Now I know that libertarians get a little flack for being hard on John Key, but tell me this. When he reneges on past National Party policy that was implemented when it was in government - and completely repealed by Labour, is it any wonder? I'd like, at least, for National to hold similar policy positions today that it held in 1999, because after all, what has changed to cause National to want to shift its policy closer to Labour? More importantly, has Labour moved towards National's policies? Hardly.
So when the NZ Herald reports that John Key says National will "investigate" opening the ACC Work Account to competition, you have to wonder why it is so insecure about a policy that it implemented, whilst a minority government, in 1999. A policy Labour gleefully repealed, with legislations overriding commercially negotiated contracts and effectively banning the private sector from providing ACC services that it had offered. Why isn't it even mentioning the ACC Motor Vehicle Account, which at the time was in the "investigate opening to competition mode"? I mean seriously, why is providing competition to a government monopoly something that so frightens John Key?
Come on John - announce competition for the Work Account, investigate competition for the Motor Vehicle Account AND the account for all other compensation. It's the least you can do!
17 July 2008
16 July 2008
Fair Trade still isn't
Increasingly UK newspapers have taken to producing their own TV clips, which unsurprisingly are often smarter and more interesting than the BBC and commercial TV.
Today I present to you a piece from the Daily Telegraph as part of a series it calls "Holy Cows". It is presented by Sameh el-Shahat from Egypt, and it tackles just a couple of the myths of so called Fairtrade. For example, looking at how much of a margin is taken for fair trade and how much actually gets to the farmers, and secondly how fair trade is a distraction from the real trade agenda of free trade. Paying farmers a bit more for the raw commodity whilst maintaining high trade barriers that prevent them from selling the commodity processed is cheating them. I've said before there are many arguments against this well intentioned distracting fraud here, here and here. Oh and to some more liberal critics, yes this isn't a non-initiation of force, but it is fraud, and it assuages consciences while distracting people away from the real issue - trade protectionism. This of course, is deliberate, as much of the environmentalist/leftist end of the political spectrum actually supports that (OxFam notably doesn't).
The article is here
The video here
Today I present to you a piece from the Daily Telegraph as part of a series it calls "Holy Cows". It is presented by Sameh el-Shahat from Egypt, and it tackles just a couple of the myths of so called Fairtrade. For example, looking at how much of a margin is taken for fair trade and how much actually gets to the farmers, and secondly how fair trade is a distraction from the real trade agenda of free trade. Paying farmers a bit more for the raw commodity whilst maintaining high trade barriers that prevent them from selling the commodity processed is cheating them. I've said before there are many arguments against this well intentioned distracting fraud here, here and here. Oh and to some more liberal critics, yes this isn't a non-initiation of force, but it is fraud, and it assuages consciences while distracting people away from the real issue - trade protectionism. This of course, is deliberate, as much of the environmentalist/leftist end of the political spectrum actually supports that (OxFam notably doesn't).
The article is here
The video here
Greens smoking the railway whacky baccy
According to the NZ Herald Keith Locke wants to make you pay to reinstate the long gone Auckland-Whangarei passenger rail service. Why?
He says "With the price of oil rising, people are looking more and more at alternatives to car travel. Sure, there are buses, but a lot of people, including myself, like train travel - it's smoother and more sociable, plus rail travels a different route to the highway."
So he likes trains, and it's for meeting people and it's a different route. Yeah man all good reasons to take more money from taxpayers. Sheesh.
He says the line needs fixing to be up to passenger standard, well it would be. However let's forget cost for a moment. There is a very simple reason why there hasn't been any passenger rail service on this line for over 30 years.
Travel time by bus - Auckland-Whangarei: 2hrs 20-40mins
Travel time by car - Auckland-Whangarei: 2hrs 20mins (if you're really really good)
Travel time by air - Auckland-Whangarei: 35min plus assume 30min check in and 1-1.5hr time to/from airports
Travel time by train (when last operating, diesel railcar)- Auckland-Whangarei; 4hrs 10min
Want to waste near 2 hours socialising and enjoying a circuitous route by train?
He says "With the price of oil rising, people are looking more and more at alternatives to car travel. Sure, there are buses, but a lot of people, including myself, like train travel - it's smoother and more sociable, plus rail travels a different route to the highway."
So he likes trains, and it's for meeting people and it's a different route. Yeah man all good reasons to take more money from taxpayers. Sheesh.
He says the line needs fixing to be up to passenger standard, well it would be. However let's forget cost for a moment. There is a very simple reason why there hasn't been any passenger rail service on this line for over 30 years.
Travel time by bus - Auckland-Whangarei: 2hrs 20-40mins
Travel time by car - Auckland-Whangarei: 2hrs 20mins (if you're really really good)
Travel time by air - Auckland-Whangarei: 35min plus assume 30min check in and 1-1.5hr time to/from airports
Travel time by train (when last operating, diesel railcar)- Auckland-Whangarei; 4hrs 10min
Want to waste near 2 hours socialising and enjoying a circuitous route by train?
15 July 2008
NZ assembled locomotives? no don't, really!
The desperate cry of the economic nationalist wanting jobs for his electorate.
New Zealand hasn't assembled a mainline locomotive in decades, and there is a good reason for that. It is the same reason New Zealand doesn't assemble cars or planes - it is far too high tech to be done in a country that has a relatively high cost of labour and hardly enough demand to justify the capital needed to do it.
It harks back to the nonsense of asking Sony, JVC and the like to disassemble TVs manufactured in Indonesia or China, so that kiwi drones could screw them back together again. China does it from scratch because the labour is cheap and demand is high - New Zealand has neither of those.
So when Trevor Mallard, keen to spend your money says "It's probably a very logical thing to do from a currency perspective, from a value for money perspective.". Well Trevor it wasn't in the 1980s when locomotives were imported complete from the UK for the main trunk electrification, it wasn't in the 1970s when locomotives were imported complete from Canada and the USA.
Locomotives have been re-engined in New Zealand, but let's face it, your local mechanic can put in a new engine in your car - but you wouldn't trust him to have get all the parts from Toyota and put it together would you?
The last locomotives assembled in New Zealand were a handful of shunters in the mid 1980s.
Now the workshops have manufactured freight wagons successfully and economically, and successfully refurbished most of the passenger rolling stock on the network. However, the new electric units Wellington will be getting in a couple of years aren't being assembled in NZ for a good reason. Rob Muldoon and the North Korean style economics of "self reliance bugger the cost" are long gone!
New Zealand hasn't assembled a mainline locomotive in decades, and there is a good reason for that. It is the same reason New Zealand doesn't assemble cars or planes - it is far too high tech to be done in a country that has a relatively high cost of labour and hardly enough demand to justify the capital needed to do it.
It harks back to the nonsense of asking Sony, JVC and the like to disassemble TVs manufactured in Indonesia or China, so that kiwi drones could screw them back together again. China does it from scratch because the labour is cheap and demand is high - New Zealand has neither of those.
So when Trevor Mallard, keen to spend your money says "It's probably a very logical thing to do from a currency perspective, from a value for money perspective.". Well Trevor it wasn't in the 1980s when locomotives were imported complete from the UK for the main trunk electrification, it wasn't in the 1970s when locomotives were imported complete from Canada and the USA.
Locomotives have been re-engined in New Zealand, but let's face it, your local mechanic can put in a new engine in your car - but you wouldn't trust him to have get all the parts from Toyota and put it together would you?
The last locomotives assembled in New Zealand were a handful of shunters in the mid 1980s.
Now the workshops have manufactured freight wagons successfully and economically, and successfully refurbished most of the passenger rolling stock on the network. However, the new electric units Wellington will be getting in a couple of years aren't being assembled in NZ for a good reason. Rob Muldoon and the North Korean style economics of "self reliance bugger the cost" are long gone!
Veitch and real issues
Tony Veitch would not be an issue for the government per se, if the state didn't own TVNZ. Then it would be the matter of a violent man and his victim, and whether or not charges were or weren't brought, and whether she sued for exemplary damages or not. It's interesting to people because he was such a public figure, and frankly what he had to say never interested me one moment.
However, whilst the media circle this issue like piranhas (nothing so feral as the media turning on its own), it remains painfully incapable of offering any educated debate on major political issues that have an impact upon the whole country. Like whether or not education should remain a state monopoly, like whether the state should continue to own the dominant free to air broadcasting channels, like whether the welfare state and the system of pay and neglect is causing more harm than good in low income parts of New Zealand.
Why do people read blogs after all? Yes some bait you to the left and the right, and you know in advance what their views are, but others also give some intelligent insights.
and these are the unpaid blogs, the blogs that aren't run by the newspaper websites. For example, simply because it is my profession, I have yet to see a single New Zealand mainstream media outlet give consistently well researched coverage of transport or censorship issues. The tendency is to quote whatever lobby group or mainstream political reactions there are and take it from there.
However, whilst the media circle this issue like piranhas (nothing so feral as the media turning on its own), it remains painfully incapable of offering any educated debate on major political issues that have an impact upon the whole country. Like whether or not education should remain a state monopoly, like whether the state should continue to own the dominant free to air broadcasting channels, like whether the welfare state and the system of pay and neglect is causing more harm than good in low income parts of New Zealand.
Why do people read blogs after all? Yes some bait you to the left and the right, and you know in advance what their views are, but others also give some intelligent insights.
and these are the unpaid blogs, the blogs that aren't run by the newspaper websites. For example, simply because it is my profession, I have yet to see a single New Zealand mainstream media outlet give consistently well researched coverage of transport or censorship issues. The tendency is to quote whatever lobby group or mainstream political reactions there are and take it from there.
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