Written By:
notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, May 2nd, 2023 - 42 comments
Categories: open mike -
Tags:
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
Absolutely. Its way past time for this. I kinda wonder how many mis- "managers" are embedded in KiwiRail. Been said before : Time for a major cleanout.
Hope its not too late…
I would rather Kiwirail were absorbed into NZTA, forming a unified land transport system.
This would require shifting Kiwirail from SOE to Crown Entity, getting rid of its commercial imperative. ALso would require stronger changes to LTMF.
If Chippie went down in a screamer at the October election, Labour could do worse than be led by Michael Wood. Just radiates competence and calm.
Been said before..In NZ, and, on The Standard (incl by me) that Rail should be NZ Rail. Get Coastal Shipping in there too. Michael Wood ( I personally rate him highly) ..must get on to it.
If not now, never …
Don't think it's too late to make a run at a remit for Conference or direct into Policy Council in time for the Manifesto.
Though I recall Cabinet revisited this structural issue early last year and passed on it.
At minimum shifting it into NZTA would provide some protection from a future National government choking rail to death like they usually do. Or selling it off again.
Thats my fear (Prob a lot of other NZers too… : (
Still…I'm optimistic. Some positives..and Mr Wood leading the Rail reset (incl Coastal Shipping! )..could be the needed
Mr Wood has already proved he can get results such as Bus Drivers pay and officially revisiting Coastal Shipping.
Jacinda passed the baton directly to one of her inner circle without the wider partys involvement, so Michael will have to wait till next time…if there is one after the PM’s “nothing to see here” reaction to David Parkers powerful tax report on what the ruling class have been up to.
Hoarding the printed money the government threw at the economy when Covid 19 lockdowns when the NZ economy was shut down to keep money flowing.but a few hundred benefited more than $14 billion tax free gains while the rest of us have used savings and gone without guess who paying the overdraft and the cost of inflation. Not the very wealthy who benefited the most.Money hoarders don't spend most of their money in tax free speculative investments like land banking
You gotta laugh though. Wellington has one screw up from Kiwirail and the government hauls in Kiwirail management for a please explain.
Meanwhile, Auckland's rail network users have been treated absolutely shabbily and with complete distain and… crickets.
Really? Think theres been more than one…Anyway,IMO this latest has been the tip of the KiwiRail shitberg. Can only hope there is some clearance. Before the below surface shit hits the…
Large chunks (more than half) of the Auckland rail network have been shut down for 18 months or longer (knowing the pace of work, here in Auckland, it will almost certainly be longer).
At a time when the bus system is buckling under pressure – with more than 1,000 services cancelled – and AT (and contractors) unable to deliver reliably on the edited timetable. It is completely unreasonable to expect that the bus service will be able to take up the patronage slack (and, indeed, the buses have not been able to do so).
Why anyone thought it was a great time to shut down the network for a non-urgent replacement of tracks, beats me.
Not arguing that it may be needed – but arguing that now, was demonstrably not the right time.
Wood came out swinging, defending the shutdown, as 'better to do now, quickly – than to have it dragging on'. Not a message that went down well with even the most rail-obsessed supporters.
You'd actually think there had been a lot of govt focus on Auckland rail given they are spending $5.493 billion on the City Rail Link, on top of all the work they have previously done to link up the south and east/west rail networks. But Aucklanders gotta whinge about their new roads and their new rail systems.
And the reason Wellington trains have to go slow – Aucklanders broke the equipment that is needed to do the safety monitoring.
We can thank the Act part for that.
I agree with very little the mayor says. But reformatting the CCO structure is a must.
Seen on twitter
Recently one of the train guards told me that one of the biggest problems is Kiwirail trying to save money by not stocking spare parts, leading to supply problems when certain parts are urgently needed. Time for a few heads to roll in Kiwirail management I think.
And yep, KiwiRail..IMO has never really inspired confidence here…
Close, theyre not stocking parts due to managers making it look like theyve hit or exceeded budget targets kpi's etc thus ensuring performance bonuses are forthcoming.
Same issue with the ferries.
Useless pr*cks, same in most companies in NZ, nothing is done properly.
Listening to Simeon Brown on RNZ frantically shroud waving to cook up a culture war between city and country over electric vehicles and sell his magical thinking cockameme alternative…
These are not serious people.
I escaped from the sound of the radio to avoid Simian. They are not serious about solving problems, but very serious about avoiding paying for them.
A culture war!
To add to the war on farmers and landlords.
I thought we lived in a peaceful country
Apparently not according to National.
Surely manually assisted.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/300866758/concertgoers-apparent-orgasm-as-la-philharmonic-played-tchaikovskys-5th-quite-beautiful-and-rather-wonderful
Ad, it seems there is no organ part in Tchaikovsky's 5th so it can't be that kind of manual assistance? Organs can have up to five manuals, after all.
’twas the horn vibrato, if I am not mistaken.
Well played, sir!
a…feel good piece…
The Greens have a petition to hold Labour to their 2017 promise of no new mines on conservation land:
https://action.greens.org.nz/hands_off_our_ancient_forests
The Greens are history. Thoughts?
Chris Trotter.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/05/02/is-it-game-over-for-the-greens/
Martin Bradbury.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/05/02/the-true-madness-of-the-green-woke-clique-exposed/
The Labour list process has been at least as fraught as this for over a decade.
Democracy is messy, but we are remarkably good at tidying up.
Worth noting that for some reason (probably their success in a space he thinks should be occupied by his genius) Bradbury hates the Greens with a passion and he is complete know nothing.
And Chris Trotter?
Trotter has a long history of slagging off the Greens. Leftie own goal.
I long ago concluded the Greens had become irrelevant as an environmental lobby, and now they've morphed into something that is an obstacle to sorting out the planet. And this despite the fact of me voting for them more often than not throughout my adult life.
The Greens have always been a niche party, it remains to be seen whether the uber woke clique have an actual constituency that will turn out to vote. Personally I think the Greens are making themselves irrelevant and alienating most people, but I'm not in the wellington twitterati so perhaps they know something I don't.
Complete rubbish…Trotter has always hated the Greens and regularly writes them off. But they get voted in again and again and the latest polls have them safely back in parliament this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_New_Zealand_general_election
Incidentally, the last 5 polls have all pointed to Lab/Gr/MP forming a government….just.
Theres something to be said for confidence….their best result was as part of the Alliance….30 years ago. Since then they have flirted with the threshold. and historically have performed worse at elections than they poll.
I wouldnt be getting too cocky at this stage….there is no doubt there are problems with the traditional support base.
Seymour getting ratio'ed (again) with a moan about Sepuloni's ute tax, and unintentionally doing PR for the government
https://twitter.com/dbseymour/status/1653179673072013312?s=20
Entertaining read (unless science illiteracy raises your blood pressure). Someone OIAd NIWA about geoengineering and NZ weather.
https://fyi.org.nz/request/20271-geoengineering-and-impacts-on-nz-weather#incoming-84506
Damn. I listened watched Luxon's interview with Kerre Woodham. It showed Luxon at his best. With leadership guidance from Woodham who banned any "anti government rants" or any of the "What I am trying to tell you…" remarks, he had cleaned up his act!
The result was strangely coherent and fairly succinct. I had been hoping that they would keep him on, but now…. Bugger! Mind you he is hard to treat as warming/likeable.
Doesn't matter. He's only talking to the converted. In fact its probably ZB hosts who have been giving him private tuition on the side.
Exactly! We’re always at our best when nobody is watching.
I realise that he was with a strong supporter in Kerre, but his sentences were strung together and coherent – sadly, very sadly. If he does that in public, voters will actually get to understand what he is on about and I would rather have the incoherent word salad.
I’m fine with a strong Opposition and a true contest of ideas and genuine robust politcal discourse here in NZ. Luxon doesn’t have what it takes, he thinks he does, but he’s wrong.