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One Thing We Do Well Is Bureaucracy: Part Three

One Thing We Do Well Is Bureaucracy: Part Three

And just like that… It’s all over. We left off where my son and the lawyer were both AWOL and I was required to persuade them both to provide personal ID information in triplicate and also to sign Account Operating Authority forms… even though neither of them had access

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One Thing We Do Well is Bureaucracy: Part Two

One Thing We Do Well is Bureaucracy: Part Two

My Trust bank account, which has been in existence for 16 years, is under scrutiny from the BNZ. They claim to need all my ID information in quadruplicate, and they claim they do not have copy of the original Trust deed. This cannot be true, of course. They must have

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basket case

Face of the Day

How to destroy a NZ business in three easy steps. 1. Designate the only producer of plasterboard in New Zealand as NOT an essential industry and force them to completely stop production. 2. After months of lockdown wonder why the building industry is now in crisis. 3. Pat the final

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One Thing We Do Well Is Bureaucracy: Part One

One Thing We Do Well Is Bureaucracy: Part One

I have been a BNZ customer since the 1990s. We had a mortgage with them back then, and when I went into business in 2001 I set up a business account with them too. I set up a trust in 2006 to protect the family home, also with the BNZ.

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Face of the Day

Face of the Day

Didn’t supermarkets begin selling alcohol to provide sorely needed competition? Well, that was the spiel… (There are some areas where liquor trusts still have full control.) Now, though, it seems the supermarket duopoly stymies local councils in any attempts to regulate consumption in their areas. Auckland has been fighting

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Time to Move On from Mandates

Time to Move On from Mandates

Brooke van Velden ACT Health spokesperson ACT is calling on the new COVID-19 Minister to remove the broad vaccination mandates on health workers. Workforce shortages are having a huge detrimental impact across the health sector and vaccination mandates, alongside unworkable isolation requirements, are major reasons for this. Emergency departments are

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The Downward Spiral is upon Us

The Downward Spiral is upon Us

Information Opinion So the true position is finally being revealed. The economy started to turn downwards at the beginning of the year. This is a ‘surprise’ to RNZ and a ‘puzzle’ to Stuff, but it is no surprise to most of us. We have been in a decline for months…

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blue and white logo guessing game

Facebook’s Deal with News Giants

Brett Wilkins commondreams.org Press freedom and antitrust advocates on Friday derided both Facebook and corporate media beneficiaries of the tech titan’s multimillion dollar spending spree following reporting that the company is rethinking its investments amid increasing regulatory pressures and a shift away from news partnerships. “For years, Facebook

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NZ First Trial Shows Need for Political Finance Reform

NZ First Trial Shows Need for Political Finance Reform

Bryce Edwards democracyproject.nz Dr Bryce Edwards is Political Analyst in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the director of the Democracy Project. Warning Long read: 1976 words The New Zealand First donations scandal trial began in the High Court this week. And it’s already showing why

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Trust the Market Not the Govt

Trust the Market Not the Govt

Peter Jacobsen fee.org Peter Jacobsen is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Ottawa University and the Gwartney Professor of Economic Education and Research at the Gwartney Institute. He received his PhD in economics from George Mason University, and obtained his BS from Southeast Missouri State University. His research interest

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supermarkets

What Makes Them Think They Can Fix Supermarkets?

This government has a terrible record of fixing anything, in fact in most cases they make things demonstrably worse. This makes one wonder just precisely how they think they can fix the supermarket industry. Let’s look at the track record of NZ governments – present and past. The Resource Management

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#metoo Has a Lot to Answer For

#metoo Has a Lot to Answer For

TV1 News has led with the story about the resignation of Breakfast host Kamahl Santamaria for at least the last 4 days. I cannot imagine, when China is running rampant in the Pacific and the war in Ukraine is taking a worrying turn, why this story is the first item

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The World’s Biggest Nation China Is about to Shrink

The World’s Biggest Nation China Is about to Shrink

Xiujian Peng Victoria University Dr Xiujian Peng is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) at Victoria University (VU). Before joining VU, she held positions as Senior Research Associate at the University of Adelaide and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Population Research, Renmin University of

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Good Old Country Comfort in My Bones

Good Old Country Comfort in My Bones

I do enjoy living in the country; never much liked cities: all those people and traffic and homeless tramps in doorways. What a bore! Give me dirt roads, trees, livestock, fresh air and marvellous scenery any day of the week. Even better is living in the country in the deep

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Face of the Day

Face of the Day

Clark said the clear message to supermarket retailers was to be prepared to change quickly to increase competition, and be ready for regulation. “The duopoly needs to change, and we are preparing the necessary legislation to do that.” The Commerce Commission’s report had found supermarkets were making $1 million

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