Open mike 15/12/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 15th, 2023 - 47 comments
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47 comments on “Open mike 15/12/2023 ”

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  1. Jack 1
    15 December 2023 at 6:37 am

    So. to lower inflation you raise interest rates, courtesy of the RB. You succeed in engineering a recession but inflation still persists, leaving you with stagflation. Was raising interest rates ever going to impact demand and ultimately lower prices? Or do we really have a supply side inflationary problem that the RB cannot directly influence?

    I look forward to reading the views of the experts.

  2. Ad 2
    15 December 2023 at 9:10 am

    Kelvin Davis retires from politics.

    Thankyou Kelvin for multiple decades of public service to education and in particular to the people of the Far North.

    I have so many relatives up there in Kaitaia that you helped.

    Also, formidable work with Corrections, steering more Maori men away from jail and into alternative sentencing. From 11,000 people in jail in 2018 down to 7,700 in jail this year. And of course shoutout to Andrew Little as the lead Minister on this.

    I don't really care that you weren't that good on the Parliamentary paepae.

    You were a dedicated public servant who did a lot of good.

    Hopefully you get to turn your governance chops to a Far North treaty settlement.

    • Anne 2.1
      15 December 2023 at 10:32 am

      Totally agree Ad.

      He did his work quietly and efficiently without public fanfare. I once had a long chat with Kelvin in his early parliamentary years and he confessed to feeling uncomfortable in a largely Pakeha environment. He overcame it as far as I know and when he was among friends and allies he had an engaging personality – something the general public did not often see.

      • Robin The Goodfellow 2.1.1
        15 December 2023 at 8:54 pm

        Kelvin Davis was useless, a waste of space and NZ politics is well rid of him

        However good luck with his future endeavours

        [Please stick to the one email address here and change it back in your next comment, thanks – Incognito]

        • Incognito 2.1.1.1
          15 December 2023 at 9:06 pm

          Mod note

        • Robin The Goodfellow 2.1.1.2
          15 December 2023 at 9:13 pm

          I pretty much go with whatevers saved on the device I'm using at the time if posting but I'll see if I can track another down

          • Incognito 2.1.1.2.1
            15 December 2023 at 9:25 pm

            You don’t need to change device, you need to change your email address back to the same one that you’ve used here before. If you can’t or won’t do this, I will just stop releasing your comments held up in the SPAM filter, as I have better things to do on a Friday night after work. Your choice.

    • Patricia Bremner 2.2
      15 December 2023 at 11:37 am

      Two good men who will be missed. I met Andrew Little in the Leadership race. A genuine person, and from what I have heard from family in the North Kelvin is a genuine person as well. Thanks for that Ad, yesand thank you to both of them.

    • SPC 2.3
      15 December 2023 at 3:08 pm

      The initial work was in the area of parole and paperwork processing.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/107588798/corrections-cuts-prison-numbers-by-stepping-up-successful-parole-hearings

      Unfortunately society issues, as per housing insecurity and costs, has had an impact on crime rates, and thus the three headed hydra confabulation imagines a different sentencing regime to be more appropriate.

      Given that the issue is prison staffing levels and capacity on addiction rehab/work training/work release and work from "community release" housing.

    • Vivie 2.4
      15 December 2023 at 4:39 pm

      Kelvin Davis and Andrew Little displayed sincerity, integrity and compassion. They will be missed from Parliament.

    • roblogic 2.5
      15 December 2023 at 9:40 pm

      Kelvin is a gracious man with a lot of mana and I wish him all the best for the future.

  3. Sanctuary 3
    15 December 2023 at 9:14 am

    Old Putin was sounding pretty cocky yesterday, but a day is a long time in politics and he'll be furious this morning that his toady Orban got so completely isolated that Hungary was basically ignored and Ukraine got a big win on it's journey to EU membership.

    The humiliation of the Hungarian leader at this summit has been total, Hungary must surely reconsider it's position.

    Looks like Biden will soon budge on the border issue and get Ukraine it's money & Donald Tusk was sounding super belligerent talking about Russian aggression. I stand by my prediction of a decisive Polish intervention in 2025 against the Russians in the Ukraine, their entire crash re-armament program points to being ready for a full scale war with Russia in 2025.

    • Grey Area 3.1
      15 December 2023 at 9:30 am

      Interesting scenario. What do you base the Polish angle on and why 2025, not 2024? Preparedness?

      Genuine questions.

      Another year is a long time for Ukraine to hold on when things appear to be pretty much at a stalemate now (with minor movements).

    • Ad 3.2
      15 December 2023 at 9:38 am

      Yes agree with the Poland move since the warning are really clear from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday that Putin will wage war into the Baltic:

      "If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is real risk that his aggression will not end there," Stoltenberg told reporters during a meeting with Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico. "Our support is not charity. It is an investment in our security."

      https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-chief-sees-real-risk-of-putin-attacking-other-countries-after-ukraine/

      That’s a fairly in-your-face statement to Fico, a Putin supporter who won the Slovakia election and has now stopped all arms deliveries to Ukraine.

      That Russian fleet into the Baltic Sea is now totally surrounded by fully-fledged NATO members, and of course the Alakurtti military base at the top near Finland is also bordered by a full NATO state now.

      I'd see the chances of war expanding against a NATO country as increasingly over 50% in 2024.

      • SPC 3.2.1
        15 December 2023 at 3:25 pm

        The risk is on the Sulwaki path to the Kaliningrad area to separate Poland from Lithuania. But Byelorussia/Belarus forces could not do it, without Russia forces (Wagner etc, which would explain the nukes placed there as a deterrent), or the risk of a blockade on Kaliningrad.

        In that regard the recent accident of a Chinese ship's anchor cutting cables and a gas pipeline to Finland (as happened earlier in the year to an island off Taiwan) is part of off the books actions/PWO.

  4. Pat 4
    15 December 2023 at 10:04 am

    Government position on ferries appears increasingly ideological.

    With no (effective) savings to be made by cancelling the current proposal, are they advocating the end of a NI/SI rail link?

    Kiwirail CEO speaking on RNZ this morning…..

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018919676/ferry-mega-budget-blow-out-where-to-from-here

    • Belladonna 4.1
      15 December 2023 at 10:28 am

      Almost all of the budget blow out is due to the vastly increased cost of the shore-side facilities required for the new, much larger, ferries.

      All the KiwiRail CEO has said is that it may be more cost effective to continue the build of the current ferries (probably removing the rail component) and on-sell them.

      Requiring Kiwrail to go back to the drawing board and come up with (rail capable) ferries which fit the existing infrastructure – will indeed result in savings.

      The 'ideological' position on the affordability of the project appears to be shared by Labour.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/grant-robertson-fires-back-at-nicola-willis-over-cook-strait-ferry-budget-blowout/HHZCLNPPINEXPJQAGGJOYSFUWQ/

      • Pat 4.1.1
        15 December 2023 at 10:53 am

        The onshore works are required regardless (some necessitated by changed standards) and the wharves are at the end of their working lives…the increased size (and capacity) of the ships only adds marginally (IIRC around 7%) to the costs of the onshore facilities.

        The design life period is the stated cause of the blow outs….and we know NZs history of short term savings (the cheap option) to the detriment of longer term expenses.

        And that dosnt account for the productivity gains of the superior facilities (including the ferries themselves)

        What barbs the pollies throw at each other is of little import …what matters is a fit for purpose transport infrastructure….unless we have decided we dont need one….somehow I doubt Labour would have canned the entire project at this late stage and sent everyone back to the drawing board….that is not to say they may not have sought modification to either the project or its funding.

        If there is little effective (even initial) saving by ceasing this project at this stage then what can be the motivation be other than ideology?

  5. Ffloyd 5
    15 December 2023 at 10:12 am

    If I’m in the wrong place to ask this question, sorry about that. What I want to know is can the COCs pass legislation through under urgency without any scrutiny at all?

    • Belladonna 5.1
      15 December 2023 at 10:34 am

      Yes, under urgency, the government can pass legislation with only the scrutiny afforded by the opposition in the House. This means that bills do not (necessarily) go to select committee, and pass through the 'normal' legislative process.

      https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/how-parliament-works/fact-sheets/what-is-urgency/

      There is, of course, a risk in this – as you can end up with 'bad' law (I'm speaking here of law which is badly drafted, or has unintended consequences – rather than law you may dislike). Select committees very frequently spot these issues, and they are corrected by the government before the bill progresses to the next stage.

      Labour used urgency to pass a number of laws at the end of 2022 – including the highly controversial (and later reversed) entrenchment of 3 waters.

  6. Ffloyd 6
    15 December 2023 at 10:50 am

    Many thanks Belladonna. Good clarification for me.

  7. Adrian 7
    15 December 2023 at 12:21 pm

    The next step is the sale of KiwiRail, it has been the plan all along.

  8. Stephen D 8
    15 December 2023 at 2:08 pm

    So corruption has reached the very highest places in government. The nation is truly screwed when these sort of appointments are made.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/12/attorney-general-judith-collins-appointed-as-king-s-counsel.html

    ”In a statement on Friday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was appropriate to appoint Collins the high honour given "her career achievements and the responsibility she holds on behalf of the Crown" as Attorney General.

    Not all previous Attorney Generals have been appointed either Queen's or King's Counsel, but the Government pointed to previous examples like Christopher Finlayson in 2012 and Paul East in 1995.”

    • bwaghorn 8.1
      15 December 2023 at 5:27 pm

      Does a kings council come with power?

    • Grey Area 8.2
      15 December 2023 at 6:22 pm

      Yes we are screwed. Judith Collins becoming a KC? The queen of dirty politics!

      These arseholes have sunk so far in an incredibly short time and dragged our nation down with them.

      It's being said they will only be a one-term government but how much damage will they do to the social fabric of Aotearoa in three years (if they last that long)?

      How do we fight back against this incompetence, spite, cronyism and corruption? Labour is not the answer, so what is?

    • roblogic 8.3
      15 December 2023 at 9:48 pm

      I really hoped that Luxon would be more centrist but he's just a patsy with no spine as far as I can tell, letting the far right freaks run amok.

      I miss Muldoon's "Think Big", and Bolger's "Decent Society"

      The NAF government motto seems to be "I got mine and fuck the rest of you"

  9. Ffloyd 9
    15 December 2023 at 3:23 pm

    Judith Collins Kings Counsel! What a hoot. Talk about keeping your enemies close. She knows where all the bones are buried.

  10. Reality 10
    15 December 2023 at 3:55 pm

    Judith Collins KC! Every other day this new government does something bizarre and illogical. Can just see the gleeful smirk on her face.

    • aj 11.1
      15 December 2023 at 6:28 pm

      SPC is correct. That first article provides (a little) context which was entirely missing from National's attacks attack on Labour after the AG report on the NZUP and SRP projects, and deserves some response from Labour.

  12. Descendant Of Smith 12
    15 December 2023 at 5:49 pm

    Wonder then what the auditor-general thinks about things like the smoke free legislation reversal or the ferry cancellation or the money paid to I am hope…

    The former government’s $15 billion spend-up on infrastructure was rushed and ill-informed, and more should have been done to ensure the programmes delivered value for money, Auditor-General John Ryan says.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/133460439/former-governments-15b-infrastructure-spendup-rushed-illinformed–auditorgeneral

    Come to think of it I wonder what he things about bailing out South Canterbury Finance. What does he think about the non-contestable funding of parenting courses to Parents Inc or the money National attempted to give PEDA outside normal processes.

  13. aj 13
    15 December 2023 at 7:09 pm

    Thank you Labour.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon unveils Coromandel's new 'gold-plated' Taparahi Bridge on State Highway 25A

    On TV1 he explicitly took credit for the speed of delivery.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/12/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-unveils-coromandel-s-new-gold-plated-taparahi-bridge-on-state-highway-25a.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter