Posts by Paul Williams
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This thread's a little older, but I figured it was the best place to note that the iTunes link to the Dimmer album appears to only work in NZ (at least in Australia it takes me to iTunes store which doesn't list Degress of Existence...). Is this something that can be fixed for different countries?
Frustrating as I don't know when it's out in Sydney stores etc and they're not touring Australia...
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I think the point being made is that they're still a high-earning double income family. Six kids is a lot, and certainly expensive, but let's not overlook the fact that they've been financially secure for sometime.
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Or perhaps practices have actually changed somewhat under this government. It might be worth considering that possibility while you're strenuously extrapolating what he said.
That's as I understand it but I think it does need exploration. If it is the case that the rules have been changed then all this calm and reasonable debate about what an MP ought to be paid will be replaced by something altogether different.
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Personally, I'd be more impressed if Parliamentarians passed legislation linking their pay increases to inflation and/or average pay increases in the civil service.
No argument from me Craig.
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Close enough is good enough and all that.
I'm sure that's ironic Matthew. I doubt the public will be as tolerant. Perhaps had Tolley, Bennett and English been less zealous in their mantra, we must tighten the belt, we'd all be more tolerant of a double income family being subsidised into a second million dollar plus home...
English didn't flip his properties, as did the UK MP Jacqui Smith, he has maximised his eligibility for a hand-out at precisely same time as he's telling others they mustn't.
This discussion of Te Reo is making me feel very homesick by the way...
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ThaDude, if that benefit was really easy to get, every rebellious 16-year-old with a bee in their bonnet about being told off for smoking a joint would be on it. C'mon.
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And that's my distant memory too, that the application required evidence of near irreparable break-down of the family unit.I start from the the point that the benefits should be available on reasonable grounds and don't assume families game the system to maximise their entitlement. It'd be great for many many non-financial reasons if even a small number of kids were helped out by family (though not necessarily instead of eligibility for assistance), but you'd have to be sure that you weren't jepoardising the second family's viability...
What other words have a meaning that cuts to the quick of what we, people who live here, are trying to express? What a useful thing!
Hapu, as in "Congrats bro, the missus is Hapu again..."
Korero mai, I had a colleague who used that phrase when she was pissed off at me... kinda softened the inevitable blow.
Temea temea temea, (sp?) as in yada yada yada (I heard that a lot, it seemed directed at me... what does that mean...)
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Had he remained a beneficiary of the trust, he would not have been eligible for much or all of the money he's getting.
I understand it's gone from $400 p.w. to $900-$1000 p.w. since the change of circumstances, that'd be while we're to tighten our belts...
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Tautoko Matthew Poole
I've been searching for the spelling of that word on and off for a while. I learned it, to the extent that you understand a concept from a language you don't speak, when studying and I often think it's precisely the word/concept I most want to use when commenting here...
I'm thinking it means "agree, support, affirm, appreciate", that about right?
Thanks Islander.
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Mark, as desirable as it might be for extended family to pick up where parents fail/struggle, it's not always possible. I don't know about your circumstances, but I'd have trouble taking in my teenage nephew should I need too; my house would be too small and my kids are very young.
I was involved in student politics when student allowances were cut back and loans introduced and I remember the debate about the availability independent circumstances benefit (or whatever they were called). By reducing its availability, I'm pretty sure the trauma of a dysfunctional family would have been compounded by exclusion from university...
Implicit in your comments is a view about extended families that sort of appeals to me; that we ought to be helping out our kith and kin. Perhaps we've gotten use to the kind of wealth that is attainable when you have one kid and two incomes. Still, they'll likely always be a number of young people who need to escape home and denying them support could well lead to far worse.
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Thank you Paul, if you were ever more ashamed of your own sex I think perhaps re-orientation might be called for.
What a laughable retort Rob. If anything, an unwarranted attack first on Emma and then all of women... that might suggest you're a little lacking in confidence?
Damned out of his own keyboard.
Indeed.