Open mike 04/12/2020
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6:00 am, December 4th, 2020 - 29 comments
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National held its ground until late 2023 Verion, Talbot Mills & Curia Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)If we remove outlier results from Curia (National Party November 2023) National started trending down in October 2024.Verion Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)Verian alone shows a clearer deterioration in early ...7 days ago- High-impact climate risks, low-probability? Think again
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Daddy, are you out there?Daddy, won't you come and play?Daddy, do you not care?Is there nothing that you want to say?Songwriters: Mark Batson / Beyonce Giselle Knowles.This morning, a look at the much-maligned NZ Herald. Despised by many on the left as little more than a mouthpiece for the National ...7 days ago- Monday 17 March
Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...7 days ago - A Palate Cleanser
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Kiwis aren’t feeling any better off despite figures showing a very slight growth in GDP in the December quarter. ...4 days ago
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The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...5 days ago - Another failed ETS auction, another indictment on the Govt’s climate credibility
The ETS auction’s failure today is yet another clear sign that the Government is failing us all on climate action. ...5 days ago
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Christopher Luxon seems to have thrown New Zealand’s principled anti-nuclear advocacy under a bus. ...5 days ago
- NZ must act on Israel’s slaughter of children
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...5 days ago
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One year on from the Government’s abrupt and callous changes to disability funding, the community still has no idea what the future holds. ...6 days ago
- Green Party backs volunteer firefighters in their call for ACC recognition
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...6 days ago
- Stand Up for Palestine: A Call to Action Against Israels Treacherous Attack
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...6 days ago
- MP Views: Living Strong, The Economy, Servicing Our Nation, The Golden Egg, and 4 Year Terms
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...7 days ago - Shane Jones has no shame
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...1 week ago
- Release: National botches health funding numbers
Health Minister Simeon Brown’s claim that the Government has put $16.68 billion into the health system over three years is wrong. ...1 week ago
- Government tramples on the rights of disabled migrant children
The Green Party is condemning the Government’s move to tighten access to visas for disabled children. ...1 week ago
- Release: Auckland needs second harbour crossing
Labour supports Minister Chris Bishop’s call for input on the second Waitematā Harbour crossing. ...1 week ago
- Speech: Barbara Edmonds’ speech to NZ Investment Summit 2025
I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak to you today about how we make overseas investment work for all New Zealanders. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour does not support PPPs for prisons
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...1 week ago
- Dunedin Futures report should be a wake-up call
The newly released report on the South Dunedin Future Programme must be a wake-up call for our Government. ...1 week ago
- Release: Members’ Bill makes wage theft a crime
Workers will now be able to go to the Police and report their employer if they are not being paid wages they’re owed. ...2 weeks ago
- Missed opportunity to stop the stealing of Māori land
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour supports sanctions against Israel’s illegal occupation
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt procurement plan cuts wages and trashes the environment
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is concerned by the impact the Government’s proposed changes to procurement processes could have on people and planet. ...2 weeks ago
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With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour’s approach to Māori economy benefits all
Under Labour, the Māori economy went from strength to strength according to the latest report released by MBIE. ...2 weeks ago
- 20 Years of Success Down the Drain: Govt Gut Whānau Ora
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is launching a petition calling on the Government to extend visa-free travel to visitors from Pacific Island nations. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour welcomes reinstatement of Heath NZ board
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ’s Public Health system dealt yet another blow
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Chris Hipkins’ State of the Nation address
Ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa It is a great pleasure to be here with you this morning. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ First Introduces Bill to Remove Woke ‘DEI’ Regulations from Public Service
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- Release: Labour outlines priorities of next Govt
The next Labour Government will prioritise jobs, health and homes so Kiwis and Kiwi businesses have the opportunity to thrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Refreshed team to drive Labour’s 2026 priorities
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has unveiled a new economic team as part of a caucus reshuffle. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour calls for end to police referrals to Destiny programmes
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...3 weeks ago
- Good Riddance: Prebble Resigns from Waitangi Tribunal
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Labour calls on Govt to condemn Israel’s aid blockade
The National Government needs to publicly condemn Israel’s cutting off of aid supplies to the war-ravaged people of Gaza. ...3 weeks ago
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No feed items found.
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 24 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...46 minutes ago
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Voter fraud in the US is a real thing, even if very rare. Thing is, these days it's almost always done by Repugs. Then when they get busted, their first wriggle is "only joking". When that doesn't work, the next is "I only did it to prove it can be done". Sadly, they never get the jail time they richly deserve for their deliberately illegal activity, even while someone that's ineligible makes a mistake and attempts to vote gets the book thrown at them.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/politics/florida-attorney-under-investigation-registering-vote-georgia-encouraging-others-do-same/L6LTC2AHBFDMXPOTZKVMO5ESJQ/
Note that voter fraud is different to electoral fraud. Electoral fraud is routinely openly practiced on industrial scale mostly by Repugs, via such tools as voter roll purges, voter ID requirements, manipulating access to polling locations, gerrymandering.
So I wonder when the media storm will hit over this one…followed by relentless attacks on Starmer from the Liberal media lead by the Guardian who will go on and on and on about how he is making the Muslim community feel unsafe and for generally being an Islamophobic racist….haven't heard a pep from RNZ of course.
Labour's Starmer urged to return donations from 'Islamophobic' businessman
"Abrahams resumed his donations to the party last month after receiving a personal request from Starmer, whom the businessman has described as “somebody who was decent”.
“Israel is a brand new hi-tech state with new inventions to benefit mankind,” he wrote. “Close neighbours chose terrorism and invented suicide bombers.”
" In a tweet posted in 2013, Abrahams said: “Don’t think I know how to divide political Islam from moderates and fundamentalists. It is the very nature of the beast!”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/labour-starmer-abrahams-islamophobic-donations-return
Biden better than Trump…well if he is, it ain't by much…
Neera Tanden Is Biden’s Latest Middle Finger to the Left
“Unless we take the oil from Libya, I have no interest in Libya,” Donald Trump
“We have a giant deficit. They have a lot of oil,” Neera Tanden
Joe Biden has picked Neera Tanden, a fierce critic of Bernie Sanders and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, to head the Office of Management and Budget. The move is just the latest sign that Biden will govern from the center-right, offering nothing to the Left.
https://www.leftvoice.org/neera-tanden-is-bidens-latest-middle-finger-to-the-left
Bomb Libya and take its oil: Biden budget chief pick Neera Tanden agreed with Trump
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/11/30/trump-neera-tanden-libya-oil/
Biden is Not an Ally For Progressives
“On the issue of America’s endless wars, Biden’s potential cabinet appointments are particularly telling. Two of the names floated for Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State–Michèle Flournoy and Tony Blinken—founded a consulting firm dedicated to helping defense contractors “navigate the complex bureaucracy of winning Pentagon contracts.” This is particularly concerning because, as journalist Jonathan Guyer observes, there is no unifying “Biden doctrine” for foreign policy. In other words, Biden is likely to follow the directions of his cabinet and advisors, almost none of whom have discussed or disclosed their connections to the military-industrial complex that plagues American politics. ”
http://uchicagogate.com/articles/2020/10/29/biden-not-ally-progressives/
Granny doing her job for national behind the paywall.
Hoots on ardern and a piece on the last term probably piling more dirt onto NZF to keep the meme going.
Quality journalism ?
It turns out there are kiwi workers out there after all – the whining for RSEs was premature. Admission interest from Kiwis overwhelming orchards | Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz)
Nice to see that the system appears to be working.
Not sure which supermarket but it was not Pak'n Save. On an ad $7 for a kg of apricots; that is steep.
So, basically, the cliff notes seem to be that NZ horticulturists haven't had to do the basics of employment recruitment and management for so long that they've forgotten how – and they think it's someone else's fault.
Meanwhile, the growers claim they aren't interested in cheap foreign labour and are doing everything they can for NZ workers – such as paying at least the minimum wage!!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/432153/fruit-growers-doing-their-best-to-hire-suitable-nz-workers
Meeting the legal minimum – which isn't enough to even live on. What crap. Don’t let this – or any industry – import third-world pay and conditions into NZ ever again.
It is quiet on Open Mike today.
News of today.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/432126/nz-first-foundation-defendants-lose-right-to-name-suppression But we still can't have the name of the murderer of Grace Millane.
Seems to me it is handy to have that withheld as a precedent for a time in future when one of the sleazy wealthy families' sons or daughters goes feral. Oh but we are just following precedent in withholding the name., perhaps. Our judges aren't all probity and truth – I read that some avoided speaking to Judge Peter Mahon after he was so open with his distaste of the presented evidence slant re Erebus.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/432119/funds-being-raised-to-defend-pilot-who-led-the-charge-in-whakaari-rescue
Some might like to back this guy for good behaviour in a crisis; show the government and knuckle-dragging agencies how things should be done.
I heard this on morning report.
Lives were saved and there was a plan in place for such a rescue. No recognition for taking a calculated risk.
From the link:
Maybe he deserves a medal, and maybe he also deserves prosecution.
Maybe Worksafe are trying to make up for being dilatory before by being super scrupulous now. Too late closing the doors after the horse has bolted if that is the case.
Anything he did wrong before and which they had not proceeded with at the time is too late to exercise their minds now, and his sterling work should be accepted thankfully and go to mitigate against anything else.
Well, mitigation is up to the judge if a guitly verdict is reached.
But also from the link:
This is why these prosecutions happen. So everyone else makes sure their own stable doors are bolted, and double-checks.
Calling it an "act of god", like the guy in your link, is just another manifestation of the "accidents happen, nobody's fault" mentality that ends up being lethal.
I'm pretty conflicted on this one; the Royal Commission made it plain that the Pike River management failed egregiously, fell well short of industry standards and was playing a desperate poker game to ship coal by a deadline. At every specific count a prosecution was well justified.
White Island feels different; a whole industry had developed locally on the basis that it was safe to go to the island. Many different people had bought into the groupthink on this. Yet when I lived in the BOP at Kawerau during the 80's the accepted wisdom I recall was the exact opposite, the island was off limits.
So what changed? Why did the island suddenly become 'safe' when evidently it was not? Who was pushing this idea, and why?
Prosecutions will satiate the desire for accountability, but I doubt will ever answer this core question. Indeed they may well just serve to distract from it.
1 Timothy 6:10 might be a starting point.
Agree. Those charged made bank for years on that risk. Groupthink is right. You can see that in the rahui being lifted over the island within days, even though there were multiple dead and still dying, and the risks of operating on the island were unchanged: local iwi like the money just as much as any other local.
And White Island was far more damaging for us as a country than Pike River due to the international tourism profile. The luck that we didn't have live footage on Youtube of tourists dying covered in ash is massive. Instead we had egregious spin stories of our tireless health workers and gradual recovery stories.
A privately owned Island which is run as a tourist destination.
A gap of who was in charge to not allow people on Whakaari when there was a risk.
Who is culpable for allowing people on the Island when there was increased activity?
That would be set out in the charges that Worksafe has delivered.
Question Time in Parliament. An explanation for the uninitiated *is that enough i's?).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018775571/the-new-maths-of-question-time
Pests'R'Us. There is a new website unveiled. I saw a very busy looking ant thing about 4mm long – may be able to identify the blighter. Looking at the info on ants around the world can make you cringe I warn you.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/432068/one-stop-information-shop-on-new-zealand-pests-it-has-been-a-huge-undertaking
It is interesting how some insects can infest a home and costly.
About 150 ants greeted me this morning on the kitchen bench and in a cupboard.
There is a home remedy of cornflour as a little barrier edge around what you are trying to protect. Supposed to be good.
They are amazing. Some wishbones from chickens had been hung over a photoframe to dry off and left. A while later the photo was noticed to be overrun with ants all through it, over under. The frame was not near the window I am told. There must have been a super-scout out.
Yes a few ants out 2 days earlier and I usually squash them all. Ants are hard to get to when between the back of the cupboard and the wall.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018775798/auckland-port-delays-see-big-freight-ship-diverted-to-northport
Auckland Port speaker on Radionz tonight talking up how costly it is to handle freight at Northport and bring it South reckons it would be 10 times the approx $120 to handle a container in Auckland. He didn't comment the long waiting time that AwkPort is causing shipping having to wait in the 'stream'. They are just too big for their boots which they have filled – sounds to me.
Go Northport with rail, will be viable and spread the load for the top of NZ. Northport, Auckland and Tauranga, which has road access problems I think.
And Gisborne wants a small, effective working port too, largely for logs. Hopefully they can build up food exports etc there.
Rail north of Auckland is getting just a basic upgrade but no train will even get near 70kms an hour even when it's done, and still construction of an actual rail link as distinct from designation has no capital attached at all.
Don't worry about it for another decade at least.
SH1 on the other hand is being redesigned all the way to Marsden Point, is already nearly fully rebuilt through to Warkworth.
There's a 12 minute video in this link with interviews with Goff and Ardern and most other relevant players on the thinking about shifting Ports of Auckland so far, after all the studies which NZFirst required as part of the coalition agreement:
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/12/04/weekly-roundup-04-dec-20/
With NZFirst gone the impetus for shifting the port has evaporated.
Is it just me who is noticing this?
Aljazeera TV has been showing how Biden is going to manage Covid 19. Biden is not the president yet and he is being responsible. Trump would be pissed off.
Is Biden visible because of Covid 19 or is this usual for the president elect?
Biden has wasted no time in appointing people to government positions. Nice to see a statesman instead of a hot head.