“Two liquor store barons with multimillion-dollar property portfolios and a record of treating staff poorly have received more than $550,000 from the Government’s coronavirus wage subsidy scheme.

A tax commentator has questioned the morality of wealthy business owners seeking taxpayer handouts.

Nekita Enterprises, which is controlled by Harjit and Sheen Singh and owns more than a dozen bottle stores across Canterbury, has received $302,000 to subsidise the wages of 47 staff, according to the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) website.

Super Liquor Holdings terminated its contracts with Nekita Enterprises in February after the Labour Inspectorate found the company had paid several staff less than the minimum wage and kept inaccurate records. Nekita Enterprises stores now trade under the name Canterbury Liquor.

Stuff previously revealed the Singhs, who have an extensive property portfolio worth more than $6 million, designed a palatial multimillion-dollar mansion while the company was being investigated by the Labour Inspectorate.

In March, Harjit Singh set up two new companies, Canterbury Liquor Baron and Liquor Tycoon, names which appear to be in response to recent headlines about Nekita Enterprises.

Meanwhile, Karman Enterprises and Big Daddys, which are controlled by Hardeep Singh and own 10 liquor stores in Canterbury, have received $265,000 to subsidise the wages of 39 staff.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121359471/coronavirus-wealthy-liqour-store-barons-claim-550k-covid19-wage-subsidy

Council and Council subsidiaries salaries in Auckland.

CEO Watercare $775,000
CEO Auckland Council $698,000
CFO Auckland Council $600,000
CEO Auckland Transport $540,000
Acting CEO Panuku Development $505,000

Key findings:
Eighty-six staff are paid more than $250,000.
Fourty-eight staff are paid more than Mayor Phil Goff ($296,000) and seven are paid more than the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ($471,000).
Seventy-one percent of identified rich listers are men. Of the six staff paid more than $500,000, all are men.
Twenty-four of the rich listers are employees of Auckland Transport, 11 are from Watercare, six are from Regional Facilities Auckland, five are from ATEED, and five are from Panuku Development.

https://www.ratepayers.nz/rich_list?fbclid=IwAR3sVyUcyMD7YiOrnT2trP3UIrb_t5TgAZS2Lz8TSbq0qTXpfnNNjt8ONMw

Someone liked my posts. Thanks. I was thinking particularly locally and the little coterie of self-important people that will take over and run the place according to their own ideas which were formed 30 or more years ago, and others don’t have a chance to work out anything else. So nothing changes, except downward.

I liked your post. Thanks.

And no afterlife perks, either. Everyone else lost out in the 1980s. Why not parliament people, too?
(They annoy me intensely.)
Or immunity from prosecution for transgressions.

But perhaps we still yearn for lords and masters?

Just see how well our environmental degradation, lack of regulation, shoddy workmanship and bad practise, is doing so far!

Sewage in Wellington marine reserve 43-times worse than acceptable levels
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/118890119/sewage-in-wellington-marine-reserve-43times-worse-than-acceptable-levels

Government to build world’s most expensive road
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/09/government-to-build-most-expensive-road-in-world.html

“A dam illegally constructed in an Auckland Council reserve is set to be lowered before Christmas, but not removed
The impact of an illegally-constructed dam has been described by the Environment Court as “critical” for New Zealand’s most endangered bird but its removal will be a slow process, with the company which built it unlawfully setting most of the terms.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/12/19/953508/dam-delays-half-soon-half-later-maybe

Harbour of doubt: The tiny creek that drains Auckland of its waste
“St Lukes mall, one of the single biggest contributors of sewage into Meola, and likely among the biggest overflow points in the country.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/117958444/harbour-of-doubt-the-tiny-creek-that-drains-auckland-of-its-waste

No plan to tackle environmental degradation by increased tourism – Commissioner
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/405767/no-plan-to-tackle-environmental-degradation-by-increased-tourism-commissioner

Protesters are vowing direct action in southern waters after oil giant OMV was yesterday cleared to drill up to 10 exploration wells off the Otago coast beginning this summer.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/mayor-slams-drilling-approval-farce?fbclid=IwAR0pg_haSht_L8zIPWhj2D-ph2d6CJb5yMAqp6BMozpjpjlofFpZuYFfylc

Waihi runs out of water, council distributing water bottles
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/02/waihi-runs-out-of-water-council-distributing-water-bottles.html

Appeals against Chinese water bottling plant dismissed
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118255435/appeals-against-chinese-water-bottling-plant-dismissed

EPA grants drilling and discharge consent for Otago coast to oil and gas company OMV
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118277477/epa-grants-drilling-and-discharge-consent-for-otago-coast-to-oil-and-gas-company-omv

“Directors of Tamarind Taranaki, the New Zealand business of a Malaysian oil and gas producer say the company “may be insolvent”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12284777

Dairy firm wants ocean wastewater outfall
https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/dairy/dairy-firm-wants-ocean-wastewater-outfall

EPA’s ‘inappropriate’ reaction to student’s speech
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117378375/epas-inappropriate-reaction-to-students-speech

Palm oil giant Wilmar goes to full control of Goodman Fielder
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12211787

Concrete safety investigator ‘surprised nobody had been killed’
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/402908/concrete-safety-investigator-surprised-nobody-had-been-killed

Multi-storey building flaws ‘almost the norm’
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/340396/multi-storey-building-flaws-almost-the-norm

Apartment complex hit with $32.8m repair bill
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/331505/apartment-complex-hit-with-32-point-8m-repair-bill

Council unable to identify possible defective buildings in capital
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/403417/council-unable-to-identify-possible-defective-buildings-in-capital

Wellington road closed for two months amid waste pipe repair
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/wellington-road-closed-two-months-amid-waste-pipe-repair

Work on burst Taupō waste pipe begins
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393896/work-on-burst-taupo-waste-pipe-begins

What, cut down on money and time for electioneering. No way. And while you are putting ideas forward for improving our political scene, suggest tieing salaries to a certain proportion above the median wage across the nation, with travelling allowances etc. and technology supplied for meetings over Skype and cohort. And a maximum of three terms with no return for two decades. Good luck with all those sterling ideas.

An example is Cadbury’s factory in Dunedin.    It was furrin’ but bedded into the local economy then fell under a new version of the furrin’ outfit.   It was old, needed some innovation and some new machinery probably.   This is what was reported about its closure by the new owner in February 2017.
Mondelez International, Cadbury’s multi-billion-dollar US parent company, cited increasing costs and distance to its markets as making it untenable to continue the business – even though it is still profitable.

That argument would have been familiar to many kiwi manufacturers; in a survey of manufacturers by the NZ Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), distance to markets was cited as the fourth biggest barrier to expansion.
Feb.23/17 https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/bitter-aftertaste-cadburys-closing

360 jobs were lost, perhaps 300 households lost their income – some would have had more than one family member working there.     There is no surprise in knowing we are distant to markets, we know where we are on the globe, we aren’t a flat-earth society.   Conclusion – we have to accept that and form our company structures, and our export products with that in mind.   We can’t keep selling off to foreigners who are prepared to buy and shut us down and make the product in another country, and then try to sell back to us our known brand yet not have put anything into the economy from wages as previously was the case.   (Griffins is another case.   They sold their biscuit business and presumably also sweets, in the 1960s to NABISCO USA – National Biscuit Coy.   Since then it has passed from one to another company, still making the same product in other countries such as Fiji.)  

So what happened in Dunedin – crowd funding – new chocolate.
Mar.5/19  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-chocolate-factory-opens-in-dunedin-one-year-after-cadbury-closes-its-doors
The Otago Chocolate Company’s (OCHO) rapid expansion is thanks to one of the biggest crowdfunding campaigns in Kiwi history….
Despite the rapid rise thanks to donations from 3000 members of the public, OCHO founder Liz Rowe is staying humble.
“We’re not trying to compete at that level, (Cadbury) we are a small boutique craft maker and our focus is on premium chocolate.”

And we have to turn towards and buy those NZ products, and let them know what they can do better, support them to be good producers and be profitable.    And it is not enough just to buy NZ, we have to support the small, micro businesses, before we look at the big ones.   Otherwise we get monopolies  with no room for individual enterprise and no firm economy as a base for the country, just a few high fliers with much under- and unemployment and failing businesses.    That is not a good economic outcome for us.   A lot of work and energy and money gets wasted that way and people trying for a good continuing business and an adequate income get wasted in all meanings of that word.

So how is OCHO going?
Ocho chairman Jim O’Malley said expansion and refurbishment of the new Roberts St craft chocolate factory, which opened in January this year, had come with an overall price tag of about $1.4million.
This included refit costs which were $200,000 above budget, at $750,000, while new equipment had cost another $500,000, and $150,000 had gone into initial operational expenses.

This had also seen the departure of founder and general manager Liz Rowe, who left at the end of June.
Ms Rowe, who remains as the largest shareholder with a 10% stake in the company, said there was no underlying issue or problem with the company but that it was simply the right time to go.   https://www.odt.co.nz/business/ocho-seriously-underperforming

So there will be a lot of pressures and difficulties before the potential of a business can flourish, but NZs can do it and under the umbrella of a trust, with intelligent directors, we can sustain ourselves to get a secure future beyond the present shallow, posturing business successes of a cargo cult economy, skimming the cream from products and infrastructure built by earlier people who were part of the fabric of NZ, not asset strippers.
If there was a dedicated NZ entity that bought up successful NZ brands and production funded by the NZ public that kept these businesses here carefully abnd wisely run, it would be a successful investment, suitable for the superannuation fund to invest some of their funds in as well as citizens who profess to care for the country’s wellbeing.

 But for the present local areas could set up trusts that oversee local businesses.  But it would be important for  and these to be run by business people who weren’t locals to prevent the self-centred, personal advantage of individuals and small groups becoming corrupt with power and imposing decisions that introduced nepotism or favouritism, or weren’t best practice and rorted locals who would pass themselves off as being good ‘ol local boys and girls with superior wisdom and demand patriotic support.   We must remember how devious we all can be when we get to positions of power and are not properly audited or have to answer to critical questions from the wider public and not just their peer group.