Open mike 28/11/2023

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 28th, 2023 - 56 comments
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56 comments on “Open mike 28/11/2023 ”

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  1. dv 1
    28 November 2023 at 9:08 am

    Hmmm, what are the chances?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/133356580/the-unexpected-climate-plans-of-the-new-government

    • Drilling for hydrogen gas. The unexpected provision to “allow for the exploration of natural geological hydrogen” comes from the deal with NZ First. Unless it’s made from fossil fuels, hydrogen is considered green – since it doesn’t produce planet-heating carbon dioxide. Most projects to-date consider making hydrogen above ground (from splitting water, which it eventually returns to). However, this proposal would go searching for the gas deep below New Zealand. Hydrogen extraction is a fledgling industry, but while the idea is left-field, there’s a precedent overseas.
    • Barfly 1.1
      28 November 2023 at 9:15 am

      Well if anything comes of that here I will be gobsmacked – it seems like magical thinking.

    • Mike the Lefty 1.2
      28 November 2023 at 12:28 pm

      I'm not great at science but I understood that the most common element in the earth's crust was oxygen. I thought hydrogen was extracted from air by a chemical process.

      • alwyn 1.2.1
        28 November 2023 at 5:20 pm

        Oxygen is the most abundant element in the earth's crust. It doesn't exist as an isolated element, and thence as a gas, but in the form of oxides.

        Hydrogen doesn't exist as an element in the atmosphere. Any hydrogen that was released in the atmosphere will be very quickly lost from the top of the atmosphere unless it gets tied up with other elements via a chemical reaction, to create water say.

        The most common way of getting gaseous hydrogen is by steam reforming of natural gas. The predominant reaction is, at a high temperature, creating hydrogen and carbon monoxide from methane and water (steam) and then as a secondary reaction creating carbon dioxide from the carbon monoxide and more steam.

        There are other ways of making the gas but that is the cheapest and therefore most common.

        I'm surprised you would ever find a reservoir with relatively pure hydrogen, There must be some interesting reactions going on to create it.

  2. Mac1 2
    28 November 2023 at 9:18 am

    "Thankfully, the new coalition arrived just in time to stop our woke youth from evading tobacco."

    A quote from the first of many, hopefully, where the media are criticising the rank stupidity of the coalition of craziness.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/301015744/no-doubt-now-that-antimori-sentiment-powered-the-election-result?

  3. joe90 3
    28 November 2023 at 9:51 am

    They lied.

    National has made billions of dollars worth of changes to its spending plans as part of its coalition deals with Act and NZ First. The cost of those changes forced the party to u-turn on some of its election promises to pay for the concessions.

    One particularly painful move will see some low-income families miss out on up to $37.90 a week that the party had promised under a policy designed to ease the “impact of the cost-of-living” which was “especially significant for families raising children”, according to a policy document.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/low-income-families-lose-up-to-38-a-week-as-nats-move-to-close-billion-dollar-budget-hole/BVF2W3D3OZEULISNCFV77GNFXY/

  4. Robert Guyton 4
    28 November 2023 at 9:54 am

    Was there ever such a horrid crew?

    • Ed 4.1
      28 November 2023 at 10:17 am

      It's up there with Richardson and company 1990 to 1993.

    • Robin The Goodfellow 4.2
      28 November 2023 at 12:41 pm

      I seem to recall a Labour government some time back that did some things people weren't too keen on…Thatcherism, Reaganomics, Rogernomics…

      • Robert Guyton 4.2.1
        28 November 2023 at 2:29 pm

        Took the white ants a while though, to eat the heart out of that Government.

        This horrid crew are hollow and empty right from the get-go

  5. Ad 5
    28 November 2023 at 10:18 am

    I'm betting that new Minister of Tertiary Education – fresh from being CE at Southern Polytech – will reverse the entire centralisation of polytechs that Hipkins had well underway for over 2 years.

    Certainly feeling for those staff at TEC and MoE who pulled it together, and of course to the hundreds at the new centralised polytech who got their redundancy notices just weeks ago.

    • Robert Guyton 5.1
      28 November 2023 at 10:20 am

      Penny for her thoughts.

    • ianmac 5.2
      28 November 2023 at 3:24 pm

      I believe that the Southern Polytech was the poorest performing unit under the leadership of Penny Symonds. In spite of the Fees Free.

      • Rolling-on-Gravel 5.2.1
        28 November 2023 at 3:40 pm

        So that's how little they regard us disabled people when they assigned Penny Simmonds the Disability Issues portfolio outside of Cabinet?

        Run down Whaikaha, the new ministry of disability which was established in the last moments of the Labour government and then crow at us all in NZ how un-necessary our ministry is and let the government cut our ministry's funding then to close it down?

        That same person?

      • aj 5.2.2
        28 November 2023 at 3:40 pm

        I think it was another commenter here some time ago, or may have been on twitter, that summed up Simmonds like this:

        She was the instigator of fee free SIT in Invercargill. Loathsome. The polytechnic was over rated. Course outdated, international students were promised much & delivered little. She’s got a personal stake & blames Hipkins for destroying her legacy when Te Pukenga was created.

        Don't expect her to take rational actions in the best interest of the sector as a whole.

  6. Reality 6
    28 November 2023 at 10:32 am

    Thought I could manage to get used to the new government after a few days. No such luck. Peters is like an old snarling crocodile and carrying on like Trump. Not sure how he will cope with the pace. His eyes are very bloodshot. The dairy owners delight in being able to increase their cigarette sales to make more money, and a larger Cabinet – no downsizing for them. Luxon's triumphantly wanting people to be tossed out of their jobs asap. My mid twenties granddaughter just sent me a text "how depressing is this new government – shocking"

  7. Robert Guyton 7
    28 November 2023 at 11:17 am

    Chlöe Swarbrick on the Government's promises:

    "A grab-bag of unhinged hot-takes".

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/11/28/chloe-swarbrick-blasts-grab-bag-of-random-policies-from-govt/

    • Francesca 7.1
      28 November 2023 at 1:20 pm

      She is so good!

      Articulate, principled, no weasel or wasted words

    • Sanctuary 7.2
      28 November 2023 at 2:09 pm

      Swarbrick is a hugely talented politician. If Labour continues to flounder along selecting politically anondyne managerial no names as candidates there is every chance a Swarbrick led Green party could sweep past them as the main change agent party in NZ within a decade.

      • Rolling-on-Gravel 7.2.1
        28 November 2023 at 3:06 pm

        It would be just punishment for Labour constantly fobbing off the Greens, that's for sure.

        I hope Labour rediscovers its soul, before it comes to that, though.

        We need more left-wing voices, not less.

        So yeah, c'mon, lift ya game, Labour.

        And for gaddsakes – treat The Greens like an actual equal partner.

    • Bearded Git 7.3
      28 November 2023 at 2:27 pm

      Chloe was so good. The ACT woman didn't come over well.

  8. newsense 8
    28 November 2023 at 11:38 am

    More for the file of where are hypocrites of the ‘free speech absolutists’?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/301015475/art-gallery-told-to-remove-palestinian-art-expo-from-window

    Sacked, silenced, shutdown, kicked out and shut up. But scarcely supported by those principled activists from the right.

    If you are able to read Hayden Donnell’s piece on David Farrier’s webworm it collates these cases and makes this case.

    And soon landlords can make no cause evictions, so poor NZ, none of the political stuff.

    • newsense 8.1
      28 November 2023 at 11:45 am

      Suppression by text, on receiving one complaint:

      Sian, no political stuff in the tenancy. Please urgently remove all window posters and any political items from the tenancy. Confirm back when this is going to be done. We are also looking at having the tenancy returned to vacant for viewing purposes,” the text read.

    • Terry 8.2
      28 November 2023 at 1:17 pm

      The landlord can in some instances expect the tenants to remove anything that is overly political, like election advertising.

      I don’t think that we would be concerned if a tenant was asked to remove a “MAGA” display for instance.

      I’ve been invited to a bar mitzvah (apologies if the spelling is wrong) this weekend. I feel uncomfortable to say to anyone at work that I’m going to it, as I have picked up some anti Jewish comments from one or two people in my workplace. And I just can’t be bothered with any comments coming my way about this whole Israeli/Jewish/Palestinian/Muslim situation.

      • observer 8.2.1
        28 November 2023 at 4:07 pm

        You shouldn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable about going to a Bar Mitzvah or telling people that you are. I have never had any problem telling people I was visiting a mosque, synagogue, related community event, etc. If they're bigots, then sod 'em.

        It has no bearing at all on your, my or anybody's ability to criticise the killing of innocent children in Gaza. There are plenty of Jews around the world and Israelis doing just that. Including in NZ.

    • alwyn 8.3
      28 November 2023 at 5:31 pm

      They should come to Wellington and demonstrate. The Labour endorsed Councillor Teri O'Neill is sticking up posters of the PM and the ACT and NZF leaders as a "humorous" protest, Terribly funny of course. The Mayor, also of the Left is supporting her.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-city-councillor-teri-oneill-defends-decision-to-post-flyers-of-christopher-luxon-david-seymour-and-winston-peters-as-genitals/A2EOLZYVPNENFM7YEZO7B2MZ24/

      I wonder if the people who complained that supposedly terrible things were said about Ms Ardern will object or will they think that Ms O'Neill is wonderfully funny. Somehow I think they will applaud.

      Am I allowed to suggest that the Councillor ought to be ashamed of herself, and is just behaving as a total dick?

      • observer 8.3.1
        28 November 2023 at 5:45 pm

        "supposedly terrible things were said about Ms Ardern"

        Which of these are "supposedly", in Alwyn's "what about what about" moral code?

        “He regularly referred to Ardern and the Government as criminals, slave traders and state-sanctioned terrorists, but it was two emails in particular that went a step too far, threatening violence …:

        "If you continue to support state terrorism … and declare act of war on my life … I will personally wipe you off this f***ing planet" …

        "I will blow your … head off if your gas lighting on my life continues"

        (and so on, there are countless other examples, direct death threats to Ardern … you know this of course)

        Still "supposedly"?"

        Threats against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern triple, according to report – NZ Herald

  9. Sandra Le Cron 9
    28 November 2023 at 12:47 pm

    Into theWilderness.

    Labour lost their way,Lost contact with its base followers.Lost the hopes of their previously faithful supporters.Introduced stupidity into politics.People had had enough and wanted change,any change;something different. And,as a result, we have ended up with a strange combo but one which will bring some common sense and pragmatism back to decision making and revoke some of the crazy policies which have been dividing this country and holding us back. We will just have to wait and see how the majority react……they could be very pleased,or they could be very unhappy ! Too early to make a call just yet.

    • Sanctuary 9.1
      28 November 2023 at 2:02 pm

      Cron job troll.

    • SPC 9.2
      28 November 2023 at 5:46 pm

      NZF chose Labour in 2017 (because it had gone too far in the same direction for too long). Then people chose stability/continuance 2020. Then they chose to react to stress (post pandemic syndrome, rising costs and fear of change) by removing incumbent government.

      Only Labour will provide hope about the way forward in 2026. This is a one term government.

  10. Wei 10
    28 November 2023 at 2:38 pm

    Well if the so called 'left' had not gone to war against science on behalf of woke bs, then maybe we wouldn't be facing what we are currently facing.

    Here is a former Green/Labour voter who voted National this time round, almost purely on the disregard of Labour towards science. Oh, and I was sickened by Jacinda's public emoting – granted Hipkins was not so bad when it came to that.

    If we don't put science on a pedestal, we won't have a first world country at all and issues of child poverty, cancer rates etc will be moot because we will be a third world backward shithole.

    [TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]

  11. observer 11
    28 November 2023 at 4:20 pm

    The rightwing "Point of Order" is now a big cheerleader for the rightwing government. So why is The Standard still hosting their nasty rants? They are worse than ever.

    (And to answer the predictable rejoinder, yes I love free speech, no I don’t want an echo chamber, but we can’t debate with a sidebar, can we?)

  12. Anne 12
    28 November 2023 at 4:42 pm

    The re-demonising of beneficiaries.

    According to Simon Wilson:

    The government will look at controlling beneficiaries' bank accounts. It calls this "electronic money management".

    He goes on to say "Why pick on beneficiaries?"

    As if we didn't know. They are the most vulnerable in society so they are the easiest to pick on and to blame for anything that goes wrong.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/simon-wilson-the-good-and-the-bad-in-the-national-act-nz-first-governments-war-on-woke/F63TOJT5DZBBFL4SOLK4AANT6Q/

    Evil is as evil does!

  13. adam 13
    28 November 2023 at 4:44 pm

    Inflation, a real problem

  14. Pat 14
    28 November 2023 at 5:16 pm

    "It is nearly 50 years since Muldoon’s bus flattened poor Bill Rowling, but, for those with long political memories, the parallels with the election of 2023 are striking. The greatest of these is the profound sense of shock and disorientation among the activist supporters of the Left. Their discomfort is born not only of the brute facts of the election results, but also by the growing realisation that the incoming coalition government is determined to roll back practically all of the Left’s policy advances of the past six years."

    https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/125395/chris-trotter-says-if-bill-rowling-was-run-over-bus-contemporary-labour-party

    "The sum total of these messages, as aggregated in the polling booths, is a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by one bus, driven by Rob Muldoon. In 2023 Labour was run over by a million busses – driven by ourselves."

    The 'messages' in many of the comments in the linked article support his thesis

  15. Pat 15
    28 November 2023 at 7:31 pm

    Christmas is approaching….you have enough food and space for around a dozen people…maybe 15 at a pinch.

    What do we think of the host/hostess that throws caution to the wind and invites 50 plus?

    And what do we say about them when it all turns to custard and everyone is unhappy?

    https://www.interest.co.nz/economy/125421/overseas-worker-arrivals-continue-strong-bounce-back-following-removal-pandemic

  16. Hunter Thompson II 16
    28 November 2023 at 9:21 pm

    Why is the Beehive website "under maintenance"? The public cannot get to see official pronouncements on the new government's policies.