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Open mike 16/03/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 am, March 16th, 2015 - 81 comments
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openmikeOpen mike is your post.

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81 comments on “Open mike 16/03/2015 ”

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  1. gsays 1
    16 March 2015 at 7:04 am

    Hi there all, could any of y’all point me in the direction of resources on how to run a workers run business?

    • felix 1.1
      16 March 2015 at 7:25 am

      No, but you can google Riccardo Semler for an interesting example of how to turn a large existing business into a worker-run business.

    • Molly 1.2
      16 March 2015 at 7:41 am

      Hi gsays, there are a few articles and videos on workers cooperatives on Films for Action.

      I watched one recently that referenced a website that has a lot of resources for those just starting out. Can’t remember which one though, sorry.

      • gsays 1.2.1
        16 March 2015 at 8:35 am

        hi there molly and felix, thanx for that.
        a rare inside day today so i will investigate.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.3
      16 March 2015 at 8:49 am

      Try these guys. I’m sure that they’ll be happy to help.

    • David H 1.4
      16 March 2015 at 10:54 am

      Your biggest problem is who’s going to be the boss? Who is going to make the hard decisions. It’s all well and good to have a collective, but you have to have a leader or you will just be stuck in committees.

      • Colonial Rawshark 1.4.1
        16 March 2015 at 11:32 am

        Democratic election of “the boss” is required. All workers discuss, vote on and approve overall strategy and budgets. They then democratically select “the boss” (preferably from amongst their own number) who will carry out that strategy day to day and week to week.

        The boss is also democratically replaceable, and should receive no more than 25% more than the pay the other workers receive.

      • Draco T Bastard 1.4.2
        16 March 2015 at 1:10 pm

        You do not need a leader to make hard decisions if the people involved in the cooperative have all the necessary information to make decisions. Needing a leader is a lie told by authoritative types.

        • weka 1.4.2.1
          16 March 2015 at 1:19 pm

          +1

          It’s skill to work in a leaderless group, but a learnable skill.

          • thatguynz 1.4.2.1.1
            16 March 2015 at 1:23 pm

            Indeed. Have a look at Agile teams in an I.T context – they are self organising and self managing and it works exceptionally well.

            • weka 1.4.2.1.1.1
              16 March 2015 at 1:24 pm

              what’s an Agile team?

              • thatguynz …
                16 March 2015 at 1:34 pm

                Effectively a different way of delivering (primarily software development) projects. The point I was making is that they are non-hierarchical and somewhat akin to a workers co-op in a micro sense.

                • weka …
                  16 March 2015 at 1:43 pm

                  That’s interesting. Do you know why that structure has evolved or been adopted?

                  • thatguynz …
                    16 March 2015 at 1:56 pm

                    In this instance it is because the team can more efficiently deal with change through collaborative effort. In a lot of ways they have much greater control over their own “destiny” if you will as their work practices aren’t dictated to them – they define them themselves.

                    • weka …
                      16 March 2015 at 2:00 pm

                      Are they contractors rather than employees then?

                    • thatguynz …
                      16 March 2015 at 2:07 pm

                      Not at all. In the “agile team” construct the workers employment status maintains much less relevance to what (I assume) it would within a workers co-op.

            • Colonial Rawshark 1.4.2.1.1.2
              16 March 2015 at 1:40 pm

              What will the big bosses do when the workers realise that the big bosses don’t add value to the core business of the enterprise to justify their 5x or 10x higher salaries?

              • Draco T Bastard …
                16 March 2015 at 2:43 pm

                They’re going to get fired and they won’t like it.

                • Colonial Rawshark …
                  16 March 2015 at 2:48 pm

                  So the guy on $150K pa gets tossed out, and the remaining 10 workers each get a raise from $50K pa to $65K pa.

                  Sounds fair. (If he’s actually good for something other than “management” they could offer to rehire him at their rates of course…my how the tables could quickly turn).

                  • Draco T Bastard …
                    16 March 2015 at 2:55 pm

                    So the guy on $150K pa gets tossed out, and the remaining 10 workers each get a raise from $50K pa to $65K pa.

                    Or they could hire another three people at $50k each.

                    I think we’d see the massive incomes disappearing really quick along with the poverty that they induce.

        • vto 1.4.2.2
          16 March 2015 at 2:17 pm

          “You do not need a leader to make hard decisions if the people involved in the cooperative have all the necessary information to make decisions. Needing a leader is a lie told by authoritative types.”

          I find both of those sentences at odds with the reality of human existence to a very large extent.

    • Colonial Rawshark 1.5
      16 March 2015 at 11:28 am

      Democracy at work

      http://www.democracyatwork.info/

      Also search for Richard Wolff economist, on YouTube.

  3. veutoviper 3
    16 March 2015 at 8:18 am

    Another wonderful National Northland by-election billboard doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook to cheer your Monday morning!

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAICtGCVEAALfwL.jpg:large

    Apparently, this one is on Waiteitei Road, Wellsford.

    • Skinny 3.1
      16 March 2015 at 9:42 am

      Just shows the wheels really have come off Joyce’s campaign rig. This photo is creating quite a lot good jokes on Facebook.

      “Sabin uncovered”

      “Who needs Teflon John”

  4. logie97 4
    16 March 2015 at 8:19 am

    When the other Mr Key got back stage with his family for the photo-op with a recent touring female artist, what strings would have been pulled for that one.
    I can imagine the conversation going something like…
    “… the Prime Minister is out the back and he would like his family to come and meet you…”

    Just wondering when the Prime Minister bit ends and Joe Citizen kicks in. Would be terrible to think that he used his official status to garner favour.

    • Murray Rawshark 4.1
      16 March 2015 at 2:49 pm

      I think most international superstars who come to Aotearoa really do so with a desire to meet with our great PM and his family. His brilliance shines forth from Aotearoa like a beacon and they feel humbled in his presence. In a recent poll undertaken by Penguins R Us, only the Dalai Lama was voted anywhere near FJK in the “Inspiring leaders I’d cut off both my arms and kick myself repeatedly in the goolies to meet”.

      I do not think there is any substance to your suspicions.

      • greywarshark 4.1.1
        17 March 2015 at 11:21 am

        @ Murray R
        It’s all right you didn’t need to put sarc in your piece – we all knew it was farce! And some force in that farce too.

        By the way I know I’m going to seem a dolt, but what is the F in FJK? You don’t have to spell it out, just give me a steer on it.

        • Murray Rawshark 4.1.1.1
          17 March 2015 at 8:55 pm

          It’s a shortened version of MLTJK, or Make Love To John Key. Saves typing, which I like doing because I’m a lazy lefty.

  5. miravox 5
    16 March 2015 at 8:31 am

    Child health in the news – preventable hospital admissions

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/67402054/sugar-rush

    The number one reason why children visited a hospital in New Zealand in 2014 was to get their teeth removed under general anaesthetic.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/67362116/healthy-homes-maybe

    Hospital admission rates for skin infection in young children in New Zealand are higher than in other developed countries and have steadily increased over the past 20 years

    • miravox 5.1
      16 March 2015 at 9:50 am

      Also dyslexic children get more help if they’re in high decile schools.

      Figures provided to DFNZ under the Official Information Act show just 17 pupils in decile one schools received special assessment conditions for external NCEA exams in 2014. Just under 1300 pupils in decile 10 schools received help.

      This perpetuates what amounts to systemic discrimination against students at lower decile schools, where SACs can make all the difference between achieving or not achieving NCEA qualifications

      • Tracey 5.1.1
        16 March 2015 at 4:55 pm

        can you post the link to Peratas response?

        • miravox 5.1.1.1
          17 March 2015 at 1:55 am

          The national-led government is committed to raising achievement…. National Standards… Charter schools

          Nah – just joking. Did you expect a response from her?

  6. Jim Nald 6
    16 March 2015 at 8:45 am

    Regarding Dunedin Hospital’s frozen meals being trucked in from Auckland, someone has written some thoughtful comments to the Southern District Health Board and here’s the letter [edited] for your information:

    Dear Sir,

    I am a retired psychiatrist, who worked for the Dunedin Hospital Board for many years. I am writing on behalf of many others I have spoken to in the Dunedin community, of which I have been part for 36 years.

    I recently wrote a letter to the Otago Daily Times on this issue, and have been urged to bring our concerns to the attention of the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) members.

    There are two related issues:

    [1] Food Services should not be privatised. This is not simply a matter of jobs being lost locally and renovated kitchens standing idle. It is inhumane to talk about money-saving as a primary object, rather about human beings who are unwell.

    Psychologically, as well as physiologically, food is very important for all people. We are hard-wired to associate food with care and motherly love, which makes us feel secure and cared-for. Natural endorphins thus released help healing. Part of this is the feeling of intimacy and individual care local cooking provided. “If you don’t
    like the chicken, I will see what the kitchen can fix up for you.” They do not need carefully devised, nutritionally accurate airline-type food sent from some hub where cost-saving is the main focus at the bottom line of the spreadsheet.

    Local food comes with concern and love from our own community. Everybody knows each other: two degrees of separation here, not six.

    When food cooked on site the delicious aromas drift up to stimulate flagging appetites, as occurs in the home.

    [2] Greater and longer lasting risks and problems will be faced by the SDHB if they accept Compass Group as their contract food service. They are the largest contract food service in the world, based in the UK, but having operations in over 50 countries. It is a multinational organisation, listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent
    of the FTSE 100 Index. Compass Group may seem to offer a good deal, but additional costs may be covert, like the recently discovered ‘setting up costs’. They are out to make as much money for their shareholders as they can, and are not offering a ‘good deal’ to Otago and Southland out of goodwill. They want to make money out of us. Our sick and infirm are commodities to them. And the money will mainly leave NZ. They will pay a little tax, exploiting our tax loop-holes perfectly legally, and will siphon away the money that needs to be circulating in NZ for New Zealanders.

    Once locked into a contract with a multinational like this, the SDHB will find themselves riding a tiger. Multinationals can start to demand terms in the decision-making process regarding service delivery, and may take this out of the SDHB’s hands, as they can have recourse to the Investor States Disputes Settlement [ISDS] if they deem that their free access to making profit is being impaired in some way. If the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement comes in, this is more likely to happen. They could bring objections in from one of their many other sites in countries who are signatories.

    For example, NZ has laws about the ingredients in food, both how they are sourced, and whether they are GE free, to name but two. One can speculate how they will avoid meeting these laws in the search for the cheapest ingredients, or failing that, take the issue to the ISDS, which is an off-shore tribunal and costs to contest objections are
    huge. Besides, the tribunal is weighted in favour of the multinational.

    It would be better, if hospital food services must be privatised, to give the contract to a New Zealand-based and owned firm, even if it seems not to save as much money. It may well be cheaper in the long run. Of course, care must be taken that that company is not covertly owned by a multinational itself, as can be the case.

    Please give the above earnest consideration before action is taken.

    Thank you for your attention.

    • Jim Nald 6.1
      16 March 2015 at 10:50 am

      North @ 8: Cheers! I thought it was a superb letter when it was shown to me.

      Someone pointed out what naughty multi-nat profit-making Compass was up to a few years ago on the Facebook page ‘Stop Dunedin Hospital From Being Downgraded’ that can be viewed publicly (without needing to log in with one’s personal account):

      https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Dunedin-Hospital-from-being-downgraded/670234713085374

      • greywarshark 6.1.1
        16 March 2015 at 12:02 pm

        Jim Nald you always add value to comments and the post when you join in the discussion. Thanks.

        • Jim Nald 6.1.1.1
          16 March 2015 at 1:56 pm

          Heh. I wondered what was behind that comment and had to refresh my own mind! I have stayed away from commenting on The Standard. About a year now. But TPPA, mass surveillance issues, and other things are bringing me back. Some interesting developments in recent months with grassroots and community activities have competed for my time and energy. But some of the stuff offline might make it here.

    • Pasupial 6.2
      16 March 2015 at 11:34 am

      It is a fine letter, but as I mostly read the ODT online I haven’t seen how much of it got printed. [edit; rereading the above, I see it was addressed to the SDHB and not to the ODT editor; hope they read it with an open mind]

      However I noted this in Saturday’s article (more about the immediate meals on wheels programme than the creeping corporate takeover of hospital meals and kitchens):

      Grey Power Otago president Jo Millar said the board should have been more open from the start about the ”ridiculous” idea.

      ”What facilities are there going to be if they can’t truck this food down south in the mid-winter?

      ”How long is the food going to be in frozen storage?

      ”We have no idea what the quality of those meals are going to be coming down from Auckland – absolutely none.”

      Meals would be heated before delivery, but Mrs Millar said many older people ate in the evening.

      Heating meals twice was potentially ”extremely unsafe”.

      She also feared the new meals for the hospital patients would lack nutritional value…

      Compass Group New Zealand issued a statement yesterday saying the company could utilise sea or air links if road transport was blocked.

      The company used the latest freezing technology for meals, which ensured maximum nutrient retention.

      ”Compass Group intends to work closely with volunteer organisations in Dunedin and Invercargill who deliver meals, to improve the information available and communication to recipients on safely handling their meals when they are received,” chief operating officer Julian Baldey said.

      http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/336234/frozen-meals-south-slammed

      Which implies that if these; “volunteer organisations in Dunedin and Invercargill who deliver meals”, were to refuse to do so if Compass was the provider, then the entire proposal would fall flat on its face. This is a clear case of privitising profit and externalising costs to the public.

      If Compass had to foot the bill for delivering the meals, then the SDHB would be more likely looking at a cost rather than saving to implement the scheme. Also, who would be paying for the cost of this air-freighting of meals? As a backup plan it seems flawed, as the kind of weather that would take out the road &/or ferry from Auckland down South, would also likely disrupt the; “sea or air links”.

      • Colonial Rawshark 6.2.1
        16 March 2015 at 1:23 pm

        Which implies that if these; “volunteer organisations in Dunedin and Invercargill who deliver meals”, were to refuse to do so if Compass was the provider, then the entire proposal would fall flat on its face. This is a clear case of privitising profit and externalising costs to the public.

        +100

      • greywarshark 6.2.2
        16 March 2015 at 3:22 pm

        Volunteers delivering the meals for frail people are providing aid to their community hospital which is an organisation providing free or low cost treatment and assistance to the community.

        If companies or business trusts, even not-for-profit charities (which are often businesses with a plastic halo) like Compass are to take over and carry out this unsatisfactory system of food supply then a generous mileage should be paid to the volunteers. Otherwise they will be squeezing profit out of this very personal service to the community, and from the human activity of food provision.

        The provision from outside the location is a waste of energy and will cause additional stress in the case of disaster or bad weather, wondering if the wagons are going to get through to the beleaguered citizens under seige by events. It
        stretches the supply lines too far, which has led to great disasters. For instance in Russia

        It is an idea thought up by brain-atrophied business economists and taken up probably by the person who hired the person who hired the thieving and conniving IT techology fellow who cost the Southern District Health Board $16.9 million. The Sensible Sentencing Trust is on this occasion rightly outraged that the fraudster Swann is being released from prison halfway through, and has not accounted for much of the lost funds.
        Also the Southern District Health Board has not received help from the Ministry of Health in auditing an amount paid to a private health concern Southern Link Health, run by independent practitioners. Only under $1 million of spending for savings on service contracts has been accounted for, although $6.2 million was paid. And accrued interest has meant that the amount in contention is now $15 million!

        The Health Board is in an unhealthy position. It needs an overhaul. But in trying to cut service costs it has got into a quagmire. The government has wiped a contract with a company which had a similar objective because its expenses were going up and the savings were down. Now this new efficiency move in Otago seems likely to be another costly boo-boo, and bound to cause heartache to managers and workers and possibly heartburn to patients.

        It is a Trojan horse the Southern District Health Board is ushering in, that will open up spewing out little men who will pop out and grab sack fulls of money in exchange for sack fulls of chaff.

      • Tracey 6.2.3
        16 March 2015 at 5:01 pm

        we are also seeing the result of nationals leadership… dont vote for dont expect anything

      • Ergo Robertina 6.2.4
        16 March 2015 at 9:37 pm

        The ODT’s editorial from Saturday also covered this:

        ”The latest details of the proposal to outsource Dunedin and Invercargill hospital food services leave a bad taste in the mouth for southerners….
        ” There is – rightly – a healthy amount of scepticism about the reality of ”savings”, the transparency of procedures, not to mention the flow-on effects and local impact of health proposals….
        ”It is to be hoped other counterproposals may offer a more palatable solution, which can retain jobs and services locally. ”

        http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/336197/proposal-hard-stomach

    • freedom 6.3
      16 March 2015 at 2:13 pm

      not to mention the difficulties in dealing with food allergies and associated issues
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11417950

    • Tracey 6.4
      16 March 2015 at 4:58 pm

      great stuff.

      the outrage reserved for a vacuous tv show would be better directed to tbis kind of thing.

      what a horrid little lot we are becoming.

  7. adam 7
    16 March 2015 at 10:25 am

    Mean time – in China. Things are looking different and the same – but this I found to be very new – as in middle class China seems to be a questioning the status quo.

    Positive and Hopeful for the future. But need our support.

    https://libcom.org/blog/free-womens-day-five-statements

    On the support front. Ukrainian friends in need.

    https://libcom.org/news/join-international-solidarity-campaign-alexander-kolchenko-11032015

  8. North 8
    16 March 2015 at 10:33 am

    That is a marvellous letter @ 6 ! The humanity (and the patent common sense) it conveys deepens my contempt for the Keys and the Joyces and the self-seeking sycophants who back them. They deserve to go down in history for the fetid moral crooks they are !

  9. aerobubble 9
    16 March 2015 at 11:04 am

    When does a fee become a tax? When the employer revokes your professional body that you pay a fee for, and creates a new organisatio with the same name but employer controlled, directing your proffessional fees to the employer ends.

  10. aerobubble 10
    16 March 2015 at 11:06 am

    Caught a news conference on te Chinese channel, english translation provided, and was shocked, China is introducing a deposits guarentee. I maybe misheard but what if its true?

    • Colonial Rawshark 10.1
      16 March 2015 at 11:35 am

      China’s banking system is under a lot of strain presently…

    • Ovid 10.2
      16 March 2015 at 11:41 am

      China big notes its economic performance. The fact is they have ghost cities full of surplus real estate. Their demand for raw materials has dropped, as Australia has learned lately. I don’t think the country will collapse, but there is some belt-tightening afoot.

  12. greywarshark 12
    16 March 2015 at 12:18 pm

    This was an interesting interview on 9toNoon this morning. A very engaging baskeball player and now wine expert from NZ on his career and development. I loved hearing how well he had done and his thoughtful and positive attitude. NZs who are doing it – let’s hear more of it, and learn from them!

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171057
    Former Tall Black’s love letter to basketball ( 25′ 41″ )
    10:07 John Saker was a Tall Black from 1975 until 1987. He was one of the first New Zealanders to get a basketball scholarship to a US University, and then became the country’s first professional player, taking up a contract with a French side. During that stint in France, a love of wine blossomed, inspiring a secondary career as a wine writer. John Saker remains passionate about basketball, his latest book is called Open Looks and is a kind of a love letter to the sport.

    One thing that struck me – he said that basketball is attracting in NZ a lot of brown players, keen and doing well. Can we get behind that sport, rather than the thuggish and increasingly amoral and injury-causing rugby, and have good things happening for teams of integrated and hopeful young teenagers in South Auckland? Please make it so.

  13. veutoviper 13
    16 March 2015 at 12:28 pm

    If you did not hear it, I found this interview on RNZ National Nine to Noon this morning very enlightening in respect of the definitions used by NSA etc of terms such as “mass collection”, “mass surveillance” and “Full Take”.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/20171051/personal-data-collection-and-your-technology-footprint

    Kathryn Ryan was interviewing “… Bruce Schneier is a US technology and security expert whose latest book “Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World”, highlights just how much information is being gathered by governments and corporations through our use of phones and computers.”

    Ryan took the opportunity to question Schneler closely about what the terms “mass collection” etc meant when used by the NSA etc in view of Key’s dissembling in this regard.

    Schneler’s explanations were excellent – clear and understandable; and IMO provided confirmation that Key knows full well how these terms are used in the international 5 Eyes setting.

  14. greywarshark 14
    16 March 2015 at 12:59 pm

    Also on radionz this a.m. something on data surveillance and how many have their fingers in your daily soup of communications?

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171051
    Personal data collection and your technology footprint ( 18′ 44″ )
    09:35 How much do you know about what others might know about you, from your use of technology? How do you minimise your online footprint on things you’d rather keep private?
    Bruce Schneier is a US technology and security expert whose latest book “Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World”, highlights just how much information is being gathered by governments and corporations through our use of phones and computers.

    NB I went to give a UNICEF donation towards Vanuatu and found they insisted on my address, phone number and email just so I could give them money they need. Talk about highwaymen without pistols! They didn’t get my money or my details. Stuff them I gave to someone else. Did you know that some professional fund raisers give under 10% of what they raise to the actual charity. Nice work extorting money, when you get it.

  15. weka 15
    16 March 2015 at 1:23 pm

    Encouraging, almost hopeful rallying cry from Bill McKibben on climate change. I love the bit about how it’s not the leaders that matter, it’s the pressure being brought to bear by the radicals and sane people.

    Pressure is growing. A relentless climate movement is starting to win big, unprecedented victories around the world, victories which are quickly reshaping the consensus view.

    The official view: all eyes are on Paris, where negotiators will meet in December for a climate conference that will be described as “the most important diplomatic gathering ever” and “a last chance for humanity.” Heads of state will jet in, tense closed-door meetings will be held, newspapers will report that negotiations are near a breaking point, and at the last minute some kind of agreement will emerge, hailed as “a start for serious action”.

    The actual story: what happens at Paris will be, at best, one small part of the climate story, one more skirmish in the long, hard-fought road to climate sanity. What comes before and after will count more. And to the extent Paris matters, its success will depend not on the character of our leaders but on how much a resurgent climate movement has softened up the fossil fuel industry, and how much pressure the politicians feel to deliver something.

    The good news is, that pressure is growing. In fact, that relentless climate movement is starting to win big, unprecedented victories around the world, victories which are quickly reshaping the consensus view – including among investors – about how fast a clean energy future could come. It’s a movement grounded in the streets and reaching for the photovoltaic rooftops, and its thinking can be easily summarised in a mantra: Fossil freeze. Solar thaw. Keep it in the ground.

    Triumph is not certain – in fact, as the steadily rising toll of floods and droughts and melting glaciers makes clear, major losses are guaranteed. But for the first time in the quarter-century since global warming became a major public issue the advantage in this struggle has begun to tilt away from the Exxons and the BPs and towards the ragtag and spread-out fossil fuel resistance, which is led by indigenous people, young people, people breathing the impossible air in front-line communities. The fight won’t wait for Paris – the fight is on every day, and on every continent.

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/09/climate-fight-wont-wait-for-paris-vive-la-resistance

  16. weka 16
    16 March 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Fed Farmers Waikato have called for a moratorium on dairy conversions in the area (apparently most farm there are still small family owned farms). Good for them.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/67402931/greens-welcome-federated-farmers-proposal-for-dairy-moratorium


    Lewis’s suggestion for a moratorium was heard “with interest” by the Waikato Regional Council’s industry and infrastructure manager Brent Sinclair.

    In an emailed statement, Sinclair said the council would be happy to discuss further with Federated Farmers exactly what they were looking to achieve in terms of managing water quality in the region.

    Dairy conversions were not regulated in the council’s regional plan, so it lacked hard data on the number of such conversions that have taken place or been planned in the past few years.

    It’s never ceases to amaze me just how strongly the regional councils are still dragging the chain on environmental protection.

    • freedom 16.1
      16 March 2015 at 2:29 pm

      “Dairy conversions were not regulated in the council’s regional plan, ”

      Dairy conversions require a number of buildings to be built or converted, especially the buildings where the milk collection equipment will be installed. These buildings require building permits, and in many cases food safety certificates, so for the Council to say ‘we don’t know’ is a bit fibby.

      • weka 16.1.1
        16 March 2015 at 3:02 pm

        That would be district councils though wouldn’t it?

        • freedom 16.1.1.1
          16 March 2015 at 3:20 pm

          Yes, absolutely – my comment was prodding the reality that the info exists. Regional Councils have access to such info and it is a completely reasonable way to at least get a ball park picture of the recent number of conversions. But of course it is far easier and less troublesome to simply tell the public ‘ we don’t know’.

  17. Murray Rawshark 17
    16 March 2015 at 3:06 pm

    Seen on The Standard now and then: The best way to not have problems from the police/CIA/GCSB is to not break the law (yeah, it surprised me at first too)

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11009161_10205735667009177_2212671886105859833_n.jpg?oh=67afb16967bb133dba7cd98a2122a8b4&oe=55B6CFE0&__gda__=1433411231_c34b8bf03cc7bf10dfe75e3e3f56b023

  18. Morrissey 18
    16 March 2015 at 7:23 pm

    Pippa Wetzell clearly perturbed by the frivolous approach of Mike Hosking this evening
    Seven Sharp, Television One, Monday 16 March 2015
    Mike Hosking, Pippa Wetzell

    Watching the following travesty a few minutes ago, I got the feeling that Pippa Wetzell was trying to treat the crap script she’d been handed with as much seriousness as she could muster. In spite of being in an utterly frivolous environment, she has obviously made up her mind to do her best. The contra king Hosking, on the other hand, is not serious in the slightest, and Wetzell seemed to acknowledge this when he made his idiotic comment about “strange countries like Russia”….

    PIPPA WETZELL: Where’s Vladimir Putin? He hasn’t been seen for ten days. Top rumors on the internet are, one, that he’s dead and, two, that he’s been attending the birth of his love child.

    MIKE “CONTRA” HOSKING: He could be on holiday in the Seychelles.

    PIPPA WETZELL: Maybe he’s sick. They don’t want the image of the macho man on horseback to be diminished.

    MIKE “CONTRA” HOSKING: There’ll be a big vacuum. There’s always a vacuum in strange countries like Russia.

    At that point, Pippa Wetzell frowns in consternation and disapproval. Hosking simply chunters on, oblivious to anything but the sound of his own voice….

    • Paul 18.1
      16 March 2015 at 8:12 pm

      You deserve a medal for listening to that popinjay and narcissist.

      • Morrissey 18.1.1
        17 March 2015 at 6:47 am

        Actually, Paul, I think it’s poor old Pippa Wetzell that deserves a medal. I don’t have to put up with that boor, and only listen to and watch him occasionally. Pippa Wetzell, on the other hand, had no escape last night. To her credit, she made her contempt for him quite clear.

  19. Hateatea 19
    16 March 2015 at 7:57 pm

    The Prime Minister is both seriously worried and very defensive when PMsplaining why his State Visit to Japan has been shortened.

    Pity the poor constituents in Northland though with every man and his dog dropping by to explain why the should still vote National!

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67418640/john-key-shortens-japan-trip-for-northland-byelection

    • Paul 19.1
      16 March 2015 at 8:11 pm

      Yes, there’ll be no TPPA for him to sign with Japan if Winston wins in Northland.

      • Ergo Robertina 19.1.1
        16 March 2015 at 9:23 pm

        I believe the TPP will not be going to the Parliament for a vote though – Key doesn’t need a majority in the House for it.

    • te aro pundit 19.2
      16 March 2015 at 8:19 pm

      Looks like even the NACT leaning pundits on ipredict are now putting their money on Winston winning Northland:

      https://www.ipredict.co.nz/app.php?do=contract_detail&contract=BE15.NTD.OTHER

      • Paul 19.2.1
        16 March 2015 at 9:39 pm

        Would this be the result of the Nat’s internal polling?

      • Clemgeopin 19.2.2
        16 March 2015 at 9:57 pm

        One has to be cautious to come to any definite conclusions yet, because, there seems to be no big money going in generally for either of the candidates, except in minute amounts of mostly 1 dollar or so which is quite unusual. I am suspecting that there is some kind of cunning manipulation going on to scare the Nat supporters to go and vote for their ‘super’ candidate.

        At the moment, here are the waiting orders:

        Current Top 10 Buy Orders Quantity (Stocks) Price Per Share
        1 $0.5610
        5 $0.5510
        1 $0.5510
        1 $0.5410
        5 $0.5375
        1 $0.5310
        5 $0.5250
        1 $0.5210
        1 $0.5110
        1 $0.5010
        Current Top 10 Sell Orders Quantity (Stocks) Price Per Share
        1 $0.5710
        1 $0.5810
        1 $0.5910
        1 $0.6010
        1 $0.6100
        1 $0.6110
        1 $0.6210
        3 $0.6275
        1 $0.6310
        15 $0.6380

        Some of them would be auto generated of course.

    • Weepus beard 19.3
      16 March 2015 at 8:35 pm

      It is really annoying they are still only allowed to say Sabin resigned for personal reasons, rather than the real reason.

    • Clemgeopin 19.4
      16 March 2015 at 10:18 pm

      “every man and his dog dropping by “

      More like, the Prime Minister and his dogs dropping by at taxpayer’s huge expense for their party benefit.