New Zealand's "rockstar economy" -08/05/2015

Nothing to see here. Go back to sleep, go shopping - anything other than  have a close look at the collapse of John Key's "rockstar economy"

I looked in vain for any coverage in the NZ Herald or Fairfax. They're focused on trivia.

The dairy elite from Federated Farmers are lying, just like the government, one even saying that things have "never been better", thanks to a "free and open' economy.  They are telling farmers - don't cut back production, borrow more money from the banks.

Above all, maintain the debt economy.

Meanwhile the reality is that farmers are going to be foreclosed on by the banks just as they are in Australia (ANZ is a big player in this apparently) and farmers are going to take their own lives.

Meanwhile, the government is being shown up for the corrupt,crony capitalists that they are, having flown sheep to Saudi Arabia on Singapore Airlines as a bribe to avoid being sued by a Saudi businessman.

Dairy prices crash a further 9.3 per cent

New price shock for dairy products

RadioNZ,

5 August, 2015

International dairy prices have plunged to their lowest in the seven-year history of the global dairy trade auction.

Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Prices fell 9.3 percent in the latest fortnightly auction, the 10th successive fall this year.

The average price of the key commodity for New Zealand dairy farmers, whole milk powder, has fallen by just over half since March.

The price, which affects Fonterra's forecast payout to its farmer shareholders, took a 10.3 percent dive in last night's auction to $US1590 per tonne.

A contributing factor would have been the volume offered, which was 78 percent greater than at the previous auction.

The overall price index now sits at $US1815 a tonne.

The biggest drop was a 14.4 percent tumble in the price of skimmed milk powder.

AgriHQ analyst Susan Kilsby told Morning Report said Some prices were the lowest since 2002, and dairy companies would be revising down their payments to farmers.

Listen to Susan Kilsby on Morning Report ( 3 min 40 sec )

Ms Kilsby said there was an oversupply of milk on the world market.

"A couple of years ago we saw incredibly high prices for dairy products which encouraged supply around the world.

"We've also seen the quotas come off in the EU which has allowed farmers there to produce essentially as much milk as they like."


Listen to the commentariat tying themselves in knots to explain the further collapse of dairy, the lynchpin of the "rockstar economy"

Commodity prices fall for the fourth consecutive month

And more....

Dairy farmers are bracing themselves for bad news from Fonterra

These next two are worth listening to.
First, listen to Minister of Finance, English, lie through his teeth. Amost ever word he utters is a complete barefaced lie

Next, Winston Peters, almost alone among the politicians, tells it how it really is

Winston Peters says the deal amounts to a massive bribe

But we do have the rest of the economy. We have a housing bubble in Auckland

Auckland market not slowing down.

The Auckland housing market shows no sign of slowing down. The latest QV House Price Index shows the Auckland market has gone up by 18-point

Labour rejects Key's barefaced lies about the government's bribe. 

The PM is a sociopath who lies routinely.

Labour rejects PM's claims on Saudi deal

A former trade minister has rejected the Prime Minister's claim that responsibility for the Saudi sheep trade debacle rests with a former Labour government.

Photo: 123RF

Radio NZ,

5 August, 2015

After months of controversy over its decision to spend $11 million setting up a farm in the Saudi Arabian desert, the Government yesterday released hundreds of pages of official documents dating back to 2007.

The Government has justified the deal, saying the former Labour Government misled Saudi businessman Hamood Al-Ali Al-Khalaf over live sheep exports resuming and it faced possible legal action.

Prime Minister John Key said the papers showed all the responsibility for the problems with trade with Saudi Arabia rested with the former Labour-led Government.

"They were the people who put in the initial ban - they were the people who made, I think, assurances to the Saudis that they were going to find a response to that, they were the people who dispatched Phil Goff to talk to the Saudi ministers saying that they would find a way through.

"And they were the people who deliberately, and I say deliberately, having changed their position, decide to do a complete 180 and not find a decision, made sure that the Saudis did not find out about it until they had made that decision public."

Phil Goff, former Labour minister of foreign affairs and trade, strongly rejects that, saying Labour was open and transparent with the Saudi government.

Former Trade Minister Phil Goff.   Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

He said the Labour Government decided to suspend live sheep exports because of concerns about animal welfare and said at the time that if the issues were resolved then the trade could be resumed.

"We subsequently had our attention drawn to the appalling conditions of slaughter of those animals and in a very open and transparent way made a cabinet decision that for both reasons the trade could not be resumed.

"The Saudis obviously did not like that but they accepted it.

"They were led to believe, under the subsequent National Government, that there would be a change in policy, and they were let down."

The documents show that in 2010, three National Government cabinet ministers met to discuss the restarting of live sheep exports two years later in 2012.

Ministers David Carter, Murray McCully and Tim Groser talked about a possible 15,000 to 25,000 live sheep being sent, as long as the shipment met World Organisation for Animal Health standards.

Those shipments never went ahead.

Mr Goff said that was when Mr Al-Khalaf started to make threats of legal action.

"There is no basis for legal action, that is not the cause for the facilitation payment or the bribe that National made, that was about trying to secure a trade agreement by talking to a private individual who had influence on the Saudi Government."

The facilitation payment Mr Goff refers to is how Labour has been framing a $4 million payment to Mr Al Khalaf which formed part of the $11 million spent on the Saudi farm.

In papers released yesterday, that payment was described as: "recognising the intellectual property the Saudi investor brings to the platform, the services and in-market networks he will contribute, as well as the settlement of the long-running dispute."

Prime Minister John Key.   Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Mr Key defended the decision to set up the farm, saying it was in the best interests of New Zealanders.

"Yeah, it's a creative solution - we all said it was reasonably creative, but there's a very big market there and it's a great way of showcasing New Zealand.

"I mean, yes, we are putting in some money, $11 million or whatever it is, but he's putting in $80 million."

The papers also showed that the Auditor-General warned that the business case for the Saudi farm was weak and that she repeatedly raised her concerns over whether the deal made economic sense, and if parts of it were legal.

Related

• Opposition slams Saudi information delays
• Labour slams Govt's Saudi OIA delay
• Saudi sheep questioning 'farcical' - Labour
• Government didn't tell Saudi to sue - PM
• Saudi businessman told to sue NZ - Greens

Winston Peters says how things really stand

So National are in fact lying about being threatened by a Saudi businessman?

This is bribery, graft and McCully won’t suffer from it because it was Key who promised Hamood Al-ali Al Khalaf the live ban would be lifted.

Martyn Bradbury

The Daily Blog,

5 August, 2015

Un-believable. When ZB of all biased mouth pieces are as scathing of the Saudi bribe as this, you know it’s bad…

Saudi sheep claims “aren’t credible” 

New Zealand’s dealing with the Saudi Arabians since 2007 have been laid bare in around a thousand pages of official documents, released by the Government after the intervention of the Ombudsman.

It’s clear Government claims they were responding to a threat made to the Clark Government of a $30 million lawsuit over the axing of live sheep exports aren’t credible.

It would seem the $30 million was mentioned just once in papers from Murray McCully’s office, long after Labour was voted out and bearing no relation to a threat of that time.

The farm deal was questioned by the Auditor-General saying it raised more questions than answers and the $4 million payment to the Saudi farm owner was, according to a Cabinet decision, made to settle a long running dispute, a reason the Government’s refused to acknowledge.

…Key told Hamood Al-ali Al Khalaf that the live sheep ban would be lifted when National came to power, National u-turned on lifting the ban when the Greens started making it an issue, Hamood Al-ali Al Khalaf got angry and stopped a free trade deal with Saudi Arabia from progressing, National bribed Hamood Al-ali Al Khalaf get the deal back up and running.

This is bribery, graft and McCully won’t suffer from it because it was Key who promised Hamood Al-ali Al Khalaf  the live ban would be lifted.

I’m not sure what’s more alarming, that the Government openly lie and bribe businessmen, that Labour haven’t managed to get McCully sacked or that the NZ voting public don’t have a problem with any of this.

Listen to the government's greatest media apologist, talk this down

What's the issue with the Saudi sheep 

deal?

What's the issue with the Saudi sheep deal?
We're moving in the right direction with the part of the world we want to do more business with, we've appeased a guy who's spent a fortune investing here and we're showcasing our talents. So where's the crime in this Saudi sheep deal?
Posted by Mike Hosking Breakfast on Tuesday, 4 August 2015