Open mike 03/04/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 3rd, 2023 - 38 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step up to the mike …

38 comments on “Open mike 03/04/2023 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. dvT 1
    3 April 2023 at 8:17 am

    Interesting

    * Poll shows 47% of Americans think Manhattan DA charges against Trump are 'politically motivated'

    *Nearly one-third of Americans think Trump should not have been indicted

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11930547/ONE-Americans-dont-think-Trump-indicted-new-poll-shows.html?ito=push-notification&ci=ekBJbRD5OK&cri=F1Uf_SH-5_&si=6OBwHRJCjiW2&xi=2c004021-41ee-4c4f-8c26-c9875d351c78&ai=11930547

    • Peter 1.1
      3 April 2023 at 8:50 am

      If and when Trump is charged with something to do with attempting to pervert election results in Georgia I'm sure the percentages will be similar.

      I suppose such charges would be 'politically motivated' because they'll be about a politician politically motivated to change election results.

    • Sabine 1.2
      3 April 2023 at 10:46 am

      Pandoras box. Open it to your own detriment.

  2. Sanctuary 2
    3 April 2023 at 8:57 am

    Bumped into a chap I used to work with on my stroll from the bus stop to work this morning. He left my previous employer to get into realestate about two years ago, and now he is applying for jobs as a project manager again because the housing market has utterly tanked and he can't make a living selling houses anymore.

    • Tiger Mountain 2.1
      3 April 2023 at 9:56 am

      Falling market is no fun for people that bought an overpriced suburban dump in the last year or two.

      Agents can cream it both ways dealing with vendors and buyers, and they do a lot more hours than some imagine with psychology involved for the skilled ones. But really it is a disreputable occupation when it comes down to it.

    • Belladonna 2.2
      3 April 2023 at 10:11 am

      No doubt he's made a packet over the last couple of years, and will now be in high demand as a project manager again (plenty of scope with all of the government and local government projects being rolled out).

      What real estate agents like is a high volume property market – lots of buying and selling – they don't really care whether the prices are trending upwards or downwards. Each individual sale is only a few hundred more or less on their commission.

  3. Hunter Thompson II 3
    3 April 2023 at 9:41 am

    According to the ODT, 3 April 2023, almost 5,000 NZ nurses have registered to work in Oz. Pay rates are almost as much (for top jobs) as the rates creamed by the consultants who flocked to work (?) on the now defunct RNZ/TVNZ merger:

    " … short-term contracts ranged from about $3500 to about $8000 Australian dollars a week, depending on factors including seniority, expertise and the length of the contract.”

    Nice to see a bit of parity for our hard-pressed health workers for once, but the NZ health system continues to decline.

    • Incognito 3.1
      3 April 2023 at 12:48 pm

      Really, why do we still have to ask for links, to your verbatim quote from ODT (and to RNZ)?

      angry

    • bwaghorn 3.2
      3 April 2023 at 4:00 pm

      I guess when your country is an open caste mine you can pay top wages.

    • Tricledrown 3.3
      3 April 2023 at 6:07 pm

      So Hunter where is the money coming from higher taxes or maybe Australia can afford to pay higher wages for nurses because all the profit from Australian owned NZ branches goes to Australia no tax paid in NZ ie banks countdown etc billions of dollars Top income earners in NZ pay less.So our govt hasn't got the money to compete just as the developing world can't afford to pay our wages so for example Australia steals our best nurses and we steal The Phillipines nurses . Covid interupted the the supply lines of Labour.The Australian govt kept bringing in in seasonal workers during covid while NZ closed its border

  4. Tricledrown 4
    3 April 2023 at 9:45 am

    The latest from Russia one of Putins top psychophantic bloggers blown up in a restaraunt most likely by Putin as he was critical of Putin not doing enough .Putin will blame Ukrainian spies! The age of propaganda ie Fake news looks like is taking over as the internet superceding real news gathered by genuine reporters.Add in artificial intelligence and the Human race is in deep peril of its own making.Unscrupulous power hungry narcissists are taking over. Ironically Eion Musk is asking for a halt to AI ,as if anyone is going to stop ie China or Russia or big business will listen

  5. Adrian 5
    3 April 2023 at 9:55 am

    Hunter, the vast bulk of Australian nurses are on money only about 10% better than NZ. Try and find out about what the high paying jobs really are, but anecdotally from a nurse I know they are in isolated and not that nice a places, and short term to cover for holidays pregnancy etc Ask yourself why the Aussies are paying such big money, it may well be because of the same problems as here, not enough staff, shitty conditions and long hours. An experienced NZ nurse in NZ doing 12 hour shifts with extra call backs gets well in excess of 100-120k p.a. The real rate is very hard to access as it varies weekly because every nurse is working in different conditions I.e, expertise and hours. Keep in mind also that you are reading headlines, click bait for the terminally aggrieved reader, subtract a copious amount of bullshit and you may get close to the truth.

    • psych nurse 5.1
      3 April 2023 at 12:41 pm

      Adrian, you are correct. most of the high paying jobs for Nurses in Australia are in remote communities working with indigenous communities. Places Aussies just will not go to.

      The Practice Nurse interviewed on RNZ this morning leaving her 9 to 5 Monday to Friday role for Australia could make just about as much here by returning to shift work in New Zealand.

    • Hunter Thompson II 5.2
      3 April 2023 at 1:11 pm

      Correct, a fair number of the Australian jobs for nurses will be in locations like Woop Woop or the Black Stump. No surfing after work.

      It's not just pay. From my experience as a hospital patient, I suspect an increase in staff numbers on the wards would keep a lot of our nurses here, so the workload is spread a bit more.

  6. Sabine 6
    3 April 2023 at 10:37 am

    i see the 'dangeorus' 'woman' fugitive is no longer a "women" but is now a pensioneer. Never mind that this 'women' is a male and his crimes are those of a male.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dangerous-wanted-74yo-south-auckland-pensioner-bronwyn-warwick-still-missing/ULQO42L4TNAXNLORSSU743K7U4/

    Police are still looking for a “dangerous” pensioner who was convicted of murdering an elderly woman and kidnapping and robbing a law student in the past 30 years.

    Police are appealing for sightings of Bronwyn Warwick who has a parole recall warrant.

    They say she is considered dangerous and should not be approached."

    snip

    But a friend and ex-prison mate of Warwick’s, self-styled “jailhouse lawyer” Arthur Taylor, has described her as a “pretty intelligent” bone carver who was settling “quite well” in the community.

    “Back in the ‘90s, she was still transitioning from being a man to a woman. I never saw her be violent during my time there with her.

    yeah, bro, i guess being a strong healthy penis haver will have that effect on a murderer who killed and old women* and who harmed a male law student. Essentially a common garden variety violent thug of the male sex.

    *Women – female humans.

    • Visubversa 6.1
      3 April 2023 at 11:51 am

      People are pretty good at perceiving the sex of other people. Insisting that this violent person is a woman, may result in people identifying them correctly as a male, but not reporting is because they are being told that they are not male.

      • Anker 6.1.1
        3 April 2023 at 12:45 pm

        Welcome back Sabine.

        100% re insisting this violent man is a women could put people off the track and prevent them realizing that this man is dangerous and needs to be reporting to the police.

        But of course misgendering is such a heinous crime…………………

      • MichaelP 6.1.2
        4 April 2023 at 1:12 pm

        Yep. Welcome to the new world where scientific facts are not real, only what someone feels or decides is real for them is real.

        Which is fine until us 'ordinary' people are told we have to go along with it.

  7. Belladonna 7
    3 April 2023 at 10:44 am

    This 'ghost bus' problem is becoming a daily 'feature' on local FB pages.

    Regular commuters having bus after bus cancelled (one recently posted a photo on the northern busway of 7 services in a row cancelled). And then, when a bus finally does arrive, it sails on past, as it's too full to stop. Some are resorting to using cars again – just to get into work.

    Note: this more than 1,000 trips per day in Auckland being cancelled is *after* AT already trimmed 10% of scheduled services.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ghost-buses-hundreds-of-services-cancelled-every-day-in-auckland-and-wellington/HGLVPLN56NBVFDC7A2V2QUI4F4/

    When AT demonstrably can't manage to deliver on their already contracted services, it beggars belief that they'll be able to deliver on the *increased* services that are proposed in order to meet climate change targets.

    Is this a failure of management? Of priorities? Of competence?

    Whatever it is – it is even further damaging the reputation of AT, and the belief of Aucklanders that this is an organization which needs increased funding, in a time of reduced budgets.

    • Stephen D 7.1
      3 April 2023 at 11:58 am

      My wife gets busses from Silverdale to North Shore Hospital. It is very much hit and mis whether a bus turns up at all. When they do cancel them, (regularly) it is at the very last minute, so the next one is often full.

      I know there are issues with driver numbers, and availabilty. If AT had better communication skills a lot of the angst could be mitigated. Better still, if they funded properly. Fat Chance.

      • Visubversa 7.1.1
        3 April 2023 at 12:47 pm

        The information they have not given us is whether there is a difference between the contractors. We find that the Ritchie's bus services are much more regular than the NZBUS ones. The buses are cleaner and in better shape, and the drivers seem happier.

        NZBUS are shocking. They regularly put buses on the road with malfunctioning or nonfunctioning air conditioning, the buses are dirty, one I travelled on recently had sopping wet seats because the roof leaked, and the drivers could not care less.

        • Belladonna 7.1.1.1
          3 April 2023 at 5:38 pm

          Most people don't have a choice. The contract for their suburb is let to one operator – and that's what you get.
          I guess there are a few suburbs with an overlap (going north it's X, going south, it's Y) – but that would be the exception rather than the rule.

          The comments I get to see are in relation to the Northern Busway (so I guess Ritchies), and local bus services to the CBD, Takapuna and north to Albany (also, I suspect, Ritchies).

      • Belladonna 7.1.2
        3 April 2023 at 5:43 pm

        I'd like to see their management and executive team taking shifts on the buses to fill the gaps. They can opt for either a morning or afternoon rush-hour shift, and then do the rest of their work around the bus-driving.

        Give them a real incentive to improve conditions to attract drivers.

        Yes, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but based on real-life story.

        In the dim and distant days, when I was a child, and we had our own local bus company – I recall the owner arriving one day driving the scheduled bus. He'd had a driver call in sick (probably in the middle of a shift), and couldn't get a replacement. My Nana introduced us all, and thanked him for coming out. That was a real commitment to customer service.

      • MichaelP 7.1.3
        4 April 2023 at 1:19 pm

        Hmmm. They should take some from out East. Every single bus I see in Pakuranga, east tamaki etc is either empty or has maybe 3 or 4 passengers at most

        In fact i cant remember the last time i saw a full bus and i do a bit of driving during the day

    • Liberty Belle 7.2
      3 April 2023 at 4:52 pm

      AT have been a joke for years. They were ideologically captured, and never managed to shake it,. And in his usual ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ pantomime mayoralty, Goff did SFA to fix it. A new GM started today at AT. He has a huge job ahead of him.

  8. Ad 8
    3 April 2023 at 10:52 am

    If anyone saw the Warriors incredible 32-30 comeback win against the Sharks yesterday, Shaun Johnson's halftime chat when they were 20 points down must have been really something.

    Hipkins should hire him to give the Labour caucus a rev-up.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/shaun-johnson-on-the-halftime-talk-that-inspired-the-warriors-to-comeback-win-over-cronulla-sharks/RGJL7AH2GRHEXHQG3SIVL6FZD4/

  9. Ad 9
    3 April 2023 at 11:04 am

    Tough break Sanna Marin losing the Finnish election.

    The no-immigrants-from-outside-EU that the Finnish nationalists will now insist on is at least as tough as the Danish approach. Presumably that's another home the Ukrainian refugees can't go to.

    • Belladonna 9.1
      3 April 2023 at 5:45 pm

      I must admit that I haven't been following the Finnish election.

      From a complete outsider's perspective, I'd think that the Russia/Ukraine war would have had a massive impact on the election and potentially on the results.

      Is that your understanding?

      • Ad 9.1.1
        3 April 2023 at 8:11 pm

        The NATO membership still has huge internal popularity.

        No I think it's a straight-out rejection of the leadership and of the centre-left. They got third.

        Pretty similar to how Ardern was taking Labour.

      • Sabine 9.1.2
        6 April 2023 at 10:30 am

        Not only Finland, but Holland, Sweden….and France is currently imploding.

    • Mike the Lefty 9.2
      4 April 2023 at 7:44 am

      People don't like partying PMs.

      They can stand for lying, cheating, bribing, corrupt PMs but not partying.

      No no no.

      I think Sanna Marin kind of found herself in the same hole as Jacinda Adern, her success was her downfall because it made too many people jealous.

  10. Sanctuary 10
    3 April 2023 at 11:12 am

    Israel creates state sanctioned death squads that will allow extremist settlers to kill Palestinians with impunity.

  11. Shanreagh 11
    3 April 2023 at 11:29 am

    This may not be everyone's cup of tea, humour-wise and may be incomprehensible to those who have not been following all the permutations around KJM. Nazis & her visit to NZ

    https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2287613/hitler-learns-posie-parker-isn't-a-nazi?fbclid=IwAR0eby4cHWL1NohGyHfAYIdVmok3pFq4H78D5V7CSoY0uspg4UNUSKQVvQ0

    No bad language, just an extended skit and playing with all the pronouncements about what KJM ‘is’