Ok so after 9 years what have they done?

[mashman]

Was thinking more along the lines of freight as in rail v trucks.Point taken though.

Fair point. There's a much bigger issue in there though. Does NZ have the freight traffic to make it viable. I'm guessing the infrastructure really isn't there, as someone pointed out, "Too narrow, too old, too run down and too inefficient" to make it work. All of that comes back to the short term save a few bucks policy of the government... utterly rediculous not to put any focus on infrastructure as it must be one of the single biggest problems faced by developing companies... we need more forward thinkers, oh and lots of money... which is where I think that the economic policy of any government coming into power should make one of its primary focusses on keeping the money that's earned in NZ actually in NZ so that the taxes are there to fund projects like infrastructure... building things that would be of use to the people with the money that's been earned by the people blah blah blah... but noone seems to be able to look past foreign investment... Kiwibank was a great leap forwards and that should be used as a building block.

Fuck it, vote me in, i'll run the country for 50 bucks a year

[MSTRS:Me]

If anyone is in any doubt of the direction that NZ is fast heading (under Labour...the Nats being an unknown at this stage) just take a look at Zimbabwe.

[merv]

Yeah back to trains, sorry John, freight rail and the inter-city tracks should have continued to be developed along with the roads to keep them modern, but there was no significant investment since 1988 but how much did Transit spend on roads in that time? Probably about 30 bil.

All us bikers should love what's going on in Auckland and Wellington because every journey by a rail commuter is one less on the road. Auckland has grown from 1 mil trips per annum to around 7 mil per annum - that's a lot of people you don't have to lane split - and they haven't even scratched the surface finishing the projects yet.

No other Government has made this sort of investment since they built the Hutt line in the 50's.

As for the rest of Labour's policies - sheesh I don't know, and what will Key do for me anyway.

[MSTRS:Me]

Successive governments become nothing more than slum landlords after the lines were bought back for $1. For how long have the public been calling for better rail services? Yet all this money was spent on roads, merely postponing the inevitable meltdown of the roading network, esp in Auckland.
Britomart, I hear you say? Build it and the people will come? Right....commuter rail isn't about buildings.

[firefighter]

Yep, you can take the individual look here. But there is a bigger picture. And no, I am not sure that all the current govmnt has done is OK. I did not vote for them. Things could always be better. But worse too. The NZ taxrate is actually not bad when compared to some of the European countries of similar size. The ones over 50% are Sweden, Slovenia, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. Their GST (or VAT) tax are around 20% with Sweden at top with 25%.

And the reality is that apart from places like Dubai and Monaco that does not need tax money to do stuff, all other countries do. Today we are also more civilised (???) and care about our population who can not cater for them selves. We are proud of that nobody has to die as a result of no housing, healtcare or food. Sadly this is not the case in many of todays countries.

Do you realise, that if you have a few coins in a jar or in your pocket, you are actually one of the top 5% financially in the world... But we always want more. One TV is not enough. And we really need that 42inch plasmascreen. And we should not have to be without a roast every w/e. It is our right!!

yes but that large amount of tax goes into free medical-university etc etc etc for everyone-so lets not be foolish and pretend we are better off.....

[MSTRS:Me]

yes but that large amount of tax goes into free medical-university etc etc etc for everyone-so lets not be foolish and pretend we are better off.....

And Finns at least do not pay for electricity/heating. Not directly like we do.

[mashman]

commuter rail isn't about buildings.

Perhaps now is the time to start thinking that way. You take a look at almost any future movie and you'll notice that there's a "train station" in every building... want to get people out of their cars... Ambitious as hell, but essentialy doable. Ever been to Calgary? They have several of their buildings connected by walkways... People ride the trams into the city, there are under cover stations built right next to these building... I hardly saw any congestion... someone gave it some thought a while ago and it worked, perhaps now is the time to sit and think about it ooooo flying pig... that's the price of bacon going up again!!!

[Swoop]

I wonder if the looney labourite sect has been stealing ideas off of the poms?


Seriously. WTF?

[oldrider]

As for the rest of Labour's policies - sheesh I don't know, and what will Key do for me anyway.

Merv, I suspect Key will just mean more of the same, just spelt differently!

IMHO you are offered the RED Labour party or the BLUE Labour party.

Labour and National are like AJS and Matchless bikes, buy one you get the other with a few cosmetic differences and they call that competition.

Like my signature says, the media will decide and the majority (Read mob) will fulfill their wish. John.

[Deano]

What grinds my gears is that the gubbmint keeps telling us we need to reduce our carbon footprint - then they go and buy a fleet of 7 series BMW's (Not sure what sized engine - at least a 6)

Now shouldn't they be leading by example and purchase electric cars ?

Especially the Greens ?

[RantyDave]

Banned smacking

Oh FFS not this again. Removing the defence of "reasonable force" for violence against children is not the same as the state telling you how to raise your kids. It's exactly the same level of legal protection as adults have, and no more. Can I slap employees about in the workplace and pretend to be a good employer? They need to learn after all. And if I hear the phrase "Good Christian Parenting"(tm) applied one more time I'll resurrect Christ myself so he can come have a word with them.

Got students even more in debt by canceling interest so they borrow more

Oh gawd. Look, students with half a brain will not just blindly borrow more. The smart ones will move any debts they do have over to the student loan scheme before they even start. Students without half a brain shouldn't be fucking studying.

Less folk on dole-but really they've migrated to sickness benefit
Rooted the economy
Rooted the parole system
Bled ordinary tax payers dry

All true.

Man I can't wait to see the back of them

Likewise. "Middle" New Zealand is struggling horribly while "slack as fuck" New Zealand sits on the porch drinking Tui. The government has done nothing about it. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!

Dave

[devnull]

Oh FFS not this again. Removing the defence of "reasonable force" for violence against children is not the same as the state telling you how to raise your kids. It's exactly the same level of legal protection as adults have, and no more. Can I slap employees about in the workplace and pretend to be a good employer? They need to learn after all. And if I hear the phrase "Good Christian Parenting"(tm) applied one more time I'll resurrect Christ myself so he can come have a word with them.

Go right ahead with your resurrection

I'm sick to death of lesbian treehuggers telling me how to raise my kids.
Bradford got caught out telling outright lies, 86% of parents (who are also voters), said this is bullshit and if you can't tell the difference between smacking and abuse you shouldn't have kids, yet they rammed it down our throats anyway.

Hell, it's not like there was even any research supporting their "nanny knows best" point of view.

Go read "The Alexander Case - a confiscated child" then come back and tell me that nanny knows best

[fireball]

they gave me a block of cheese....... bullshit taxcut... mutter mutter......

[NinjaNanna]

Usually enjoy your posts merv but this one.......!!!!

NZGR/Toll or the parts the government bought back:

Too narrow, too old, too run down and too inefficient, it's just a lemon, if it was a bike, would "you" have bought it?

I come from a railway family, it's in my blood but this one is an under performing liability, just an expensive toy train set. Bad move! (IMHO) John.

MAybe so but still cheaper than building one from scratch again and then still having a cheap competitor to contend with

[oldrider]

MAybe so but still cheaper than building one from scratch again and then still having a cheap competitor to contend with

Good point but you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear and the gauge (tracks) will still be too narrow even if they do succeed.

It's like buying a Postie bike, doing it up and expecting it to do the job that really needs a Goldwing.

They (The government) will just legislate against the cheap competitor and falsely even up the playing field at the customer and or taxpayers expense.

Notice that Toll didn't sell them back the road services, that was making money. Cheers John. (just my opinion)