Local Bodies

Ignorance, arrogance, dishonesty and denial have dominated Donald Trump's presidency and his responses to school shootings epitomise this. Trump speaks tough, uses popularism to maintain support and ignores evidence. His approach to world diplomacy is also a simplistic one, believing that he can bully other countries into submission through the strength of the US military ( dramatically increasing military spending ). Under Trump and Tillerson the top management of the State Department has been gutted by 60% . The military leads diplomacy now. His solution for solving school shootings is similar to how he is dealing with global conflict, more guns ( arm the teachers ). In Trump's world there are the bad guys and the good guys (like in a B grade Western), with no shades of grey. Leading up to his election Donald Trump ardently supported the National Rifle Association (NRA) and has done so since (despite the mass shootings) with  rallying speeches in support of gun rig

Australia's biggest banks have had their behaviour forensically exposed and a decade of major fraud has been revealed : Lying to regulators Falsifying documents Taking bribes Extracting fees from long dead customers Rigging interest rates Enabling money laundering Providing misleading financial advice Failing to honour insurance claims Mistreating small business owners Issuing dodgy mortgages with incomplete documentation The  "big four"  that dominate 80% of Australia's Banking, also dominate here: ANZ, Westpac, NAB (BNZ) and the  the Commonwealth Bank of Australia owns ASB. Westpac is used for the majority of our government's banking needs. While all of these have an Australian owned parent company the New Zealand operations have local CEOs and they manage their banking activities within our regulatory frameworks.  When asked by Stuff for reassurance , our banks claim they are transparent and honest players and Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi