ALL OVER FOR ACT?

Well when people like Hooton call time on ACT - they are pretty stuffed. Hooton's face book.

Matthew Hooton

Until this weekend, I was (as an Epsom voter) a dead-cert for Brash/Banks. Now, I am a dead-cert for John Key and Bhatnagar/Simpson/Donald Duck/Goldsmith or whoever National puts up. Not too happy about this because Key is a wet and voting National means implicitly voting Nick Smith, but there you go. May even give a donation and deliver leaflets for Bhatnagar/Simpson/Donald Duck/Goldsmith.

Then there is Whale .. He thinks Act is toxic We have to agree Act is toxic as Fukishima but not likely to share the nuclear plants longevity.

No Minister is gobsmacked by their complete silliness.

And Home Paddock has taken a womans view of the ACT vileness.

Now the thing is, apart from Homepaddock who doesn't left the house without blue nana knickers on, the rest of us in the VRWC had a fondness for ACT. We liked them because they could chuck a bit of borax at National if they went a bit wet.

But it looks like again we are all thinking the same thing. Sadly, it seems apart from Cactus, - who if she is wearing knickers at all , they will be yellow with blue lace, is still in there supporting ACT. National are too full of economic pussies for her. But we reckon even she will be pissed at Brash - she will be keen to see the party get back to its core messages around tax, and law and order and reduction of business costs.

So its clear to see that the VRWC has lost patience with ACT.

Brash is simply a fuckwit.

And in the nicest possible way thats what Rodney Hide called him on the Tele tonight as well.

Come back Rodney - all is forgiven!

LET THEM LEARN

The veteran over at No Minister has a l ovely story about a philanthropic Trust that is supporting the education of kids in Greytown in the Wairarapa.

Basically they buy each kid a laptop.

Its a story every iwi in the country would do well to emulate.

BLOGGER BUDDIES

Wow, we posted on an attack on Roarprawn over the use of the word Mistressology. We came out fighting  but so did the rest of the NZ blogosphere.  Thanks to Whaleoil    Cactus  who will put the fear of death into the poor woman , Motella, bless his cotton sheets ,   the effervescent Home Paddock  and the lovely boys at No Minister for backing    us up..  And all the lawyers who offered us support and advice.

However we are a bit miffed at being called large by Whale Oil - we would have preferred  biggish... and after two weeks running around an island every  night for 5 hours up hill and down dale we are a little less biggish.

Here's a very old photo of someone we all love and know well  who is doing what Whale said.  Just to show that its for real like.... 

 So in tribute to the fine work of the NZ blogosphere  we will write about mistressology  when the mood takes us .

And real mistressology  not some new age cosmic get in touch with your aura  pommie clap trap.

FUNNY AS A SHAG SLIDING ON KELP

YIP THE BLOG POST OF THE MONTH... maybe even the year from the bad young boys at NO MINISTER... -- its here

SCALDED MILK

We gave a column from Brent Wheeler an airing the other day and it has been fisked by No Minister..

The comments are worth a look. Heres the best.

Dumb analysis. Try reading it again. Brent is saying that the incentives on farmer suppliers are to maximise the return on supply - which is what they are good at.

They face very poor, in fact perverse incentives, to maximise the return from value add, because value add requires capital, and capital requires Fonterra to hold-back dividend returns.

You can't have both. Its logically inconsistent, and a cash starved, dumb, politically driven beast is the result.

Fonterra can't even get their PR straight, are they managing the redemption risk, or are they trying to capitalise the value-add business? Can anyone tell?

Nope. The model is doomed, if Fonterra can scrape together a couple of hundies from this they put off the day of reckoning another year or two. So keep kicking the can down the road there Sagenz!

The fact your rellies were dumb enough to invest in the financial services industry is a non-sequitor. Whats that got to do with whether a regulated monopoly is a doomed whale thrashing around? I should also remind you that Dairy Farmers of Britain is in receivership. A classic example of what happens when a Co-op over leverages itself - it hands itself to its creditors.

There is your future under the co-op model. Fonterra is a price taker, not a price-maker.

Look at saturday's Herald. Fonterra is down to 21% assets to debt, this is dangerous territory for a Co-op with a redemption clause and just while I am piling on, Fonterra is NOT a price maker. That is just dairy propaganda.

If they were price makers, why was everyone surprised when the price went down. D'oh! Was it some cunning plan to disguise Fonterra's market power? Or was it that they take the world price?

Nor is Fonterra the largest dairy trader in the world. It is the largest player in the freely traded global commodity market. These are not the same things.

Most milk is traded under regulated protections (the EU and US in particular).

Fonterra is probably the best producer of basic dairy ingredients in the world. Thats fine, but it means NZ dairy farmers are in the commodity supply business. That is a business with low returns, and all the value is captured at the other end of the food chain. NZ dairy farmers are already at the mercy of those evil commodity traders, and no amount of propagandising can hide the fact that Fonterra is over leveraged and in trouble.

Hence the need to manage the redemption risk, by encouraging farmers to invest even more of their equity in the business.

So which bit of Brent's analysis were you disagreeing with again?

HAERE RA

Well folks its good bye from us. We were going to do all sorts of weird shit tonight to keep people guessing about why Roarprawn ceased operating at midnight tonight.

The simple fact of the matter is that we are going to work for a Ministry full time. Yip a public servant gig. As my mum says - a real job...We start tomorrow.

And the State Services Act is a bit of a bitch if you want to be a political commentator. Now we are fairly well positioned as a National Govt cheer leader but from time to time we have to put down our pom poms and give them a piece of our mind and , well you cant do that when you are a public servant. And we are not all that anonymous. After all we have been on telly.

We have had a ball blogging , its fun, outrageous and has ignited the old journo within. We were starting to get some decent numbers again too - up around the 1000 a day.

Now, who knows what will happen in the future - so we wont delete the prawn - but we will locked it away for a while. If someone wants to buy it - well email me on bustedblonde@gmail.com

To all my fellow bloggers, keep up the bastards honest.


Love you all...... BB

AROUND THE BLOGS

MacDoctor and Whale vie for top honours today.

Macdoctor has a very interesting take on what the problems are with child cancer treatment. His view may surprise you.

Whale Oil is calling for the axe to fall on the neck of Richard Worth and he hint darkly there is more to come. He is also outraged at the performance of Bill English on Q and A this morning. He is convinced that Bill did not do a very good job of backing up his boss. MWT also agrees

As does No Minister

So we reckon they will be right - he will have to go. And then the spotlight turns to who will pick up the protfolios... Hekia Parata? Paul Hutchinson? Tau Henare?



and if you are looking for a good place to go to look at interesting blogs try condron.us

WIN A CAR

Well you can - if you go here

and we have already said what we think here

Check out the comments section



hat tip No Minister





Update - here are some of the comments on the site to date

aaaaeasrthearth

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Earth Hour

THIS IS GOING TO HAVE THE BIGGEST EFFECT ON SMALL BUSINESS

So the govt hid a lot more liability than first thought. That is outrageous.

Thursday, 4 December 2008, 3:49 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Government

Hon Dr Nick Smith ACC Minister

04 December 2008

Big blow-out in another ACC account

Officials are recommending an increase in earners levies of $1.337 billion over the next three years to cover significant increased costs of the ACC Earners' Account that funds non-work accidents involving employees.

"Department of Labour officials have advised the Government to increase the current ACC Earners Levy of $1.40 per $100 of earnings to $2.00 in 2009/10, $2.10 in 2010/11 and $2.20 in 2011/12 to cover the increased costs of the Earners' Account.

"The cost increases identified by officials is being blamed on increases in the number of claims, lesser rates of rehabilitation resulting in increased duration of costs, increased medical and treatment costs, expansion of the schemes entitlements, and increases in treatment injury cover.

"This $1.337 billion is additional to the $1.253 billion required for the Non-Earners Account. The key differences are that the Earners' Account is paid for by employee levies rather than the Government from general taxation, and the account does not require a cash injection in the current financial year.

"These are very significant cost increases for workers. A person on the average wage of $47,000 per year would pay an additional $282 in the next tax year or $5.40 per week, $329 in 10/11 or $6.33 per week, and $376 in 11/12 or $7.23 per week.

"The new Government is very concerned about the scale of these recommended increases.

"I certainly do not wish to impose these sorts of increased costs on households, but also must take a prudent approach to ensuring ACC's ongoing viability.

"The immediate decision the Government needs to take by Christmas is the levy rate for 2009/10 and I am continuing to work with officials on how these cost increases might be constrained.

"I am also seeking further information on the motor vehicle account which is also facing significant cost increases. The decision on motor vehicle levies does not need to be made until March and there are legislative options of extending the full funding date beyond 2014 to alleviate these increases.

"The new Government is committed to a full stock-take of all the components of the ACC scheme."

Dr Smith has also released ACC's Briefing to the Incoming Minister. It can be viewed at:

Briefing

"I am concerned that ACC's briefing does not adequately address the major issues of the very significant cost increases. A change in culture is required at ACC so it is better placed to appreciate the impacts of cost shocks on families and businesses."

ENDS

This has a big effect on wee businesses like us that operate as company. We often pay as an employer and as employees.

It sucks and we never seems to get anything out of it except big envelopes stuffed with bumpf.

We are with Nick on this one. ACC get real.

whale oils has this take

and Kiwiblog says this

and no minister says while we should be worried about ACC the motherlick has gone sour as well

NO MINISTER FINDS A GEM

This is good and over at No Minister they have much more - we at the Prawn really enjoy their pithy wit.

Not sure why but this really resonates.