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Post by ComfortZone on Aug 4, 2024 3:19:08 GMT 12
on the brighter side, shows what can be done when you have focus and determination www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/08/a_focused_young_couple.html
When he was 16, Charlie Simmons set himself a goal of home ownership by age 20. At the same age, his now girlfriend, Courtney Morison, had lived in rentals all her life, and never for a moment thought she’d own her own home.
Now, both are aged 19 and about to settle on their first home, a $720,000 house in their home town Taupō.
They saved the $160,000 deposit themselves from their supermarket jobs: Both work at Pak’n Save; Simmons as a grocery supervisor and Morison in the deli.
Simmons, who started his working life with a paper run aged 12, has been working at the supermarket for five years, and saving consistently.
Will probably be members of the PacknSave/Foodstuffs millionaires club in 20 years time
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Post by Fogg on Aug 4, 2024 8:28:55 GMT 12
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Post by eri on Aug 4, 2024 10:12:37 GMT 12
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Post by GO30 on Aug 4, 2024 10:42:02 GMT 12
Watching the Wellsford sales and the prices are right up there, noticeably higher than last week. A month ago what was 2.85-3.00 was 3.20-3.30 last week are more 3.50 this week. But hearing more comments of butcher pricing is down so it's not just us who have spotted that. So as it very much appears the shop price does lag the farm gate price, which does make sense but until recently didn't appear that way, I'd expect shop prices to jump up shortly. Using my universal metric of the price per kg of beef mince, the price shot up about 4 to 6 weeks ago. Could get 95CL (or was it 85CL, need a bit of fat for the flavour) for about $12/kg at Gilmours or $14/kg at Pak n Save, that is now $18/kg across the board. Used to be able to pick up whole rump or whole ribeye at bargain prices, thinking about $13/kg for rump and mid to low $20's for ribeye. My perception was that was at end of summer / autumn de-stocking phase. I get mixed up with the weather at the time but fairly sure it was the dry part of autumn where people would have been getting twitchy about grass levels. Jim would probably know what I'm on about. If farmers in large parts of the country did a big weather / feed related de-stock the market would have been flooded with red meat, now they've de-stocked everyone will be sitting on their capital stock and popping out calves. That, and being calving seasons I expect the works are closed for maintenance and no-one is that bothered about red meat prices, in that the price may be high, but volumes would be low to non-existent at this time of year. Last good deal I got at Gilmours was venison leg at about $20/kg (boneless and completely lean). Went into a stew that did ;-) Hmm, I'm seeing lower butcher prices today then 6weeks ago, even 3 weeks ago. Don't do supermarket meat, I prefer to support local business and farmers, not Aussies going out of their way to show us why they got booted from England, theft and dishonesty offences.
Gilmores can have some sharp prices, I know they are a common outlet for places when they are overstocked. Occasionally the supermarkets will get a load. New World Kerikeri a few months back was damn near giving away whole eye fillets, 14 a kg whole frozen. Cancelled order of some sort
Prices are up, in northland not sure how south it goes, due to shortages at the works which comes from either shortage on the farm or the farms not selling due to low prices,which I doubt is in play much today but a few months back it was. 2 odd months ago the works were screaming for stock and my buyer reckons they still are having their moments. Many around us destocked a bit due to no rain which meant grass was very slow. I suspect, but don't know for sure, some around us had a huge grass year last season and may have expected another so didn't seem to stock up on hay/silage and that caught a few off guard so they had to drop numbers as well. We got close to having to quickly lose some as well but I bulked up on silage/hay and then never needed most of it. It was double bagged so has stored very well which is handy as I'm feeding a lot at the moment. Grass is growing again but it's thin. We went from dry no rain to lots of rain (100mm last week alone) and that's been an arse.
So I expect prices to hold up a while until the stock numbers come back up again. The weaner sale a month or so back was big with a lot of stock so it's in the pipeline, just need to grow it bigger. The place is crawling with weaners, young and older, and over the last week or 2 lots of feeders can be seen. That'll boost numbers again.
It seems very reactionary and prices change quite fast. My assumption from watching and sussing around it there are many points in the system that can cause price movements. Could be on the farmer, the works or even Tarquin Hamilton-Smyth a bureaucrat in Wellington who makes decisions based on his vast farming experience, 4 trips to buy milk at the New World Metro on Willis Street. And then add weather,that alsohasa big input and would be a big part ofwhat we are selling play out right now, up north at least.
Sheep should be cheap in the shops, farmers are literally paying, via selling well below cost, to get stock off the farm. Last Dairy auction the subdued prices held, not sure if that's a sign they will stay down of just a blip, we'll see.
And if you want to invest in a small business at the moment, buy a mid size freezer truck and open a home kill operation.They are all balls to the wall busy.
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Post by GO30 on Aug 4, 2024 10:51:46 GMT 12
Yeap not far off and it is 101% self-inflicted due to the average voter being lazy fucker and a masochist.
Populations worldwide are letting their politicians literally get away with murder. NZ is no different bar we tend to drive our heads deeper into the sand.
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Post by sloopjohnb on Aug 4, 2024 11:26:36 GMT 12
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Post by harrytom on Aug 4, 2024 11:56:40 GMT 12
Using my universal metric of the price per kg of beef mince, the price shot up about 4 to 6 weeks ago. Could get 95CL (or was it 85CL, need a bit of fat for the flavour) for about $12/kg at Gilmours or $14/kg at Pak n Save, that is now $18/kg across the board. Used to be able to pick up whole rump or whole ribeye at bargain prices, thinking about $13/kg for rump and mid to low $20's for ribeye. My perception was that was at end of summer / autumn de-stocking phase. I get mixed up with the weather at the time but fairly sure it was the dry part of autumn where people would have been getting twitchy about grass levels. Jim would probably know what I'm on about. If farmers in large parts of the country did a big weather / feed related de-stock the market would have been flooded with red meat, now they've de-stocked everyone will be sitting on their capital stock and popping out calves. That, and being calving seasons I expect the works are closed for maintenance and no-one is that bothered about red meat prices, in that the price may be high, but volumes would be low to non-existent at this time of year. Last good deal I got at Gilmours was venison leg at about $20/kg (boneless and completely lean). Went into a stew that did ;-) Hmm, I'm seeing lower butcher prices today then 6weeks ago, even 3 weeks ago. Don't do supermarket meat, I prefer to support local business and farmers, not Aussies going out of their way to show us why they got booted from England, theft and dishonesty offences.
Gilmores can have some sharp prices, I know they are a common outlet for places when they are overstocked. Occasionally the supermarkets will get a load. New World Kerikeri a few months back was damn near giving away whole eye fillets, 14 a kg whole frozen. Cancelled order of some sort
Prices are up, in northland not sure how south it goes, due to shortages at the works which comes from either shortage on the farm or the farms not selling due to low prices,which I doubt is in play much today but a few months back it was. 2 odd months ago the works were screaming for stock and my buyer reckons they still are having their moments. Many around us destocked a bit due to no rain which meant grass was very slow. I suspect, but don't know for sure, some around us had a huge grass year last season and may have expected another so didn't seem to stock up on hay/silage and that caught a few off guard so they had to drop numbers as well. We got close to having to quickly lose some as well but I bulked up on silage/hay and then never needed most of it. It was double bagged so has stored very well which is handy as I'm feeding a lot at the moment. Grass is growing again but it's thin. We went from dry no rain to lots of rain (100mm last week alone) and that's been an arse.
So I expect prices to hold up a while until the stock numbers come back up again. The weaner sale a month or so back was big with a lot of stock so it's in the pipeline, just need to grow it bigger. The place is crawling with weaners, young and older, and over the last week or 2 lots of feeders can be seen. That'll boost numbers again.
It seems very reactionary and prices change quite fast. My assumption from watching and sussing around it there are many points in the system that can cause price movements. Could be on the farmer, the works or even Tarquin Hamilton-Smyth a bureaucrat in Wellington who makes decisions based on his vast farming experience, 4 trips to buy milk at the New World Metro on Willis Street. And then add weather,that alsohasa big input and would be a big part ofwhat we are selling play out right now, up north at least.
Sheep should be cheap in the shops, farmers are literally paying, via selling well below cost, to get stock off the farm. Last Dairy auction the subdued prices held, not sure if that's a sign they will stay down of just a blip, we'll see.
And if you want to invest in a small business at the moment, buy a mid size freezer truck and open a home kill operation.They are all balls to the wall busy.
They were speaking the other day on the radio,expect beef/lamb to rise sharply due to shortages which will last 3 months. www.stuff.co.nz/money/350362026/beef-and-lamb-menu-shortage-drives-prices-even-rubbish-cuts“Even rubbish cuts - cheap cuts that butchers would have once seen as rubbish like shanks or lamb flaps have soared from around $3 a kilo to around $19 a kilo.” |
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Post by GO30 on Aug 4, 2024 13:04:25 GMT 12
Yeap the law of supply and demand suggests that is inevitable.
Not sure I'd agree on the rubbish cuts term, I tend to call those 'the best value and tastiest cuts'. I'd deal to a bucket of shanks long before I'd even consider an eye fillet. Maybe the prices jumping up are a good thing to teach NZers a cow contains more than just eye fillet and mince.
One thing me and the Wa love are those rolled roasts, sometimes stuffed sometimes not. Belly flaps off beefies rolled and held together with a stick of 20mm dowel. Cheap as and a full on 'rubbish cut' but get one in a crockpot with 1/2 cup of orange juice over it. Cook and then use the juice to make a gravy, find me a cold shower..... magnificent. I even tried one real low and slow one on the baby weber, it came out exceptionally good.
And then Beef cheeks again in the crockpot with 1/2 block of chocolate (the Wa goes all in with a full one), 1/2 bottle of a grunty Red (the other half can be used to help watch the 1st halfcook  ), a small chilli or some flakes, season to taste. Throw that on a nice mash and you've used a rubbish cut to make a ultra simple outcome fit for King Chucky.
The key to the so called 'rubbish cuts' is most tend to love the low n slow. Crockpots and pressure cookers, use those and the so called rubbish cuts can become spectacular.
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Post by eri on Aug 5, 2024 10:10:17 GMT 12
the slow decline and fall of nz's economy The average wage in New Zealand back in 2010 was $959 a week or nearly $50,000 a year. A person earning such a princely wage would have paid $7980 in tax - or 16%. As of March this year, the average salary is $1593 a week, or $82,836 per year. This average person will pay $17,000 in tax - or 21%. Labour have convinced themselves that the problem can be solved with more aggressive tax policies on the diminishing percentage of Kiwis who are creating wealth; so there is no need for any structural changes to improve productivity and thus real incomes. They will form the next government. www.stuff.co.nz/money/350364940/damien-grant-we-may-be-avoiding-technical-recession-we-are-failing-confront-reality |
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Post by ComfortZone on Aug 7, 2024 17:04:41 GMT 12
If the winter continues to be relatively mild and there is not alot of snow melt dam levels are going to be low going into summer
from Act
Thanks Stalinda for your "captains" call f*cking up the country's energy security
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Post by ComfortZone on Aug 8, 2024 4:04:43 GMT 12
more from Kerry Woodham on Power Prices breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/08/kerre-woodham-how-long-is-fix-for.html?m=1We're talking energy today, or rather the lack of it. New Zealand seems to have sleepwalked into an energy crisis, according to the Chairman of Open Country Dairy, the second biggest player in New Zealand's dairy export industry. Laurie Margrain said in a story the crisis is not coming, it's here. He said an example of its arrival is that the factory has had to incorporate standby coal-fired boilers into its brand-new Southland alternative-powered cheese factory, because of the certain risk of insufficient electricity generation.
Another story out within the same 24 hours, the largest employer in the Ruapehu district has paused operations at its pulp mill and sawmill sites after a nearly 600% increase in energy costs since 2021. Wholesale prices have risen from $100 per megawatt hour (MWh) to an average of around $700 per MWh this week. The Chief Executive at Winstone Pulp International said the company has to think about its future now that energy costs have risen from 15% of total production to an excess of 40%. You cannot plan for that. They've done everything they can. They say they can't pass on the increases to customers because they sell into a commodity market where the price is the price.
So this is affecting New Zealand. The overseas buyers don't give a fat rat's bum that we're being held over a barrel by the electricity generators and the retailers, the Gentailers. They don't care, they just want to look at the price. And so if they can't compete because energy costs have risen through the roof, what is their future? As a business, Mike Ryan says we've invested tens of millions into CapEx to improve production and energy efficiency. So they've reduced their energy use by 20 to 30% for every ton produced, they have done everything they can do and yet their future is uncertain.
Minister for Regional Development and Associate Minister for Energy Shane Jones told Heather du Plessis-Allan last night that if prices of electricity are inordinately high, then there needs to be more electricity generated.
“The difficulty is if we have a continually rising cost of electricity, then the only way to deal with that problem is to rapidly expand supply. And that's why the fast track legislation, I've no doubt in my mind, will prove to be incredibly useful so we can accelerate the development of wind farms, solar farms, hopefully some more hydro. And you know we have an inordinately rich resource in New Zealand, which is the geothermal energy, and geothermal energy drilling in other countries goes down 5 or 6 kilometres into the earth and you tap into what's called hot rock, not quite at the magma and that is a profound geothermal resource, but it will probably require the crown and the science institute owned by the Crown to do the exploratory work.”
But for how long? I love the way he just casually says yes, hopefully another hydro dam. Hopefully another hydro dam?! How long would that take? How long would it take to get through even with the fast-track legislation? How long would it take to get through the red tape before there was a spade in the ground? We, along with just about every other nation, signed up to the Paris Accord to reduce emissions or face fines and sanctions, and that's fine. Let's look at alternative ways of doing things, better ways of doing things. But we can't just move away from traditional energy sources until we have another form of renewable, socially acceptable energy that is reliable. So the power companies say they're investing in alternatives and renewables, every single cent they have is being put back into investing in alternative sources of power. And that's one of the reasons why power is so expensive. But in the meantime, what are manufacturers to do while they wait for Shane Jones hydro dam to be built? I wonder if I'd even be alive to see it? While we wait for offshore wind farms to arrive and start spinning, I mean this is pie in the sky. You can want something, you can wish for something, you can hope for something, you can even plan for something, but if it’s not here, how do the manufacturers switch on the lights and turn on the machines? The manufacturing sector has maintained a contribution to GDP of about 11% since 2013.
Do you know how New Zealand makes money? And no, it doesn't print it. No, no, we've seen that that doesn't work. It sells stuff and people buy it, and that gives us an income. So for those of us who work, we sell our services, we sell our goods, we get money, and we can pay the mortgage, and we can buy nice things if there's money left over. And that's how a country works. We sell stuff. The world buys it. We pay our bills and if we've got enough leftover, we can all pay police more and build new hospitals and do all those lovely things that civilized countries do.
So if the manufacturing sector isn't guaranteed a supply of energy, it's going to lose production, it's going to lose customers, and we're going to lose money. We're also going to lose jobs. $9.4 billion worth of exports and the sector employs nearly 1/4 of a million people. It's a big deal. And Shane Jones talked about sweetheart deals, and yes, the power companies could play nice and give the big manufacturers a deal as well. Why would they? They have people to answer to as well. All of these companies are responsible to their shareholders. They can't be doing sweetheart deals and investing in new power new sources of supply. It's a bloody mess. Shane Jones saying hydrothermal, how long is it going to take? The lovely people at the pulp mill need to turn the lights on now and they can't, it is simply unsustainable given the increase in price, so where do we go from here? |
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Post by muzled on Aug 8, 2024 10:10:45 GMT 12
Isn't this what happens in third world countries? www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/08/paying_off_objectors.htmlPaying off objectors
Stuff reports: Meridian Energy is not revealing the amount it has paid Ngāi Tahu as it seeks to renew resource consents for its Waitaki Hydro Power Scheme.
Last year Meridian signed agreements with Ngā Rūnanga o Waitaki (Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki), the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Central South Island Fish & Game which included financial settlements.
The power company has applied to Environment Canterbury (ECan) to renew 18 resource consents to operate its Waitaki Hydro Power Scheme of six stations and 60km of canals for the next 35 years. Submissions opened on July 24 and will close on August 21. The current consents are due to expire next April.
This is what some call Greenmail. Renewing consents for a critical energy supply should be easy and routine. But the RMA isn’t, and so you have to buy off potential objectors. Under the financial agreements, Meridian had said it would pay DOC $2.01m per annum over 35 years, or $73.5m in total, to maintain and restore the braided river and wetland habitat.
Central South Island Fish and Game would receive $80,000 per annum, or $2.8m over 35 years to support the delivery of programmes relating to the research and enhancement of the sports fishery and game birds in the catchment.
Based on the $180m figure, this would leave Ngāi Tahu receiving about $104m over the 35 years.
Sadly, Meridian, DOC, Fish and Game and Ngai Tahu are acting entirely rational here. Meredian need a resource consent to continue to operate the Waitaki Power scheme. The Waitaki Power scheme includes 6 dams that were built throughout the twentieth century, from 1928 through to the 1960s. In total, they supply 18% of the countries electricity and, importantly, over three quarters of our hydro storage capacity. While the dams are of course already built, resource consents need to be renewed around every 30 years to allow the continual operation. Under the RMA, groups like DOC, Fish and Game and Iwi have the ability to hold up a resource consent application for years or decades. Meridian clearly view the cost of such legal challenges and delays can stretch into the hundreds of millions. In such a situation it makes logical sense to pay an organisation to support an application than pay a lawyer to fight them in court. From the point of view of DOC, Fish and Game and Iwi, they have the power to do major financial damage to a company like Meredian. Clearly it is not realistic for dams producing 18% of New Zealand’s electricity to be torn down, but these organisations can use objections to the scheme to extract environmental and financial concessions. The incentive is not new and economists call it ‘rent seeking’. If this is the cost of a reconsent, we can just imagine how much it would cost an electricity company looking to build a new power plant. And such a cost means less investment, and higher electricity prices for all Kiwis. This isn’t a problem with individuals in these organisations but a problem with the RMA. The RMA empowers anyone to stop someone else doing something. It means investment is slow, uncertain and expensive. It means New Zealand is a less productive society. The Government needs to desperately prioritise wholesale RMA reform to move New Zealand ahead. The fast-track approach is at best a short-term fix. It helps big business like Meredian, who may now be wishing they had waited 6 months before signing this cheque, but what is unseen is all the little investments that never happen because of the RMA and will never access a fast track. While Meridian is paying a cheque of over $100 million, this practice isn’t uncommon in the RMA. A farmer looking to increase the size of an effluent spreading area will often be advised to access a letter of support from a local iwi, and the iwi will advise the farmer that the processing cost if somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. It is a regulatory tax that is dragging New Zealand down. Three policy options fr consideration could be: A law requiring any NGO, company or Iwi that receives money from a resource consent applicant to disclose annually how much they received Ban payments from resource consent applicants to potential objectors. Allow them to directly fund remedial work that will satisfy the objector, but don’t allow a cash payment just for not objecting. Remove the special status some organisations have under the RMA which means they get more weight if they object and hence applicants need to get them on board. Have all decisions based purely on the merits of the environmental issues, not on who is objecting |
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Post by eri on Aug 8, 2024 11:44:09 GMT 12
Every bit of upfront koha paid
Eventually has to be paid back by the end user
As the graft increases
So do prices
All the wailing and teeth gnashing does nothing to lower prices
Meanwhile the continuation and expansion of the koha system will see prices continue to rise
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Post by Cantab on Aug 10, 2024 7:25:12 GMT 12
The one with the NZ dollars in it must have got away
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Post by fish on Aug 10, 2024 10:27:11 GMT 12
The one with the NZ dollars in it must have got away I reckon this is a deep fake / photoshop. Surely they'd put the money in a suitcase or gym bag? At least some shopping bags? |
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), a small chilli or some flakes, season to taste. Throw that on a nice mash and you've used a rubbish cut to make a ultra simple outcome fit for King Chucky. 
