Daily review 10/03/2022

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, March 10th, 2022 - 60 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

60 comments on “Daily review 10/03/2022 ”

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  1. Muttonbird 1
    10 March 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Many articles about Zelensky putting us all to shame but I'm not sure what else he expects us to do.

    Apparently, the rest of the global community, both government and private, has put in place unprecedented levels of sanctions against Russia. Non-military solutions are all that are available against a nuclear power, surely.

    For instance, he has asked for a no-fly zone, but who is going to enforce that?

    I do wonder whether he was the wrong person, an entertainer, for the people of Ukraine to elect in such a globally sensitive position.

    Perhaps he should start thinking about recognising Crimea as annexed and Donbas as an independent buffer region.

    Tell me where I'm wrong.

    • McFlock 1.1
      10 March 2022 at 6:15 pm

      Depends on whether the no fly zone demand is a tactic or he genuinely thinks it would happen.

      Ceding Crimea and Donbass is less realistic than the no fly zone. Funny thing is, though, having existing border disputes would count against full Nato membership, so it might end up as a pyrrhic victory for Russia if Ukraine cedes sovereignty there.

      Putin was an old pro yet seems to have made a multi-spectrum clusterfuck of the entire thing. All Zelensky has to do is screw up less than Putin. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

    • Ad 1.2
      10 March 2022 at 6:20 pm

      Sure Zelinsky is flawed but his people believe in him and he's mounting that critical moral defence as the primary propaganda weapon. Respect for that.

      The moment to recognize Donbass was gone once the Minsk agreement lapsed.

    • alwyn 1.3
      10 March 2022 at 6:50 pm

      It depends on your view of Vladimir Putin.

      If you think he is a great world statesman, and that arranging for his political opponents to be murdered is merely a trivial peccadillo and that he is right to want to recreate the USSR then you are right. To bad about the 50 million people in Ukraine but that is their problem and they should have arranged not to be born there.

      You'll have to tell the people of Lithuania, and Estonia, and Finland, and Poland and Latvia, and … and … and … the same thing of course but I'm sure they will learn to worship Vlad the mad.

      • Muttonbird 1.3.1
        10 March 2022 at 7:13 pm

        It does not depend on my view of Vladimir Putin. How does my view of Vladimir Putin have any bearing at all on how Zelensky is handling this situation?

        Lithuania, and Estonia, and Poland and Latvia are already members of Nato and Finland can look after itself, I think.

        But Ukraine is much further east, has land borders with Nato counties, and has for some time been courting Western influence.

        You say the people of Ukraine should have arranged not to be born there, but they were born there, in an historically and strategically important place. It was certainly that before they were born there. Have you read The White Guard?

        Populations are swayed by leaders and I think Ukraine's strong drive westward so quickly was a mistake, given the long history. They might have negotiated their way eventually with a little patience.

    • Stuart Munro 1.4
      10 March 2022 at 7:15 pm

      Russia has already effectively made Ukraine a no fly zone for European aircraft.

      EU allies could return that favour without entering the airspace – their AA rocket systems have enough range.

      Putin is a bad actor, globally speaking, and once his convoy exhausts their petrol and ammunition, they face at best a long walk home. As the aggressor and the loser, it is he that should be giving ground – Crimea at the very least.

  2. Dennis Frank 2
    10 March 2022 at 6:16 pm

    Big shift of centrists to National: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/10/national-overtakes-labour-in-latest-1news-kantar-public-poll/

    National up 7 to 39, Labour down 3 to 37, Greens 9, ACT 8, MP 2.

    Luxon surge makes him a viable PM for the first time…

    Preferred PM: Jacinda Ardern: 34% (down 1pp), Christopher Luxon: 25% (up 8pp), David Seymour: 5% (down 1pp), Winston Peters: 2% (up 1pp)

    • Muttonbird 2.1
      10 March 2022 at 6:19 pm

      Amazing, and while he's isolating at home.

      Perhaps he might consider that moving forward.

      Not a big shift of centrists really, rather a return to National from ACT.

      • Dennis Frank 2.1.1
        10 March 2022 at 6:45 pm

        Not a big shift of centrists really, rather a return to National from ACT.

        You're half-right. It was 3% from ACT to National. Me too (3% from Labour to National).

        • Muttonbird 2.1.1.1
          10 March 2022 at 6:58 pm

          So that would make you half wrong.

          • Dennis Frank 2.1.1.1.1
            10 March 2022 at 7:18 pm

            Quite so! I was interested to see the poll result for the mandate clocking in at 30% opposed which is consistent with that one on the same issue a couple of weeks back. But only a tenth of them shifted away from Labour.

            And there could be other factors that motivated the shift too. Luxon's big move up could be one (I'm not keen to advocate that it is – he hasn't impressed me).

            • Muttonbird 2.1.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2022 at 7:23 pm

              Well, stick a blue ribbon on anything, as they say.

              He did run an airline that time, and I'm sure he intends to run the country in exactly the same way.

              Pity the people who aren’t good enough to get an interview…

    • Corey Humm 2.2
      10 March 2022 at 6:45 pm

      Starting to smell like 1989.

      I'm really getting a sense that the Labour party wants to lose the next election so National can deal with the mess and do all the neoliberal crap Labour agrees with but can't be seen to be doing, why else would they be pressing on with extremely unpopular legislation.

      Brace yourself for mass exodus of my generation from this sinking ship of a country that noone can afford to live in.

      Honestly the way we've been led for the last 5 decades I'm starting to think NZ should just be a state Australia, Australia is regulated, unionized , high wage high tax low living cost society with a capital gains tax instead of the Thatcherite paradise NZ is … NZ already owes a trillion dollars in private debt to Australia

      we haven't had competent economic leadership in decades, we've had shortsighted short term management. we should have had a CGT in 89 after the 87 crash made it clear kiwi's were only going to invest in housing and nothing else.

      One trillion dollar housing market in a country with a $225 billion dollar economy…. And noone wants to do anything about it.

      Brace for impact. Start looking at jobs and houses in Australia like everyone in gen y and gen z cos this place is done for whoever wins there's no fixing this mess when the housing market eventually collapses it'll make Greece look fun. It's not my generations mess and we're not gonna stick around to clean it up.

      • greywarshark 2.2.1
        10 March 2022 at 8:57 pm

        Another interesting thoughtful comment Corey H.

        Part of Oz? If we tested that with – could it be worse? And will it happen because of our lack of any controls on borders and who gets money etc. Our politicians are only more likeable on the surface. Quite a lot of our ideas originate in Oz.

        And our politicians seem to have bitten by a sleeping sickness and have developed something called selective vision, with very patchy ability to recognise casualties lying in their path.

        I think they have signed a pact that they won't interfere with anything from business unless it appears too egregious.

      • Patricia Bremner 2.2.2
        10 March 2022 at 10:18 pm

        Except Corey climate change is hitting Australia really hard, so many houses being stripped out because of flooding, knocked down because of flooding in three states and shortages and supply lines are also stretched because of covid, and they are just confronting B2a omicron wave. Many people were dropped off during covid, and now find they are working from home at an hourly rate no holiday pay etc. The problems are greater in Australia as the difference between rich and poor is greater and NZers get no help at all as John Howard passed laws regarding that. So Australia is great for some but not so much for Kiwis. Dutton is a dog and Scomo is the worst neolib you can imagine!!

  3. Ad 3
    10 March 2022 at 6:22 pm

    Mahuta deserves our support.

    20 years dairy has sucked us dry and poisoned us. Regulate water means regulate Big Ag by proxy.

    This is the moment to take back control of New Zealand.

    • Patricia Bremner 3.1
      10 March 2022 at 6:28 pm

      Absolutely. The Farming lobby want Labour gone.

    • Dennis Frank 3.2
      10 March 2022 at 6:41 pm

      Yeah I agree. Couldn't be bothered checking to see if Dr Bryce identified an actual reason why he thought she might go (go where? I wondered).

      If Ardern feels she hasn't managed the policy development process sufficiently well, she ought to shuffle her into a different job. But unless someone can identify a design flaw in the draft policy, no reason for that really.

      I'd be nominating Hipkins if I was Ardern's adviser. On the tv news tonight it was reported that the health dept is refusing to release the info to Bellis's lawyer that he requested. Hipkins made false claims on the basis of that info, Bellis has said. Everyone knows the OIA applies to the situation. The Chief Ombudsman was even on Checkpoint complaining about the huge escalation of bureaucrats trying to get away with defying the law. Hipkins ought to exhibit responsibility for his portfolio instead of trying to hide behind delinquent health bureaucrats.

      If Labour wants to stop the hemorrhage in its poll support it ought to punish misbehaviour that make it look bad to voters. Punishing a minister who is trying to do her best would be wrong…

      • Anne 3.2.1
        10 March 2022 at 8:21 pm

        On the tv news tonight it was reported that the health dept is refusing to release the info to Bellis's lawyer that he requested. Hipkins made false claims on the basis of that info, Bellis has said.

        The problem with the above is that the claim she made about Hipkins was/is a load of pigswill. It followed a statement Hipkins released where Bellis claims he smeared her. The evidence is finite. There was nothing in it which amounted to anywhere near a smear.

        So the woman is determined to bring him down on false/imagined pretexts? Now I wonder where she is getting the financial wherewithal that is enabling her to do this.

    • Herodotus 3.3
      10 March 2022 at 7:07 pm

      So how will 3 waters help in this ?

      "The three waters service delivery reform is proposing to reform council-owned drinking water, wastewater and stormwater supplies." Discharge is a consent issue and from my reading outside 3H2Os and still under council management.- Again it appears to me that this has been poorly oversold sold.

      https://www.dia.govt.nz/three-waters-reform-programme-interaction-with-rural-water-schemes

      • Ad 3.3.1
        10 March 2022 at 8:02 pm

        Won't be easy to figure that until Taumata Arowai is functioning.

        Fascinating to see Auckland Council defend itself on water when the Hauraki is ruined, they failed to address supply under intense drought just last year, have shown time and again they have no control over Watercare, and could still only beg Waikato RC for more supply.

    • pat 3.4
      10 March 2022 at 7:43 pm

      There are around 11,000 dairy farms in NZ (some owning multiple farms) ….what do you think their voting power is?

      • Poission 3.4.1
        10 March 2022 at 7:57 pm

        Fonterra pays its waged employee's around 20% more then Fletchers.

        • pat 3.4.1.1
          10 March 2022 at 8:02 pm

          And about 20%more than Synlait as well.

        • Ad 3.4.1.2
          10 March 2022 at 8:03 pm

          No relevance to 3 waters reform at all.

          • pat 3.4.1.2.1
            10 March 2022 at 8:06 pm

            "20 years dairy has sucked us dry and poisoned us. Regulate water means regulate Big Ag by proxy.

            This is the moment to take back control of New Zealand."

            10,500 dairy farms explain the level of support for 3 waters???

            • Ad 3.4.1.2.1.1
              10 March 2022 at 8:28 pm

              Very easy.

              – active opposition by almost all local and regional governments and staff. In their vested interest to do so.

              – active opposition from every AgBus lobby group. Check out the funders of Dairy NZ.

              – ignorance of issue from urbanized population who are 85% of NZ

              – wellington public service ignorance of scale of power shift under question

              – dual attack from Opposition

              – isolated Minister with fading support in caucus

              – rural media dominated by Fed Farmers

              – distracted PM

              – basic racism

              • pat …
                10 March 2022 at 8:30 pm

                Ah, I see…..everyone is too stupid to understand.

                Or not.

                • Ad …
                  10 March 2022 at 8:35 pm

                  Only those who can't read and don't think.

                  Pick a side.

                  • pat …
                    10 March 2022 at 8:49 pm

                    A funny thing has happened in the last year or so…the rural sector has given up widespread CC denial as a defence mechanism and started to point to the flaws in the proposed mitigations.

                    Meanwhile the support of that sector has become more important to this trading economy's ability to function than for a very long time.

                    And everyone wants somebody else to make the changes that they themselves refuse to make.

                    Sounds like a perfect storm.

          • Poission 3.4.1.2.2
            10 March 2022 at 8:25 pm

            It is all relative,as those employees in Rural townships can afford to live in Houses,travel 80-100km for medical care, etc,pay 20% rate increases to ECAN so they can fund free buses in CHCH,so people in the Suburbs can go to the central city to look at the Houses Built by FCL,that they could never afford.

            • Ad 3.4.1.2.2.1
              10 March 2022 at 8:30 pm

              Almost none have ever voted Labour.

              Pick a side.

              The NZ dairy economy is booming. On farm salaries continue to rise, per kilo side highest ever, rural unemoyment 2.5%.

              And they have trashed our country for 150 years.

              • Poission …
                10 March 2022 at 8:47 pm

                in coastal CHCH in last years council by election Labour came last.very much a working class suburb.

                There is a good chance labour/greens will suffer big losses at the council elections as

                i) A protest vote.

                ii) Cost of living increases especially for natural monopolies.

                iii) Wasted expenditure,especially on white elephants.

                Similar the polls are signalling that,it is not because the want some sharpie and his poodle in power, its a protest against the ignorance of the incumbents, and the inability to construct policy that will better NZ for all,and not the few.

      • Ad 3.4.2
        10 March 2022 at 8:05 pm

        Howl of Protest anyone?

        Fuck all unless National get back in.

    • aj 3.5
      10 March 2022 at 9:52 pm

      Mahuta deserves our support.

      yes

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/128013932/riverton-drinking-water-gets-bad-rap-again

      Complaints have trickled into the Southland District Council about the taste of Riverton’s drinking water, but residents say it’s nothing new.

      Councillor Karyn Owen raised the issue at a council committee meeting this week, saying there had been “quite a few complaints” about the taste of the town’s water, which is sourced from the Aparima River and treated.

      The council subsequently posted on its website that it had received reports of taste and odour issues in the Riverton drinking water.

      The council’s water asset manager Bill Witham said an “intermittent earthy taste” in the water was caused by very low river levels and warm temperatures.

  4. aj 4
    10 March 2022 at 6:41 pm

    Tell me where I'm wrong.

    When Russia achieves whatever strategic result it's aiming for – we are all guessing – some agreement will need to be reached and realistically your outcome is all Russia wants, with an assurance Ukraine will never join NATO. It has been signaling those red lines of it's national security interests for many years.

    In these two articles, Ritter discusses the problem of getting any form of rationality into the political discourse in the USA and a Chomsky interview which weaves the past into the present in international law.

    Some people here discard Chomsky as yesterday's man, but he has an unrivaled intellect and deeply perceptive view of international affairs.

    I Pity the Nation

    https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/07/pity-the-nation/

    In the pell-mell rush toward cancelling Russia in the name of defeating Putin, emotion has replaced common sense, to the point that people are ignoring the fact that Russia is a nuclear power willing and able to use its Armageddon-inducing arsenal in defense of what it views as its legitimate national security interests.

    There has never been a time when a national discussion has been more essential to the continued survival of the American people and all humanity. If this discussion could occur armed with the full range of facts and opinions relating to Russia, there might be hope that reason would prevail, and all nations would walk away from the abyss of our collective suicide. Unfortunately, the American experiment in democracy is not conducive for such near-term embrace of sanity and reason.

    A No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine Could Unleash Untold Violence

    https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-a-no-fly-zone-over-ukraine-could-unleash-untold-violence/

    A rational response to Putin’s reiteration of his “main goal” [the demilitarization and neutral status of Ukraine] would be to take him up on it and to offer what has long been understood to be the basic framework for peaceful resolution.

  5. Jester 5
    10 March 2022 at 6:52 pm

    Just watched the last few overs of the women's world cup cricket, NZ batting and the Indian fielder missed an absolute dolly of a catch.

    World cup standard disappointingly low.

    • Muttonbird 5.1
      10 March 2022 at 7:01 pm

      Semi professional sport, right?

      Interesting how right wing nut jobs demand the highest standards but always scrimp on the wages.

      • Jester 5.1.1
        10 March 2022 at 11:17 pm

        If they draw the bigger crowds, they'll get the bigger money. But to draw the bigger crowds, they would need to up the speed and the standard.

  6. weka 6
    10 March 2022 at 7:59 pm

    Will the TVNZ/RNZ merger mean ads on RNZ?

    • Poission 6.1
      10 March 2022 at 8:02 pm

      Sometimes he struggles to get an audience on TS.

    • Belladonna 6.2
      10 March 2022 at 9:36 pm

      Aside from the humour.

      No, advertising on RNZ was specifically ruled out in the audio clip I heard on RNZ today (sorry, can't link to it – as I was driving)

      It was a very 'across the issues' briefing from Faafoi – (an ex journalist) very unlike the floundering I've seen from him on Immigration issues.

      • Belladonna 6.2.1
        10 March 2022 at 9:52 pm

        Found it

        RNZ will stay commercial free in future – Kris Faafoi

        From about 5.30-6.30

        • weka 6.2.1.1
          10 March 2022 at 9:56 pm

          thanks! Heard a rumour on twitter.

          • weka 6.2.1.1.1
            10 March 2022 at 9:57 pm

            um, that youtube is from 2020.

            • weka 6.2.1.1.1.1
              10 March 2022 at 10:00 pm

              Where will the ads run, and where won’t they?

              One of the big inequities of current public media is that the commercial imperative – both literal commercials, and the necessity to reach a broad and viable audience, applies to TVNZ and not RNZ. During the monoculture keeping a single station ad-free and adherent to a charter made a kind of sense, but the logic of having one part of this public media entity be ad-free while the remainder is ad-supported is pure political expediency.

              I asked a spokesperson for Faafoi whether the digital part of the new entity would be ad-free, per RNZ’s site, or ad-supported, per all TVNZ’s products. He said such decisions would be up to the board and management of the new entity. It’s a crucial decision – advertising online is, for the most part, highly intrusive and if it adopts the kind of heavy ad load and pre-roll/auto-play common to big media entities like Stuff and the Herald, it will provide a very different and manifestly worse product for the younger online audience than its older legacy-radio counterpart.

              https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/10-03-2022/tvnz-and-rnz-to-merge-into-a-not-for-profit-giant-likely-to-dominate-nz-media

            • Belladonna 6.2.1.1.1.2
              11 March 2022 at 2:52 pm

              Gosh, really sorry. That's what comes of trying to do too many things at once.

              Have found this on Media Watch

              He confirmed that advertising will be part of its funding mix but "services which are currently commercial-free will remain so."

              “In plain English, RNZ and RNZ Concert will continue. In plainer English, the government is committed to them,” he said.

              https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018833671/government-confirms-new-media-body-to-replace-rnz-tvnz

              [From the 10th of March 2022!]

  7. gsays 7
    10 March 2022 at 8:18 pm

    Who knew the Wairarapre DHB had been issued with a PIN three weeks ago?
    Despite that, “Wairarapa DHB CEO Dale Oliff was recently quoted in the Wairarapa Times-Age stating that wait times varied from about 10 minutes to two hours depending on urgency.”

    “Ms McLaren says the false assurances are especially insulting given that nurses issued a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) to the DHB on 17 February. A PIN requires action by the employer on critical health and safety failings"

    Its taken the DHB two weeks to acknowledge the notice.

    http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/5/399835

    But, you know, Russia.

  8. pat 8
    10 March 2022 at 10:57 pm

    They said they've worked hard their whole life and make sensible money choices but are still struggling.

    "I'm angry because something is f**king broken. I've worked hard my whole life. I haven't made dumb decisions. And don't anyone say having kids was a dumb decision because they are my whole world and we should live in a country where anyone with a full-time job can provide for their family. "

    "This situation is cooked… Five years ago I considered myself middle class. When people are in f**king free-fall out of the middle class, that is exactly when shit hits the fan."

    They finished by saying they're angry at both National and Labour and feel let down by the system."

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/03/kiwi-shares-devastation-after-being-forced-to-use-foodbank-for-first-time-as-cost-of-living-soars.html

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