Open mike 11/02/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 11th, 2025 - 23 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 …

23 comments on “Open mike 11/02/2025 ”

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  1. Tony Veitch 1
    11 February 2025 at 6:13 am

    I don’t often agree with Duncan Garner, but in this case he’s spot on!

    Seymour stepped well over the line in his support for Polkinghorne, guilty or innocent!

    The only thing he (Garner) got wrong was suggesting Luxon should call Seymour into his office and give him a good telling off!

    Luxon hasn’t the balls for that!

    5.41 long.

    • gsays 1.1
      11 February 2025 at 7:09 am

      As a younger man, I too, used to maintain a position when everyone else thought I was wrong. (That happens way less often nowadays).

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/541475/chief-victims-advisor-takes-swipe-at-david-seymour-s-handling-of-criminal-cases

      Watching the 6pm news yesty with Mum, I couldn't help but feel that the tractor stunt was a desperate effort to stop us talking about going in to bat for Polkinghorne, accomadating a sexual predator for too long, giving poor advice to a victim and, most damningly, the ideological cock-up that is school lunches.

      For me the lunch debacle is the worst. Poor quality food, diesel miles embedded in them, the disconnect with the recipients (ham in hallal meals!), lunch arriving after 2pm… The worst of it all is these are some of the most needy members of our society.

      I want to hear someone, anyone, say that this lunch contract will be in the bin come election time.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540439/david-seymour-defends-school-lunch-programme-as-criticism-served-up

      • AB 1.1.1
        11 February 2025 at 9:52 am

        Seymour probably wants it in the bin too and the whole school lunch programme cancelled. Choosing the worst possible provider is a way of accelerating that by gutting consumer enthusiasm for the programme. I expect Compass was hard-nosed enough to realise this and made sure they got a decent margin in the short-term despite the initial set-up costs.

        • gsays 1.1.1.1
          11 February 2025 at 10:58 am

          Looking at it that way it is possible that the school lunches were a distraction from other undesirable actions.

          Either way, someone please, pledge to end the nonsense.

  2. bwaghorn 2
    11 February 2025 at 6:55 am

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360575350/new-zealands-investor-visa-changes-explained

    Can someone ask luxon if he's invested in startups or just housing ?

    • AB 2.1
      11 February 2025 at 10:02 am

      Great question, but he will answer it by saying he is "incredibly excited" about something or other that is unrelated to the question.

      And a second question could be added. If the world is awash with all this private investor money looking for a home, is this because Anglosphere governments have refused to tax excessive wealth adequately for about 40 years – and now rather than taxing it, we are collectively reduced to borrowing it and providing a return on that borrowing?

  3. Graeme 3
    11 February 2025 at 6:58 am

    A small pedantic point about Seymore's stunt yesterday.

    He didn't drive someone else's Land Rover up the steps of Parliament.

    He crashed someone else's Land Rover into the bottom of Parliament's steps.

    It was one of the most inept pieces of 'driving' I've seen and it's a wonder he didn't break something on the poor truck. It showed as much forethought as all of his policy, lots of noise and spectacle to put him in front of the media, but no idea on execution or achieving the objective and dealing with obstacles along the way. Just crash in and try and blunder through.

    • Mac1 3.1
      11 February 2025 at 10:38 am

      And how was he going to get down? Turn at the top or reverse down the steps? How safe would reversing down steps be? Would he bottom out at the top step as he came out onto the flat? Had he thought of any of this?

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4
    11 February 2025 at 9:06 am

    NAct1 intent on lowering the bar. Just not in any good way….

    Along with letting the uber rich buy up our homes..and country, they want to lighten polluting companies "onerous" Environmental responsibilities…

    'World leading' climate disclosure rules likely to be weakened

    The government is considering halving the number of companies required to report their greenhouse gas emissions.

    Just a year after the country's "world leading" climate disclosure rules came into force, the bar looks likely to be lowered after complaints about "ridiculous" compliance costs of up to a million dollars.

    All this despite the Public ( ie us) wanting to know.

    A recent round up of public opinion surveys published by the MInistry for the Environment found New Zealanders wanted more climate information from governments and businesses.

    Public submissions on the proposed changes close on Friday.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/541499/world-leading-climate-disclosure-rules-likely-to-be-weakened

    Take Action. Something Positive. Push Back !

    https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/post-petitions/

  5. weka 5
    11 February 2025 at 11:47 am

    One of the best explanations I've seen about the shift from leftist class based analysis and action, to liberal identity politics (and the implications of that shift),

    I look at this way; prior to and concomitant with the rise of neoliberal (global corporate) capitalism, there was a radical shift of political theory and praxis to the right which meant that the popular perception of a “centre ground” – the fulcrum point if you will – shifted significantly to the right.

    Accompanying, and in fact aiding that was the rise, first of interest group, and then identity politics.

    Instead of great national and international movements aimed at achieving and sustaining systemic change, there was a proliferation of smaller “issue”, latterly “identity” based movements.

    The old "red left" which aimed for foundational socio-economic change – not just accommodations within capitalism – lost ground, especially with the demise of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc.

    Social democrats and socially liberal people shifted rightwards with the fulcrum point, adjusting their ideas and expectations of what being "left-wing” meant.

    For many of them it was simply not being “right-wing”. In the weird world of US politics, it was the patent absurdity of the Democratic Party being "left”.

    For socially and politically liberal centrists – having abandoned all hope of socialism (if they ever had any) and with that class-based theory and praxis – the focus on interest group, and then identity politics, was palliative.

    Attachment to movements that merely sought accommodations from Neo-liberal compliant states – but which in no way threatened the economic status quo – soothed their liberal hearts and minds as they benefited materially from neoliberal capitalism’s intensification of economic exploitation which was accompanied by an increased oppression of workers – somewhere.

    https://tewharewhero.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-slippery-slope-into-barbarism.html

  6. SPC 6
    11 February 2025 at 12:06 pm

    Mathew Hooton on the Cook Islands.

    He seems to think we should use occupy the area and depose its elected leader.

    https://archive.li/eSpEH#selection-4141.0-4145.178

    What might be required of the Cook Islands

    1.transparency in any arrangements relations with China, as per the defence and security of the realm of New Zealand.

    2.any action in breach thereof not being legal for a self governing part of that realm, requiring first that the Cook Islands to become independent – and that requiring a referenda of the citizens.

    3.informing China that its actions, not respecting the place of the Cook Islands within the orbit of New Zealand sovereignty, is one of hypocrisy (as per their Taiwan claim).

    • SPC 6.1
      11 February 2025 at 2:08 pm

      The Cook Islands PM

      has said his state visit to Beijing, starting this weekend, would focus on renewable energy and agriculture but that it would also touch on maritime issues and shipping and seabed minerals development, areas New Zealand, Australia, the US and others have been particularly concerned about.

      The Chinese reassurance (accept or else) and warning in one sentence.

      "The relationship between China and the Cook Islands is not directed against any third party and should not be subject to or disrupted by any third party," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said today.

      China wants the fishing and mineral resources of the South Pacific, no less than those of the South China Sea – a form of imperial hegemon.

      https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/11/china-says-cook-islands-pm-visit-isnt-meant-to-antagonise/

      It should be noted that with USAID now being underfunded and an anti-renewables stance taken by the POTUS 47 regime, such economic development from the west to the South Pacific would have to come from the EU, UK and Japan and Tasman partners etc.

  7. Adrian 7
    11 February 2025 at 1:00 pm

    Wait until they get the invoice. There’s a reason why a lot of the early adopters of Chinese largess get a bit pissed off. Pakistan for one, offered a remodelled port got a mega military and naval base with no access for the locals protected by a large troop presence. Many other recipients including Italy have ordered China out of their country.

  9. SPC 9
    11 February 2025 at 1:47 pm

    More good news out the Hawkes Bay-East Coast area.

    Gisborne mill re-opens under new ownership, upgrades and with more log processing and supply to the Oz market.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/541490/wood-mill-revival-best-news-for-nz-marks-new-chapter-new-gm

    Earlier getting logging trucks off the road to the south.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540807/huge-relief-as-logging-trucks-taken-off-remote-highway-to-napier

  10. SPC 10
    11 February 2025 at 2:01 pm

    Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayley said more KiwiSaver schemes investing in private assets would bring "substantial benefits" for New Zealand.

    The responses explain why not and what the alternative is.

    Capitalised businesses on the stockmarket doing this across economic sectors. Or the creation of investment vehicles – specialising in economic sectors.

    KS Funds could create and then invest in these.

    That could mean getting more companies listed on the stock market or looking at a method such as that used by Singapore to fund infrastructure, where there could be a central fund that ACC and the Super Fund would invest into with a central body of expertise.

    "Rather than having everyone assess things on a case-by-case basis. It could issue bonds or other means to raise capital. It means if KiwiSaver is invested, it's diversified across multiple infrastructure products and has the collective expertise of a single body rather than everyone trying to assess it themselves.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/541507/why-your-kiwisaver-might-be-invested-in-roads-and-private-businesses-and-why-it-matters

  11. Karolyn_IS 11
    11 February 2025 at 2:21 pm

    Aussie ABC is claiming Auckland has shown Aussie the way to make housing more affordable…..?

    "In Auckland, a wave of planning reform a decade ago has transformed a city once as unaffordable as Sydney, doubling the pace of building with a boom in townhouses and clamping spiralling rents and house prices."

    I guess it depends on the yardstick they are using.

    RNZ reported in April 2024:

    "With more houses being built, Blick said Auckland's rental and housing prices were on a lower growth path than the rest of the country.

    Between 2017 and 2024, Auckland rents increased by 22 percent, compared with 34 percent nationally, he said.

    "Moreover, the University of Auckland research finds rents for three-bedroom homes were 26 to 33 percent lower than otherwise six years after the Auckland Unitary Plan was introduced."

    That did not mean Auckland was affordable, he said."

    because of the Auckland Council's Unitary Plan.

    • Mike the Lefty 12.1
      11 February 2025 at 7:13 pm

      I was going to make a joke about Trump wanting to do a "fire sale" of California, but that would be in bad taste, I suppose.

      Perhaps the Danes could offer the recipe for Danish pastries into the bargain.

      Seriously, Trump might just be interested, he hates California – the state that threatened to cede from the union after Trump's first election victory in 2016, Full of woke lefty Democrats – and he carries grudges judging from the lip service he demonstrated to the Californians during the recent ravaging wildfires in the state.

  13. SPC 13
    11 February 2025 at 2:56 pm

    Winston Peters thinks he has identified one of those issues that determine voting behaviour.

    Deciding fluoridation by local referenda.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360576919/nz-first-introduces-bill-seeking-referendum-fluoride-drinking-water