Open mike 14/05/2023
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6:00 am, May 14th, 2023 - 32 comments
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- Learning what’s at stake with the Weather & Climate Livestream
As any reader is likely aware, in the United States big deletions are being made to the capabilities of a plethora of federal agencies. These include the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has a mission including that of keeping us safer in the case of "bad luck" due to ...52 minutes ago - Politicians, speak openly about China. Chinese-Australians won’t mind
Beijing would have us believe that Australian politicians cannot speak openly and honestly about China’s geopolitical ambitions without fear of losing Chinese-Australian voters. Don’t fall for it: Chinese-background voters are as divided and cantankerous as ...2 hours ago - Say it again: Hate crimes are not terrorism.
Since I have written extensively about this subject over the years I will not bore readers with more tedious expositions. But in light of recent events I thought it would be permissible to height some basic facts about hate crimes and terrorism. Here goes: Government officials, politicians and media have ...3 hours ago - Aotearoa should not have places named after slavers
What do Picton, Ashburtn, Stokes Valley, and Ellice St in wellington have in common? They're all named after slave-owners. This is abhorrent. Naming stuff after foreign imperialists is bad enough, but slave-owners were participants in one of the greatest crimes against humanity in human history. We should not be naming ...3 hours ago - Regulating X isn’t censorship. It’s self-defence
In 2024, during the fiercely fought US presidential election campaign, current US Vice President JD Vance made an extraordinary ultimatum: if Europe wanted the United States to remain committed to NATO, it should stop regulating ...4 hours ago
- National’s “investment boost”
I've been thinking a bit about National's "investment boost", the centrepiece of its dogshit budget. Its pitched by the government as encouraging big capital investments which will create jobs for the future. But I don't think there's much chance of that. The problem is that the policy just won't last ...4 hours ago
- The basket is full of rotting kumara, Hosking is full of reckons
1. What does Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi mean in English?a. As liquefaction is to the ground beneath us, so is Mike Hosking to the air aboveb. With your basket and my basket the people will livec. This joke of a government is a ...5 hours ago - NZ Herald’s Cancel Culture Targets Winston Peters’ Heckler
The right-wing establishment and their media lapdogs are at it again, this time sinking their claws into a private citizen who dared to heckle Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters at a Wellington Railway Station press conference. The NZ Herald, in a particularly vile move, has taken it upon themselves to ...7 hours ago - Learn from Finland: Australia doesn’t assess its risks, isn’t ready for them
‘Australia was ill-prepared for war in 1941. In 2025, we’re making the same grave mistake’. That’s the headline of an article by Geoffrey Blainey in The Australian on Anzac Day. ‘Australia is not prepared for a ...9 hours ago
- Just a Girl
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- Bernard Hickey, Peter Bale, Lara Greaves, Craig Renney & Terry Baucher ‘Hoon’ around...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about Budget 2025 with:Vic Uni political scientist Lara Greaves;CTU Economist ; and,Tax commentator Terry Baucher.The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over ...14 hours ago - Danger Is Literally Their Middle Name
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- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #21 2025
Open access notables Shifting Gears in a Shifting Climate: Birds Adjust Migration Speed in Response to Spring Vegetation Green-Up, Amaral et al., Diversity and Distributions Our results have direct implications for the conservation of migratory bird diversity in Eastern North America. While birds show some plasticity in adjusting migration pace, this ...1 day ago
- Taiwan, a leader in public health, should be in the WHO
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- Trump’s theatre of the absurd.
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- Reverse Robin Hood Budget steals from working people
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Thought oneTurns out Andrea Vance was understating it.You're substantially and unfairly and unreasonably handicapping the pay equity process, everyone told Nicola Willis,Wrong, she said.This is likely to deprive women who do some of the hardest shittiest unappreciated work of decent pay, they told her.Wrong, wrong wrong, she said.You don't care; ...1 day ago - ‘Deterrence’—an agreeable word that obscures strategic debate
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- Budget 2025
Get more from Bernard Hickey in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app Read more ...1 day ago - The (deeply underwhelming) Budget
1 day ago - Drawn
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Just briefly in Budget 2025 around the areas of housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy:The Government said Budget 2025 was about ‘Going for Growth,’ but the Budget forecast slower growth, higher Government borrowing, less housing spending, lower KiwiSaver contributions and a net fiscal contraction of three percentage points ...1 day ago - $13 billion
That's how much Nicola Willis thinks she stole from New Zealand women by repealing pay equity: A tax incentive for businesses, boosts to health and education spending, and Crown funding for new gas fields are among new Budget initiatives made viable by nearly $13 billion in cuts to the ...1 day ago
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Today will see an unprecedented moment in Parliament. A racist government whose leader opposes the "Maorification" of New Zealand is using its parliamentary majority to suspend opposition MPs from the House for being Māori, silencing them and the people they represent for up to 21 days. It is outrageous and ...3 days ago- Federalism could torpedo AUKUS
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The PSA says mediation has failed to resolve its conflict with the government over working from home, with the case now heading to the ERA. Food prices have risen at their fastest pace in more than a year driven by more expensive dairy products, hinting that inflation pressures are gathering ...3 days ago- May AMA (+ Webworm Updates)
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The New Zealand government, National, ACT, and NZ First, has been very busy recently earning its moniker: the Coalition of Chaos. This unholy trinity seems hell-bent on trying to rewrite reality, peddling lies that erode public trust in politics, and flouting the rules of decorum in an orchestrated attack on ...3 days ago- The Green Budget: Cutting Through Right-Wing Spin
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to return policy responsibility for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police to the Department of Home Affairs is more than a machinery-of-government change; it’s a long-term ...3 days ago- Volcanic cooling
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4 days ago- ‘Weaponise rates to drive housing intensification’
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Catch catch the horror taxiI fell in love with a video nastyCatch catch the horror trainFreeze frame gonna drive you insaneWriters: Raymond Burns, Christopher John Millar, David Vanian, Roman Paul Jug, Bryn Merrick.Speak English.Yesterday, the Prime Minister of our country appeared on the Mike Hosking show to beat the anti-woke ...4 days ago- Nasty
Catch catch the horror taxiI fell in love with a video nastyCatch catch the horror trainFreeze frame gonna drive you insaneWriters: Raymond Burns, Christopher John Millar, David Vanian, Roman Paul Jug, Bryn Merrick.Speak English.Yesterday, the Prime Minister of our country appeared on the Mike Hosking show to beat the anti-woke ...4 days ago- Gordon Campbell On NZ’s Silence Over Gaza, And Creeping Health Privatisation
Since last Thursday, intensified Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed over 500 Palestinians, and a prolonged Israeli aid blockade has led to widespread starvation among the territory’s two million residents. Belatedly, Israel is letting in a token amount of food aid that UN under-secretary Tom Fletcher has called a ...4 days ago - Pay Equity Explainers
- Release: Govt guts emergency housing while need increases
The National Government has cut $1 billion from the emergency housing budget on the false pretence that demand is reducing, while also ending contracted emergency housing from December this year. ...11 hours ago - Release: $1 billion of Māori funding gone
The Government should hang its head in shame after a budget that takes a knife to more Māori programmes. ...11 hours ago
- Budget 2025 delivers little to nothing for our youngest
The Government’s Budget offers little more than crumbs for our tamariki, while real issues in the ECE system are ignored. ...1 day ago - Minister for the Environment missing in action in Budget 2025
Budget 2025 makes it crystal clear that this Government has no interest in protecting nature or securing a liveable future for our tamariki. ...1 day ago
- Government’s Budget fails Māori
The Government has failed Māori and ignored its Te Tiriti obligations with its Budget, says Te Mātāwaka, the Green Party’s Māori and Pasifika Caucus. ...1 day ago
- Housing crisis will rage on with Budget 2025
Budget 2025 makes clear that the Coalition Government has no long-term plan to help communities most in need of public housing. ...1 day ago
- Government pours gas on the climate crisis fire
Budget 2025 has put our climate targets in serious jeopardy, says the Green Party. ...1 day ago
- Budget 2025 leaves future of school lunches uncertain
The future of the Ka Ora | Ka Ako school lunch programme looks to be uncertain with Budget 2025 failing to provide any funding beyond 2026. ...1 day ago
- Budget to increase energy hardship
Budget 2025 delays our transition to a low emissions and low-cost energy network, this will put even more pressure on households, businesses and the climate. ...1 day ago
- ‘Growth Budget’ = growth in poverty
The Government’s Budget is failing families in poverty by pulling the rug on young people receiving income support and allowing more children to go without enough food on the table. ...1 day ago
- Release: National failing on the cost of living
Despite all the promises, Kiwis are still going backwards in Budget 2025. ...1 day ago
- Release: The Austerity Budget that leaves women out
Today’s Budget is a masterclass in making the wrong decisions for New Zealanders. ...1 day ago
- Release: Bills increase transparency of money transfers and ports
Two Labour bills drawn from the Member’s Ballot today would require greater transparency of international money transfers, and bring more public accountability and transparency to port companies. ...1 day ago
- ‘Growth Budget’ growing inequality and fuelling climate crisis
Budget 2025 represents a significant step backwards for Aotearoa, with the Government adding fuel to the fire when it comes to the climate and inequality crises, says the Green Party. ...1 day ago
- Release: Half a billion dollar tax break for tech giants
The Government is taking the Digital Services Tax off their books, effectively handing a $479 million tax break to global tech giants, like Facebook and Google. ...2 days ago
- Release: Govt helps banks dodge repayment claims for Kiwis
The Government is moving to let two of the country’s most profitable banks off the hook for money owed to their customers. ...2 days ago
- Release: Search begins for rare family receiving $250
The Government can’t say if even a single family has received the $250 a fortnight they were promised. ...3 days ago
- Release: Govt risks hospice care by cutting women’s pay
The Government’s decision to cut women’s pay could result in an exodus of palliative care nurses from the profession. ...3 days ago
- Release: Govt leaves sexual abuse survivors out in the cold
The Government is quietly cutting more services for women, this time it’s ACC support for survivors of sexual abuse and pausing the expansion of a major sexual violence prevention programme. ...3 days ago
- Report shows Govt’s callous lack of support for system at breaking point
A new report from Aotearoa Educators’ Collective, released today, has confirmed what teachers, students, and whanau have been calling out for years–our learning support system is overstretched, underfunded, and simply not working. ...3 days ago
- Prime Minister must scrap the Regulatory Standards Bill
The Green Party is urging the Prime Minister to get rid of the Regulatory Standards Bill after the Waitangi Tribunal found that the Bill breaches the Crown’s Tiriti o Waitangi obligations. ...4 days ago
- Release: Women in funded sector unlikely to get pay equity
The Government is unlikely to fund pay equity for hospice and Plunket nurses, care and support workers and other workforces made up of mostly women. ...4 days ago
- Chris Hipkins Speech Auckland regional conference
Tēnā koutou katoa. It’s fantastic to be here with you all—grassroots campaigners, organisers, union members, councillors, MPs, and Labour whānau. ...6 days ago
- Release: Minister’s rash orders fail frontline providers
The Auditor-General has found serious failings in the Government’s review of frontline providers such as counselling and prevention services. ...1 week ago
- Release: Prices keep rising while National cuts women’s pay
Prices for essentials, like milk, butter and electricity continue to get more expensive under National, at the same time as the Government takes money from women’s pockets to save their budget. ...1 week ago
- Te Pāti Māori Condemns Fast-Track Approval of Seabed Mining
Te Pāti Māori is gravely concerned by the Government’s approval of the Trans-Tasman Resources (Taranaki VTM) seabed mining project under its fast-track regime. This marks the first time a commercial shallow seabed mining operation has been approved anywhere in the world- pushed through with no transparency, no public input, and ...1 week ago
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The Government’s just-passed Social Security Amendment Bill is set to create more benefit sanctions that will push families deeper into poverty. ...1 week ago
- Report exposes damage of rushed cuts to Oranga Tamariki
Today’s report into last year’s Oranga Tamariki contract procurement process confirms the Government’s brutal cuts were rushed, poorly managed, and made with no concern for the impact on tamariki. ...1 week ago
- 210,000 Māori Silenced: Committee Delivers Harshest Punishment in Parliament History
Today the Privileges Committee handed down a severe punishment. Te Pāti Māori Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have been suspended for 21 days, and MP for Hauraki-Waikato Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has been suspended for 7 days. ...1 week ago
- Release: Govt finally admits 180,000 in line for a pay cut
The Government finally admitted late last night that roughly 180,000 people will be affected by its decision to halt pay equity claims. ...1 week ago
- Release: Admin nearly a quarter of entire FamilyBoost spend
Nearly a quarter of the money spent on the Government’s flagship FamilyBoost policy has gone to administration, not to families to help with childcare. ...1 week ago
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The Green Budget shows how much better our lives could be under a Green Government, instead of one dominated by corporate greed. ...1 week ago
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The Green Party has unveiled its new plan to make Early Childhood Education (ECE) free. ...1 week ago
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The Green Party is delivering for Māori with its Green Budget. ...1 week ago
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The Green Party has launched its plan for Free GPs as part of its Green Budget. ...1 week ago
- Chris Hipkins: Pre-Budget speech
Tēnā koutou katoa. Good morning. I read recently that one of the keys to success in life is to do the hard stuff first thing in the morning. ...1 week ago
- Release; Budget should not be paid for by working women
The Government must do three things in Budget 2025 if it is genuinely going to turn things around for New Zealanders. ...1 week ago
- Release: Peeni Henare takes over foreign affairs
Labour’s Peeni Henare will pick up the foreign affairs portfolio, following David Parker’s departure from Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt better at crushing women’s rights than cars
Rehashing old laws around boy racers is not going to make our communities safer, or distract New Zealanders from the appalling decision to cut women’s pay. ...2 weeks ago
- No Justice for State Abuse Survivors- Kapa-Kingi
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There are a few messed up cache pages at present due to some cache option flipping. They should clean themselves out over the next hour.
There is going to be an interesting item tonight on "Sunday" about the Gore Council and Ben Bell.
Sounds like quite a terrible work culture there. And some of the behaviour of the CEO sounds down-right creepy. Apparently the CEO tracked down the former CFO in London and made him an uninvited visit, which was very stressful for the former CEO.
To me, it is sounding like an old boys club who resent a young mayor and are trying to get rid of him.
Disgraceful behaviour. If the other councillors and CEO aren't happy then they should do the right thing and resign.
I wonder where he thinks he's going to work after he gets voted out at the next election.
Do you mean Bell? I don't know if he will get voted out if the doco shows there has been a bullying culture in the council that Bell has been a victim of.
People tend to take the side of the victim, and may stick with him.
For someone to get elected to a council at that age suggests he has something going for him as a politician. I remember Nick Smith (a personal friend back then) getting elected to Rangiora Council while still at High School. I remember that caused a bit of a stir back then.
I realise he is on the other side of the fence to you. But, history shows he went a long way as a politician.
"… there has been a bullying culture in the council that Bell has been a victim of."
If it proves to be correct then it would have started the moment the vote count was complete. The old boomers would have gaslighted him, set him up to take the blame for misdemeanors they were responsible for committing and made other false claims against him.
The young mayor is on record saying he doesn't know what he is supposed to have done wrong. That suggests to me he's the victim not the perpetrator.
I've seen that scenario play out more once over the years and the tactics never change.
I would have liked Weka to clarify her assertion 'I wonder where he thinks he's going to work after he gets voted out at the next election.' I trust she wasn't referring to Ben Bell.
I though what Bell had going for him was his mum, apparently recently high up in Gore Council's city executive.
Parry and Hicks certainly come across as odious pieces of work.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/gore-allegations-pre-date-new-mayor
For sure. Also IMO….bullying scumbags. And, when there are bullying problems in a Company…Council, or whatever…its nearly always, Top Down. I.E. bullying "management"..leads to a complete toxic culture. And the "managers" remain, embedded….while good employees leave……
And invariably the bullies, replete with MBA, lawyer up and use the obscenely generous employment agreements they've wrangled themselves to make it nigh on impossible to remove them without substantial cost to rate payers.
Given what is being spent on PGs now, it might be a cheap option to remove the CEO even given the cost of that.
Indeed. Back in 2006, Parry indefinitely locked out union workers pushing for a new collective agreement. The union (PSA) threatened to blacklist the council, which is the only time the PSA has done that in the past 30 years. This was due to anti-union and anti-employees behaviour, that was exceptionally bad, even after the 9 years of the Employment Contracts Act.
Blacklisting was basically advising all PSA members to not seek jobs there, and to advise all other union affiliates (here and overseas) of the issues with the employer.
An exceptional step, and indicative of the very poor workplace relations at that time.
My uninformed, casual observer 2cents says, if there is an issue with an elected official and the likes of a senior employee, then the one with 'the will of the people' stands on firmer ground.
I smell a rat. I think there should probably be some forensic accounting done on the Gore District Council's Accounts for the past 10-20 years ???
Minutes before Ukrainian duo Tvorchi performed in the Eurovision final Russia's Black Sea fleet launched a cruise missle attack against their home town Ternopil, in Ukraine's far-west.
Not exactly subtle, was it, and also did nothing to support any supposedly high-minded reason for the invasion (even if that was still possible).
It was a puzzle to me how a youngster got elected to mayor of such a conservative area in the first place. People must have REALLY been p…..d off with the existing council hierarchy.
Very interesting Q @ A this morning, with Andrew Hoggard, Cambridge University professor Jonnie Penn talking about AI, and Helen Robinson, CEO Auckland City Missioner. Helen Robinson very on point and if labour doesn't address her concerns in this week's budget, they are dead in this election.
Can't link yet.
Andrew Hoggard stated that he doesn't know the difference between different parties ag policies!!!
Fucker should have been sacked from the feds for that,
Yup, a free speech absolutist.
/
Twitter announced late Friday that it’s blocking some content in Turkey ahead of Sunday’s presidential election in the country. The social media company did not explain which tweets would be blocked, nor who made the request, but current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously blocked Twitter across all of Turkey.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/13/twitter-blocks-content-in-turkey-one-day-before-national-election/?
I think you will find it relates to complaints from Turkish people about the flood of Russian propaganda they're seeing.
Of course. And the twitter file peeps will be all over it, too.
/
In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.
https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1657219168863756288
We have informed the account holders of this action in line with our policy. This content will remain available in the rest of the world.
https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1657219170243674112
Elon Musk, who is stepping down from his role as Twitter's CEO, has been accused of silencing critics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ahead of the country's presidential election on Sunday.
Twitter's Global Government Affairs unit announced that the platform will "restrict" access to some content in Turkey on Friday, without specifying the names of the accounts or the type of content it will restrict.
https://www.dailysabah.com/business/tech/turkey-signs-deal-with-spacex-to-launch-turksat-6a-satellite
and here's the link
https://www.newsweek.com/turkey-election-elon-musk-accused-censoring-erdogan-critics-twitter-1800134
Really?
https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/turkeys-divided-public-between-the-west-and-russia-5886/
https://pomed.org/publication/why-turkish-citizens-blame-the-united-states-for-ukraine-war/
Burn the witch !
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Don’t troll my Posts, thanks.
I'll bet that your pet lamb loved you though Phillip.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Don’t troll my Posts, thanks.
If China pulls off any minor diplomatic success from its recent big diplomatic engagements around Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Germany – as well as Saudi Arabia and Iran – watch out UN and USA.
It needs a post by itself, but imagine if China really did broker a set of talks between Russia nd Ukraine. That's a tilt in who has the power to make peace.
What awaits is a multipolar world like we used to have before 1989.
It is an interesting line of thought.
But a lot hinges on exactly what kind of deal Xi Xinping could broker. It's apparent Ukraine is not in the mood to compromise, nor does it look like they should for the moment. The critical moment that can be foreseen coming down the track is what happens if Ukraine manages to cut off Crimea? That is when Putin is most likely to realise that some sort of operational pause is highly desirable.
But Zelensky is not going to settle for a frozen conflict regardless of how the borders are shaped. The big issues are going to be; the return of stolen children and deported citizens, accountability for the unending list of now fulsomely documented war crimes, reparations for the mass destruction and loss of life – and finally it is now a given that Ukraine will have to become a member of NATO in order to ensure any sort of security guarantee. All as a minimum.
It is not clear how Beijing could deliver any of this.
Some hopeful news from Ukraine
Yeah, I have always thought Bakhmut was a good place to start for a number of reasons. Firstly, because the Russians are not set up so well defensively there due to being on attack. Secondly, it would be a huge political statement, given that Russia has banged its head against the Bakhmut wall for months now without success.
But, I think it is still in the shaping phase. So, too early to draw any conclusions.