Open mike 16/06/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 16th, 2015 - 45 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

45 comments on “Open mike 16/06/2015 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Tracey 1
    16 June 2015 at 8:50 am

    In the meantime we are investing $125m in an Asian Bank. Seems there ARE times Key doesn’t mind us being trailblazers… and surprise surprise it involves a bank. One of the do-nothing about climate change arguments is that we will have minimal impact by doing something. We have contributed well under 1% capital to this bank, effectively making no difference at all, and yet, we still did it.

    “New Zealand has agreed to become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Government has announced.

    “Increased infrastructure investment will enhance the Asian region’s growth and that will be good for New Zealand,” Finance Minister Bill English said.

    “New Zealand was the first western developed nation to join negotiations to set up the Bank and our membership will enhance our already strong economic, trade and investment links with the Asian region.”

    New Zealand’s paid in capital will be around NZ$125 million, paid over five years, the statement said.

    The Bank of China led initiative has promoted itself as a means of making up the infrastructure gap between Asia and other parts of the world, however it has led to a diplomatic struggle.

    The United States has reportedly lobbied countries not to join, raising concerns about its governance.

    Privately diplomats have claimed that the bank could be used to expand China’s influence.

    Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Asia was “important to New Zealand’s future” meaning it made sense to invest in the region.

    “Asia is driving global growth and it is full of opportunities for New Zealand. This new Bank will be a welcome addition to existing institutions and it stands to make a significant contribution to infrastructure in the region.”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69407785/nz-agrees-to-join-divisive-asian-infrastructure-investment-bank

    more about who has joined
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Infrastructure_Investment_Bank

    • vto 1.1
      16 June 2015 at 9:29 am

      money for irrigation polluters
      money for TV3
      money for casinos
      money for worlds biggest miner Rio Tinto
      money for finance company investors
      money for banks

      the pattern is well and truly established and has painted Key’s legacy

      • Tracey 1.1.1
        16 June 2015 at 11:57 am

        and as PR so eloquently points out from time to time people like him just don’t care, along with 47-49% of those who voted… and quite a percentage of those have effectively voted against their own best interests and those of any children they have.

  2. Charles 2
    16 June 2015 at 9:07 am

    McCully: Hey Nate, just a quick question?
    Guy: Yeah shoot old buddy.
    McCully: When is an investment not an investment?
    Guy: Depends on return I guess, and the immediate influence.
    McCully: What kind of return?
    Guy: Sooner or later.
    McCully: So when is an investment a bribe?
    Guy: Aww jeez Murray, we’ve been over this… you dealing sheep again?
    McCully: I swear, it has no sheep involved!
    Guy: God, ok for the last time then, write this down …is this line secure?
    McCully: I’m calling from John’s office.
    Guy: haha, good one bro. When is an investment a bribe? You’ve got it the wrong way round. A bribe can be an investment if it is a small percentage with minimal immediate influence, but also important to NZ’s future.
    McCully: Ok…. important to… NZ…hey how many i’s in NZ?
    Guy: Goodbye Murray.

  3. Rodel 3
    16 June 2015 at 9:12 am

    Apologies for repeating this post but Helen Clark was interviewed at length by Oksana Boyko on Worlds Apart-RT television, and showed her depth of intellect, sincerity and abilty to give real answers to questions .
    Such a contrast to our current PM.
    http://rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/ Helen Clark

    • Anne 3.1
      16 June 2015 at 10:12 am

      Thanks Rodel.

      I remember when John Key first became prime minister there was a news item claiming Key’s IQ level was exactly the same as Clark’s ie. 131. It astonished me at the time because I would have given Helen a much higher IQ than Key. It was, of course, nothing but a load of C/T bullshit designed to hoodwink the public and it has worked.

      I’m glad Helen Clark lost in 2008 because NZ no longer deserved her, and she’s now doing far greater good on the world stage. Key can never match her no matter how hard he tries.

      • Philip Ferguson 3.1.1
        16 June 2015 at 3:48 pm

        I certainly agree NZ didn’t deserve her.

        We needed someone who would address poverty, raise benefits, substantially improve workers’ rights, etc etc etc. Not someone who would preside over surplus after surplus while keeping wages and benefits down.

        Clark’s chief legacy is *greater social inequality* in NZ.

        Not to mention her performance in the Rogernomics government of the late 1980s.

        In one budget Key has done more for beneficiaries than Clark did with nine years of surpluses. That’s not a plus for Key, because it is bugger all in the overall scheme of inequality and poverty; but it does indicate how bloody awful Clark-Cullen were.

        Phil

        • Tracey 3.1.1.1
          16 June 2015 at 3:52 pm

          what did he do for beneficiaires Phil, and how many?

        • Ad 3.1.1.2
          16 June 2015 at 4:48 pm

          I thought the Gini Coefficient stabilised under Clark, not Key?

        • Anne 3.1.1.3
          16 June 2015 at 5:47 pm

          @ Philip Ferguson

          You are either in wilful denial of the facts or you need to get your head sorted. I know what happened in the 1980s because I was there. You obviously weren’t. Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble and co. hated and feared Helen Clark. From the time she was selected to be the Mt. Albert candidate in 1981 they and/or their supporters, started to spread false rumours about her – rumours that eventually spread throughout the country and played a role in her loss in 2008.

          Since you’re inferring she was in the Douglas/Prebble camp I thought I just might mention the truth.

        • Rodel 3.1.1.4
          16 June 2015 at 8:02 pm

          Clark- Cullen presided over New Zealand’s lowest unemployment rate of all the OECD countries….Lower than South Korea and they balanced 9 budgets. Credit where…?

      • cricklewood 3.1.2
        16 June 2015 at 7:28 pm

        John Key is no mug, I wouldnt be surprised if he had an IQ score equal to or greater than that of Helen Clark.
        The difference between the two is how they utilized their intellegence and to what ends.
        If you were to look at what John Key has achevied for his backers & supporters you could fairly say he has out performed Helen Clark and he has without doubt managed to do it without overly upsetting the voting populace.
        I think he is underestimated by many on the left and it’s to our detriment.

        • Anne 3.1.2.1
          16 June 2015 at 7:44 pm

          Can’t agree cricklewood. Sure, he’s an ultra-clever and cunning bastard but there’s a big difference between that and over-all intellectual capacity. Helen Clark outstrips him all the way.

  4. ianmac 4
    16 June 2015 at 10:07 am

    I thought that debate about Climate Change was an honest debate (Ha!), not looking at Rodney Hide of course.
    Came across this which underlines just what we always thought, “And yet as the new documentary Merchants of Doubt makes clear, distorting science to favor corporate interests is a simple matter of the media quoting the right – or wrong — industry-funded think tank spokesperson. The result? Scientific truth is twisted, and left twisting the wind. “
    http://boingboing.net/2015/06/12/meet-the-scientific-storytelle.html??

    • weka 4.1
      16 June 2015 at 11:30 am

      Which CC debate?

      • ianmac 4.1.1
        16 June 2015 at 3:23 pm

        There is no honest debate but there are those who are dogged deniers and the article @4 describes the process used over the decades to muddy the waters -create doubt.

        • weka 4.1.1.1
          16 June 2015 at 6:53 pm

          ok, I thought in your first sentence you were referring to something specific.

  5. Janice 5
    16 June 2015 at 10:38 am

    After watching Mihinrangi Forbes last night hold Hekia Parata to account on “Native Affairs” I had this wonderful dream of John Campbell and Mihinrangi teaming up to take over “Morning Report”, then I woke up to Suzie and Guyon and turned off the radio in disgust.

    • Gangnam Style 5.1
      16 June 2015 at 10:51 am

      same!

    • adam 5.2
      16 June 2015 at 12:54 pm

      I’ve been thinking what a wonderful show those two together would produce. Mihinrangi Forbes is just the most wonderful of interviewers. And John Campbell does a great job with putting people at easy to get to a story. Live on the internet – I wonder if people would pay?

  6. Clemgeopin 6
    16 June 2015 at 10:51 am

    The latest Campbell Live replacement show :

    Media Works’ idiot bosses last night offered their dumbed down viewers more of

    THIS

    according to

    THIS

    account.

    bon appétit!

    • McFlock 6.1
      16 June 2015 at 11:04 am

      lol and I was assured on FB that slater has decided the boycott of tv3 hasn’t worked.
      His hatred of everything wholesome might have made him write it spontaneously, but apprently “his” article involves math and graphs.

      If prayer is the last refuge of the damned, paying slater for puff pieces might be the penultimate refuge 🙂

    • Rodel 6.2
      16 June 2015 at 11:07 am

      Ha!

  7. northshoreguynz 7
    16 June 2015 at 12:41 pm

    With the amount of stuff ups the government is making at the moment, how come the only Labour spokespeople I see on the news are Little and Twyford, and occasionally Robertson. Where is Goff on Auckland? Sepuloni on Social Bonds? Hipkins on Education? They should be all over the incompetence of the government like a rash.

    • Tracey 7.1
      16 June 2015 at 3:26 pm

      Maybe they want just 1 or 2 to create a single focus for the public?

      • northshoreguynz 7.1.1
        16 June 2015 at 3:35 pm

        They should be relentless in their targeting of crap government policy. The words to repeat are government and incompetent.

        • Tracey 7.1.1.1
          16 June 2015 at 3:45 pm

          agree

          I would be teaming up phrases like

          treating the public like fools

          only an idiot would think…

          must think the people of NZ are stupid and so on

          In law as litigators you got taught when doing jury speeches to use those kinds of phrases cos human nature dictates that no one wants to think they are stupid or a fool..

  8. adam 8
    16 June 2015 at 12:55 pm

    Wow Mr Evans – just wow.

    http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/16/malcolm-evans-fonterra/

    Do feel for the Sharecroppers at the moment – I wonder how many will be forced off the farm this winter?

  9. freedom 9
    16 June 2015 at 1:05 pm

    Special Event Notification

    European Society for Engineering Education
    Accepts Paper by AE911Truth Petition Signers”

    Two weeks from now, Wayne Coste, PE, and Mike Smith, BSEET, will travel to Orléans, France, to present a paper at the 43rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, also known as SEFI

    http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d03bf3ffcac549c7dc7888ef5&id=a7c9da6437&e=%5BUNIQID%5D

    Scheduled for 9:30 AM Central European time on Wednesday, July 1
    http://sefi2015.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/26

    Their paper, titled The World Trade Center Analyses: Case Study of Ethics, Public Policy and the Engineering Profession, was accepted by SEFI after undergoing careful peer review.

    Also co-authored by Robert Korol, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at McMaster University, the paper argues that the integrity of the engineering profession has been undermined by the failure of engineering faculties and professional associations across the globe to critically examine the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) World Trade Center (WTC) reports — and that such institutions must now support a broad-based peer review of those reports.

  10. Kiwiri 10
    16 June 2015 at 1:18 pm

    A skinny flat white for afternoon break please!

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/69433411/jeb-bush-shows-off-noticeably-trim-figure-as-he-launches-2016-presidential-bid

    “Let me have men about me that are fat;
    Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights:
    Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
    He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”
    – Shakespeare –

    Now, who in the National caucus has been losing weight recently?
    And Labour caucus?

  11. Philip Ferguson 11
    16 June 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Class and political conflict in New Zealand during and just after World War 2:

    The secret history of World War 2 in New Zealand: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/the-secret-history-of-ww2/

    Labour’s introduction of peacetime conscription and the fight against it: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/labours-introduction-of-peacetime-conscription-and-the-fight-against-it/

    1949 Auckland carpenters’ dispute: Labour & bosses versus the workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/1949-auckland-carpenters-dispute-labour-bosses-versus-the-workers/

    Behind the 1951 waterfront lockout: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/behind-the-1951-waterfront-lockout/

  12. adam 12
    16 June 2015 at 3:31 pm

    I’ve cracked it – John Key is channeling Peter Sellers.

  13. ianmac 13
    16 June 2015 at 4:45 pm

    Dita de Boni and David Farrar paired on the Panel. Wish I had tuned in earlier as Dita is a great writer and perceptive.

    • Colonial Rawshark 14.1
      16 June 2015 at 6:07 pm

      Probably Special Air Service or similar doing urban training

      • Clemgeopin 14.1.1
        16 June 2015 at 7:16 pm

        Why the bloody hell can’t they just say so instead of scaring the crap out of residents? Stupid government!

        • Colonial Rawshark 14.1.1.1
          16 June 2015 at 7:32 pm

          The clue will be the local police

          If the local cops don’t care about it then although they may not know what precisely it is, they will have been told that it is “official business” and that no inquiries are required.

  15. marty mars 15
    16 June 2015 at 5:57 pm

    I can’t remember doing it but sometime in the past I signed up for an email from Andrew Little – they pop in quite regularly. Good job whoever is responsible for this. I think Labour are doing okay at the moment and although I’m not a Labour voter I do support the left wholeheartedly. Sometimes to get the big rock out you have to move a few smaller rocks that block. Once they go, the big rock moves. . It’s a good strategy and doable because of the candidates. key is so vain he’ll sort himself out mostly.

    • Anne 15.1
      16 June 2015 at 6:57 pm

      He comes across as a bit pedantic sometimes but he knows exactly what he is doing. Twenty five years dealing with hot head unionists and recalcitrant employers has given him all the skills to be a first class leader. I have faith in him.

  16. The Chairman 16
    16 June 2015 at 10:04 pm

    The Government is coming under pressure to relax the rules on the use of genetic engineering, which is bound to stir a public outcry.

    Where will Labour position themselves?

    • Colonial Rawshark 16.1
      16 June 2015 at 10:28 pm

      pragmatically. In the meantime, they’ll probably call for a committee to be formed.

  17. Smilin 17
    16 June 2015 at 11:59 pm

    The international corporate sharemarket is the bubble Auckland housing market is our share of it

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.