Repeal of Electoral Finance Act rekindles democracy

The repeal of the filthy little Electoral Finance Act that stopped free speech was passed yesterday in parliament and now we can all talk freely again in an election year without the threat of some Government stooge breathing down our necks.

Those of you who protested against it, well done, and those of you that voted for it or still support it (like the Greens) should go and live in Zimbabwe.

No surprise that Labour voted to repeal the Act because it helps the incumbent Government, now National , to stay in power.

A new law will be passed closer to election 2011 and this time it will have citizen input and contributions and agreement from all parties in Parliament.

c Political Animal 2009

Goodman Fielder turning on the DRIP

Dividend Re-investment Plans or DRIPs are a way for a company to distribute profits to shareholders by allowing them to get shares in lieu of cash.

In the normal state of affairs when the economy is in a healthy state it is a good way to keep cash flow in the company to help run the day to day machinations of your company.

Many listed NZX companies have DRIP plans.

Goodman Fielder Ltd [GFF.NZ] has taken that opportunity today by issuing a DRIP offer to its shareholders.

One other company in the Share Investor Portfolio has a DRIP plan and that is Sky City Entertainment. [SKC.NZ] Its DRIP has been running for several years and was instituted at a time when the company found itself with a little cash flow problem due to poor management leading to a couple of awful profit results.

With Goodman Fielder issuing their DRIP intentions I wonder out loud as to whether a cash flow problem might be influencing their decision to make a DRIP available.

Several NZX companies are currently making plans to improve cash flow.

Fletcher Building Ltd [FBU.NZ] signalled the sale and leaseback of their Penrose head office this week and issued millions of dollars of capital notes while Fisher & Paykel Appliances[FPA.NZ] indicated yesterday that they are looking at a capital raising.

Many other companies have issued debt and others are now planning to to get themselves through the current economic crises through prudent and some imprudent means.

Freightways Ltd [FRE.NZ] cut their dividend for example even though their 2009 half-year profit rose slightly.

Goodman's DRIP is a good move to help during these hard times but nevertheless it does leave me with a slightly uneasy feeling.

* Disclosure: I own GFF, SKC, FRE, FBU shares.


Goodman Fielder @ Share Investor

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c Share Investor 2009

Cindy Kiro's stance on Youth Justice lacks punch

Cindy Kiro, the pointlessly useless Children's Commissioner has whipped herself into a lather (that has got to be illegal!) over Nationals plan to to something about some of our moronic, wasted youth by putting them in "boot camps".

Tougher, longer sentences have not deterred criminals and all the evidence suggests initiatives that are punitive, employ shock-tactics, or use corrective training as the basis for reforming young offenders are largely ineffective.

"The most effective ways of reforming child and youth offenders focus on addressing the issues in their lives rather than just dishing out punishment. Reform comes from teaching them new skills for addressing their problems. "The hype around escalating serious youth offending and alleged public concerns about unsafe communities is not supported by data. The figures have stayed quite steady for the past 10 years. voxy.co.nz

Ciro underplays the seriousness of the problem and ignores the fact that "tougher sentences" are not being applied at all, in fact quite often young offenders do not get punished or get made to takes responsibility at all and that is the problem we are talking about here.

Kiro's stance is yet more evidence that she is out of touch, ignorant of the facts and not doing her job properly.

c Political Animal 2009

Promise of Bailout bad omen for taxpayers

Seems John Key is a socialist in drag:

Prime Minister John Key has signalled that the Government could step in as a last resort to prevent renowned whiteware maker Fisher & Paykel from collapsing. Stuff.co.nz

F& P have been ripping kiwis off for 75 years with overpriced poorly made whiteware and now taxpayers could be bailing it out because of its bad management.

This is something Labour would have contemplated so is clearly the wrong thing to do.

I own shares in Sky City Entertainment and they employ 5000 people, more than 3 times of those working at F & P.

Would they bail Sky City out?

No.

Dumb Johnny dumb, let the company fold. 

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Fisher & Paykel Appliance's profit downgrade continues fine tradition

c Political Animal 2009