Open mike 18/08/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 18th, 2023 - 41 comments
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41 comments on “Open mike 18/08/2023 ”

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  1. Cricklewood 1
    18 August 2023 at 8:30 am

    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?

    • Molly 1.1
      18 August 2023 at 9:01 am

      Ironic – no.

      Par for course – yes.

    • Muttonbird 1.2
      18 August 2023 at 9:28 am

      Encouraging people to eat more fruit and vegetables is a good thing.

      RUCs are coming for EVs.

      • Mike the Lefty 1.2.1
        18 August 2023 at 11:55 am

        Yes, I reckon that in the next parliamentary term RUC will be added to EVs, regardless of which party leads the next government.

    • mikesh 1.3
      18 August 2023 at 10:52 am

      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.

    • Patricia Bremner 1.4
      18 August 2023 at 11:03 am

      Cricklewood,

      You don't mention the free public transport for under 13 and half price up to 24 yrs incl.

      • Cricklewood 1.4.1
        18 August 2023 at 11:16 am

        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.

        • SPC 1.4.1.1
          18 August 2023 at 12:18 pm

          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.

          • bwaghorn 1.4.1.1.1
            18 August 2023 at 12:27 pm

            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!!

            • Patricia Bremner 1.4.1.1.1.1
              18 August 2023 at 12:49 pm

              yes Best suggestion.

            • lprent 1.4.1.1.1.2
              18 August 2023 at 3:56 pm

              …get picked up by the bosses van, why don't big places like hospitals look at that option.

              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.

              Forestry crews and shearers get picked up by the bosses van..

              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.

              • SPC …
                18 August 2023 at 3:59 pm

                It's the alternative for shift workers (as is car pooling) operating outside bus hours.

                • lprent …
                  22 August 2023 at 12:05 am

                  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.

                  • SPC …
                    22 August 2023 at 8:03 am

                    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).

              • bwaghorn …
                18 August 2023 at 6:58 pm

                Oh well back to the drawing board

                • Patricia Bremner …
                  18 August 2023 at 10:46 pm

                  Perhaps a shuttle to their car or to the bus stop/taxi. There needs to be some safety arrangement made.

          • Anne 1.4.1.1.2
            18 August 2023 at 6:33 pm

            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.

    • The Chairman 1.5
      18 August 2023 at 3:51 pm

      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?

  2. Sanctuary 2
    18 August 2023 at 9:08 am

    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.

    • Blazer 2.1
      18 August 2023 at 6:53 pm

      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.

  3. Peter 3
    18 August 2023 at 10:53 am

    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.

  4. SPC 4
    18 August 2023 at 12:28 pm

    National has revealed that it is the party acting on behalf of loan sharks.

    The party wants to roll back the Government's recent changes to the Credit Contract and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA).

    The changes were designed to crack down on 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

    • AB 4.1
      18 August 2023 at 1:49 pm

      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.

  5. SPC 5
    18 August 2023 at 1:02 pm

    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

  6. The Chairman 6
    18 August 2023 at 1:45 pm

    From Monday 4th September, Whanganui Accident & Medical (WAM) are changing their operating hours to 8am to 8pm

    https://www.wrhn.org.nz/post/change-in-operating-hours-at-whanganui-accident-and-medical-wam

    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]

  7. SPC 7
    18 August 2023 at 2:49 pm

    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 …

  8. ianmac 8
    18 August 2023 at 3:17 pm

    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.

    Westen reasoned that the political brain is not a cool calculator, carefully weighing up the pros and cons of policies that are peddled at election time. Rather, the political brain is an emotional brain, with voters’ political choices being determined by how they feel about a candidate or party, and what they stand for…. What mattered to them was the value statement behind Labour’s GST policy: times are tough and we’re on your side….

    But at the same time, Labour is endeavouring to spook the electorate about what a National-Act Government might mean, and what’s at risk if that’s indeed the outcome of the election.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/election-2023-mike-munro-never-mind-the-facts-politics-is-all-about-the-feels/G5HCF4EA25AQ7GTEGI45ZR6FNU/