NEW ZEALAND COAT OF ARMS

Regulation in the NZ Financial Market?

Ponzi schemes alive and well. Is  the NZ Government sudden urgent sense for regulation like the old saying  ‘shutting the door after the horse has bolted’?

The following article by Brian Gaynor New Zealand Herald in the business section dated Tuesday March 9th  2010

titled  ‘Hanover house of cards doomed to fall’

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10630196

Every New Zealander should read this.

Has the government gone mad allowing ex board of directors from Hanover that lost millions of dollars of ordinary New Zealanders start up again. To continue the same pattern not unlike a Ponzi scheme. They are Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin doing the same thing with FAI Money (formerly FAI Finance)

Regulation should be such that these failed Board of Directors of Hanover should be barred from access to operation taking Kiwi Saver funds etc..or any managed funds of any sort.

This includes Don Brash and Auckland Mayor John Banks involved / are on the Board of Directors of Huljich Wealth Management a Kiwi Saver Fund for the following events :

During the Securities Commission probe, discovery finds Mr Huljich Managing Director of Huljich Wealth Management, rewrote its investor statements for retirement fund returns after previous returns did not show Mr Huljich had made two payments in periods ending March 2008 and March 2009 as compensation for investment decisions he made. A Ponzi act.

Mr Don Brash and seemingly Mr John Banks say in that time, a whole years worth of time, they were not informed and did not know. Lame excuse as one would think as a Board of Director of ANY company one would make it their business  TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE BUSINESS …….. and not take a year to find out.

The untidy behaviour like a ragged military flag the torn fabric represent the many New Zealand people who struggled, worked hard whose savings/ retirement funds are at risk and or have been lost: one example by Hanover.

So why bother is the question to save as the two examples given in this article.

Savings? How -Where? With What?

A customer enters a car sales yard with a basic knowledge of a car, knows how to drive it , has a degree of trust and faith in the sales person and the reputation of the company. There is no expectation for a customer to have a degree in mechanics, studied the industry for years and be qualified to follow through with the purchase.

In the financial market with the angst of KIWI SAVER the constant catch words are “customer responsibility” customers should understand the products which are presented: many are in a complex dossier of words that would take either a lawyer or preferably a qualified person with a commerce degree to even understand the basics.

The question is: The New Zealand Government had boldly stepped out to announce that people should choose, take self responsibility for their savings and future retirement and not save by compulsory means for Government Superannuation, answer KIWI SAVER: however with recent rorts, financial institutions misleading the public with untrue accounts of performance already emerging, to the willing “want to save for my retirement “ the customer/investor ( who do not have a commerce degree) who is going to repay the investor their money saved lost on the stock exchange, portfolios gone sour, fraud, mismanaged managed funds, bonds losing value? The Government?

What about the older population that have saved for years, where did the consolidated fund go? Or those that lost everything at the hands of failures by the professionals and financial institutions, mis – managed funds. Is it just ‘tough luck’ ? Or is it the customer did not read enough, understand enough, maybe it was their fault they did not have a commerce degree!!!

To regulate, put in a ‘watch dog’ is just like opening a new pack of expensive cards of over-paid bureaucrats. For such a small populated country a simple percentage of money earned should go into a government superannuation fund that is held, not spent/squandered by the government, that earns interest. Just like a bank.

Ain’t a mechanic and don’t have a commerce degree, perhaps granny was right, put it under the mattress, might not earn interest but at least you have not lost everything.

( Whistlers Mother painting by James McNeill Whistler 1871 )

Granny

Keep it in the Bank?

New Zealand had the National Superannuation, dumped into the Consolidated Fund that seem to vanish like a ghost out the back door. Then Kiwi Saver, the question is where does that money go.?

It is swallowed up by a extraordinary tapestry of portfolios that once one retires would they still be active, healthy or slide into the financial abysses as many financial institutions have of recent.

Portfolios sold between one company and another, tracking “your saving” is worst than a drunken mystery tour in a bus.

Financial houses of the managed funds many unqualified or even understand the market and are/were commission driven and driven by greed and over inflated egos’.

A lot of New Zealanders would like to save, even a clean up of the financial market place, who would trust them, let alone the fact many New Zealanders wages are so poor there is not the money to save.

Playing with numbers creating ‘average’ representation of income for those ( many thousands of families) are below the average earnings it is no wonder the country is becoming poorer by the day.

If the top earners are looked after and the working people are shut out in the cold what is the expectation of the psychology of the social fabric.?

The ordinary people understand the corporate director, or franchise owner, or the man who owns the business takes the risk and should be rewarded as such, however not to the point of million dollar bonuses, government rorts that in the civil sense go unpunished, greed that impoverishes the back bones of the country which is the working man.

Is New Zealand turning into a sweat shop country? The underbelly of society in New Zealand is poverty, hungry children and crime, violence and crimes of family abuse, child abuse, surely some spawned from frustration, stress, a country inept to care for the special needs people, the elderly, the disabled and importantly the contributor to the wealth of the country the working man.

New Zealand has every opportunity to show case a country rich in natural resources, demonstrate that a financial national programme for superannuation that cannot be squandered by successive governments, is it not better to have a modest percentage of interest on that money than as recent events have shown like a pack of cards fold by the rotten hand dealt by financial institutions.

Kiwi saver? Is a rort, put it into the bank or as granny did under the mattress. Why give your hard earned cash to some-one you do not know to “save” for you, use your money to expand or prop up a company, rather than the company expand by its’ own merits on the foundations good business.

In today’s climate the real question is :

“Could you afford to leave a thousand dollars on the street and walk away and trust it is there the next day?”

Radio at home

The rural district some quite isolated have one broadcaster that is reliable, informative, for local content, international content and above all quality.

A cross section extraordinary programmes that reach into the heart of the city to the understanding the agriculture sector for example the riveting story of the apple named “Mrs. Grants Last Stand.”

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/highlights/spectrum3

Mrs Grant had tied herself to her favourite apple tree to stop her husband bulldozing it down.

A wonderful story of the true Kiwi spirit to save heritage colonial past.

True Story from Christchurch Electronic Factory Tait Electronics.

National Radio New Zealand

she sat at her workstation

knowing she was the lucky one

of the factory crew

sitting at the window

winding the electronic cables

she had a view.

Headset on her head

listening to radio new zealand

‘got her ears on’ so they said

they often looked at her nodding head

hands busy winding

sitting alone

at the window.

Sun streaming over the sill

parents would bring her the kid’s homework

no matter the subject

the answer carefully pencilled in.

she would converse on any matter

whenever one had time

politics, sport, books,

racing be it bikes or horses

on medicine to food

and tantalising courses.

She could talk about money

any country, cross great racial divides

philosophical opinions

americas cup

tourist weather

and jibes.

The workbench was empty one day                                                          

sun streamed across the still

headset hanging on her chair

her winding machine still

word raced around “she not well indeed quite ill”

visited her in hospital

before she passed on

she was asked about her vast knowledge

told how she was valued

from adult to children

just before she went

with her last breath nearly spent

“Listen to my headset

national radio . That bought me love

excitement, joy with stories

that could bring tears

as I sat alone at the window all those years.

The sun warming me streaming over the sill

I learnt a diverse spectrum of the world beyond from a

wonderful selection of radio hosts

and saturday by kim hill

every day I traveled

as every day I was schooled  (for i never was lucky to go to a real school)

so on my seat or on my stool

knowledge gained and I be well traveled and i never left my seat “

then her heart gave a final beat

quietly at peace

she went to sleep.

dreams of travel …………………. No advertisements just a sensory input allowing the dreams. A wake up call in the morning with the sound of a New Zealand native bird not the shrill of jingles advertising canned food. Can the idea in changing  the format and keep the funding …….. it is our radio, the peoples radio.

Postal Service NZ

Regardless of the stories of continual bad press of those empowered to serve the public, for example the behaviour of MP’s, Telecom’s continued break downs of communication service to the Nation, the recent one affecting the 111 emergency call number, City Councils that care little for those that reside in City Council flats, for those that always say they will call back and never do or do so a week later there are one or two wonderful good stories.

New Zealand Post Courier Services, for any Track and Trace parcel ease of use on their www. Site, to track, with instant updating. Things can go wrong and human error can occur, in this case as it did, a phone call, explanation, the urgency, the parcel concerned was put on a truck and delivered to the person in Christchurch City within the hour of the phone call.

It is people like the courier driver, the lady at the call centre, the men and woman at the coal face that make the difference.

New Zealand Courier Post Christchurch are to be congratulated for a service that is 1^st class and the good souls who saved the day on this day the 26^th February 2010.

Many could well learn from New Zealand Post Couriers example, especially those noted above.

Politicians are the Civil Servants of the public. In the private sector for a new employee an employment contract is in general given to read,study and sign, for example a pump attendant for Shell or any other company. Some contracts ask, does the recipient understand the terms of employment fully and the terms set out by the company. Finally if the employee accepts such terms and agrees, signs the contract.

As with politicians, who are sworn in and pledge to serve the country, have terms and rule books for behaviour as a servant to the company: in this case the company is the country New Zealand.

The ministerial rule book for politicians given to all ministers arriving into New Zealand parliament outline codes of practice. For example ;

‘use of a credit card for personal expenditure ( regardless of the intent to reimburse) is not permitted ‘

Ministers of the New Zealand Government ( National MP’s) some of the highest paid civil servants who claim of mistakenly billing their ministerial credit card, one would have assumed these so called intelligent men leading the country would know which credit card they passed over for payment purchasing personal items for themselves, family, or for entertaining associated colleagues.

The billing costs for the three Ministers MP Phil Hartley, MP Gerry Brownlee, MP Tim Groserhave been publicly identified for billing three thousand dollars plus for personal use to the ministerial credit cards.

Ignorance of the law, or rules, or terms of contract of employment is no excuse, and an a excuse “it was a mistake” generally the excuse ‘it was a mistake ‘ is used only when caught. A lame excuse for an excuse.

There is no excuse, the deliberate misuse of a credit card  is theft or fraud. In the private sector the employees employment would be terminated by instant dismissal, and criminal charges bought against them.

Politicians should be no different to any other member of the public and should face the consequences of the their behaviour.

Is it not a theft by a servant?

Green Party MP   Sue Kedgley

Sue Kedgley has been a Green Party MP since 1999. argued in parliament that the Government is ‘starving’ New Zealand Radio funding.

Government as always in endeavouring to be seen as intelligent , reply in a childish stupid manner as they do so regularly :

“We have not made cuts to the funding but frozen them”

If frozen, constraints, fiscal access denied, starvation it is.

Sue Kedgley  has an MA (Hons) in Political Science, is the author or co-author of seven books, the most recent one entitled ‘Eating Safely in a Toxic World’.

Jeanette Fitzsimons MP NZ.

New Zealand Parliament still asleep as the wide awake MP waves goodbye.

To Quote in part the Valedictory Speech Jeanette Fitzsimons MP

“But the poor have always been an excuse for policies designed mainly to benefit the rich. The central message I came here with 13 years ago is that we need to find better ways of measuring our economic success and that the aim should be a better economy not a bigger one. An economy based on respect for people and for nature, not on dog-eats-dog competitiveness. The futility of our current measures is shown by the Brash report on Closing the Income Gap with Australia. They have bigger houses (so more housework) more cars per person (so higher greenhouse gases), more than one cell phone each, and drink more alcohol (so more drunkenness and violence) and so we must catch up. What a goal to aim for.

Yet I have to say, with great sadness, that the big picture has not changed much. This place, on which we pin such hopes as the pinnacle of democracy, has proved itself incapable of responding to the crisis that threatens to overwhelm us.  As an institution it is asleep; often in denial; often preoccupied with trivia. When my grandchildren Jasper and Isabella, here in the gallery today, are struggling to bring up their children in thirty years time amid the storms and instability of a changing climate, with little oil left (and that being unaffordable), what will they think of us at the turn of this Millennium? What will they think of a parliament more preoccupied with its own privileges than with the good of humanity? A parliament that spent far more passion and energy on where Bill English parks his car than on where we will get the oil to run it; or on measures to reduce our climate emissions, the pollution of our waterways, the protection of our unique ecosystems and species from extinction? What will they think of governments who had all the information presented to them, who could not claim not to know, but who chose to do nothing? “

End Quote.

Parliaments National Party on pending Tax reform follows a path that demonstrates the feet of mice, not of men/woman of courage, no Lion as the head, allowing the opportunity of New Zealand across all sectors in the country rise to its feet and lead the world in,conservation, industry, solar, housing, employment.

When a man can own four houses and manipulate the fiscal parameters where he pays no tax an example of how many of the top echelons behave in NZ.

No-body minds one being rich, being rich impoverishing the country’s ordinary people ( middle income families and the low income families) many lining up at the food banks , the lip service to a privileged few, a tax package to sustain their greed is criminal and a disgrace to New Zealand.

To propose 15 % gst. Expressing to those on benefits, an increase in the benefit a rise would match. A classic saying in New Zealand is “ Yeah right” sums it up, as rents,food, power,essentials to the basics of life would as well. Receive one lot of rise in ones benefit and pay 10 fold more to live.

With an MP for Social Development Hon. Paula Bennett whose background is to be admired seems to have a mind set in the back rooms of history: instead of facing the reality of today in her drive for employment… where are the jobs… they are not there. Her constraints promotes a continuing path of a dysfunctional organization telling the front people to comply and tie their hands behind their backs fiscally starving a population of the most poor, vulnerable, special needs and sick.

Not unlike the behaviour of one robbing the blind man’s’ contribution box.

The ordinary New Zealanders at the coal face with pick and shovel of life hard at work whilst Parliament stays tucked up in bed, with the teddy bear and sucking thumbs in their mouth fast asleep.

Domestic violence, crime when people are desperate what is parliaments’ expectation?

Goodbye Jeanette Fitzsimons, we will miss your suitcase of life packed with values and tools at a time New Zealand really requires those values and tools, to forge a sustainable and positive future.

http://hazledinebarber.com/the-emperor-with-no-clothes/331/  article to read with/before  ‘Fixing the Tiles on the roof’

If it is broke do we necessarily have to fix it, to quote a special needs person,’thanks I’d rather be disabled however a helping hand would be helpful’.

Integrated to scociety the helping hand ( for those impaired or elderly) is when professionals empowered to ‘give the helping hand’  actually do the job. Not on paper, or shuffling ‘paper’ across internet, philosophizing. or phone calls from Health Officials for an assessment that the client is unaware it is an assessment as most normal people even in the Drs’ surgery when asked “How are you” most reply “Fine”

This did not mean that the assessment is a reality as ‘Fine’  by way of telephone did not see the client, saw if there was food in the cupboard, shopping requirements, or building requirements, to assist in the quality of living (Council Flats) or other physical needs for those housebound.

A cruel act by management for the front-line services, as in hours of domestic or medical assistance, are reduced in a draconian way leaving the most vulnerable in Society almost helpless.

Lop-sided,greedy management, like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, starving the front-line when ample funds are available the fiscal structure of such organizations like an old truck require an overhaul to do the job deliver the tools to  those at the front line to do just that. The job. AND the political will to do so.

An example of doing the job, from Christchurch City Council a housing officer made it his business to physically see his special needs client in a City Council Flat, turned up when he said he would, listened to the simple issue a request for help, later rang back sorted the request with a solution.

Actions like this example, an act of delivering ,respect,professionalism,kindness, a physical action, it is people like this that make the difference. Turning up when arranged, doing the job. A huge difference in a special needs person life however if this action was spread across the community what difference it would make.?

Health Organizations and Councils require raising awareness of the clients; the  most vulnerable of society deserve the dignity and respect  which is not a fraudulent type fact finding to save money phone call , but a physical visit when requesting help.

Cost cutting, dismissing the elderly, special needs, physically impaired people what value do those empowered ‘to give the helping hand’ put on people living with impairments?

No longer in the shadows, the tiles on the roof of society need fixing.

New Zealand gifted with land rich for agriculture, wonderful water supplies a country with an abundance of technology for sustainable living for the future : one questions why so many of the youth leave school unqualified and some barely can read and write.

Is it the teaching, one questions how do the youth reach secondary education unable to read or spell the language. Is it the courses offered in school tired and out of step for the future.

Is there too much of the glossy programs that teach all and nothing. To learn to read a real book and write without a computer and do basic mathematics without a calculator would be a good start.

New Zealanders desire is to engage the young preparing them for work in a profession of their choice where basic values of self worth, the contributions well paid and benefits not only the ‘company’ but to the country. A work place with a future and sustainability.

New Zealand a country known for the No 8 Wire mentally, back-yard builders creators, inventors that over decades contributed to the country and benefited mankind world wide.

Many do not desire to go to university some do not have that academic skill however have extraordinary skills tactile, and other skills.

Education lacks the foresight to harness these skills and energies, courses for example in basic science,mechanical engineering, water care/management. Forestry, the care of the agriculture on the land, animals not in pens for the welfare of the animal producing quality foods.

The list is endless.

New Zealand requires the future school leavers to be armed with skills and the mind to supply a range of companies here in New Zealand requiring a solid work-force innovative with a tool kit of work ethics.

For all the so called jobs out there, that’s no use when no-one can fit the bill, the unemployment rising hand in hand with a muddy education system, the Social Development Ministers answer is “Suck it in” In other words so what, is the attitude from the Minister. The unemployment,sickness benefit,invalids benefits by the time people pay the rent, power, and buy merge supply of food no wonder many in New Zealand are starving and turning to crime, or domestic violence through frustrations. It is not all drugs and booze.

Many are good men and woman at the coal face, at the wheels of Industry that are being crushed. Crushed through fiscal waste,systems dysfunctional and wasteful, by the cost of rhetoric, top management greed and selfishness and the raping of banking systems.

It is Please Sir can I have some more Education…. and a job would be fantastic.

An honest days work for an honest days pay the latter being; that the pay is worthy and give the people a sense of value.