Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands, was born (d. 1962).

1886 An earthquake killed 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.

1888  Mary Ann Nichols was murdered, the first of Jack the Ripper’s known victims.

1894 The new Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration (IC&A) Act, a flagship policy of Richard Seddon’s Liberal government, made New Zealand the first country in the world to outlaw strikes in favour of compulsory arbitration. There were no major strikes for 11 years and wages and conditions generally improved.

1894 Albert Facey, Australian writer, was born (d. 1982).

1897  Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.

1907 Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson signed the St. Petersburg Convention, which resulted in the Triple Entente alliance.

1918 Alan Jay Lerner, American lyricist, was born (d. 1986).

1920 Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.

1940 Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashed near Lovettsville, Virginia. The CAB investigation of the accident was the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.

1940 Jack Thompson, Australian actor, was born.

1943  The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, was commissioned.

1945 The Liberal Party of Australia was founded by Robert Menzies.

1945 Van Morrison, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician, was born.

1949 The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat in mountain Grammos marked the end of the Greek Civil War.

1949 Richard Gere, American actor, was born.

1957 The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1958 A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, failed to kill Sihanouk of Cambodia.

1958 Serge Blanco, French rugby union footballer, was born.

1962  Trinidad and Tobago became independent.

1965 Willie Watson, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1965  The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft made its first flight.

1974 Leader of the Labour Party since 1965 and Prime Minister from late 1972, Norman Kirk, ’Big Norm’, died suddenly at the age of 51. He was the fifth New Zealand PM to die in office.

1978 William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, pleaded guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of

1986 Aeroméxico Flight 498 collided with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.

1986 The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sank in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.

1991  Kyrgyzstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1992  Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo .

1993  HMS Mercury, shore establishment of the Royal Navy,  closed after 52 years in commission.

1994 The Provisional Irish Republican Army declared a ceasefire.

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul died in a car crash in Paris.

1998 North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.

1999 The first of a series of bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.

1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashed during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including 2 on the ground.

2005  A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad killed 1,199 people.

2006 Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream, which was stolen on August 22, 2004, was recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

2012 – Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Jungli – uncultured; wild;  a person lacking etiquette.

Rural round-up

Writing software, beet machine snag awards  – Kelsey Wilkie:

Judges broke the rules by announcing two winners at the Innovate business competition last night.

They could not choose between a computer program that helps children with writing and a machine to reduce the growing cost of fodder beet, so they awarded both $10,000 each.

Innovate is a Manawatu-based competition to help take an idea for a new business, an invention, early-stage research or technology with commercial potential and turn it into reality. . .

Challenge boosts protection of biological heritage:

The National Science Challenge – New Zealand’s Biological Heritage Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho – is to receive funding of $25.8 million over five years for research to protect and manage the country’s biodiversity, improve our biosecurity, and enhance our resilience to harmful organisms.

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce says the Challenge spans a wide range of scientific disciplines and will include researchers from nearly all New Zealand’s relevant research institutions.

The Challenge will be hosted by the Crown research institute Landcare Research. It includes researchers from the other six Crown research institutes, and all eight New Zealand universities. . . .

Device may boost quad bike safety  – Jack Montgomerie:

A South Canterbury man thinks the anti-roll bar he designed could reduce quad bike accidents.

Farmer and rural contractor Charles Anderson, of Fairlie, said he was inspired to design the retractable “anti-roll bars” after learning of several fatal and serious accidents involving quad bikes rolling over.

“I was just getting sick of reading about all these accidents. I couldn’t believe there were that many.” . . .

Taranaki farm wins effluent fitness warrant – Sue O’Dowd:

What is believed to be the first dairy effluent warrant of fitness in Taranaki has been awarded to an Okato farm.

The warrant of fitness scheme was developed by Dairy NZ to improve farm dairy effluent infrastructure around the country. Certified assessors determine whether farm infrastructure meets industry good practice.

New Plymouth assessor Colin Kay, of Opus Consultants, awarded the warrant to Blue Rata Investments after auditing its 204ha (effective) Okato farm, named for the nearby bush reserve on the banks of the Stony River. . .

From the worst dairy farm to one of the best:

A Thames farming company has turned its business around after prosecution on four environmental offences led to instructions to stop milking.

Tuitahi Farms Ltd was investigated by Waikato Regional Council after an aerial monitoring flight in September last year.

When council officers investigated the farm, they discovered a range of unlawful discharges of milk vat waste and dairy effluent into farm drains that flow to the Waihou River and the Firth of Thames.

The council initiated a prosecution for offences against the Resource Management Act. The farm was convicted on four charges and fined $47,250 in the Auckland District Court in July. It was also ordered not to commence milking until a new dairy effluent system was in operation. . . .

Spring cereal sowing underway:

Canterbury’s grain growers, responsible for nearly two thirds of New Zealand’s total annual grain harvest, are looking to make up lost ground this spring after poor weather stymied autumn seeding for many.

“The Canterbury Plains are NZ’s cereal bowl and the key planting period is upon us. Farmers and contractors are already busy servicing and readying their tractors and seed drills for what they hope will be a productive spring,” says Thomas Chin, general manager of the New Zealand Grain and Seed Trade Association (GSTA).

Where the soil is dry enough the bulk of Canterbury wheat, barley, oats and maize crops, for both the feed and food processing industries will go into the ground over the coming weeks. . . .

                                   * * * * *

Visiting a 2,000 cow dairy farm this morn. interesting high input system, 3x a day milking #wooliesagscholarship2014 pic.twitter.com/SeY78n9bm6

— Erica van Reenen (@ericavrnz) August 29, 2014

Collins resigns from cabinet

Judith Collins has resigned from cabinet but will continue to campaign for re-election in the  Papakura electorate which she holds with a solid majority.

Ms Collins resignation from cabinet followed the emergence of an email from Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater to PR operative Carrick Graham and others.

The email implies that after (then) SFO boss Adam Feeley briefed Ms Collins, information was leake to Mr Slater then, via Mr Graham, was passed on to the subject of an SFO investigation.

Prime Minister John Key said he had accepted the resignation of Ms Collins followed the receipt of new information that raises allegations about Ms Collins’ conduct as a Minister.

“The relationship between a Minister and their Chief Executive is vital, and goes right to the heart of a trusted, effective government,” Mr Key said.

“This new information suggests Ms Collins may have been engaged in discussions with a blogger in 2011 aimed at undermining the then Director of the Serious Fraud Office. Ms Collins was the Minister responsible for the SFO at the time.

Mr Key released an email which had been recently been provided to his office (see below).

“I have spoken with Ms Collins about the matters in the email, and she strongly denies any suggestion of inappropriate behaviour on her part,” he said. . .

Ms Collins released a statement at midday saying, “A new allegation has come to light from an email conversation from 2011 between Cameron Slater and others suggesting I was undermining the then Director of the Serious Fraud Office,” she said in a statement.

“I was not party to this email or discussion and have only today been made aware of it.

“I strongly denied the claim and any suggestion of inappropriate behaviour.

“I am restrained in clearing my name while I am still a Minister inside Cabinet and I believe the right thing to do is to resign as a Minister so I am able to clear my name.

“I have asked the Prime Minister for an Inquiry into these serious allegations so that my name can be cleared. I will, of course, cooperate with any Inquiry.” . . .

What someone says about someone else, in an email or anywhere else, is only hearsay and not proof of wrong-doing by them.

But the allegations are serious enough to justify an inquiry and it is appropriate that she resigns from cabinet while it is carried out.

 

 

Another vocab test

8/10 with a couple of guesses.

The ones I got wrong were 2 and 4.

Saturday’s smiles

A group of older tourists was traveling through Switzerland.

When they stopped at a dairy farm, a young guide led them through the process of cheese making, explaining that goats’ milk was used.

She pointed the group towards a lovely hillside where many goats were grazing. 

‘These,’ she explained, ‘are the older goats put out to pasture when they no longer produce.’ She
then asked, ‘What do you do in America with your old goats?’

One of the tourists answered, ‘They send us on bus tours.’

National working for and in the south #22

They haven’t learned a thing

Labour and the Green Party are trying to pretend they would be good economic managers.

The cost of their policies puts the lie to that:

David Cunliffe and Labour have actually increased their new spending promises for the next four years to $18.4 billion, despite putting some of their proposals such as New Zealand Power on the never-never, National Party Finance Spokesman Bill English says.

“David Cunliffe and David Parker have again been caught out under-costing their expensive promises,” Mr English says. “This is irresponsible and deceptive and confirms that under David Cunliffe, Labour is reverting to its failed spend and tax recipe of the past.

“We saw what happened the last time around – under Labour in 2008, floating mortgage rates reached almost 11 per cent, inflation exceeded 5 per cent and the economy went into recession well before the global financial crisis.”

Labour’s latest costings attempt, which it released on Monday, confirm its untried New Zealand Power proposal, which would give politicians control of the electricity industry and push up power prices, would be postponed until 1 January 2018.

And in another example of it attempting to dress up its numbers, Labour has also pushed back free GP visits for over 65s and other groups to 1 January 2017.

“So while David Cunliffe is going around New Zealand making expensive promises, he is quietly pushing some of them back beyond two elections because he knows they are unaffordable,” Mr English says.

“But he has again failed to hide Labour’s real spending agenda because he has not added in promises made over the last two weeks.

“Even using Labour’s own numbers, the cost of its promises over the next four years is now $17.3 billion – up from its claimed $16.4 billion when it first attempted to cost its policies.

“But when the real costs of its proposed R&D tax credit, compulsory KiwiSaver and New Zealand Power are included, the tally jumps to $18.4 billion – up from around $18 billion the last time around.

“As Labour’s numbers come under scrutiny, they keep changing them,” Mr English says. “David Cunliffe has tried to say he would spend less, but when you add it all up he is actually spending more.”

Labour Party Election 2014 Spending Announcements – as at 27 August 2014
Four year costings as per Labour documents unless noted

		$m
27-Jan-14	Best Start Policy	614
27-Jan-14	Extended Paid Parental Leave	245
27-Jan-14	Maternity Policies	50
27-Jan-14	Early Childhood Education Announcements	352
19-Mar-14	Forestry Policy	28
14-Apr-14	Bowel Screening Programme	56
23-Apr-14	Veterans Pension Extension	37
23-Jun-14	Canterbury Policies	116
25-Jun-14	R & D Tax Credit*	1,079
25-Jun-14	Accelerated Depreciation	210
25-Jun-14	Universal KiwiSaver**	845
25-Jun-14	NZ Power***	566
25-Jun-14	KiwiBuild	1,527
25-Jun-14	KiwiBuild Finance Costs	176
2-Jul-14	School Donation Policy	175
3-Jul-14	Family & Sexual Violence Policies	60
5-Jul-14	Digital Devices in Schools	120
5-Jul-14	Reading Recovery	140
5-Jul-14	Food in Schools	70
11-Jul-14	ICT policies	17
22-Jul-14	Regional Investment Fund	200
24-Jul-14	Digital and Connectivity Policy	21
30-Jul-14	Living wage for Public Sector	94
31-Jul-14	Centres of Vocational Excellence	40
4-Aug-14	Youth Employment Package	182
6-Aug-14	Primary Healthcare	150
8-Aug-14	ACC	40
10-Aug-14	Free Doctors’ Visits	540
18-Aug-14	Tertiary Education (incl ACE)	130
20-Aug-14	Aged Care	222
22-Aug-14	Welfare Policy	78
24-Aug-14	Immediate Funding of City Rail Link****	800
25-Aug-14	Other Education Initiatives	45
25-Aug-14	Other Smaller Initiatives	80
25-Aug-14	Maintain Real Value of Spending in Public Services	9,000
25-Aug-14	Policy Soon to be Announced	289
	Total Announced Spending Pledges	18,394

*Adjusted to reflect Treasury’s forecast costs of the previous R & D Tax credit
**Adjusted to include the average Kiwisaver tax credit paid to new Kiwisaver members
***Adjusted to remove the claimed fiscal offset for wider benefits in one part of the economy that ignores wider costs elsewhere
****Labour says it would reprioritise existing transport spend but most of first 4 yrs committed/contracted

Note: some costs differ from the original Labour releases as a result of fiscal tables released 25 August.

This is only the cost of its spending.

It doesn’t take into account the cost of poor economic management, higher and extra taxes, higher interest rates, a greater burden of government and all the other hand brakes a Labour/Green?New Zealand First.Internet Mana government would impose on the country.

Higher spending and higher taxes didn’t work for New Zealand under the last Labour-led government and it won’t work if voters are conned into trusting another one.

Hopefully voters have learned what works for New Zealand and New Zealanders because Labour and its mismatched mates haven’t.

 

Key dominates leaders’ index

The first of  iSentia’s weekly Leaders’ Indexes shows that Prime Minister John Key dominated the news in the mainstream and social media.

This shows how much coverage each party leader gets, it doesn’t differentiate between good and bad coverage.

But when one of his new candidates is more recognisable than he is, David Cunliffe might be thinking that any more publicity, even if it’s negative, might be better than almost none.

When it comes to social media the Internet Mana Party’s two leaders are getting fewer mentions than either Act leader Jamie Whyte or Conservative leader Colin Craig.

Is that irony or just proof that the name is as fake as the partnership?

Poll of polls

Colin James’s poll of polls:

. . .  National’s slip leaves it still strong but also underlines the fact that it does not have the election in the bag.

But its problems are slight compared with Labour’s. Its latest average is below its 2011 election score of 27.5% and far below the 33.0% average at the end of 2013. To make matters worse, a Reid Research poll for Native Affairs on Maori TV showed the Maori party’s Chris McKenzie ahead in Te Tai Hauauru.

The Greens continued to be steady. Their latest four-poll average was 12.6%, which would net it 16 seats.

 

 

While party support is volatile, the most encouraging result is the continuing belief the country is going in the right direction.

 

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse.

August 30 in history

1363 Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang—were pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.

1574  Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.

1590  Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle.

1720 Samuel Whitbread, English brewer, was born (d. 1796).

1791 HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day.

1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English writer, was born (d. 1851).

1799 Capture of the entire Dutch fleet by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars.

1800 Gabriel Prosser led a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia.

1813  Battle of Kulm: French forces defeated by Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.

1813  Creek War: Creek Red Sticks carried out the Fort Mims Massacre.

1835 Melbourne was founded.

1836 The city of Houston was founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

1862  American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith routed a Union army under General Horatio Wright.

1862 – American Civil War: Union forces were defeated in Second Battle of Bull Run.

1871 Ernest Rutherford,  Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, was born (d. 1937).

1873 – Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discovered the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.

1903 Guide Joseph Warbrick and three tourists were killed instantly when Roturua’s Waimangu geyser erupted unexpectedly.

1908 Fred MacMurray, American actor, was born (d. 1991).

1909  Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

1912 Nancy Wake AC GM, New Zealand-born World War II secret agent, was born (d. 2011).

1914  Battle of Tannenberg.

1918 Fanny Kaplan shot and seriously injured Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

1922 Battle of Dumlupinar, final battle in Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).

1926 – Kawarau Falls dam became operational.

1930 Warren Buffett, American entrepreneur, was born.

1935 John Phillips, American singer/songwriter (The Mamas & the Papas), was born (d. 2001).

1942  World War II: Battle of Alam Halfa began.

1943 Jean-Claude Killy, French skier, was born.

1945 Hong Kong was liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

1945 – Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur landed at Atsugi Air Force Base.

1946 Peggy Lipton, American actress, was born.

1951 Dana, Irish singer and politician, was born.

1956 Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened.

1962  Japan conducted a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft.

1963 Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union went into operation.

1967  Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1972  Cameron Diaz, American actress, was born.

1974  A Belgrade–Dortmund express train derailed at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.

1974 – A powerful bomb exploded at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo – 8 killed, 378 injured.

1984   The Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage.

1995 – NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.

1999 – East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.

2003 – While being towed across the Barents Sea, the de-commissioned Russian submarine K-159 sank, taking 9 of her crew and 800 kg of spent nuclear fuel with her.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia