Open mike 16/03/2024
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- Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...5 hours ago - Weekly Roundup 22-November-2024
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Record Numbers: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, which began at the tip of the North, and the tail of the South, on 11 November, culminated outside Parliament on Tuesday, 19 November 2024, in one of the largest demonstrations in New Zealand’s political history.ACCORDING TO TE ARA, the Ministry of Culture ...6 hours ago - The Rush To Blame “The Activists”
Activists are such easy scapegoats. The right and center have been conditioned for decades to roll their eyes at all protests. The left are easily aggravated over students leading movements they see as belonging to grownups, who have more important concerns like the economy and whether the trains come on ...6 hours ago - Cutting Through An Inundation of Dipshit Racists
Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...7 hours ago - This is bad news
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...8 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...17 hours ago - Chicken Kiev
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...21 hours ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
This is written in response to the highly significant open letter from a group of economists that was today addressed to Christopher Luxon. The year is 2024, and it’s 1984. The country is reeling from a record Olympic medal gold haul, while the globe grapples with the choice of the ...21 hours ago - The IPCA has failed
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...1 day ago - Thursday 21 November 2024
The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...1 day ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...1 day ago
- ACT’s Astroturfing & A Co-ordinated Attack on Te Pati Māori
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...1 day ago - Durability of carbon dioxide removal is critical for stabilizing temperatures
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- Economists call on PM to suspend budget cuts for the sake of the economy
Nicola Willis’ budget cuts are under fire from economists for having no clear rationale and worsening the recession. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, November 21: The news at ...1 day ago
- The end of policing by consent
National has appointed a new police commissioner. And he explicitly rejects policing by consent: Asked if he subscribed to policing by consent, he said he did not. “I don’t talk about policing by consent. I talk about trust and confidence, and it is fundamentally important that the police have ...2 days ago
- The Treaty Principles Bill: A Who’s Who
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- 27% of kids going hungry, up from 21% in a year
One in four Kiwi children live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, November 20: The lead: The official annual Health Survey found sharp ...2 days ago - Transport modelling is an illusion
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- Young Maori take over
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...2 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Aftermath
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Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...3 days ago
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There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...3 days ago
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7 days ago - More lawlessness from National
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...7 days ago
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Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...1 week ago
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The government's Treaty Principles Bill is up for its first reading today - bought forward in a rush in a desperate effort to avoid the hikoi which is currently marching on Wellington. But the Prime Minister won’t be there for it – he’s literally running away to Peru! But he ...1 week ago
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Good morning, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days.I’ve been focusing on the Hikoi, and also testing out sentiment on the Treaty Principles Bill. It’s complicated, and the Treaty Principles Bill will be debated in the House today. The Government’s own lawyers have told them the ...1 week ago - Government must vote down ACT Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights
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The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...1 week ago
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...1 week ago
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- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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I used to be appalled that Hipkins continues to deliberately avoid leading anything like an opposition against this government.
And I used to despair at the inability of the opposition parties to effectively unify their attack on anything.
But after this week, it's simply clear that they just can't. Greens and Labour are weak and unstable. TPM are terrible in the House.
Each party will take a year if not longer to regather enough skill and capacity. Find new personality. Attack and win.
And only then have the ability to unify.
Not a fun thought, but it's the political reality.
one of the challenges for Labour at the next election is how to manage and be in relationship with the Greens in their radical phase (assuming the Swarbrick plan works out). It’s a significant shift in NZ politics, and will be particularly challenging for the neolib part of Labour.
I’m not too worried about what the Greens are doing right now in terms of Opposition. With a new co-leader and a large number of new MPs they will be focused on building their team for this term. They’re also starting on their their local government campaign for next year. Swarbrick intends for the party to build the party and action regionally and locally (central and local government) as well as what they do for parliament.
And hasn’t Shaw been having fun going hard in the House now that he’s off the Ministerial leash?
Shaw unshackled is indeed a pleasure in the House.
I wasn't aware of this documentary, forgive me if it has already been noted here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/03/12/the-liberal-agenda-the-assange-documentary-the-trust-fall-review-5-stars/
Going back to the Moment of Truth in 2014, I recall being a tad stunned by the revelations but the general feel was that it was a fizzer. More to do with expectations and hype than what was revealed.
There is a bit of irony that MSM is going through a crisis at the moment and the deafening silence from them over the persecution of one of their own, Assange.
Maddenin that it took a court case for Fani Willis's lover and prosecutor to resign from working with Willis to prosecute Trump for RICO crimes.
You come at the King, you best not miss.
On most counts, Trump team delay tactics are winning.
Focus team, the prize is so grand.
Never interrupt an idiot when they are making a mistake…. COC is doing a wonderful job of making themselves look inept and clueless. Luxon running around the country looking for the last worm in the henhouse is just a parody of a professional politician. I think Labour just needs to pay out the fishing line and see what they catch and go in hard when the COCs have gone as far down as they can go.
test
Oh dear,
The police are not happy with Luxon. I wonder how many of them voted National in which case….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350214575/it-incites-rage-police-verdict-luxon-interview
Mr Luxon on comparing a trainee police officer's pay with the amount he was trying to claim as an accommodation allowance:
“Well just just say I think conflating those two issues is a bit unfair.”
Of course, neither he nor any of his coalition colleagues would ever even dream of doing such a thing, would they?
Police officers in initial training earn $56,000 a year (the article uses the old figure).
For 16 weeks of training. A bit better than $300 a week on the Student Allowance or off the loan Living Costs.
Graduate police officers start on $75000.
Police officers in their fifth year earn $83,000
https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/government-law-and-safety/public-order-safety/police-officer/about-the-job
From the stuff article
A trainee police officer in New Zealand earns $50,834.
GEEZ
If SPC is correct Luxon was a great deal closer than you were. And you had the chance to look it up.
Please tell us whether you made a mistake or whether you think SPC's source did.
50,000 vs 56,000 is not making Luxon's guess of 90,000 valid at all. The funny thing is he seems to have been quoting 90,000 as a total cost of employment which is plausible. But he doesn't seem to have considered how it looks that the figures he quoted isn't remuneration and counts costs of running a police force over salary.
The issue being conflated here is training wage – which occurs for 16 weeks – and the starting wage.
The starting wage – after 16 weeks training – is $75,000.
Suspect great deal closer to what no?
Wow! (to Anne and DV above)
Rarely have I seen such a contemptible interview with a PM.
Basically, Tova thinks he's an empty fool, and treats him as such.
And he doesn't like it much.
The wheels are falling off the CoC bus!
Trouble is, even when wheels start to fall off, the vehicle can still sort of keep moving, tearing up a lot of road surface as it goes.
Post that interview one policeperson I know has set forward in motion plans to go to Oz. They were not happy that Luxon was so out of touch especially about the high starting pay (maybe Luxon was thinking of Aussie cops who earn more).
Post that my sister messaged to say our nephew is going to give up his skilled, needed job here in NZ and move to Oz. He is sick of living in expensive but shitty rental properties and sees little hope of buying his own here in NZ. He's had a steady string of flatmates who have nearly all up and moved to Aus over the last 5 years.
Luxon and landlords – depopulating NZ of the working class for cheap immigrants.
My 30 year old niece, a nurse, is being sent to university by her Sydney employer and her brother, 34, a monitoring/measuring tech who had a well paying job here at home, has a Sydney based job that's given him the opportunity to work around the globe, triple his salary, earn a quarterly bonus, participate in a company buy-in scheme, seniority and development, and paid time off that most can only dream about.
Both have become Australian citizens.
Great stuff from Tova O. Looked like Luxon was drowning in his own drivel. He is just so embarrassing. 🙈
Found a more detailed account of Holyoake's Kinloch purchase than I'd seen previously.
The committee then set out a series of rules to be followed in the application of the principles. Most notably, in Holyoake’s case, one of these stated that ‘A Minister who, prior to assuming office under the Crown, was engaged in the conduct of his own business whether alone, in partnership, or as an incorporated company, should cease to carry on the daily routine work of the business or to take an active part in its day to day management’. The committee noted that, while the principles were not rules of law, they nonetheless ‘set the standard which Parliament and the people expect a Minister of the Crown to observe’.
https://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/2010/NZJH_44_2_03.pdf
I'm not sure I agree with this conclusion though.
This change aside, the level of public scrutiny of politicians today is clearly different, and a minister acting in a similar manner to Holyoake would likely come unstuck rather quickly.
I look at things like the irrigation scheme running past Amy Adams farm, the PEDA files, Parenting courses through Parents Inc (have they ever been evaluated?), Amy Adams and the irrigation scheeme, etc.
https://thestandard.org.nz/parents-inc-its-peda-redux/
https://thestandard.org.nz/inquiry-needed-into-english-peda-scandal/
anyone else still having trouble with the Reply buttons?
if you are, can you please say what device, OS and browser you are using?
Seems to be working fine 🙂
Lynn fixed it.
Where have you been?
Oh you know, here and there.
Any rumours that it took me this long to sort out any employment issues I may have had and to finally get ahead of where I was a year and half ago are completely scurrilous and should not be believed.
At all
No siree
Good to know
At one point I was at an intersection, finishing up a shift, I was thinking to myself that if I just pulled out into the traffic (SH1) and got hit then all the stress and pressure would just end.
Id be in hospital and rehab for months, years maybe, full pay and be at home
If it ended my life then my wife would get an insurance payout and all the money issues, and mortgage, would be ended for her.
Then I waited until a decent gap came and drove home.
fuck the stress and pressure.
Good on you for choosing to wait – I know a couple of good people who were permanently disabled in collisions with other vehicles, and through no fault of their own – just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
hope the thing that hasn't happened has all settled down.
As settled as its likely to be so all good
MBIE's oversight of this scheme has been appalling.
"were finding their wages reduced to zero some weeks as deductions they say were unlawful were being taken out of their pay packets.
"The money was being taken for expenses such as travel, insurance, wet weather gear, storage, even for kitchen equipment which went missing from their hostel, court documents say."
Among their claims, the workers say that deductions were made for wet weather gear, which their employer was required to provide as “personal protective equipment” under the Health and Safety at Work Act."
It disapointed me greatly that flagrant wage theft which this an example of wasnt made subject to a criminal charge. I think maybe the Greens had a members bill in but I cant understand why Labour as a party of the workers wont do it.
It would absolutly be the best way to shut these scumbag employers down.
It's a Labour bill.
RSE came in to remove much of the illegal labour the horticulture industry were using. Many of whom were setting up as contractors or not, being paid in wads of cash by orchardists, not paying PAYE, etc to IRD and buggering off back home before IRD could do anything.
Hort has been dirty for a long, long time.
The hort industry of course won’t mention that aspect of it.
“With the introduction of the RSE scheme in 2007, several things happened. First, industry and government worked collaboratively to ‘clean up’ grower and contractor practices to eliminate the illegal use of casual workers under unacceptable working conditions.”
https://devpolicy.org/why-absconding-hasnt-been-a-problem-in-new-zealands-rse-20220318/
“In the background, there were increasingly shady and illegal recruitment practices, with an estimated 17,000 illegal workers employed across the horticulture and viticulture (H/V) industries as a whole in 2002.2 Illegal labour, predominantly from Asia rather than the Pacific, was fundamentally unreliable and compromised the value and reputation of law-abiding growers and contractors within the industry. Enforcement action was deemed a threat to productivity, however, as growers grappled with tight timeframes during peak periods, and relied on seasonal workers from any source they could find.”
https://devpolicy.org/pdf/blog/RSE10thPaper_WhatmanBedfordFinal.pdf
Weka. I can create a new comment but can’t reply to existing comments. The reply button will bring up a comment box but won’t allow me to move the cursor into it. iPad gen 6 OS 17.3.1 Chrome latest version. Same issue on both mobile and desktop version of site. This is an old problem not the recent issue. I’ve occasionally seen others mention it as well but it’s never been addressed.
ta
looks like Lynn has fixed the latest one, thanks.
when is mark mitchell going to something about the passive agressive juvies and infantilised ninnies who think that assaulting the rest of us with their noise is okay. he could start with doing something about STREET OUTLAWS on teevee and TV3 showing yet another re-run of the fast and fuwious but most of the culprits are nationals base!