Open Mike 20/08/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 20th, 2017 - 51 comments
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51 comments on “Open Mike 20/08/2017 ”

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  1. ScottGN 1
    20 August 2017 at 6:35 am

    More polling excitement.
    Labour’s pollsters UMR have splashed their latest results into the media.
    No wonder Steven Joyce is keeping a tight lid on his party’s polling.

    National 40

    Labour 37

    NZ First 9

    Greens 8

    • Ed 1.1
      20 August 2017 at 8:34 am

      Funny – the corporate media aren’t running stories about the steady decline of their preferred political party …..

    • james 1.2
      20 August 2017 at 4:25 pm

      I thought the polling companies were all rigged by “the man” and were there to shape the muggins public?

      Did they change their minds ? or was all that nonsense – just that.

      • Robert Guyton 1.2.1
        20 August 2017 at 4:59 pm

        James; you must be sh*tting!

        🙂

        • james 1.2.1.1
          20 August 2017 at 5:27 pm

          Nope.

          • Robert Guyton 1.2.1.1.1
            20 August 2017 at 6:14 pm

            You are sweating bricks, my friend; bricks.

            • james 1.2.1.1.1.1
              20 August 2017 at 7:07 pm

              I doubt what you know how Im feeling better than I.

              But – you live in fairy land – so yeah – keep on keeping on.

              • In Vino …
                20 August 2017 at 9:16 pm

                Sad to see someone in denial twist and turn so earnestly..
                Some of us argue that polls in general influence how some people will vote – but don’t confuse that with other arguments about accuracy, fairness.
                I suggest you clear your mind with a good round of golf. But just you stuff up one shot…

                • james …
                  21 August 2017 at 11:38 am

                  Despite living on a golf course for years in a previous lift – never played the game.

                  Me – Ive been consistent with my views on polls – its a lot of the other commentators on here that seem to have a new found respect for them since they are showing some thing that they want to see.

              • Robert Guyton …
                20 August 2017 at 9:24 pm

                There’s a train a’comin’ down the track, James, clickety clack, clickety clack…

  2. ScottGN 2
    20 August 2017 at 6:53 am

    Quite apart from the fact that the Cabinet Manual advises against making the sort of announcement National made yesterday regarding a new hospital for Dunedin so close to the election, it seems amazing that they’ve learned nothing from 10 bridges debacle during the Northland by-election.

  3. marty mars 3
    20 August 2017 at 7:59 am

    Nice article on Jack – I learned a lot and I admire him – it isn’t easy being a lighter skinned Māori – sometimes walking in 2 worlds can feel like you are in neither… and that is when the ancestors can really help out.

    https://e-tangata.co.nz/news/jack-mcdonald-learning-about-my-whakapapa

    • Carolyn_nth 3.1
      20 August 2017 at 8:22 am

      Thanks for that link. McDonald is very inspiring. I didn’t realise he had James K Baxter in his whakapapa, too.

      Also from that article I learned about Turei mentoring and supporting diverse people into the Green Party, including McDonald.

      I understand 8% in the election MAY bring McDonald into parliament. But, to be certain, I think aiming for 9-10% is necessary.

    • JanM 3.2
      20 August 2017 at 8:58 am

      Yes – my family have many experiences of being treated differently on the basis of appearance. I have 2 sons, both Maori/Pakeha. I have one potato, one kumara (description pinched from Pita Sharples) and it has been a constant revelation to see how differently they have been treated in both worlds, and the effect it has had on them.

  4. joe90 4
    20 August 2017 at 9:22 am

    On a roll.

    JUST IN: Christopher Columbus statue vandalized in Houston's Bell Parkhttps://t.co/ShAZTVx5ID pic.twitter.com/IqQw2ZDqlU— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) August 18, 2017

    Closeup of tar and feathers on vandalized Jefferson Davis Confederate monument east of Phoenix. #Fox10Phoenix pic.twitter.com/7ltfxYPyPB— Steve Krafft Fox 10 (@SKrafftFox10) August 17, 2017

  5. The Fairy Godmother 5
    20 August 2017 at 10:19 am

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95891686/artworks-used-to-funnel-secret-donors-contributions-to-the-labour-party?cid=facebook.post.95891686 The media desperately trying to find something anything against the labour party. What I really like though are the comments mostly calling them out on it.

    • Carolyn_nth 5.1
      20 August 2017 at 10:49 am

      Well, I tend to agree that donors of big sums to political parties should be made public. more importantly, I think money should be taken out of elections.

      This in the article:

      Stuff is calling for transparency in political funding so the identity of all donors be promptly disclosed to the Electoral Commission. Stuff asks that loopholes allowing donors to be masked by trusts and other aggregators, like fundraising dinners and art auctions, be closed.

      And that is a reference to the way the National Party collects money.

      And today Stuff also has an article about a couple of Green Party donors, along with calls by the GP for more transparency in political donations.

      The Green Party has fronted up two of its secret campaign donors as pressure mounts on the bigger parties to do the same.

      New analysis by Stuff shows more than 80 per cent of donations to the two big parties are from donors whose identities are undisclosed.

      Stuff is calling for transparency in political funding so the identity of all donors be promptly disclosed to the Electoral Commission.

      And this from a mainstream media outlet that is usually very quick to attack the GP.

  6. Draco T Bastard 6
    20 August 2017 at 10:25 am

    National would tax water as well

    National working behind closed doors on its own water pricing plans

    The Government has had its officials working behind closed doors for some time now on proposals to put a price on water.

    This is despite its loud opposition to Labour’s proposals to do exactly that.

    The Ministry for Environment’s Technical Advisory Group’s (TAG) investigation into how to allocate water is supposed to complete the latest phase of its work in November – safely after the election.

    The group is chaired by former Labour Minister, David Caygill, who didn’t want to comment last night on the progress the group is making.

    And Environment Minister Nick Smith has not responded to a number of requests for comment.

    Anybody else heard anything about this?

    So far it’s only from the single source.

    • Graeme 6.1
      20 August 2017 at 11:25 am

      When Labour’s policy was first announced there was a comment in MSM from a senior cabinet minister (Finlayson or maybe English) that said in effect – You can’t do this, we’ve been trying to put it together for years and can’t make it work because “maoris” –

      I’ve been trying to find it but can’t get it again.

      More like they saw the writing in the wall from their polling that they’d have to go there to retain power, so tried to put something together that wouldn’t upset their donor base, and it all went to bits.

      It’s been obvious that resource royalties are part of where water management is going ever since the metering requirements came in 2010 http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Resource-Consents/Resource-Management-Measurement-and-Reporting-of-Water-Takes-Regulations-2010/ All the information is being gathered now that would enable quite specific charging for all or part of nearly all takes. Work on this would have gone several governments.

    • amirite 6.2
      20 August 2017 at 3:24 pm

      If anything comes out of this, it will be heavily watered down to homeopathic level

  7. Carolyn_nth 7
    20 August 2017 at 10:32 am

    A story breaking today in Aussie, via the ABC, about the Aussie Pine Gap surveillance site’s role in collecting data for US military operations:

    National Security Agency documents exclusively obtained by Background Briefing reveal the extent to which Australia is assisting the United States military to fight its wars.

    These documents, together with the stories of people intimately involved in those wars, uncover the crucial role the US-Australian satellite surveillance base at Pine Gap in Central Australia has in battlefield operations around the world. Peter Cronau reports.

    [links to various leaked documents]

    These documents come from the archive leaked by Edward Snowden to journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald. They were submitted to the NSA for comment prior to publication.

    And this ABC article explains.

    The documents reveal that the base outside Alice Springs, officially titled Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, provides detailed geolocation intelligence to the US military that can be used to locate targets, including for special forces and drone strikes.

    The use of lethal unmanned drones by the US military has been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths across countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

    …
    Another secret NSA document, a “site profile” of Pine Gap, explains that the facility’s role is not only to collect signals, but to analyse them.

    “RAINFALL detects, collects, records, processes, analyses and reports on PROFORMA signals collected from tasked target entities,” the profile says.

    These PROFORMA signals are the communications data of radar and weapon systems such as surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aircraft — vital tactical information that is provided in near real-time to US forces on the battlefield.

  8. Ms Fargo 8
    20 August 2017 at 10:43 am

    Following on from the devastating list recorded in the Standard’s article “National’s Record on the Environment – Abysmal” – perhaps Al Morrison’s name should also be added to this comment:
    “Clearly Ministers Bennett, Smith, and Barry need to be called out! “

  9. Penny Bright 9
    20 August 2017 at 10:45 am

    WHERE’S THE NZ POLICE ‘WHITE COLLAR’ CRIME INVESTIGATIVE UNIT?

    “Businesses are spending thousands of dollars on private investigators to probe white collar crime because police won’t touch fraud cases unless they are “gold plated”, sources say.

    Figures released under the Official Information Act show that as at July 28, there were 888 files where a possible fraud or deception offence had been committed, but was yet to be assigned for investigation.”

    https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/white-collar-crime-rampant-as-nearly-900-fraud-complaints-go-uninvestigated/

    Penny Bright

    2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.

    Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.

    • eco Maori/kiwi 9.1
      20 August 2017 at 6:16 pm

      The hypocrisy of NZ approach to fraud on Victoria University web site
      benefit fraud$ 244.768 over 12 years $10.000 order to be payed back by judge
      2 years 5 months jail time
      $84.919 9 months Home detention order to pay back $10.000
      These people will be paying back $40 a week for 5 years

      Tax agent fraud $769.538 10 month home detention 120 hours community service
      no money ordered to be paid back WOW this person will wipe off $25000 a day while they are in jail this person pays back nothing

      This is exactly why I have said if you got If $2 million you can lawyer up and get off most offences with a slap on the hand This is why the police wont take on those 900 fraud cases it will cost to much for the police to prosecute
      and take years

      And in a Criminal court the judge will accept statements from some one whom has being given a get out of jail free card and given money for there statements/ evidence

  10. dv 10
    20 August 2017 at 12:37 pm

    BUT BUT BUT
    12 Billion and counting for hospital and roads.- in 2 days
    At this rate there will be 50b promises by the election.

    (And NO bridges in northland)

    • The decrypter 10.1
      20 August 2017 at 12:49 pm

      I Billion for the pie in the sky is next.

    • Psych nurse 10.2
      20 August 2017 at 1:32 pm

      But the Christchurch Northern Motorway and road to Ashburton are almost finished, talk about taking credit where none is due.

    • Stuart Munro 10.3
      20 August 2017 at 2:25 pm

      “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

      You can always tell when it’s election time.

      • Psych nurse 10.3.1
        20 August 2017 at 3:39 pm

        Sort of like a knocking shop.

        • Incognito 10.3.1.1
          20 August 2017 at 5:35 pm

          🙂

          I can feel the ‘love’ emanating from National, paid for with our taxes.

          I prefer the dance of the seven veils over the full frontal from National but subtlety has never been one of their strengths. Is it too early to mention the “P” word?

          • In Vino 10.3.1.1.1
            20 August 2017 at 6:06 pm

            Pribery?

            • Incognito 10.3.1.1.1.1
              20 August 2017 at 7:39 pm

              Pathetic or panic; take your pick – I had the second one in mind. Of course, pragmatic, pimping, propaganda, posturing, procrastinating, postponing, pandering, pork barreling, or simply piffle are appropriate words here too.

  11. savenz 11
    20 August 2017 at 12:53 pm

    What brought Italy’s ‘dying town’ back from the edge of extinction? A tourist toll

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/19/civita-di-bagnoregio-italy-dying-town-tourist-toll

    Maybe instead of local ratepayers having to fund tourism and pay more while they get less services such as libraries and maintenance for it, the answer is to charge those that don’t live in the city to pay a few dollars.

    Like wise this comment about charging those that come in on cruise ships,

    “Venezia should charge cruise ship passengers 50 euros each to enter the city from the port, and charge cruise companies 2 million for each ship to pass in front of St. Marks.
    Rail and road arrivals should be charged 10 euros each, or 50 euros to anyone who calls it ‘Venice’.”

    Instead of Aucklander rate payers financing ports of Auckland infrastructure for their cruise ships – maybe the tourists themselves pay for their port and the infrastructure they need via ports of Auckland. Personally get little from someone coming into Auckland for a few hours and buying trinkets from a stores and buses clogging up the roads going to Kelly Tarltons.

  12. The Fairy Godmother 12
    20 August 2017 at 1:16 pm

    At the Labour Party campaign launch. People still coming in. It will be full.

  13. millsy 13
    20 August 2017 at 1:20 pm

    Looks like Colin Meads has died.

  14. millsy 14
    20 August 2017 at 1:56 pm

    Mrs Soper in the Auckland Herald claiming that we would be cleaning up the mess of the Green’s welfare policy for decades.

    Never mind that we are still cleaing up the mess from Shipley and Richardson’s slashing of welfare back in 1991.

    Those two must be a gas at dinner parties….NOT!

  15. Janet 15
    20 August 2017 at 2:58 pm

    “Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson: NZ should hold out for better TPP ”
    When will our politicians get it … most of us want nothing to do with TPP. When are they going to start listening to the people they represent instead of trying to tell us what is good for us.

  16. Draco T Bastard 16
    20 August 2017 at 3:15 pm

    National unveils $10.5 billion plan for 10 new major highways

    National’s seven Roads of National Significance are either complete or being constructed, and Transport Minister Simon Bridges said it was time for “a new generation of nation-building projects”.

    Bridges said the estimated cost the new projects was $10.5 billion, compared to the $12 billion for the previous seven projects. The projects were chosen because they were New Zealand’s highest-volume roads.

    1. Need some citations on them being the highest volume roads
    2. Need some citations on them carrying enough traffic to warrant extension
    3. Need some citations on roads being the best option rather than, say, electric trains
    4. Where’s the BCR’s on these?
    5. Need the research showing how much they expect this to increase our GHG emissions and how much that will cost us.

    They really just don’t get it do they?

    More roads, more farms and cutting taxes seem to be their only options on developing our nation and our economy.

    • marty mars 16.1
      20 August 2017 at 3:48 pm

      +1

      What a sad set of policies so far from the gnats and this one must take the cake for flat out dimness. How short sighted and bereft of ideas these gnats are. Out of steam – pathetic.

  17. Robert Guyton 17
    20 August 2017 at 5:14 pm

    English on the campaign trail, giving his coat to a cold supporter and her child – miserable scene; why on earth was that child out on a day like that at an event that meant nothing to anyone, other than the trucking industry?

  18. joe90 18
    20 August 2017 at 7:29 pm

    A long piece in response to James Damore’s google memo.

    Introduction

    So there’s this memo that’s been bouncing around the internet from a Mr. James Damore over at Google, in which he outlines his manifesto against diversity interventions. This gentleman apparently chose to post this piece, which is insulting on a variety of levels and framed in the language of biology and behavior, to the company-wide listserv, where it predictably incited inflamed and angry responses. Many folks much more eloquent and succinct have already explained why Mr. Damore’s action was not acceptable, and I suggest you go and read them all. But I want to go into a little more detail about an aspect of his piece that hasn’t yet been covered in great depth: the actual biology he references so enthusiastically and confidently.

    https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boots-on-what-the-evidence-says-about-mr-damores-google-memo-bc93c8b2fdb9