Open mike 23/06/2024
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6:00 am, June 23rd, 2024 - 28 comments
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- This is bad news
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...2 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...11 hours ago - Chicken Kiev
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...14 hours ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
This is written in response to the highly significant open letter from a group of economists that was today addressed to Christopher Luxon. The year is 2024, and it’s 1984. The country is reeling from a record Olympic medal gold haul, while the globe grapples with the choice of the ...15 hours ago - The IPCA has failed
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...19 hours ago - Thursday 21 November 2024
The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...19 hours ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...21 hours ago - ACT’s Astroturfing & A Co-ordinated Attack on Te Pati Māori
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...22 hours ago - Durability of carbon dioxide removal is critical for stabilizing temperatures
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- Young Maori take over
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...2 days ago
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- We need to talk about Kevin
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Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...3 days ago
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- National’s support base is wobbling
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7 days ago - More lawlessness from National
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- The Haka Represents The Best Of Us
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- Adding up the climate cost
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The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...7 days ago
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As the weight of the world Hangs on your shoulders The weight of the world Starts to take over again And over again All that you once loved, now you hate So slowly relearn how to meditate To have and to hold And never let go Can you feel it ...1 week ago - Thursday 14 November 2024
The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...1 week ago
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As the Hikoi against it swells into the tens of thousands, KCs call on National to kill off ACT’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, November 14: The ...1 week ago - Dealing to the big Aussie banks
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Between 1950 and 1993 the New Zealand government tortured and abused up to 250,000 children in residential care facilities. Yesterday, following formal findings from a royal commission, it finally apologised for that abuse. The next step is redress and restitution - compensating the surviving victims for the appalling harm they ...1 week ago
- Voices echo
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- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
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Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
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- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
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- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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Kia ora koutou katoa. Nau mai, haere mai, piki mai. Ki te mihi atu ahau, ki te manwhenua nei, Te Atiawa, Ngāti toa rangatira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you, Andy, for your introduction. Let me acknowledge you as the new Chief Executive of the Social Investment ...7 days ago
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I think New Zealand needs its very own theory of the necessity of the state simply based on disasters.
For most countries that have been going for a couple of centuries, they'd have grown a mix of public and private institutions strong enough to weather most things the world throws at it. A nice solid mix.
And as a result, you'd think the need for massive active fresh state intervention would decrease over time.
Not here. We're just too accident-prone.
And yet we have a dominant Party who insists that stripping the state back every term is a good idea.
Hey maybe Ardern+Robertson's massive super-state interventionism is actually right for New Zealand (if not for the political appetite of our media).
We are quite an old state even by European terms if judged by the concept of a government for the whole of the country, certainly older than Italy and Germany and even Australia at a stretch. The Ardern/ Robertson interventionism is as old as coastal shipping and the railways and later the hydro dam building, strangely the actual linked up road system was almost an afterthought , I can’t remember how late it was before you could drive between Auckland and Wellington. so that must have been left to the Tory's and there trademarked prevarication. We are unique though in what we do have thrown at us from huge earthquakes, massive volcanic eruptions, tsunamis even and huge fires, one early one started by a cooking fire and raged for weeks from Cook Straight to North Canterbury, ironicly initiated on the holdings of a Prime Minister.
So I don’t think we have done too badly to get to where we have.
Oh fully agree.
We could easily have turned out like New Caledonia or Fiji.
We're nothing if not resolute.
Where are our opposition on the ferry grounding?
Tailor made opportunity to contrast the fast and loose political style of this government with the prudent, responsible forward thinking of the proposed ferry and terminal build of Labour.
Best not to walk into a minfield willingly imho
Ask and ye shall receive.
I give thanks for hearing Chris Hopkins on RNZ this Monday morning speaking about the ferries.
Well Gsays, where it is most times, left right out by the media of various persuasions, but do keep in mind even if there had been no change of government this little off water beach picnic excursion would probably still have happened because the new ferries are still quite a way away so shutting up and not coming across as smug and all I told you so-ey is probably the best idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/21/british-billionaire-hindujas-sentenced-to-jail-in-swiss-exploitation-case
Something to brighten your Sunday up!!🤣🤣
83 years ago today Operation Barbarosa teed off. That evening Chuchill addressed the nation.
https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/winston-churchills-broadcast-on-the-soviet-german-war.html
I've gotten old I read that as Operation Barbara uurk!
The ultimate shell game.
Netanyahu uses Hamas to justify occupation of the WB (he opposed the Oslo Accord so needed someone to help).
Abbas allows Hamas to run in PA elections, then takes over the WB with the President gun after his Fatah loses the parliamentary election. This divides Gaza from the WB. No more elections are held and he stays in power.
1 and 2 become symbiotic.
Hezbollah, distracted by the Syrian civilian war, now returns as Iranian judge of Israel.
The only place not threatened by their missiles is Jerusalem/Mount area/West Bank, where the settlements are.
Iran wants a unitary state in place of a Zionist one, but would tolerate Jews living on the West Bank within that Palestine and also religious Jews living where they are in Israel.
They merely want the end of a non Moslem ruled state in the area.
Threatening Cyprus (part Turkey occupied and with a British air base and intelligence base) reminds one of the past ruling powers in Palestine (and the Jewish refugee camps of the 1940's).
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2024/06/analysis-israel-and-hezbollah-faceoff-raises-risk-of-wider-conflict.html
Right wing settlers are intent on shifting Israel's border north to the Litani River.
Hezbollah are ready and waiting.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/coming-conflict-hezbollah
Sure, but that would be an IDF incursion in response to missiles on state of Israel territory.
It is part of their narrative that settlement beyond the 1948 state border protects Israel.
Judith Collins forgot to mention on Q and A to good morning Jack
2018 Labour-NZF ordered 4 Poseidon's
2020 Labour-NZF ordered 5 Hercules.
And talks about the big cost of replacing 2 757’s.
I noticed that, she is such a graceless harridan.
I had the feeling Tame was giving bully girl Collins an easy time of it. Too scared to rock the boat too much in case there were consequences?
Had to look up "harridan". Made my day. Thanks 😀.
Nailed it.
Why is the US not allowing missiles to be used against
1.any Russian air base involved in attacking the Ukraine power grid and supply?
2.any military advancing on Ukraine?
3.any supply to forces in Ukraine?
It seems to be drip feeding aid to prevent Ukrainian defeat to manage this outcome.
A north western Ukraine aligned with the EU but not confronting a Russian agenda for a nova Russia, a contiguous Donbass to Crimea in the south and east).
A new Cold War division (gaining Sweden and Finland, freezing Russia's banking assets), one of Ukraine, rather than Germany.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/06/23/ukraine-soldiers-want-deeper-strikes-as-us-supplied-weapons-show-impact/
Sounds familiar.
/
None of this is the Baumol effect or some general cost disease. When agency officials lose interest in building things and instead want to outsource their own jobs to consultants, it’s not Baumol; it’s experimenting with a new way of project delivery and then refusing to admit that it’s a failure.
https://pedestrianobservations.com/2024/06/22/meme-weeding-high-wages-and-baumols-cost-disease/
On the oval ground.
Australians also misremember Calypso cricket, with their own poor batting performance against Afghanistan.
Good on the Afgani team, taking full advantage of complacency. Even more humiliating for the Aussies as they downplayed the Kiwi defeat.
It is remarkable but im not sure they should be there given the Taliban killed off the womans team. The ICC are fairly liberal with their own rules when it suits..
they shouldn't be there.
TBH, I'm surprised the Taliban allow even men to play cricket.
The government has the 757 replacements to fund in 2025-2026. Probably A330’s (longer range and re-fueling capacity for the Poseidon’s).
The new ferries 2026-2027 (order now and pay then)? But in meantime lease a sea going salvage tug capacity.
The 2019 Defence Review mentioned a sealift ship and fishing patrol capability to the south (Antarctica).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350319695/live-pm-says-new-ferries-will-be-funded-unclear-when
Be interesting if they can get a build done after the last cancelation.
They may find builders a a bit wary and want more money upfront.
They can use penalty payment again … for a smaller ferry … a nice little earner either way.
The government is advised to buy new ferries that are not rail enabled.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/06/23/govt-advised-to-replace-cook-strait-ferries-with-new-smaller-boats/
https://archive.li/IO3M3
Presumably this is likely to result in the Inter Islander being taken from KiwiRail and either run as a separate SOE, or sold to a local infrastructure company.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/520270/aratere-ferry-grounding-simeon-brown-raised-concern-about-kiwirail-maintenance
Road damage in the SI is likely to increase.