Nick Smith vs UNESCO

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

Dr Smith said yesterday that the chances of the region being stripped of its special status was "zip".

"Those that claim that a tunnel or any other visitor facilities of that sort would remove World Heritage status, in my view, are mistaken," he said.

But in a letter to DOC, Unesco said that the two developments were "likely to be considered incompatible" with the site's World Heritage status.

It said that the region's Outstanding Universal Value was dependent on human interference being peripheral.

Unesco officials said that the monorail track would run through areas of special grassland and areas which contained endangered kaka and yellowhead - two factors which were influential to the World Heritage award.

So, Nick Smith lied about the impact on the Fiordland wilderness. UNESCO had clearly indicated that the regions World Heritage status would change, which would mean there's a considerable adverse effect on the environment if the developments went ahead.

That adverse impact would mean less tourism, but of course the government hasn't factored this into their costing’s. If they had accounted for this factor, it would mean the project isn't financially worthwhile. It will also mean the overall number of tourists will reduce even further.

People simply don't come to New Zealand to see man-made tunnels or monorails; they come to enjoy the natural beauty of the place. That natural beauty is worth billions of dollars to our economy each year, and therefore should be protected.

It's a pity the current Minister of Conservation hasn't got an environmental bone in his body. It's also a pity he's trying to mislead about the potential impact from these silly developments.

In my opinion, the country would be far better off without the likes of Nick Smith in parliament. How on earth such a dishonest idiot has remained in the halls of power for so long is beyond me?

More pain at the pump

At the beginning of 2008 when petrol prices were $1.68 per litre, John Key asked the question:

Why are grocery and petrol prices going through the roof?

At the time, the Labour party's Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel released an independent report into petrol pricing in New Zealand (PDF). Its main findings were:

• The New Zealand petrol market is fundamentally competitive.
• Retail petrol prices are not fast to rise and slow to fall.
• Recent price rises are mainly due to increases in crude oil prices overseas.
• A Fuelwatch scheme like Australia’s wouldn’t benefit consumers, because our market works differently.
• More transparency about the makeup of importer margins and a move to report daily margin movements would be useful for consumers.

However you've got to wonder about Hale & Twomey's independence...being that they're closely associated with the oil industry. By all appearances petrol prices are faster to rise and slower to fall, with the energy sector soaking up huge profits in the interim.

Such a flawed system means 95 Octane now costs $2.30 per litre, depending on where you fill up. That's a 37% increase since Key made his 2008 state of the Nation speech, in which he promised 'A Fresh Start for New Zealand'.

Unfortunately nothing has changed, with National increasing GST and other taxes to cause Kiwis considerably more pain at the pump. In fact around half the increase in petrol prices since 2008 is a result of the government increasing taxes and not due to increases in crude oil prices overseas.

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

An industry-led rise and a tax increase have pushed petrol prices to equal a record high reached last year.

Increases imposed by the four main oil companies of 4c a litre for both petrol and diesel - within three days of fuel taxes rising on Monday - have been slammed by the Automobile Association as unjustified.

"It's a bad look for the fuel companies to be raising prices so quickly after the tax rises," spokesman Mark Stockdale said yesterday.

The double-whammy has hit motorists with a 7c increase in petrol prices since Monday, when the Government raised its excise tax by 3c a litre to pay for roading projects, notably its seven Roads of National Significance such as the Waikato Expressway and Puhoi-to-Wellsford motorway extension.

So, the government has borrowed New Zealand into $82 billion worth of debt, is selling our most profitable assets and has markedly increased taxes and road user charges to pay for their roads of little significance...the irony being that with large increases in the cost of living since National gained power, most Kiwis won't be able to afford to use them.

Save the Arctic from Shell and its Russian friends

Bob Jones fruit loop

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

When I was young, every household in state house Lower Hutt had vegetable gardens and quite a number had chicken-runs. It left its mark, thus even today my household grows most of our vegetables and fruit and has chickens, albeit I have the indulgence of two gardeners. Nevertheless, I'm told that household vegetable gardens are now uncommon.

Most mornings I have crisp stewed pears with muesli, these provided free from nature and preserved from my garden. Pear trees are cheap, hardy and prolific. The crop from one would cover most families for a year. In fact, I have hundreds of fruit trees but cannot find takers for free fruit, so this year I bought a juicer, had the lot put through and frozen and now drink our home-grown fruit juice year round.

More deluded waffling from a senile old fool! Fruit trees on average take 5 years to mature to the point where they produce fruit, or ten to produce enough for a family, which means there's a long delay between spending around $40 per fruit tree and payback.

There's also the fact that most poor people don't own their own homes, which means they would be spending money on beautifying someone else's property...a property they will likely not be residing in when the fruit is ready.

Given all of this, I wonder how much the alleged hardship sufferers are doing to help themselves, particularly the lowest-income category for whose children we must now provide breakfast. It's a certainty we will soon hear of the need to provide them lunch and, like it or not, Al Nisbet's cartoon was spot on. Even on the minimum wage and after rent, electricity etc, no one cannot afford to feed their children and let's not have a barrage of "mocking from on high" abuse. These people live in luxury compared with my childhood, but we never went without food.

Typical tory bullshit from a rich prick who thinks that because he now owns an orchard and can afford to employ two gardeners, he can lecture the poor about their opportunities to grow their own food.

Bob Jones might have come from humble beginnings, but he certainly didn't make all his money legitimately. That means his blathering about poor people being able to afford enough food is entirely feckless! Not everybody has the opportunity to do crime and get away with it like Bob did to make their wealth...not everybody has grown up in a time of full employment either.

In my opinion, the sooner the Herald gets rid of this old racist prick the better.

Thanks for the two-minute noodles John

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

One budgeting expert blamed tough times for producing "a generation of two-minute noodle kids".

But principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research Shamubeel Eaqub suggested perception was not always reality. He said average weekly earnings for all workers had increased more than the cost of living, meaning people were, on average, better off.

Which is absolutely wrong! Income for the top earners has increased, but low and middle-income earners now have less money in their pockets than they did a few years ago.

In fact incomes for males age 16 to 20 decreased between 2008 and 2011 in real terms before you even factor in the rising cost of living. In 2008 they were earning on average $10,678 each, in 2011 they received a meager $10,563 after tax income to survive on.

That's a decrease of 1%, which combined with CPI infation of 9.8% over the same time period means young males are a lot worse off...which is likely why they make up the largest age group of people leaving for a brighter future overseas or taking their own lives.

That had led to households becoming more confident about borrowing as house prices had risen - particularly in Auckland and Canterbury.

Shamubeel Eaqub is obviously a shill for the government. He's completely ignoring the fact that home ownership rates are continuing to decline in New Zealand, mainly because houses are now largely unaffordable for people on even moderate incomes.

Despite the statistics clearly showing that most New Zealander's aren't better off, National and their propagandists will claim until they're blue in the face that everything is just fine. Unfortunately for the majority of struggling Kiwis, it's not.

Matthew Hooton - Asshole of the Week

Today, the NBR reported:

Those most supportive of the Don Brash and ACT Party message of “one law for all” should be deeply grateful to Hone Harawira.

If the Northland firebrand had the slightest emotional intelligence and ability to think medium-term, he would now be set to become leader of a united Maori Party capable of winning all seven Maori electorates and something approaching 5% of the party vote.

Instead, his personal anger and belligerence, his childish emotional need to be a staunch bro’, and his extraordinary arrogance, so associated with the Harawia clan, meant he moved to split the Maori Party in 2011 and set up his own far-left Mana movement.

What a load of codswallop! The idiot Hooten is completely ignoring the fact that the Maori party suspended Hone Harawira and then the party's disciplinary committee recommended his expulsion, at which point Harawira left. Even a cursory glance at the Wikipedia article on Harawira confirms that Hooten is talking out his ass!

The right wing propagandist clearly hasn't let the facts of history get in the way of his ranting, which points towards a biased and perhaps racist opinionator. If Hooten is willing to make up a bunch of bullshit to try and besmirch Harawira's credibility, one has to question his motivations, and in this case it's likely not just political. Unfortunately Hooten's despicable diatribe gets even worse.

His complaint was that the other Maori Party MPs weren’t radical enough for him and were prepared to accept crumbs from John Key’s table as opposed to the … well, it is never quite clear what he would try to deliver to his people were he ever to have the chance.

The reason the split between the Maori party and Harawira occurred was because they couldn't reconcile their differences. Firstly the Maori party have supported a government that has done nothing to help Maori, and have instead moved to further disenfranchise an already marginalized people. Poverty and unemployment have increased dramatically, and disproportionately affected Maori.

If the Maori party consider giving Maori a fair deal ‘radical’, then Harawira is best rid of them. I mean how can feeding children and building houses be considered radical? Harawira will undoubtedly achieve far more without the constraints of a party that simply isn't representing their constituents, but try telling the ignoramus Hooten that.

In truth, he knows he will never have the chance to achieve anything and likes it that way.  It allows infinite bluster and zero accountability and he assumes his constituents are so stupid they don’t know the difference.

In truth? Hooten wouldn't know the truth if it bit him on the ass!

Claiming that Harawira hasn't achieved anything just highlights Hooten's bigotry. Let's take the Mana party's most recent achievement, which is in my opinion significant. After Harawira gained coverage and widespread support for his food in schools policy, the National party moved to introduce their own watered down version of the food in schools program.

Without Hone Harawira making the initial move to highlight a serious problem, nothing would have changed. Although the government's measures are clearly not progressive enough, it's an achievement none the less that Hooten should damn well be aware of... Fucking moron!

Had Mr Harawira not split the Maori Party in 2011, it is almost certain it would have won last night’s Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election.  It would most probably have held on to Te Tai Tonga in 2011 so that it would now hold six of the seven Maori electorates and have much greater leverage over Mr Key and Labour.

The people who voted Mana would more likely have voted for the Greens instead of a Maori party aligned with National's agenda. One would have to discount all those voting for Mana not caring that the Maori party have promoted right wing policies that have further degraded their standard of living.

Instead, Mr Harawira and his motely crew of far-leftists are celebrating coming second to Labour last night in an electorate the Maori Party came within a whisker of winning as recently as 2008 – before Mr Harawira took his destructive path.

Chalk another one up to Hooten's complete failure as a political commentator...this guy really needs a serious reality check.

Why on earth shouldn't the Mana party, who clearly aren't radicals, celebrate increasing their support in Ikaroa-Rawhiti by almost 19 percent since the last general election? With such a low turnout, this is clearly an achievement worth celebrating.

It is all rather pathetic.  Most likely, Labour will win six of the Maori seats by 2014 or 2017 at the latest, with Mr Harawira hanging on alone in his Northland redoubt.

If Mana campaign strongly at the next election they're likely to pick up Te Ururoa Favell's seat in Waiariki. Labour came a distant third in that electorate, which means their winning six of the Maori seats is not assured. Saying otherwise this far out from a general election is simply deluded!

Like his mother – jailed in 1989 for violent crimes against mental health patients in her care – Mr Harawira will have a legacy of bullsh-t and bluster but no real achievements for himself or advancement for his people.  The dumbest bro’s will think he’s cool though.

That folks is why Matthew Hooten wins this week's Asshole Award.