eight hundred thousand dollars or so a month income - good for 1

I've posted about this back in April.

"Sir Ralph, former CEO of both ASB and Air New Zealand, saw his overall cash, shares and bonus package jump by A$2 million for the year to June to A$8.66 million (NZ$10.45 million)."
But back then the anticipated income was 6 or so million. Now that it is actually 10 million - how do the figures stack up.

Just to reiterate from the previous post.

"And to be honest, $320,000 is a pretty good income. That is $27,000 a month, $877 a day.
A person on $30,000 lives on $2,500 a month or $82 a day. Minus tax for all of these of course.

6 million = $500,000 a month, that's $16,438.36 a day!"

10.45 million = $870,000 a month, that's $28,630 a day - using 365 days a year where the truth is probably closer to 300 or $35,000 a day. Obviously tax etc but the lie of the land is plain.

And just to confirm - i don't care what people earn really. This initial post was because ralph was 'sharing the pain' by taking a 10% pay cut - just like the workers! Spin on top of spin. So yes please feel the pain ralph but don't be sanctimonious about it after all you get over eight hundred thousand dollars a month.

It's not envy it is about fairness.

NZ 6% unemployed - maori 13% unemployed

Maori unemployment is up 55% to 12.6%

Hey, lets call it 13%. Pasifica peoples are around the same figure but overall employment is 6%

So maori unemployment is twice that of most others. Shouldn't that be a source of great shame for this country, that the indigenous people have twice the percentage of people with no jobs, than non-maori.

And one of the big problems is that the numbers will continue to rise and be disproportionate to non-maori. When will something be done - at 25% at 30%, what about 50% of eligible Maori workforce without jobs - when will the seriousness of this situation cut through the politics.

How will Maori cope when every 3rd or 4th person is unemployed?

That is the area where thought is needed. The hui are okay but the hui are just hui - they actually don't do anything, they don't put kai on the table or pay the bills. And at the hui are people on $250,000 - and that means they are removed from the difficulties that someone on $25,000 is on. Can a person earning 10 times what another person does, actually understand and have empathy?

What are all of these unemployed Maori going to do? What are they doing now?

A solution - Te Reo and maoritanga training subsidised at an equivalant rate to the dole.

This could be a massive opportunity to support and strengthen maori culture. We could seriously train and upskill our people in our culture and use that upskilling and knowledge to drive the commercial imperatives.

Heres an example of how we could do it.

"The Navajo Nation Council, responding to ongoing requests from a coalition of tribal members and other supporters, voted to create a Green Economy Commission designed to stimulate both traditional and modern forms of economic activity.

The Commission's focus will be not only to create jobs in this depressed region, where the unemployment rate is 44 percent, but to do so in sustainable, culturally appropriate ways. Current proposals include wool mills and weavers' co-ops, as well as traditional agriculture, green construction, home weatherization, renewable energy, and other projects to promote energy and water efficiency. It will also apply for federal money earmarked for green jobs and economic stimulus.

"A green economy is not a new concept to Navajo," said Tony Skrelunas, a member of the coalition that proposed the bill. "There are many green business opportunities that fit perfectly with our culture. We must once again hearken to such processes to truly build our own economy that puts high value on our tradition - old and modern economic pursuits. In this way, we will build a vibrant economy for the future generations while honoring our great ancestors."

It's not enough to just have jobs we need culture and protection of our environment too. And they can be worked on together.

New leadership for NTHC

Good news that Ngai Tahu Holdings Corporation finally has a new Chair.

Mark Solomon, Kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, announced today that Trevor Burt and Catherine Drayton have been appointed as Directors on Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation Limited (NTHC), with Mr Burt appointed as Chair.

Both appointments are for three years and commence 1 August 2009.

All the best for your mahi.

slip by bennett?

I noticed Paula Bennett on the radio saying that she was surprised by the increase in unemployed here. Offically there are 1200 or so going onto the unemployment benefit every week. But Paula let sip that that is the NET figure. Actually about 2500 people are being made unemployed every week and some jobs are being created thus leaving us with the net figure. But my question is:

How many of those jobs are real, full time jobs and how many are part-time, temporary jobs?

Plus there is no logical reason for the Minister to be surprised unless she wasn't aware of the Economic tsunami and its ramifications, or the figures she is looking at are different to the ones being published.

IMO when the real figures come out - not just bennett will be shocked.

Iwi banks? How about an Iwi country!

This great idea about developing maori or iwi banks was discussed by a Guestposter a month ago on mars2earth here. Worth a bit more consideration in my view. Especially when we have these statements about the obscene profits that banks are still making, from the multi party finance and expenditure select committee:

“Despite the severe recession, banking profits were almost unchanged – that does not appear to reflect a fair burden of adjustment,” David Cunliffe said

We have also discussed this on mars2earth here.

Ahhhh the internet so quick, and good to see we are leading the curve.

Hey Key focus on us not them!

It worries me when I read that:

"Prime Minister John Key says the primary goal of tomorrow's budget is to avoid a credit rating downgrade while his Finance Minister Bill English says the priority is the economy."

Hang on a second, that is a pretty big difference in views. I know that I prefer English's view. Key's comments indicate he is thinking about something but it isn't us or our country. Trying to please the 'international herd' will never work, they keep wanting more.

Focus on this country key, instead of your next job.

Cut up the card

Great news

"The growth in outstanding credit card balances has shrunk to its lowest level since records began, indicating that tougher economic times may be teaching Kiwis to live within their means."

Obviously there is a lot more too it, but during tough economic times it makes sense to reduce debt as soon and as much as possible. Credit cards eat money and they eat it at 20% interest!

Big profits for bank - who's paying?

Interesting bit of news.

"ANZ National Bank’s underlying profit in New Zealand is up 24 per cent to $494 million, in the half year."

Obviously getting rid of the jobs here and over the ditch have done the trick and it's onwards and upwards for this multinational bank.

"Parent company ANZ Banking Group said its net profit for the six months ended March 31 fell 28 percent to A$1.417 billion ($1.79 billion), from A$1.963 billion in the previous corresponding half, after charges for bad debts rose."

Turn it round Ralph - be a hero!

Commonwealth Bank Ralph Norris boss takes $320,000 cut.

I've worked with Ralph and he is a pretty good guy. "Despite his pay cut, Mr Norris will still retain incentive and performance payments, which could see his total remuneration top $6 million next year."

He has taken the pay cut so that he can "... share the pain with customers."

I know you probably won't agree with me Ralph, but how about taking the $320,000 as your remuneration and take a $6 million cut. You could lead the world and other people on very excessive remuneration - say over 1 M a year might follow your example. It would do a hell of a lot more than trying to get the people with no money to work 9 days in the fortnight. It would show that the tears being cried by the very wealthy about this economic tsunami aren't just crocodille tears - that would really share the pain.

And to be honest, $320,000 is a pretty good income. That is $27,000 a month, $877 a day.
A person on $30,000 lives on $2,500 a month or $82 a day. Minus tax for all of these of course.

6 million = $500,000 a month, that's $16,438.36 a day!

Lefty likes righty

It's fair to say that if I needed a label, it would lean to the left.

But I can find gold anywhere and everywhere and that is why I am really pleased to encourage people to read Tau Henare's blog. It covers a lot of the same ground that i like to talk and post about - and if we are entering the big one in terms of depressions then the opportunities to revitalise the culture have also expanded.

I won't repeat the whole blog but I will offer some highlights.

"With all the talk of recession and how to get out of it, I remember only too well the last one. The 80s downturn for us in Otara was like a bold-faced gate crasher who arrived early, wrecked the place and wouldn't leave.
Sixth form certificate wasn't enough to get me a job. Thirty years of service on the railways wasn't enough to protect my father from redundancy.Yet as bad as things may have appeared to others, it was still one of the most upbeat times of my youth. I owe this to the rise of Maori culture. A culture largely forgotten by many of my father's generation as they settled into the gentle pace of urban life."

"The role of culture comes into its own during hard times. Essentially, it's because it distracts us from the hopelessness of our situation while compelling us to become more creative, inventive and imaginative. Together with visionary leadership, we have the very fundamental to freeing ourselves from recession.The combination of visionary leadership and culture can be seen in an earlier era. During the Great Depression, Sir Apirana Ngata understood that this was central to Maori economic recovery. He believed communities had to become self-reliant, socially cohesive and bound together by a peaceful culture with arts at its axis. Consequently, the renaissance was born resulting in a resurgence of marae building, carving, weaving, kapahaka and everything else in between."

"Maori faced similar problems in the 80s. And through the chaos of urbanisation, a 23 per cent unemployment rate and a youthful population, two guardians of an earlier era Sir James Henare and John Rangihau, emerged with a new twist to the old remedy.The revitalisation of Maori language was their focus forged from the old education system and remodelled to create a new philosophy, for out of early childhood centres, te kohanga reo was formed; out of schools, te kura kaupapa; out of universities, wananga; and from there came a record number of Maori tertiary graduates."

"To build on that requires world views to merge. For instance in relation to recent policy statements, where some see just a cycleway, I see an opportunity for cash poor, land rich Maori communities to enter the tourism industry by unlocking some of the most scenic and historically fascinating geography in the country.Where some see an army boot camp, I see shades of the old Maori Battalion whose noble mantra of service and sacrifice for one's country should be an inspiration to a troubled generation. Where some see the nine-day working fortnight as a day off, I see an opportunity for workers to learn Maori."

This is good stuff. I hope Ngai Tahu has the visionary leadership to take the lemons from this economic downturn and give us a recipe, a bowl and a bit of sugar so that we can make enough lemonade satisfy our people.

Key - tell it like it is - we can take it

John Key seems to be doing okay but I do worry about this,

As Vernon Small in the Dom says,
"Unemployment is now set to go above the Treasury's previous worst-case scenario of 7.2 per cent, leaving a further 60,000 people jobless by next year.
Officials' latest predictions are increasingly pessimistic, as the recession appears likely to last more than two years.
But Prime Minister John Key says he is sticking to his "optimistic and sunny" approach, predicting a rebound at the end of the year."

"However, Mr Key repeated yesterday that he expected economic growth would rebound "quite aggressively". He said he had not given up on a recovery later this year.
That has put him at odds with Finance Minister Bill English, who believes a much slower recovery is likely because it will not be as easy to obtain credit as in past rebounds."

I think the Southland boy has a better feel for the truth.

Good points from CEO of Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu

I thought Anake's introduction in the latest Te Karaka hit many good points. I like the water/current/waka metaphors, they make sense to me.

If, as Anake says ,"One quarter of the Maori labour force could therefore be unemployed in the foreseeable future." is true, and I think it is, then we need to prepare. It is good to see Ngai Tahu involved with the Government on the summit's and taskforce's; so why don't we do the same for Ngai Tahu whanui? Perhaps a summit or taskforce, made up of Ngai Tahu from a wide selection of backgrounds and skills.

They could be given responsibility for assessing the current situation, the likely future scenario, the current capacity to support Ngai Tahu whanui, the necessary future capacity that may be required.

At the least, it would give the powers that be a real view of tribal members and at the best, it will help prevent the consequences of dropping financially into a big hole, namely people hurting themselves and others.

There are many areas to consider not just the financial. When you lose your job and the pressure comes on, it's easy to go to drink and drugs, it's easy to feel useless and a burden, and it's easy to get depressed and suicidal. We have to support our people through the grief cycle that occurs when jobs get lost. As Anake says, "Our communities will continue to support whanau ..." True, and we need to support the communities supporting the whanau.

As is often the case, the whole situation is really a wonderful opportunity. This will bring us closer together and it will make us stronger. Adversity binds people together.

A Trillion - how big's that?

G20 gives 1 Trillion dollars to fight the economic crisis.

Will it work? Nobody knows.

How much money is that?

Well, a million seconds is 12 days
a billion seconds is 31 years
a trillion seconds is 31,688 years

So its fair to say it's a lot of money.

What does it look like?


$100



$10,000



1 Million




100 million




1 billion



and



1 Trillion

note they are double stacked pallets and the person is standing by the left hand bottom corner.

Jeepers it does make Ngai Tahu's $600 million look pretty small and fragile.

Queenstown hotel prices drop like a stone

Big bad news for Queenstown. Might have a silver lining if you are looking for somewhere up-market to stay... well... winter is coming.

Hotel prices have fallen 35% in Queenstown from a year ago. That the 3rd biggest fall in hotel prices anywhere in the world!

What does it mean?

Less money (income) - less jobs, less downstream and feeder businesses, less local economy, less completion of the big hotel projects. More Ngai Tahu unemployed.

Good Nelson rally

Nelson jobs rally attracts more than 200
The protest was all about the real problem with this economic crisis - its still about profit. Maybe lower profit but look at the quarterly revenue statements of the big companies and guess what - they are still making profits. Everyone will feel the pain of the economic tsunami coming, and evidence suggests it will take another 6 months before it begins to really be felt, but the ones who will really suffer are those that lose their jobs and have to survive, not the fat cats who had to let the 100 or 5 go. And i'm not talking about the small businesses that are suffering just as much as their workers. Companies and their management should be held to account for their decisions to get rid of staff and if maintaining profits if identified they should be dealt to.