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Open Mike 05/07/25

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 5th, 2025 - 44 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


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44 comments on “Open Mike 05/07/25 ”

  1. SPC 1
    5 July 2025 at 7:11 am

    The carbon price is collapsing.

    Low confidence in the government's climate plans may hit the coalition in the pocket and make it harder to fund tax cuts and other spending.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/519730/national-promised-a-strong-and-stable-carbon-market-then-it-crashed

    At Budget 2021, Treasury estimated that selling carbon credits would generate $3 billion for the government over the next five years – and many market observers at the time thought that was too conservative. In the past, revenue has topped a billion dollars in a year.

    Not so.

    The secondary market is where the action is at. There the carbon price is lower.

    One reason, hoarding of the NZUs (companies buy them and trade them like
    commodities).

    The money earned is there to be spent on helping companies cut their carbon emissions, giving people tax cuts or whatever else the government of the day wants to spend it on.

    What money, is the problem

    Seven failed auctions and counting. How did the government lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from big polluters?

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/what-you-need-to-know/566017/why-do-the-government-s-carbon-auctions-keep-failing-and-does-it-matter

    Reply
  2. gsays 2
    5 July 2025 at 8:55 am

    Different day/government same old stuff. Once again the accountants are dragging their heels when it comes to safe staffing levels.

    Contrast;"Figures for 631 wards using the safe staffing (Care Capacity Demand Management programme) – obtained by the union under the Official Information Act – showed ongoing nursing shortages, Goulter said.

    "These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1 percent) of all wards were understaffed 20 percent of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week.

    "We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women's health and children's wards.""

    with; ""It's not an easy thing to put into settlement agreement, but we do have operational policies which look at safe staffing and rostering and that continues," she said."

    It becomes not easy when you are unwilling to fund this.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/565979/health-nz-accused-of-dropping-safe-staffing-from-nurses-pay-offer

    So the nurses are voting whether to strike or not. Initially for 24 hours, with a view that the next strike would be more significant.

    Let's be clear, this is not about money, it is, amongst other things, about safe staffing levels. There is also the continued attack on all things Maoritanga.

    Health is one of the few fronts of resistance we have to this regime.

    This is a workforce that bears no resemblance to the one in the '90s that had a user pays model forced on it. Very few know of the payment structure and stories of family providing care, showering and feeding patients.

    How can we support this workforce when they forgo wages for a day and have the courage to stand up to their superiors? After all, this is impacting on the most vulnerable, children, elderly and those in poverty.

    Reply
    • SPC 2.1
      5 July 2025 at 9:38 am

      Only a few years ago there was an award round and nurses were promised safe staffing levels by the Health Boards.

      With the move to centralised health it seems this obligation has gone.

      And lack of money is being used to walk away from it entirely – as lack of ability to afford pay equity was used to walk away from that.

      Where is the money, ask landlords and the rich and sorted.

      Reply
    • The Chairman 2.2
      5 July 2025 at 12:16 pm

      Safe staffing levels requires funding (money) to attract and retain staffing numbers required to provide safe staffing levels.

      Reply
  3. Drowsy M. Kram 3
    5 July 2025 at 9:58 am

    RNZ is "New Zealand's public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries."

    Christopher Luxon denies RNZ's funding cut was sending ‘a message’ about its journalism [4 July 2025]
    Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour claimed the RNZ funding cut sent "a message" to the public broadcaster.

    The former deputy PM also likes to send ‘messages’. Careful now RNZ – the CoC is dead set against this kind of 'propaganda' – Newstalk ZB ‘journalism’ not so much.

    Prime Minister's office only given hour's notice before Winston Peters' speech dismissing 'trade war' [4 July 2025]

    Health NZ accused of dropping 'safe staffing' from nurses pay offer
    [4 July 2025]

    How to keep your power bill down this winter [4 July 2025]
    The price of electricity has gone up almost 9 percent in the past year and 20 percent of Kiwis are struggling with their bills.

    Dozens of supermarket workers facing redundancy after fire [4 July 2025]

    Why do the government's carbon auctions keep failing, and does it matter? [5 July 2025]
    It depends who you ask.

    The ETS has long been New Zealand's main tool for lowering emissions.

    Under the current government, it's virtually the only tool because the coalition government believes in a market-led approach and hasn't allocated any real funding for cutting carbon emissions.

    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has said the failed auctions and the cancelled NZUs are just the market working as intended to rebalance.

    Ah, the lovely lovely 'market' – "To market, to market…" – you really can't beat it (the market), it can only beat itself. “Home again, home again, market is done."

    Reply
  4. Obtrectator 4
    5 July 2025 at 10:24 am

    Just noticed: no Daily Review since Tuesday. You could say it's a mite redundant when there's Open Mike as well, but even so ….

    (Oh, and this latest OM has lost a word from the title.)

    Reply
    • riffer 4.1
      5 July 2025 at 11:13 am

      With less than 20 comments a day of late in Open Mike, you could argue it's not needed. Not altogether sure if this comment adds anything to the day either but, oh well. It might be there is a rule whereby if there are less than a certain amount of comments in Open Mike, Daily Review is redundant. Probably should be.

      Reply
      • Muttonbird 4.1.1
        5 July 2025 at 11:48 am

        Mate, you've made 4 comments in the last year, including this one. A little less criticism and a little more engagement would be good.

        Reply
      • weka 4.1.2
        5 July 2025 at 1:58 pm

        DR is good because it's a change of pace and comments don't get lost. But tbh, I think a lot about whether people would comment more on authored posts if there was no OM.

        Reply
        • Anne 4.1.2.1
          5 July 2025 at 11:49 pm

          TS always slumps in the middle year of the parliamentary term. Add to that there's quite a bit more competition on social media than there used to be. Also the rwnjs and trolls have been disqualified from this site.

          Reply
          • weka 4.1.2.1.1
            6 July 2025 at 12:34 am

            true. Moderation has changed in that time too. But I think social media is a big part of it. I would guess this is why Public Address and other blogs closed.

            Reply
      • Obtrectator 4.1.3
        5 July 2025 at 3:57 pm

        I think it goes in cycles. If there's a hot issue that hasn't been covered by one of the main articles, then you'll see more comments on OM. Conversely, a stand-alone piece on something of major concern will absorb much of the commentariat's time and energy for a day or two, leaving OM sometimes looking a bit threadbare as a result.

        Weka makes a good point about DR being somewhere to post more considered and nuanced opinions. Trouble is, the news cycle moves relentlessly along on this site just as it does elsewhere. I do often wonder how many readers bother to look at any of the previous day's content.

        Reply
        • bwaghorn 4.1.3.1
          5 July 2025 at 6:13 pm

          The standard has lost a few of the real die take a position and defend it to death commenters that used get into teams and go for hundreds of comments, I think 911 and thermite was a favorite, can't recall what the other one was.

          Reply
    • Incognito 4.2
      8 July 2025 at 12:51 pm

      FYI, I look after scheduling of OM and DR and unexpectedly went offline for 5 days and failed to notify my TS comrades. The OM & DR service has now resumed as usual; the OM URL is back to normal too.

      Reply
  5. Steven Nic 5
    5 July 2025 at 11:15 am

    In the interests of openness and transparency, let’s ask all our local newspapers to publish a monthly set of data from their local public hospital. Number of operations done, number of operations outsourced to private hospitals. Number of Medical staff vacancies by job: Senior Medical Officers, Specialist Doctors, Nurses. Number of Code Red days in the Accident and Emergency Department. Number of days patient numbers exceeds bed supply.
    Any other suggestions welcome. The data needs to be anonymous, no named people so that privacy issues are avoided, as is that excuse is rendered irrelevant by politicians.

    Reply
    • Ad 5.1
      5 July 2025 at 2:14 pm

      The DHB's were all required to gather and publish that data. And did so.

      The legislation that amalgamated them stopped that reporting.

      We also used to have elected people on those boards we could contact and hold accountable.

      Also gone.

      So all we mostly have is anecdotes and academic research.

      Reply
    • Stephen D 5.2
      5 July 2025 at 2:31 pm

      What local newspapers? Stuff just closed 15 of them.

      Reply
      • lprent 5.2.1
        8 July 2025 at 2:09 pm

        I think that they stopped printing them rather than closed them. The cost of printing and distributing non-digital is kind of excessive.

        https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360745634/stuff-closing-several-community-titles-focus-digital-future

        Nope…

        Several small free weekly newspapers* in the North Island and three in the South Island will cease printing next month, while the three-days-a-week Marlborough Express will move digital only, continuing its popular seven-day-a-week site on thepress.co.nz, a daily email newsletter, as well as the Weekend Express weekly print product, which is well supported by local advertisers and readers.

        But

        “We will continue to have our people in all of these communities – the delivery mechanisms may be changing, but the important local storytelling remains.”

        The Wairarapa Midweek and Waikato Local will continue to be published.

        * The affected newspapers are: Auckland Community Newspapers, Cambridge Edition, Feilding Rangitīkei Herald, Franklin County News, Hutt News, Kapi Mana News, Nelson and Tasman Leader, Northern Outlook, South Taranaki Star, Southern Outlook.

        and

        Norris said the average community newspaper is now 46% more expensive to produce than it was in 2022 which meant without the support of local councils and community businesses, they were simply unsustainable.

        Personally I haven't seen the Central Leader for at least 2 decades because I live in an apartment block of 60. We used to have letterboxes outside, and a daily pile of damp and mouldy newsprint and advertising gloss beneath them or in a bin. My mailbox was full of junk mail and flyers for non-bargains.

        We gave up dealing with it and moved the mailboxes into the foyer and gave NZ Post and the courier companies card or pins to access the lobby.

        These days my household only gets junk mail from those who pay NZ post to deliver it – mostly real estate queries about selling out apartment, and about 4 other pieces of mail per month between the both of us – mostly as required by antique legislation that assumes a at least a daily delivery.

        Everything else is digital, including all of the newspapers.

        Reply
        • Stephen D 5.2.1.1
          8 July 2025 at 3:33 pm

          I was Sales Manager on the North Shore Times a lifetime ago. Very sad to see its demise.
          Stuff have got their model wrong. Here on the coast there are a couple of local papers that cover local news and events well. There is still an advertisers market for local retailers.

          Reply
          • lprent 5.2.1.1.1
            10 July 2025 at 12:20 pm

            Stuff have got their model wrong.

            Don't think that they have.

            The basic problem is that there really isn't a use for mailboxes these days. And mailboxes have been a magnet for junk mail.

            Production and delivery costs are way lower when done by digital. And receivers can easily put safeguards against junk mail with digital.

            So people eliminate their physical mailboxes or remove them from public access to get rid of the junk mail. Shifting mail communications to e-mail.

            There is virtually no relevant physical mail for many if not most people these days. So physical mailboxes becoming increasingly redundant.

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360473883/proposed-nz-post-changes-may-mean-no-more-mail-your-letterbox-union-says

            Within a few years, there won't be a rational reason to have physical mail boxes.

            So the local newspapers can't do a delivery. They can only really post or courier physical items – which will massively increase delivery costs, or get local retailers or apartment blocks to provide pickup places (which brings its own distribution issues). The latter is used by advertising rags like the local Ponsonby magazine, and it works.

            Better to concentrate on digital deliveries and access rather than trying to continue in a model that increasingly can't deliver content to large markets.

            The first means collecting e-mails and then making it so people won't treat it as junk. That latter is about attracting people to sites – ie again making sure that they aren't junk. Hard to do.

            Reply
    • gsays 5.3
      5 July 2025 at 4:06 pm

      That's a great idea.

      If it's too much to ask for the real estate flyers newspapers to publish, then a daily update on the radio would do.

      It could replace one of the seemingly unceasing 'market updates'.

      Reply
    • Res Publica 5.4
      6 July 2025 at 7:56 am

      It's a good idea: I think it's reasonable that we should understand how our health system is performing. But I think it risks falling into a well-known trap: Goodhart’s Law.

      “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

      Once we start publicly publishing raw KPIs like Code Red days or surgery counts, those metrics stop being neutral indicators of performance. They become political targets: and under pressure, people start gaming them.

      Hospitals might delay declaring a Code Red, reclassify data, or avoid complex patients just to look better on paper. None of that improves care.

      We know this is already happening with TWO either kicking people off waitlists or putting them onto pre-wait lists for surgery to game their targets.

      In a New Public Management (NPM) system, where public servants are increasingly judged by performance metrics, publishing these numbers doesn’t lead to better service: it just changes the behaviour to meet the number. It can actually undermine trust, distort priorities, and demoralize staff who feel boxed into chasing stats instead of outcomes.

      Transparency matters. But data without context, used as a performance scoreboard, can do more harm than good.

      Reply
  6. joe90 6
    5 July 2025 at 4:59 pm

    NYT nazi's are rattled.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:szt5gohiatgtykukx627lh7w/post/3lt3vsfcab22i?

    Patrick Healy, assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust at The New York Times, posted a lengthy thread on X, formerly Twitter, explaining the newspaper's controversial story on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's 2009 application to Columbia University.

    On Thursday, the Times published a report citing hacked Columbia documents that revealed the New York Democratic mayoral nominee identified as "Black or African American" on his college application. Mamdani, who is of South Asian heritage, was born in Uganda, where his family had lived for approximately a century, according to the article.

    https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-times-mamdani-article-healy-responds-2094926

    Reply
    • Obtrectator 7.1
      5 July 2025 at 7:39 pm

      There is another course of action open to them, had they the cojones to take it.

      Reply
    • joe90 7.2
      5 July 2025 at 8:22 pm

      US troops want indemnity for following Nazi orders.

      tRump won't need regular forces. He has his own Sturmabteilung.

      This Senate package only provides vague instructions on how federal immigration agencies should be spending these billions. So who has the power to decide here, and what are the oversight mechanisms?

      The Senate bill, in contrast to the House bill, which provided funding for specific things, provides so much discretion: It gives agencies flexibility to determine how to spend the money—how much they want to use to provide for new agents, to expand expedited removal. It has less guardrails around what the money is going to be used for.

      And there’s a bigger problem: There’s no reporting requirement to Congress, no oversight mechanism. And the Trump administration earlier this year gutted oversight agencies within the Department of Homeland Security—the civil rights and civil liberties office, the office of immigrant detention ombudsman. Those didn’t have much teeth, but they were key to be able to submit complaints about civil rights violations or issues in immigration detention. But now those agencies have been whittled down. In fact, Republicans through the appropriations process want to go further and eliminate the immigrant detention ombudsman office completely.

      So oversight mechanisms are being whittled away—at the same time that the reconciliation process is giving billions of dollars through these broad instructions.

      https://boltsmag.org/how-the-gop-megabill-would-turbocharge-local-immigration-enforcement/

      Reply
  8. joe90 8
    6 July 2025 at 3:03 am

    At 185/107 Lewis, you'll be going hungry soon enough.

    /

    A British news channel has said it has nothing to apologise for after a right-wing commentator and comedian suggested the best way to cut the number of disabled people claiming benefits was to starve, or even shoot, them.

    It is just the latest example of disability hate speech broadcast and published by mainstream media organisations over the last 35 years that have run in parallel with government attempts to cut spending on disability benefits.

    GB News presenter Patrick Christys had told viewers that “welfare needs to be cut” – while ignoring the evidence that working-age social security spending is stable as a proportion of GDP* – before claiming that the prime minister was not “doing much” to cut disability benefits.

    He then asked his guest Lewis Schaffer how he would “get them off their backside”.

    Schaffer replied: “Just starve them, that’s what people have to do, that’s what you’ve got to do to people, you can’t just give people money.”

    He then added: “What else can you do? Shoot them? I mean, I’d suggest that, but I think that’s maybe a bit strong.”

    Christys then replied: “Yeah, it’s just not allowed these days.”

    On his X/Twitter profile, Schaffer describes himself as a “virologist, cardiologist, climatologist, historian”, but elsewhere he is described as a “comedian and broadcaster”.

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/gb-news-says-it-has-nothing-to-apologise-for-after-guest-suggests-starving-disabled-benefit-claimants/

    Reply

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