Yet more EXCELLENT news tonight...

[reality]

..only if they are uneconomic and the taxpayer pays their losses every year, as is the case with kiwirail...if the Auckland ratepayers want to subsidise their rail system, its up to them

[reality]

"...inflation had fallen to 0.1 per cent in 2015, the lowest since it had been since 1999...."

......good to see the govt helping us low income folks


NZ's Reserve Bank may spell out path to future cuts but will hold OCR for now

The Reserve Bank is widely expected to leave the official cash rate (OCR) on hold on Thursday, but it may hint the possibilities of cuts to come.

Since Statistics New Zealand revealed on January 20 that inflation had fallen to 0.1 per cent in 2015, the lowest since it had been since 1999, speculation has been mounting that the OCR will be cut to a record low.

On Thursday Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler will release the latest review of the OCR.

Although economists are united in expecting it to be left at 2.5 per cent, the one page statement accompanying the decision may set out what it would take to make him willing to cut.

In December, when Wheeler lowered the OCR by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent, the fourth cut of the year, he suggested that the hurdle for lowering it further was high.

The policy target agreement the Reserve Bank is subject to requires Wheeler to target inflation of 1-3 per cent over the medium term, but Wheeler's statement suggested the target was sufficiently flexible to allow him to focus on "core" inflation, which is above 1 per cent.

The Reserve Bank Governor has also frequently expressed concerns about the risks that the inflated Auckland housing market poses to financial security, while in October he questioned whether lower interest rates would produce the kind of stimulus that was desired.

However inflation for 2015 was considerably below what the Reserve Bank projected in December, meaning it will take longer for it to get back within the target band.

Thursday's statement could indicate that if the labour market weakens further, or global conditions deteriorate, another cut in interest rates may be warranted.

Financial markets were suggesting there was a roughly 50 per cent chance that Wheeler would cut the OCR in his March decision, with a greater chance that the OCR will have been lowered by the time of the June review.

 - Stuff

[Alicat]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Yep....EXCELLENT news that the Nats' corruption is now on display for the entire world to see....

[reality]

...good to see the govt getting the unemployment rate down



Unemployment drops sharply to 5.3pc, near six-year low

11:00 AM Wednesday Feb 3, 2016

Construction work grew 3.1 percent in the quarter to 232,000, while manufacturing jobs increased 1.8 percent to 254,400. Agriculture, forestry and fishing jobs climbed 5.7 percent to 148,200. Photo / Christine Cornege.

New Zealand unemployment unexpectedly fell to near a six-year low in the final three months of 2015 as people left a labour market flooded by strong migration and as employers took on more workers. The kiwi dollar initially jumped almost half a US cent.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in the December quarter from 6 percent three months earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand's household labour force survey.

That's the lowest level since March 2009, and came in below economists' predictions for an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent. Employment grew 0.9 percent, slightly ahead of estimates, while the participation rate fell to 68.4 percent from 68.7 percent three months earlier.

"Although the number of employed people has risen, there was also growth in the number of people not participating in the labour market," Diane Ramsay, labour market and households statistics manager, said in a statement.

"This has contributed to labour force participation falling for the third quarter in a row."

Record inflows of migrants have kept the labour force expanding over the past year, helping limit wage growth in a benign inflation environment, even as employers complain about the difficulty of finding staff.

The working age population expanded 0.5 percent in the quarter to 3.66 million, for a 2.3 percent annual increase. At the same time, employment grew 1.3 percent in calendar 2015 to 2.37 million, while unemployment shrank 6.7 percent to 133,000. The number of jobless people, which includes unemployed people of working age not seeking a job, rose 0.7 percent to 259,000 in the year.


The data comes ahead of Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler's first public speech of the year, this afternoon, where he's expected to elaborate on adopting a bias for lower interest rates as low oil prices keep a lid on inflation.

The kiwi dollar rose as high as 65.42 US cents after the data was released, from 65.02 cents immediately before, and was recently at 65.16 cents.

The labour cost index, also released today, showed private sector ordinary time wage inflation rose at an annual pace of 1.6 percent in December, meeting economists' expectations, and more than the 1.5 percent pace recorded in the public sector. Wage inflation rose 0.4 percent in the quarter across all sectors.

The quarterly employment survey, which rounds out today's labour data dump, showed private sector weekly earnings for full-timers rose 0.6 percent to $1,035.37, an annual increase of 3.4 percent and more than the 0.1 percent pace of consumer price inflation over the same period. Across all sectors, weekly earnings rose 1 percent in the quarter for an annual rise of 3 percent.

Average ordinary time hourly wages rose 0.3 percent in the quarter to $29.38, for a 2.1 percent annual increase. Average private sector hourly wages increased 0.2 percent in the quarter to $27.44 for a 2.5 percent yearly rise, while public sector wages advanced 0.4 percent to $36.53 - a 1.5 percent annual increase.

The household labour force survey showed professional, scientific, technical, administration and support services generated the biggest jobs growth in the quarter, rising 6.6 percent to 275,500. Construction work grew 3.1 percent in the quarter to 232,000, while manufacturing jobs increased 1.8 percent to 254,400. Agriculture, forestry and fishing jobs climbed 5.7 percent to 148,200.

Part-time jobs rose 2.5 percent in the quarter to 523,000, 0.6 percent below the same quarter a year earlier, while full-time jobs rose 0.6 percent in the quarter to 1.85 million, an annual increase of 1.9 percent.

The total number of hours worked increased 1 percent to 79.1 million in an average week for the quarter, up 2.1 percent on the year.

- BusinessDesk

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Still doesn't change the fact that CORRUPTION has become NORMAL under John Key and the current bent Nats mob....

[reality]

...good to see the John Key govt standing up for workers rights

Employment law shake up coming in 2016

 The Employment Standards Legislation Bill is designed to address growing concerns with enforcement of employment standards and employee protection.
KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ

A raft of changes in employment law will happen over the next 18 months and small businesses in particular are being advised to take note.

Employment standards, and health and safety reforms, will introduce new compliance obligations for employers and the consequences for those caught flouting responsibilities could be disastrous.

Dundas Street Employment Lawyers partner Susan Hornsby-Geluk said small businesses in particular would need to get up to speed with new legislation.

Compliance with new minimum standards under Employment Standards Legislation Bill would require employers to have far more robust processes around record keeping.

The hospitality industry and primary industries such as dairy and farming historically had poor record keeping, she said.

"Those employers will be particularly vulnerable and will need to take quite urgent steps to address the issue," Hornsby-Geluk said.

Over the last few years the Employment Relations Authority had dished out significant penalties for employers not adhering to minimum standards and it was likely to take an even harder line in future.

The new laws were intended to create a change in culture, she said.

"It will be a big change for employers."

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Employers should be meeting minimum standards already but many were not - particularly small and medium enterprises, she said.

"Yes it will come at an increased cost but the cost of compliance is probably modest compared to the risk of the penalties that could be awarded under the legislation."

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and law firm Russell McVeagh have each compiled a round up of law reform in 2016.

Here's what they include.

Employment Standards Legislation Bill

The Employment Standards Legislation Bill was introduced by the Government in August 2015 in response to growing concerns with enforcement of employment standards, employee protections and benefits.

If passed it will result in paid parental leave increasing from 16 weeks to 18 weeks.

It's planned that parental leave payments will be extended to casual and seasonal workers, workers with more than one employer, workers who have recently changed jobs and people who become the permanent carer of a child under the age of six, such as grandparents.

Parents of premature babies will also receive parental leave payments for longer.

The bill makes changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000, Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987, Minimum Wage Act 1983, Holidays Act 2003 and Wages Protection Act 1983.

It addresses "unfair employment practices" including deducting pay for losses outside of an employee's control for example service station attendants having their pay docked for customer theft.

Zero-hour contracts

The term 'zero-hours' is not currently defined in New Zealand legislation but it basically means workers on zero-hour contracts have no guarantee how many hours work they will get from week to week.

If the Employment Standards Legislation Bill is passed employers won't be allowed to expect employees to be available to work with no guarantee of hours unless they pay reasonable compensation.

Employers must also not cancel a shift without giving employees reasonable notice or reasonable compensation, both of which must be set out in an employment agreement.

Unreasonable deductions from wages and unreasonably restricting an employee's secondary employment would also be banned.

A Select Committee report on the bill is due to be released by February 12. If passed it is scheduled to come into force on April 1, 2016.

Enforcement of employment standards

The bill also requires employers to protect vulnerable workers by strengthening the enforcement of minimum employment standards such as minimum wage and holiday entitlements.

Clearer record-keeping will be required and a new infringement notice regime will be introduced.

The most serious breaches, such as exploitation, will be heard at the Employment Court and maximum penalties will increase significantly.

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

The aim of this bill is to reduce the number of people killed or hurt at work.

In New Zealand about 50 people die on the job each year and one in 10 is harmed.

The new law comes into force on April 4 and requires employers to take "reasonably practicable" steps to manage health and safety risks at work.

To coincide with the act the Government's occupational health and safety service WorkSafe has set the goal of reducing the number of serious work-related injuries and deaths in New Zealand by at least 25 percent by 2020.

Consultation on the "worker engagement, participation and representation good practice guidelines" closed late last year and a 97 page copy of the draft can be found on the WorkSafe website.

Changes to working on an Easter Sunday

The Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill proposes a reform New Zealand's traditional Easter trading laws that would give local councils limited power to create bylaws that allow shop trading on Easter Sunday and enable shop workers to refuse work on Easter Sunday without being required to give a reason.

Employers wanting staff to work on Easter Sunday must notify employees of their right to refuse to work at least 4 weeks out from Easter Sunday

The bill passed its first reading late last year and has been referred to the Commerce Committee with a report due on 3 May 2016, Russell McVeagh says.

Asbestos licences

More than 170 New Zealanders die each year from asbestos-related diseases.

To address the issue workers wanting to remove more than 10sqm of asbestos or materials that contain asbestos will need a WorkSafe removal licence under new Health and Safety at Work Asbestos Regulations from April 4.

The law helps ensure workers coming in to contact with asbestos have the skills and experience needed to keep themselves, and others, safe.

 - Stuff

[Alicat]

...good to see the John Key govt standing up for workers rights

I just about choked ... I thought for a moment Reality said that John Key was standing up for workers rights.

[Calliope]

I just picked myself up off the floor 

[Alicat]

[reality]

earth to ali....come in ali

[Alicat]

I am well and truly on Earth. I seriously doubt you are sometimes .. most times actually.

[reality]

...good effort Bill English and National...great economic performance


Moody's gives NZ big tick

3:30 PM Thursday Feb 11, 2016

New Zealand is improving prospects for service exports such as tourism and education, and booming immigration. Photo / Getty Images

Moody's Investors Service is comfortable with its Aaa credit rating on New Zealand with a stable outlook, as it anticipates the impact from lower commodity prices will be offset by strength in areas of the economy such as tourism and education services.

"Despite the problems we see in the rest of the global economy, particularly problems for commodity exporters, New Zealand is doing quite well, the economy is very resilient to the global environment right now and we see there is a lot of activity in the service sector that is offsetting whatever negatives there are in the dairy industry at the present time.

Overall the economy is doing very well and financial markets are viewing New Zealand very favourably," Steven Hess, Moody's senior vice president, sovereign risk group, told a media briefing in Wellington.


"It (low dairy prices) is a negative for the economy, definitely, no doubt about it, it's a price adjustment but it's not so large though that we think it's going to cause some sort of crisis," he said, adding that dairy debt made up only a small part of bank assets.

"New Zealand has strengths that I think make it resilient to the global economy at the present time," Hess said, citing falling government debt that is below other similarly rated countries, improving prospects for service exports such as tourism and education, and booming immigration.

"These are all these positive aspects that are offsetting any negatives that are coming from the farm sector," he said.

Should the economy weaken, government finances are strong and it could use its balance sheet to offset any potential shocks, while the Reserve Bank also had the ability to lower interest rates if needed, he said.

"We are not seeing big risks," Hess said.

A correction in the housing market, particularly in Auckland, remained a risk although Moody's didn't rate that risk very high, given prices were underpinned by demand from strong immigration, he said.

- BusinessDesk

[reality]

...excellent news..good to see the govt  getting more efficient and reducing costs


Inland Revenue close to revealing job cuts as BT programme proceeds apace

A Spark subsidiary is set to pick up a $45m to $60m contract, Inland Revenue deputy commissioner Greg James has announced.

Inland Revenue staff should find out within the next couple of months how many of them will have to leave the department.

The Public Service Association and a senior former manager have speculated about 1000 jobs could be axed from the department as a result of its massive Business Transformation project, but some sources are suggesting the figure could be even higher.

Deputy commissioner of change Greg James said Inland Revenue expected to complete the transformation programme by the end of 2021, two years earlier than it had forecast.

James expected the department would give a "high-level view" of the job reductions when it published its business case for the BT project in a few weeks or "a couple months".

"I think it is consistent with our signalling to date that the organisation will be smaller in 2021," he said.

"We are investing heavily in our people to ensure we can get the best outcome both for them and the organisation as we go through the next six years of this transformational journey."

Inland Revenue has selected Spark subsidiary Revera for a data centre contract worth between $45 million and $60m over 10 years, to host its new computer systems.

Inland Revenue had previously selected a privately-owned United States firm, Fast Enterprises, to provide and customise the software for its modernisation programme. James said it was "a great result that we see a New Zealand-based company winning a contract of this sort", referring to the data centre tender.

The department has forecast the BT project will cost towards the lower end of $1.3 billion to $1.9b, including all internal costs, and more recently that it will require between $800m and $1b of additional Crown funding, which James said was "under budget".

Although work on the BT project appears to be progressing apace, with the first parts of the new system due to go live "early in 2017", Greg said a number of key policy decisions had yet to be made.

These included decisions over the future shape of provisional tax and whether all taxpayers would face a new obligation each year to confirm that the taxman had not missed any of their taxable income.

Those decisions would not have a significant impact on the cost of the BT project, he said.

Noel Reid, chief executive of payroll company Advanced Management Systems, said a proposed change to the way employers remitted employees' income tax, Kiwisaver deductions and student loan repayments could reduce businesses' "working capital" by $1.8 billion.

That was because they would have to make those payments when they ran each payroll, rather than on the 20th of the following month.

The BT programme has been broadly backed by major business groups such as BusinessNZ.

But Reid was concerned many small businesses might be unaware of the implications of the timing changes on their cashflows.

Inland Revenue had done a good job of trying to raise awareness of the BT programme, but business associations had not done all they could to disseminate information, he felt.

An Inland Revenue spokesman said the concern about working capital was a "valid point" that had to be worked through. "The proposal is currently out for consultation and we are still working on public feedback," he said.

In a move designed to reduce red tape, Inland Revenue has piloted allowing businesses to submit their GST returns directly through accounting software provided by Xero and MYOB. James said the pilot had gone well and the department expected to build on that approach by running a similar trial for Employer Monthly Schedules later this year.

 - Stuff

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

...good effort Bill English and National...great economic performance


Moody's gives NZ big tick

Moody's

I seem to recall them giving some big American banks a big tick too.....just before they crashed in 2008.

So much for Moody's big ticks, eh? They are full-of-shit!

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

EXCELLENT NEWS....

According to Radio NZ National (straight out of the mouth of Jim Moira), Cameron Slater has this afternoon been fined $1,500 for contempt of court and costs of many thousands of dollars has been awarded against him. Serve the rightie slimebag & wanker right!

[Calliope]

So where do we find his "givealittle" page to help him pay 

[Alicat]

So where do we find his "givealittle" page to help him pay 

Funny you should say that - I was wondering the same thing myself - lol.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Don't worry....there are plenty of stupid, retarded righties who infest his WhaleOil blog-site who will be silly enough to pass the hat around amongst themselves.

The more money they throw at Cameron Slater, the less money they'll have to donate to the Nats....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from Fairfax NZ....

Blogger Cameron Slater faces defamation action from health researchers

Professors lodge defamation action against Whale Oil blog, claiming campaign against them.

11:17AM - Tuesday, 14 June 2016


Boyd Swinburn (left) and two other health researchers are pursuing a defamation case
against Cameron Slater (right) and Carrick Graham. — Photograph: Fairfax NZ.

THREE top health professionals have lodged a defamation claim against blogger Cameron Slater and PR consultant Carrick Graham alleging a long running campaign against them on the Whale Oil website.

Auckland University professor Boyd Swinburn, Otago professor Doug Sellman and the director of Maori agency Shane Bradbrook said they had filed proceedings in the High Court at Auckland on Monday.

The trio said in a statement their proceedings related to blog posts and comments published on the Whale Oil website over a number of years.

In the statement Sellman, Swinburn and Bradbrook said: “Whale Oil has published articles with a negative focus on various public health experts and advocates.”

“It was not until the book Dirty Politics was published in August 2014 that it became clear Carrick Graham was involved in the publication of material on Whale Oil.”

“We had hoped things would change, but the various articles and comments remain live on Whale Oil, and Mr Slater has continued to publish further material.”

“Accordingly, we have decided to bring these proceedings to address what we claim is a campaign of deliberate and sustained defamation.”

Dirty Politics is a book published by journalist Nicky Hager in 2014 based on emails hacked from Cameron Slater which alleged a network of National Government MPs and lobbyists using Slater to publish attack articles against opponents.

Carrick Graham, Managing Director of the firm Facilitate Communications, confirmed his company had been served with a notice of the defamation suit and was reviewing it.

He said he was “surprised at this move considering that over the past few years there has been a number of interactions with Professor Swinburn which were friendly and at no stage have concerns been raised with me.”

“It is also surprising considering even a few weeks ago Professor Swinburn was happy to be included in a private Twitter message to me showing him enjoying cupcakes in his University office,” said Mr Graham.

He said he would not comment specifically on the contents of the document at this stage.

Swinburn said on Tuesday he could not comment further on the case either and was waiting to hear back from the court, which would review the lodged proceedings within 25 business days.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater in court for trying to hire hacker to attack rival site

 • Dirty Politics author Nicky Hager takes further legal action against police

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81040297