Open mike 01/04/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 1st, 2025 - 73 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step up to the mike …

73 comments on “Open mike 01/04/2025 ”

  1. Nic the NZer 1
    1 April 2025 at 8:05 am

    Good explanation of the fishhooks in a recent executive order about US election laws. These literal Jim Crowe tactics worked in the 2024 election.

    Reply
    • Phillip ure 1.1
      1 April 2025 at 5:22 pm

      It could get ugly here when trump does his tariffs thing…

      He has already said he sees gst as the regressive tariff that it is between American goods and consumers here..and that he will retaliate in kind…factoring in that gst figure ..on countries that have gst..

      So …y'know..!

      Reply
  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    1 April 2025 at 8:22 am

    New RNZ poll results…
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/poll/556772/rnz-reid-research-poll-coalition-in-front-as-labour-gains-ground

    It is close for sure, Nat 32.9%, Lab 32.3%, it is good to have another poll, hopefully a regular one.

    Reply
  3. PsyclingLeft.Always 3
    1 April 2025 at 8:24 am

    The RNZ Header. And where exactly is that part amongst the jumble-link !? (RNZ Curates Egg…mostly good)

    Politics live: Chris Hipkins admits two mega ferries 'wasn't the wisest decisions'

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/556758/politics-live-chris-hipkins-admits-two-mega-ferries-wasn-t-the-wisest-decisions

    Anyway I looked elsewhere….and the problems could be with the New Ferry Saviour….or something completely different. Politics..sheesh !

    “With the benefit of 2020 hindsight, accepting Winston Peters’ recommendation that we should go for two mega ferries in the first place probably wasn’t the wisest decision,” Hipkins told the Herald. “Two smaller ferries, which is where the government has landed now, might have been better from the outset – that wasn’t what Winston Peters recommended.”

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/01-04-2025/rail-enabled-ferries-are-coming-to-cook-strait-eventually

    Reply
    • Ad 3.1
      1 April 2025 at 8:59 am

      Hipkins needs to keep his focus on health, housing and jobs. The ferries are just a massive win for Peters that everyone knows only Peters and Peter Reidy's team could pull off.

      Like National's last term in power, they will get to the election with a series of mega-infrastructure projects opened and delivering.

      When you look across New Zealand there are so many new mega-projects underway from state entities and 149 more in a burgeoning development pipeline, Hipkins' team need to keep hammering away at the degradation of local democracy in the RMA to oppose mega-projects across communities.

      Bishop's version of the RMA in particular needs more political energy from MP Rachel Brooking who is supposed to be leading the charge on this.

      It's a smaller target but it's the one he's left with.

      Reply
    • KJT 3.2
      1 April 2025 at 11:28 am

      Exactly the problem with Labour.

      The ferries were a king hit gifted to Labour by Nicky no boats. A National fuckup from the Coalition of Cockups.

      Then Hipkins has to publically turn around and water it down.

      For fucks sake.

      Can't Labour ever stick to their guns?

      Reply
      • Bearded Git 3.2.1
        1 April 2025 at 2:44 pm

        Agree KJT…another Hipkins own-goal.

        Reply
      • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.2.2
        1 April 2025 at 9:36 pm

        The guns they do seem to stick to …are of the pop variety. I keep waiting…and hoping..for the broadsides that NAct1 deserve. And Action to spark the Red Crew. How long to wait for it?

        Reply
  4. gsays 4
    1 April 2025 at 9:59 am

    I watched an episode of BHN last night where Pat, Chewie and Bomber discussed the etymology of bussy. They acknowledged being 3 hetero blokes.

    2022 word of the year according to one group. A conjunction of boy and pussy meaning male anus. Pussy as a suffix came to mean cavity. Eg, calzone was pizzussy.

    If hysteria is a touchy word, I imagine bussy is off the charts.

    In my time as a young man (early 90's) I worked in Harvey Nichols 5th Floor Cafe. A lot of my colleagues were queens. To this day, I have never met more mysoginistic people than 2 of them.

    There has been a bit of korero about woke recently and I think it was Ian Mac or Mac2 that said it was about being respectful and polite, which I can roll with.

    Where woke gets a bad rap is when folk think there is nothing wrong with words/attitudes that can be offensive to people.

    But scattergunny, but a few ideas that have been swirling round just as I was thinking of getting in behind The Greens again.🤐

    Reply
    • francesca 4.1
      1 April 2025 at 11:40 am

      I agree Gsays.It may be a generational difference but I associate the word"pussy" with male usage, as in Trump's "grab em by the pussy"

      It's also heavily used in porn .

      So bussy, meaning boy pussy has a cringe factor for me.

      Reply
      • Incognito 4.1.1
        1 April 2025 at 11:49 am

        I cringe more when people are sending death threats to other people.

        Reply
        • francesca 4.1.1.1
          1 April 2025 at 12:04 pm

          Good for you , but surely "cringe" is a lame response to death threats?

          I'd condemn them

          Reply
        • Visubversa 4.1.1.2
          1 April 2025 at 12:08 pm

          I know the woman who used to have to clear the phone messages every morning at Jacinda's Mt Albert office. Every weekday morning she had to listen to an avalanche of sexist, ageist, filth – of threats of sexual assault and other forms of bodily harm, including death threats.

          I agree that death threats to politicians are absolutely unacceptable. It is long past time that the Diplomatic Protection people (whose job it is) stepped up their game and that every offensive or threatening message is responded to with a return call or message from the appropriate Police service (this can of course be automated), that the message has been received and has been recorded for evidence purposes.

          There needs to be a lot more prosecutions and these should be publicised wherever possible.

          Reply
          • weka 4.1.1.2.1
            1 April 2025 at 12:21 pm

            I agree more needs to be done. I suspect when the MSM says an MP received death threats, most people don't know what that entails. I can see why the MSM wouldn't give details (because it gives these violent people ideas), but I wonder if people think it's just a few comments on twitter.

            One of the problems with responding to them is many of the accounts on twitter are pseudonymous, and I expect people phoning threats are withholding their number. So doing replies to actual people would take a fair amount of police resources.

            Reply
          • Incognito 4.1.1.2.2
            1 April 2025 at 12:21 pm

            I didn’t say “politicians”, I said “people”.

            There needs to be a lot more prosecutions and these should be publicised wherever possible.

            That’s a response I’d expect from the Coalition but here on TS card-carrying Labour supporters claim that the Greens are weak and ineffective on crime, so we’ll probably get what you wish for.

            Reply
        • gsays 4.1.1.3
          1 April 2025 at 12:09 pm

          They aren't comparable.

          One group are anonymous. …and worthy of condemnation

          The other is an old individual who is seeking to represent us.

          Reply
          • weka 4.1.1.3.1
            1 April 2025 at 12:22 pm

            true, but it sounds like squeamishness about gay men's sex. If you take the child out of the photos, is there a problem with the posts given they were made on a personal account before they stood for parliament?

            Reply
            • gsays 4.1.1.3.1.1
              1 April 2025 at 12:30 pm

              "given they were made on a personal account before they stood for parliament?"

              Well it shows the attitudes and mindset that will enter parliament.

              Don't you have any issues with the vernacular?

              Reply
              • weka …
                1 April 2025 at 3:10 pm

                a man using the term bussy? No, no problem, (see my comment below about context) and tbh, apart from the homophobes, I'm still not sure what the issue is with the word.

                Reply
          • Incognito 4.1.1.3.2
            1 April 2025 at 12:23 pm

            They aren’t comparable.

            Bingo!

            Reply
            • tWig 4.1.1.3.2.1
              1 April 2025 at 12:33 pm

              This Madeleine Chapman Spinoff article covers quite a bit of territory over this issue. Chapman has clearly seen the posts, or had them described in detail to her:

              "Stripped of context, the posts that all your favourite X lurkers are salivating over are pretty bloody boring. In one from 2020, Doyle kisses their young daughter on the mouth and says nice, parental things about her in the caption. A parent kissing their toddler on the mouth is not news, nor is it a reason to call the police. But Peters, both in speaking to Plunket and in his social media posts, is always keen to include the fact that Doyle is a supporter of safe access to puberty blockers. It appears that to Peters, such views means Doyle's otherwise ordinary actions around their own kid are now".

              Chapman highlights Peters's motivation in going after Doyle, as part of the NZF anti-trans position. She also questions the naivety of the Greens in wanting to present themselves as authentic and whole people, but clearly have badly prepared new MPs like Doyle for the horror show of NZ political life.

              The purported posts that Peters insinuates represent child abuse within the context of a PRIVATE FB page. And who passed on this content, one must ask? Was it someone who posts at the site, or was this material cracked on purpose, or even access bought from FB?

              Peters insinuating Doyle is a pedophile is straight out of the QAnon playbook. By attacking an MP's family and private life, Peters has stepped right into the mudpit of dirty politics. Shades of the insinuations of Colin Moyle's homosexuality by the Nats in the 70s. In turn, NZF make themselves a target. Winston enjoys the fisticuffs, but some of his own MPs may be more fragile.

              A good opinion piece from someone who presumably has "been shown the money",

              Reply
              • tWig …
                1 April 2025 at 12:42 pm

                Sorry moderator, can you remove my second (first draft) comment, 4.2? Forgot to instantly delete it, my bad.

                Reply
              • weka …
                1 April 2025 at 12:50 pm

                it was Instagram not FB. My best guess is the posts were publicly visible up until Doyle became an MP. Which means a year or two from selection until then. The Greens either didn't vet properly or didn't see a problem with the posts.

                Also possible is the account was set to private and one of his followers leaked the images. Same issue for the Greens.

                The posts themselves, the photos aren't an issue, but the context and words are. They were posted from an account called bible belt bussy (bussy = boy pussy/anus), and two in particular shouldn't haven't been made. The one with Doyle and their son and Doyle posting 'Bussy Galore', the other a photo of presumably the son's legs and feet with crocs on, and the text 'swipe to see a 🍆'.

                These are inappropriate fullstop. They're entirely inappropriate for an MP to leave up, especially one that wants portfolios involving children.

                None of that makes Doyle a child sex offender. The right are running a large, very nasty smear campaign, and basically going off on one including a lot of homophobia and green hatred. That doesn't mean the posts were ok.

                I accept what Swarbrick is saying about sub culture context, and agree that the death threats need to be addressed immediately. But it's wrong for the Greens to not acknowledge there is a problem with the posts. Wrong ethically and a political mistake.

                Reply
            • gsays 4.1.1.3.2.2
              1 April 2025 at 12:39 pm

              Unfortunately I was wanting to play a different game to Bingo.

              Are you comfortable with the bussy vernacular?

              Reply
              • Incognito …
                1 April 2025 at 1:45 pm

                Are you comfortable with the bussy vernacular?

                It’s foreign language to me and has therefore no effect on me (i.e., a big loud woosh for me). So far, I haven’t read anything to upsetting about it. Death threats, on the other hand, I do understand.

                Reply
                • gsays …
                  1 April 2025 at 1:50 pm

                  Ok, I can pivot.

                  What to do with the death threats?

                  I am trying to reconcile yr concern with the reply @ 4.1.1.2.2

                  Reply
                  • Incognito …
                    1 April 2025 at 3:07 pm

                    My starting point is zero-tolerance to death threats.

                    There are two aspects to death threats: 1) prevention; 2) response. These two aspects are linked and the approach should be integrating these two.

                    The wider context and background to death threats is the debate about freedom of expression (‘free speech’) which is a hugely complex issue.

                    Reply
    • tWig 4.2
      1 April 2025 at 12:27 pm

      This Madeleine Chapman Spinoff article covers quite a bit of territory over this issue. Chapman has clearly seen the postS:

      "Stripped of context, the posts that all your favourite X lurkers are salivating over are pretty bloody boring. In one from 2020, Doyle kisses their young daughter on the mouth and says nice, parental things about her in the caption. A parent kissing their toddler on the mouth is not news, nor is it a reason to call the police. But Peters, both in speaking to Plunket and in his social media posts, is always keen to include the fact that Doyle is a supporter of safe access to puberty blockers. It appears that to Peters, such views means Doyle’s otherwise ordinary actions around their own kid are now suspect"

      Chapman highlights Peter's motivation in going after Doyle, as part of NZF's anti-trans position. She also questions the naivety of the Greens in wanting to present themselves as authentic and whole people, but missing out preparation for new MPs like Doyle. A good opinion piece from someone who presumably has 'been shown the money', the purported posts that Peters insinuates represent child abuse within the context of the PRIVATE facebook page.

      And who passed on this content, one must ask? Was it someone who posts at the site, or was this material cracked or even paid for?

      By attacking an MP's family and private life, Peters has stepped right into the mudpit of 'dirty politics'. Shades of the insinuations of Colin Moyle's homosexuality by the Nats in the 70s. Peters better be careful there though. Peters insinuating Doyle is a pedophile is straight out of the QAnon playbook.

      Reply
  5. weka 5
    1 April 2025 at 11:12 am

    Good to see Labour holding an olive branch out to the Greens, or at least letting voters know they're still friends.

    Hipkins said there would “almost certainly” be a rapprochement between himself and Paul.

    “We still work very closely with the Greens,” he said.

    Hipkins has been taking heat over his position.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/chris-hipkins-calls-marama-davidson-and-discusses-police-row-the-greens-raise-some-legitimate-issues/LZQEX53YWBBDXBPI66OJLW5GAI/

    Reply
    • gsays 5.1
      1 April 2025 at 12:19 pm

      Not for you to answer…

      How did Hipkins get into this muddle?

      Poorly advised?

      His own thoughts on the matter?

      Ambushed by churnalists?

      It's strange the masts he chooses to nail his colours to.

      Reply
      • weka 5.1.1
        1 April 2025 at 12:24 pm

        dunno, I just saw his response to Paul in the MSM and thought he sounded both ignorant and reactive and opened a door to the idea that Labour weren’t going to work with the Greens.

        Maybe he was having a bad day. I do think he has some problems with his advisors, no idea if that was a factor this time.

        Reply
  6. tWig 6
    1 April 2025 at 12:50 pm

    And here's a suggestion to strengthen protection against Trump scooping up Greenland: federate with Canada.

    From the article: “As with everything Musk-Trump does, however, the cui bono question about imperialism in Greenland is easy to answer: Russia benefits. Putin cannot contain his delight with US imperialism over Greenland. In generating artificial crises in relations with both Denmark and Canada, America’s two closest allies these last 80 years, the Trump people cut America loose from security gains and create a chaos in which Russia benefits.”

    Reply
    • Phillip ure 7.1
      1 April 2025 at 4:33 pm

      I don't think the animal exploitation industry realizes the uncertainties around their world…

      ..the cancer deniers will run out of steam/gravitas ..

      ..and the emissions..lordy the emissions…!

      ..the proposed carbon tax above is just a taste of what is to come ..

      Reply
  8. SPC 8
    1 April 2025 at 4:20 pm

    Strange call on the Americas Cup funding.

    At $75M they would have got their money back in GST revenue (team spending) and tax on higher local business profits.

    Reply
    • Ad 8.1
      1 April 2025 at 4:37 pm

      And frustrating since AK Council and MBIE spent a couple of hundie on the infrastructure to host more of them.

      Reply
  9. Phillip ure 9
    1 April 2025 at 4:53 pm

    What a strange place to find myself..

    ..absorbing the above information..and finding myself asking myself: 'if the math is as straightforward as described..

    ..why on earth didn't the clown-cart finance this..?

    ..we already have all the infrastructure in place…

    ..are they actually financial illiterates..?'

    And I'm thinking: am I an America's cup supporter ..?

    I didn't see that coming..

    Reply
    • KJT 9.1
      1 April 2025 at 5:39 pm

      The Coalition of Cockups doesn't believe in Government investment, unless one of their funders makes a mint from it. Obviously Team NZ didn't donate/bribe National enough.

      Having said that, I'm still not keen on supporting an America's cup team who took all our money and support last time. Then ran away to an offshore venue. Costing millions in wasted infrastructure.

      Reply
      • Phillip ure 9.1.1
        1 April 2025 at 5:44 pm

        Now I remember why I didn't like them..

        ..but the financial case for racing here would seem to be kinda compelling..

        ..esp. 'cos of that already there infrastructure…

        Reply
        • KJT 9.1.1.1
          1 April 2025 at 5:53 pm

          The stated ROI is considerably better than one of National "roads of National significance", I suppose.

          And a much needed influx of cash to counter Nikki no boats recession in Auckland?

          Reply
          • Phillip ure 9.1.1.1.1
            1 April 2025 at 7:03 pm

            Yep..all that…

            ..and re the 'no boats' thing…

            ..my thinking on that has evolved..

            ..in that peters made the original cock-up…by ..as minister of rail..ordering ferries that were going to need an eye-watering amount of infrastructure upgrade ..

            Labour then compounded that error by peters by not checking the nuts and bolts of the deal he came back with..and refusing it because of those attendant costs…

            Labour then compounded it even further by just charging ahead with peters cock-up….and once again…not taking enough notice of these costs ..

            ..(have I missed anything..?)

            ..and if all the above is accurate…the cancellation of that Peter's deal would seem to be the best thing to do ..?

            (Once again..have I missed anything..?)

            ..of course there are the eye-watering ironies of the architect of this cock-up now hailing himself as some kind of saviour….

            ..those ironies abound…

            ..and ardern and hipkins must share the approbrium…

            ..for the crime of not paying close enough attention…

            Reply
            • SPC 9.1.1.1.1.1
              1 April 2025 at 7:52 pm

              They got a real good deal for the 2 large ferries.

              Treasury and others connected the cost blow out of onshore cost to the large size of them.

              I doubt they really worked out what the difference was between the cost of the onshore/wharf work to manage larger ferries, from need for onshore/wharf upgrade and meeting higher earthquake standards .

              Note there is nothing, as yet, about the cost forecast of this work, for the larger than now, smaller than planned, ferries.

              The other problem is moving from 3 ferries now to 2. Two new ones would be more reliable, but still need maintenance.

              And then there is catering to future expansion of carriage volume across the strait.

              Reply
              • Phillip ure …
                1 April 2025 at 10:12 pm

                From every angle..it is pretty much a cluster-f#ck…

                Reply
                • aj …
                  1 April 2025 at 10:18 pm

                  Hipkins should have supported the original deal more strongly than he has, the case is easy to make.

                  Is this an effort to spread a little oil on troubled waters, so to speak. On the very outside chance of needing NZF in the next election and the even smaller chance of a coalition with them.

                  Reply
                  • Phillip ure …
                    2 April 2025 at 3:54 pm

                    Isn't the point that labour did not do due diligence on the ancillary infrastructure upgrade costs mandated by the choices made by Winston peters..?

                    ..which made the deal a dog..?

                    And…No desires to oil up w.peters here…

                    Reply

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