Hard News: Locking in the Future
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I think Bryan Gould's opinion piece in today's NZ Herald also applies to all the various debates above. When business is the only agenda in society we all suffer, eventually. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10718631
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Rex Widerstrom, in reply to
A lot of commercial contracts have a clause that voids them if one party enters liquidation/bankruptcy. I wonder whether spectrum licenses do
A search of the Radio Spectrum Management site for "liquidation" proves fruitless, as does reading their policies.
Of course an on-to-it Opposition would have asked this by now. If only we had one...
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Ok so I wanted to do some revision on the copyright thread, which I mostly missed at the time, but all the links to it (including from the original article) point to this - which I don't think is it.
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Yesterday Bill English said that:
having wages 30 per cent behind Australia's was an "advantage" in luring jobs and capital here.
For the last 20mumble years we have had the neocons tell us that if wages drop we will become more competitive. And if I am not mistaken, after all this time this is the first any of them have the gall to say we have finally reached it and isn't it wonderful.
I wonder which way we should head now.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
When business is the only agenda in society we all suffer, eventually
You mean like when the head of Mainfreight suggests that Police National HQ should be closed down and the residents distributed to the front line? What’s scary is that the likes of Joyce listen to such men.
I would like to know, though, how they’d determine and report on the outcome improvements from putting so many more bodies on the streets (I suspect it’d work out to about two extra cops per station if they were handed out evenly) once all the useless bureaucrats were stripped of their exalted positions and sent out with the rank and file.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
For the last 20mumble years we have had the neocons tell us that if wages drop we will become more competitive. And if I am not mistaken, after all this time this is the first any of them have the gall to say we have finally reached it and isn't it wonderful.
Catch up with Oz, or race to the bottom? Blinglish can have one or the other, but to have both is economic division by zero.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
once all the useless bureaucrats were stripped of their exalted positions and sent out with the rank and file.
I can see it now…
Scene: Road side pullover,
Officer; “Good evening Sir can I see your documentation pertaining to your qualification to engage in the practice of driving?”
Driver: “What?”
Officer: “What I am attempting to do here sir is to ascertain your current status with regard to operation of a motor vehicle on a state highway or designated road with regard to the velocity of said vehicle at the time of my observation with reference to regulations set down in the statutory offences act of 2001”
Driver: “What the fuck?”
Officer: “With respect Sir I would be more comfortable if you were more restrained your use of expletives”
Driver: “What kind of cunt are you?”
Officer: “I am a strategic planning and resource allocation kind of cunt Sir”
Driver: “Oh sorry, I thought you were a cop”
Officer: “Yes Sir, I am now but I was a policy analyst by training and you know how tough times are”
Car and cop get hit by large Mainfreight truck.
Truck Driver: “What are youse cunts doing on my road, fuck off outa the way”
Stephen Joyce: “Well that worked out well, I can now drive to Omaha as fast as I like” -
You mean like when the head of Mainfreight suggests that Police National HQ should be closed down and the residents distributed to the front line? What’s scary is that the likes of Joyce listen to such men.
None of them would dream of running their private bureaucracies without a head office to supervise and advise; why do they think public service bureaucracies can do without?
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Ok so I wanted to do some revision on the copyright thread, which I mostly missed at the time, but all the links to it (including from the original article) point to this – which I don’t think is it.
Heh. Let me get that fixed.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
“Yes Sir, I am now but I was a policy analyst by training and you know how tough times are”
That's a good point. A lot of the residents of 180 Molesworth Street aren't holders of "the office of Constable", they're analysts and various other support functionaries required to keep the 10,000 sworn staff operating.
The number of sworn police officers makes Mainfreight look like a very minor suburban trucking firm, but I still can't see the Board being happy to disband all the admin functions that keep them running. -
Prostetnic Vogon Joyce's telco proposal could be against WTO rules. If this was America, he'd be up against the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
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Sacha, in reply to
could be against WTO rules.
Classic. Says a lot about this this government's disdain for notions like "independent":
One part of the legislation allegedly breaching the trade accords is the "regulatory holiday", which removes Commerce Commission oversight of the UFB network until the end of 2019.
Under the planned law, the Crown would regulate the internet infrastructure instead.
According to the Wigley report, the GATS requires telecommunications industries to have an independent body resolving disputes. By taking the commission out of the mix, the report argues the bill breaches its international obligations.
Similarly, in the AANZFTA, the terms controlling the sale of services on the network must be decided through commercial negotiations or approved by a telco regulatory body (the commission). But under the bill these terms are determined by the Crown.
Communications Minister Steven Joyce dismissed the claims.
"It is noted the definition of "telecommunications regulatory body" in most international agreements New Zealand is involved in can be interpreted to include ministers, government etc as well as regulators such as the commission."
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Meanwhile, WTF is this?
Apparently every time you download a song, someone in christchurch has to poop in a bucket.
Anyone with the legal brain want to tell me how this rushed through legislation varies from the earlier attempts at the same?
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
If America was here, he;d have voided the Sherman anti-trust act by decree.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Section 92a! IT LIVES!
Time to dust off the blackout avatars again, methinks.
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Given the English translation of the Glory of our Underpaid Workers. Here, via Arts and Letters Daily, is Joseph Stiglitz Vanity Fair version of events.
Scarily scarily, I say unto you.
But it makes you wonder, why would these Pollies DO this to their country? Are their arses being so well licked? I'm buggered if I can see many of them joining the top 1%. Taking a faint hint form the mag he writes in, maybe it pure and simply the vanity of it all....
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
What's scarier is that it's very easy to see the parallels between the situation in the US and the situation in NZ. Our levels of inequality are increasing, but heaven forfend that one dares suggest that this is anything other than a harmonious ode to diligent work and the triumph of capitalism uber alles.
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