Posts by Richard Grevers
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Hard News: The Public Address Word of…, in reply to David Ritchie,
Dan Carter's groin
Did you have to mention groins, David? Now you appear to have jinxed Vettori's as well!
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Asset - as in something worth holding on to.
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OnPoint: Spending "Cap" is Fiscal Anorexia, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
I thought it was about saying “we should have a government just as big next year as we have this year.”?
Not really, because not everything the Government spends money on goes up at the rate of inflation. Bitumen, for example, has increased much faster than inflation (30% in 6 months in 2008, equivalent to an extra $43m a year for the Government). And the TPPA, from the little information that has leaked, seems destined to see pharmaceutical costs soar (or availability slashed) as Big Pharma blocks the use of generics.
There is also this lovely "including natural disasters" clause. The Canterbury quakes have not reduced the probability that one of the other potentially multi-billion dollar disasters might happen next month: Wellington quake, new Auckland volcano, Taranaki eruption, NI east coast megaquake, Waimakariri River taking out NW Christchurch, Alpine fault going. (Actually that last one would cost less now because there isn't so much left to break in Christchurch). With insurability way down (or premiums doubled, another more-than-inflation cost for the govt), what would they have to cut to absorb a $20 billion disaster?
Lastly come external shocks - if the petrol price suddenly goes north of $2.50 a litre it would probably put another 50,000 people on a benefit and send our GDP negative by several percent. -
Capture: Capture One, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Nerve ends in Pa lines...Ngai Tahu Pa site, next to Pegasus TownNorth Canterbury...
Have you ever walked in that place and noticed how the sound of the outside world seems muffled?
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Capture: Capture One, in reply to Hebe,
And here’s one from the Catholic Basilica in Christchurch when my digital photo summer school course was let loose inside the RC cathedral for a couple of hours. They’ll be needing the coins now.
I love the irony of Trust vs Padlock
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Is a photograph of a painting cheating? The Repertory Theatre as it was - a painting presented to me on my departure in 2003.
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And I'll counter the sunsets with a Sunrise - Wainui Beach, Gisborne, Good Friday 2010 (we had just driven through the night to get there)
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"Trafficlight Trees" - on the Never-never road, north of Bellingen, NSW (and 11 years ago so this is the highest resolution I have!)
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Hard News: The Next Labour Leader, in reply to Deborah,
Stewart, Waitakere man is Chris Trotter's idealisation of what Labour ought to be about - working class men in caps who don't have any truck with women or gays or identity politics of any sort.
Thanks for clarifying that, Deborah. When I heard "Waitakere" I thought of the ranges, treehuggers, artists, Bob Harvey and Earthsong community, not Jethro West. Perhaps "Henderson Man" would be a more definitive term.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to BenWilson,
I imagine most of them would want it anyway, though, who is ever against massive infrastructure spending right in their neighborhood?
The residents who were in the way of the Wellington motorway extension?
