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Open mike 22/04/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 22nd, 2021 - 35 comments
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35 comments on “Open mike 22/04/2021 ”

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  1. Cricklewood 1
    22 April 2021 at 8:08 am

    Given we've been assured that "rents have tended to mirror wage growth" just wondering if anyone here has seen a 6 percent wage increase recently?

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2104/S00327/rents-show-biggest-annual-increase-in-over-two-years.htm

  2. Jimmy 2
    22 April 2021 at 8:55 am

    This person should not be let out of jail early.

    Previous to this he stomped on someone's neck. So its not a one off incident. When he gets angry, he gets the prison guard to lock him in his cell…..what happens when he is released and gets angry?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/124890747/man-who-fatally-headbutted-victim-over-parking-space-to-serve-less-than-half-his-sentence-in-prison

    Only one and a half years in jail for killing someone looking after a disabled person over a parking space.

  3. Peter 3
    22 April 2021 at 9:00 am

    According to the headlines Mike Hosking reckons we're heading for a brain drain to Australia. Means he's staying I guess

    • Sabine 3.1
      22 April 2021 at 9:15 am

      well there are others then Mike Hosking who reckon the same. Builder and Nurses first, anyone else who may have a chance at a job (for those not working from home and construction) and an affordable house.

      Why not? Indeed why not?

      • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1
        22 April 2021 at 10:13 am

        It's a nice place to visit…

        "I will not allow Australia to ever become a country where people say 'it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there'." – Julia Gillard (2010)

      • Peter 3.1.2
        22 April 2021 at 11:36 am

        People have always left Hokitika for Christchurch or Hokianga for Whangarei or Whangarei for Auckland or Auckland for London.

        This week and next week what would you do to keep people heading off to the streets paved with gold?

        What should other countries do to stop their people leaving their homelands to come here to do the low paid work our economy apparently needs which we can't furnish orders for?

        • Sabine 3.1.2.1
          22 April 2021 at 11:43 am

          pay them as much as we do here, cause that is why they are here. Our low paid jobs are still better then theirs, in the same sense as OZ low paid jobs are still better paid then ours here, and their houses are cheaper.

          And economic migrant is an economic migrant, no matter if you call them Ex-pat or Immigrant.

          • Patricia Bremner 3.1.2.1.1
            22 April 2021 at 1:10 pm

            Sabine, how long is it since you were in Australia? Many homes have

            1. water charges

            2. Bodycorp charges

            3. Rates charges

            4. Surcharges for storm and flood damage.

            They have surging house prices, high unemployment, and good luck getting a work visa, plus needing sufficient funds for your stay, a permanent address, an ABN and an Australian bank account. Not quite as easy as you are saying.

            • Patricia Bremner 3.1.2.1.1.1
              22 April 2021 at 1:18 pm

              A number of ex-Kiwis are coming here as they see help being offered. This Government did not create Rotorua's drug or gang problem. In Australia, the Centre Link pages offer all sorts, until you get to the bit that says "Except for New Zealanders" They get one time help once only, and do not qualify for anything else except medicare. Go figure.

            • Cricklewood 3.1.2.1.1.2
              22 April 2021 at 6:18 pm

              Not much different to Auckland then, we also have the bonus that alot of our apartment buildings and townhouses are steaming piles of turd… that includes the new ones… see Stonefields… scaffold and wrap up on new by the quarry in 3 Kings only 3 years old… tearing the guts out of new 'executive' apartments in Grafton and keeping the reasons very very quiet with non disclosure agreements.

              But to be fair I think Aus has its fair share of problems in that regard…

          • Peter 3.1.2.1.2
            22 April 2021 at 1:15 pm

            So, in Vanuatu and Fiji and wherever they should have minimum wages which are equivalent to ours? And us? We should find out what builders and nurses are paid in Australia and make those the minimum here?

            • Sabine 3.1.2.1.2.1
              22 April 2021 at 1:53 pm

              What should other countries do to stop their people leaving their homelands to come here to do the low paid work our economy apparently needs which we can't furnish orders for?

              this was your question, my answer is here

              a. increase the wages of our low paid work that no one here wants to do cause they would not earn enough money to pay rent in a n 8 bedroom dorm of a Hostel to something that would afford the median 600 odd dollar now charged for 2 – 3 bedrooms without outgoings and food.

              b. remove any unemployment benefits and other benefits and force people here to do these jobs that they don't want to do because low pay.

              c. accept the fact that we will import low wage workers as NZ has done since ages ago – be they the early chinese communities, the european migrants, refugees etc, and call that cheap labour these guys and i once upon a time had to do to earn their 'right to breathe the good air of NZ' (yes, i was told that) – the 'Kiwi Experience'.
              d. drop our min wage to that of vanuatu to remove any incentives for the guys from vanuatu to come here, or increase their to what we have so that they don’t have an incentive to come here.

              Or else, find some Kiwis that are happy to work in understaffed old folks homes, that clean our hospitals and old folk homes, that pick our food, that do all sorts of jobs that we don't want to do. But you don't get to complain about someone applying to come here for a better live, when all of Pakeha NZ basically is build on Migration.
              .

    • Muttonbird 3.2
      22 April 2021 at 10:02 am

      I suspect there will be quite a few Covid refugees who returned home from Europe and the US go to Australia. They believe they are too big for New Zealand. They hate it here and rather than fix the perceived faults they'd rather chip away from places like Brisbane.

      • Sabine 3.2.1
        22 April 2021 at 10:25 am

        Why do you think that people are 'too big' for NZ, when all they want mostly is a steady income, a house, and maybe a bit more sun?

        Personally OZ is not for me, but then i live in Rotorua now, and i know quite a few people who are planning to leave. And why not? Seriously why not? No jobs. And i mean that. No houses – not for rent not to buy. Gangs fucking everywhere and no cops in sight, no social workers in sight, no government in sight. Panhandling, Drug dealing, open prostitution. Why not leave to OZ, after all where would you move to in NZ to escape this? Auckland? Wellington? lol. See above the article of a women living in an 8 bedroom dorm in a Hostel while being a student in Wellington. Why not move.

        Maybe its not that those that leave think they are to big for NZ, maybe NZ has no use for them, maybe NZ government has written of whole towns/regions as 'too hard to do anything there', and maybe NZ really does not care for those that have not made it big enough to actually live and eat and be warm in NZ on a standard wage without having to beg Winz for a subsidy.

    • Patricia Bremner 3.3
      22 April 2021 at 12:58 pm

      Lol He would go well there, He and Jones!!

  4. Sanctuary 4
    22 April 2021 at 9:12 am

    Surprise, surprise – Australia continually treating us like a piece of shit stuck on their shoe has consequences for both countries.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300283352/foreign-minister-nanaia-mahutas-remarks-on-china-blindside-australian-officials

  5. WeTheBleeple 5
    22 April 2021 at 9:24 am

    I want to bring this group to the attention of TS. It's a Brash/Newman fan club with accent on fake patriotism and shutting down those pesky darkies.

    Kiwi Frontline.

    No link. Not gonna make it easy for idiots. Journos, I present you this haven for haters. Now do what you do do well.

  6. Stephen D 6
    22 April 2021 at 9:30 am

    The establishment of a new Public Health Agency gives me real hope. One of the key things I will be looking for is how much sway with the new agency the alcohol lobby will have.

    Alcohol is a real scourge on all levels of our society. We really do need to start to regulate it’s sale much like we have done, and continue to do, with tobacco.

    Stopping the sale of all alcohol in supermarkets. Regulate the number of liquor stores in any given area on a per head of population basis. These would be two great places to start.

  7. RedBaronCV 7
    22 April 2021 at 12:09 pm

    Well that didn't take long did it. So much for any labour market resets – talk about ignoring people who vote for you Labour. And relying on continuing immigration despite the headaches that it has given us in every other area.

    Back to importing cheap labour to compete with the local unemployed and our own young people coming onto the employment market. So much for any tourism reset. And given that no tourists doesn't seem to have done much over al, economic harm.

    Plus we look like we are again going to be letting in the families of temporary workers with 12 months left on the visa. Are we again holding out false hope – that temporary visas can be made permanent easily – and at the expense of our own workforce.

    All this in the face of the the study into the fruit industry and local studies that show local labour displaced low productivity and under utilisation – women and maori in oarticular being affected.

    from Monday 19 April, applicants from the 14 uncapped countries who are currently in Australia will be able to apply for a New Zealand Working Holiday Visa. INZ is promising to process applications within the standard timeframes.

    The countries concerned are the UK, USA, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

    “This is great news for tourism and hospitality businesses struggling to find additional staff, especially temporary and part-time roles. There may be up to 45,000 young travellers in Australia although we don’t know how many would be from the 14 eligible countries,” Mr Roberts says.

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2104/S00231/tourism-employers-welcome-back-working-holidaymakers.htm

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2104/S00125/border-exceptions-will-see-more-families-reunited.htm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/300278980/the-underemployed-marlborough-has-too-many-parttimers-who-want-more-work

  9. Jenny how to get there 9
    23 April 2021 at 4:56 am

    Putting Private Wealth before Public Health risks both.

    The catalogue of Right Wing administrations, Trump, Bolsanaro, Modi, that have prioritised the economy over fighting the pandemic have ended up damaging both.

    Hopefully Andrew Little’s reforms will reinforce and harden our health system, ready to ramp up against any outbreak, (an outbreak that some have said will be inevitable with the more open borders).

    Let’s hope Little’s reforms are not too late, that the Health Minister can muster the massive health resources our nation will need against an outbreak.

    Victory was declared prematurely and that ebullient mood was communicated across the country, especially by politicians who wanted to get the economy going…….

    Sounds like the braying of our National opposition MPs. Thank goodness they were not in power when the pandemic struck.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/system-has-collapsed-india-descent-into-covid-hell?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3p9h4if_OgJdoHuj60wgbE5HmpheEXRk1ZWbZ1b9xI566z3G5ypJpYFZo#Echobox=1619005174