Open mike 30/06/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 30th, 2024 - 14 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

14 comments on “Open mike 30/06/2024 ”

  1. Mike the Lefty 1

    There was a small pro-Israel demonstration in Palmerston North Square yesterday, the first I have personally seen. I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from passers-by (little waving or horn tooting) compared to the equivalent pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

    • tWig 1.1

      This has been going on every Sunday at the PN Square since the Israeli attacks on Gaza began. People wander in and out of it in support. It's a great way of keeping the issue in the public consciousness/conscience.

  2. tWig 2

    Stociastic terrorism, where you seed crackpot ideas, and hope lone wolves with mental health issues will pick up and act on them – is alive and well in NZ.

    'Former Nelson mayor Rachel Reese confronted by terrifying intruder [with nail gun] who ‘claimed’ her house' in February, spouting Sovereign Citizen rubbish. He has since been sentenced and remanded for compulsory mental health treatment. Only the arrival of a neighbour stopped the situation from escalating.

    And, in Henderson, The Herald reports that 'Irene Kalinowski, Auckland midwife who refused Covid-19 vaccine, sentenced for continued work' said “See you at the military tribunals, darling,”… as she left the courtroom at the end of the sentencing hearing, after the judge had already left the bench. This is a reference to Nuremburg 2.0, when Jacinda Arden, Ashley Bloomfield and others involved in NZ's covid response will be tried and sentenced to hang for illegal medical experimentation.

    • joe90 2.1

      Barking. (video)

      @COUNTERSPIN111

      IRENES CHAIN PREPARES FOR THE HIGH COURT Despite proving, over a four-day period, that the Ministry of Health has committed fraud in creating a document with Irene’s fraudulent signature on it and showing that the prosecution had no first-hand evidence for any of the charges laid against her, the judge this morning chose to uphold all five charges against Irene. Spectotors gasped – it is almost impossible to see how such a conclusion could have been reached and seems to point to a very broken justice system.

      The judge had no reasons on hand to support her judgement. This will be delivered at a future date – “imminently”, according to the judge. Counterspin Media will bring you the basis of what is in that statement when we have it and keep you informed.

      https://x.com/COUNTERSPIN111/status/1785949961479176570

  3. Vivie 3

    This Government's callousness, narrow thinking and lack of humanity are exemplified in the following news item and video, concerning a woman and her husband who do not have permanent residency, despite paying an immigration adviser to apply about 20 years ago. It includes evidence that the woman has saved, and will save, taxpayers a significant amount of money by continuing to care for her brother, a New Zealand resident, who has an intellectual disability and epilepsy.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/06/29/tongan-familys-last-ditch-attempt-to-stop-aunts-deportation-fails

    "A last-ditch attempt from a Tongan family to stop their aunt from facing deportation has failed.

    Loasi Latu cares for her intellectually disabled brother Viliami Takapautolo full-time and has asked the minister in charge to consider a special exemption to keep her here."Every night, I wake him up two or three times to go to the toilet. Otherwise, he goes on the bed," Latu said.

    Her niece, Karina Kaufasi, added: "He can't talk, he can't eat. For example, if we were to leave him to go to the shower, he would turn it up to boiling hot – he wouldn't do anything about it and he'd let himself boil."

    But the family fears her days here are numbered – Latu and her husband have overstayed their student visas by over 20 years. They had until yesterday to leave the country voluntarily…..

    The family say they began an application for permanent residency before their visas expired and were under the impression it had been filed. Kaufasi said they had gotten an immigration adviser "well-known" to Immigration NZ and the Tongan community."They paid him thousands and thousands of dollars, but he did not submit for their residency and it wasn't until years and years after that they found out."

    Another application was made last year for an exemption, known as a special direction, but it was declined in January.

    They have since gathered new evidence to try and strengthen their case, including a letter from a psychologist. "Viliami does not communicate verbally, so his case relies on the daily cues that Loasi has learned and understood over the past two decades," the letter read. "Transitioning to a new caregiver would result in considerable psychological distress, not only for Loasi and [her husband] but for Viliami as well."

    The family has also commissioned an independent report by The Commercial Advisory Partnership on the economic implications of granting Loasi and her husband a resident visa. "Continued presence of Loasi and her care services will benefit the State by the avoidance of future high needs residential care costs which is estimated to be $1.89m over the remainder of Viliami’s life expectancy," the report reads. "Historically, the State has already enjoyed the avoidance of such costs of care for Viliami which is estimated to be $1.87m in nominal terms over the course of the past 20 years."

    Kaufasi said it was therefore in New Zealand's best interest for Loasi to remain in the country. "The immigration policy, it's designed to take into consideration New Zealand's best interest and it considers the economic, humanitarian, and social implications," she said.

    But Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk has declined to review the information. In a letter to the family, he said he won't consider requests by people who have had an application for ministerial intervention rejected in the last 18 months.He declined to speak to 1News, with a spokesperson saying it wasn't in the minister’s standard practice to comment on specific cases due to privacy reasons.

    "It's not that the minister can't look at, it's that he won't," Kaufasi said."We are now providing new information not previously shown to the minister that is compelling and in the public interest."

    Immigration NZ told 1News that Loasi has no further right to appeal."We acknowledge this is a challenging situation for Loasi Latu, her husband and their family," national manager of compliance Stephanie Greathead said. "However, they have been unlawfully in New Zealand since March 2004. They were told at the time they needed to make arrangements to leave the country as they were in New Zealand unlawfully."

    This issue was earlier covered by RNZ: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/520657/family-fighting-to-keep-aunt-in-new-zealand-as-immigration-tells-her-to-go

    It included: "In a statement, national compliance manager Stephanie Greathead said Latu and her husband have been in the country unlawfully since 2004 and are liable for deportation. She said they have no further right to appeal, and she encouraged them to leave voluntarily". This sounds rather threatening.

    • SPC 3.1

      Even when inhumanity costs them money, they choose it.

      And that explains their penal policy.

  4. SPC 4

    December 2019 – average house price $628,000

    December 2023 – average house price $785,000

    Inflation 1.5%, 5.7%, 7.1%, 4.6% (by the 4 quarter totals) – 18.9%, more when basing at Dec 2019 cost to the higher cost Dec 2023.

    https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-inflation-at-4-7-percent/

    $628,000 + 25% = 785,000

    The May 31 house average is $770,000.

    The average price is no higher now than in Dec 2019, when accounting for inflation.

    https://www.interest.co.nz/charts/real-estate/median-price-reinz

    • SPC 4.1

      Median values seen as more reliable than average values.

      • SPC 4.2.1

        The average in Dec 2019 $745,000 + 25% is $930,000 – the current value.

        When adding the 2024 inflation rate to the 18.9% of the past 16 quarters, it appears that house values are coming into synch with inflation since then.

    • Maurice 4.3

      18.9%, more when basing at Dec 2019 cost to the higher cost Dec 2023.

      Inflation is cumulative not additive – the next lot just includes the previous and piles on top.

      In the above case

      100 x 1.015 = 101.5

      101.5 x 1.057 = 107.29

      107.29 x 1.071 = 114.90

      114.90 x 1.046 = 120.19

      So there is a 20.19% increase in price not 18.9% – and it gets worse with every subsequent year of inflation.

      • SPC 4.3.1

        Yeah that is why I was looking at 25% by the end of this year, as to inflation adjusted synchronisation with the Dec 2019 (pre COVID) value.

        However to stay there, might require an improvement in supply (relative to migration inflow outflow) as mortgage rates come down.

        • Maurice 4.3.1.1

          It cannot stay there for there is only two or three ways to purge excess debt from the system

          1) Pay it off and cause massive deflation (removing $100 BILLION from the system)

          2) Inflate the currency in which the debt is fixed (the numbers stay the same but the value of the inflated dollars used to pay it off is far less than the initial value of the loan)

          3) Repudiate the debt (Resulting in vast losses to Bond holders and making sure that future Bond issues are not subscribed to.)

          Once inflation is started it takes REAL restrictive reductions in Govt. spending to on seat it.

          The lock down spending locked it in. Better off to have never done it – sacrificed 20,000 – 80,000 “Grannies” left the economy intact and redistributed the dead’s assets to those (younger ones) left alive. Just like in war – some must give the ultimate sacrifice.

          P.S. I may well have been one of the “Grannies” ….