Open mike 15/12/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:08 am, December 15th, 2014 - 84 comments
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84 comments on “Open mike 15/12/2014 ”

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  1. b waghorn 1
    15 December 2014 at 7:12 am

    Out of the ‘stories that should of been done pre election file’ tv3 have had the guy who runs one of the big property websites in Asia saying NZ is high on investors hit list because of our lack of capital gains and controls on foreign ownership.

    • Once wasTim 1.1
      15 December 2014 at 8:08 am

      yes – out of the horse’s mouth. How is this going to be spun do you think?

      • Clemgeopin 1.1.1
        15 December 2014 at 9:02 am

        This government primarily works for the wealthy, with a few good social policies from previous Labour government kept for political cunning expediency. We the people that vote such a government in are really dumb. It isn’t the fault of the rich foreign property buyers.

        • phillip ure 1.1.1.1
          15 December 2014 at 9:43 am

          “..We the people that vote such a government in are really dumb..”

          + 1..

          ..as in really really fucken ‘dumb’..

          • Paul 1.1.1.1.1
            15 December 2014 at 9:49 am

            You gotta ask…what will wake them up?

            • phillip ure 1.1.1.1.1.1
              15 December 2014 at 10:02 am

              dunno..the fucken idiots vote time and time again for the bastards who are screwing them/the planet over..

              ..hard to see/get past such bone-headed stupidity..

              ..and yes..politicians are lying bastards..

              ..the media are complicit clowns..

              ..and the people are really really fucken dumb..

              ..’tis an unholy trifecta..

              ..and i dunno what ‘will wake them up’..

      • b waghorn 1.1.2
        15 December 2014 at 12:45 pm

        They don’t need to when Len brown came on straight after and rabbited on about how many low cost house’s were being built (how under 500k is classed as low cost has me buggered) and how many consents have been issued.

    • Rosie 1.2
      15 December 2014 at 10:43 am

      http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14122014/#comment-939953

      Hi b waghorn. I hope you received this reply I left you on yesterday’s Open Mike

  2. Manuka AOR 2
    15 December 2014 at 7:27 am

    “Children suffer: Welfare’s outdated ideas on relationships”

    Excerpt:
    “New Zealand’s social security framework is based on outdated ideas of the nature of relationships and too often fails to protect the needs of children in the 21st century, says Child Poverty Action Group.”

    “There are major inconsistencies in the use of relationship in the welfare system. It is difficult to justify a policy that pays less to a couple than to two individuals who share accommodation and costs. ”

    “The report finds that tests for the degree of financial interdependence and emotional commitment, needed for the relationship to be treated as ‘in the nature of marriage’, are subjective and inconsistent. There is often a degree of surveillance that is far from open and transparent. Moreover the appeal processes for anyone accused of being in a relationship are very unsatisfactory. A sole parent may even be given a prison sentence with scant regard to the impact on her children.

    Susan St John says, “it is worrying to see how often sole mothers face both imprisonment and a lifetime of repayments.” ” http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1412/S00165/children-suffer-welfares-outdated-ideas-on-relationships.htm

    • AsleepWhileWalking 2.1
      15 December 2014 at 7:54 am

      SSJ makes a good point about someone flatting having the same costs as someone in a relationship.

      I’d like to point out that section 20C of the Social Securities Act, Sole Parent Support: split custody (this is when one or more of the children from a relationship live with one parent, and the others live with the other parent) only provides benefit support to one parent.

      In working terms this ususally means the person who applied first, not necessarily the most in need, and can fail children who are caught in the middle of two bewildered parents who didn’t realise this was the case or who are using the benefit system to get back at an ex partner and the children who chose to live with them. Nasty stuff.

  3. phillip ure 3
    15 December 2014 at 7:29 am

    mr sellout on the tpp..and the minister for doing nothing about climatechange..groser..

    ..on the telly spinning for all his worth..

    .denying the fact that groser/nz was on the side of the villains in peru..

    ..lining up with the other big-polluters to argue against them having to cut their polluting at all..

    ..lying/spinning bastard…

  4. AsleepWhileWalking 4
    15 December 2014 at 7:34 am

    Bricking over the lower windows of the Fed + survival kits ordered. Something catastrophic about to happen in the US?

    http://www.brotherjohnf.com/archives/356927

    • vto 4.1
      15 December 2014 at 8:46 am

      They’re pulling up the drawbridge …….

      These federal reserve outfits have the most power of all. They direct the things that happen in the world and hence they know better than any what is likely to occur next.

      • phillip ure 4.1.1
        15 December 2014 at 10:06 am

        and john key is our ‘man from the fed’..

        ..and him becoming prime minister..

        ..must rank as one of their most successful placements/trojan-horse-operations..ever..

  5. phillip ure 5
    15 December 2014 at 7:54 am

    the editor from metro doing a mea culpa over slagging little as a possible/viable leader for labour..

    ..i wd like to note that i went on the record at the same time as that metro-slagging…supporting little for the role..

    ..purely on the grounds that we had not yet seen what he had to offer..

    ..whereas with robertson and parker…we already had..

  6. Manuka AOR 6
    15 December 2014 at 8:04 am

    In about 6 months time the first review is due to get underway of NZ’s Security and Intelligence Agencies. One aspect that I hope is looked into is the extent that citizens who are concerned about the environment are being subjected to surveillance, in their search for what Mr Finlayson has called “Eco-terrorism”. He was being questioned on TV One’s Q&A program a week ago, then in regard to unwarranted surveillance.

    From what he said, it seems to be the call of whoever is doing the surveillance do decide whether those under surveillance are wanting to protest against something, or may “cross the line into eco-terrorism.”

    Corin repeatedly asked, “Who draws the line?”
    And each time, he failed to give a clear answer.
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1412/S00095/definition-of-foreign-fighters-is-tolerably-clear.htm

  7. phillip ure 7
    15 December 2014 at 8:18 am

    i was wondering if anyone else who watched the final of the nation yesterday..

    ..also suffered from spontaneous gastric-reflux every time ‘squeeg’ gower referrred/spoke to those two rightwing trouts nash and marks..

    ..as ‘stuey’..and ‘ronnie’..

    ..i know i did..

    • Tiger Mountain 7.1
      15 December 2014 at 8:41 am

      that gushing–yeah yeah yeah–we’re teamsters! we know how it really is…

      • phillip ure 7.1.1
        15 December 2014 at 9:05 am

        yeah..the ‘in-crowd’ feel of the whole thing was also nausea-inducing..

        ..it’s all just a game..

        ..and we are the ones who are being ‘played’..

  8. vto 8
    15 December 2014 at 8:48 am

    So Phil Goff, I guess on behalf of the Labour Party, says yesterday in the SST that we should stop people going to fight for organisations like ISIS that commit crimes against humanity.

    How does Phil Goff square that away with joining the US when the US also commits crimes against humanity?

    And, is Dick Cheney the biggest joke on the planet?

    • phillip ure 8.1
      15 December 2014 at 9:02 am

      phil goff has us standing alongside the torturers..

      ..phil goff was a major driver for us to go to afgnanistan to be spear-carriers for the americans..

      ..our troops captured afghanis..

      ..and handed them over to be tortured..

      ..we help the drones with their targeting..(of innocent men/women/children..at a rate of 28 innocents killed for every ‘terrorist’..)

      ..how the fuck can phil goff come within a bulls roar of taking the/any high moral ground on this..?

      ..his hands are stained with the blood of the tortured..

      ..and of the bombed/killed innocents…

    • Tracey 8.2
      15 December 2014 at 9:03 am

      Gof, like Collins, is writing on behalf of Goff.

      The SST seems to get their brief mixed up

      “we need someone from the far left to make it a balance against crusher”

      “what about Goff?”

      “oh thats a better idea, get someone kinda sorta on the left but on the far right of Labour and who wants to be auckland mayor then we dont upset the advertisers, hell they may increase”

    • RedLogix 8.3
      15 December 2014 at 9:06 am

      There are some boundaries NZ politicians are not allowed to step over.

      • vto 8.3.1
        15 December 2014 at 9:08 am

        Why? What would happen?

        • RedLogix 8.3.1.1
          15 December 2014 at 9:15 am

          We know the US (or it’s proxies) runs operations all over the planet to destabilise regimes they don’t like or are inconvenient. This is a matter of historical fact.

          What makes anyone think NZ is somehow immune? I can think of at least one local example within the last decade.

          • Paul 8.3.1.1.1
            15 December 2014 at 9:26 am

            Gough Whitlam in the 70s was unseated

          • tinfoilhat 8.3.1.1.2
            15 December 2014 at 9:26 am

            What’s that I can’t recall anything local……. although my memory sure isn’t what it used to be.

          • vto 8.3.1.1.3
            15 December 2014 at 9:28 am

            Hmmm. That brings up the very simple and age old dilemma so aptly illustrated by Shakespeare’s “to be or not to be”.

            Do we turn a blind eye to suffering and accept the stolen treasures?

            Or do we stand up for what is right despite the fact it may lead to our own detriment?

            Do we remain like our dirty stained Aussie ‘cousins’? Or do we become a happy and good Cuba?

            It is no wonder the USA is so hated by so many and is on such a steep downward trajectory on every front in the eyes of the rest.

    • Philip Ferguson 8.4
      15 December 2014 at 10:12 am

      Exactly. Not to mention that the US (and their Saudi allies) stoked up Islamic fundamentalism in the first place as a counter to secular, progressive forces in the Arab world and in Afghanistan.

      After the Cold War, the fundamentalists struck out on their own, biting the hand that fed them. Still, by doing so, they provided successive US administrations with a new enemy against which to try to cohere fragmenting American society and the west in general under US leadership. Not that it’s working out all that well for the US ruling elite. . .

      Phil

  9. Chooky 9
    15 December 2014 at 9:21 am

    John Minto good on Morning Report on where to now for the Mana Party

    …personally I am sorry the Internet part or Party has been dropped for now…I think Mana will be the poorer for it…especially as an Internet Party is being established in the USA… Minto says he has no regrets as regards the Internet Party coalition..it was a risk worth taking ( imo it certainly focused issues for intelligent New Zealanders)

    MInto, always a clear and concise communicator , gave good reasons as to why Internet/Mana did not make it into Parliament

    …Labour Party and other parties in cahoots with Nactional ganged up on Hone, found Int/Mana party and all it stood for it too threatening

    ….and a concerted msm attack on Dotcom….SHAME! ( I hope the msm attacks can be catalogued for future historians and generations to see exposed)

    5 weeks out from the Election Internet/mana was doing very well indeed and could have had 3-4 seats in parliament

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20161080/back-to-the-drawing-board-for-mana-movement-and-internet-party

    • phillip ure 9.1
      15 December 2014 at 9:38 am

      it’s not minto..it’s um! um! ah! ah! david slack..

      ..and he’s um! um! ah! ah! spouting simplistic shit…

    • The Al1en 9.2
      15 December 2014 at 12:17 pm

      “I think Mana will be the poorer for it”

      And Laila Harre

      “an Internet Party is being established in the USA”

      Couldn’t buy NZ voters so lets try with the yanks.

      “it was a risk worth taking”

      Really?

      “Labour Party and other parties in cahoots with Nactional ganged up on Hone, found Int/Mana party and all it stood for it too threatening”

      1.5% of those who voted must be right. All the other must just be scaredy cats. 🙄

      “and a concerted msm attack on Dotcom”

      As forecast and quite predictable really, so no point crying about it. If a dunce like me got it right, why did no one in mana?

      “5 weeks out from the Election Internet/mana was doing very well indeed and could have had 3-4 seats in parliament”

      That’s what happens when you count chickens before they hatch like one does with millions of dollars of donations.
      The joint campaign was a bit of a disaster with mixed messages and puffed up little shit episodes. It was bound to end in tears and did.

  10. millsy 10
    15 December 2014 at 9:27 am

    I dont like using this analogy, but the Internet-Mana party has been officially strangled at birth, now that it has been de-registered.

    Thank you, politcal establishment, with special mention to the mistakes made by several people on IM’s part.

    And meanwhile the Chinese contine to buy the National party and noone bats an eyelid.

    • phillip ure 10.1
      15 December 2014 at 9:35 am

      that was the real big lie they got away with..(one of them..)

      ..that dotcom was ‘money influencing politics’..

      ..whereas national are owned lock stock and barrel by ..’money’..

      ..and have always been that way..

      ..key must deserve an acting award for pushing that one..and being able to still maintain a straight face..

    • Chooky 10.2
      15 December 2014 at 10:55 am

      the best thing about Internet /Mana is that it gave those at the bottom of the heap a Party with a sophisticated futurist look..they were winners and tech savvy and concerned with democracy and internet freedom… and it was a foil / counter to corporate controlled culture with a permanent underclass

      …it gave lie to the Nact myth that those at the bottom of the heap are no- hopers

      …and a socialist type party is dead and in the past history

      ….Int/Mana was ahead of its time and ahead of the game

      ….as it is now the under-thirties ( the intelligent, dynamic and beautiful) who John key Nact and corporate right wing govts around the world are now making the new underclass …with huge tertiary loans, insecure and poorly paid work and no hope of ever owning a home … i see Mana combined with an Internet Party as the way of the future

      ….Dotcom and Mana are to be congratulated for trying….and next TIME your time will have come !

  11. KJS0ne 11
    15 December 2014 at 9:40 am

    Dan Carlin had some very interesting talking points about CIA Torture & the related political lines given, especially the way Obama was elected to change the excesses of the Bush administration, and then proceeded to double down on them. See Common Sense 285 – Torturing our values
    http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/

    If you haven’t listened to his podcast before, you’re in for a treat, Carlin is easily one of the best political commentators on the left (the real left) in the USA. He is incisive, cuts through the noise, analyses situations and compares them to the historical context.

  12. millsy 12
    15 December 2014 at 9:53 am

    It looks like iwi are going to charge people to enter 90 mile beach. Coupled with the recent locking out of hunters out of the Ureweras it is another reason why the left should oppose the handing over of conservation land to iwi because they WILL restrict access.

    • Tiger Mountain 12.1
      15 December 2014 at 10:06 am

      Well, it is about time for some entity to ‘control’ access to 90 Mile (Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē).

      It takes a hammering daily from large tourist buses travelling at 100kmh, the drivers know the conditions well and it is hammer down. You just have to be on the beach to feel it. It is about reasonable access and use.

    • Puckish Rogue 12.2
      15 December 2014 at 10:28 am

      Yes, this is something that cuts across party lines

    • KJS0ne 12.3
      15 December 2014 at 10:58 am

      I wonder why Tuhoe want to restrict Hunters from killing game on their historic territory, and land that they hold pretty sacred, their sanctuary, the place they retreated when the colonial army came to slaughter them for not rolling over and coming to the table.

      Tuhoe never signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Their land was systematically stolen from them. They still hold the Ureweras to be their land. How is it any different from a hunter coming on to your land and shooting your ducks? Restricting hunting hardly seems like the crime of the century.

      Context is important here. But on another note, I totally disagree with Maori, or anyone for that matter restricting access to beaches, or charging members of the public to use their tracks to the beach. It’s important though, that everyone treats their land with respect, afaik the Iwi just want to charge commercial operators, the same guys who drive big buses across their land, it’s not a big ask for commercial operators who are making money off of bringing tourists across private owned land to be asked to pay a small fee for entry.

      • Molly 12.3.1
        15 December 2014 at 11:15 am

        Thanks for context. Makes a big difference to discussion.

        There was an interesting piece on Native Affairs this year about the charge for commercial operators for taking tourists through the “hole in the rock”.

        Of course, the operators continued the line that although it was private land “above”, the “hole” was not owned by anyone and therefore no fees needed to be paid.

        …if this is true, then tourist operators should be able to set up large flying foxes across the volcanic cones of Auckland, – taking money from those who want to do close flyovers of the residences of the 1%.

        I have no doubt the framing of public access and private property would be entirely different to that which is trotted out whenever iwi land is involved.

    • Murray Rawshark 12.4
      15 December 2014 at 6:26 pm

      Are they looking at charging people, or charging cars? Particularly with tourist companies making money from trips up and down the beach, why shouldn’t the locals get something?
      As for Tuhoe, I read what they’d decided at the time and agreed with them. It isn’t so much a lockout, but a reorganisation of licensing.
      Of course if you want Kiwi not Iwi, move to Epsom and your vote will be counted.

  13. Philip Ferguson 13
    15 December 2014 at 10:06 am

    In the wake of the OECD report there has been some discussion on tax and GST. While tax havens have been around for some time, there has certainly been a big growth of them in recent years – part of the process where capital can move freely (and hide) while workers are locked into national frontiers (and can’t hide for long from the immigration police).

    Anyway, here’s an interesting article on tax havens: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/tax-havens-natural-and-inescapable-product-of-capitalism/

    And here’s an article on the roles of direct and indirect tax under capitalism and why capitalists like indirect tax: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/understanding-gst-and-tax-policy/

    Phil

  14. Saarbo 14
    15 December 2014 at 11:37 am

    OMG, Mathew Hooten (on Nine to Noon) is suggesting to break Fonterra into TWO organisations to COMPETE? Why does RNZ continue to have this very silly man on. I don’t even know where to start.
    He can have a go at Fonterra, but not for that reason…Fonterra has critical mass, which is its major strength. Maybe he should put his free market ideology aside and challenge whether Fonterra’s “GDT” system is losing NZ dairy farmers value???

    • Puckish Rogue 14.1
      15 December 2014 at 12:43 pm

      What he should be suggesting is the NZs beef and lamb producers get together and create something like Fonterra

      But too many egos involved for that to happen I guess…

    • Chooky 14.2
      15 December 2014 at 2:13 pm

      well I dont think Fonterra is doing that good a job for dairy farmers…they should have another co-op that sells to Russia…so agree with Possum Hooton on this

  15. Skinny 15
    15 December 2014 at 12:52 pm

    Terrorists holding hostages in Sydney coffee shop outlines exactly why we should completely stay out of The Middle Eastern Wars. Make that call John Key show some leadership before we stuff a similar fate here in New Zealand.

    • Draco T Bastard 15.1
      15 December 2014 at 1:20 pm

      IMO, John Key and National would use such an incident to increase surveillance on the populace. In other words, he’d see such an incident as an opportunity rather than the failure on his and National’s part that it would be.

    • Chooky 15.2
      15 December 2014 at 2:10 pm

      +100 Skinny

    • Murray Rawshark 15.3
      15 December 2014 at 6:33 pm

      We don’t actually know yet who the guy holding people hostage is. It’s a very strange sort of terrorist act. They usually commit random acts of violence, designed to shock and scare people. Hours of a hostage situation is more like an armed robbery gone wrong. We might know in about 30 years.

  16. Brutus Iscariot 16
    15 December 2014 at 1:22 pm

    Civil liberties going to zero in 3…2…1

  17. Draco T Bastard 17
    15 December 2014 at 1:22 pm

    The 4th Estate and Dirty Politics.

    But here is the thing. Overall, an individual journalist may be doing a great job. An individual’s stories may be fair, balanced, insightful. But the impression given by a publication as a whole may not be. Where are those stories placed? What is the overall “tone” of a publication? In short, editorial choices can do plenty to undermine the content of a story.

    Raises some interesting questions about our MSM.

  18. Tracey 18
    15 December 2014 at 2:07 pm

    I hope those who railed at the ethics of hager publishing and maybe profitting from, stolen emails are now railing at fairfax and apn for using some of those hacks to sell newspapers and online ads

  19. greywarshark 19
    15 December 2014 at 2:25 pm

    Good journalism awards from Bruce Jesson Foundation..
    Bruce Jesson Awards:
    Max Rashbrooke & Chloe Winter

    The Bruce Jesson Foundation recently announced its 2014 Journalism Awards:
    The Senior Journalism Award of $4000 for a proposed work of “critical, informed, analytical and creative journalism or writing that will contribute to public debate in NZ on an important issue or issues” was awarded to Max Rashbrooke for an e-book on wealth inequality in NZ;
    About – http://www.maxrashbrooke.org.nz/about-me/
    http://www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-inequality-debate ebook $14.99
    Inequality: A NZ Crisis ebook $39.99

    The Emerging Journalism Award of $1000 for “outstanding published work of critical, informed, analytical and creative journalism or writing by NZ print journalism students which will contribute to public debate in New Zealand on an important issue or issues” was awarded to Chloe Winter of Massey University, Wellington, for her article “War against killers we face at work”, published in the Herald on Sunday on 3 November 2013.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11150665

    For Mike Joy’s speech (and other annual ones from people of renown)
    go here http://www.brucejesson.com/?page_id=349

    The 2014 Bruce Jesson Lecture Mike Joy – Paradise Squandered; New Zealand’s Environmental Asset Stripping
    Posted on 10 October 2014 by bjf_admin
    New Zealand’s lakes, rivers and most of our groundwater are in a critical state. Decades of misguided regulation and a free-for-all on diffuse pollution have encouraged agricultural intensification and driven our increasing reliance on imported feed and fertiliser.
    The inevitable consequences have been devastating environmental impacts as well as increasing economic and biosecurity risks.

    The solutions are many but require a paradigm shift; a move away from dependence on imported feed and fertiliser to keeping nutrients on farm and adding value to products, and strong leadership to move away from short-term thinking that accepts the massive ecological debt we are running up.

  20. les 20
    15 December 2014 at 6:54 pm

    ‘David Bain’s legal team has been in confidential discussions with the Minister of Justice over his bid for compensation.’…hope Adams has got the steel to stand up to the Bain industry.

  21. Colonial Rawshark 21
    15 December 2014 at 11:15 pm

    When did household income peak in the USA? For many counties, it was at least 15 years ago…

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-14/when-income-peaked-americans-best-days-are-behind-them