Open Mike 26/06/2018

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 26th, 2018 - 70 comments
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70 comments on “Open Mike 26/06/2018 ”

  1. AsleepWhileWalking 1

    Witness testified *in exchange for immunity*

    We’ve got to stop relying on this type of testimony to secure convictions.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/stories/2018649766/witness-i-tried-to-find-deane-s-body

    • Wairua 1.1

      Remembering Grenfell .. “this is not the previous generation’s gentrification. The housing crisis in many of our urban areas is not the result of normal real estate market forces. Local gentrification cycles have been “supercharged” by the fact that many cities are now a global destination to park investment capital.”

      https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-06-22/remembering-grenfell-who-are-our-cities-for/

      • SaveNZ 1.1.1

        +1 Wirua – sad as well that the ‘management company’ profited as they killed them through their decisions on the cladding to save money and actually they did not even care just wanted the residents to shut up. And NZ is going down the same path if the people stay silent and let our councils and government make those mistakes.

  2. Ffloyd 2

    Simon and Suse, having a schmooze. Are we a one party country now?

    • tc 2.1

      Yup RNZ is such a suck up to national. They do so knowing this govt is pissweak on what goes on in the media so they carry on as normal.

      They’re making the most of it as they have a lightweight minister who has already made rookie errors. Bridges could be viscerated by any half decent journo as he’s said some very stupid things.

      He attends knowing it’s a free shot from people appointed under nationals tenure.

  3. AsleepWhileWalking 3

    So…first we had tooth removal showing have vs have not, now it’s eyesight ffs.

    Dr Dean works at both Auckland and Counties Manakau DHBs and said he struggled to reconcile the difference between the two.

    “At Auckland there has been some investment in staffing and they’ve now got no people overdue for their follow-ups, whereas we’ve still got just around 4000.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360402/south-aucklanders-losing-vision-in-long-wait-for-specialists

    • Johnr 3.1

      It appears that there is enough capacity across the total Auckland area to have no waiting list at all.

      Another clear indication of the shear idiocy of separate DHB fiefdoms in one town.

      The money all comes out of the same tax bucket. Then they fight about who gets the greatest share. Madness.

      • SaveNZ 3.1.1

        Great at taking money away from the service itself, aka doctors and nurses and into the pockets of middle men shuffling paper in huge quantities at great costs.

  4. Ffloyd 4

    Bound to be Labour’s fault. Just ask Simon.

  5. Jenny 5

    Can New Zealand really be Carbon Neutral by 2050 when Climate Crime goes unchecked in the present?

    The practice of clearing tropical rainforest for palm plantations has been condemned for its effects on climate change and the habitat of endangered animals like the orangutan.

    Fonterra imports PKE, a product made by the palm oil industry for supplementary feed. New Zealand is the world’s largest user, bringing in a quarter of the global supply.

    New Zealand carbon neutral by 2050?

    Massive climate crimes in the present?

    How can these two policies be reconciled?

    A Greenpeace investigation released yesterday directly links Fonterra to massive Indonesian deforestation in West Papua.

    Will anything be done?

    After public outcry two years ago Fonterra agreed to adopt an industry standard to ensure its use of PKE wasn’t leading to deforestation.

    Now embarrassingly its main supplier of PKE, Wilmar, has been linked with the mass destruction of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.

    “The international reputation of NZs dairy industry is seriously on the line here and so are the world’s last remaining rainforests.” says Gen Toop, Greenpeace’s sustainable agriculture spokesperson.

    Photos taken by Greenpeace International on a recent flyover show an area of forest twice the size of Paris has been destroyed.

    As we used to say about nuclear fusion, it is the energy source of the future, and always will be.

    New Zealand will be carbon neutral in the future, and always will be, until then…….

      • Jenny 5.1.1

        All silent in the Mainstream Media.

        They know what to report.

        • Jenny 5.1.1.1

          Request Timeout
          Server timeout waiting for the HTTP request from the client.

          Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu) Server at thestandard.org.nz Port 443

          What gives?

          Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?

          • james 5.1.1.1.1

            “Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?”

            nope – a lot of folk have the same problem.

            • Bearded Git 5.1.1.1.1.1

              Me too James…bit weird…bit of a pain

              • veutoviper

                We are all having this problem apparently. A result of the recent (two weeks ago?) change of server when the site was down for almost a day.
                Lprent did his usual superb job with the changeover but seems there are still a few problems to be sorted – eg names/email details, plus the ‘reply’ function and the ‘search’ function.

          • Anne 5.1.1.1.2

            No Jenny. I think everybody is having to do the same. The edit function is all to hell as well. Sometimes it allows you to edit and other times it ends up spitting out the comment again so you end up with the same comment appearing twice.

            I’ve noted the number of people commenting has dropped. Suspect they can’t be bothered signing in every time.

            • Jenny 5.1.1.1.2.1

              Thanks for that Anne. I am having that same problem with the edit function, (as well as the other little niggles I moaned about), resulting in some embarrassing typos getting left in. Sorry to hear that others are having this problem too.

            • Jenny 5.1.1.1.2.2

              Hi Anne. It is not just the signing in that could be causing the drop off in comments that you have noted.

              I have had five comments locked out with “Request timeout” error message in the last three days. (three this morning) If this is happening to a lot of other people I imagine that they would find it to be quite dispiriting.

              If people go to the trouble of putting their thoughts down in type, they should expect better than this.

              I know you are busy lprent, and probably overburdened with trying to make a living. (As we all are). But a little work here, people are drowning.

              • Jenny

                What I have started doing, is every time one of my comments gets blocked by a Timeout Request, I email a copy of my blocked comment to thestandardnz@gmail.com in the hope that they will let it see the light of day somewhere. So far it hasn’t happened. But sooner or later the backed up log of blocked comments might get someone’s attention. Who knows, they might unblock them, they may not. At least someone is reading them somewhere, I suppose.

  6. AB 6

    South Aucklanders go blind from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy because they wait too long to see a specialist.
    Meanwhile central Auckland is awash with private eye clinics – if you have insurance you will be seen in a week or two. The prevention and treatment of AMD has come ahead a long way if you can access it.
    Failure to regulate the food environment to lower the incidence of diabetes, urban poverty and a medical profession chasing the big money. The grinning facade of the Key government is lifted again to show the rot underneath

    • alwyn 6.1

      Well, you won’t have to worry about what is going on in the health system any longer.
      This CoL Government we have isn’t going to tell you. Do you remember how, when they were in Opposition they demanded that the then, competent National led Government, should be collecting and reporting all sorts of information? Foreign purchases of houses for example and waiting lists and surgical work done at the hospitals for example?

      Now it is their baby they are going to hide all their failures.
      “Public reporting of District Health Boards’ (DHB) performance of procedures including elective surgeries, cancer treatment times and Emergency Department wait times, has been axed.”
      and
      “the National Patient Flow project – which measured the number of patients being turned away from the operating table – has not released any updated figures since September last year. That project was launched following intense political pressure from Labour, over surgical unmet need.”
      Well they aren’t going to tell us anything now. It would no doubt be extremely embarrassing for “Dr” Clark to have to admit that things are getting rapidly worse. A pity that “Dr” Clark’s degree was “on the work of German/New Zealand refugee and existentialist thinker Helmut Herbert Hermann Rex.” rather than something relevant.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104976776/hows-your-dhb-doing-govt-does-away-with-national-health-targets

      • AB 6.1.1

        It’s the performance of politicians that interests me, not the so-called ‘performance’ of DHB’s – hapless mugs with one arm tied behind their backs who exist solely as a place where politicians can devolve accountability away from themselves.

      • Gabby 6.1.2

        competent National led Government wally? Can’t say I recall that.

        • alwyn 6.1.2.1

          “Can’t say I recall that”
          I’m not surprised gobby.
          Far to many doses of hallucinogenic drugs have done your mind, and your memory, in. Can you even remember your name?

  7. adam 7

    Something to think about. A solution, local focus and would be a good fit for a few NZ cities and communities.

    The Preston model of community wealth building.

    https://cles.org.uk/tag/the-preston-model/

    https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-preston-model-and-the-eight-basic-principles-of-community-wealth-building/2018/04/03

  8. James 8

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105003464/arrest-after-alleged-sexual-assaults-at-labour-party-youth-camp

    Here is hoping he (or she) is named and faces jail time.

    I wonder how the person was there in the first place ?

    • ianmac 8.1

      Was he picked by National to create mayhem but has it gone astray as the fellow has been charged?

    • veutoviper 8.2

      I may be wrong but from memory, I seem to recall that it was said at the time that he was not a LP member but was there with/at the invitation of a member.

      • alwyn 8.2.1

        “he was not a LP member “.
        And if he had been a member at the time he would have received a communication, NOT in writing, along these lines.
        “Your resignation from the Labour Party has been accepted. We know you wish to resign and you don’t need to communicate the fact to our office. We have back-dated it two weeks. No correspondence on the subject will be answered. Don’t let the doorknob hit you going out.”

        • ankerawshark 8.2.1.1

          I admit, badly set up and then handled, by the party and I am a party member.

          However do appreciate that it was subsequently dealt with in a thorough appropriate way……

          It will hopefully never happen again at a Labour Youth event…………….

  9. esoteric pineapples 9

    A bill designed to establish & protect net neutrality in California was gutted by corporate Dems and rammed through on a vote that was outside normal procedure.

    • saveNZ 9.1

      +1 esoteric pineapples

    • One Two 9.2

      Standard Operating Procedure for the state of California..

      A cursory search will sum up the policy path of current state government…

      Land of the free..

      No!

  10. esoteric pineapples 10

    United States working to distablise the democratically elected left of centre Nicauraguan government. Might bring back memories for those who remember the 1980s, Reagan, Oliver North, Iran arms deals and the Contras.

    As Nicaragua’s leftist government faces a violent right-wing insurgency, journalist Max Blumenthal discusses with TRNN’s Ben Norton how the regime change machinery bankrolled by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy boasted of “laying the groundwork for insurrection” against President Daniel Ortega

  11. SaveNZ 11

    Can you really survive on the living wage in Auckland on $20 p/h? If you are one of the “lucky ones’ who get that ‘affordable’ house at 14 Taniwha Street, Wai O Taiki Bay for $650,000.. how much will it cost.

    Mortgage of $650k at current rates of floating ANZ bank is $879 weekly, rates will be $45, insurance of property would be around $30, mortgage repayment insurance will be around $30, power $30, water $25, public transport $33, food $150 – we are already over $1200 a week and the living wage after taxes is about $678…

    We have yet to add in if you have a partner, children, a car, want a holiday or savings out of life, emergencies, help for other family members, repairs… then calculate full term child care, school donations, clothes, car, savings, holidays…

    Then work out how some enormous amount of people are living below the living wage and they are using $20 as a rate to bring more people into Auckland to solve the labour crisis, which seems like it is as easy as paying more money for the role!

    • Gabby 11.1

      You could live far more cheaply elsewhere savy.

      • saveNZ 11.1.1

        @Gabby that’s the site of the much flouted social housing project! The council and government chose the site… and judging by the homeless, I think they are finding it hard to find other accomodation in Auckland… beggers can’t be choosers… literally.

        The other private partnerships are Hobsenville and Kumeu and Warkworth… few to zero public transport options… then they have the petrol taxes on top.

  12. saveNZ 12

    Who used to live at Tamaki and what happened once they were displaced…

    Tamaki housing scrap: ‘They’re shifting out the poor’
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/03/tamaki-housing-scrap-they-re-shifting-out-the-poor.html

    According to this, the development company was going to build 400 houses in 12 months at Tamaki so that means they should be there now, are they?

    What do the new Tamaki houses cost, how many people do they house socially, what happened to the former residents and how much are they paying? What is the cost of this useless exercise socially and financially to the taxpayers and the vulnerable?

    • Ad 12.1

      Has taken longer because a whole bunch of BANANA (build nothing anywhere near anything) protesters came up and slowed everything down.

      • saveNZ 12.1.1

        Probably just stupid poor people Ad, who should know their place. sarc. No protesting allowed as it gets in the way of progress.

        Nothing to do with the PPP as usual being a piece of shit and delivering very little at higher prices and longer time frames while cheerleaders at the top, making a bundle out of the state sell offs and government do-nothing officials say nothing to do with them, it’s a private company!

        • Ad 12.1.1.1

          A lot more disruption to come once HLC get stronger statutory powers.

          They protest in Epsom, they protest in Tamaki. Meanwhile workers get on with it.

          Go ahead call for another review.
          Top work.

          • saveNZ 12.1.1.1.1

            The workers seem to have no problem with getting the $863,000 housing built… for private sale.

            I’m not calling for a review, I’m saying stop it in it’s tracks and give the land back. It’s gross misconduct and fraud, if you could not anticipate someone protesting at being evicted when there is few alternate houses of worse quality, taking a while then you are a moron! (Possibly that explains how shoddy and expensive our housing is, the construction industry and council are full of troughing morons looking to cut corners and get a free ride).

            Even Penny Bright managed to defeat the council lawyers on many occasions as they don’t seem to even know the law.

    • Hongi Ika 12.2

      Just usual National Party B/S couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery ?

      • SaveNZ 12.2.1

        I’m not hearing Labour decrying the Tamaki model as being flawed and stopping that model in other areas.

        We expect this from National, but many don’t want it from Labour or NZ First or Greens.

        I don’t even think National supporters are ok with this type of profiteering of public assets… because it is wrong. They also undermine other developers who don’t get gifted free public land and green lights from council!

  13. Hongi Ika 13

    Greens/Labour & NZF still mad keen on aerial drops of 1080, NZ use 90% of the world’s production and our usage has gone up by 500% since 2000 ?

    I smell a rat somewhere ?

  14. SaveNZ 14

    It looks like they built something at Tamaki, but it’s $863,000.

    CLASSIC, UNDER THE AFFORDABLE HOMES LINK IS

    SORRY – WE COULD NOT FIND THAT!
    Please try using the navigation or the search above.

    https://www.tamakiregeneration.co.nz/new-home-opportunities/affordable-homes

    9 EASTVIEW ROAD
    2 and 3 bedrooms
    15 architecturally designed 2 and 3 bedroom homes on freehold title, built with solid precast concrete panels and with quality finishes of brick and weatherboard cladding. Two sides of the development face into the neighbouring park.
    From $863,000

    https://www.creatingcommunities.co.nz/homes

    You can buy a section for SUBDIVISION
    FENCHURCH STREET
    GLEN INNES
    Packages from
    $479,000

    Gosh that’s that free public land, now being unsold for nearly half a million, that’s bringing the prices of housing down as intended!!! sarcasm.

    http://www.classicbuilders.co.nz/house-land/fenchurch-street-glen-innes-auckland/

    • Jenny 14.1

      Tamaki Regeneration, or corporate welfare?

      What is not commonly known is that the developers got this ex-Housing New Zealand land for free. Only having to pay for the land after they develop it and on sell it.

      Even then, the price they pay for for this privatised ex-state asset, which could let us work out their mark up, is “commercially sensitive” information.

      Talk about deal of the century.

      • SaveNZ 14.1.1

        How can a public asset be sold without the public being told the price! We know what the price of power was when they privatised it. Sounds like corruption. If they are going to do that, should it be available at public tender???? not that I agree with the sale in the first place, but how they did it, and hiding everything at council level from the million dollar PWC report on the stadium to the secret deals with developers. Auckland council is one big fuck up and the CEO should be first in the firing line.

    • Molly 14.2

      When I still considered some hope left in the Unitary Plan consultation, I attended a housing workshop talking about Tamaki regeneration. Present and greatly supportive was Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua, who was genuinely excited about the estimated market price of $800,000.

      At that meeting, only Penny Bright questioned the positioning of that project as a credible response to the already known housing crisis. She was summarily dismissed for the points she raised about affordability and gentrification. There were a couple of others in the audience who agreed with her, but the panel and the discussion was directed by Auckland Council planners, and Blair.

      There is little to rejoice in from the perspective of housing Aucklanders in these kinds of projects, but they are often promoted as problem solvers rather than what they are – mainly residential developments that work within the status quo.

      • saveNZ 14.2.1

        Unitary plan was run by lawyers for developers there was zero interest and open scorn on what the public had to say about what they wanted in their own city.

        • Molly 14.2.1.1

          The disillusionment happened fairly early on in the process for me, but I did attend many consultations and processes during that time.

          However, you seem to have hit the nail on the head regarding the final result, so you will not hear any contradiction to that statement from me.

  15. OnceWasTim 15

    @ lprent:

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/06/26/breaking-corrupt-police-response-to-kim-dotcom-has-to-be-read-to-be-believed/

    I’m just thinking, when you get the Singapore thing out of the way, this could be another little earn?
    You can provide the ‘programatics’, I/we’ll deal with the ‘electronics’.
    I think tho’ we’ll need to construct a ‘team’ going forward.
    As I look out the window, I see a new building with Deloites having naming rights. Not too distant is PwC.
    Either would of course be acceptable in enabling ticket clipping.

    Could be a nice little earn eh? eh? eh? eh? Whaddya say eh?

    • Jenny 15.1

      Maybe the police and the security services could use the X-keyscore to spy on themselves, to get this data back.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

    • Jenny 15.2

      Shades of Gina Haspel’s convenient destruction of “enhanced interrogation” video tapes.

    • lprent 15.3

      I’m back from Singapore and I seem to have largely recovered from doing 8 weeks of about 80 hours per week. The temperature drop helped a lot in the recovery.

      I’d be happy to help the police recover their old emails. I’ve been doing that kind of thing regularly for decades as people bring their old data in obsolete formats. I guess it depends on the encryption levels being used. But given enough data and a lot of time even that isn’t hard to get through.

      But I still don’t really have time. Looks like I will be back to the Singapore site in October to help finish up and there is a lot of work to do between now and then (along with stuff for other sites).

      But there is a little place just up the road from me in Auckland that should be able to do it without breaking a stride. The police have their very own forensic computing group who are meant to specialize in that kind of stuff on Great North Road by the Trades Hall. I wonder why they didn’t call on them?

  16. indiana 16

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12077836

    Vegans…you have admire their relentless positivity.

  17. Chris T 17

    I see Winston making a fantastic start to his role as PM

    Why do I think this is only the beginning

    Come back Ardern!

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/06/where-s-winnie-acting-prime-minister-a-no-show-on-the-am-show.html

    • ankerawshark 17.1

      Good on him………………They are not worth the time esp, Richardson.

      Key wouldnt go on radio NZ

      • Grey Area 17.1.1

        +1. Good call by the old codger. Might make them lift their game. I’m being hopeful I know. It’s a big ask.

  18. Eco Maori 22

    Good morning The AM Show If trump had to change his policy 3 times I say it’s (knot) A win for him.
    I say that all recycling companies should be state owned or not for profit companies there are many ways to solve this problem of China not takeing mixed recyclable its understandable one would not no what is in some of the waste plus they want to move there economy to a higher value economy. The main reason the recycling was sent to China was the cheap labour used to sort the different grades of plastic which have a different way to be recycled if we could grade the recycling that turning it into new plastic is easy this could be a non profit employment opportunity we need to recycle OUR on waste here not shipping the our problems over seas.
    High fuel prices means less cars on the road less imports of fuel less carbon entering the atmospheric many positive out comes Auckland now has the money to fix its stuffed up waste water systems.
    Mark do still want some tissue for the loss of the national party rubbish ruling in favour of the wealthy.
    Who would have thought 12 months ago that we would have a government in parliament that care about the common person who cares about the Mokopunas future and who respect and treat tangata all the same. Ka kite ano

  19. Eco Maori 23

    This was a positive outcome to OUR elections especially when we had the Prime Minister made a statement that our youth were unemployable wasters in defence of his immigration policy and another mp trying to stir the racist rhetoric about gangs and take human rights away from us why don’t we hear all the positive things tangata whenua do and not just the 00.1 % whom do dumb shit. Ka kite ano

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