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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, August 18th, 2023 - 41 comments
Categories: open mike -
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Anyone else find it ironic that of the latest tax policy announcements the gst off veges etc helps those that really need it the least and the latest fuel tax announcement hurts them the most?
Pretty good deal from the Labour party if you're wealthy get a handy discount on expensive /out of season fruit n veges able to dodge the fuel taxes by driving a Tesla and Chippy has promised not to tax em harder.
In it for who?
Ironic – no.
Par for course – yes.
Encouraging people to eat more fruit and vegetables is a good thing.
RUCs are coming for EVs.
Yes, I reckon that in the next parliamentary term RUC will be added to EVs, regardless of which party leads the next government.
Its meant to be April but commentary is suggesting it will push out another year or two.
March 2024 I read somewhere yesterday
The GST change will probably help the poor, though it will give little more than a bit of extra pocket money to the rich. However, the increase in the price of petrel will hurt those, among the poor, who are reliant on the use of a motor vehicle. Hopefully the latter will be able to find some way around the problem: perhaps by using their cars a bit less.
Car pooling.
Cricklewood,
You don't mention the free public transport for under 13 and half price up to 24 yrs incl.
Not really realistic for shift workers, nurses, cleaners and the like and in Auckland there are significant safety issues standing on the street waiting for a bus from 11pm onwards
Tbh cheaper fairs but should have been extended to everyone. 24 isnt some kind of magic point in life where you stop doing it tough.
Nurses got the higher wages, and of those on shifts – they can organise safe car rides (not alone/share). Other shift workers have the FPA to seek better pay and working conditions.
Forestry crews and shearers get picked up by the bosses van, why don't big places like hospitals look at that option.
Door to door so safer for women shift workers, cheaper and frees up car parks!!
Best suggestion.
Because where it would probably be the most relevant is at major hospitals which are usually in urban areas where the time to get from point to point is always long and even longer in rush hours.
To pick up a group of say 15 medical staff in a shift across even a few suburbs would probably require a few hours. Every few blocks off the motorways you get stopped at lights, road works and the idiot drivers doing weird things. It is effectively no different to taking a bus and for exactly the same reasons. Except there are more buses.
The distances may be longer, the things that slow the trips are way away smaller. Plus neither of those two professions work shifts over the 24 hour day. You can reliably pick them up and drop them off within a tight time frame.
There have been quite a few OR studies done on this kind of trip. The best case in dense urban areas is with school buses.
There are high densities of school age kids compared to something like medical staff for a hospital. They usually live in a smallish area because of zoning. They all have the same 'shift' times, an those are typically slightly off peck traffic times. You can use a actual bus to pick them up which is important because a van and a bus travel at the same speed regardless of numbers of passangers.
However most of those studies point to the issues of increasing road congestion – the more congestion there is, then the less efficient any 'employer' operated industry transport system is compared to mass transit. Shows up in school bus systems in Auckland as well.
It's the alternative for shift workers (as is car pooling) operating outside bus hours.
Doesn't matter what time it is in Auckland. The traffic lights are still there. The roadworks get worse later at night (because when is the best time to close roads to repair them?).
Plus the traffic tends to be somewhat continuous. I live close to the North Western Motorway. The traffic only dies down after 0200 and starts increasing at 0430. Same on most of the main roads around here and everywhere else.
During the week, our intense periods cover about 6+ hours of the day. We have about 10 hours of high to medium traffic, ~5 hours of light traffic and about 2-3 hours of almost clear. It is higher on average during the weekends, just less intense stalls.
There is a reason that I work from home these days and don't commute. I can't afford the time in traffic if I actually want to get anything finished.
Those who have to be at a place of work or leave a place of work out of bus hours – such as nurses, either do it alone in their own car or with others (car pooling). It is one way to save money (petrol or EV).
Oh well back to the drawing board
Perhaps a shuttle to their car or to the bus stop/taxi. There needs to be some safety arrangement made.
Many years ago when I worked for the old Broadcasting Corporation, those of us doing shift work could order taxis to take us home at the government's expense. Those of us who lived in the same part of town would share our taxis to save the expense. A case of the government ensuring our safety and the staff cooperating to reduce the bill.
That was well before the 'market place' theory of government became the 'tour de force'. A much more harmonious and egalitarian society existed back then.
Not rose tinted glasses – there were societal ills to be addressed such as women getting the same wages as men for the same work, but it was less invasive and a much more co-operative playing field.
I'm not happy about it, Cricklewood. It's not a progressive tax. Everyone I've talked to about this also aren't happy about it.
Wonder how this will effect their polling and chance of winning?
Biden's pivot to stimulate the reindustrialisation of the west to meet climate change (and strategic threats) is echoing across the world, and will be rightly seen as an historic moment if he wins reelection.
Maybe the wrong video?
Biden needs to be told what day it is,every time he gets out of..bed.If you really think he has much to do with policies ,you are in a minority imo.
I missed Stuart Nash's final fling yesterday. I presume he eye-balled his colleagues one by one and told them why he had done his level best to see them get to sit on the other side of the House.
No, he laughed it off.
National has revealed that it is the party acting on behalf of loan sharks.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/08/election-2023-grant-robertson-calls-national-s-plan-to-roll-back-loanshark-laws-bizarre.html
It's consistent with National's singular focus – increasing private sector profits. That's what they mean when they say "strong economy". There are tried and true ways of achieving it – deregulation, tax cuts, lowering wages, externalising costs onto taxpayers, and monopoly/cartel pricing. All good things are supposed to flow from this stronger economy – like higher wages, action on climate change, better public services etc. Be patient oh ye of little faith, the only way to make things better is to make them worse.
The Prince of Wales, president of England's Football Association, is watching the game of TV, to send the right message about climate change.
The Queen of Spain is bringing her sole remaining virgin daughter with her (the other is off to military school). What happens in Oz when partying with the team after the game stays down under.
https://people.com/prince-william-not-attending-world-cup-final-england-spain-queen-letizia-travel-australia-7644774
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66535460
What if one has an accident or health problem after 8pm? Pray and hope you can make it through till the next day?
[you need to stop with the FB, clickbait, fearmongering bullshit. I had to waste my time following up on your comment to fact check it. It looks like WAM has reduced its hours from 9pm closing to 8pm. In your link there is an explanation about that and why. Further, they’re an afterhours and emergency medical centre that is right beside the Whanganui Hospitals Accident and Emergency Dept that is open 24 hours.
The website you linked to looks like a Primary Health Organisation. Here is the Hospital website which also explains about A and E vs PHO services. https://www.wdhb.org.nz/patients-and-visitors/your-hospital-visit/in-an-emergency/ – weka]
Yes The Chairman. You have to pray and hope you don't have a crisis after 8pm and if you do, you manage to live through the night to 8am.
How many A and E workers could be employed if Labour had focussed on the Health workforce shortage from day one and spent that half a billion dollars they laid out on Whatu Ora on the training and retention of those workers.
You also need to stop with the bullshit. Do some basic fact checking instead of FB-esque reactive fearmongering. Please read my mod note to TC above.
Sorry to piss on your parade but it's the on-site walk in GP clinic, not the ED.
/
The hours had been 8am to 9pm. It’s the GP’s back up service not the Hospitals Emergency Department.
https://www.wdhb.org.nz/patients-and-visitors/our-departments-and-wards/emergency-department-and-after-hours-care/
"Pray and hope" isn't for everyone – fortunately there is an alternative.
https://www.wdhb.org.nz/patients-and-visitors/our-departments-and-wards/emergency-department-and-after-hours-care/
We don't know how lucky we are, or were.
mod note. Please acknowledge you have understood. If I see you do that again I will ban you until after the election.
Sorry. The notice made no note of there being ED support outside of these hours. Hence, the mix up.
You go to the ED, of course.
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What is good patriotism and what is not?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2023/08/australian-tourist-slammed-after-saying-there-are-too-many-american-flags-in-the-us.html
Telling those who think the number of flags is over the top to go home is bad nationalism.
If only, each state had a Governor that would say, OK but it does no one any harm because we are all citizens with equal rights who respect and care for each other, despite our differences, and it does not lead us to hate on those not Americans …
I always wondered why people vote for the party that they do. Sometimes there is an answer but pretty vague.
Mike Munroe has some answers and it looks as though Chris Hipkins is doing things cleverly. GST off F&Vegies. Cunning I think.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/election-2023-mike-munro-never-mind-the-facts-politics-is-all-about-the-feels/G5HCF4EA25AQ7GTEGI45ZR6FNU/
Here's an alternate link
https://archive.is/G8kGL
Thanks Scotty