Cost of Parliament

This has had me thinking for some time, just what are we spending a day to run the operation that quit frankly is a fucking joke. Go watch question time on parliament TV for ten minutes and see how it is run, it will be worth it just to educate yourselves on what a circus we are paying top dollar for.
So I wrote parliament services and asked…
“How much does parliament cost to run per day, per hour, per year EVERYTHING included?
MP wages the lot.”

It seems my question wasn’t clear enough though going by the reply as a few thing’s were left off.

“Good morning Stephen,

Attached is a table regarding the cost of running Parliament 2008-2015.

This cost is based on the total voted appropriations for the Parliamentary Service and Office of the Clerk. It includes the salaries for all MPs who are not part of the executive. It excludes all Ministerial salaries, Ministerial Services, DPMC, PCO costs (as they are considered governmental or executive agencies).

Hopefully this is of some use to you.”

Cost of Parliament

Now the thing that jumped out is they worked this out over 24 hours a day 365 days of the year.  But parliament doesn’t sit for those hours.  
I also note there has been a rise of near enough to $2000 per hour since last year. Why? It seems rather extreme for twelve months. That must be around 10%.
I also don’t know if this includes travel expenses for parliamentarians and their associated hangers on or costs of all their electorate offices etc.
Is all their free travel after they retire included?
Is all their retirement packages included? After all they are extremely good, or should I say WE are extremely good to them.

THEN IT GETS MORE INTERESTING
After asking yet again for the total cost I got this back …
COST OF RUNNING PARLIAMENT & Political Executive agencies
Cost of Parliament per Hour 2008-2015
$500,972 per sitting hour or $311,437,000 per year

Now so far no one can tell me if that includes retirement packages. Wait, WHAT? Yes I’m fucking serious.
“I have not been able to confirm directly whether it includes all retirement packages. Some MPs would collect GSF, Kiwisaver, SSRS which I understand are funded differently. Otherwise I would assume retirement packages is aprt of the ongoing cost of these agencies.” That is from Parliamentary services (whom I will say have been good to deal with).

Then you go watch question time and think to yourself “WE ARE PAYING FOR THIS FUCKING SHAMBLES”
We are paying for them to hock OUR assets off cheap.
We are paying for john key to stand there and make pathetic jokes.
We are suffering because of these wankers and all they do is joke and blame others for their fucking mess.
Remember that number. $311,437,000 per year.
Think about that, Panda bears and ponytails do NOT change this fact.
Think about the fact TPPA is hidden from us behind a huge wall of bullshit. WHY???

TPPA and New Zealand P2

Had an interesting conversation at a country pub the other day with rural types.  It seems they hadn’t heard of TPPA, now this is very revealing.  All, or should I say most rural types watch the news on TV and read newspapers.  Yes they are old school and so be it, none of that flowery social media or internet shit for them. (Well some of the reason for that is the terrible internet speeds, but I digress)

Now why haven’t they heard about TPPA?  All I can think is it hasn’t appeared, or been pushed by our mainstream media.  Why not?   This is massive, maybe the biggest agreement NZ has every tried to do and it’s wrong on so many levels for NZ.

When one country starts to dictate like america is trying to do then there should be so much information being pushed to the public here as to educate them.  But there’s not.

From the CIO website ……..”According to TPP: No certification website, “US officials can define another country’s obligations; become directly involved in drafting that country’s relevant law and regulations; demand to review and approve proposed laws before they are presented to the other country’s legislature; and delay certification until the US is satisfied the new laws meet its requirements.””

Yes, that does say they would have a major input into our laws.  Seriously, What. The. Fuck.  How is this even considered???  If we wanted american law we would move to the place.  We don’t.  Our prime minister seems to be in love with the yanks, so he should move there instead of giving them such a free hand here. New Zealand law for New Zealanders. This should NOT even be a consideration.  No ball. Go away america.

The yanks are also pushing this hard in a lot of other countries……….” The agreement’s provisions are designed to boost US trade policy by helping Washington increase exports to the Asia-Pacific region, and to do so on Washington’s own terms. The TPP is also often viewed as a platform for achieving wider US foreign policy goals, and specifically countering the rising influence of China in the region.”                                                                    This is from  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/briefing_note/join/2013/491479/EXPO-INTA_SP(2013)491479_EN.pdf                                                                                                                     This is straight out saying this is what the yanks want.  It doesn’t say we have to agree to it.

In fact if you think about it for, I don’t know, for maybe five seconds you would realise this is in fact a grave mistake for NZ.  Especially when you read that line again….“The TPP is also often viewed as a platform for achieving wider US foreign policy goals, and specifically countering the rising influence of China in the region.”  Hang about, China is a larger trading partner to NZ than america currently is. By a fair amount to.

The list from the NZ treasury department goes:                                                                        Australia: We already have plenty of agreements in place with them.                                       China: This trade is increasing all the time, in fact our biggest growth area.                 America: With about 60% of what we trade with China.                                                                   This came directly from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/economy/overview/2012/22.htm

Now our own government keeps touting the dairy trade with China, yet they are happy to shit on them with something like this.

Here in NZ we have Pharmac, it works and it gives us cheap medicine,  but if TPPA happens that is gone to, then we’ll have the pleasure of paying what the yank companies dictate.

All this of course is happening in secrecy.  WHY?  WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO HIDE??? Who are they hiding it from?   All those people and many others like them that I was talking to at the pub that haven’t heard about it yet?  I think so.

A very good resource for information on TPPA is  http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/what-is-the-tppa/

PS: I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off having a closer relationship with Russia, they don’t appear to be using bully boy tactics a long way from home……

 

TPPA and New Zealand

Just one of the reasons New Zealand should be running from the TPPA (Tans Pacific Partnership Agreement).  Oceanagold is big in this country, just ask them! Here ya go Oceanagold

What would happen if they were turned down?  Sue the New Zealand government, so in effect the NZ public?

Well that’s exactly what Oceanagold are doing else where, namely El Salvador  http://en.ria.ru/business/20141003/193595388/Australian-Company-Sues-El-Salvador-Over-Gold-Mining-Permit-.html

Now that Reefton mine is in a very touchie area, somehow they got permission to mine in a conservation park.  In fact this is from doc’s website “Reefton area is surrounded by Victoria Conservation Park, New Zealand’s largest at around 200,000 ha, named after the Victoria Ranges that run almost its entire length.”

Then we start hearing thing’s like this increase in mine size about how doc are letting Oceanagold call the shots.  Something doesn’t sound right.