What happened Tuesday

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; many retail rate cuts, strong Auckland building consent growth, dodgy maps released, swap rates approach zero, NZD firm again, & more

1st Sep 20, 3:59pm by David Chaston

ID 22702269 © Daniaphoto | Dreamstime.com

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Westpac have sharply cut many of their key Standard rates, taking them closer to their main rivals. They have not changed their 'special' rates.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
HSBC, Wairarapa BS, Nelson BS, Asset Finance, and Gold Band Finance announced rate cuts. But Asset Finance actually raised its nine month rate.

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION MOVING UP A GEAR
New dwelling consents were particularly strong in Auckland in July (+7.9% year-on-year) although there's been a slide in the number of retirement village units being consented. Nationally however, the change was flat year-on-year. In Australia, July consents were up too, by +6.0% year-on-year.

UDC MUSCLES UP
ANZ has now (finally) sold UDC Finance to Japan's Shinsei Bank for $794 mln. UDC says Shinsei Bank’s strong funding, international experience and reach, coupled with its deep asset finance experience, will be a real advantage in accelerating its growth.

KIWIBANK PROFIT HALVES
Kiwibank's June year profit has been hit as COVID-19 related loan impairments ramp up, expenses rise and income falls.

LISTINGS UP BUT INVENTORY DOWN
New residential property listings were up +16% in August from the same month in 2019. They have recovered well after the Level 4 lockdown but remained flat over winter. Inventory levels are suddenly back down to the record lows we saw in mid 2016.

GOOD FUTURE
Rabobank sees New Zealand beef returns staying elevated, especially on good demand from the US market. They see the China market fading somewhat, and although the UK trade deal may hit the headlines, it will be of little consequence to us.

COVERED BOND INVESTORS GET OFF LIGHTLY
Ratings agency Fitch says that although the take-up of mortgage payment holidays were widespread, the quality of the covered bonds pool mean't that these investors suffered only a minor impact, with the specific pool impact ranging from 0% to 12%.

DODGY MAPS RELEASED
Farmers fear they have been stitched up. Federated Farmers is pointing out that new 'slope' maps issued by the Government can be wildly wrong. This is important to farmers because it is defined within the Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020. These low slope maps take in some hill and high country that is so steep, farmers will need to pay for helicopters to lift poles and other supplies in order to fence off waterways. The new maps are wildly different to what the Government talked about in consultation (which farmers supported), quadrupling costs indicated in consultation.

EQUITY UPDATES
The S&P500 ended its session earlier down -0.2%. Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo are all up about +0.2% so far in early trade. The ASX200 is getting thrashed today, down -2.0% in early afternoon trade. And the NZX50 Capital Index is also on a downer, down -1.2% near its close.

SWAP RATES UPDATE
Update: Swap rates fell sharply today at the end of trading especially at the short end. Two year swaps fell -4 bps to just 0.04% (that is $4 of interest per year for a $10,000 position), five year rates fell to 0.15%. These are notable moves down and are approaching 0%. The 90-day bank bill rate is up +1 bps to 0.30%. The Aussie Govt 10yr is unchanged at 0.99%. The China Govt 10yr is down -3 bps at 3.06%. But the NZ Govt 10yr yield is back up, rising by +2 bps to 0.63%. The UST 10yr has retreated from yesterday's close, down -2 bps to 0.71%.

NZ DOLLAR FIRM
The Kiwi dollar has risen again, now at 67.6 USc as the greenback fades further. But against the Aussie we are little-changed at 91.3 AUc. Against the euro we are soft at 56.4 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 is holding at 70.

BITCOIN UNCHANGED
The price of bitcoin is unchanged at US$11,648. The bitcoin price is charted in the currency set below.

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101 Comments

by maninavan | 1st Sep 20, 4:00pm 1598932810

TSB bank went down today. No website, no phones, internet or mobile banking.

by realterms | 1st Sep 20, 4:11pm 1598933470

Hm. And nzx down for a fifth day?

by ShoreThing | 1st Sep 20, 4:17pm 1598933873

Have been able to load NZX a couple of times, but mostly just failed. Definitely still struggling with whatever they are dealing with.

by Cantabrians | 1st Sep 20, 5:32pm 1598938353

Some failed loads but mostly ok (albeit very slow) with refresh.

by Foyle | 1st Sep 20, 4:05pm 1598933139

16.2% of kiwis now on benefits, nearly 4% higher than worst of GFC and approaching levels seen in worst days of late 80's recessions, and we haven't gotten anywhere near the worst of the fallout from lockdowns and closed borders. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12361086

by bw | 1st Sep 20, 4:20pm 1598934032

And demographics being what they are, there's a headwind blowing, even without the current economic issues.

the population aged 65 years and over is expected to pick up after the year 2011, when the large baby boom generation begins to enter this age group. For instance, between 2011 and 2021 the elderly population is projected to grow by about 200,000 and in the following ten years by 230,000. By 2051, there will be over 1.14 million people aged 65 years and over in New Zealand.

And all of them are entitled to the aged benefit.

by cjmain | 1st Sep 20, 4:20pm 1598934032

it's a terribly phrased paragraph, I'll give you that, but 16.2% of kiwis are NOT on benefits.

from the article you link

'It found that, if Treasury projections are correct, and the percentage of the working population on benefits reaches 16.2 per cent, it would be the highest number ever - far eclipsing the rate of beneficiaries during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), when it was at 12.4 per cent.'

by David Chaston | 1st Sep 20, 4:39pm 1598935189

I think you may find that many more than 16% of Kiwis are on taxpayer benefits (income transfer payments). You need to count the standard working age benefits (probably more than 350,000), those on National Super (more than 800,000), and those on WfF tax credits (maybe more than 260,000). These alone add up to more than 1.4 mln people or 28% of the population. Then there are other programs like hardship, the accommodation supplement, special needs grants, and others. Most of these will be doubleups to the other programs, but it seems safe to assume more than 30% of the population are on benefits.

by J.C. | 1st Sep 20, 4:55pm 1598936130

Socialism!

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 5:43pm 1598938986

Try 'Social Responsibility'. It's a better fit with the New Zealand economy, which definitely ain't socialist.

by Rob Reid | 1st Sep 20, 7:12pm 1598944333

Try socialism! As in, govt spending being 44% of GDP:
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/105115/budget-202021-summary-all-spendi…

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 10:17pm 1598955426

I think you need to broaden your horizons a bit. Have a look at other countries like the US - Oh that's right, they don't incude social security in their GDP data, but defense/offence spending? ...that's another story. WE are a social democracy firmly rooted in capitalist principles. Until recently, the bottom half of our income earners could expect a fair deal from the top 10%. That's changed over the past 20-30 years, to the point where national sovereignty is a moot point.

You can twist and turn it every way you like, but ENZED is not, and has never been a socialist country. The 'new discourse' on whats left and right has become so twisted by falsehoods that I am frightened for my children, who deserve a better history than the one we'r currently dishing up.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 8:53pm 1598950392

So if we double the payments - we'll be doubly socially responsible right? Even if we do nothing to address the systemic issues necessitating programs like WfF.

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 10:16pm 1598955389

Dealing with the systemic issues is what we as a sovereign nation must do. Which is why I find John Key and his successors plan to sell of a few more mega hectares to American business(men/people) so offensive. We have land, we have productive capacity, we have citizens and we have a bi-cultural anchor that should give us a clear steer on the direction that ENZED as a nation needs to head. Why do we persist with policies that alienate land, or gift citizenship to those interested only in self-enrichment (Peter Thiel anyone?).

Yes we will be doubly socially responsible if we spend on programmes that promote equity and enable the people least likely to succeed.

It take guts and more compassion than many on this site are willing to subscribe to.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 10:01pm 1598954484

Promoting spending for consumption is a short sighted one way ticket to collective poverty.

by Audaxes | 1st Sep 20, 5:07pm 1598936859

"The number of people claiming benefits grew by nearly 12% during New Zealand’s first month of lockdown, a new report has found, representing a demand for social welfare “unprecedented in modern history”, the government says.

Analysis by the Ministry of Social Development showed the jump in April – which saw 120,000 more people claim welfare – was the biggest monthly rise in 24 years, “noting that this period includes the global financial crisis and the Asian crisis”.Link

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 5:13pm 1598937192

and it could just be the beginning

by Theoracle | 1st Sep 20, 6:45pm 1598942743

David I recall a statistic some years ago over half of working age kiwis pay no net tax, taking home a range of benefits. Not sure if this is still the case.

by Theoracle | 1st Sep 20, 6:46pm 1598942815

Included in those stats are individuals like my in law, a barrister who earns $1,500/ hour yet it eligible for benefits through very clever accounting.

by Ahuhyeah | 1st Sep 20, 7:54pm 1598946882

That's the stuff that raises blood pressure. FFS.

by profile | 1st Sep 20, 8:58pm 1598950703

Cunningly designed to keep salaries low and dependent on big government.
"Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said it was most acutely an issue for a household's primary earner moving from a benefit to paid employment. Someone on sole parent support who earns more than $200 a week loses 70c in the dollar of benefits.

...The introduction of Working for Families by the Labour Government last decade tried to address rising living costs that were squeezing budgets for lower-middle class households, and was also a convenient vote-capturing exercise.

"Unfortunately it didn't try to address the fundamental problems, such as soaring house prices, that were actually causing the squeeze. Working for Families has effectively created an additional layer of beneficiaries who are dependent on the government for some of their income and, depending on their circumstances, don't have an easy way of getting out of that dependency given the incentives of the system. This dependency also makes it very difficult for any incoming government to substantially change or remove the system."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/114949505/tax-system-means-for-some-it…

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 9:05pm 1598951115

We need some courageous politicians. Key railed against it as "communism by stealth" but National only kept it around and indeed last election ran on increasing it. ACT are not running on getting rid of it, nor are National this time around. Like school zones, principles of freedom have fallen away in favour of preserving property portfolio wealth while keeping wages low.

by profile | 1st Sep 20, 9:15pm 1598951740

Yep - a multi party disgrace.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 9:07pm 1598951244

I am a supporter of WFF, but only because those 'fundamental problems' weren't, and haven't been, addressed. Which, by the way, the Clark government made bugger all effort to address. Her government was pathetic on housing.
Good points from Kiernan.
I don't get WFF and have never been eligible. My household earns well over the threshold. Even then, it's hard yakker covering costs with two children.
It must be extremely hard for families with 2 or more kids earning under 100K per annum in Auckland.

by sharetrader | 1st Sep 20, 9:41pm 1598953282

i object to WFF because of the mechanism used for delivery, i have no problem with the concept that people with kids should get help but the mechanism to deliver it is bureaucratic and costly, it like when you give a $1 to a charity by the time it gets to the end recipient there is only 10 cents left.

by blobbles | 1st Sep 20, 10:37pm 1598956670

Then I don't think you understand what WFF does. It is essentially a massive productivity killer, it subsidises business owners, who then can employ more people to do the same amount of work. Instead of working smarter and being more productive, it has killed productivity and discouraged the knowledge economy and competitive labour market. It is a pernicious policy that fixes nothing long term and does tremendous long term damage. Sure, it means people will be able to pay the rent tomorrow or buy them more clothes etc, but it is also a subsidy for landlords and the supermarket business. On top of that, there is an army of bureaucrats that have to administer it. At the most it should have been a temporary policy while other things were sorted.

If you are so for WFF, just put in a UBI. Simple, near impossible to game and virtually everyone is better off.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 10:49pm 1598957364

Good points. But note as I say my support for wff is not a preference. As I stated I would much rather if it wasn't done and the housing mess was sorted out. But it wasn't and it won't be.
And yes I am open to other more efficient methods that serve effectively the same purpose.

by Lapun | 1st Sep 20, 11:11pm 1598958708

Sort out housing of course. The costs of accommodation allowance would pay for plenty of cheap houses.
Bring back universal child benefit - it worked in the past, it is hard to cheat, it is cheap to administer and it could stop discouraging parents to stay together. Investing in all children makes sense. The only reason it isn't some party's policy is because it would mean increasing income tax to pay for it.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 11:18pm 1598959117

I don't think any political party has the will or the competence to sort out housing. It's a lost cause. I won't buy ANY party's promises in sorting it out. Not one iota. Which means we will still need wff in perpetuity or other options as you suggest.

by RickStrauss | 2nd Sep 20, 10:04am 1598997867

In that case perhaps it will only get sorted when it causes massive collapse or massive social unrest. A la Muldoon pushing NZ to the edge of bankruptcy before any government was really given the mandate by the people to effect change. Suggests young people are best served by getting angry and active enough to take serious action.

by herenow0 | 1st Sep 20, 4:27pm 1598934470

Will stronger NZD help? 25% appreciation in 4 months, and headed higher..

by realterms | 1st Sep 20, 4:39pm 1598935140

Or essentially nil change YTD, depending on how you want to look at it. But, no, it won't help.

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 4:51pm 1598935909

Given we subsidise investment property I think we can safely assume that we are in some ways giving out too much in benefits.

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 5:48pm 1598939325

Well put RS. At a time like this a REAL capital gains tax makes more sense than ever. As our silver spoon ACT party leaders suggest that the poorest take a wage/benefit cut. property sails on. Like many others on this site, I'm a hypocrite as we have rental property investments but gee... even I'm feeling a wee bit squeamish about the source of recent value growth.

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 5:54pm 1598939651

I'm a farmer, I would love to have the equivalent of the accommodation supplement pouring 4 billion a year into my industry.

by Advisor | 1st Sep 20, 7:02pm 1598943772

Nobody would mind redirecting subsidies to job-creating productive sector instead of property investments, where not only current income is subsidised by the taxpayer and future income and capital gains are protected by policy failures such as RMA (curtailing supply) and unbridled migration (pumping up demand).

by HeavyG | 1st Sep 20, 8:49pm 1598950169

At least that much is being spent by beneficiaries (including the elderly and working for families) on food grown in NZ.

by youngdumbandbroke | 1st Sep 20, 9:29pm 1598952585

Believe it or not, people need food to survive.

by HeavyG | 2nd Sep 20, 11:08am 1599001683

Woosh...

by powerdownkiwi | 1st Sep 20, 9:41pm 1598953275

AJ - you get subsidised left right and centre. You think farming pays its way?

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 9:55pm 1598954138

AJ - are you saying you need to be subsidised to put a roof over your head? Best put a stop to those Queenstown ski trips then.

by blobbles | 1st Sep 20, 5:04pm 1598936656

Uhhh... around 20% are also getting Super, which will be almost 30% by end of the decade... aren't something like 40% of families getting WFF too. Then there's 100s of millions paid out every year to motel owners as accommodation supplements...

The pool of productive to non-productive people in this country is rapidly going in the opposite direction that it needs to. But don't worry, house prices are rising, because that's what we need. Productive industries? Don't make me laugh. Speculative industries, that's what we need.

The absolute lunacy of the past 20 years is going to come home to roost over the next decade or so as it all unwinds...

by frazz | 1st Sep 20, 5:13pm 1598937233

To simplify things - in a Nutshell the never-ending debt growth has kept the Boomers in a delusional state since they entered the workforce at the same time that the US went off the gold standard. They were first in on a massively successful pyramid scheme and now they want the Z & Millennial generation to buy their inflated assets.
Will end in tears - the end.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 8:57pm 1598950656

You have to feel for the Boomers come on... I mean.... those cruises to Alaska are really hard to book right now. They've had to resort to buying a spa pool! It's atrocious!

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 9:58pm 1598954313

Spa pool? I'm saving to fix the foundations so our home won't be condemned by Wellington City Council - all so some millenial can buy their perfect coastal property without putting in am ounce of work.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 10:03pm 1598954597

Well how are you going to teach them a work ethic if you do that? Next you'll be advocating doubling their WfF benefits!

by Advisor | 1st Sep 20, 6:20pm 1598941244

Foreign-owned "productive" companies (think Airbnb, Facebook, Google, Apple), much like speculators in NZ, exploit loopholes in our tax system to avoid paying their fair-share, despite sucking billions out of our economy each year.

This also gives an unfair advantage to global giants against local players on NZ's economic landscape. When these local companies finally give up due to their disadvantaged financial position, overseas investors use the cash from the un-taxed income, which was stashed away in some Caribbean island this whole time, to acquire our locally-owned enterprises and our broken system reports this outcome as a win for NZ Inc. Hooray!

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 7:42pm 1598946131

There's a big discussion to be had here about what a company should be as a participant in society.

by Uninterested | 1st Sep 20, 4:07pm 1598933254

It was telling that after the Chch earthquake the banks VERY quickly took a large number of houses there out of the covered bond pools. Pretty much the first thing they did.

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 4:28pm 1598934535

I’m in awe of how a tiny automaker with less than 1% global market share is a Supernatural Phenomenon and the 7th most valuable US stock.
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/08/31/tesla-the-triple-wtf-chart-of-the-yea…

by Lanthanide | 1st Sep 20, 4:32pm 1598934774

Because they do a lot more than make cars and their potential future growth reflects that fact.

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 4:33pm 1598934830

"things like Tesla, the minuscule automaker with a global market share of less than 1%, isn’t actually an automaker with stagnant revenues in a long-term stagnant or declining industry, but a data company with a secret government contract to populate Mars or whatever. You just have to put your brain on Tesla Autopilot and believe in it."

by realterms | 1st Sep 20, 4:40pm 1598935226

It's totally bonkers, and I love tesla. The short squeeze must have been epic.

by Te Kooti | 1st Sep 20, 6:18pm 1598941080

Apparently Tesla do have some sort of a technology moat but still, they only make money from flogging carbon credits to ICE. They received huge subsidies as well. I'd be pretty p155ed if I was GM or Ford.

NZ futures very negative now, -10bp out of June - cash rate of less then -.25%.

by Foyle | 1st Sep 20, 5:43pm 1598939016

Yep, what would a near-monopoly on autonomous driving tech for 5-10 years (and super high entry barrier for potential competitors trying to catch up) be worth? I think probably more than Apple or Google IF it works (but that is probably more than a 10-20% chance). If not for that they would be worth less than BMW ($40 Billion) not the 400 Billion they are currently at.

by sharetrader | 1st Sep 20, 9:51pm 1598953874

as a tesla shareholder, i am amazed at the forever increase in price, i know they do more than make electric cars that is only the face of the company, it is the tech and battery development that is the real end game, but even when elon comes out on twitter and says it is over priced you have to wonder when it will turn (and he didnt get fined this time)

by Glitzy | 1st Sep 20, 10:17pm 1598955457

I'd say the end game has always been regulatory arbitrage. Whether it was solar city sucking on state subsidies or Tesla flogging cars in jurisdictions where electric cars have lower or zero new vehicle taxes. Have to hand it to Musk he is the King of that trade.

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 4:29pm 1598934591

careful out there, this is going to be one hell of a ride.

“On behalf of the whole H2O team, we would first like to extend to you and to your clients our sincere apologies for our risk-adjusted losses, which have been particularly significant since early last week… If 2008 was a liquidity crisis, 2011, a volatility crisis and 2016, a convexity crisis, 2020 is a combination of the three previous shocks.”

https://wolfstreet.com/2020/08/31/e22bn-hedge-fund-h2o-majority-owned-b…

by herenow0 | 1st Sep 20, 4:40pm 1598935214

Lol they believed Adrian Orr and went short the NZD

by bw | 1st Sep 20, 5:03pm 1598936609

" (The distressed company) still clung to one hope: that central banks would step in and save the day by re-pumping the prices of the high-risk asset classes ..."
That one sentence is more than the writing on the wall for H20. EVERYONE thinks the same. And they'll be right until they aren't....

by a watchman | 1st Sep 20, 4:40pm 1598935254

The new slope maps are like the Metservice weather forecasts. You will not be able to trust either of them.

Comments to date indicate few people actually know what happens out in the real world as opposed to the BIG city!

by Andrewj | 1st Sep 20, 4:56pm 1598936173

Just talked to a rancher friend in the States, beef price is way back and hurting, about the same price as we are getting here, dollar adjusted. Happened before and we just kept on sailing, this year will be interesting with all the economic trouble that could hit China.

Zerohedge

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/challenges-are-unprecedented-chinese-…

by Logicthinker | 1st Sep 20, 8:42pm 1598949748

I understand Apple are moving their i-phone production facilities from China to India.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 8:51pm 1598950300

Exactly. Many pundits are being too bullish on China.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 9:13pm 1598951637

Enjoyed the Python reference.

by waymad | 1st Sep 20, 4:45pm 1598935501

Well, this was predictable: JHK reveals how he's gonna Vote - check yer pacemakers....alert the nearest ED....lotta Dead Rats to swallow....

by Pragmatist | 1st Sep 20, 5:23pm 1598937803

Who is JHK when he's at home?

by bw | 1st Sep 20, 5:44pm 1598939094

Just overheard a conversation with someone who got into the sharemarket over lockdown for something to do.
Their main claim to fame and fortune is that they got into Tesla a few weeks back and it's soaring (it is). So I just casually asked, "Do you know what their PE is?" (it's about 5,000 if that makes any sense at all). The reply was "What's a PE?"
There is no hope!

by Te Kooti | 1st Sep 20, 6:12pm 1598940779

No one would buy Tesla if they looked at the numbers to be fair.

by sharetrader | 1st Sep 20, 10:02pm 1598954557

i had friends waiting to get into tesla and they thought it would go lower that 325 when covid hit (because of the fundmentals) as they thought the market would finally price according to what telsa was actually doing
and they have now missed out this time as it got away from them when it recovered, they thought it was a dead cat bounce and was waiting for the second dip, so was i for top up so we all missed the buying op.
nobody knows where this will end, logic would have it would drop back but who knows with this share
if it does those that didnt get in will go told you so, if it does not they will kick themselves and say wouldve shouldve couldve

by Foyle | 1st Sep 20, 6:01pm 1598940086

Latest polling: no significant shift left/right, Labour still have huge lead and greens resurgent.
Labour 48% (-5.5)
National 28.5% (+2)
Greens 11.5% (+3.5)
Act 6% (-0.5)
NZ First 2.5% (+1)

by Lanthanide | 1st Sep 20, 6:59pm 1598943543

This is from Roy Morgan. I'm quite dubious about their polling, ever since about 2016 (and they didn't poll at all in 2018 or 2019) their polling has jumped around a lot from month to month a lot more than the other public polls have, suggesting their internal models aren't as sophisticated, for whatever reason.

In this case the polling was for the month of August, where the only story has COVID-19 resurgence, including the election being delayed by a month, and at the end of the month James Shaw fucking up in funding a private school. There's no reason to believe that the Greens who have been effectively invisible or recipients of bad coverage would gain 3.5% in such an environment.

by Logicthinker | 1st Sep 20, 7:38pm 1598945915

The Greens will maintain thier lead as their base is far more stable than NZ First.
James Shaw will get out of his private school problem by arranging a payback from the school who are charging students to attend.
Interesting National are falling away, is this because Crusher's husband sledged Cindy. I saw this item on Prime but obviously wasn't important enough (!!!) for Three to have it tabled. I wonder why.........

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 7:47pm 1598946442

It may be because he was also liking more conspiracy theorist fodder style posts too...Swing voters may not be keen on the more whacko post content. Or it's just too much reminiscent of Dirty Politics.

by stuart786786 | 1st Sep 20, 6:17pm 1598941040

China ...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12361…

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 6:56pm 1598943374

Interesting to see China lowering itself even further with racist insults:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12361…

by Ngrrk | 1st Sep 20, 7:24pm 1598945075

CCP true colours finally starting to show

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 7:33pm 1598945614

Exactly. Calling Aussies (and almost by association kiwis) the white trash of Asia is kind of like how we used to racistly call the Japanese (and sometimes Chinese) the 'Yellow Peril"

by Rob Reid | 1st Sep 20, 7:52pm 1598946777

I can see the funny side. Just imagine the state of mind they got into to make that statement. I wonder if they had a Whiteboard session to sort of chuck a few ideas around and in the end put a big circle around that one. I'd love to see the rejected ideas - would be like a Monty Python skit.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 7:56pm 1598946970

Ha ha. Yes they seem to have ants in their pants.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 9:05pm 1598951124

We all hate on Aussie, until the Chinese do it, then we get all moral

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 9:07pm 1598951231

We have always been enemies on the sports fields and brothers on the battlefield.

by Rosenstein | 1st Sep 20, 10:04pm 1598954693

And we're their b*tch when it comes to financial services.

by RickStrauss | 2nd Sep 20, 10:07am 1598998053

True. They have enough power to lightly threaten the RBNZ and government.

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 7:49pm 1598946553

They are not stupid. They must know how this will play with Australians. Australians will get their collective backs up and decide to push even harder. I don't see the Aussies reacting to insults with retreat.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 7:58pm 1598947088

What's the point of aggravating the Aussies?
The CCP and for that matter Mr Trump, need to grow up and return to diplomacy, not cheap and nasty racist insults.

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 9:06pm 1598951208

Get a bunch of mentally impoverished narcissists into positions of power then expect them to grow up and act diplomatic?

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 9:10pm 1598951447

The big question for me is why hasn't Trump's party held him to greater account in terms of his behaviour?
Presumably because they have a talent deficit and he's their 'best bet'???

by realterms | 1st Sep 20, 9:15pm 1598951756

Because they're scared of him, or at least his influence on primary voters. Republicans who aren't running for reelection have rather different (public) views of trump.

by Rhumline | 1st Sep 20, 10:19pm 1598955558

That Fritz has been the biggest question for the US for the last six years. You have to look all the way back to 1930's Germany for comparators. The GOP has become a cesspit of self interest and (dare I say it) reaction to 50 years of redemption. Trump is only interested in himself. So are his acolytes.

The party of Lincoln as morphed into a putrid cadaver.

by Fritz | 1st Sep 20, 9:46pm 1598953572

Even propagandists aren't safe in China. Disgusting regime.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/01/media/china-cgtn-cheng-lei-rsdl-intl…

by PonziKiwi | 1st Sep 20, 6:56pm 1598943417

Question if I do not want to use banks do I have the right to do so? Meaning get paid in cash and cash only. Because banks are private business and I have a choice right?

by Nzdan | 1st Sep 20, 7:09pm 1598944197

Yes.

*** Click ***

by PonziKiwi | 1st Sep 20, 7:16pm 1598944561

Thanks nzdan

I was told if you got paid more than $430 in physical cash you are classed as self employed. But I'll comb the site.

by Nzdan | 1st Sep 20, 7:29pm 1598945376

Oh I glazed over your comment, some reason I thought you meant wages/salary.

:main sur le front:

by bw | 1st Sep 20, 7:17pm 1598944657

Two clicks......
But I tried paying the hairdresser in cash yesterday, and she looked at me like I'd landed from Mars!
"Oh", she said," You want to pay with cash?"
That's the way it's going. Keep your spending power in cash by all means, but don't expect everyone to take it from now on ( Cash will eventually go the way of cheques)

by PonziKiwi | 1st Sep 20, 7:29pm 1598945346

So what if I want to avoid deep negative rates?

by RickStrauss | 1st Sep 20, 7:51pm 1598946670

Have a chat to Adrian Orr and let him know.

by Albert2020 | 1st Sep 20, 8:46pm 1598949960

Buy a silver monster box, although wait times are currently long

by Hummy | 1st Sep 20, 7:42pm 1598946124

Unbelievable how amateurish this government is. David Parker with his stupid rushed plan.

by powerdownkiwi | 1st Sep 20, 9:54pm 1598954046

Unbelievable how one-eyed some folk are.

You talking about water? Or Rio Tinto dross?

Or something that represses someone stuffing something.