1982 – The Reserve Bank ‘parties’ like it’s 1982…
61-60 – The vote bringing guaranteed holidays closer for hard-working Kiwis
30 – Million dollars – The cost of collecting National’s petty car park tax that would bring in just $17m
9 – Pix of the situation on the ground in drought-stricken Wairarapa.
1 – Own goal from the PM on Solid Energy’s ‘bid’ for Crown investment
425,000 – Dollars – Lesley Longstone’s golden handshake = a year’s worth of food in schools for 1000 kids.
1,200 – Dollars a day paid to Mighty River Power directors to prep the asset for sale.
389 – Million reasons to appear before Select Committee.
2 – The number of fingers in Mighty River’s salute to the taxpayer.
1 – Government out of touch – selling the assets all Kiwis currently own.
1,600,000,000 – In tax evasion v $39 mil in welfare fraud. White collar v blue collar = double standards?
67,000,000 – Our returns halve when Mighty River Power is hocked off by the Government
180 – Dollars – the latest median weekly wage gap with Australia
24 – Hours of porkies, pokies and pork barrel politics from National
1 – Problem gambler
169,000,000 - Dollars higher than forecast: National’s deficit keeps growing…
450,000 - Dollars – the cost to taxpayers of two reports into the MSD privacy breach.
50,000th - Kiwi left for Oz yesterday
7000 - Teachers have signed a petition rejecting the Government’s education reform agenda in Canterbury.
1 – Good case of ‘Claustrophilia’. 520 Wellingtonians donned Santa suits last night in a charity run for KidsCan – Merry Christmas!
259,500 - Kiwi blokes took home $80,000 or more in personal income this year – but only 92,500 women did. Gender pay gap? Yes.
125,000 - Dollars invoiced to the Education Ministry this week by schools to cover extra staff hours spent sorting Novopay.
110,000 - The annual income for one of National’s “more affordable” homes.
100,000 - Kiwi families Labour will help into genuinely affordable homes.
14,497 - Dollars – The NZ Facebook tax bill for last year. Sound small? it is!
1 - Worthwhile cause, amongst others, to support this Christmas.
100,000 - Kiwi families would be helped into their own modern, affordable home, through Labour’s new housing initiative – KiwiBuild.
2,000 - Apprenticeships and numerous skilled jobs would be created through KiwiBuild – which could be the largest public building programme in 50 years.
5 - Per cent of new homes built in New Zealand at the moment are entry-level, affordable, homes. That is a fraction of what we should be able to offer.
2 - Billion dollars a year would be generated in economic growth through extra jobs and spending on construction materials.
4,444,444 - The population of NZ as of sometime on Nov 1.
6,300 - People have had private information wrongly released by IRD in the last year.
1,432 - Of 7,307 private files downloaded at MSD self-service kiosks contained personal information from clients.
12.90 - Dollars or one tenth of the actual cost for tickets to Russell Brand, for a group of fans who cashed in on a stuff up by Ticketek.
0 - Dollars for flights to and from Christchurch as an airfares war heats up.
256 million – dollars pulled in by Liz Taylor, who tops this year’s list of moneymaking ‘dead celebrities’
2,600 – Young beneficiaries have been issued payment cards where the last four digits printed on the cards are used as pin numbers. And Paula Bennett says she takes security seriously…
355 – km/h, the speed American John Hennessy cracked on a public road while testing a new speed camera. Don’t try this at home
220 – Workers from the Spring Creek Mine in Greymouth lost their jobs yesterday as the result of John Key’s asset sales obsession.
2.119 – dollars, the price of 91 octane at BP after the second fall in petrol prices this week.
By the numbers
$1,000,000 – Won by a 19-year-old Aucklander with Bonus Bonds his parents were going to transfer into their name, but forgot…
$40,000 – A healthy pay rise for MFATs Chief Exec John Allen. With the Government slashing overseas posts and allowances you could say this was a bit of a double standard…
40,000 – Manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past four years.
$10.80 – The Government’s new youth hourly pay rate. Bet that won’t do much to stop our kids moving to Oz.
1 - Enemy of the state that has had his feathers ruffled.
90,000 - Hours of service to be cut through court closures announced this week.
18 - Dollars a week – the amount real median incomes for all New Zealanders have fallen (3.7%) over the past three years
3 - Inquiries into the Dotcom affair – by police, Rebecca Kitteridge and Paul Neazor
1 - Toy-throwing demonstration from Hekia Parata during an address to the PPTA
1 - Prime Minister looking for assistance with memory loss.
500,000 – dollars worth of pyrotechnics that went into the biggest fireworks display the country – but not the GCSB et al – had ever seen, put on by Dotcom on New Year’s Eve 2010 to celebrate his NZ residency.
3 – years old: the immigration legislation stating the GCSB couldn’t spy on NZ residents.
2 - apologies from John Key – to Dotcom and the NZ public – for the appalling behaviour of our top spy agency and the various other officials involved in the case, most of whom the PM is ultimately responsible for.
1 - giant rhinoceros on the lawn of Dotcom’s Coatesville mansion, possibly arrived by cabbage boat courtesy of a former Auckland mayor.
39,956 - the record net number of Kiwis who left NZ for better opportunities in Oz in the year to August 2012.
11 - more billionaires who this week said they would follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and donate half their fortunes to charity.
1.50 - the dollar amount National and its coalition partners couldn’t see fit to give to our lowest paid workers as they voted down my member’s Bill.
1 - gold medal back in the hands of its rightful owner.
0 - successful attempts at humour from a constipated Mr Key.
562,000 - Dollars – The amount National put into sports funding for private schools when only $317,000 went into supporting organisations providing food to hungry children in low decile schools.
50,000 - Dollars- John Banks ‘best kept secret’.
77 - Percent – the New Zealand Police’s overall trust and confidence rating in their latest citizens’ satisfaction survey.
20 - New episodes of Back Benches will hit your screens on Prime in 2013.
2 - Little Boys star Bret McKenzie gives a killer impression of Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt on Breakfast TV (1:02:00 in).
Yes, I am trying to steal David Clark’s thunder- but I’m not the only one.
A few weeks ago at the Women’s Expo in Tauranga, the National Party had a stall.
They decided they needed a fresh idea – a “hook” to get women interacting with them.
They needed something to get attention, something that would let women know they were on their side.
Problem was, National are out of any new ideas of their own and their current policies are bad for women.
So here’s what they chose to ask the women of Tauranga about :-
“Should Waitangi Day and AnzacDay be Mondayised when they fall on a weekend.”
Expo-goers were asked to put a dot under “Yes or “No” and I have it on good authority that it was a landslide to the Yes vote.
I wonder of the Nats will now reverse their opposition to this excellent Labour Bill after this feedback from the good folk of Tauranga. Or will they continue to ignore them?
Meanwhile, around the corner, the Labour stall was promoting another excellent Labour Billl – my proposal to extend paid parental leave to 6 months which was also enjoying great support.
So, “by the numbers” when it came to great plans for the future embraced by the people of Tauranga:
Labour – 2
National – 0
Women of Tauranga thinking about Labour’s great policy ideas – Heaps!
1010 - Dollars well spent.
80 - The number of MPs that voted for marriage equality.
60 - Dollars per week. The pay rise my members bill would give someone working 40 hours on the minimum wage.
35 - Per cent of children living in poverty are from families where at least one adult has fulltime work or is self-employed. This report - the third in as many weeks – reinforces that we must act on child poverty.
1 - Embarrassing uncle two steps behind again.
21 - Per cent of New Zealand children living in hardship.
5 - Soldiers in our hearts and minds.
3 - Per cent drop in median household incomes.
1 - Economic reality check for the government.
1 - Weak Government response to child poverty.
90 - Million – the cost of the half-baked basin reserve fly-over plan.
47 - Per cent of retirees don’t feel like they have enough money to get by.
20 - Nearly 20 per cent of children in New Zealand live in poverty according to Paula Bennett’s own green paper on vulnerable children.
19 - Per cent – the projected portion of government transport spending to be used on local roads by 2022 compared with 60 per cent for National’s gold-plated highway projects.
3 - The age Speaker Lockwood Smith accused Paula Bennett of acting in question time this week.
57,000 - More people are unemployed since National took office, in addition to the 150,000 that have gone to Australia.
2,000 - The number of people in the year to June that left Otago looking for better incomes and a new life in Oz.
1,000 - Dollars spent on promotional putty for The Ministry of Science and Innovation that lasted only 18 months.
50 - Cleaners uphill battle to have their redundancy entitlements recognised has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
7000 - Rotting railway sleepers brought by KiwiRail from Peru raise questions about the company’s procurement policies. You get what you pay for…
4042 - Hours spent by Crown Lawyers on the Dotcom case since July last year. They have also spent more than $20,000 on airfares, travel costs and legal fees between October and March.
897 - Dollars – National’s latest barrier for parents trying to access the Family Dispute Resolution Service within the Family Court.
2 - Months – National’s turnaround time from championing quality teaching, to insisting that it doesn’t matter if our teachers don’t have qualifications or training.
5,000 - Students will no longer get allowances for postgraduate study from next year. What a waste of potential. The Government should reverse this decision and stop punishing those who are striving to succeed.
300 – Million will be saved now that National has reconsidered one of its ill-considered gold-plated motorway projects.
72 - NGOs raised concerns this week about the Government’s Green paper on vulnerable children. Labour’s response is that it is time for a Ministry for all children.
1 - Group of Labour MPs who might like to invest in some fashion advice.
