Open mike 13/03/2025
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6:00 am, March 13th, 2025 - 36 comments
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- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #16 2025
Open access notables Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, Mu et al., Nature Communications: Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the ...6 hours ago - Whatever Happened to Cactus Kate?
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- World Domination
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- Release: Mental health staff and patients at risk without plan
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- Release: Driver licensing proposal doesn’t put safety first
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- Release: Students struggling as Govt sits on hands
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- Release: More must be done to stop children going hungry
More children are going hungry and statistics showing children in material hardship continue to get worse. ...7 days ago
- Greens continue to call for Pacific Visa Waiver
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The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...7 days ago
- Release: Longer wait for treatment under National
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- Ka mate te Pire- Ka ora te mana o Te Tiriti o Waitangi me te iwi Māori
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...1 week ago
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- Ka mate te Pire, ka ora Te Tiriti o Waitangi – Treaty Principles Bill dead, Te Tiriti o Waitangi m...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...1 week ago
- Member’s Bill an opportunity for climate action
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...1 week ago
- Release: Bill to make trading laws fairer passes first hurdle
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...1 week ago
- Release: Reserve Bank acts while Govt shrugs
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...1 week ago
- Release: Property Law Amendment Bill pulled from ballot
A Bill to protect first home buyers and others from bad faith property vendors has been drawn from the Member’s Ballot. ...1 week ago
- Release: More children at risk of losing family connections
Karen Chhour is proposing to scrap Oranga Tamariki targets which aim to connect more children under state care with family and their culture. ...1 week ago
- Release: David Parker made a difference – Hipkins
The Labour Leader today acknowledged and celebrated David Parker’s 23-year contribution to the Labour Party and to Parliament. ...1 week ago
- Release: David Parker to step down from Parliament
Long-serving Labour MP and former Minister David Parker has today announced his intention to leave Parliament. ...1 week ago
- Release: Flaws in Govt’s climate strategy will cost us money
The Government’s plan to achieve our climate goals falls short, and will cost New Zealanders money and jobs. ...1 week ago
- Green Party differing view on the Treaty Principles Bill
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Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Abortion care quietly shelved amid staff shortage
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- Release: Govt guts Kāinga Ora, third of workforce under axe
The gutting of Kāinga Ora shows public housing is not a priority for this Government as it removes a third of the roles at the housing agency. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Thousands of submissions excluded from Treaty Principles Bill report
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Uncertainty remains over the impact of tariffs
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Worst February for building consents in over a decade
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour supports Willie Apiata’s selfless act
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...2 weeks ago
- Te Pāti Māori MPs Denied Fundamental Rights in Privileges Committee Hearing
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt health and safety changes put workers at risk
Changes to New Zealand’s health and safety laws will strip back key protections for small businesses and put working Kiwis at greater risk. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Kiwis worse off this April thanks to Govt choices
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Three more years for Interislander ferries
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Myanmar junta must stop the airstrikes
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: National failing to deliver on supermarkets
National is paying lip service to its promises to bring down the cost of living, failing to make any meaningful change in the grocery sector. ...3 weeks ago
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- Grattan on Friday: Peter Dutton’s tax indexation ‘aspiration’ has merit – so why didn’t we...
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- ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for April 17, 2025
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/544621/theft-is-theft-bill-making-employers-theft-of-workers-wages-a-crime-passes
What one would think is fair and reasonable. So look who voted against it…
Poor people stealing anything (even out of desperation) =bad and deserving of a criminal conviction.
Employers deliberately withholding wages= perfectly acceptable.
Despicable stuff, it took so much effort to win Living Wage for Parliamentary cleaners and other contractors in the first place. In context of the pay rates and benefits that MPs and their staff receive, it is so obviously “down punching”. These workers clean the toilets MPs crap in, restrooms, offices and general areas yet they are not worth around $4 more per hour than minimum wage?
Min wage $23.50 per hour from 1 April 2025. $23.15 now.
Living wage currently $27.80 per hour
Superannuation up about 4% to balance inflation so all you minimum and low waged people – minimum wage increase of 1.5% – This is second year that the Act Minister Brooke van Velden has blatantly robbed the lowest paid in New Zealand and not from any need. IMO that vile piece of filth just gets her jollies from punching down.
They couldn't in good conscience vote for it.
The state owes hundreds of thousands of dollars of back pay through the Holidays Act to several thousand nurses.
Still.
They finally met. And it was productive ?
Were they in a Reality Free room?
Productive. The mind…boggles
and now…air miles, Aussie lunches from 4000km away, have been added to the slops menu…
https://www.odt.co.nz/southland/principal-slams-use-aussie-school-lunches
Seems you couldnt make this stuff up. And its an ongoing stuff-up : (
Who is paying for the lunches to be flown in, must be more than $3/lunch.
Yep, it's just as well diesel miles don't appear on a balance sheet./sarc
Of course the media will continue to chase Seymour down over this wasteful, nutrition lacking, corporate sellout of a scheme with kids and taxpayers the losers…..sarc.
I still haven't got over Checkpoint (RadioNZ) blatantly supporting the roll out of Seymour's slops when they first arrived at schools.
Seems like Orr left because he didn't want to loosen capital holding requirements on the big banks. Willis does.
And it seems the underlying reason for the US tariff war is that Trump wants a return to pre-income tax days. Tariffs used to be the main way that governments raised income.
That he can use it to threaten other countries is a plus.
Those Bankers. its not our fault our profits are so bigly……
As some of its the customers fault. They were so resilient.
Yea. interesting reading what else ol' John has to say. (and who were these participants) I also note his mention of “fringe elements” Well..who?
Ol'John further opines…. (hmmm I think the banks own involvement in money laundering should have been mentioned. I will link further down)
And it was also some light heartedness. So funny….(might be banker humour ?)
NZ bank money laundry problems. Links within Link….
Yeah, the irony is off the charts.
Banks raking in record profits while talking about customer resilience like it's some kind of heroic struggle. When in reality, the struggle is caused by the banks and their high rates. And then there's the classic "we can't charge a small fee for fraud prevention, but customers expect full reimbursement when they get scammed" line.
Like… maybe if the banks actually did their due diligence on fraud, people wouldn't be getting scammed in the first place?
As for the "fringe elements" comment—yeah, that’s a fun little dog whistle. Who exactly are they talking about? People who want more banking oversight? Those pesky voters who don’t want their economy dictated by corporate profit margins?
And that Kiwibank "humour" bit—sure, sure, just a funny little joke about competition in a sector dominated by Aussie-owned giants. Bet the big four were howling with laughter.
Meanwhile, the real scandals—like money laundering—get brushed under the rug.
You’d think that would be a bigger concern than, say, whether a bank is "too woke" to lend to climate-risky businesses. But hey, priorities.
Hi, yea I sure hope others see this irony. These bankers and the rest of the "top feeders" live in some kind of alternative reality. Well, alter to where the rest of us live.
How it gets changed? Some good Ideas on the Left to bring forward. Hopefully not deemed fringe by other Left parties…
After all NZ is a beautiful place. It should feel so..for all.
Meet aggrieved libertarian and end times loon Curt Zant
A US family is selling their Hawke’s Bay farm after losing a “philosophical” dispute with the local council over whether part of their land should be designated an Outstanding Natural Feature.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360609902/us-family-selling-nz-farm-after-losing-court-case-over-outstanding-natural-feature
https://www.chbdc.govt.nz/assets/Document-Library/District-Plan-Appeals/Curt-and-Tricia-Zant-Notice-of-Appeal.pdf
Ah balls …Trumps gonna add another 25% tariffs to NZ for infringing US
Billionairescitizens freedumbs. Betta tell WinstonCurt and Tricia will be right at home in a freedumb city.
.
Several groups representing “startup nations”—tech hubs exempt from the taxes and regulations that apply to the countries where they are located—are drafting Congressional legislation to create “freedom cities” in the US that would be similarly free from certain federal laws, WIRED has learned.
According to interviews and presentations viewed by WIRED, the goal of these cities would be to have places where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups, and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval from agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
https://www.wired.com/story/startup-nations-donald-trump-legislation/
Zant is an idiot. The ONF designation was arrived at after consideration of expert landscape evidence. It is not a philosophical issue.
ONF designation in no way interferes with farming. It does however often prevent landscape wrecking subdivision and development, which is presumably what Zant had in mind from his reaction.
Well done the Environment Court…..Zant should stay in the USA.
Seymour will be fuming. Watch out for a new bill that overrides all district plans, despite these having been prepared based on expert evidence. (This is pretty much what the fast track bill does already)
I clicked one Link and was kinda surprised by the header
I thought Curt Loon Zant must have been describing that well known commie witch Jacinda , but no….its the actual present Govt. IE NAct1. Who knew? Maybe they have been hiding it?
Really…NZ is so much better off without the Curt Loon Zants.
The left have done well as of late in the polls…
BUT a second round of storm clouds gathers. Why was our response to the pandemic initially so good? Because we didn’t have any media that would print lies to attack the government. We had several politicians float things that were said on Fox and other places, or printed in The Australian, but no major media outlet in New Zealand ran deranged anti-vax attacks. The politicians who even lightly tried got heavily punished.
The injection of heavily partisan top controlled media like the Murdoch group or worse is a threat over the horizon. Beware!
The second is the campaign to change the national character, I’ve found this best expressed by this opinion piece, the kind potentially forbidden by new owners at NZME, looking at why the police would suddenly arrest Gandalf, unlicensed weed dealer. It’s an attack on altruism, on a common sense interpretation of the law and of doing something that corporations could be gouging profits out of for social benefit. See school lunches.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360611924/verity-johnson-yes-gandalf-green-fairy-may-have-broken-law-what-we-did-him-worse
Our community is worse since the 90s. We often put security fences around our school fields and playgrounds because of a prevalence of vandalism and other activities. Community institutions and social glue get their funding removed. This is a second wave, an attempt to make us more toward the US socially. And don’t say it couldn’t happen here. Our pandemic response was good luck that the right is determined not to allow again.
And the idea of actual liberal thought in the harm principle permeating anything this government does…
from the article:
As a nation, we often make decisions based on questions like, “Is this hurting anyone? Is this hurting me? No? Well, who cares then.”
but decisions have been made time and again, on planning, on speed limits, on tobacco, on trans rights and other rights…this is not a principle of this government, despite their vestiges of libertarian fig leafs.
It's very difficult to think of any policy decision which results in 'no harm' to anyone. The challenge is always relative weighting of the 'harm' involved to everyone concerned.
For example:
Any policy has to weigh up those affected, and determine where the greatest harm lies.
Quite agree, Bella. After all, Brooke V d V said we put too high a price on human life, hey ho!
Our CoC operates on the principle of 'First Do No Harm' – to themselves. Perhaps if they were less ideological, and more even-handed, they'd be doing better in the polls.
But a (rare) shout out to NZ1st for voting to pass the even-handed 'theft is theft' bill.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/544621/theft-is-theft-bill-making-employers-theft-of-workers-wages-a-crime-passes
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13-03-2025/#comment-2028463
Our CoC – growing the ‘bottom feeder’ class one minimum wage increase at a time.
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/minimum-wages
NZ's pandemic response was not good luck. It was a clever.well informed and highly successful response from a caring government.
If Luxon had been in charge it would have been a disaster.
Gordon Campbell gives Peters and pretty much the whole Coalition demerit points for lacking consistency, spine, and merit.
https://werewolf.co.nz/2025/03/gordon-campbell-on-winston-peters-battle-against-the-phantom-legions-of-the-woke/
Peters has more supporters than people who vote for him/NZF because many strongly defend merit as the raison d'être and deciding fitness factor.
On Peters, he is probably best suited to be the one who meets with Rubio.
Kinda 'speaks the same language', won't grovel, could put New Zealand's interests First and unlikely to be pushed around.
Yes, better suited than the airline manager who cannot read the room even when he’s in it (but he’s a bit Schrödinger with a superposition of being simultaneously in Te Puke and Hawaii, so even he doesn’t know if he’s in the room or not).
The old merit argument…
IF we had equality, a woman would be the right person for the job 50% of the time.
Maori- 20% of the time.
ETC
The Brazilian government is hosting the 2025 UN COP Climate Change Conference.
All 65,000 registered delegates will be able to drive through the rainforest to view for themselves the ravages climate change has wrought.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vy191rgn1o
You couldn't make this up.
That construction of a road 12 years in the planning to connect 1.3 million residents and their expected visitors in 400 year old state capital generates outrage fodder for dipshits?
So you're OK with the deforestation
https://www.brazilclimatehub.org/what-do-we-expect-from-cop25/
Context; the Mount Messenger bypass and new route between Ashhurst and Woodville will result in more deforestation than 13 kilometres of road in the Amazon.
But hey, boob bait is irresistible, ain't sport.
/
So to be clear … you support deforestation in the Amazon because worse deforestation is happening elsewhere