web analytics

Open mike 15/05/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 15th, 2025 - 40 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 …

40 comments on “Open mike 15/05/2025 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Phillip ure 1
    15 May 2025 at 7:30 am

    I am thinking/hoping that financial literacy is going to be prime in the next election. .

    By financial literacy I mean the ability to explain the financial logic around proposed policies…to explain the reasons why/how ..who will pay..

    Chloe swarbrick starred on nat-rad this morning…at just those tasks…

    Her killer takeaway line is that 91% of nz'ers will pay less tax under the green plan…

    The green plan stake has been well and truly hammered into the ground..

    Well done..!..those greens…

    I would also note the greens have just thrown overtons window wide open..

    Over to you..!..labour .

    • Tiger Mountain 1.1
      15 May 2025 at 8:04 am

      Labour’s tops will be bricking it–they know ordinary people need and would support free Doc visits, dental and basic income etc. But…they will want to hug the centre line…so up to Greens and TPM to push and try and unite with Labour members and voters to shift their position.

      “Capital flight” will quickly come up in the wake of any call to “tax the wealthy”–but the parasite class have largely had it their own way since the mid 80s, certainly since 1991 when wages and productivity parted company after the union busting Employment Contracts Act decimated working class bargaining power.

      In those 40 years how much has trickled down with capital enjoying one of the least regulated business environments in the world? Well, what is clear is a chunk of state infrastructure and activity has been sold to private ownership or is under their control.

      The Greens policy announcement has opened the window–a lot of people will be thinking why not? TV in the street polls last night had most people saying great but “we” can’t afford it, who is going to pay…so it is a good debate scenario to be in leading up to an election imo rather than just an assumed roll over of the neo liberal state supported by the main parties since Rog’.

      • Ad 1.1.1
        15 May 2025 at 8:35 am

        When you translate young people into future capital saved and spent, this is the government in which we have our largest ever annual capital flight.

        In the year ended November 2024, we had 127,800 departures from New Zealand. That's the highest ever in a year. And it's up 28% on the year they got in.

        But of course with this government they can always make it worse.

        • KJT 1.1.1.1
          15 May 2025 at 11:44 am

          A lot of the "fleeing capital" is tradespeople and other skilled professionals.

          You know, the very entrepreneurial types who run and start businesses.

          Giving up and leaving because our customers are too poor.
          Land speculators and financial fraudsters selling up and leaving is actually a plus.

    • gsays 1.2
      15 May 2025 at 9:02 am

      Sounds great, I will look it up and have a listen.

      "…91% of nz'ers will pay less tax under the green plan…"

      That needs to be repeated at least as much as Vance's profanity.

      • Phillip ure 1.2.1
        15 May 2025 at 9:11 am

        Indeed..!…that is some powerful msging..

        The greens should put it on any election t-shirts..

        …and repeat it as often as possible..

        (You could also ..as a potent example of the epic fails of the great neoliberal incrementalist experiment…with it's laughable promises of trickle down..

        .. the facts/outcomes ..as reported today…that nz has highest rate of child suicide on the fucken planet ..(!).. eh..?)

        • Chris 1.2.1.1
          15 May 2025 at 10:10 am

          Yes, make that detail one of their election campaign's main messages, alongside graphic images of wealth disparity in this country.

      • Obtrectator 1.2.2
        15 May 2025 at 10:39 am

        AV didn't use "that word" in full. BVV did, unnecessarily.

        • Obtrectator 1.2.2.1
          15 May 2025 at 11:07 am

          PS: highly appropriate that BVV's first name begins with "Bro".

        • gsays 1.2.2.2
          15 May 2025 at 12:07 pm

          Reluctantly chasing a red herring here.

          I haven't read Vance's article but all the reportage implies 'that' word was used.

          What am I missing?

          While I'm on it, the lack of competence shown by Tinetti in referencing the article.

          It gave van Velden an opportunity to switch the narrative and take all the momentum out of Labour's laboured attack.

          In what should be a lay down misere.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 1.2.2.2.1
            15 May 2025 at 1:35 pm

            I haven't read Vance's article but all the reportage implies 'that' word was used.

            What am I missing?

            In Vance's column / opinion / article, 'that' word is apparently missing 3 letters.

            Is ‘cunt’ still the worst thing a woman can call another woman?
            [12 May 2025 (The Day After)]
            Andrea Vance, national affairs editor for The Post and Sunday Star-Times, penned an excoriating column on Sunday about the government’s pay equity changes, rushed through under urgency last week.

            “Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c… to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the arse of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet,” Vance wrote.

            Whether all the momentum has been taken out of Labour’s attack, time will tell.

              • Drowsy M. Kram …
                15 May 2025 at 2:03 pm

                Indeed. It's all fun and games until ‘someone’ gets hurt.

                God they sure knew how to write female characters back then.

              • alwyn …
                15 May 2025 at 2:29 pm

                You did notice that Stanford immediately apologised for her comment?

                What did Vance do? Or the TPM leaders for that matter?

                Incidentally my wife tells me that c*** is a great deal worse than b***.

                • Incognito …
                  15 May 2025 at 2:49 pm

                  What does your wife think of the scrapping of equal pay? Surely, you must have some interesting discussions at home.

                  • alwyn …
                    15 May 2025 at 5:15 pm

                    She is thoroughly in favour of equal pay for equal work, as she says is the case in the Public Service. She thinks that attempting to equate librarians with fisheries officers or admin staff with mechanical engineers is ridiculous.

                    • Incognito …
                      15 May 2025 at 5:34 pm

                      I see, your wife is all for the scrapping of all 33 claims. No surprises there then.

                    • alwyn …
                      15 May 2025 at 7:46 pm

                      Are you saying that every claim that has been made is something that has nothing to do with whether women are underpaid but are based on the premise that because the librarians for example have managed to find someone who is better paid than they are there pay must be increased?

                      Does that mean that airline cabin crew should all be paid at the same rate as the pilot of the plane because anything else is being mean to women?

                    • Incognito []
                      15 May 2025 at 8:25 pm

                      If you can’t or won’t answer a simple question then don’t dig a deeper hole for yourself and make yourself pathetically foolish by trying to avoid, divert, or distract – it’s so rightwingish. It might work for the Coalition but it sure won’t work here on TS because we can see straight through you because you’re so boringly predictable.

                • SPC …
                  15 May 2025 at 3:32 pm

                  Does she think criticism of a woman by another is misogyny?

                  Does she believe that less money to women/a women is the right way to manage government/household finances?

            • gsays 1.2.2.2.1.2
              15 May 2025 at 2:15 pm

              Ahh, thanks Drowsy.

              Could be 'cock' then.

              Or cadd….

              • SPC …
                15 May 2025 at 3:21 pm

                Sure, the one the mothers are beholden to, for what pittance (unless there is equity) they receive.

                The girl math (short and long term counting) one went right over their head (despite their claim to know about social investment – all while cutting money to food in schools and food banks).

                Women know the long term consequences of being under-paid or unpaid when they are older.

  2. SPC 2
    15 May 2025 at 8:31 am

    The crafting of a narrative, the art of lying over and over again.

    Trump is claiming that his goal of a more protectionist domestic economy now also includes opening up China to American business.

    US President Donald Trump said Washington now had the blueprint for a “very, very strong” trade deal with China that would see Beijing’s economy “open up” to US businesses, in an interview broadcast on Tuesday on Fox News.

    Trade deal, he wants a trade deal with China?

    Trump wants higher tariffs to pay for his extension of the unaffordable tax cuts of 2017 (that would add $4T of debt over the next 10 years and the extra $2T he promised during the 2024 campaign.

    Those who are to pay the tariffs (without getting any of the tax cuts – the child tax cut is being reduced from $2000 to $1000 pa) are supposed to believe that it is done to make America a place with more jobs.

    That the cost to them is their part in building a stronger American economy.

    The other price they will pay for their budget crisis (unaffordable tax cuts), is DOGE actions and the Budget process in Congress where all sorts of programmes from Medicaid and Social Security are being cut.

    Trump's promise not to cut medicaid is becoming the fraud it was intended to be, now he no longer faces re-election risk.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-medicaid-republican-bill-cut-benefits/story?id=121756481

    • SPC 2.1
      15 May 2025 at 9:02 am

      Domestically, the crafting of a narrative, the art of lying over and over again.

      A promise to implement pay parity for nurses.

      https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-14-05-2025/#comment-2033747

      Supporting the pay equity legislation in 2020 and no party in the coalition gave any indication of a change in policy at the 2023 election – nor was it in the coalition agreement.

      Then the art of practising misogyny and accusing women who criticise this of being misogynist.

      By taking offence at their being offended and saying so, with all the credibility of the faux outrage shown by the Fox News talk show host.

      This is of a design to convince the right wing crowd as to when it is appropriate for them to play the offence card – then it is not being PC, but a tactic to silence those who are PC.

      By claiming some moral offence.

      The prissy defence when acting with contempt to the rights of fellow women.

      The art of being a Tory, when acting like a libertarian against collective rights.

      Dear Leader Seymour adds his disquiet that those who dared use a Maori form of challenge to his agenda were not banned from parliament.

      But then, his proposed new order to the RIS coming next to the House is designed to effectively do this to all practical effect.

  3. Drowsy M. Kram 3
    15 May 2025 at 9:59 am

    Our CoC govt is "government for the rich", by the sorted.

    The wheels on the Coalition 'bus' grind round and round – on its sorted track.

    Imho, Sharon Murdoch is on a roll – regrettably, so is ACT.

    The Green Party says its would raise $88 billion in taxes over four years to expand public services and reduce poverty if able to lead a government
    [14 May 2025]

    "Anyone with the financial sense the Greens lack would simply take their career, their business, and their money overseas,” he [Seymour] said.

    A Green Party spokesperson said the wealth tax modelling accounted for behavioural changes, including the possibility of capital being moved offshore.

    As Ad noted @1.1.1, our CoC govt has cultivated considerable capital flight – look to your own sins, Mr Seymour.

    New Zealand has highest child suicide rate, a survey of wealthy countries shows [15 May 2025]
    "Significantly reducing childhood poverty must be a core investment area for the government, given the ripple effects it has on children's lives. The data in the government's own recent Annual Report on Children and Young People's wellbeing shows that we are going backwards when it comes to providing enough safe housing, healthy food and primary health and dental care." she [Chief Children's Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad] said.

    "I want to see all children in our country flourish to their full potential. As this international comparison shows, we can and must do much, much better for children. These are their basic rights that we are talking about, and as a small, relatively rich country, it shouldn't be like this."

  4. Incognito 4
    15 May 2025 at 10:08 am

    It’s dire out there and getting worse – people are struggling financially and mentally.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/13/early-kiwisaver-withdrawals-used-more-for-financial-hardship-than-first-homes/

    • Ad 4.1
      15 May 2025 at 11:37 am

      Also mortgages that are in arrears are now in a serious spike – a further measure that thousands of New Zealand families are now in trouble.

      Also rents in Wellington are actually going down in the mid-and-lower brackets. Not a bad thing, but also a sign of real economic trouble in New Zealand's main asset.

  5. Chris 5
    15 May 2025 at 10:48 am

    It was great to see Judith Collins providing grist for the mill by describing the Haka as potentially intimidatory. Reeks of desperation: if an MP can feel intimidated by the Haka in 21st century Aotearoa you have wonder why they're there. The weakness in Collins' conclusion provides a nice flatform that says parliament must accept and embrace tikanga.

    • Ad 5.1
      15 May 2025 at 11:35 am

      The Haka is designed precisely to intimidate. TPM knew what they were doing.

      And of course it did the job: Te Party Maori got to vote on the Treaty of Waitangi principles bill and other parties didn't.

      • bwaghorn 5.1.1
        15 May 2025 at 11:43 am

        Sp you think 3 weeks suspension without pay is a fitting penalty?

        • Chris 5.1.1.1
          15 May 2025 at 2:06 pm

          In the circumstances it's a badge of honour.

        • Ad 5.1.1.2
          15 May 2025 at 2:21 pm

          At least.

          The representatives of about 60,000 people go to vote on a critical piece of legislation.

          The representatives of the rest of New Zealand … nah.

          That's the worst voter suppression I've seen since women got to vote.

    • Patricia Bremner 5.2
      15 May 2025 at 3:43 pm

      Judith Collins did not believe her own spin. It was in her voice and weak arguments given on radio.

      Institutional structural intimidation is ok, but express anger disgust and despair with your whole self is intimidation…..

      So iced bitchy civility and upper class values are ok? But cultural expressions of dramatic movement to show anger is not.? That is racism!! Plain and simple. imo.

  6. Ad 6
    15 May 2025 at 11:33 am

    Everyone got their tickets to Mission Impossible?

    It's got to be more entertaining than this May 22 Budget.

  8. Incognito 8
    15 May 2025 at 1:09 pm

    A sneaky little note appeared on one of MBIE’s webpages:

    Endeavour Fund 2026 investment round will not invite applications. This change doesn’t affect the 2025 funding round. Further information will be published in a future Gazette Notice.

    https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/funding-information-and-opportunities/investment-funds/endeavour-fund

    The Coalition is silently cutting research investment by the tune of $55 million hoping that the beaten-down NZ science sector will continue cowering in fear of more cuts and redundancies – Oz, here they come!

  9. Incognito 9
    15 May 2025 at 2:17 pm

    An in-depth critical book review of a book by a ‘renowned’ philosopher and moderate lefty [A.C. Grayling] that covers a wide range of complex topics & issues.

    I picked this section for highlighting because it is directly relevant to the Regulatory Standards Bill that seems on an unstoppable march to ascendance.

    Grayling distinguishes rights and interests. He argues, “no exercise of any right can deny the fundamental rights of others.” Too often, he insists, figures on both sides of politics interpret their opponents as violating their rights when the opponents are just impacting on their interests.

    Grayling is surely correct that all sides of politics could benefit from seriously thinking through the differences between rights and interests. Setting back someone’s interests is not the same as violating their rights. Interests are inevitably in conflict and always require negotiation and compromise.

    Still, there remains something of an elephant in the room. What if an opponent’s words or actions don’t violate anyone’s rights, but nevertheless plausibly contribute to a world where such violations are more likely?

    Arguably, the problem of political intolerance isn’t driven by a conflation of rights with interests, but instead the ease with which any attack on a group’s interests can be represented as an indirect attack on their rights.

    The whole review gives plenty of material to ponder and discuss, including many ‘hot potatoes’ and wedge issues, especially for left political activists and politically active people.

    https://theconversation.com/can-we-confront-cancel-culture-by-finding-common-ground-between-moderate-leftists-and-wokists-254571

  10. Ad 10
    15 May 2025 at 2:19 pm

    Gee, if only there was a fund available to help businesses transition from gas to electric, then this aluminium recycler wouldn't have to go out of business …

    https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/energy/nzs-sole-aluminium-recycling-foundry-may-close-because-of-gas-shortage?utm_source=nzh&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=nzh-home

    … well there was until National got in.