Open mike 06/03/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 6th, 2025 - 82 comments
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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 …

82 comments on “Open mike 06/03/2025 ”

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  1. Tony Veitch 1
    6 March 2025 at 6:22 am

    As usual, Jonathan Pie sums up what most of us are thinking – though perhaps a little more forcefully than the language we usually use.

    That Trump is a moron is now an accepted political fact – and that Nigel Farange is a hanger-on is beyond doubt.

    Do we have a Farange in NZ? Seymour . . . Luxon . . .? I sincerely hope not. 5.40 long.

    • kejo 1.1
      6 March 2025 at 9:17 am

      Do we have a Farage in N Z ? Well, we,ve got: Seymour, the gun lady, the tobacco lady, the ferry cancelling lady, the houses cancelling man, the no unions lady, the fisheries and mining man, all headed by a rubber stamping baldy. And I hav,nt mentioned health at all!

      • tWig 1.1.1
        6 March 2025 at 11:40 am

        I'd argue that Winston is our Farage; a bit lazy and most happy when in the limelight as an irritant to existing government; fanning up anti-migrant sentiment, most recently for the pathetic excuse of a Mexican-born migrants using Te Reo Māori in the house; a smooth talker who says nothing much, with an alternative persona who huffs and puffs.

        Winston, like Farage, has aligned with culture-wars warriors and climate deniers to stay in the political arena; and to add an income in the hundred thousands of dollars while pulling in an existing pension.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.1.2
        6 March 2025 at 4:44 pm

        Gee when you list them like that..there's a freaky mental image of an Old Time Carny Show.

        Roll up, Roll up… be astounded… and horrified… as the Rubber Stamping Baldy leads assorted circus performers attempting to destroy a whole country!

      • Phillip ure 1.1.3
        6 March 2025 at 9:48 pm

        Do we have a j. Pie in nz..?

        We could use a Lewis black too…

      • Phillip ure 1.1.4
        6 March 2025 at 10:00 pm

        Do we have a j. Pie in nz..?

        We could use a Lewis black too…

    • Anne 1.2
      6 March 2025 at 11:08 am

      "…. perhaps a little more forcefully than the language we usually use."

      Perhaps he's making up for the current pussy-footing around by Western allied leaders including our very own (choose your own epitaph) PM.

  2. newsense 2
    6 March 2025 at 6:24 am

    Test, test

    3 posts yesterday were no shows. What’s the deal?

    • newsense 2.1
      6 March 2025 at 6:36 am

      I seem to be grata today! Back to visible.

      Nothing to say on the big or the small. You wonder if the Chinese get a cut from the defense contractors. It’s the new Russian war scare, but much more scary. Though probably much less necessary.

      Are we really going to see a big coalition pivot? Is Bishop C truly so different to Brown S in transport? While they’re complaining about level crossings in Auckland will Brown S be held responsible for doing nothing about it for two years?

      what on earth is up and going to happen with the Reserve Bank?

      When the coalition gets a shake, who will fall?

    • Incognito 2.2
      6 March 2025 at 9:48 am

      Chill, there are worse things in life than not having your comments appears on TS for a day.

      https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-05-03-2025/#comment-2027415

  3. newsense 3
    6 March 2025 at 6:39 am

    Is it too late to not build suburbs on our most fertile soils? Does it matter?

    • Kay 3.1
      6 March 2025 at 8:33 am

      As long as the incentive to make more money by selling land to developers in there, no it's not likely to stop. And let's not forget 'property rights' and every landowner should have the right to do what they like with said land. If selling up and getting out of the food business is more lucrative and less stressful, then who wouldn't?

      I visit Pukekohe a lot, and over the years watched in sadness the vanishing of crop-growing field in favour of sprawling monstrosities of housing subdivisions. There's always a field being dug up. And to add insult, they're nearly always large standalone houses, no attempt to even maximise the amount of housing by way of apartments/small housing.

      I know that subsidies for food producers is a bad thing since the 1980s, and very un-free market, but perhaps there is a place for it?

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/124836211/best-fruit-and-veggrowing-land-still-being-munched-by-housing

      https://newsroom.co.nz/2019/06/23/productive-farming-land-dug-up-for-housing/

      (Older links, but still relevant)

      • weka 3.1.1
        6 March 2025 at 9:48 am

        human society is functionally insane at this point. What is the point of housing if you can't feed people? Few people seem to be taking the climate crisis seriously, which at some point is going to interrupt the global food supply chain and will affect us even here in little old godzone.

        We are fortunate that we have relatively low population density, and enough people doing regenag now, that we can probably transition to relocalised food. And those suburbs will still have some open land on them that can then be used for food growing. If you want to see how that works, look at David Holmgren's Retrofitting the Suburbs work.

        https://thestandard.org.nz/book-review-david-holmgrens-retrosuburbia

        Gsays, if you are around you might enjoy some of the conversation under that post including about anarchism. Re our convo the other day, I wrote this about disability and the regen communities. It's still the big flaw in those philosophies being enacted.

        https://thestandard.org.nz/book-review-david-holmgrens-retrosuburbia/#comment-1901472

        • gsays 3.1.1.1
          6 March 2025 at 1:11 pm

          Thanks for the heads-up about the korero. Lots of good stuff and I will look at the videos tonight.

          I've been thinking a bit since the backwards and forwards about anarchism/libertarianism and where the disabled fit into that model.

          A couple of things occur to me. We can only really plan based on our own lived experience and circumstances. I figured depending on the individuals needs and limits most communities could make that fit in with these.

          I would be woefully out of my depth trying to articulate what any member of the disabled community would need or how I would meet those needs.

          I suppose for fear of 'able-splaining'.

          • weka 3.1.1.1.1
            6 March 2025 at 1:50 pm

            if disabled people are valued and integrated into the community, and there is a commitment to looking after everyone (socialist ethic), then community planning will naturally include their needs alongside everyone else's.

            What we tend to have now is society organising as if everyone is abled in a certain way, and then to add on special things for disabled people.

            I see this in urban planning debates online, where cycling lobbyists dominate. They want to get rid of cars and when I start talking about the people without the ability to bike everywhere, they say oh you can get bikes for disabled people. They can't think about a young mum with a baby and toddler who both have the flu and she needs to get to the chemist and (sorry) the supermarket. Imagine expecting her to bike to do that in a Dunedin midwinter southerly. It's nuts.

            It's a common nonsense that arises from not taking the whole community into account, which comes from seeing one's own experience as the norm. The solution is in whole systems. The solution for the young mum isn't everyone having a car, it's relocalising food supply, strengthening neighbourhoods, home deliveries, community shared vehicles etc. Getting a cycling enthusiast to think past their own needs and desires is the barrier.

            If we instead start from a place of wellbeing for the whole community, we naturally include everyone (elderly, young mums, people who are unwell, disabled people and so on).

            Another place I see that neoliberal individualist dynamic play out is the UBI debate. Conventional UBI models start with economics, which is why they fail to plan for disabled people (who often don't count as economics units). If we start with wellbeing of the community, we end up with the Green Party policy that acts like a UBI with welfare bolted on and builds in the needs of vulnerable people at the start.

            My experience of the regen communities is that they're big on self sufficiency and exchange, but they often don't have a socialist ethic (they tend to libertarian), which I think is why they're not able to conceive of how community actually functions.

            • hereni kiwi 3.1.1.1.1.1
              6 March 2025 at 10:21 pm

              When able bodied people think of the disabled, it's typically someone in a wheelchair, or maybe blind. But disabilities cover a vast range of physical capabilities, and not all are visible. Such as deafness, a tremendously socially isolating condition. Epileptics, who are legally forbidden to drive. Intellectually disabled. And mentally ill. Again a lot of range as to the degree to which people may work.and care for themselves. As a sometime beneficiary (DPW) and longtime volunteer budget advisor, I know one really need all one's wits about oneself to manage on a very small income. It is far more difficult with constantly screaming demons in one's head, which many attempt to soothe and silence by using cigarettes and alcohol – further diminishing what is available for rent and food.

              "Community care" was used as a pretext to close psychiatric hospitals in the 80s, when in reality it done to save money. Agreed, many were institutionalized who should not have been, and were happier living independent lives. But for many it has been a disaster, because the so called community care, by and large did not eventuate. Hence an increase in homelessness, resorting to petty crime in order to survive, and the paych patient to prison pipeline.

              TBH, I don't know what "the solution" is, other than it needs to be multifaceted and take each individual's needs into account, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. I don't even know that it's possible to design such a system, or whether it's economically feasible, but I do think we need to reexamine our idea of community eg, what size is optimum, how many "non earners" it it can support, and to reassess too many (high earning male) economists' tendency to regard non waged people (SAHMs and retirees) is non participants and contributors. Remember the post benefit cut 90s, when we found out the multiplier effect really was a thing? Long enough ago for that lesson to have been forgotten, and need to be relearned. Seymour was born in 83, and he is one of many who cannot comprehend what he's never personally experienced.

              Sorry for length. Will think some more and maybe post again later.

          • weka 3.1.1.1.2
            6 March 2025 at 1:52 pm

            We can only really plan based on our own lived experience and circumstances.

            I'm not sure that is true. In the disability sector there are Needs Assessments, where someone has a job to find out what the needs of a disabled person are. The assessor doesn't need lived experience, they need the skills to listen and work with the person.

            I think women are more inclined to this skill because of childrearing.

      • KJT 3.1.2
        6 March 2025 at 12:44 pm

        In the past families were able to grow their own food, because of quarter acre sections or greater.

        Not much chance of that in Hobsonville rabbit hutches.

    • Bearded Git 3.2
      6 March 2025 at 9:57 am

      I have been involved in many Environment Court hearings where the expert evidence was compelling that subdivisions only eat up a very tiny fraction on NZs fertile land.

      • Kay 3.2.1
        6 March 2025 at 10:39 am

        Have you seen the Pukekohe/Franklin area recently? I'm not sure who the 'experts' are, but you don't need a report to see what is glaringly obvious, especially if you knew the area before.

        Maybe it's only a 'tiny' fraction being eaten up across the country, but it's a hell of a lot more in local areas.

        • weka 3.2.1.1
          6 March 2025 at 10:47 am

          yeah, there's a difference between 'we can farm in all these places' and 'around this town is prime food growing land'

      • weka 3.2.2
        6 March 2025 at 10:46 am

        what was their definition of fertile land?

        • Phillip ure 3.2.2.1
          6 March 2025 at 3:28 pm

          Can I guess..?

          Many of the areas currently being poisoned by the animal trade…?

          • Phillip ure 3.2.2.1.1
            6 March 2025 at 3:45 pm

            If we didn't use all our fertile land to grow frozen meat for export…

            ..we could really become a global food basket..

            …if we grew real food..not just that frozen flesh…

            It’s a very inefficient use of that fertile land…

            ..plus the piss and the shit and chemicals used..are poisoning our fertile lands..

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4
    6 March 2025 at 8:13 am

    Advice ?! He don' heed no steenkin' advice. Paraphrased from Blazing Saddles bandidos. (NAct1 representative 1 % ers)

    Simeon Brown appointed prominent oil and gas lobbyist to energy savings board against official advice

    A top government minister personally added a fossil fuel lobbyist to the shortlist of candidates to help govern the country's main energy-saving agency.

    Simeon Brown then overrode official advice to appoint the lobbyist to the role.

    Backstory of the gas lobbyist appointed.

    Carnegie is chief executive of Energy Resources Aotearoa, formerly the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association and has been a leading voice for the repeal of the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration as well as support and subsidies to make fossil fuel drilling more attractive.

    MBIE advised…

    "MBIE does not consider the candidates suitable for appointment to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA)," the recruitment team told Brown.

    Of course Brown no longer involved so referred to ..Simon Watts. And of course he ….(note value…for money)

    new Energy Minister Simon Watts defended the appointments on behalf of the government.

    Watts said he had not discussed the appointment process with Brown but it was a Cabinet decision and he was comfortable with the hirings.

    "We need to ensure EECA has a range of sector and governance experience to ensure the board drives value for money," Watts said in a statement.

    Greens state the bleeding obvious. (well, obvious to anyone who cares about our planets climate destruction !)

    'Fox in charge of the henhouse' – Greens

    Green Party energy spokesperson Scott Willis said having Carnegie at EECA was like "putting the fox in charge of the hen house".

    He said the government might say it was committed to tackling climate change by getting to net zero emissions but the appointment of a fossil fuel spokesperson to the board role showed it was in "climate change denial."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/543882/simeon-brown-appointed-prominent-oil-and-gas-lobbyist-to-energy-savings-board-against-official-advice

  5. Macro 5
    6 March 2025 at 8:20 am

    A 50 percent tarriff on the America's Cup. 😈

  6. gsays 6
    6 March 2025 at 8:35 am

    From the Bread and Circuses Department.

    Hearty congratulations to Mitch Santner and team for progressing to the final of the Champions Trophy. Centuries from Ravindra and Williamson the former coming into very good form.

    Playing a heavily favoured India something in the water tells me we could have their number.

    Win the toss, set a good total, get Kohli cheaply then watch the panic set in.

    • Bearded Git 6.1
      6 March 2025 at 9:59 am

      +100…Santner has matured into a brilliant ODI player.

      Ravindra and the new kid Williamson aren't bad either.

      • gsays 6.1.1
        6 March 2025 at 11:23 am

        In recent performances we've shown the bowling can cope post Southee/Boult.

        Batsmen too, don't crumble if Williamson fails to fire.

  7. Adrian 7
    6 March 2025 at 9:12 am

    At least the cricket bread and circuses circus is almost a thousand years old so it should be seen as an essential to wellbeing, an endorphin raiser if you like, when things go well.

    God speed and whack it out of the park boys.

  8. Joe90 8
    6 March 2025 at 11:08 am

    On March 5, 1940, Stalin approved Lavrentiy Beria’s plan to murder more than 22 thousand Polish army and police officers, border guards and intelligentsia taken prisoner in September 1939.

    https://eng.ipn.gov.pl/en/brief-history-of-poland/collected-content/4134,COLLECTED-CONTENT-Katyn-Massacre.html

  9. Tony Veitch 9
    6 March 2025 at 12:00 pm

    As reluctant as I am to provide a link to Duncan Garner – he's saying the coup against Luxon is underway! According to Dunc, it's just a question of who to replace him with – ha, it might mean the process takes a long time, such is the lack of talent among the Natz! 7.22 long

  10. joe90 10
    6 March 2025 at 12:21 pm

    Sounds awfully familiar.

    /

    Elon Musk told some of his biggest investors Wednesday that he’s looking to fully take over the federal government.

    In a meeting with Morgan Stanley, the tech billionaire reportedly likened his influence over the federal government to a “corporate takeover.”

    “To understand the federal government, it is like a corporate takeover at scale, but one where the company is actually in much worse shape than any commercial company could ever be,” Musk said at the conference, reported CNN’s Hadas Gold.

    Musk then went on to say that “logically we should prioritize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” including public services such as the postal service and Amtrak.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-reveals-next-targets-173323085.html

    • weka 10.1
      6 March 2025 at 1:53 pm

      I guess there's utility in them just saying it all out loud now.

    • gsays 10.2
      6 March 2025 at 3:42 pm

      Irony is Morgan Stanley and their ilk already own Congress regardless of who's in power.

      Musk/Trump is a distraction.

      • Ad 10.2.1
        6 March 2025 at 4:24 pm

        No Musk and Trump have v real power, agency and agenda.

        Richest and most powerful duo in the world.

  11. Karolyn_IS 11
    6 March 2025 at 1:00 pm

    Peters has sacked Phil Goff as UK High Commissioner for being critical of Trump.

    "I was re-reading Churchill's speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and he turned to Chamberlain, he said, 'You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war'," Goff said.

    "President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?"

    • Ad 11.1
      6 March 2025 at 1:24 pm

      A very surprising dick move from Goff when we are all on a diplomatic knife edge

      Hope he finds a decent NGI for a year or 2 before retirement.

      Peters himself would be an obvious replacement choice.

      • alwyn 11.1.1
        6 March 2025 at 3:04 pm

        "a decent NGI for a year or 2".

        Do you mean NGO?

        However, if you were running such an organisation would you give him a job? Would you sleep at night if you were worrying about what sort of stupidity he might come out with?

        I never thought that Goff was the sharpest knife in the drawer but I didn't realise that he was quite a stupid as this. What, if anything, was he thinking?

        • Ad 11.1.1.1
          6 March 2025 at 3:54 pm

          He was very sure-footed as Foreign Affairs under Clark and led the China FTA which has been our economic bedrock ever since.

          Also a solid Auckland mayor after Len Brown who accelerated multiple downtown renewal projects which are all completed except CRL.

      • Kat 11.1.2
        6 March 2025 at 3:08 pm

        Appears Goff may have been……. possibly……. one can never be sure…….opinions will vary…….debate could rage…….discourse is bound to ensue……but it seems he had been watching this……

      • Phillip ure 11.1.3
        6 March 2025 at 4:19 pm

        I haven't got a lot of time for the doings off the goff ..in either national or local body politics..

        ..I see him as a/the face of incrementalism…

        ..but him being fired for this is just bullshit…

      • bwaghorn 11.1.4
        6 March 2025 at 4:50 pm

        Na fuck trump it's not going to matter one bit if we suck upto him , or Zelenski or Europe, fuckers upto know good and he's going to see ot through

        • Shanreagh 11.1.4.1
          6 March 2025 at 8:44 pm

          Na fuck trump it's not going to matter one bit if we suck upto him , or Zelenski or Europe, fuckers upto know good and he's going to see ot through

          Yes this is the sad/scary thing.

          But looking on the positive side it may get us out of the orbit of the US and away from having to follow the US, in its role as bullyboy, I'm sorry I'll say that again,…… as defender of the world as we did in Vietnam. Though it is pretty scary for Canada and Greenland

      • Psycho Milt 11.1.5
        6 March 2025 at 5:48 pm

        It is surprising. It's not exactly a secret that Trump expects sycophancy, that no level of praise will be recognised as taking the piss, and that he can hold one hell of a grudge against relatively obscure people who disparage him or refuse him something. I guess Goff saw this as a courageous stand, and now Peters has shown him why it was courageous.

    • Anne 11.2
      6 March 2025 at 3:07 pm

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/543936/winston-peters-sacks-phil-goff-as-uk-high-commissioner-over-comments-about-donald-trump

      So he sacks Goff for this? Listen to who is effing talking!

      “Helen Clark
      @HelenClarkNZ
      This looks like a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former #NZ Foreign Minister from his post as High Commissioner to the UK. I have been at Munich Security Conference recently where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 & US actions now.”

      Payback for being a better Foreign Affairs minister than him?

      • Kat 11.2.1
        6 March 2025 at 3:15 pm

        It could all be AI generated……a clever bit of sound byte manipulation…..who knows for sure…….even facts can be interpreted differently depending on opinions…….Helen says its a thin excuse………who do we believe……

      • alwyn 11.2.2
        6 March 2025 at 3:32 pm

        We can never test it of course, as Helen is never going to be in a position of power again, but I bet she would have sacked anyone who said such a thing about Bill Clinton or George W Bush when she was PM.

        • weka 11.2.2.1
          6 March 2025 at 3:50 pm

          Clinton and Bush weren't actively removing democracy and ushering in fascism. Clark just compared the US to Nazi Germany.

          The problem isn't making a rather mild comment about a US president's grasp of history. It's pointing to the elephant in the living room (US fascism). Doing so obviously causes a problem for the National government.

          • alwyn 11.2.2.1.1
            6 March 2025 at 4:43 pm

            " Doing so obviously causes a problem for the National government.".

            When you are a senior diplomat representing your country overseas you certainly shouldn't be thinking about whether it might cause a problem for the Government formed by any particular party.

            His only consideration should have been is whether it could cause a problem for the country of New Zealand. If it could cause a problem he should have kept his mouth very tightly closed. Very .. Tightly .. Closed.

            Audrey Young got it right in the Herald.

            "It was a frightfully clever question, the sort of question a political science student would have been as pleased to have asked. But in such fragile times, should New Zealand’s High Commissioner really be suggesting that the US President is taking a position of “dishonour”?"

            https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/phil-goff-let-himself-and-govt-down-with-reckless-donald-trump-comments-audrey-young/B5TUFQSQPJHGLP5ZGOLJZ5563I/

            • thinker 11.2.2.1.1.1
              6 March 2025 at 4:49 pm

              …compared to, say, the Deputy Prime Minister telling a Mexican-born MP to go home, and then having to apologise to the Mexican ambassador?

              Quelle Irony.

              • alwyn …
                6 March 2025 at 5:31 pm

                You should read the article by Audrey I gave the link to. After the comment I put in she says, and I agree.

                "He might think it, and that is fair enough. Plenty of people have thought the same thing this past week. But Goff is not a politician and the only people in the New Zealand Government saying such things should be the politicians."

                Goff forgot that and he is going to have to pay the inevitable penalty.

                • thinker …
                  6 March 2025 at 6:07 pm

                  Oh, no, I did read the article and I don't disagree with you.

                  I think the irony is the comparison to what Winston said about the Mexicans. He kept his job and today is wringing his hands and saying how sorry he is but really Goff brought it on himself and had to go.

                  • alwyn …
                    6 March 2025 at 6:13 pm

                    I'll just repeat the relevant bit of the quote.

                    "But Goff is not a politician and the only people in the New Zealand Government saying such things should be the politicians."

                    Winston is a politician. Goff isn't.

              • Anne …
                6 March 2025 at 7:30 pm

                Touché thinker.

                See my 11.2

    • francesca 11.3
      6 March 2025 at 3:50 pm

      Well I dunno, Churchill the war criminal and racist might fit in rather well with Trump

      https://theconversation.com/deconstructing-the-cult-of-winston-churchill-racism-deification-and-nostalgia-for-empire-185589

      at least in some people's minds

      • weka 11.3.1
        6 March 2025 at 3:53 pm

        sure, why grapple with current US fascism when you can take cheap shots at historical UK imperialism.

        Goff wasn't deifying Churchill, he was using a Churchill quote to point to Trump's ineptitude.

        Although tbf, the issue isn't that Trump is inept, it's that he doesn't actually care about peace and stability, because he is intent on powermongering.

        • francesca 11.3.1.1
          6 March 2025 at 5:45 pm

          How so?

          Aren’t they birds of a feather?
          Perhaps Trump does know his history and rather admires Churchill’s utter ruthlessness, hence his reinstatement of Churchill in the Ovaql Office

    • observer 11.4
      6 March 2025 at 4:36 pm

      Goff probably overstepped, though that seems like a lesser crime than kissing Trump's butt. He'll have both public opinion (now) and (later) history on his side.

      A bigger story, which continues a familiar narrative, is that yet again the "PM in name only" is sidelined. Like Seymour, Peters isn't even pretending to respect Luxon any more. He never treated his bosses Clark or Ardern the same way, because he knew they were in complete charge of both government and their caucus. Luxon obviously isn't.

      Writing, meet wall.

    • hereni kiwi 11.5
      6 March 2025 at 9:22 pm

      Agreed it wasn't Goff's place to comment on Trump unless he was speaking specifically on the NZ Govt's official position.

      But I do wonder how much attention would have been paid to if not for the sacking. Now everyone wants to know what was said and it will be amplified all over social media.

      Unintended consequence, perhaps?

    • SPC 11.6
      6 March 2025 at 10:00 pm

      It is what most of Europe think of Trump.

      But the thing is, the GOP of the USA did not want war with Germany, they wanted Germany to war on Russia and win and for the British to get out of the way.

      Of course that would have meant Europe was united as either fascist or communist afterwards and Churchill determined that no matter how Tory he was, that was intolerable. FDR agreed and so sanctions on Japan and lend lease via UK to Russia before the USA was brought into the war (via the Japanese attack and the German declaration of war).

  12. Georgecom 12
    6 March 2025 at 3:27 pm

    Greg Foran announced his resignation from Air NZ. Are we seeing the next Nat Party leader being lined up for the putsch on Luxon.

  13. Ad 13
    6 March 2025 at 4:21 pm

    Someone in Labour needs to get the dirt on Adrian Orr resigning, and near-nothing from Min Finance or his Chair.

    Needs a v focused Question in the House

    • Anne 13.1
      6 March 2025 at 4:24 pm

      Judging from the smirk on Willis' face when interviewed about it yesterday when she made a brief response…..

    • alwyn 13.2
      6 March 2025 at 5:51 pm

      Robert MacCulloch at Auckland University Business School suggested that it may have been caused by the RBNZ paying for Ben Bernanke to speak at a conference. This link now says that they had paid for his Business Class travel. That could still have been a significant amount of money.

    • Incognito 14.1
      6 March 2025 at 8:15 pm

      Care to elaborate and kick off a convo here?

    • Georgecom 14.2
      7 March 2025 at 9:43 am

      That sounds on the face of it Donald Trump magaism. Certainly right wing fascist. Not very eco but certainly degrowth, albeit as a result of his policies and not by design. Nicola Willis is also right wing degrowth without the eco aspect and her party being outwardly fascist, but admittedly some fascist tendencies do pop out from time to time