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Open mike 27/05/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 27th, 2025 - 42 comments
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42 comments on “Open mike 27/05/2025 ”

  1. Todays Posts 1
    27 May 2025 at 6:00 am

    Today's Posts (updated through the day):

    The weird similarities between the Trump and the Willis budgets

    Reply
  2. Bearded Git 2
    27 May 2025 at 7:09 am

    Rod Drury is right here:

    "[Drury said that he had] spent a lot of time in the past few years thinking about how the country could develop a sustainable competitive advantage in something."For me, the answer was really easy — renewable electricity. It could be our version of Saudi Arabian oil."

    He was advocating for the separation of infrastructure from retail services in the electricity sector ……At the moment, we have vertically-integrated power companies trying to do both infrastructure and retail…..New Zealand only had six weeks’ energy storage, creating a scarcity factor that led to "really high" electricity prices."

    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/tech-entrepreneur-calls-electricity-sector-shakeup

    The way to increase power storage is through solar farms with battery storage. But the power companies in their current configuration have been very slow to move on this obvious (and now relatively cheap) option.

    Reply
    • Ad 2.1
      27 May 2025 at 12:26 pm

      Rod Drury is the same guy who wants to completely develop the inland valley between Arrowtown and Queenstown. He's about as sustainable as any other mass-scale developer.

      Reply
  3. Muttonbird 3
    27 May 2025 at 9:11 am

    When questioned yesterday about the $700M fiscal hole in the budget highlighted by the Greens, Willis said they didn't include the cost to the public sector of lifting the Kiwisaver employer contribution by 1% because the costs were unknown.

    But the cost is known very precisely unless you're trying to shaft workers. It's the total wage bill plus 1%. It's very simple unless you are trying to get the employee to absorb that 1% on top of their own increased 1%.

    Willis said the cost was not knowable because she will direct the public sector to 'find savings and efficiencies' in order to not be exposed to the apparent $700M required. This means the employee pays either through nil or lower pay rises, or redundancies.

    She also said that's what other businesses would be doing which is a clear direction to the private sector to go ahead and make the employee pay for the employer contribution as well as the employee contribution.

    Journalists, do your job. Chloe Swarbrick is doing hers.

    Reply
      • Muttonbird 3.1.1
        27 May 2025 at 9:20 am

        Yep, her response was to try to belittle Swarbrick, an attack which betrays her own insecurity on the issue.

        Reply
        • Incognito 3.1.1.1
          27 May 2025 at 9:24 am

          The conclusion is clear enough though, the costs will be absorbed by wage cuts – it’s bloody obvious.

          Reply
          • bwaghorn 3.1.1.1.1
            27 May 2025 at 10:55 am

            Either that or she genuinely is that fucking hopless she hadn't added into her calculations!

            Reply
            • gsays 3.1.1.1.1.1
              27 May 2025 at 4:30 pm

              I've just had the misfortune to hear our rudderfearless leader say Labour is financially illiterate.

              That is better than our current Minister of Finance who is demonstrably innumerate.

              Reply
              • Patricia Bremner …
                27 May 2025 at 5:29 pm

                Gaysays, funny that!!

                Rating Agencies did not think so AA+, and Treasury in 2023 also just before the Election, said we were facing a period of consolidation and growth.

                Willis wrecked that by not collecting taxes off landlords,

                Borrowing to cover that, and insisting on tax cuts, which did not live up to the hype for most. She has budgeted to spend more in her time than Ardern did during 5+ years and a black swan event a terrorist attack and a volcanic disaster as well.

                Willis has increased our over all debt, and her sackings cuts and abuse of the systems checks and balances, have left us "constrained" if we have another large disaster.

                We have had them already, she cost us a billion cancelling the Ferries. The sinking of our HMS Manawanui, which was not insured, and training was insufficient. The Auckland floods have had a very slow response, and Government has pushed infrastructure for three waters on to Councils have increased rates country wide. imo

                Austerity has meant no or low job chances for 18 to 24 year olds and the first 2 years of that problem is back on parents in this budget.

                We have lost a city of people and continue to do so at the rate of 191 a day.

                We have lost our world standing and we are being rebuked for our tardy efforts in climate control.

                Our PM is on record as saying he does not care, and that Labour, who did better than they are doing are "financially illiterate" Wow What an Ego!!

                Tik Tok actions, circumventing democracy does not lead to good outcomes imo.

                Reply
                • gsays …
                  27 May 2025 at 5:42 pm

                  Well said, heh, that's better out than in!

                  "Borrowing to cover that, and insisting on tax cuts, which did not live up to the hype for most. She has budgeted to spend more in her time than Ardern did during 5+ years and a black swan event a terrorist attack and a volcanic disaster as well."

                  Willis is a rare talent, spend so much while shrinking the economy. Borrowing to do so.

                  Reply
        • Bearded Git 3.1.1.2
          27 May 2025 at 10:55 am

          Chippy should make Chloe associate finance minister in 2026…the she can give Willis maths lessons.

          Reply
        • aj 3.1.1.3
          27 May 2025 at 10:57 am

          Every attack is shoot the messenger. Says it all.

          Reply
  4. Muttonbird 4
    27 May 2025 at 10:10 am

    Reminiscent of an epic poem where he himself is the hero, David Seymour is to travel to distant lands to argue the benefits of entrenched and continuous colonialism while at home his servants serve larvae to the colonised:

    https://archive.is/KqDEL

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/27/investigation-after-dead-larva-found-in-govt-supplied-school-lunch/

    Reply
  5. newsense 5
    27 May 2025 at 10:20 am

    This government is ‘strange and unnecessary’, not just their budget. Who raises speed limits specifically next to schools? Strange. Unnecessary.

    Who lectures councils about debt and then dumps a whole lot on them? Strange. Unnecessary.

    Who needs to balance the budget and calls taking it out of the pocket of women saving money? Strange. Unnecessary.

    Uses a cordial convention of parliament to mount a political attack and one on democracy? Strange. Unnecessary.

    Reply
  6. Muttonbird 6
    27 May 2025 at 10:29 am

    Client journalism in action.

    The deputy Prime Minister’s 18 month term is about to finish. Thomas Coughlan is invited to Winston Peters office to do an early campaign hagiography and an attack on Labour, dressed up as political news reporting.

    Coughlan dutifully obliges, offering only a list of achievements which Peters supplied him by interview (and no doubt by hard copy). No questions, no analysis, no corroboration, no fact checking, no accountability, the Herald's political editor just blindly repeats what Winston told him, and publishes.

    https://archive.is/yC4ar

    Hard not to agree with the idea New Zealand is plagued by an unseen but damaging soft corruption.

    Reply
    • Vivie 6.1
      27 May 2025 at 5:57 pm

      Further to yesterday's comments, re Liam Hehir's incoherent "commentary" on RNZ:

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018988739/dissecting-the-budget-liam-hehir-and-neale-jones

      The repeated attacks on Chris Hipkins by Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters, Nicola Willis and other Government MPs suggest the Government's private polling is showing increasing support for Hipkins and the Labour Party.

      RNZ's Mediawatch provides analysis and information about various media topics and platforms, including excerpts of Government disinformation and erroneous attacks on the Opposition by Newstalk ZB hosts. https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch

      Vested interests in maintaining the status quo are presumably the main reasons some ZB hosts and journalists seemingly breach ethical codes of factual, professional broadcasting/journalism.

      Yet complaints to the BSA that some comments are inaccurate and/or offensive are not often upheld.

      https://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/search/DecisionSearchForm

      Reply
      • Muttonbird 6.1.1
        27 May 2025 at 7:13 pm

        Thanks for that.

        When I was looking for a definition of client journalism, this article popped up. It explains the UK experience; Boris Johnson, Laura Kuenssberg, etc. Journalist Peter Oborne:

        A client journalist is a journalist who sees his job as decorating power, or legitimising power, and talking the language of power rather than challenging power, and running stories which make power accountable…

        …my view is, if you go back 30 years, the Political Editor of the BBC kept his or her distance,” Oborne says. But now they’ve “been encouraged by their bosses to get a bit too close.” Later, he goes even further: “It’s important to the Downing Street strategy to have those false analyses out there. And that makes them dupes really, in the political process.

        This is interesting in a New Zealand context because there's been a move by news organisations in the last 10-15 years of having journalists embedded within parties in order to get closer, magnify drama, gain trust, get scoops, etc.

        This system of client journalism perpetuates itself because journalists who refuse to go along with this closeness to power get “heavily punished”, according to Oborne. “A good example is the Political Editor of Sky News, Beth Rigby, who’s a very good journalist. In Boris Johnson’s first press conference, she asked a pretty tough question, and they never forgave her. They never gave her an interview…no access and no information went to Rigby. And in those circumstances Rigby’s job is very much compromised

        This is really important because it reinforces to journalists that they had better be friendly to power or their job is under threat. Our own deputy PM and the subject of my initial comment is the very worst offender in this country for threats to journalists yet thick, white trash boomers lap it up, lick the bowl, and ask for more.

        I read Coughlan's article and couldn't help thinking it was nothing more than a press release by New Zealand First timed, as you have pointed out, to supplement the attacks on Chris Hipkins by the other coalition partners.

        Reply
  7. Muttonbird 7
    27 May 2025 at 10:45 am

    Damn, she is thick.

    “I think there are some benefits with universal superannuation … and if you are to make any change to that area we have to phase it in over a large period of time," she said.

    It's the opposite. Means testing can happen immediately, it's raising the age which has to be phased in over a large period of time.

    And they're just saying it out loud now:

    Willis said she expected all government contractual obligations, including those regarding KiwiSaver, to be met and suspected employer contributions would form part of future pay round negotiations.

    But I don’t think it a good strategy for Swarbrick and co to be diving into the ‘cuts to public services to pay for it’ argument, people just turn off. It must be described in term which workers understand. The line to the wider workeforce should be:

    “Workers will be made to pay the employer contribution. It will come out of your pay packet, not their profit!”

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-finance-minister-nicola-willis-to-speak-post-budget-in-auckland/YER63KGZ6ZBYXPFFELAOLR37HQ/

    Journalists, do your job!

    Reply
  8. Hunter Thompson II 8
    27 May 2025 at 12:27 pm

    I listen to ABC podcasts from time to time. One fascinating item came up on the Unravel True Crime: Snowball podcast: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/truecrime/snowball-collection/11408100

    Sad and and disturbing, it shows how much we all take on trust. An entire family was badly affected.

    Reply
  9. gsays 9
    27 May 2025 at 1:00 pm

    Here's something to challenge yr attitudes.

    An art installation that invites folk to stand on our flag.

    My initial response was that it was a step too far. Unnecessarily insulting. Especially for some of our veterans. Or do we only care about that on April 25th.

    Reading the article, quotes like "According to the information panel at the gallery, the artist “questions your allegiances”: “do you concur with the current government or disagree?”.

    This government has nothing to do with my attitude to our ensign. Luxon et al will come and go, as will Hipkins and co.

    If the artist wished to make that point, replace the flag with a National party banner.

    I must admit to getting a tad hurrumphy when people drape the flag round their shoulders.

    It used to be important. I recall the involuntary gasps at the flag breaking ceremony, when hosting a neighbouring Scout Troop, and it was upside down…

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360698431/invitation-walk-flag-disrespectful

    Reply
    • Drowsy M. Kram 9.1
      27 May 2025 at 2:11 pm

      Interesting art. At least our flag is only on the floor, not under water – or burning – yet.

      The referendum was also criticised as an expensive distraction from more important political issues—especially because of the overt endorsement of two silver fern flag designs by Kyle Lockwood (one of which was the flag design at top right) by then-Prime Minister John Key.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flag_debate

      Reply
    • weka 9.2
      27 May 2025 at 4:42 pm

      yeah, it's disrespectful, but art can be disrespectful and still meaningful imo. I personally wouldn't stand on the flag, because it's a symbol of the country I live in. But I also understand why Māori might feel differently.

      I'm curious if the information panel was written by the artist or the gallery. The flag is a symbol of the Crown and Government, not the government of the day. But again, Māori might see this differently.

      I had to look it up, it's an offence to display the flag in a public place with the intent of dishonouring it. Cue some numpty trying to get the police to act, but we'd have a good debate about art vs dishonour.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_New_Zealand#Flag_law_and_protocol

      Reply
      • gsays 9.2.1
        27 May 2025 at 5:50 pm

        I suppose it's the sacredness or the higher values that the flag embodies.

        I'm not excessively smitten by the Southern Cross and Union Jack imagery, it is that which the flag represents. A representation of a common identity we share.

        Reply
        • weka 9.2.1.1
          27 May 2025 at 7:02 pm

          that's a choice I think, sharing a common identity, and the choice is different for different people. I feel it despite having a low opinion of successive governments. Others don't feel it despite it being possible. I'm not sure why. But for Māori, it's different eh.

          Reply
          • gsays 9.2.1.1.1
            28 May 2025 at 6:29 pm

            I know you didn't mean all Maori.

            Here is one that didn't.

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360704996/woman-picks-controversial-walk-me-flag

            The identity aspect is interesting.

            Philosophically, ideally one tries to avoid being caught up in identity or at least holding on to it too strongly. Our identities tend to change, perhaps subtly, depending on who is in front of us.

            When we were studying this a while ago, the observation came up about how being Maori was a common and deeply felt identity. Being Pakeha (a term that doesn't sit well with me but I use it to make a point) just doesn't resonate.

            Personally, being 'Kiwi' is stronger and I suspect reasonably widely held. And the flag represents that, Hence my umbrage. Also I can see why some tangata whenua are happy to reject that symbol.

            It comes back to a point you have made often, we need to articulate a good, positive vision if we are to get others on board.

            Diane Prince has missed the mark here with me.

            Reply
            • Muttonbird 9.2.1.1.1.1
              28 May 2025 at 6:56 pm

              She said she was a member of Destiny Church in Nelson, and was with the Freedom and Rights Coalition in Nelson.

              Two red flags right there.

              Reply
    • Belladonna 9.3
      27 May 2025 at 5:31 pm

      Or the memorable Anzac Day (many years ago) at the Auckland Museum, when the RNZAF ensign was raised upside down during the Dawn Ceremony.

      Reply
  10. Ad 10
    27 May 2025 at 3:21 pm

    And Winston Peters can go kiss my ass.

    Chippie will need to dig deep to pull NZFirst below the 5% threashold, and that is going to be very, very hard given Peters' accurate delivery for that NZ-RSA+Cossie-Club-Tribe constituency.

    Reply
    • Belladonna 10.1
      27 May 2025 at 5:38 pm

      There's not really much else Hipkins can say – decrying Peters as a kingmaker is fairly pointless. He's been that in 2 out of 3 of the last elections – and shows no signs of going away (personally, I'd be delighted if he retired for good – but I don't see it happening.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/562256/hipkins-pushes-back-on-peters-ruling-out-labour-again

      The question will be, if Labour/Greens/TPM need NZF to form a coalition at the next election (which is entirely on the cards) – will Hipkins walk?

      Reply
      • weka 10.1.1
        27 May 2025 at 7:05 pm

        Is Peters trying to replace the leader of the Opposition? Wtaf?

        Reply
        • Belladonna 10.1.1.1
          28 May 2025 at 10:03 am

          I suspect that the answer is 'yes'.

          What's he's actually said is that he rules out working with Hipkins in government. Not Labour, just Hipkins.

          Reply
          • weka 10.1.1.1.1
            28 May 2025 at 11:38 am

            which is the crucial difference.

            I'm not a fan of centrist parties holding the balance of power, but it's the system we have. Peters on the other hand, I cannot wait until he's out of parliament. He's a scourge on MMP.

            Reply
            • Drowsy M. Kram 10.1.1.1.1.1
              28 May 2025 at 12:21 pm

              A scourge on MMP, and also a past and present master. Love him or hate him, I shudder to think what shape NZ would be in now if the self-made Peters had allowed the 5th National government a 4th and (likely) a 5th term in office.

              Reply
          • Karolyn_IS 10.1.1.1.2
            28 May 2025 at 11:51 am

            And/or Peters & the coalition are trying to undermine Hipkins' growing popularity in polls.

            Reply
            • weka 10.1.1.1.2.1
              28 May 2025 at 1:23 pm

              good point.

              Reply
              • gsays …
                28 May 2025 at 6:33 pm

                The ferries?

                The rail investment?

                I'm not a fan, but credit where credit is due.

                Reply
                • Muttonbird …
                  28 May 2025 at 6:51 pm

                  Peters was heavily involved in scuttling iRex. We haven't seen what his replacement is, neither has he. Apart from Nicola Willis, I can’t think of anyone worse to be heading this project.

                  And $600m for rail barely scratches the surface. It’s a joke as the man from Tonkin&Taylor emphasised.

                  Reply

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