Open mike 12/11/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 12th, 2020 - 114 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 …

114 comments on “Open mike 12/11/2020 ”

  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1

    MPI…near useless…if not ineffectual.

    "Derek Robinson illegally used an electric cattle prodder on two collapsed, distressed steers, to force them out a chute and into the arena for a roping competition, at rodeos in Whangārei in 2016 and 2017."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018772381/northland-farmer-guilty-of-mistreating-animals-at-rodeo

    Good that someone took action….

    • Treetop 1.1

      Good that someone took action….

      Nothing will change unless people take action.

    • woodart 1.2

      animal cruelty seems common in the far nth. in my short time living at whatuwhiwhi, two dog fighting rings were busted, kaitaia rodeo assoc were banned from having horses(?) and 100 cows were euthanised because the cocky was useless.there were other casual unthinking acts of animal cruelty that seemed common.

      • greywarshark 1.2.1

        Were they collapsed, distressed steers? If they were, then that is bad treatment, the cattle prodding only made it worse. It seems a bit mixed up. The use of electric shock prodding should only be available to vets. But NZ has done away with limitations on many things, all that nuisance regulation, and most things are available to any jerk or jerkess, look at lasers and drones.

        It should be remembered that have had cattle prodding electric jolts used on us in mental hospitals and regarded as legitimate treatment for interfering in patterns of suicidal behaviour, used illegitimately on people for just not behaving suitably.

        The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices without government regional funding or interest for a long time. I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs and Labour will see that it gets spent wisely this term.

        • Rosemary McDonald 1.2.1.1

          The Far North has been another country, left to its own devices …

          …and that's just the way we like it.wink

          I hope this regional fund will have useful stuff for helping local business and jobs…

          I am in the Far Far North…no shortage of jobs at all; horticultural development going gangbusters, traffic volumes increased to the point where urgent speed limit revision is required, holiday accommodation providers not complaining as workers are having to stay in campgrounds and B&Bs. Some local tradespeople would love to retire and go fishing but there's too much work…

          Don't believe the doom and gloom reports the media .We're all good thanks.smiley

          • Tiger Mountain 1.2.1.1.1

            I am in the Far North, and it is not all bad in a number of ways, but it can seem pretty bad, when you have the Mayor using a casting vote to stop Māori Wards! Mr Carter claimed a technical defence on that one, but the “Good ole Boys”, the white farmers and small businessmen of the North still like to think they run the place.

            Traffic volume is up on East Coast (SH10) in particular due to the Mangamuka highway being closed!

            There are things happening in the North like the massive Avocado developments set to rape the aquifers of the Aupouri Peninsula. Some of the Provincial Growth Projects are working out already if you scan the news and know a local community or two, and some are not, just Mr Jones hot air and patronage.

            • Rosemary McDonald 1.2.1.1.1.1

              Yep, Carter's a hasbeen, should have relinquished the baubles long since. Quite of few of his mates in the Old Boys Club (and not all of the pale, male and stale persuasion) are definitely making hay from the horticultural developments…and boy have they been squealing…

              https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/northland-aquifer-consent-delays-costing-jobs-avocado-firm-says/UMZYCF7ZMAROLBEYBPPLF6BSWA/

              We're in the heart of the avo takeover zone, although we did secure a reasonable buffer. We've sat through both of the commissioner hearings about the Aquifer, and one of the reasons we wanted to settle here is because we are truly in awe at the depth of local knowledge and expertise deployed in the fight to protect not only the Te Aupouri aquifer but the wetlands and the waterways on this thin strip of Aotearoa.

              To see work on the avo developments continuing unabated, you'd think the consents had already been granted. Just like last time.

              Heartening to see that a couple of the iwi led developments have, or are in the process of, constructing dams and containment ponds to collect rain and surface water so they are not dependent on the suck and see from the Aquifer.

        • Incognito 1.2.1.2

          It should be remembered that have had cattle prodding electric jolts used on us in mental hospitals and regarded as legitimate treatment for interfering in patterns of suicidal behaviour, used illegitimately on people for just not behaving suitably.

          Things have changed somewhat: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/electroconvulsive-therapy/about/pac-20393894

      • Phillip ure 1.2.2

        'casual unthinking acts of animal cruelty'….like cooking and eating them…?

        • The Al1en 1.2.2.1

          Not really cruel when they're dead and not like those other carnivores and omnivores that eat their food alive

          • Phillip ure 1.2.2.1.1

            Oh..!..apologies…I should have said 'kill,cook and eat'…and seriously..!…falling off my chair here..so it.'s not 'casual unthinking cruelty' to those animals to cook and eat them…as long as you don't actually kill them..?. .is this your p.o.v..?..so you shed all responsibilities for the cruelties done to them during their short brutish lives ..and their eventual killing..as long as said animal is inert/deceased when it gets to you.. eh..?..that is some serious washing of the hands you are doing there ..eh..?…but you aren't alone..you have just articulated it for the others..'cos 'unthinking' is the key word there..eh..?

            • The Al1en 1.2.2.1.1.1

              You can say what you like about whatever you like, even when you miss the whole point of the comment and resort to making things up.

              But ignoring all that, I'm still okay with killing and eating my food where possible – It's always been humane and without ever causing the animal to suffer, mainly out of respect to the quarry, and also, after all is said and done, stressed meat isn't tender meat.

              As Weka has noted, there is more to be done around animal husbandry, which is probably why organic free range food is undoubtedly the best eating.

            • Phillip ure 1.2.2.1.1.2

              Your 'point' was that animals to animals are cruel..so it's ok that we are cruel to them…and what did I ‘make up’. and ‘humane’..eh?..that is some serious self,-delusion you have going on there…eh..?

              • The Al1en

                Try another attempt at it? Or just stay with falsely attributing something that never existed in what I clearly wrote? Entirely up to you.

                To help you decide, here's several points you will need to consider whilst addressing what I actually wrote rather that which you think I did.

                1. I don't think cooking and eating animals is cruel.
                2. Eating a dead animal is less cruel than eating a live one.
                3. Some animals start eating other animals while they are still alive.
                4. I don't eat animals that are alive.
                5. Killing an animal by humane methods isn't an act of cruelty.
                • Phillip ure

                  Sometimes you are like a surreal comedy routine..that was one of them…I have this image of you attacking/chowing down on a variety of live animals…I'm glad you think it is good that you don't do that..heh..!..shine on! etc..

                  • The Al1en

                    I didn't really expect you to address the actual comment made, even with some helpful consideration points in order for you to formulate a credible counter, but at least it's clear which one of us tried and which one was just trying it on.

                  • Incognito

                    The image is in your head, it is not real. Please stick to the written comments and avoid getting (too) personal, thanks.

          • Tiger Mountain 1.2.2.1.2

            How did the unfortunate creatures enter their deceased state one wonders?

            Meat remains murder–sentient beings slaughtered against their will.

            • McFlock 1.2.2.1.2.1

              Quite a lot of assumption in that last sentence.

              • Tiger Mountain

                “slaughtered without their obvious consent” how does that sound then?

                Ever been in an abattoir McFlock? they do not go willingly.

                • McFlock

                  Still a house of cards resting on the nature and validity of "sentient"

                  • Phillip ure

                    Do you need a dictionary..?

                    • McFlock

                      Nope.

                    • McFlock

                      I have never thought that cows are as sentient as humans..so for you less/different sentience means it's ok to kill/eat them..?

                      If they can't know what's going to happen, and if most of their actions are basic stimulus:response events rather than abstract understanding of their environment, and especially if they don't even have a demonstrable concept of "self", then yeah, it sure lowers the moral dilemma faced when looking at a juicy steak.

                  • weka

                    otoh, humans, for all their sentience, are often stupid enough to believe that animals don't suffer or feel things.

                    (I'm ok with things dying, we all have to do it sometime, and I think the vegan argument fails to appreciate the animals that have a good life. Much to be done around animal husbandry, and the OP is a good example of how bad we still are at this. Money matters more).

                    • McFlock

                      Sure, it can definitely go both ways. Assuming no pain and thereby being callous to distress at one end (not counting the obviously cruel pricks like the farm hand caught breaking tails – no point to that unless they feel pain), and at the other end assuming every cattle truck is the equivalent of sending people to a death camp.

                    • Phillip ure []

                      No..it's sending animals to a death-camp ..no need to over-egg it..the horrors there are enough .no exaggerations needed..

                    • weka

                      most of NZ's meat eating involves suffering that we pretty much ignore. It's the middle ground that interests me, the extent to which we are willing to ignore or make change.

                    • McFlock

                      We do try to minimise the physical distress and pain, though, and much of the "suffering" described by the likes of phil seems to rely on cows being as sentient as people. As in having long term memory, understanding exactly what is going on, communicating with each other, the full "Bright Eyes"/"Animal Farm" scenario.

                    • Phillip ure []

                      I have never thought that cows are as sentient as humans..so for you less/different sentience means it's ok to kill/eat them..?

                    • weka

                      Factory farming chickens, transporting sheep in trucks long distances to abattoirs are systems that have built in suffering. We're not that good at this tbh, and that's not even close to Phil's position.

                      I don't think most animals are sentient in the way you describe, but I don't think it's a black and white thing either. Obviously there are some species that are closer to what humans experience and others that are a long way from that. There is also a lot we still don't understand or perceive (ironic that the vegans dismiss the emerging science around plant communication and experience).

                      Our idea that most animals have no sentience (instead of sentience being a spectrum) allows us to do some pretty fucked up shit. I'm not talking the individuals who are cruel to animals so much as society and the systems we design (most of which could be changed).

                    • Phillip ure []

                      Just like to note that this vegan is fascinated by the science around plant communication…

                    • McFlock

                      But again, the plants "communicating" is in the sense of "chemical release -> chemical response", from what I've read. Nothing like the abstract conversation we're having here.

                      As for stress, I suspect most NZ farmed animals have significantly-net-positive lives, regardless of whether they're aware of it or not.

                      The animals I actually worry about whether I should eat are cephalopods. Gorillas can use a mirror (have a sense of self), but I don't eat gorillas anyway. Whales can teach each other skills and most definitely communicate in a human sense, but I don't eat whales either. But I like squid rings, even if some octopusses and squid show similar signs of self-awareness and memory.

                    • weka

                      the point of bringing plants into the conversation (apart from having a pop at vegan hypocrisy) is that it's a spectrum. Where do we draw the line? How do we draw the line?

                      The other point is that science understands plant communication in a certain way at the moment, but I don't think anyone is saying there isn't more to learn, more that we haven't conceived of yet. I remember when science was saying that animals didn't have feelings. Anyone who's spent time with a pet cat or dog knows this is a nonsense.

                    • Phillip ure

                      What is there to 'appreciate'..?what am I missing..?…and that ' they had a good life'…(albeit much shortened from their natural life-span..roast lamb..?..anyone..?)..so it's ok if I eat them' is a retelling of the sue kedgely defence…the 'i only eat free range and organic..so it's ok'..(must be said with a self-satisfied tone'…)..I call that the ',I'm a good slave-owner!'-defence..and it is somewhat surprising how many of the arguments made in defence of human slavery..'rights' to own..mistreat..kill..the economic importance of…are used to justify the slavery of all other living creatures..(save for those we keep as pets..)..and of course how we are superior to them so we can do what we like to them…black slaves were deemed to be sub-human…those arguments did not justify human slavery..and neither do they justify animal slavery…and this too will pass..

                    • Phillip ure []

                      And your point is..?

                    • The Al1en

                      That calling "the ',I'm a good slave-owner!'-defence.."

                      in reference to "it's ok if I eat them' is a retelling of the sue kedgely defence…the 'i only eat free range and organic..so it's ok'.."

                      seems a bit silly since people are thought to have been rearing meat for food a couple of thousand years before slavery became a widespread thing.

                      It's like attributing cream doughnuts to some people being fat, even though some people were fat before cream doughnuts existed.

                    • Phillip ure []

                      It's nothing like that at all.i really haven't got a fucken clue what you are banging on about ..heh..!..and how it has any relevance..

            • The Al1en 1.2.2.1.2.2

              How did the unfortunate creatures enter their deceased state one wonders?

              Do you mean the Elk that has been tailed by a pack of wolves for a couple of days before collapsing exhausted and then ripped apart alive? Or the deer felled with one shot totally oblivious to it's fate?

  2. gsays 2

    I am trying to understand this situation.

    The Reserve Bank is implementing a Funding for Lending Programme.

    "The FLP is essentially a way of pumping cheap money into banks in the expectation they will pass it on to businesses and households."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/430358/reserve-bank-holds-cash-rate-at-0-point-25-percent

    It is a long term stimulant going to a sector that is already hot. A sector that the Reserve Bank has just admitted it has failed to read:

    "As recently as the August monetary policy statement, they were forecasting negative 7 percent house price inflation for the year ended December 2020," said Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens.

    "The latest data is clearly showing that we're going to get something more like positive 9 so they've had a 16 percentage point surprise …"
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/430360/rbnz-caught-offguard-by-house-prices-economist

    This font of wisdom reckons giving cheap money to Australian banks, less their handsome profit, makes that money available to developers, less their handsome profit, is the best way to control inflation and stimulate the economy.

    How disconnected is the Landlord Labour Party from the rest of us? Increase benefits, spend the money at that end of the economy and try trickle up as a monetary theory.

    As someone pointed out here recently, (sorry forgot who said it) Ardern is Blair in high heels.

    • Jester 2.1

      It seems to me they are making it very attractive for investors / landlords to purchase another rental property.

      • Sabine 2.1.1

        Consider that they refuse loans to Jane/Joe Sixpack who have a. received the wage subsidy or work for company that applied for the wage subsidy due to 'not having a secure job', it seems that yes, all this Kabuki is for the profit of investors.

    • Pat 2.2

      It may not be the best way to 'stimulate' the (real) economy but it may be considered the best way to stabilise the banking and exchange rate system …..those have far more potential to impact the economy than house prices (bad as it is).

      It is all however a can kicking exercise and the end of the road approaches..

      • gsays 2.2.1

        So the 'real' economy is where the humans operate. If alleviating poverty is really a concern, spend money there.

        The other economy is one of theories, exchange rates and other fictions. Fictions these gurus have shown time and time again to not understand.

        • greywarshark 2.2.1.1

          gsays so right. Let's get people having a life and be able to sing about what they will be able to get when they spend their wages from their regular job. This is a nice song and some fun for us ordinary folks upwardly mobile times – not the K economy! With tapdancing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfywkvRq4Ns

        • Pat 2.2.1.2

          the 'other' economy is not a fiction…it is the basis of trade and we dont (and cannot) operate in a removed bubble, or certainly not in any way we would recognise.

    • Dennis Frank 2.3

      Soon the entire country will be wondering with you! Grant's rationalisation this morning won't be effective – yes, they're doing their job as specified by the neoliberalism ideology, but so what??

      Economist Tony Alexander says the Reserve Bank seems to have forgotten the lesson that with monetary policy greater effectiveness comes from shock announcements. “With today’s call they have basically signalled to anyone buying property that they should get it done before March comes round and the LVRs are reapplied. By doing so, they have guaranteed that the boom we have been seeing in the housing market recently will go on throughout the summer.”

      Alexander said the Reserve Bank should have made a decision on how to reinstate the LVRs and done it right away. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123367067/reserve-bank-guaranteed-housing-boom-will-continue-over-summer-economist-says

      • gsays 2.3.1

        If the Labour party were true to their utterances in 2016 – child poverty, neo liberalism experiment has failed most of us, then the Reserve Bank wouldn't need to show its profound lack of imagination.

      • RedBaronCV 2.3.2

        Yes taxes on petrol always went on straight away to stop too big a rush.

        But hey perhaps we could treat ourselves to a banner headline here at the Standard and a small story. Something like Standard Posters wanted LVR to remain on Investors .

        Give ourselves some street cred out there based on our previous discussions.

        • greywarshark 2.3.2.1

          If not, why not?

        • Incognito 2.3.2.2

          Feel free to doing a Guest Post but never claim or pretend that you’re speaking for or on behalf of Standard Posters; you can only speak for yourself. The Standard is not a living entity and does not have a voice as such, let alone a single voice.

    • RedBaronCV 2.4

      The RBNZ needs to ensure that home owner occupiers continue to be able to access their mortgages as interest only for several more years at least. Why should they be pushed back into the rental market when they can afford the likely to be lessor amount of interest. Saves on accomodation supplements too.

      Perhaps they could even cut owner occupiers a deal where if they have a minimal deposit they can do interest only for a few years.

    • RedBaronCV 2.5

      This lending should be targeted at keeping owner occupiers on interest only if they need it and giving interest only loans to owner occupier purchasing on a minimal LVR. Likely to actually reduce government expenditure by unwinding in some small way the accommodation subsidies straight to the landlord racket that goes on.

      • greywarshark 2.5.1

        If the accommodation subsidies could be gradually phased out – gradually! – that would be good.

        Our local Council has just sold off for $2 million? $20m? previously owned housing for pensioners etc. to a social housing entity. I don't know how that will go. I can't forget the difficulties of the age 90 parents of a commenter here. And I have read reports of others who can't get their Housing Manager to show any interest in them as people deserving a pleasant home.

        I can't see why housing of a simple sort, adequately maintained shouldn't be in a Council's remit. They take responsibility for sewerage and greywater and drinking water which usually comes from houses. People live in and need houses for which the services are provided, so why aren't houses for needy people part of the chain of requirement from Councils? The comfortably off can go into retirement villages and laugh, and ride bikes, and swim and it's eternal fun and stimulation for them. The poor have to rely on getting lucky perhaps.

        • Tiger Mountain 2.5.1.1

          Local Govt. housing should become part of the mix, as it once was, as social housing is hopefully reinstated in this country. But with the PM’s attitude to beneficiaries who knows if that is going to happen!

          It just became trendy in line with neo liberal managerialism in the late 80s/90s, for Councils to flog off their pensioner housing. Which was a great shame as that seemed such a dignified activity for local authorities to be involved in.

          • Descendant Of Smith 2.5.1.1.1

            To be fair councils were put in an invidious position with private landlords being subsidised through tax breaks and accommodation supplement and state housing subsidised through the state – even with successive governments taking out massive dividends from poor peoples rent and deferring maintenance and not building new homes as a result.

            The refusal to assist councils to maintain and upgrade housing alongside appointing right wing wankers as mayors to sell off council housing e.g. John Banks while at the same time shifting the burden of response to homelessness to them was pretty fucked up.

            In order to lift rents and to allow tenants to get accomadation supplement they were forced to transfer housing to hands off entities – which then set the houses up nicely to be sold off.

            The original accord between councils and central government that the councils would take some responsibility for housing elderly and disabled while the state picked up the rest, including working class was broken by Roger Douglas and his ilk by starting with getting rid of worker housing in the railways, MOW, education, police and so on and has simply got worse ever since then.

            I'm sure some councils have ultimately decided to sell off as a fuck you to central government – many have asked for help to upgrade and maintain their housing which ratepayers were effectively subsidising. Neither National nor Labour have helped councils.

            All those councils who have held onto their housing should be rewarded by getting a big infrastructure payment for upgrading and building more. They should be helped and encouraged. The current model being used by Labour is Thatchers and the iwi and church groups are lapping it up – just as churches did in the past with poor houses and homes for unmarried mothers.

  3. Phillip ure 3

    Cartoon idea: two panels…one showing j. ardern standing next to her opened-door (overflowing) fridge…the other showing a poor person standing next to their opened (empty) fridge….the banner reading 'the ardern years: year four'…

  4. Dennis Frank 4

    Former Trump aide Steve Bannon was banned from Twitter and Facebook last week after a horrific segment on his podcast War Room: Pandemic. Bannon said he wanted to go "back to the old times of Tudor England" where it would've been acceptable for the heads of Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray be put on pikes outside the White House.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/top-us-diseases-expert-anthony-fauci-reacts-to-former-trump-aide-steve-bannons-beheading-call/7F2WUTD4ODXTJFSNMVMKOPHTGY/

    Rather uncouth of Bannon, even if merely stage rhetoric. Dunno why he feels the need to do it, given that Trump fired him & called him "sloppy". Get a life, dude!

    Sales asked when Fauci "realistically" expects mass vaccinations in the US, following the news from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate has at least 90 per cent efficacy. Fauci said it will be a "gradual process" but he expects vaccinations to start next month – "likely before the Christmas holidays". He told CNN earlier this week he expected low-risk Americans to receive the jab by April 2021, and those deemed to be at a higher risk to receive it earlier.

    Once the various vaccines coming on stream get mass usage, first thing to look for will be effectiveness of preventing infection. Expect mass media exposure of failures. Then a focus on infection rates amongst antivaxers. Darwinian culling may happen.

    • Tricledrown 4.1

      Dennis Frank anti vaxxers with out Obama Care would be more than Ironc.

    • Incognito 4.2

      Then a focus on infection rates amongst antivaxers. Darwinian culling may happen.

      You come across as somebody who’s proud of their education, culture, and general knowledge based on a lifelong subscription to Reader’s Digest.

  5. Stuart Munro 5

    Real estate is out of control.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123367067/reserve-bank-guaranteed-housing-boom-will-continue-over-summer-economist-says

    Just the time for a stamp duty for investment purchases. Should've been a CGT of course.

    Day late and a dollar short – if anything happens at all.

    • AB 5.1

      Had a few real estate agents ring out of the blue in the last 10 days and say that they have someone who wants to put a offer on our house (which is not for sale). I have told them very impolitely to eff off and get a real job. Every money-grubbing scum-sucker about the place is in a high state of euphoria.

      • greywarshark 5.1.1

        I feel exactly the same. Get a glossy 6 page booklet with photos and info of local real estate – goes immediately into the recycling bin.

  6. Dennis Frank 6

    Here's an insight into how the Trump stonewalling strategy is dividing the rightist establishment:

    Jones Day, one of the biggest law firms in the United States, has represented Big Tobacco and the family of Osama bin Laden, but its role in Trump's crusade to sow doubt in the 2020 election without any evidence has alarmed some senior attorneys. Some Jones Day lawyers told the Times they have had to endure "heckling from friends and others on social media" over their work, even though the firm has represented Trump for years.

    Lawyers at the firm, which represents the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, worry "about the propriety and wisdom" of working for the president, according to the Times.

    Some of the firm's senior lawyers are "worried" that Trump's lawsuits are "advancing arguments that lack evidence and may be helping Mr. Trump and his allies undermine the integrity of American elections," nine partners and associates told the outlet.

    https://www.salon.com/2020/11/11/lawyers-at-firms-representing-trump-worry-suits-lack-evidence-may-undermine-election-report/

  7. swordfish 7

    .
    Professor Jack Vowles briefly explores a few 2020 Flow-of-the-Vote stats from Vote Compass (the various swings & counter-swings going on beneath the surface of net vote movement at the Election):

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/politics/where-did-nationals-votes-go

    Emphasises most National-to-Labour switchers in 2020 were self-identifying Centrists whose motivation was not, in fact, to keep the Greens out or prevent a Wealth Tax (indeed, two-thirds of these Nat switchers appear to be in favour of a Wealth Tax).

    .

    Meanwhile, based on Vowles %s … I've calculated the 2020 Raw Vote flow.

    Of Labour's 1,443,546 votes in 2020 …. 780k were Lab Loyalists who had voted for the Party in 2017 as well … an extraordinary 270k were National Deserters (ie had voted Nat in 2017 & switched to Lab 2020) … an equally remarkable 175k had been attracted out of Non-Voting by Labour in 2020 (they'd stayed at home in 2017) … 72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction) … and 65k from NZF deserters (representing more than a third of NZF’s 2017 support base)..

    Of NZF's 186,706 voters in 2017 … 65k moved to Labour in 2020 …. just 35k remained Loyal to NZF … 26k swung into Non-Voting … 22k swung to National (little more than a third of the number flowing to Labour) … & 15k swung to ACT (so much for the theory – resting solely on anecdotal evidence & always a bit dodgy IMO, that the Gun Lobby's re-alignment with ACT had caused the lion's share of NZF losses in Polls this year).

    Of National's 1,152,075 voters in 2017 … just over 620k remained Loyal … 270k swung to Labour (can't stress enough how unprecedented those numbers are) … 160k to ACT (there was some speculation in the immediate wake of the Election as to who were more numerous – Nat-to-Lab switchers or Nat-to-ACT switchers … well, easily the former) … just 35k former (2017) Nats went into Non-Voting in 2020.

    • greywarshark 7.1

      Thanks for that – interesting in your first para the switchers seem to be in favour of important remedial moves that the left would like the gummint to introduce. Like -'I'm higher taxes and I'll be at your service where most efficacious today' with a firm handshake and a steady grin. 'How nice to meet you, and won't you come right in', would be the response from almost all of us who still have our feet on the ground.

    • Phillip ure 7.2

      Thanks for that s.fish…very useful…

    • AB 7.3

      Fascinating. I wonder what Labour strategists looking at this will be thinking. Most likely it's how to hang on to as many of the 270k Nat switchers as possible, and convert the 175k 2017 non-voters into habitual Lab voters. And what policy or messaging conflicts (if any) are involved in doing those two things simultaneously.

      The churn back and forth with the Greens won't figure as a major concern – having permanently lost your obstreperous left to another party that has no real alternative options, is actually a comfortable place to be.

      • greywarshark 7.3.1

        Ooh that presses on a painful tender spot AB. Give me a double rainbow to look at any time when such unpalatable possible truths crop up. Look a double rainbow – what can it mean?

    • Dennis Frank 7.4

      72k were switchers from the Greens (which, in turn, suggests an on-going massive churn in support between the two main Parties of the Left … quite big numbers swinging from Green to Labour & even greater numbers moving in the opposite direction)

      I'd suspected that bothways thing. Would be interesting to compare the % of the electorate that moved each way!

      Discouraging if it means the base support for the Greens hovers at the MMP threshold. When I joined after the 1990 election where they got 7% I assumed the movement would build public support. I was wrong.

      • JanM 7.4.1

        I have to confess to jumping between Labour and the Greens and voted Labour this time because I was so scared National might get in and the Greens would be below the 5% threshhold. Daft in retrospect but my biggest fear was that National would play silly buggers with our successful covid lockdown.

      • Drowsy M. Kram 7.4.2

        Don't be too hard on yourself Dennis – you weren't badly wrong.

        It's been an unsurprisingly bumpy ride. Compare the record of voter support for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to that of the German Greens whose support was somewhere between 5% and 10.7% from 1983 to 2017.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_90/The_Greens#Federal_Parliament_(Bundestag)

        1990: 6.85% for the Green party
        1993: 18% for the Alliance (New Labour/Democratic/Mana Motuhake/Green)
        1996: 10.1% for the Alliance
        1999: 5.2% for the Green party
        2002: 7.0%
        2005: 5.3%
        2008: 6.7%
        2011: 11.1%
        2014: 10.7%
        2017: 6.3%
        2020: 7.9%

        • Dennis Frank 7.4.2.1

          Yeah but I was anticipating being up to 20% & more after 30 years. So I feel I was badly wrong! Few voters believe global warming warrants empowering the Greens.

          • RedBaronCV 7.4.2.1.1

            Even that they are there means there has to be some main party attention to those issues. If they got 0% because the job was done I could be happy about that.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 7.4.2.1.2

            How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest? They've already tried a number of things – keep the faith and keep trying, I reckon. The need for greater societal and environment resilience becomes more obvious with every extreme weather event, GFC or pandemic – 20% might yet be possible.

            The Silent Killer: Consequences of Climate Change and How to Survive Past the Year 2050
            We cannot compromise with the earth; we cannot compromise with the catastrophe of unchecked climate change, so we must compromise with one another.” – Gordon Brown, former UK PM

            "Our guiding theoretical principle is that people face a conflict between short-term self-interest and longer-term collective interest, which, as noted earlier, is often referred to as a social dilemma. We illustrate that interventions at the level of individuals, communities, and governments are necessary."
            https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3757

            "Labour assumes the sentiment of social solidarity seen during the COVID-19 lockdown will persist. National is counting on voters opting for short-term self-interest."
            https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2020/09/the-ideology-and-psychology-behind-tax-promises

            "For all the talk of time running out and climate emergencies, voters remain as likely to be swayed by short-term self-interest and the promises of the two biggest parties (including on Brexit) as ever, rather than see the big picture the Greens are painting."
            https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/green-party-leader-interview

            • Dennis Frank 7.4.2.1.2.1

              Yes, you've comprehensively identified the most relevant part of political psychology in the situation.

              How might ‘the Green party‘ persuade more voters to shift (some of) their focus away from short-term self-interest?

              In a word, advocacy. Persist in that. Use the technique the ad industry uses (repetition of message). You know the reason the Greens aren't doing it?

              At the risk of irritating you, I'll point to a popular leftist syndrome. Assuming something is so evident that people know it already.

              You can see how the link twixt climate change and politics implies the latter gets used to deal with the former, eh? Failed in geopolitics in the early years of the millennium. Then what? Nothing. No plan B.

              Blame the Greens for giving up & joining the major parties in recycling 19th century politics as if the global problem can be avoided? Yes, I do. My membership renewal request has already arrived in the Windows trash bin…

              • Drowsy M. Kram

                Yes, "persist" – keep the faith and keep trying.

                The Greens‘, you and I are responsible for our decisions and their consequences. Making the best decisions we can (as we see things) and then acting on them is all any of us can do.

                For example, it was a good political decision to strongly contest the Auckland Central electorate. Had it been my decision, I would have partitioned more resources towards garnering the party vote – just as well it wasn't my decision.

                At the risk of irritating you, do you believe that "Assuming something is so evident that people know it already." is a particularly leftist syndrome? I can understand why it might be convenient to believe such, depending on the axe you grind.

  8. greywarshark 8

    An interesting in depth article in stuff in The Press today by Steve Kilgallon. Buy The Press and see it – Ministry shuts the door on small firms o or it will no doubt be on PressReader sometime later. It pictures the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (or MoBIE as I cynically call it) and talks about procurement rules in NZ. This is a rather long discursive comment a bit tl:dr, but the subject is important so don't miss The Press article as an informative and important read.

    It is about the way that government operations close the door on small NZ firms wishing to interact and do business with government and instead seeing a near impenetrable door behind which deals are done with large multi-national companies. The door is not a portcullis, which at least can be seen through. It is a barrier that it seems you have to throw yourself against many times before anything can happen.

    (Probably the small-biz warriors vent their frustrations by playing those on-line games where you traverse hostile territory and look for supply points where you can gain health, weapons, food and water supplies or invisibility cloaks. After they have gained some mana on the game's league table they can go into the real world and try once again.)

    We in NZ must fight for our survival. Once blasted Labour Lites opened the gates and let the horse of Troy in, the myriad of financial minions have poured out and will smother us. (They can not even be compared to leaches, which are valued for medical treatments.) Also we have been prevailed upon to sign up to agreements ensuring little us the right to trade with the world's billions. Equality eh, the level playing field, and a number of other folksy expressions that veil the truth, that we have let down our fellow citizens and our country's sovereignty to enable access to all the pretty things and manufactured that can be obtained overseas.

    If you remember the folk tale from childhood, the young woman could marry the prince if she could turn straw into gold fibres, and Rumplestiltskin enabled that in exchange for her relinquishing her first-born son. That was only avoided by a lucky break. Smart people don't rely on luck. I mention this simple childish tale because it only appears simple, and we seem to have a mentality of children. It is right on the nail. We need straw, gold is an extra, and we need to have work for all NZs, not unhappy disenfranchised anomic drifters. We should not be manipulated by Australian and other banks, and by pension funds from all the world, and wealth-creating moguls from everywhere who will suck us dry of every resource if there is money in it. This is war, in a mild form, perhaps it is The Phony War of the Early 21st Century.

    Past centuries' history shows us that our human behaviour tends to be cyclical. I thought of the Punic Wars ending in 146 BC. We could be in Sicily's place in a modern similar war. So get smart in our thinking and doing for ourselves.

    The Punic Wars were a series of three wars between 264 and 146 BC fought by the states of Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War broke out in Sicily in 264 BC as a result of Rome's expansionary attitude combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. Wikipedia

    • RedBaronCV 8.1

      Preston in the UK was looking at strategies to rebuild it's local economy and one of the things places that received state money like the hospitals and schools did was break down the size of the contracts so that locals could compete easily. It's made a steady difference.

      But hey this is Mobie – rumour around the 'hood suggests they long for the neo rightist days and act accordingly. A decent restructure would not go amiss – a lot of mid aged managers have never operated outside that sort of frame work and need fresh leads.

      IMHO labour has been very remiss in not replacing a lot of nationals appointments just leaving them in place. More on tht some other time.

    • RedBaronCV 8.2

      I've had a good read of the article. Mobie could have an application system that you can apply to join at any time and all you have to have is no negative strikes. e.g you register as overseas owned or local, you follow labour law, have climate change policies in place plus health and welfare options available to your staff or are based in a country that has these welfare and ethical settings, pay your Paye, pay local income taxes and ACC in proportion to your trading here , some requirements about the amounts remitted overseas to stop offshoring jobs unnecessarily. I have to give this some more thought but I'm sure the field could be nicely skewed in local favour without any violations of trade treaties. Other countries do it and we would be fools not too. Plus renegotiate those treaties to be trade not interference in local standards.

      • greywarshark 8.2.1

        You say other countries already do it!! Let's start copying other countries good ideas instead of their dud ones.! I thought that instead of the panel that small people could gain gold or silver stars for their performance, if they met the NZ owned criteria ie so that the money stays here and is paid to NZ workers. I think that would come after your application idea.

      • Descendant Of Smith 8.2.2

        Just let local managers make the decisions and use local firms.

        Joyce's centralised purchasing across government could only benefit large firms to the detriment of local firms – many of whom get subcontracted now for a pittance cause the contract holder has no staff in the town that needs the work down. In some cases as education has found local firms are refusing to do repair work on school buildings that leak, etc as an out of town, often Auckland firm, built the building in the first place.

        Motels however are busy with out of town tradesman doing annual visits to clean air conditioning units…….

    • Ad 8.3

      Inhale into a paper bag for a bit.

      All major public contracts ive seen have local and iwi hire requirements.

      MBIE arent major capex procurers usually.

      • greywarshark 8.3.1

        Well the article raises good points. So time for in or exhaling is not yet. Things have to change if we want change. When we can see it happening then it is time to relax a little. But time is of the essence.

        I read this on Scoop the other day which illustrates how time can pass away like water under the bridge. And a meeting happens. More water downstream. Another meeting to discuss matters not encompassed at the first meeting. etc.

        http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=132264
        Five years of not getting us moving November 5, 2020
        But its five year history shows that research and consultation is followed only by more of the same. Having asked us this year what we wanted for the Golden Mile, LGWM admits that it had also asked us last year, when “… Wellingtonians told us what they wanted to see on the mile that runs from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place.”

        We told them this year. We told them last year. And it was the same in 2018 – after prolonged public consultation in 2017, the LGWM programme director announced that

        “We’ll use the feedback to help guide our work as we develop a recommended programme of investment.”

        • In Vino 8.3.1.1

          Your analogy… I don't quite see how Sicily benefitted from Roman invasion, and did not those Roman bastards slaughter Archimedes?

          • greywarshark 8.3.1.1.1

            Sicily didn't – it ended up a pawn, and it could happen to us all these years later. We could end up like Sicily – in the middle with bigger polities fighting for possession of us. It didn't turn out well for Sicily. They got the Mafia didn't they with dominance over the people. I'd be thinking of Danilo Dolci rather than Archimedes.

      • Descendant Of Smith 8.3.2

        "All major public contracts ive seen have local and iwi hire requirements."

        Seen any monitoring or accountability to see whether it happens? MBIE don't even have people, until recently where there is a few, out in the regions to check. Think about who put in your fibre for instance.

  9. roy cartland 9

    Here's a familiar theme in this Independent article:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-biden-cabinet-b1721241.html

    Apparently, voters wanted less progressive measures, and more of the same old. Just like the NZ Labour excuse this time round.

    • greywarshark 9.1

      In fact that could be true – less progressive measures wanted. I think that all are looking for some sort of stability. The governments state or central, have delivered them uncertainty, cities that have gone bankrupt which was unheard of, and the ugly face of neolib appears everywhere in some form.

      With their religious bent they have bent and twisted themselves in many different ways, without finding the way less trod! And so gone backwards. I've just put a song from Oklahoma 1955 up. That sort of image of the past could be very beguiling. What has modernity done for us could be the thought. The government has messed too many nests and left what for the occupants?

    • Ad 9.2

      With Senate too tight for numbers, and plenty of marginal Congress seats, you cant pull them out to be in Cabinet.

      So they will need older or non-elected Cabinet heads.

      Shock maybe even public service heads!

    • Andre 10.1

      That one new community case with no known connection to the border or any cases isn't alarming by itself. Especially since that person has apparently had a somewhat solitary lifestyle lately.

      The scary question is who did they get it from, and who else has got it or is gonna get it from that unknown source.

  10. greywarshark 12

    This is our government under the neolib evil spell. People have to fit into whatever the malign agency that runs things rules. They are contracted by a very casual government (about ordinary people).

    …"They put 20 women, closely confined, all of them double bunked, only out of their cell for a couple hours a day, which they can do their washing in a wing with no facilities to wash the clothes including their undergarments."

    The inmates were forced to use a communal bath to wash towels and clothes before stringing the dripping items along their cell window ledges.

    Taylor said the women could also choose to use their allotted four-minute daily shower to wash both themselves and belongings.

    "This includes not only their clothes but towels and items of that nature…

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430428/auckland-region-women-s-corrections-facility-rejects-inmate-claims-about-broken-facilities

    If all that is true, or even part of it, i do not consider that is the way that prisons should be run. Do better NZ Government and whoever is in charge of Corrections, make a bloody nuisance of yourself to these humanoid managers and get them to execute properly; perhaps hara-kiri would be appropriate.

    • Treetop 13.1

      Maybe correspondence to Biden could be resent in a secure way somewhere else.

      I saw something about Trump wanting to have his own TV station. What would he call it? He would become so absorbed in Biden and his policies.

  11. Dennis Frank 14

    Georgia's secretary of state announced Wednesday that the state will conduct an audit of the 2020 presidential race, recounting by hand the millions of ballots cast in the state … Raffensperger's announcement comes as he has faced pressure from President Donald Trump's campaign for a recount, calls from fellow Georgia Republicans to resign and accusations of mismanaging the election process.

    Earlier this week, the two GOP senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, fighting for reelection, demanded Raffensperger resign from office, accusing him without evidence of failing to "deliver honest and transparent elections."

    Raffensperger said he expects the recount to be done in time for Georgia's certification of the presidential results, which has a November 20 deadline.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/11/politics/georgia-full-state-recount-2020-presidential-race/index.html

    • observer 15.1

      It's funny how "personal responsibility" is a sacred thing in the abstract, but the authorities are to blame when it is put to the test.

      Anyone who's worked in a large office/apartment building knows what happens when there's a fire alarm … many people patiently wait in the allotted place, but many others don't, or even ignore the alarm completely. They are not physically prevented from standing at point A instead of point B. They are expected to show that "personal responsibility" that they crave.

      I suppose the police and NZDF could be controlling every crowd, with powers to enforce, arrest, fine, etc. Whereupon there would be cries of "Dictator Jacinda", "nanny state" and other witless whines, usually from the same people who say "shambolic"… and "personal responsibility".

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    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
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    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
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    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
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    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
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    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
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    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
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    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
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    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
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    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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    1 week ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
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    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
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    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
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    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
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    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
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    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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