Open mike 02/05/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 2nd, 2016 - 44 comments
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openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

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44 comments on “Open mike 02/05/2016 ”

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  1. Paul 1
    2 May 2016 at 6:13 am

    The failure of National Standards.

    ‘Educators say the minimal level of improvement raised questions about whether the hugely controversial National Standards initiative has worked as intended.
    “It bears out what the profession said at the time – that the standards wouldn’t be enough. They give us a broad look at where a child sits within an age group but don’t tell us what their strengths and weaknesses are or what to do next,” said long-time primary school principal Frances Nelson.
    “It hasn’t become critical to teaching and learning. It hasn’t been the silver bullet. So why spend all that money on something we didn’t need?”
    National Standards was an integral part of John Key’s 2008 election campaign, where he pledged to raise achievement by requiring schools to clearly set out expectations, and to report that clearly to parents.’

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11631749

  2. Paul 2
    2 May 2016 at 6:21 am

    Uber.
    A rogue company that does not pay its taxes or treat its workers with respect.
    But it’s cheap…..and it makes someone a billionaire even richer.

    Like Bunnings
    And Talleys….

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11631866

    To understand how it is all connected, listen to George Monbiot talking about neo-liberalism in Edinburgh.

    • Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 2.1
      2 May 2016 at 7:17 am

      Great stuff – and required listening for all left wing politicians!!!

      About 35-38 minutes into his talk, George speaks about the rise of a new philosophical famework which will combat neoliberalism.

      Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel afterall?

  3. Paul 3
    2 May 2016 at 6:26 am

    Families in need on the rise

    Priest says dozens living in cars, and Sallies report 9 per cent more families given food parcels.
    More families are living in cars and asking for food parcels as a growing minority are missing out on basics that most New Zealanders take for granted.
    Otara Catholic priest Father Brian Prendeville said his parish found people living in 40 cars at the Manukau Velodrome and around Otara recently after a girl went missing.
    The Salvation Army said it gave food parcels to 9 per cent more families in the first three months of this year than it did in the same period last year, reversing a slight decline in the previous year.
    In Auckland, the worsening hardship is driven by housing costs. Average rents for three-bedroom Otara houses rose from $382 a week in March 2014 to $466 this March, but subsidy caps have not changed since 2005. “Prices suddenly got ramped up for houses, but Housing NZ and Work and Income haven’t got ramped up,” Father Prendeville said.
    Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett last month said 500 households had been moved out of state housing into private rentals since July 2014. But Father Prendeville said many could not afford the rents.
    Many are living with relatives, with 99,030 people in officially overcrowded conditions in South Auckland in the 2013 Census. “We have a three-bedroom home with 21 people in it,” he said. “There are two old people, there’s one solo mum, and two couples, all with children. Five boys are sleeping in the living room.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11631899

    To understand how it is all connected, listen to George Monbiot talking about neo-liberalism in Edinburgh.

    • Tautoko Mangō Mata 3.1
      2 May 2016 at 12:14 pm

      At 43:49 minutes up to 46 min in excellent video above, George Monbiot talks about Trade Treaties..

    • Macro 3.2
      2 May 2016 at 9:58 pm

      Our local food bank is now issuing twice the number of food parcels than it did last year.

  4. Whateva next? 4
    2 May 2016 at 7:24 am

    Wow, John Key’s attempts to minimise and “move on , nothing to see here, it’s those hippy Greens and nasty Labour…..,, blah,blah” just sounds like a drunk man trying to explain to the cops “it wasn’t me officer” when he’s caught with his pants down peeing in public….embarrassing.

    • Rosie 4.1
      2 May 2016 at 11:19 am

      Exactly. There’s really no other way to put it.

      This period in our political history will go down as one of the most shameful periods of governance, ever. Future generations will wonder why we tolerated having the village idiot as our PM.

      The ponytail pulling white ribbon ambassador – admitting shower pissing – prison rape joking – ain’t bovvered – “galloping colonial clod” – tax haven promoting – lying – blaming fool has damaged us. Why is he still here?

  5. Puckish Rogue 5
    2 May 2016 at 9:45 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/79411482/mayor-suggests-no-election-for-opotiki-bay-of-plenty

    Well hes only saying what most local body politicians are thinking but geez what a thing to say

  6. Bearded Git 6
    2 May 2016 at 10:01 am

    Ooooops the other day I posted that a 1% Land tax would bring in $700m. In fact, as the latest Bernard Hickey article shows (web address below) it would bring in $6.7 billion. Not far out then. I may have to burn my accountancy qualification certificate. (To be fair my first number was based [cut and pasted] on an earlier Hickey article).

    But this means, as I said before, that Labour should seriously look at putting a 1% Land tax in as policy with NO EXEMPTIONS otherwise it is a dog’s breakfast. It would take the heat out of the property market at a stroke. Provision could be made out of the $6.7b for a rise in pensions to partially compensate older people stuck in high land value homes and a reduction in the lower rates of tax (the higher rate should still go to 39%) .

    The rest could be used on education, health (real food in Dunedin Hospital?), investing in/promoting high-value high-tech businesses, moving freight onto the railways, increasing the frozen budget of DOC and Radio NZ, cycleways, urban public transport (light rail?), debt repayment etc etc

    It is a fascinating article showing that land value in NZ is about $700 billion and housing assets are worth over a trillion now (the graphs in the article are 7 months old).

    http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/81296/bernard-hickey-points-out-1-land-tax-all-property-owners-would-now-allow-55-cut

    • Bearded Git 6.1
      2 May 2016 at 10:20 am

      Oops again, instead of “housing assets are worth over a trillion” it should be “financial assets worth over a trillion with housing assets at $862 billion (house and land)”.

    • DoublePlusGood 6.2
      2 May 2016 at 2:26 pm

      Another way of helping out people who could be adversely impacted by such a tax is to have the first $500k of total value across all properties not be taxed. Then you are taxing people who own a lot of value in properties and not people for whom their single house represents most of their assets. You could increase the value of the tax to correspondingly ensure similar revenue.
      Overall, that should discourage accumulation of large amounts of property.

      • Craig H 6.2.1
        2 May 2016 at 10:34 pm

        That could work – not that much residential land (i.e. not including the house on it) is worth more than $500,000 so it would affect primarily wealthy people (which I guess is the aim).

  7. adam 7
    2 May 2016 at 10:07 am

    “A revolution is interesting insofar as it avoids like the plague the plague it promised to heal.”
    The Rev. Daniel Berrigan

    Just in case you missed it, the wonderful Rev. Daniel Berrigan passed away yesterday. The father of modern non-violence “One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.” One of the movers and shakers to drag back Catholicism to the gospels, and towards non-violence.

    Huge influence in New Zealand, and spiritual inspiration of the 2008 Ploughshares Aotearoa or Anzac Ploughshares to deflate the shield at Waihopai

    And lets not forget poet.

    He will be missed. A very nice piece from Hufffington post for more reading. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-dear/the-life-and-death-of-dan_b_9815148.html

    I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes from him.

    “It’s not going to be easy to change things.”

  8. dv 8
    2 May 2016 at 10:13 am

    Interesting pice in DOMPOST re state house sales. They have raised 300 mil.
    The one that caught my eye was

    6 Akeake Gr, Elsdon, Porirua:
    SOLD for $8000

    The capital Value of the property is $240,000
    Land Value $109,000
    (From the pcc database)

    THAT was a bargain!!!!
    A steal!!

    Daylight robbery.

    • TC 8.1
      2 May 2016 at 10:33 am

      its not robbery when the sale is legitamate which of course the nats are rushing through to ensure the backers are kept sweet.

  9. adam 9
    2 May 2016 at 10:55 am

    Seeing as it’s directed by Oliver Stone, this might just be good.

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    2 May 2016 at 1:34 pm

    And the reality of foreign ownership just gets worse and worse

    http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/good-character.html

    So it turns out the people the Overseas Investment Office approved to buy Onetai station (you know, the ones with the lovely Panamanian money-laundering lawyers) weren’t just convicted polluters, but also money launderers:

  12. Tautoko Mangō Mata 12
    2 May 2016 at 2:00 pm

    I hope this is correct!

    Greenpeace is about to blow the lid off secret documents on the EU-US trade deal
    Greenpeace on Sunday said it was in possession of leaked documents showing that a planned huge free trade deal between the United States and the European Union poses “major risks for climate, environment and consumer safety”.

    The campaign group said it would on Monday publish 248 pages of classified documents to “shine a light” on negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an ambitious treaty both sides want completed by year-end but which is facing mounting opposition.
    The leaked pages will be published online at 0900 GMT, Greenpeace said in a statement.
    http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/greenpeace-is-about-to-blow-the-lid-off-secret-documents-on-the-eu-us-trade-deal/#.Vyaw08P-y2M.twitter

    • Bill 12.1
      2 May 2016 at 2:55 pm

      Place environmental and public health regulatory regimes in the cross hairs. Pull everything down the most pro- (US) business lowest denominator. I thought everyone already knew all of that. Anyway. Greenpeace are, I guess, providing the details for the sake of anyone who harboured any doubts. And as we know, the exact same shit will be going on with regards the TTPA…because that is what the more powerful signatory to any (so-called) free trade deal will always do and has always done.

      http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/01/leaked-ttip-documents-cast-doubt-on-eu-us-trade-deal

  13. Redbaiter 13
    2 May 2016 at 2:03 pm

    My latest post is up.

    Read it if you want to understand why you can’t lay a glove on John Key.

    There are two main strategies that have kept him relatively unscathed and you need to build your own strategies to counter them.

    The real reason the left can’t lay a glove on John Key

    Why am I giving you this valuable information?

    Because believe it or not, I want Key gone as much as you do. For different reasons though.

    • Puckish Rogue 13.1
      2 May 2016 at 2:29 pm

      Interesting read, no one on here will take any notice of it which is a shame

      • Redbaiter 13.1.1
        2 May 2016 at 2:37 pm

        Thank you indeed.

        Magnanimity is a virtue seldom witnessed these bitter days.

      • Bill 13.1.2
        2 May 2016 at 2:45 pm

        Meh – the problem Redbaiter has is the same problem many around here have – ‘the left’ gets conflated with parliamentary politics.

        Beyond that, and I’m assuming he’s an advocate for capitalism, he’s kind of right enough that social democratic governments prevent capitalism. But it’s a huge stretch to call the shenanigans of social democratic governments socialist.

        Too much rational understanding ascribed to voters in the piece too. People vote for social democratic governance because “that’s what we do”, y’know….”it’s always been this way”.

        What interests me is why Redbaiter, in alluding to some market based freedom, apparently fails to understand that the market isn’t neutral (can never be neutral) and so represents just another form of crushing authoritarianism.

  14. save NZ 14
    2 May 2016 at 3:08 pm

    How about market rents for quasi corporates???

    “DID YOU KNOW…That Ports Of Auckland occupies 77 hectares of prime waterfront land? That’s equivalent to 20% of our CBD…That Ports of Auckland pays ZERO rent to use this ratepayer-owned land?…That market rent for this ratepayer-owned land should be $50-100 million per year?…That the port uses tax losses from other Council-owned entities to reduce its tax bill?…That the port pays Council rates on the land based upon a valuation that is at least 70% below market?
    Auckland ratepayers, how do you feel about subsidising the Ports of Auckland’s business?
    Can you imagine the social, cultural, environmental and economic value that could be created if Auckland transformed this prime real estate into a globally iconic waterfront?”

    from stop stealing our harbour.

  15. Once Was Tim 15
    2 May 2016 at 4:43 pm

    Why in fuck’s name did I turn on “The Panel” with Mai? Chen and the Penguin. Thankfully a Mora wasn’t present and Jessie was in control? …. yes control – sort of.

    The subject of interneshnool students came up. Thankfully – after several “yeo’s” from the Penguin, Mai Chen pointed out that English was actually part of the national language of Indian students.
    Usually any problems arise from ‘idiom’, pronunciation, etc ….. but in my experience they usually YEOW have a better YEOW command YEOW of the English YEOW lengwich YEOW than does the Penguin.

    YEOW, the Injun prezdint is here atm, and Dear Leader is busy trying to seize another tunety for a ‘free trade greemint’ (going forward).
    International student enrolments have also dropped radically. The sages are busy trying to spin all this as it being due to tougher Inglish lengwich riquoimints.
    I’d suggest that a big part of the Indian drop off is that they’ve become wise to the Joyce-driven-tertiary-factory-bullshit-qualfikashun bits of paper issued at huge cost (kaching, plus GST) the tertiary education sector (ESPECIALLY in the private sector) has become.

    I’ll turn it off – just as Mai Chen is threatening to give Jessie a spanking.
    Gawd – she’s just so bloody adult, voice of reason, TRP, crapola artist ain’t she (darling).

    • Chooky 15.1
      2 May 2016 at 9:07 pm

      lol…I cant stand know- it- alls…especially when they try to tell you how to run your life and country…Americans used to be like this…and we know how wrong they were/are

      just because you come from a bigger country doesn’t make you a better person

  17. Penny Bright 17
    2 May 2016 at 7:36 pm

    (Just keeping folks up to speed with the latest, in my view, defamatory attack by Cameron Slater?)

    ATTENTION CAMERON SLATER!

    http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2016/05/vic-crone-and-penny-bright-both-break-the-law/

    VIC CRONE AND PENNY BRIGHT BOTH BREAK THE LAW
    by Cameron Slater on May 2, 2016 at 11:00am
    ”

    And they don’t give a toss. To be honest, why should they? Not a single political candidate has ever suffered financially, or by being disqualified after the fact, for breaking election by-laws. They know it is open season.

    ….”

    Really Cameron?

    What exact ‘law’ have I broken by giving Minister of Transport Simon Bridges notice of my intention to petition him to ‘disallow’ Auckland Transport’s “Election Signage ByLaw 2013”

    Again, Cameron Slater, you have made a highly defamatory accusation.

    Under s.25 of the NZ Defamation Act 1992, please publicly retract and apologise FORTHWITH.

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

  18. Chooky 18
    2 May 2016 at 9:13 pm

    the sad neolib state of the UK…NOT something we should be emulating…but which jonkey nactional would like to emulate

    ‘Hundreds of thousands of disabled people in Britain destitute – report’

    https://www.rt.com/uk/341358-destitute-poverty-thousands-uk-disabilities/

    “Hundreds of thousands of disabled people in Britain are forced to live in destitution and are unable to afford basic requirements such as food, shelter and clothing, the UK’s first study examining extreme poverty suggests.

    The report, which was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), was published earlier this week. Amid growing concern that extreme poverty is on the rise in Britain, the UK-based group pushed for academics to investigate the matter…

  19. Chooky 19
    2 May 2016 at 9:37 pm

    This is well worth listening to…a grim future for us all…where countries have and are still overpopulating:

    ‘Corey Bradshaw: Population Limits’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201798980/corey-bradshaw-population-limits

    “Jim Mora talks to the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide, whose research interests include population dynamics, extinction theory, invasion biology, and climate change impacts and mitigation.”

    • Paul 19.1
      2 May 2016 at 9:39 pm

      Isn’t Mora a climate denier?

      • Chooky 19.1.1
        2 May 2016 at 9:54 pm

        don’t think so…certainly not in that interview…i am no fan of Mora but it was a good interview …he was not intrusive, asked very good questions and Wilkins is clearly an expert in his field… on probably the most important issue of our times…OVER- POPULATION by the human race

        imo …countries which have overpopulated and are exceeding their ecological bounds…should be held to account within their own borders…