Open mike 26/04/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 26th, 2025 - 35 comments
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35 comments on “Open mike 26/04/2025 ”

  1. bwaghorn 1
    26 April 2025 at 7:01 am

    https://www.interest.co.nz/property/133004/billions-spent-nz%E2%80%99s-accommodation-supplement-failing-make-rent-affordable-%E2%80%93-so-what

    It's always seemed blindly obvious to me but the proof is there although I reckons that it's causing more of the problem than the researcher states.

    Reply
    • Kay 1.1
      26 April 2025 at 8:53 am

      A related and similar article from Auckland university business school:

      "Yet despite rising rents and an increase in accommodation supplement recipients, government spending on the supplement actually decreased by $37 million last year. In fact, the scheme rarely exceeds its annual budget."

      "The supplement does not provide relief proportionate to market rents and housing affordability. Rents have increased, but the accommodation supplement has not."

      Call me (extremely) cynical, but one can take from this, that, landlords see any increase in core benefit rates to mean an increase in AC as well, so if their tenants allegedly have more 'disposable' income, they might as well get it via a rent rise.

      That massive flourescent pink elephant in the room that everyone is trying so hard to ignore in this debate is quite simply, the severe lack of housing behind the skyrocketing rents.

      Reply
      • mikesh 1.1.1
        26 April 2025 at 9:23 am

        That massive flourescent pink elephant in the room that everyone is trying so hard to ignore in this debate is quite simply, the severe lack of housing behind the skyrocketing rents.

        Or too many landlords, and highly endebted ones at that, pushing up the price of houses. Perhaps the government should ban the purchase of houses, for rental purposes, if the landlord needed to borrow. This would force would-be landlords to provide a house from their own resources, or go without. That might help keep prices down, which would also help first home buyers.

        Reply
      • tWig 1.1.2
        26 April 2025 at 11:01 am

        It's not so much a housing shortage, it's cartel pricing introduced by property managers who are paid as a percentage of rent, instead of as a flat fee, which has pushed prices up to $600 pw for the average rental, right across the country, where before there were price differences between eg, Auckland and Gisborne. Rents in my street went up from $300 to $600 pw over 7 or so years.

        Reply
    • AB 1.2
      26 April 2025 at 10:00 am

      That piece by Yiu and Cheung displays its questionable assumptions with this declaration, "[t]he accommodation supplement is undoubtedly grounded in good intentions." By this I assume they mean that the intention is to make life better for the recipients of the supplement. Someone like Chris Dillow might disagree. His counter-claim is that: "[w]elfare benefits, remember, are not so much a payment to recipients as a payment through them and thus a way of supporting some capitalists".

      In other words, the accommodation supplement acts to sustain the demand for private rental housing and therefore maintains private residential landlordism as a viable business model. By doing so, it prevents a durable solution to the housing problem, such as building large-scale publicly-owned housing with security of tenure. The cut-backs in Kainga Ora activity by the current government are consistent with this intention. Unlike the claim by Yiu and Cheung, the underlying intention seems to be a bad one – at least from the perspective of renters.

      Reply
  2. tWig 2
    26 April 2025 at 10:47 am

    West Lothian woman carried out shocking campaign of abuse against four children.

    Gender Critical activist Nicola Willis will now go on the sex offenders register, after being found guilty by the jury in her trial. Willis is still followed on twitter by prominent UK GC activists, like JKR, etc. She has been posting all through her trial about it, so it is not like they were not aware of the charges.

    "Nicola Murray sexually assaulted two victims by forcing her tongue into their mouths and freely talked about her sex life to another child including describing the size of her lover’s penis. Murray, 46, forced one child to view an explicit sexual image she had taken of a man she was dating and indecently assaulted another after stripping them naked."

    The UK press merely describes Willis as a 'domestic violence activist'. Now imagine the furore if she had been a trans woman.

    Reply
    • bwaghorn 2.1
      26 April 2025 at 10:53 am

      Maybe mod might want to delete the Nicola Willis bit I'm sure it's a slip of the keyboard, but rumors start easily.

      Reply
    • tWig 2.2
      26 April 2025 at 11:05 am

      SCOTTISH GC activist, Nicola Willis.

      As far as I know, Willis is not A gender critical activist.

      Surely it is clear to anyone who follows the NZ news that it is not the Nats’ 2IC.

      Reply
    • Tabletennis 2.3
      26 April 2025 at 11:19 am

      @tWig: according to your link:

      this person in your link is a "A high-profile domestic abuse activist"- No where it states anything about this person being a gender critical person.

      If it would have been a male transgender (transwomen)- you 1st have to realise oh, with “she” they mean male and another one to add to the list of offenders,regardless how they ID

      the furore is about the offence but also he on its way to a women’s prison

      Reply
      • tWig 2.3.1
        26 April 2025 at 3:47 pm

        Of course nowhere does the report say GC activist. That's the point. The anti-trans political activity of NICOLA MURRAY (sorry for mistake, I wrote the comment at the library after an all-nighter) after she refused to refer women from her private domestic-abuse charity to the local rape crisis centre because it had a trans woman (brought up in India, fully transitioned, and with a female birth certificate) as CEO.

        Reply
        • tWig 2.3.1.1
          26 April 2025 at 4:01 pm

          She also allegedly (reported in social media, presumably by someone who sat in on her trial):

          "Nicola Murray, a "gender critical" activist, who was found guilty of abusing four children [over 20 years, so presumably her own children] subjected one of the children to transphobic abuse, calling them "trnny because they cut their hair short"

          I put this comment thread up to expose the hypocrisy of those who unfairly snd untruthfully point ‘grooming’ fingers at trans people, while not even taking the time to at least make a statement condemning child abuse and sexual assault by one of their own.

          [you’re in premod. You now need to provide back up for every claim you make. That’s the ones I listed above, and the ones in this comment. It’s not ok to just repeat unsubstaniated rumour you find online. If you want to make an argument about hypocrisy, that’s fine, you just can make claims of fact that don’t have an evidence base while you do it. I’m out of town, don’t have time to follow up myself, so handing it over to you. Expect some delays in comments being released – weka.]

          Reply
          • Tabletennis 2.3.1.1.1
            26 April 2025 at 5:55 pm

            @ tWig
            I like to think most people condemn abuse of children. Regardless who does it.
            It is good she was exposed but way too late.

            Yet NZ it seems not able to shake of its reputation of child abuse and neglect – we only just, sort of, passed the abuse of children in care.
            Sexual abuse includes the possession and trading of child pornography.

            Volunteer organisation have time and again pointed out the neglect of child safeguarding issues, in regards to the transgender ideology, such as in NZ Resist Gender Education, SUFW and WRP.

            Perhaps you missed the memo.

            an OI request on the prison population between 2020-July 2024 of trans identifying males came back with these numbers:

            Q: The number of trans identifying males in custody during each period
             An average of 86 trans-identifying males served a custodial sentence or were remanded in custody each year for the past five years.
             Approximately 35 trans-identifying males are serving a custodial sentence or are remanded in custody at any given time.

            Q: The number of the trans identifying males who were sentenced or on remand for crimes involving 'sexual assault' during each period
             Approximately 14% of the trans-identifying male sentenced offenders were charged with (on remand) or sentenced for sexual assault.

            Compared with the stats over the whole male population:

            “trans-identifying males – even more than the whole male population – are over represented in prison statistics.”

            “While acknowledging the broader societal challenges faced by trans-identifying individuals, it is essential to separate these issues from criminal behaviour patterns. Marginalisation does not justify or explain away offending rates that match or exceed those of other men.”

            https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/post/media-release-trans-identifying-males-over-represented-in-nz-prisons?cid=80b839de-48e6-4128-a865-7cf50ebf7de9

            Reply
          • weka 2.3.1.1.2
            27 April 2025 at 10:29 am

            So glad the police and courts finally caught up with her and she's been convicted.

            Fuck me TRAs are terrible at evidence. You've made these claims with zero back up. Might be true, might be a load of bollocks:

            1. that Murray is a gender critical activist
            2. that JKR follows Murray on twitter
            3. that other prominent GC activists follow her on twitter
            4. that JKR has been posting all through Murray's trial about it. Do you mean JKR tweeted about Murray's trial? Or Murray tweeted about it?

            I went to twitter to see what could find and the first thing is a bunch of TRAs saying similar who likewise don't bother with actual evidence. It's not that what you say might not be true, it's that we have no way of knowing without you showing us directly your sources. Please up your game.

            Reply
          • weka 2.3.1.1.3
            27 April 2025 at 10:34 am

            mod note. As we know, you have quite some history of doing this. I thought you have improved hugely in the past year, so it's disappointing seeing you revert back to this kind of commenting.

            Reply
        • Visubversa 2.3.1.2
          26 April 2025 at 4:59 pm

          Mridul Wadhwa did not have a Gender Recognition Certificate and was not entitled to apply for the Edinburgh rape crisis centre position. He resigned last year. He told rape victims that they were not permitted to ask for female counsellors or case workers. A Rape Crisis Scotland report found he failed to behave professionally and that the needs of survivors were not prioritised.

          The place became a national scandal with staff members unlawfully discriminated against.

          "Judge Ian McFatridge ruled that the centre must publish an apology to Ms Adams on its website and that it must refer sexual assault victims to Beira’s Place, the Edinburgh women’s refuge where Ms Adams now works".

          https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6248z383x7o

          Reply
  3. Stephen D 3
    26 April 2025 at 1:48 pm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360631491/were-losing-fight-against-meth-how-its-use-doubled-just-months

    ”At the end of last year, the use of methamphetamine in New Zealand suddenly spiked. It doubled in just a few months.”

    And what’s our Minister of Police doing about it? Fishing in Bali. If this was a Labour government, there would be demand for resignations. With National, crickets.

    Reply
    • tc 3.1
      26 April 2025 at 2:55 pm

      Mitchell got the job he wanted including his choice of commissioner so he should be facing questions.

      This is the laura norder party after all

      Reply
  4. SPC 4
    26 April 2025 at 4:39 pm

    DOdGiE regulatory regime excess.

    How many proper school meals sacrificed for this black mirror like commissar vanity project.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/559133/ministry-of-regulation-salaries-continue-to-top-average-150k-one-year-on

    Reply
    • Incognito 4.1
      26 April 2025 at 4:54 pm

      Dismantling the state sector from the inside cannot be a cheap process and neither cost nor time has ever been an object for neo-authoritarians to achieve their agenda.

      Reply
      • KJT 4.1.1
        26 April 2025 at 4:57 pm

        DOGE!

        NZ version.

        Reply
        • Incognito 4.1.1.1
          26 April 2025 at 5:10 pm

          True.

          TBH, I don’t pay any attention to DOGE (in the US) and therefore I don’t see how those comparisons are useful [for NZ]. In fact, I tend to think that they’re a distraction rather and foment outrage.

          Reply
          • SPC 4.1.1.1.1
            26 April 2025 at 5:20 pm

            They are useful.

            Dismantling administrative competence is of a design to undermine confidence in government delivery.

            Reply
            • Incognito 4.1.1.1.1.1
              26 April 2025 at 5:30 pm

              What can we learn from comparative analysis and what from structural analysis? Our attention, cognitive resources, and time are limited.

              IMHO, here on TS, and elsewhere, much oxygen is spent inefficiently (unwisely), to borrow Luxon speak.

              Reply
          • KJT 4.1.1.1.2
            26 April 2025 at 7:50 pm

            Maybe not happening as fast as the USA, but the same impulses, and the same actors,are influencing the destruction of our States ability to function.

            The drive towards Oligarchy, Cookerism, shrinking State capability, and enthroning stupidity (Useful idiots like Seymour), to assist in burgling the commons, is happening here.
            There are lessons to be learned from the US demolition.

            Reply
            • Incognito 4.1.1.1.2.1
              26 April 2025 at 9:42 pm

              There are lessons to be learned from the US demolition.

              I’m not disputing that but my point is that we […] seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time looking elsewhere before (?) we get our own house in order. At some stage lessons need to be put into practice and turned into action with tangible outcomes.

              Speaking for myself, I tend to absorb large amounts of information before I do anything with [some of] it, if at all – strategizing, planning, and goal-setting are key if I want to accomplish anything IRL.

              Reply
  5. Stephen D 5
    26 April 2025 at 5:08 pm

    Pablo taking an academic approach to our government and others.

    https://www.kiwipolitico.com/2025/04/a-culture-of-cruelty/

    ”A culture of cruelty is one in which social groups and organisations, including governments, engage in particularly cruel behaviour in order to punish, humiliate and revel in the plight of others, particularly political opponents and scapegoated social out-groups.”

    The more we understand how it works, the better equipped we are to fight it.

    Reply
    • SPC 5.1
      26 April 2025 at 5:24 pm

      Social outcasts including those competent in positions of government administration – as if such get in the way of the GOP program**.

      Reply
  6. joe90 6
    26 April 2025 at 6:59 pm

    but tariffs were supposed to be paid by those other countries…

    .

    Why Demopolis?

    Demopolis was selected for this analysis not just because of its political leanings, but because it reflects a broader American experience—rural yet not remote, economically strained yet full of pride. It’s the kind of place where Walmart is both the center of commerce and a community touchstone. A policy decision thousands of miles away can immediately reshape household budgets here.

    […]

    The Price of Pampers: A Sharp Climb

    At the Walmart in Demopolis, a box of Pampers Swaddlers Size 4 (120-count) currently costs $44.99, up from $38.50 just six months ago—a 17% increase even without new tariffs.

    […]

    That’s a 69% increase from today’s price, or $31.22 more per box. A baby using around 240 diapers a month would go through two boxes—costing a family $62.44 a month, just for diapers.

    https://staf.substack.com/p/demopolis-usa-where-pampers-will?r=1n9zo6

    Reply
  7. joe90 7
    26 April 2025 at 7:22 pm

    Tl;dr – doing alright and then along came the cookers. Good luck.

    /

    .

    US at ‘precipice of disaster’ with measles as vaccinations drop, study finds

    Disease could re-establish itself in less than 25 years, Stanford researchers say

    […]

    Measles is a highly contagious viral condition that particularly affects children, can infect various organs and cause permanent damage such as blindness. In 2000, the US declared it had eliminated the disease, a milestone that authorities attribute to vaccination and a strong public health system for detecting and responding to cases.

    But measles vaccination coverage among US children in kindergarten fell from 95.2 per cent in 2019-2020 to 92.7 per cent in 2023-24 — below the 95 per cent threshold for effective herd immunity.

    The modelling study examined scenarios for varying childhood vaccination rates for measles, rubella, polio and diphtheria. They used a simulation model to assess how the diseases might enter and spread within the US, taking into account estimates of disease arrival risk, demography and population immunity. They used childhood vaccination rates from data between 2004 and 2023 as a baseline.

    The model predicted that, at current vaccination rates, measles could become endemic again in 20.9 years and lead to more than 850,000 cases over 25 years. A 10 per cent decrease in vaccination rates was forecast to lead to 11.1mn cases over the same period.

    https://www.ft.com/content/19caa490-6fc5-4ebc-b335-780b020164c2

    Reply

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