Open mike 26/09/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 26th, 2019 - 65 comments
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65 comments on “Open mike 26/09/2019 ”

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  1. Blazer 1
    26 September 2019 at 9:03 am

    The 'going rate for talent' has a lot to answer for!

    Just like FBU-couldn't run a bath.

    Tanking s/p reflects the woeful international operations.Meanwhile in NZ all is well=500gm butter=$6.

    Sell off the good bits and restructure.Very concerning to admit the company doesn't really know its objectives.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/115924959/fonterra-slumps-to-605-million-loss

    • tc 1.1
      26 September 2019 at 10:02 am

      It's not a company, it's a co-op and as such the collective takes responsibility.

      Weldon's NZX went around hoovering up rural publication entities critical of the structure/direction/management a decade or so back.

      He was keen to have them listed so he could probably clip the ticket further.

      Having a focus on the commodity that is milk powder rather than value add products goes back to Norgate (RIP) and all the other old boys.

      • Dukeofurl 1.1.1
        26 September 2019 at 11:00 am

        The loss is actually just book keeping adjustments….no real cash loss at all.

        Total payouts to farmers as a co-op is in the billions. Thats the numbers that matter

      • Blazer 1.1.2
        26 September 2019 at 2:06 pm

        Just for you-'Fonterra is a co-operative company and its Farmer Shareholders are the suppliers of milk to Fonterra in New Zealand.'

        The listed entity is actually a unit trust if you want to nitpick.

        • Dukeofurl 1.1.2.1
          26 September 2019 at 2:57 pm

          And being a Cooperative is the best way to legally avoid tax. The 'shareholders' really receive their income via supplier payments which is a tax free distribution and as the Fonterra Limited side of things is exporter receives huge tax refunds for the GST payments

          Essentially its $20 bill per year revenue stream that magically pays no tax- you couldnt do better if you ran all the money through trusts in Caribbean

    • Ad 1.2
      26 September 2019 at 10:44 am

      Fonterra's new strategy is also out today.

      The strategy is: shrink rapidly, cut debt, focus on core ingredients.

      Coincidentlly, the New Zealand government launched its economic strategy this week and failed to mention our largest business and largest exporter, with the largest social and environmental footprint of any other entity.

      New Zealand government is for the first time in 2 decades actively reviewing the legislation that brought Fonterra into being, with timid proposals.

      Pretty clear after two years that this government is prepared to regulate resources such as water, very happy to throw $3b of tax into the regional small companies through the PGF, but simply unable to join economic strategy, resource regulation, and Fonterra into something useful.

      This government needs to lead the economy with really smart interventions, and they aren't apparent yet.

      Government needs to inspire the economy, and it isn't.

  2. weka 2
    26 September 2019 at 9:26 am

    SOUL are taking their action to the council at the Auckland Town Hall today.

    … leader Pania Newton says central and local government are passing the blame.

    "They keep hitting the balls in each other's courts, and so at the moment I think the council has been very quiet because a lot of the focus has been on the Government." Newton hopes Auckland Council will consider dipping into funding to buy the sacred land.

    "Perhaps they could offer us a land swap? Or they could reach into their heritage fund, or fund for recreation and parks, to help with the purchase of Ihumātao? … They are the ones who made the mistake in the first place."

    Auckland Council designated part of the land a special housing area in 2014, and its sale to construction firm Fletcher in 2016 sparked the long-running protest.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/09/ihum-tao-occupiers-take-protest-to-auckland-town-hall.html

      • marty mars 2.1.1
        26 September 2019 at 11:25 am

        Awesome – I have been so impressed by these land defenders – they have pulled support from everywhere and made their opponents look like – well to be honest who are their opponents really? nobodies with nothing to say it seems to me and certainly imo not taken seriously at all lol. And they have done that with dignity. True leaders we are seeing if we look. Here there and everywhere.

        • weka 2.1.1.1
          26 September 2019 at 11:27 am

          True leaders and teaching a whole new generation how to do it 😀

          I'm also impressed by their stamina and the length of the action. Lots of good stuff for others to learn here.

          • marty mars 2.1.1.1.1
            26 September 2019 at 11:30 am

            Their stamina is amazing and does indeed light the way forward – they have followed the past and that past is informing the future – like many things the past is where the answers are for the future imo

    • Dukeofurl 2.2
      26 September 2019 at 11:06 am

      Fletchers owned the land when the SHA was designated on their application.

      Before the SHA it was privately owned. Not sure how they think the Council can unwind the process.

      The Manukau Council did buy for public open space the Mountain stonefields and coastal frontage. I would think they would say that the historical area is preserved.

      • weka 2.2.1
        26 September 2019 at 11:25 am

        Buying off Fletchers is probably the most straight forward option.

        "The Manukau Council did buy for public open space the Mountain stonefields and coastal frontage. I would think they would say that the historical area is preserved."

        Of course. But Māori see it differently.

        • Dukeofurl 2.2.1.1
          26 September 2019 at 3:03 pm

          They seem to want to unwind the Full and Final Treaty settlement for past injustices signed by this iwi as well.

          There was an interesting situation for nearby iwi ,Te Ākitai Waiohua and Manukau Council which Im saving for another time

  3. Adrian Thornton 3
    26 September 2019 at 9:47 am

    US troops in Saudi Arabia defend hegemony, not security, although this doesn't seem to bother Pelosi or the establishment Dems all too much, no surprises there though.

    • Anne 4.1
      26 September 2019 at 11:25 am

      00:01
      Ukrainian officials understood that Trump's aid was conditional on Biden probe
      ABC reports that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration “came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence” between Ukraine and the US:

      “It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine’s Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. “This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood.”

      The Trump administration’s alleged insistence that the two leaders discuss a prospective investigation into Biden, one of the president’s political opponents, casts his July 25 conversation with Zelenskiy in a new light.

      During the call, a rough summary of which was released by the White House Wednesday, Trump repeatedly encouraged Zelenskiy to work with Attorney General William Barr and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to probe Biden’s role in the dismissal of the country’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, in 2016.

      During the call, a rough summary of which was released by the White House Wednesday…

      I bet it was a rough summary.

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/sep/25/trump-ukraine-news-today-live-impeachment-democrats-pelosi-latest

      Headline : “Ukraine officials understood Trump’s aid was conditonal on Biden probe”.

  5. AB 5
    26 September 2019 at 9:58 am

    Local body election papers arrived today. As usual the task is to avoid inadvertently voting for undeclared Tories. Perversely, the one bit of information that would tell us most about a candidate's personal values and likely actions – their Party affiliation – is not there. Instead we get cliche-stuffed 'bios' that would be embarrassing even on a contemptible piece of junk like LinkedIn. It's initially an interesting exercise in 'close reading' – looking for tiny clues hidden in the blandness and unconsciously left there by the writer. To get all 'lit crit' about it, you are looking for self-problematising acts within the text. God it gets tedious though!

    • weka 5.1
      26 September 2019 at 10:16 am

      I guess this is part of why so many people don't bother voting.

      I'm finding Stuff and Spinoff's climate survey's helpful. Not infallible (some candidates aren't included and we don't know why), but helps with the scrutinising.

    • Adrian Thornton 5.2
      26 September 2019 at 10:40 am

      " As usual the task is to avoid inadvertently voting for undeclared Tories. " Yeah the lines are getting pretty blurred a lot of the time now, seems to be quite a bit of cross over between 'pragmatic' liberal lefties and many of the 'right'.

    • Kevin 5.3
      26 September 2019 at 10:51 am

      Every time I am approached by a local body candidate, the first question I always as is about which party at governmental level they support. Tends to catch them unawares but it means I don't waste their time or mine.

      I also take note of the colours of their billboards.

    • greywarshark 5.4
      26 September 2019 at 11:05 am

      Bios don't tell you much – probably talk about business friendly or rates linked to inflation.

      Nothing about education, community involvement, fostering small business, enabling ratepayers to pay off debts, cutting penalty of 10% rate (not per annum interest) and going to credit card interest rates. Bland, organised to obfuscate. No reference to voting propensities for sitting candidates. Nothing about beliefs and how they are going to serve community usually.

    • Ed1 5.5
      26 September 2019 at 11:07 am

      I recall last year there was a website that helped identify the anti-fluoride, etc nutters, but I haven't seen the equivalent this time.

      No Right Turn provides a good summary for Palmerston North; regarding Council he says "don't vote for real estate agents or property developers; don't vote for anyone who promises to "keep rates low" or who talks publicly about their imaginary friends; don't vote for climate change deniers or foot-draggers." – possibly good advice for anywhere. In Wellington for example it suggests not voting for the nice lady Nicola Young that is an "independent," but some of the others are less clear. In Australia the used to have "How to Vote" cards issued by the main parties, but that doesn;t happen here – are they not allowed?

      The other query is whether it is better to leave out those you dislike for whatever reason, or put them at the bottom of the list? I would have thought it is better to leave them out, but those more expert may have a different take.

      • greywarshark 5.5.1
        26 September 2019 at 5:18 pm

        In Oz the How to Vote cards were a party ploy from each, to arrange the votes with the presenting party at the top and the order of the others which would be to that party's best advantage.

        It was to try and assort the votes that didn't go directly for them, to advantage them when all totalled. The people who knew what they wanted mightn't use them, but the party would prefer they followed the advice of the party apparatchiks, and the uncertains if following would get channelled their way.

    • millsy 5.6
      26 September 2019 at 3:16 pm

      Same where I am as well. That is why I cannot be bothered taking an interest in this election. Same old candidates, same old waffle.

      Anyway, we might grumble at paying rates, but we would be paying way more if we had to buy these services from the private sector.

      Rate increases around the country are pretty low, in comparsion to 30-40 years ago, when 20-25% was the norm.

  6. Ad 6
    26 September 2019 at 10:18 am

    So, Fonterra as of this morning has a new strategy.

    Basically, its' strategy is sell off all international ambition to lower debt and shrink back to Australia and New Zealand.

    This is New Zealand's largest private business by a long way, largest exporter, and entity with the largest footprint on our society and landscape full stop.

    So far the New Zealand government has generated a timid response to the DIRA legislation.

    So far they haven't even tried to map Fonterra onto the economic strategy that they launched 48 hours ago.

    Fonterra was formed by government legislation. Not many businesses have such close ties to government, or owe them so much.

    How hard is it for this government to actually do business leadership? (Not resource regulation; business leadership.)

    In particular with Fonterra?

    • weka 6.1
      26 September 2019 at 10:59 am

      Maybe when Fonterra decide to be industry leaders on climate action?

    • Dukeofurl 6.2
      26 September 2019 at 11:12 am

      Fonterra was FORMED from a merger of two dairy companies.

      What the government did was give that merger a pass regarding laws around market dominance. In return Fonterra HAS to take all milk offered by its suppliers and HAS to provide competitors with bulk milk supply

      Not sure you will get Ministerial directions ( which you call government leadership) for Fonterra, its hard enough for Ministers to move the levers and gears for Government departments let alone a privately owned group.

      • Ad 6.2.1
        26 September 2019 at 8:21 pm

        If government had not passed the legislation, Fonterra would not have been formed.

        You're "not sure" about how government may engage with Fonterra because your two remaining imaginative neurons are but deep space circulating binary black holes.

    • Pat 6.3
      26 September 2019 at 11:22 am

      Exactly which Gov regulations (or lack of) do you wish to point to as a cause of a series of poor board investment decisions?

      Fonterra's problems wont be solved by blaming the wrong entities

      • Ad 6.3.1
        26 September 2019 at 8:23 pm

        You clearly have no idea how government currently engages with Fonterra, nor how it should.

        Fonterra's problems are so deep and so important to New Zealand that they won't be solved without the government.

  7. weka 7
    26 September 2019 at 11:45 am

    Whatever other criticisms of Jacinda Ardern I have, she is really good at this stuff. Six minutes of international promo of NZ (vid from last year, she appears again tonight).

  8. marty mars 8
    26 September 2019 at 1:44 pm

    Intimation tactics 101 – dirty

    Police questioning attendees of a Dunedin school climate strike banner-painting session about future protest plans left some feeling ''scared'', an environmental activist says.

    About 20 people, from teenagers to people in their 60s, gathered at Knox Church hall on Tuesday to create banners for the School Strike 4 Climate tomorrow.

    Two uniformed officers came to the banner-painting and began asking people about their protest plans regarding a petroleum conference in Queenstown next week.

    …A police spokesman said the officers were trying to ''establish a line of communication with the group'' and discuss ways to keep them and others safe during the conference.

    ''The group refused to engage with police, which is disappointing.

    ''Police acknowledge the importance of freedom of speech and the right to protest, and would always prefer to communicate with those planning public events in advance to help ensure safe protest activity.''

    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/police-presence-concerns-activists

    yeah nah – keep people safe bullshit – public security for polluters and climate destroyers more likely imo

  9. marty mars 9
    26 September 2019 at 1:50 pm

    wow what a dirty creep this prick is

    Boris Johnson has been branded a disgrace for dismissing pleas from Labour MPs to stop using inflammatory language in light of the murder of Jo Cox, telling one that it was “humbug” and another that the best way to honour her was to “get Brexit done”.

    Johnson caused uproar in the House of Commons after he responded dismissively to Labour MP Paula Sherriff, who made a heartfelt speech calling on him to stop using language such as “surrender”, “traitor” and “betrayal” in relation to Brexit.

    He also drew gasps when telling Labour’s Tracy Brabin, who was elected to Cox’s seat following the MP’s murder by a far-right extremist a week before the EU referendum, that “the best way to honour the memory of Jo Cox and to bring this country together is, I think, to get Brexit done”.

    Before her death, Cox had campaigned to remain in the EU. Her widower, Brendan Cox, swiftly condemned the prime minister’s remarks, saying it had left him feeling sick.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/25/pm-branded-a-disgrace-after-saying-best-way-to-honour-jo-cox-is-to-deliver-brexit

    • Incognito 10.1
      26 September 2019 at 2:37 pm

      Yan gives middle finger to NZ law

      FIFY

      • roblogic 10.1.1
        26 September 2019 at 2:43 pm

        Surprised he's not a National party candidate already

      • Dukeofurl 10.1.2
        26 September 2019 at 2:47 pm

        Doesnt NZ Law mean that the obligation then falls on the lower ranked directors who were also defendants?

        "Joint and Several Liability" I think is the legal term

        Thats what happened in the leaky homes cases , Councils were only one of a group of defendants, the others folded their companies and left the Council as last man standing who faces all the cost
        Will Jenny Shipley be moving to China also ?

  11. roblogic 11
    26 September 2019 at 2:45 pm

    So there is no housing crisis. 11% vacancy rate. It's a crisis caused by malinvestment / hoarding / aka: predatory capitalism, and lack of regulation

    https://twitter.com/Pahtrisha/status/1176861080926031880?s=20

  12. roblogic 12
    26 September 2019 at 2:49 pm

    Venezuelan delegate throws shade while Trump blusters at UN summit

    https://twitter.com/danialerodrimar/status/1176520886712713223?s=20

  13. Bearded Git 13
    26 September 2019 at 3:53 pm

    The biggest airport in the world, Daxing, opened today near Beijing. Auckland take note of the following

    The section between the airport to Beijing will operate at speeds of 250 km/h (160 mph) and the section between the airport to Xiong'an will operate at speeds of 350 km/h (220 mph).The airport to Beijing section is expected to open in September 26, 2019, while the airport to Xiong'an section in late 2020. It will take 28 minutes from Beijing West railway station to the new airport.

    • Dukeofurl 13.1
      26 September 2019 at 6:25 pm

      Take note of what ?

      Sydney Airport has two stations one each under both its terminals leading directly to City station, most passengers are just moving between terminals however.

  14. Fireblade 14
    26 September 2019 at 4:09 pm

    The National Party will have to stop using edited Parliamentary footage in attack ads.

    Boohoo, how sad.

    "Mallard asked Bridges and his office to refrain from editing official video footage of MPs and posting it"

    "If an MP uses footage from the house in ads without the perdition of the MP it features, they will face contempt – a serious offence in Parliament"

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12271288

  15. greywarshark 15
    26 September 2019 at 10:15 pm

    Chris Trotter in his latest post says that if there was an election in uk the conservatives would be returned in a landslide. Is that so? How come – is it the business of being able to win the electorates as in our FPP?

    • lprent 15.1
      27 September 2019 at 11:10 am

      My guess is that he hasn’t looked at the vote splitting effect of the Brexit party in a FPP election. They did well in the EU elections and have remained high in the polls.

      What analysis there is, appears to show that the Brexit party cutting more into the conservative party votes at the electorates than they are cutting into Labour. In effect they split the Brexit vote.

      • Sacha 15.1.1
        27 September 2019 at 11:41 am

        Yes, they would need to arrange electorate accommodations like our own rotten righties. Epsom salts all round!

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