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Yesterday's top 20 rating items on Scoop (excluding Hobbits) were...
CD and assorted Sludge have been locked up in the Beehive since 11.30am with a remarkably disappointing budget. True it
contains a new lingo. But as the government has already announced most of it - what is left comes as a bit of an
anti-climax.
C.D. Sludge has now caught up with the MP who made a trip to Fiji last year to attend a seminar of Investors
International, the principal of which, Rudolf van Lin, was later arrested and charged in the US with Securities fraud.
And an organisation which ...
Budget Speech Introduction Mr Speaker, I move that the Appropriation (2000/2001 Estimates) Bill be now read a second
time. It is with a sense of honour and privilege that I present today the Labour-Alliance Coalition's first budget. The
Budget 2000 does ...
The knowledge economy This Government is committed to assisting the transformation of the economy from our current
over-reliance on commodity production to the knowledge intensive industries of the future. The knowledge economy
encompasses e-commerce ...
Employment I am confident that an active industry policy, harnessed to a streamlined and much improved training system,
and a vibrant research and development programme, will generate quality jobs. A job though, at any price, is not the
standard that ...
HOBBIT STORIES...
Today's Sludge Report relates a strange tale involving the visit of a NZ MP to Fiji on a speaking trip, free money for
the secretive and greedy, and a so called "financial freedom" movement which promotes tax avoidance, offshore trusts and
VERY high yield ...
NB This statement contains additional information to the statement in today's Budget information pack. All references
to increased funding in this statement are net increases in 2000/01 compared to 1999/2000. Figures in the Budget pack
statement mostly comprised ...
"A National budget this year would be a complete non-event, utterly incapable of making any sort of difference," Finance
Minister Michael Cullen said today.
Today’s Budget Broadcasting allocations will reveal if TVNZ is to become a fiscal basketcase, said ACT Broadcasting
spokesman Penny Webster. “The benchmark for Marion Hobbs’ Ministerial performance will be the future she assures TVNZ.
If local culture ...
What follows is a transcript of conversations recorded with leading figures in the Free Money for Greedy Mystery
described in Sludge Report #10.
Today's Questions concern: Truth In Sentencing - School Zoning And Balloting- Budget Growth Forecasts - Immigrant
Doctors - Maori Spectrum And Quest Communications - Bulk Funding - Government Procurement - R Taxation - Highway Patrol - ILO Conventions ...
New Zealand's inclusion for only the third time on Amnesty International's annual list of countries violating human
rights is a wake-up call to our national attitudes about asylum-seekers, AI Executive Director Ced Simpson said
yesterday.
17: Road Safety 2000
The government's reduced tolerances announced in last week's road safety package is designed to save lives and prevent
injuries on New Zealand roads and highways, the Minister of Transport Mark Gosche said today.
Movie star Liv Tyler takes a break from a hectic schedule of filming for the Lord of the Rings trilogy earlier this year
for a spot of shopping on Wellington's Willis St - photo Kevin Stent of the Sunday Star Times.
Bologna, Italy. 13 June 2000. - Software entrepreneur Sir Gil Simpson tonight closes the loop on a remarkable supply
chain that started under the gaze of Aoraki/Mt Cook and finished in front of European business and political leaders.
The March 2000 quarter current account balance recorded a deficit of $1,015 million, said Acting Government Statistician
Dianne Macaskill. This was $1,933 million lower than the deficit recorded in the December 1999 quarter. However, if the
effect of ...
SUVA: It's an irony of this bizarre insurrection in Fiji, now in its fourth week, that the country has been
"celebrating" two public holidays in two successive weeks: Today Fiji, which is on the verge of becoming a Commonwealth
pariah, is celebrating ...
The NZ electricity inquiry report (1), released this week, is a move toward the international mainstream in electricity
regulation, which is not a surprise given the Australian and British leanings of the inquiry panel. Simon Orme writes
from Sydney.
Drug law reformers say that Parliament's Health Committee should expeditiously review the legal status of cannabis -
"and quick smart", because the committee is already sitting on drug scheduling legislation, the Misuse of Drugs
Amendment ...