Posts by Rich of Observationz
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You read the UK Independent? Why?
It's bad enough having Reilly's "journalism lite" in our local paper, which I guess one is obliged to read or be out of the loop on stuff going on here. But I don't see any point reading the UK version, except for Fisk (and he's available elsewhere, I think). I just stick to the grauniad.
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Regarding the Motorway Patrol thing, the TV company might have been within their rights but if the emergency services were facilitating them, they would seem to have been acting totally unethically in allowing film to be made and broadcast without consent.
From the new Police Code of Conduct
Employees observe and protect the rights of others to privacy and confidentiality.I'd expect that the Ambulance and Fire services would have a similar rule. Especially ambo - they're health workers FFS!
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Regarding the H2GO/photo thing, is there actually any right in NZ *not* to have one's photo taken in public and used for any purpose?
I know in the US you can sue (and presumably win - one can *try* and sue for anything) if somebody uses a photograph for commercial purposes without a model release. But NZ?
Is this a Privacy Act thing, or a common law tort?
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Demographia isn't a real research team right? It's a property spiv's attempt to get his speculative city-fringe "landbank" zoned for development.
Their "survey" only considers English speaking countries, presumably because he doesn't speak any foreign languages. Houses are actually more affordable in continental Europe, where they have *stricter* development controls, but don't fetishise property ownership as in the English speaking world.
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Regarding "Kiwi Experience", it's true that NZ employers *are* probably a bit racist. I work for a company that employs numerous people born overseas (including me) and is always happy to employ more. However most applicants we get, although they might have impeccable technical qualifications, don't have sufficently good English to handle client facing work.
Exactly the same would apply if I tried to get a job in Switzerland - my French and German isn't up to scratch - not so much for the formal aspects of the job, but to interact with people and persuade them to do what the business wants. That's the essence of most NZ jobs (in bigger economies, they have more specialisation - a company like Novartis would probably be happy to harbour a monoglot Notes admin if they couldn't find a German speaking one).
I think potential migrants are often misadvised that they should do a 4 year Masters degree in their subject and a six month English course. They'd be better off with 4 years learning English and six months doing MCSE or similar.
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I'd assume that any government that was trying to mount a constitutional coup would start by putting the Governor-Generalship in a "safe" pair of hands.
Just to focus on the signing of legislation, there is a long list of constitutional changes that have been passed by a simple parliamentary majority over substantial opposition: womens suffrage and the abolition of the country quota for two.
Would a Parliament Act that enabled legislation to enter effect on Third Reading (e.g. removing the arguably obsolete Royal Assent) justify a refusal of assent?
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Surely NZ's reliance on overseas borrowings to create asset bubbles (particularly in property) will ultimately lead to its economic downfall, regardless of the relative prudence of the corporate sector.
Why should it? The people borrowing the money can afford to pay off their mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc. (for the most part). So the lenders see a reasonable risk profile and keep lending. If NZ had a sustained collapse in the productive economy, then yes, default rates would increase, lenders would take a bath and money would become more expensive. Similarly, if the Kiwi dollar tanks, the perceived risk will go up and interest rates will follow.
Probably the main effect of a lack of savings is that people will need to work later and/or have less opulent retirements than they hoped for. Plus their kids won't inherit much and will need to work harder if they want to enjoy their parents lifestyle. None of which is the end of the world.
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I think the NZ market is to some extent protected because whatever happens to the world economy, Fonterra's customers will keep buying milk products,and Telecom's customers will keep using the phone and interwebs.
On the Kiwisaver front, I thought all the funds on offer were crap value. Right now, I'd like to have 70% of my money in cash at a AA+ rated bank and 30% in an index tracker. I don't want high-fee managed funds and I do want transparency.
I'd be fairly happy with having access to the Cullen Fund - since the costs are paid for and it's got good scale, I'd expect decent 25-year returns.
Self-invested funds are a dumb idea. People would either spend the money on a house, fuelling house price inflation, or throw it into some fraudulent scheme.
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On Parihaka:
New Zealand's path to independence has been evolutionary and the nature of its institutions have changed with the years. In 1881 NZ was a (mostly) self-governing colony, not an independent state. Sir Arthur Gordon, the Governor, was an appointed functionary of the British Imperial government and expected to intervene according to that government's policies.
Hence his actions don't really set any precedents for a modern G-G (between 1926 and 1947, Britain and it's colonies cut sovereign and legislative ties).
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Actually, rich, I know quite a few Labour folks who think the party establishment are waaay too right. But that's a whole other sack full of squirming kittens I don't want to touch 'cause there's more than enough ideologically purist crazy on my side of the fence
Obviously true. But you wouldn't expect their rantings to get party funding.
I wonder, if the Nats paid Cameron Slater to spend the next nine months on a holiday far from 'net access, would that be considered election spending?