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I am happy with ACC. As someone who has had major surgery due to a road accident (that was not my fault) free of charge (oh right, those levies). I would hate for this to taken away from anyone else. But the merits and drawbacks of ACC could be debated for pages and pages here. My wife and I did the whole overseas thing not a long time ago, and I hear a lot of people these days are leaving to seek better opportunities in Australia, UK or Central Asia. Yes, you can make some money over there - if you can find the work. Also unless you become entrenched over there, the novelty of being a foreigner gets tiresome after the 5th or 6th year and you just become British/Australian/whatever and then you realise you can just do your lovely job back in your own country, except you grossly inflate the exchange rate and whinge to all your friends that you used to get paid $180,000 a year when you lived overseas and now you are on $50k and the price of a bottle of coke is $4 which is outrageous compared with the 1.5 quid you paid in the UK. There are a lot of scary things going on in this country, but we have two young children now. If we had stayed in the UK to have children we would either be in the same position or even more hosed as we are at the moment, so why not do it around friends and family. If you are planning to go to the UK, enjoy Nursing in the NHS. With all the policies I do not agree with going on in this country (and in the UK/US), all is not lost here.
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Jan 21, 2012 20:11
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 11:56 |
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I got hit by a car and if it weren't for a very talented suregon, doctors and nurses I would not have my right arm from the shoulder down right now. Luckily I didn't have to pay a cent thanks to ACC. If I were in the USA, I could have sued and never would have had to work again!!!
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Jan 21, 2012 21:49
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I've done my time overseas, I still have a British drivers licence. I have driven around Europe, US, Aus etc. I have never had an accident, and the Kiwi's I know overseas haven't had any accidents (that they have disclosed to me). I know that accidents in NZ are horrible, but also a bit of this hysteria has been pushed by a large Highway Patrol division of the Police and the APN news media. Especially when the news feed is quiet, there is nothing the NZH loves more than to splash a wrecked car on its front page.
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Jan 22, 2012 02:37
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What if you are interested in sheep? It's a NZ megathread after-all  Also re: Japan earthquake thing, I do not know the answer to this but are they having a shitload of aftershocks with the added bonus of liquefaction to aid the demolition and reconstruction process?
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Jan 22, 2012 05:16
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I don't really know enough about the Japanese earthquakes other than what has been reported in the media, so I don't really feel comfortable commenting on the comparisons between the two countries. The housing thing I am not sure about either. We are looking at buying a house right now, to be honest we are spoilt for choice. There are literally dozens of potential houses in our price range right now, and with 5-6% mortgages, on top of our cash deposit and what we could tap into from our Kiwisavers, we could quite comfortably buy a home for our family within the month. Three things though:
Building a home seems to be quite expensive now. And the whole subdivision process seems to be a rather lucrative racket for a lot of paper-pushers. But this whole unaffordable house business I don't buy into. Probably because of my situation. If I had my current salary and we were living in say Wellington or Auckland then I might be forgiven if I had a little gripe.
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Jan 23, 2012 00:28
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leaked tea pot tapes?  Grey power is going to get verbally slammed by two rich Aucklanders chatting in a cafe! 
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Jan 26, 2012 02:53
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John Key. Political genuis. Now we have Winston Peters and his band of merry men in parliament for the next 3 years  I have to agree, it is pretty timid stuff. I still haven't listened to it, but from what I have read and been told about it. It could have been nipped in the bud and Peters wouldn't have got a platform to get his 7%. Maybe Key was trying to make another point with this. I don't know. It's all pretty stupid. Pretty embarassing really, not the content, or the context really. Just that it happened, and that we (the media) are talking about it.
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Jan 26, 2012 05:18
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Tose that dare question the state must be punished! - I don't think Key had anything to do with the leaking, and I doubt that he would have gone to the fuzz to protect his home phone number. But by going to such lengths on such a pithy recording is to achieve what? A warning shot to the media should they obtain 'interesting' information in the future? A smokescreen from other election issues? To get Winnie into the coalition?  As I said before, I haven't heard the recording myself. I don't think I am really going to bother listening to it. I certainly am not going to go out of my way to listen to it anyway. I have other things to worry about. Like my job security after all these public sector cuts that have been going on. For the greater good. I shall contribute to the economy and the greater good immensely whilst I take money from the dole queue, looking at the classfieds of the gently caress all jobs in my field of work in HB.
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Jan 26, 2012 08:30
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fong posted:Put a freeze on house prices, subsidise first home, raise wages. Bring back Muldoon~ Rent controls always work...
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Jan 28, 2012 02:56
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In regards to housing, yeah it kinda sucks that I can't afford to even contemplate moving into a main centre to work. Sure I might get paid a bit more, but I am earning a bit more than the average wage here in HB, in a secure job and I get to live in a rural area. The housing market is probably a lot different in the rural areas. My parents were part of the investment property boom in some sense in the 90's where by 1998 they had around 12 different properties scattered across Central Hawkes Bay, not including their farm. The MOST that my parents paid for a bog-standard 3-4 bedroom house, built in the 50's or 60's was $55,000. They sold that house 10 years later for $160,000. Today they have one house left. A little 3 bedroom house in the middle of loving nowhere which they bought in 1996 for $22,000. Granted they did have to spend about 15k to do it up a bit, but In 2005 is was valued (for what they was worth) at a mind boggling $185,000. It has just gone on the market at $110k, where it will likely sell at 85-90k. While they were in a sense lucky to get these properties when the demand was low, the average amount they paid for one of these little state-built poo poo-bricks was around $36k. They've sold at an average $120k. Anyway you look at it, that is one hell of an increase in a little over a decade. This is a scary increase in prices. On top of all the council and regional rate rises I am quite happy to sit out of the housing market at least until my wife is ready to go back to work. Despite the record low mortgage rates, having enough for a deposit right now and the relatively low house prices in this area - they aren't low enough to entice us out of the wonderful world of renting. code:Moo Cowabunga fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Jan 28, 2012 |
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Jan 28, 2012 03:14
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Former Deputy Prime Minister and an Honourable Member of Parliament. Winnie. I am still waiting to hear one of NZF's other MP's pipe up in the house.
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Mar 17, 2012 21:30
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Typical Greens. Poll high. Always lower on election day. What a shambles of a week though. Of all the issues for a government to be caught up in, ACC? Wow. I am a bit sad for Nick Smith as he did do a dumb rear end thing, but for a National cabinet minister I rated him as one of the better ones. And while he did do some things that some people didn't like, especially in Canterbury, I always thought of him as one of the more open and honest members of the executive. That's why I genuinely feel that his decision to sign that dumb letter and to do that moronic thing of writing a letter of support on a ministerial letterhead wasn't intended to be malicious. And because he did make these two relatively insignificant things, New Zealand has lost a very strong, intelligent and capable leader and minister. But he did what he did, and in the way that politics works in our western polyarchies - well that's just how it goes. Now we have the likes of David Carter to deal with, who isn't overly deceitful, but less competent and Amy Adams who I know little of apart from dishing out some government primary questions but have been told she has some talent. And Judith Collins needs to pull her head in. I have met her on a couple of occasions and she is certainly a woman who does not want to be hosed with and very few actually would want to, so I am assuming that this is an extension of that. But bloody hell, really? WAHHHHH THESE BOYS ARE SAYING MEAN THINGS ABOUT ME!! Jesus christ! One of these people that are allegedly defaming you is Trevor Mallard; a man who resorts to twitter to dish out pathetic insults to political opponents when he is not in the house. No one is really going to take his (allegedly) defamatory comments seriously unless there was some truth in it. Collins has the Ministry of Justice to run. This wasn't forced upon her, she is choosing to respond to this. She does have a reputation, and she is entitled to protect it. But she is a minister of the Crown, unless there is solid evidence on the contrary I would have thought a minister would just ignore such comments. She is a better person than what she is doing.
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Apr 5, 2012 22:07
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White pride up north? Brave kid!
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Apr 7, 2012 07:39
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But will it be a spectacular fall like the Lib Dems of the UK, or the virtual take over of the ACT party by National?
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Apr 9, 2012 06:41
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miss_chaos posted:Exactly, which is why some Labour MPs are extremely wary of them. Especially right now while Russell Norman seems to be taking the opposition charge against Bill English about the countries financial position. At least during QOAs. English seems to be quite frustrated by the continual questions about this, while acknowledging that he is getting little about it from Labour. Maybe Labour are playing the long game here.
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Apr 9, 2012 23:59
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What a horribly bitchy thread this is turning out to be. In other news, Armstrong in the Herald seems to think that NZ voters will start to follow the lead of Europe and start voting against austerity. While I am experiencing first hand the results of Mr. English's measures to curb growth in order to deal with the government debt (where we were told by senior officials after dozens of redundancies had just been executed that they did not say that they were obliged to give us jobs for life - despite being specifically trained for this particular service - and if we didn't like what was going on, to walk out the door and not come back) I don't think we are at that point yet. Sure it's coming, but I heard all this premature talk of a mass uproar on a particular issues before (mining, ACC levies etc.) At this point in the political calendar, it usually means that it will amount to little. Key (and English) dismisses all bad press and protest because he can afford to do so this far out from an election. The thousands of people marching in Wellington against asset sales was an example where Key was able to basically say "59 seats in parliament, that's MY mandate bitches!", ignoring the fact that 52% of voters didn't vote for National (and ACT). Come 2014 most of this will be forgotten, or the Nats would have recovered enough. However if the economy tanks after these asset sales, then it will be bye bye National. The possibility of a backlash was never lurking if English's economic plan fails, it is there for everyone to see.
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May 19, 2012 09:58
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I'm living their economic plan by being forced to re-apply for my own job. Spending a few bucks on HR in the process.
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May 19, 2012 10:53
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Vagabundo posted:I guess that answers my question. Good luck with the re-application. No luck required. No one apart from me has applied for the position, and it is a position that is of, and I quote "significance of a national programme". My position wasn't going anywhere, they were just hoping that some uni leaver was willing to do my job for 25k less a year. No one has. But they still have to pay for the selection process to hire me - the only candidate - to do the job that I am already doing. PC Madness gone mad I say!
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May 19, 2012 11:59
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All I really know of Mallard is what I read from his Twitter feed, in which he comes across as a juvenile little boy playing a game with the right wing bloggers. Quite frustrating to see from one of the (former) leaders of the country. I know that I shouldn't expect piety at all times from our politicians, but I not in the mood to see if publicly right now.
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May 20, 2012 03:03
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poo poo my granddad says springs to mind... My wife is from just outside of Invercargill and says that she is not surprised about his sort of attitude. Now he has a national mouth piece all for the low low price of 100k
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May 21, 2012 08:53
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I don't remember ACT always having this racist undertone.
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May 21, 2012 09:21
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dusty posted:Don Brash always has though - Orewa is still the awful high tide of venal racist politics since Muldoon's dawn raids and rugby tours. Yes, Brash is another cranky old racist. But pre-Brash. Around the time of it's conception when I just seemed to be about business and poo poo. Hell, Donna Huata Awatere was involved with them for a while and say what you will about her moral and ethical standing - I doubt she would have joined ACT in its current state.
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May 21, 2012 10:01
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miss_chaos posted:Honestly I've no idea why they are even bending over backwards to protect him. He's a poo poo MP who's full of himself, widely labelled by everyone as completely lazy and will literally never hold another ministerial post because of the porn thing. He's not worth anything to Labour, they should just let whatever is going to happen, happen. It's not like he holds a vital electorate. Or indeed, any electorate at all. The guy's a liability. I don't know anything about Jones, nor his standing - but the only reason for having him so high might be his standing with the Labour Maori base??? I have no idea, just a theory that went through my head when I read your post.
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May 22, 2012 00:32
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With the voters of Europe starting to reject austerity, National could start becoming a bit nervous that this sentiment may spread. At least have the benefit of 2.5 years to reverse their economic plan in a way that doesn't seem like a U turn. As has been the case for the last 4 years, the Labour alternative is pretty much non-existent. I am only assuming that they would reverse any asset sales on a pre-election hail mary pass by one of their forgettable MPs to a television reporter. The Greens appear to be the only party actively challenging Mr. English in Question time about the economy, enough for this employed, white boy with a family to vote for them though...?
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May 23, 2012 21:42
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It is good that we have a government that will teach these kids some RESPONSIBILITY! 'Bout time these rapscallions learnt how to pay/avoid tax like us grown ups have to.
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May 24, 2012 08:06
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Can't wait to have more money come out of my, and my families only, salary for my awesome student loan. Yes it will pay my loan off sooner but heck, that extra 10 bucks a week sure does by a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk for my ravenous children. Boy howdy.
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May 24, 2012 08:12
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2 years ago I was offerred a position that is pretty much exactly the same as what I do here, except they pay 23 grand more and it is in Brisbane. The only thing that stopped me signing was my children. They didn't want to move. Otherwise, I'd be gone.
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May 24, 2012 11:03
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make another movie with elves in it.
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May 24, 2012 11:27
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Just read this: The 250 million from the sale of power station to go into rail...hmmm. I agree that there is a need for rail but for some reason I don't really trust it to make the right decision when it comes to money (I was briefly a NZrail employee). They better make this a loving awesome rail network.
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May 24, 2012 12:00
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and yet a half decent and relatively competent government minister named Dr. Smith resigns in disgrace because he signed a couple of letters that, in hindsight he probably shouldn't of. This has the potential of being a pretty nasty looking cover-up, yet the minister involved gets to quietly slip away.
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May 26, 2012 02:46
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Poor Nicki. Being flanked by two angry old men. And poor Russell. The quiet (and reasonably sensible) voice on the end. It was a tough gig for Kaye though, 3 strong opposition members vs. one National MP.
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Jun 12, 2012 01:26
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awesome
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Jun 12, 2012 01:31
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Time to switch my party vote to National after this insightful online conversation. Seriously, I have never seen a decent web chat with a politician in this country. I didn't even bother with this one. Has there been a decent web chat with a politician in this country?
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Jun 12, 2012 06:09
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true. I forgot about comment sections of the blogosphere. I guess that counts. For some reason I kept seeing David Garrett pop up in the comments chiming in his his two cents a year or so back. Probably still does that - but I've really gone off reading the comments of some blogs, unless someone directs me too them specifically. Too boring and depressing.
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Jun 12, 2012 07:40
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hairypanis posted:My politics 101 class on Facebook often astounds me with the poo poo they post. Mine didn't post anything at all. A boring waste of time. And the stream board as well (massey).
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Jun 12, 2012 08:18
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There was a white-out in Wellington when the Bahrainis came for the WC qualifier in 2009
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Jun 13, 2012 00:38
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I dont see how that is such a bad thing. things/states gain their identity from other parties all of the time.
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Jun 13, 2012 21:18
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Treasury run the country. That's why all our poo poo is getting sold to "Kiwi Mum's and Dad's" who: a) Don't have the money - I am a Dad, on a decent salary (while wife is currently unemployed, but looking after our 2 kiddies), there is no way we have the money to buy shares right now. b) have already help pay for these state assets through generations of tax contributions. I might be misinformed by all this, but I haven't been convinced to go on the other side on this issue yet.
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Jun 15, 2012 08:11
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Oh Fairfax  how I wonder at your subs
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Jun 15, 2012 23:04
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 11:56 |
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if John Key is found to have non-human twitter followers then that's it! Snap election!
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Jun 17, 2012 23:36
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