Labour’s desire to challenge China’s influence in our political system and housing market by highlighting Chinese sounding names buying real estate has been matched by their stance against American influence with their TPPA bottom lines.
Jane Kelsey has been very clear with Labour why they must stand firm on their TPPA bottom-lines while the Wellington Twitteratti are still framing Labour as the latest franchise of the KKK – but Labour’s intention is clear – Tino rangatiratanga when it comes NZ’s political and economic sovereignty.
That will outrage the cosmopolitans, but attract the middle. Labour’s internal polling shows this happening with the Greens going up and large numbers walking from National to Labour while NZ First’s vote softens.
If Labour have won votes with their China dog whistle, then they risk looking hypocritical if they concede anything to the TPPA.
Key’s latest admission that medicines will go up in price coupled with his admission that signing it will deny our ability to pass laws restricting foreign ownership already sit alongside fears that corporations will take our Government to Court if social policy restricts their profit margins.
So why on earth are we signing this?
It’s because the TPPA isn’t a free trade deal and has little to do with economic wealth. This is America’s response to China pushing into the Pacific – this is a national security leash dressed up as a trade deal.
This is about circumventing Parliaments sovereignty to Washington, and allows US corporations to determine NZ domestic policy.
If you are not angry about this yet, you are not paying attention.
By chance, I caught the portion of TV One’s “Sunday” programme on Sunday 26th July, on the sale of Australian cattle stations. Due to drought, banks are foreclosing on stressed Australian farmers – but who can afford them?
Simultaneously the Chinese government has allocated three trillion dollars to procure future global feed supplies. Chinese by the busload are touring, purchasing the cattle stations, the cattle, the processing plants, the transport, looking at purchasing Townsville Port and the sea transport – to control the whole supply line. And due to the free trade agreement, can bring in Chinese labour to run the industry – excluding Australians from both the food and jobs.
Australia already has to import a portion of its food. The Australian’s are currently getting $2/kg for their produce which sells in China for $30/kg (the figures as I recall?) – Is this part of the process to ‘oil’ the foreclosures?
Now when you consider that an enlightened farm consultant, Alison Dewes, has raised the issue and considers 30 to 40% of NZ dairy farmers are now vulnerable to foreclosure – Wake up NZ!
If anyone has not seen the Sunday programme, then do so online, it should be a warning of things to come.
The Aussie farmers are in dire straights.
The problem with farming in Australia and NZ is the ownership model. Most farms are family owned and when commodity prices are down and input costs are high farmers are starved of cash and many have no alternative but to sell the farm to repay the bank. What the Sunday programme showed was an alternative ownership model which controlled each link in the production chain. Corporate farms can achieve the same scale (immigrants are not the only people to understand this – but they have the cash).
Farming at present is like the corner dairies taking on the supermarkets – supermarkets bring economies of scale and it is the same economies farming requires.
So…the consumer won’t pay any more money for Corporate Drugs under the new TPPA?
Can the PM reconcile the amount to pay to Pharmac, to equalise the impact on consumers and balancing the budget so National can start paying back 100 million dollars worth of debt?
$100 million in debt and counting
Yeah – maybe they may be saying people won’t pay more for drugs (that they’ll still pay the $5 part charge and the govt will pay the rest – though I also say ” yeah, right!”) but do we have a reassurance that CARE (care services, supplements for heating; lawns etc, actual allocations of hours to people) will NOT be reduced because if this is already happening won’t a significant increase in medication costs to the health budget be pulled from another part?
This will be another time when the PM lies. Add it to the list of him not raising gst etc…
And the bank was….? ANZ the Bank with the Corporate Blame Culture – everybody else is to blame, not us. The profit line is the only line.
“The question is not so much about sensitive land, I think, from memory, I’m pretty sure it’s about whether it triggers the threshold, and how much that increases.”
Who would trust John Key’s “memory”
Indeed. And why would anybody believe any of his reassurances anyway? His word is meaningless. Was it him or his office? Did he say no rise in gst? Did he say no asset sales? Did he say no soldiers in Iraq? When John Key opens his mouth the only thing you can be sure of is that you cannot trust what he is saying.
@Esoteric Pineapples: Sorry to butt in, but speaking about memory, did you know there’s an “Alzheimer’s breakthrough” using high frequency sound waves? Wonder when Johnny Boy will tell us.
Well,….any half baked geopolitical security adviser could tell you that is precisely and exactly what this is all about – a play off between the BRIC nations and /or China’s rising influence in the Pacific …..and those of the west.
‘ We don’t do diplomacy by gunboats anymore but we use the sanitized version of economic exclusion and alliances’….
AND THAT !!!!….is precisely where we have them both by the balls !!!
And pardon my expression , Scarlet Mod!!!
THIS …..is the point of leverage we have that those two powers fear we might exercise.
We are in the 5 eyes network…and oh yes…..how those big players want us to keep in that happy company…
And China has a Free Trade Deal…. and oh yes….how they want to maintain that position at any cost…
And just quietly….when we can hear the pin drop….in one of those more lucid moments…we can glimpse an insight…into how this is all being played out…and yet , in a strange way …control both of these bigger dogs and reel in the leash of their foreign policy so that it suits …..US !!!
We can afford to start driving a very , very hard bargain.
If they want to play their big boy games….then for us to play the game with them…we can charge an extremely high price for being in this unique position in the arse end of the South Pacific.
Ask yourselves this :
WHY … Does the GSCB spy on one of the biggest superpowers on this planet on behalf of another major superpower when we have a FTA with the former?
And WHY ….has this not caused ruptures diplomatically because of this spying on the former?
The answer my friend…is we have something that they ALL WANT.
Its called strategic placement.
Now why doesn’t this lil ole country wake up and start clipping tickets for the privilege ?
And if you think real hard…you’ll see it…and we could be enjoying a certain position where we are in fact a part of the fulcrum of the balance of power in this region…
And it is at this point…that we can leverage for what WE want ….and that is every proviso and demand from NZ that those who would be the by – proxy advocates for the American govt and its foreign policy’s would have to accept.
To not do so would be their peril.
Think about it : A rogue former ally discloses practices and information surrounding its former alliance’s spying activity’s…
That would never do.
Neither would sacrificing the goodwill and inroads for political purposes that China has gleaned as of the last decade or so by being churlish and petulant about its speculators being snubbed…
That would never do.
Sacrificing its political and strategic influence in the South Pacific all for the sake of a handful of its foreign nationals coming here and speculating?
Laughable.
Think about it.
We can amend a FTA with China or anywhere else so as to curb and stop foreign speculation and we can amend any TTPA deal or outright reject it to suit our own purposes.
And if those big dogs really want influence here – then lets just stake our demands and sit back and watch those big dogs scrap it out over who gets the prize.
Well Wild Katipowhy don’t we start clipping the ticket?because Key has already clipped the ticket on his own behalf.
Chinese have purchased Carrington golf course and land ,it seems a thing they are doing all over NZ making offers on golf courses .
Key has made a trade deal that enables buyers to legally purchase property in NZ. When and if TPP is enacted it will be the same for other countries in the “partnership” to do the same,soon there will be no NZs owning property,the price will be too high for sellers to refuse, ,
for buyers, to high to afford.
Corporations will come in and take , Chinese will come in and buy ,take your pick, whichever way we have been cheated by Key. The people with houses in Auckland are fortunate enough to sell at high prices, but people still have to work in Auckland and the young need to find accommodation in Auck to attend Uni. Seems that most workers end up being Asian and Uni filled with Asian students who have more money than NZ students.
Auckland is an Asian city now so we will have to get used to it, I for one, prefer an Asian city to a corporation owned city.
Given a choice I would prefer NZ to be as it was pre Key.
Key has sold us out whichever way we look at it .
The Brics alliance may be a solution if they are interested in saving small countries like NZ .
Russia is a big threat to America lets hope America dosnt try bomb Russia into submission ,America would be the loser.
American people are the losers, they are already in the control of corporations, so more power to BRICS,theres always hope.
capcha 2×9=18
I agree. NZ should be using our strategic position to strengthen our position in all agreements, making the US actually pay and making sure foreigners can’t buy up all our land when ‘our trade’ deals go wrong and seem to be enabling foreigners to take control like in OZ rather than actually help local farmers.
Instead of being some scared ignorant backwater that McCully and Grosser seem to be acting as though we are, we should get a hot negotiator who gives a damn about our country and the local people and actually put some controls and conditions in there that benefit us and since that isn’t happening in the TPPA, then actually say a firm NO thanks.
I would not expect Labour or National to have any nous or ability to negotiate a hard deal – these politicians can’t even run a website or in the case of the Nats the country (I won’t even mention they can’t negotiate a deal with Sky City or Serco). The are DUMBOS with a capital D.
When the details emerge, as they soon will, let calm minds assess the content and consequences.
I want my support or opposition to mean more than solidarity with the loudest, or even the most pursuasive, voices from my barracks.
Yes, we are all now paying attention.
Let outrage commence only when we can see the executioner.
This may well be a lousy deal, it probably is, but against that we might have to weigh the fact that internationally enforcable regulations actually help smaller players who can’t impose their own version of probity without a bit of international muscle. We wait with interest rather than terror.
Hmmm! An interesting thought Nick.
Trouble is in this case if we delay choosing sides any further we will end up with a fait accompli. It will have been done.
And once you have been tipped over the edge of the world, it is very hard indeed to get back up to it.
I shall stick with being a rash fool and fighting the TPPA.
Why the fuck would I want to give my sovereignty to the bloody Yanks?
Nick, with some research and unbiased reading about TPPA, any thinking person will see that this is an issue of control over the worlds resources by the few on the top. This is about greedy corporations running rough shod over the rest of us and our precious environment. It is secret for very good reasons, they do not want us to know the truths of their dirty work
and dirty law changes and their attempts to control the worlds resources.
We WILL BE IN HORROR ! ! ! if TPPA passes and the effects will be felt by most everyone other than these unethical, greedy, self serving mega-corporations. Nafta was so devastating and destructive and TPPA is Nafta on steroids. We deserve better than to allow these idiot upper 1 % greedy psychopaths to do what they want to do no matter how it impacts anyone else. Shame on any govt. who supports this TPPA.
“Let outrage commence only when we can see the executioner.”
That sounds like a line Orwell might have written for certain characters in Animal Farm.
Key is the executioner ,we can see him Nick, carry on being outraged people. Small players with no muscle have no chance over the big bullies ,think again Nick.
I think you’re being a bit naive there, Nick.
The TPPA is a malignant corporate monster, which will consume everything it touches!
So why are we signing it indeed?
FJK is the pimp for the US and the rest of the international big boys’ clubs and corporations, prostituting NZ out, to feather his own corrupt, putrid nest, while the majority of Kiwis go to hell in a handcart!
If it’s not the case already, our elections and sovereignty will be decided in Washington!
And now this!
Serco; housing; schools; assets; convention centres; now medicines?!
I’ve just got one question remaining for JK:
“What the F*CK are you for??!!”
Heh, heh, heh! ME!
Exactly Martyn ! ! if we are not outraged, we are asleep. Thanks for keeping this TPPA issue in the forefront. Mega-international-greedy corporations having too much control and power over the rest of us and our environment. Workers will suffer if TPPA is passed and we need to keep up the pressure and the letters and emails and facebook activity to fight against it.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/category/tpp/
http://www.openureyes.org.nz/blog/?q=node/5676
http://www.infowars.com/tpp-death-pool-more-pharmaceutical-destruction-is-coming/
Just saw a quick item on cnbc, it said the TPP is in trouble, no more than that,i must have missed the story. keep an eye out we might get lucky yet.
As to Key saying we wont pay more for medicines,they have a way around that. I had an antibiotic,same one 6months ago,it cost $5 , now I was charged $15 ,I asked why , answer its a not subsidised like other similar antibiotics!!! The surgery has been bought out by a Singapore firm,but I think its the start of similar things by our government.Key lies.
Todays article in Wake up Kiwi written by a very brave Dr in America.
It tells of how medical practicioners including dentists are complicit in the health rort ,they don’t have much choice ,they are threatened with loss of licence if they don’t,but also they make a lot of money by complying.
I am really angry and afraid over this deal. Nationals track record is disasterously poor. I strongly believe this was JKs mission from the start, and he will do his utmost to complete it. So short of all New Zealanders marching on parliament and demanding his resignation, I have no doubt he will sign this countries death warrant to the corporations, or any other international buyer who wants it.
Don’t be afraid….tell them to get fucked. On no uncertain terms…if they want it …come and get it…and if we give them shit when they get here…all that will do is make them rethink what they came here to look for in the first place.
We owe them jack shit .
Always remember that.
They need us more than we need their geopolitical bullshit.
Tell them to get fucked?
The heck with that mate.
Just shoot the bastards…
Why is National signing it? To use the KISS analogy (Keep it Simple Stupid) – National is signing it because the winners will be their buddies, and the losers won’t be, and National don’t give a monkey’s about the latter.
Key admits TPPA will increase medicine costs & can’t stop foreign ownership so why are we signing it?
Because John Key is simply nothing else but a bought stooge for the Pharmaceutical industry of course?
This is the shallowness and lack of National pride self respect this hollow man is.
He will go down in history as the man that sold his and our souls to the devil.
All natural medicines will disappear when the big pharma place lawsuits of government for allowing their sale the bloody criminal fool.
Just another black day we are living under this tyrant.
Interesting that Katherine Rich was there on One News standing for the pharmaceutical industry group (if your party can’t get voted in…).
We owe the banker and when he calls in the debt time is up. We are in the same position as Greece, don’t you think.
That country’s assets are being sold off to a hedge fund, I think it’s called, for 50 million euro and that fund is getting ready for onsale for 150 million euro. The assets are sea ports, airports railway and stations, anything with value. The people of Greece are standing together and we have to learn to do the same. By the way, won’t be long before Angela Merkel’s true background is known by us all.
When tomorrow comes we’ll all look back and say s…t and laugh.
and the four letter F word will turn out to be FINE.
Keys 7 Sharp lapdog bit off more than he could chew tonight.
Prof Kelsey demolished Hoskins and his pro TPPA arguments.
Go Jane!! Given the just folks versus the egghead tactics of the Lapdog I thought Prof Kelsey’s “a flock of pigs flying by” metaphor to the undefined benefits was excellent.
Hoskins your Dear Leader will not be pleased, no treats for mikie.
Just watched the interview and my how disappointed I am in Toni Street too, the both of them spinning more tripe in favour of what spells total doom for the future. Well argued Prof. Kelsey – poor Michael lol!
Time to cut the crap!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y3kzWnw1vs
Excellent Kingi!
The creepiest bit was the police photographer.
Why am I reminded of the Gestapo?
A government has a responsibility to ensure they provide OPPORTUNITY and PROSPERITY to its citizens – Successive FREE TRADE deals have removed business and employment Opportunity from NZ – which has DELIBERATELY reduced OPPORTUNITY and PROSPERITY.
WHY do we have such a high level of Crime in NZ – and high numbers of prisoners?
People only turn to CRIME when they have NO Opportunity and no prosperity. I saw this many times in the Police – Even GOOD people will steal if they have NOTHING.
We allow the closing of all the timber mills in northland and then sell raw logs overseas and then wonder why we have HIGH Unemployment..and high crime…that was no mistake. We sell all our raw leather overseas and have to re-import it back if we need it- a by product of our primary sector. We are selling live animals now removing the need to process them here and provide jobs…in Levin the processing plant just closed…..we are selling the milk powder production off – reducing jobs, we had five car manufacturing plants in nz providing jobs….we sent our rail car production off shore reducing yet more jobs – ……the list is long…
Also start to look at the high numbers of “investors” who wanted to INVEST and CREATE JOBS and OPPORTUNITY and PROSPERITY for NZers who have been systematically REFUSED that chance – there are many examples if our media cared to look – Eg – South African Farmer wanted to invest Millions into the South Island to build a farm – create business and jobs – he spent $3 Million fighting the local council trying to get approval and was forced to QUIT…….WHY would we REFUSE to help this man? Look at the businesses that have been destroyed by high compliance costs….sending even more jobs offshore…..Deliberately.
So the Questions has to be asked – why would our own Government Deliberately work hard to REDUCE OPPORTUNITY – JOBS and PROSPERITY?
WHY – because when we are ALL POOR and DEBT Ridden – we are easier to CONTROL and MANIPULATE -so as to force change WE DO NOT WANT.
CRISIS – CONFLICT – CONTROL
Problem – Reaction – Solution – over and over again……they create the problem – knowing how we will react – and then the Pre – planned Solution is there waiting for us all to choose – which is what they wanted us to choose in the first place…..you had NO CHOICE………
WHY is TRUMP so popular in the USA right now – because hes a BUSINESSMAN promoting JOBS and BUSINESS and GROWTH – for the PEOPLE……bankers only know one thing – how to load you up with more DEBT at INTEREST……they do not know how to CREATE or GROW JOBS and CREATE PROSPERITY for CITIZENS and they never will.
http://frameblame.org/crisis-conflict-control/
http://frameblame.org/conflict-creation-racism-is-more-powerful-than-a-rifle/hegelian-dialectic-problem-reaction-solution/
This is what the TTIP version of the TTPA looks like.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/28/european-mining-dispute-illustrates-risks-corporate-friendly
A snake oil salesman responsible what we’re going to pay for our medicines? I wonder if that commentator of the weird and wonderful in politics David Farrar will see it like that?
It looks to me as if neo-liberal corporatism is now running an economic war on two fronts – against about half of the citizens of the countries they already occupy and against the countries that have not succumbed to their system.
Their political aims are now out in the open – you have to take on debt and you can only pay that debt by inflicting “austerity” on half the population, shifting tax from incomes to consumption and selling your assets. If you take on the debt but suggest an alternative plan for paying it back will be rejected. If you have no need for debt they will seek a weak link and find a way in. Moreover, anyone who suggests an alternative is either naive, a dinosaur or a narcissist, or all three.
However, as much as they have wanted their system to be seen as “just the way things are” by now, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Bernie Sanders in the US, Syriza, Podemos, etc, not to mention the sales of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” on the death of Margaret Thatcher, all suggest otherwise. Nonetheless, they are out in search of more countries upon whom to force their medicine, despite the wasteland of abandoned manufacturing plants and abandoned people languishing behind them.
It all looks like a mad dash for control over everything, with limited consent and little broad appeal. If you want everyone’s compliance, you at least need to offer something that everyone actually likes.
Key’s comments may’ve been an unintended (?) slip on his part, but it’s the clearest indication yet that we’re about to be shafted by the TPPA, and Pharmac will be affected.
Key sez “government will pick up the tab” for any increases in drugs? Yeah, right. Until the next rise in prescription charges.
Martyn and others, the TPPA will sadly be voted and waved through, just as many other former FTAs signed by NZ governments. That is not what we wish, but the vast majority in the public do not know as much about the TPPA as we here may know.
Jane Kelsey is not only by the government, but also many in the MSM, portrayed as a “leftie” and “scaremonger”, and hence few will give her the credit she deserves in raising issues.
Most out in the public do NOT think politically, and some may have some reservations, but many more will in the end think again, well, we depend on trade, we need trade to survive, there are always some downsides with every agreement, but the benefits may be doing more than make up for extra costs.
I regret, and I do not write this with a happy mind, that most will again rather give Key, Groser and the government some credit, and simply hope all will go as well as with the China NZ FTA, and only very, very few will themselves read about the details of the TPPA.
The only broadcasting media that does offer some useful and critical information on the TPPA and the details in it, is Radio NZ National, but again, who listens to the national broadcaster on radio?
The Herald always offers a few opinions, but most will in the end support it, same as writers and commentators in other papers. Forget TV for discussion and information, the headline news are like polished, made up barbie dolls and male puppets, neutered news readers, at times dancing with the fairies, offering very little info. Even Q+A, the Nation and so, they do report or discuss very little, and again, very few people even watch those programs.
The average New Zealander is brainwashed into commercialism, into consumerism, into working, studying, striving, aspiring, wanting, competing, buying, selling and gambling, apart from that into watching or doing sports, DIY hobbies, and little, that is the “silent” majority, they do not think as we, as they are not really informed.
Only if the populace had from the start of the negotiations been properly informed and educated, would we have informed voters and opinion poll respondents. This has not occurred, and it does not occur in much else, like the actually disastrous hearings taking place for the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. If people would know, what is being changed behind the scenes, they would perhaps be very worried. What will come out of it will look very different from the notified plan, and it will be a great disappointment also for most with progressive minds.
This country has been turned into a disaster by this government, and it will not end here, it will not end with the TPPA.
Where are the people protesting, about the terms already in existing trade agreements, making it illegal for the NZ government to legislate against foreign buying of residential real estate here?
They are nowhere to be seen, and that shows us the size of the problem. Brainwashed and dumbed down to death, that is what most are, sadly.
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