Open Mike 30/04/2018

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 30th, 2018 - 83 comments
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83 comments on “Open Mike 30/04/2018 ”

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  1. Ed 1
    30 April 2018 at 6:24 am

    An in depth look at the P epidemic destroying the lives of so many our citizens.

    http://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/brokenbad/index.html

  2. Sacha 2
    30 April 2018 at 6:51 am

    Health Minister opens door for speculation about govt breaking promises Labour party made during campaign:
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/356213/cuts-to-doctor-s-fees-may-be-phased-in-over-time

    Journo obliges:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12041822

  3. Ad 3
    30 April 2018 at 7:02 am

    Deborah Hill-Cone walks it all back from attack the Prime Minister’s partner and thinking she would get away with it.

    She blames it on being “inherently clumsy” and not restraining her “inner monologue”.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12041708

    🙂

    • dv 3.1
      30 April 2018 at 7:11 am

      Ya mean Hill Con (spelt with and e)

    • Sacha 3.2
      30 April 2018 at 7:18 am

      The real victim is her. Read all about it.

    • AB 3.3
      30 April 2018 at 7:55 am

      I won’t read her infantile psychologising of everything.

    • AsleepWhileWalking 3.4
      30 April 2018 at 8:34 am

      So not clicking

    • Gabby 3.5
      30 April 2018 at 8:50 am

      Is that a hirrald link?

    • Pete 3.6
      30 April 2018 at 8:55 am

      Saw it, didn’t click. For lots of reasons. The main one that a question was asked and I knew the answer: “Attacking Clarke Gayford: Deborah Hill Cone – What was I thinking?”
      Answer: Not much and any thought at all was around creating a fuss and attention.

      • ankerawshark 3.6.1
        30 April 2018 at 9:17 am

        Yes saw the headline (more click bait IMHO)…………ignored………………..as I have being with all the Herald’s on-line articles. Feels good, feel cleansed.

        Whatever Ms Cone-Hill was thinking it shouldn’t be the subject matter for the largest daily newspaper in our country.

        Have a letter to the Herald about this and Ms DPA nearly ready to send.

    • Ant 3.7
      30 April 2018 at 9:05 am

      Amazing the Herald gives her so much space for a long-winded self indulgent ‘confession.’

    • JanM 3.8
      30 April 2018 at 9:29 am

      What a silly, egocentric woman! And as for the Herald giving space to that blather – words fail me!

    • Rosemary McDonald 3.9
      30 April 2018 at 9:38 am

      Yet, stap me, you lot just enabled the proliferation of such crap by devoting 10 comments to it.

      Ignore it already!

      • Anne 3.9.1
        30 April 2018 at 9:51 am

        There is also some good stuff coming out of the Herald. You just have to be very selective who you click on to… and ignore the nincompoops.

        For instance, Kate Hawkesby has written a couple of reasonable pieces lately. If she keeps this up I’ll be putting her on my ‘to read’ list:

        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12041993

        • Rosemary McDonald 3.9.1.1
          30 April 2018 at 10:01 am

          Agreed, Anne.

          Kirsty Johnston, Simon Collins, Matt Nippert, et al

          There’s the wheat, and then there’s the chaff.

          I’ll continue to peruse the Herald website, since I’m capable of telling the difference.

    • mary_a 3.10
      30 April 2018 at 10:00 am

      Read your link Ad (3) Thanks.

      What a load of rubbish and NZH publishes it as headline news! FFS!

      The woman seems somewhat unhinged to me. Employing columnists of the questionable calibre of Hill Con(e), NZH is doing a good job turning itself into a cheap, nasty and very dirty tabloid rag. Long may it continue to do so, to the point it fades away into complete oblivion as readers turn to alternative sites for intelligent news and comment.

    • Bearded Git 3.11
      30 April 2018 at 3:09 pm

      Boycotting Herald

  4. AsleepWhileWalking 4
    30 April 2018 at 8:41 am

    When I click on articles from the Herald I notice I often go to something I didn’t want to read like sport or one of those sensationalist stories they seem to favor.

    Looks like they might be manipulating traffic to get more $$$ (this works because its pay per view not pay per click).

    Herald does blackhat shit to stay alive. Losers.

  5. cleangreen 5
    30 April 2018 at 8:43 am

    About the gripes of labour dropping hints about all their promises made during the election may need to be ‘scaled back now, or deferred’ due to many of our public services and assets are now seen as being in “a state of disrepair after nine years of national party deferred maintenance”.

    Labour are now suffering because of their own right wing MP’s who are controlling the Party policies now of “ultra right wing fiscally tightly pushed policies.”

    This will cause Labour to loose the 2020 election.

    Labour must begin to enact the “reserve bank act” again as Michael Joseph Savage did in 1935 so they can print emergency funds tax free to fix our severely damaged public services as they were then.

    Wake up Labour, or loose the next 2020 election!!!!!!

    If these right wing elements inside the labour government are successful at total control the purse stings that will only benefit the rich well off 1%, while destroying us all left behind after nine years of national slash and burn, they will burn in the 2020 election.

    • s y d 5.1
      30 April 2018 at 9:24 am

      Ahhh yeah. I remember this one from my youth, it’s a goody.

      Setting, late afternoon, wet pavements, Parliament, after the glow has dimmed…..

      Act 1
      Scene I – ‘Opening the books’
      Scene II – ‘ Wherefore our inheritance?’
      Scene III – ‘Clutch’d our pearls’

      Act 2
      Scene I – ‘Who will save us, look, the mob bestirs’
      Scene II – ‘Tina, Tina! tis the only path’

      Act 3
      Scene 1 – ‘We are saved, mob dis-pursed’

    • OnceWasTim 5.2
      30 April 2018 at 7:15 pm

      Doesn’t quite gel really with Labour’s leader’s intent to be ‘transformational’.
      I’m prepared however to wait – just the eeensie weeensiest little bit longer to see whether they’re up to it. After all Jacinda has only just got back from a jaunt and she’s going to be confronted with a shitload of hypocrisy to have to deal with.
      I mean there’s WINZzzzzzzzzzzzz
      there’s MBIE and the whole shitload of things to have to deal with (like T&C, and bringing back the former CEO on contract – for reasons more likely towards the comfortable rather than the pragmatic, like the growing number of former police officers going through their mid-life crisis in order to build some sort of reality TV ‘enforcer’ apparatus
      There’s MPI
      There’s DOC
      There’s Housing Corp

      and that’s before we even get to the rest of it

  6. Ad 6
    30 April 2018 at 10:20 am

    The Minister of Commerce is concerned about the price “conrolling” by BP in a leaked email:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12041980

    If the Minister proposes increasing the power of the Commerce Commission to investigate fuel pricing, they might want to start with the social cost of the taxes within fuel that they themselves put on consumers. Fine to point the finger, but make sure you take account of the other four fingers pointing straight back.

    Fuel excise plus GST is over 45% of the cost of a litre of fuel:

    https://www.aa.co.nz/cars/owning-a-car/fuel-prices-and-types/how-petrol-prices-are-calculated/

    Is the government itself not fixing the price of fuel far more than the oil industry?

    • Pete 6.1
      30 April 2018 at 10:43 am

      “A National Party MP and the Automobile Association (AA) are calling for the fuel industry to be more transparent about its pricing …”

      So Jonathan Young is concerned? How terrible to be suddenly stricken by concern about fuel pricing. Jonathan, you’re a legend.

    • Andre 6.2
      30 April 2018 at 11:01 am

      The cost of taxes levied for specific purposes by the government, and possible anti-competitive behaviour and/or profiteering by suppliers are unrelated issues.

      from https://www.aa.co.nz/cars/owning-a-car/fuel-prices-and-types/petrol/

      “The fuel excise portion includes:

      59.524 cents – National Land Transport Fund
      6 cents – ACC Motor Vehicle Account
      0.66 cents – Local Authorities Fuel Tax
      0.3 cents – Petroleum or Engine Fuels Monitoring Levy ”

      Each of those items is a fixed per litre amount dedicated to providing specific government services. Whereas the Commerce Commission is about examining the behaviour of private entities extracting a variable profit margin that is hidden from the consumer.

      • Ad 6.2.1
        30 April 2018 at 1:59 pm

        Fully aware of the regulatory remit.

        But government is the core driver of fuel increases, not the private sector.

        So it is they that should be held to account for price changes.

        Government are not sacred. On the contrary the ability to tax is a monopoly power needing the highest scrutiny.

        The fuss over one BP email is by comparison misdirected.

        • McFlock 6.2.1.1
          30 April 2018 at 2:06 pm

          How often do the levies fluctuate?

          I suggest that if a single supplier (or even manager) thinks it realistic to raise prices across an entire region just to help one station, there’s not enough competition in the marketplace, and changes in government levies are an excuse to disguise margin-padding.

          Even without the email, I believe the AA or someone did some interesting work a while back measuring the lag between global oil price changes and corresponding local price changes… and found a considerable bias towards price increases rather than decreases. If capitalism in a competitive market worked, any bias would be in the statistical margin for error as companies competed for market share with as little lag as possible in either direction.

          • Ad 6.2.1.1.1
            30 April 2018 at 3:46 pm

            All pretty minor compared to the 11 cents per litre added on throughout Auckland from July this year, on top of the near 50% government cost per litre already imposed.

            Auckland Council voted to confirm it today.

            • McFlock 6.2.1.1.1.1
              30 April 2018 at 4:03 pm

              And the BP email was talking about imposing a 20cpl increase across the region.

              When producers importing their own petrol sell it for a 20% profit margin on a high-volume product, I wonder how much of the price-setting is down to the government and how much of it is down to the lack of competition. Compared to supermarkets, for example, which I believe work on single-digit margins.

              Basically, is the government inflating the price, or is it merely taxing the proportion of the price that would be extracted as profit, anyway?

              • Stunned Mullet …
                30 April 2018 at 4:22 pm

                “Compared to supermarkets, for example, which I believe work on single-digit margins.”

                Nope, depends what the product line is there can be quite large variances.

                • McFlock …
                  30 April 2018 at 4:23 pm

                  Fair enough. Still seems like a bloody good earner.

                  petrol, not the supermarkets.

              • alwyn …
                30 April 2018 at 4:34 pm

                Where does that figure of a 20% profit margin come from?
                It seems very high to me.

                • McFlock …
                  30 April 2018 at 4:50 pm

                  AA link in AD’s comment 6.

                  • Sacha …
                    30 April 2018 at 8:26 pm

                    That 19% is *all* the gross NZ-based wholesale and retailing costs, including the profit.

                    • McFlock …
                      30 April 2018 at 9:36 pm

                      damn, you’re right.

                      Still, if they can sell them for $2/L and decide to arbitrarily increase costs by 10%, I doubt they’d choose to sell at $1.30/L if there were no excise.

              • Ad …
                30 April 2018 at 4:39 pm

                Great question definitely worth a Commerce Commission investigation.

        • Draco T Bastard 6.2.1.2
          30 April 2018 at 2:30 pm

          But government is the core driver of fuel increases, not the private sector.

          [Citation Needed]

        • Pete 6.2.1.3
          30 April 2018 at 3:28 pm

          If the 59.524 cents National Land Transport Fund excise Andre quotes was taken off, what chance the good folk in the fuel companies would reduce their prices by that much? (That’s a joke.)

        • Andre 6.2.1.4
          30 April 2018 at 7:44 pm

          “… government is the core driver of fuel increases …”

          Not for diesel it isn’t. As far as I can tell, there’s a grand total of $0.0066 per litre of levies, plus a few cents for the ETS, and GST on diesel.

          But odds are, if BP (or anyone else) is trying fuckery with petrol pricing then they’re probably trying fuckery with diesel prices too. You reckon that’s something the Commerce Commission should look into, or should they be hands-off because big diesel price swings are mostly due to global oil pricing?

    • Draco T Bastard 6.3
      30 April 2018 at 2:28 pm

      If the Minister proposes increasing the power of the Commerce Commission to investigate fuel pricing, they might want to start with the social cost of the taxes within fuel that they themselves put on consumers.

      And what might be the social cost if they removed it?
      How much more GHG emissions would we have?
      How much more road congestion?
      How much more early deaths from pollution?

  7. Reality 7
    30 April 2018 at 10:34 am

    Amidst all her inner turmoil at least DHC vaguely recognised she wrote a nasty spiteful and undeserved column last week. Which is more than Hosking would ever do with his rants.

    And if Clarke Gayford is happy in his new role that is great because he is supporting Jacinda in her role as PM and mum-to-be. If he was photographed looking surly what would the likes of DHC have said then?

    DHC should stick to her yoga and rummikub.

    • AB 7.1
      30 April 2018 at 4:43 pm

      Except years ago on tv – an election debate I think with audience participation and questions – when the topic got to taxation she popped up and interjected “what about the wealth creators?”
      The vacuous neoliberal equivalent of a 1930’s cloth cap saying “what about the workers?” endlessly.
      Randian superhero wealth-creators whom we must never tax in case they get huffy and fail to bestow their beneficence on us lowly, worthless scum.
      Knew from that point on that she was a gullible fool with a nasty streak – so not listening and will never listen.

  8. ScottGN 8
    30 April 2018 at 10:52 am

    Amber Rudd the UK Home Sec has gone.
    For 6 months Amelia Gentleman at The Guardian has been highlighting the dreadful treatment suffered by the Windrush migrants at the hands of Theresa May’s Home Office in the face of total indifference by the Tory government. She and the Guardian deserve a medal for their work on this.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/29/amber-rudd-resigns-as-home-secretary-after-windrush-scandal

    • joe90 8.1
      30 April 2018 at 12:54 pm

      Dude lays blame.

      .
      I feel sorry for Theresa May. And that Rudd one, who looks like she is wearing a rubber Halloween mask based on her own face. What if, because you were all going on about how great Ukip were, and how Nigel Farage was only saying what people had been thinking all along, and all these people coming over here, May and Rudd thought you wanted them to be racist too, like you are? And so back in 2013, to please you, they did some racism, and wrote racist stuff on racist vans and drove them around laughing.

      And in so doing, May furthered the creation of The Hostile Environment, which sounds like an irradiated wasteland where teenage amazons get sent to die in The Hunger Games. May probably wasn’t really all that racist herself, and only did the racism because she thought you wanted it, you racists.

      […]

      Deporting and depriving those nice old black people who have been here for ever was wrong. And when they came for that Canadian dinner lady in Wolverhampton, who was actually white, and told her to go home as life in Britain was about to become “increasingly difficult” for her, that was definitely too much.

      How could someone who had lived in Wolverhampton for 47 years, breathing toxic smog, dancing to Slade, and eating only faggots and peas, be expected to readjust to the land of clean mountain air, the thoughtful roots rock of the Tragically Hip, and light and fluffy blueberry muffins? It is inhumane.

      No, it wasn’t the dinner lady and the nice black family from the electrical shop who had to go. It was the other foreigners. The bad ones, who scrounge and steal and are lazy. Not the ones that were like people you knew, harmless tropical fish caught in a dragnet sweeping for sharks. It’s the anonymous parade of frightening brown faces on that Vote Leave poster. They’re the bad ones.

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/29/the-racists-won-so-are-they-happy-now-stewart-lee

      • McFlock 8.1.1
        30 April 2018 at 2:09 pm

        I still love the idea that St Geaorge, patron saint of England, was actually Syrian.

    • savenz 8.2
      30 April 2018 at 2:34 pm

      What has happened is despicable in particular May’s government destroying the paper work so that they can’t prove they are citizens and using Kafka type policy to make it impossible for some to prove they live there. (apparently tax records are not enough!)

      But part of it stems from stupidity. Other EU countries aka Germany put in provisions when they joined the EU to protect their jobs and welfare of it’s own citizens, UK of course did not. What happened was by 2006, over 600,000 EU citizens came into the UK and the stupid government thought it would be 15,000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5273356.stm

      In spite of that they declared in 2006 that there was no damage to the health, jobs, houses, socials security…. it was all good, but by 2013, they started cutting benefits https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/31/benefit-cuts-poor-disabled-tax, taking from the easiest targets, those who are on welfare and the disabled with changes to benefits, and tried to pick off the weakest migrants, asylum seekers, the commonwealth countries aka Kiwi changes to visas, and those that have the least power like the Windrush now taking place 2017.

      They have now also completely fucked up with Brexit.

      Obviously those with money, whether Chinese, middle eastern or Russian (sort of) are still welcome to build the sleek high rises and buy bolt holes there.

      This isn’t about racism, it becomes about money and power and networks and stupidity and failure of forward planning and when the shit hits the fan, not to admit mistakes but to then target, easy targets….

  9. Tony Veitch (not etc) 9
    30 April 2018 at 11:37 am

    I don’t get The Press, but the place where I work subscribes.

    Today’s Press in tabloid format. The beginning of the end?

    • mac1 9.1
      30 April 2018 at 2:44 pm

      My local paper also in tabloid form.

      A newspaper worker explained that it’s to do with the cost of paper itself- broad sheet has become more expensive and tabloid cheaper.

      There are also economies being made in layout.

      The beginning of the end? This person thought so- five years.

  10. Ffloyd 10
    30 April 2018 at 11:42 am

    Could Hooton possibly get more objectionable!!?? Ryan has no control over him at all. Let’s him take over by interrupting to state his ‘truth’ and then state with no irony at all that both sides have been heard and debate was good
    Stephen Mills was gazzumped good and proper. Well played Ryan. No wonder Labour is always on the backfoot media wise…. Flipping incensed!

    • cleangreen 10.1
      30 April 2018 at 2:56 pm

      Yes me too Ffloyd,

      Where is the ditsy Minister of Broadcasting lady (Clare Curran) that had repeatedly promised us a new commercial free investigative journalism channel they called RNZ+ ???????.
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96745495/labour-promises-freetoair-rnz-tv-channel
      Labour promises free-to-air RNZ TV channel
      HENRY COOKE
      Last updated 10:52, September 12 2017

      We need a ‘biased free channel not these highly biased channels we have now like RNZ, TV1& Newshub.

      I am definitely disgusted at the current ‘media mafia’ we now have as it is so self serving.

  11. Cinny 11
    30 April 2018 at 1:52 pm

    Watched simon bridges being interviewed on newshub this morning. He is already trying to bait voters with possible tax cuts. LMFAO !!! Is that all you have to offer simon? Worries about our stretched infrastructure, dirty environment, underfunded education and struggling health system, let’s not talk about that.

    Fun fact….. digital tv brings up the genres of tv shows.
    Any news on tv3 such as the AM Show, Newshub news etc has the genre description of ‘entertainment’.
    Over on TVNZ news shows like Breakfast, One News etc are genre labelled as ‘news, factual’.
    Personally, I found that rather amusing.

  13. Cinny 13
    30 April 2018 at 5:33 pm

    Paddy G, is doing a story on Gloriavale tonight on Newshub if any are interested. I’ll be tuning in for sure.

    A couple of times I’ve seen members of that cult in Motueka at the supermarket, have wanted to approach the ladies and tell them their leader is a convicted pedophile, but both times I didn’t have the opportunity. It’s very saddening when sickos use religion to control people, Gloriavale is a prime example.

  14. Eco maori 14
    30 April 2018 at 8:27 pm

    Dancing with the star’s the sandflys are cheating they have blocked my.computa my oh my wife Oh they don’t like me educating te tangata about the systems in Aotearoa at the minute being rigged buy them and there associates Ana to kaiI ka kite ano p.s this is the 4 device I have used to get my post out ha ha ha

    • Eco maori 14.1
      30 April 2018 at 8:36 pm

      Rodger I missed your dance I seem the rerun you did good m8 I will vote for you ka kite ano P.S I don’t have a problem with religions just fanatics of any kind they try and imposes there ways on us and think that there views are the only ones that count like that guy

  15. McFlock 15
    30 April 2018 at 11:26 pm

    Ruth Dyson’s office has screwed up, leaving the parliamentary seal on party campaign literature or something like that.

    Front-footing the apology etc, but still a stupid error to let slip.

  16. eco maori 16
    1 May 2018 at 7:30 am

    The Am Show good morning confidence is everything and self worth that is the reason I am letting all people know that Maori Culture is a Great Culture and to be proud of OUR culture and tipuna to lift all peoples respect of Maori Culture .
    Fuel prices is a joke for many months Rotorua had the cheap prices for fuel now there are 2 other place that are much cheaper Te Mount Manganui and Tokoroa I say they are colluding to milk as much money as the fuel companys can out of us .
    Duncan yes that’s the drinking culture we need to promote the cool way to drink responsible way of drinking not the binge drinking fools that is what is celebrated at the minute.
    That’s excellent news the whole Waitakere range is closed to try and stop the Kauri die back disease ka pai Auckland Its a good day when we start fixing the railway line to Wairoa ka pai to our new Coalition Goverment the next step will be to Gisborne . Ka kite ano P.S I have a back up plan to counter the sandflies attack on Eco Maoris comms.

  17. eco maori 17
    1 May 2018 at 6:43 pm

    Newshub John Ready you keep the fighting for your whano you will have to use the laws that Paddy talked about being breached m8 that will make them bend .
    Ka pai Paddy .
    Mike artificial intelligence should be feared m8 we have to make sure the bad people cannot corrupted artificial intelligence to ignore this fact is to be in fantasy land and believe that there are no evil people in the World and in reality we no there are heaps of people whom would love to dictate and dominate everything on Papatuanuku the World. What was that guy hiding wearing his sunnies thats what I see.
    Kate that movie Breaker Upper will display the awesome Kiwi wit and humor Ka pai Ladies I will be watching it as soon as I can.Ka kite ano

    • eco maori 17.1
      1 May 2018 at 7:26 pm

      The Crowd Goes Wild I have not got the computa problems I had last nite.
      Mulls and James . Blair Tuke he will have to learn the old maori way of navigation on the Volvo Ocean race using the stars the roll of the waves and the birds is what they used and it was not a accident that the old Maori found Aotearoa it was thought pure skills not electricity no fancey navigation tools just the compass and charts a Blair.Ka pai
      Shaquem is a good role model for all the disabled tangata people around Papatuanuku Ka kite ano .P.S that mokopunas is so original and hard case

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