Open mike 30/08/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 30th, 2024 - 41 comments
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41 comments on “Open mike 30/08/2024 ”

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    • Obtrectator 1.1
      30 August 2024 at 10:01 am

      Another straw in the wind: had an email yesterday from our local medical practice saying that its branch clinic in a seaside settlement is soon to be closed. Cites lack of GPs and inadequate government support. (No online link as yet.)

      • bwaghorn 1.1.1
        30 August 2024 at 11:34 am

        The last 2 prescriptions I've had for my child have been 3 to 4 day battles getting it completed properly and sent through to the pharmacy, it'd be funny if it wasn't so fucking sad.

    • Mike the Lefty 1.2
      31 August 2024 at 6:27 pm

      Like every other disaster they have overseen so far, they blame Labour.

      Like a child saying "He made me do it…..

      That excuse is starting to wear a bit thin with a lot of people.

  2. Dennis Frank 2
    30 August 2024 at 6:42 am

    This expert from Oz seems to make an excellent case for roof-top solar as national energy strategy: https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/28/an-engineers-plan-to-rewire-nz-and-save-money-doing-it/

    “You can actually now demonstrably show that for large sections of every economy in the world, it is now cost effective to solve climate change – and that’s a pretty radical new idea,” says Saul Griffith.

    That’s the message the Australian inventor and physicist has brought to New Zealand in a landmark new report on how electrifying what we drive, what we cook on and how we heat our homes and water could save us nearly $100 billion over the next 15 years.

    Griffith co-launched nonprofit Rewiring America in 2019, in an effort to reframe climate policy away from costs and towards opportunities. After the 2020 US election, his perspective was picked up and implemented into the country’s strongest ever climate law, which will mobilise trillions in private investment into decarbonisation.

    So the yanks went Deep Green and nobody noticed? The Mothers sang about this syndrome back in 1966 (it can't happen here): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freak_Out!

    Rewiring America spawned Rewiring Australia, which Griffith also co-founded, which in turn led to the 2023 creation of Rewiring Aotearoa, where Griffith serves as chief scientist.

    It’s in this role that Griffith co-authored the new report, alongside Rewiring Aotearoa’s Josh Ellison and Michelle Pawson and Reserve Bank chief economist Paul Conway (acting in a personal capacity). The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s chief economist Geoff Simmons peer reviewed the report, also in his personal capacity.

    The $100 billion figure is one of two headline figures – the other is that this savings translates to the average electrified household spending between $1500 and $4700 less on energy each year.

    So the govt has a real opportunity to make progress. The notion that rightists are capable of being progressive will be dismissed by everyone, including them, because knee-jerk reversion to tradition is what kiwi males do by default. Nonetheless, the Nats can secure political advantage by out-flanking Labour on the left. Will the prospect tempt them?

    • tsmithfield 2.1
      30 August 2024 at 7:21 am

      I have argued for subsidised solar here before.

      I think subsidising just solar panels can be problematic due to the unpredictable power being fed back into the grid which can cause problems for generators. But, subsidising solar plus storage makes a lot of sense.

      This is a far quicker solution than say building a new dam or any other major project, and doesn't require additional land or complicated resource consents. I don't know why governments haven't looked at this option seriously in the past.

      • AB 2.1.1
        30 August 2024 at 10:04 am

        The obstacle is probably in working out how the existing gentailers and their shareholders (including the government) can profit from community-based, distributed roof-top solar. The profits in distributed solar potentially move from one business sector (gentailers with big investments in large-scale generation capacity) to another sector (manufacturers and installers of roof-top systems and householders ). Can the gentailers quickly pivot to also monopolize profits and extract value in this new sector just as they do in their existing one? It's a brewing battle between rival sectors of capital, and indicates how much inertia and inefficiency is introduced by marketising essential services.

    • Mikey 2.2
      30 August 2024 at 11:29 am

      Is that one of them straw men in your final paragraph?

    • Bearded Git 2.3
      30 August 2024 at 12:28 pm

      That (outflank Labour with solar) is exactly what National should do Dennis. Luckily Simeon Brown is an idiot so it won't happen.

      As I said in a post the other day Labour should pick up the grid and rooftop solar issue (Rewiring Aotearoa) in its manifesto at the next election…..this would outflank National. It would be nice to think that Labour would acknowledge that the Greens have been supporting such a policy for many years.

      • gsays 2.3.1
        30 August 2024 at 1:41 pm

        I fully tautoko that idea.

        They wouldn't be able to stop there though. Because of the privatisation of segments of the power industry, they are obliged to make a return to shareholders.

        Nationalise the electricity sector is the only prudent way forward if one is serious about serving the citizenry.

    • Bearded Git 2.4
      30 August 2024 at 12:35 pm

      Saul Griffith was interviewed by Kathryn Ryan on Radio NZ Nine to Noon at 9.05. he was brilliant….well worth a listen. (Sorry on my phone in Cooktown so can't do link)

  3. PsyclingLeft.Always 3
    30 August 2024 at 7:36 am

    The new Electric Shock treatment : (

    Taser use on mentally ill people doubles: 'It just beggars belief'

    New research shows more than half of people tasered by police are mentally ill, in distress or suicidal.

    Footage showed officers tasering him in the upper back, causing him to fall to the ground in a seated position.

    When asked if he understood what they were saying, he replied "I do speak English … my master Satan will win the planet."

    As he got up and turned away from police to go back to the house, he was tasered again and fell to the ground on his back. He ignored further instructions to get on his stomach and was tasered a third time.

    And, what he actually needed…someone please.

    A third officer who knew the man arrived, talked to him "softly" and handcuffed the man, who neither spoke nor resisted.

    Yellow Brick Road chief executive John Moore said the threshold for getting help was "high and getting higher".

    "And that's why you see police coming out and why you see ED overuse because it's the most reliable pathway most people perceive for getting mental health support.

    "So you get people who get pretty much to breaking point and then the service kicks in and then it gets them past that breaking point so then they're released. And that cycle just continues for a lot of people."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/526562/taser-use-on-mentally-ill-people-doubles-it-just-beggars-belief

    As the Link tells..this will get worse. Please help those who cant help themselves.

    • Kay 3.1
      30 August 2024 at 8:53 am

      Had tasers existed in the 1970s, that would be my Dad on the receiving end during at least one very public manic episode that I can remember. Thankfully not, and the police still managed to take him away to the old Oakley asylum/institution without any physical harm.

      The point being, mental health crises have been around forever, and we know that removing mental health services isn't going to suddenly make that all go away, but hey, who needs common sense and logic to prevail?

      I'm very familiar with the situation in the 90s when the last of the institutions were closed down, the main reason being the cost, not the treatment of the inmates. Then the running down of the hospital attached mental health units, and now crisis teams. And even if one gets as far as seeing the crisis team, when there are literally no beds, well, they're back on the streets getting themselves tasered.

      We have plenty of money for new prisons, but zilch for mental health beds and the staff they need. Priorities, much?

      Once again, this really is on the voting public (and those who don't vote). Given how many people are personally affected by, or are caught up in the ripples of a loved one's illness, they know damn well what's happening. Yet no-one seems interested in changing the situation- literally out of mind, out of sight. I really do despair.

      • Anne 3.1.1
        30 August 2024 at 9:20 am

        Kay, I have much admiration for you. You are not afraid to describe your personal circumstances and experiences and you are able to articulate the consequences so succinctly.

        What a contrast to some of the bone headed cretins who fill the parliamentary chamber and pass judgements on matters of which they have no knowledge, expertise or even ability to understand.

        What a weird world we live in.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.1.2
        30 August 2024 at 9:27 am

        literally out of mind, out of sight

        Well, thats it summed. Anyway, take care. My best for you, and all.

  4. Dennis Frank 4
    30 August 2024 at 8:52 am

    Whereas democracy combined with education has kept most people anchored in the 19th century, neo-colonialism may not be a total failure after all. It has combined with neoliberalism to make educational institutions into a political football: https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/08/28/te-pukenga-staff-pissed-off-tired-by-constant-change/

    This is tremendously exciting for leftists and rightists: you can kick them from one side to the other on a regular basis, but you can also do random goal-post shifting. This strategy makes the game more interesting and, to youngsters, more infotaining.

    the organisation, which brought together polytechnics and industry training organisations in a single entity at the start of 2023, was financially viable and expected to make a deficit of about $16 million this year, following last year's $38m loss.

    We see here the essential psychodynamic of normalcy: continual failure means financial viability. Put that principle in your pipe and smoke it. See if you get as high on it as the neolibs do! Such praxis teaches the young that politics is fun.

    • tWig 4.1
      30 August 2024 at 10:57 am

      Have to remember that many individual polytechs were also struggling financially,

      Stand together or die apart.

  5. Drowsy M. Kram 5
    30 August 2024 at 9:31 am

    Big Tobacco is so far up our CoC govt's arse. Anyone interested can evaluate the evidence below – the first link includes summaries for NZ, Malaysia, and the UK.

    Tobacco Industry Interference with Endgame Policies
    [last edited on 19 June 2024]

    As of 2023, Malaysia, New Zealand and the UK are the only countries that have announced plans to adopt a generational endgame policy. New Zealand also proposed introducing mandated denicotinisation and substantial retailer reduction.

    Tobacco industry interference to prevent, delay or undermine the legislation has been observed in each of these countries, and is detailed below.

    Mind the gap: Associate Health Minister’s actions conflict with Ministry advice, align with tobacco industry lobbying [18 July 2024]

    Revealed: Politically charged tobacco policy document that NZ First Minister Casey Costello tried to hide [26 Aug 2024]

    Vapes ‘cheap as chips’ as fire sales ignite – again [27 Aug 2024]

    Why the PM was quizzed on the harms of nicotine [28 Aug 2024]

    As expected [29 Aug 2024]

    New Plymouth donors thankful National Party candidate won’t be prosecuted for donor fraud [30 Aug 2024]

  6. Mike the Lefty 6
    30 August 2024 at 11:33 am

    I find it interesting that management cost is used as a reason for changing from a fuel tax at the pump to a RUC for all vehicles.

    I would have thought that RUC would be a lot costlier to run, plus needing more fir enforcement.

    Also can we trust the CoC to be fair and lower the price of petrol by the same amount they will raise with RUC? and not use the occasion to sneak a tax hike that the AA will probably pretend not to notice?

    Probably not.

    • Bruce 6.1
      30 August 2024 at 12:27 pm

      I heard the NZ Initiative representative on RNZ this morning explaining the reasoning. Low income people have older less efficient cars and so fuel tax was unfair. He failed to mention that the rich have oversized gas guzzling tanks and would benefit from a miles charge rather than fuel tax.

      Its also been suggested that taxes can be used to change behavior to positive outcome, perhaps that doesn't apply when it may result in less profit for polluters

    • Psych Nurse 6.2
      30 August 2024 at 12:43 pm

      A significant amount of fuel tax is for ACC, by charging RUC you deny ACC of funding for activities that have considerable risk. Off road motor bikes,lawnmowers,chainsaws,motor boats,microlights,farm quad bikes. Whoops silly me thats the realm of the landed gentry.

  7. Champaign Socialist 7
    30 August 2024 at 1:12 pm

    It's not something that I have ever heard discussed in NZ and that is the role of the private health insurance and hospital sector. Approximately 40% of the population has some form of private health insurance supporting (I'm guessing) a very profitable private health system.

    In this scenario what market constraints does a public health system come up against? Too much high quality public health care is not good for everyone in this mixed model. What financial benefits flow to the private health sector when the public system is gradually but persistently underfunded?

    As always – follow the money. I'd love to know more about the finances of the private health sector but information is not easy to find.

    • Kay 7.1
      30 August 2024 at 1:53 pm

      Good points, and as you say, always follow the money. I've always found it somewhat strange that the majority of specialists split their time between public and private, so it's wait forever to see one publicly, or a bit sooner privately. Same doctor.

      No doubt it's a way to top up one's salary, which we know is low by global standards. But so long as the (increasingly rare) specialists won't work full time in the public sector, waiting lists will continue to get even longer, and it's the uninsured and uninsurable who will disproportionally suffer.

      • AB 7.1.1
        30 August 2024 at 2:53 pm

        There are many young people who would make perfectly good doctors who can't get into medical schools. To undermine the pernicious effect of private health insurance, we could train a lot more doctors, make it fees-free, bond them to work in the public system for a period of time and support their pathway into specialties. Pay public-sector specialists more and punitively tax the sorts of absurdly sky high incomes that are made as a private sector specialist. If the specialist Colleges object, they will have to be politely instructed to do as they're told. No matter how much we value them, they have no right to form wealth-extracting cartels.

        • Mountain Tui 7.1.1.1
          30 August 2024 at 4:11 pm

          This year the government broke their promise to fund 50 new doctor positions. They made it 25. They also broke their promise to fund mental health doctors. They made it 0.

          Not to mention the outflow of trained doctors. One can tell National – ACT – NZ First have no interest in doing anything to sustain the public health system, and may be manouvering it to break it further.

    • bwaghorn 7.2
      30 August 2024 at 7:20 pm

      i know a guy had an illness , surgeon recommended going private to get it done sooner , same surgeon did private surgery $15000 later it, it failed same surgeon had another go in the piblic system!!

  8. Vivie 8
    30 August 2024 at 6:20 pm

    The Government is considering a further attack on vulnerable people, this time by restricting funding for residential care.

    It's positive that fines have considerably increased for non-disabled drivers parking in spaces for disabled people. This is an easy, no cost, good news story for the Government. However it does not detract from the Government's intention to cut social services funding wherever possible, to try to offset the massive debt caused by their unjustifiable tax cuts mainly for the benefit of landlords.

    If residential care funding is halted, so too will be the options for adult disabled people to lead lives more independent from their families. Their parents/caregivers' chances to have respite after, in many/most cases, years of relentless concern and stress will be diminished, and the constant worry about their family members' future safety and security will continue.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350395111/government-considering-freeze-residential-care-funding-policy-document-reveals#

    "Ripu Bhatia

    August 29, 2024

    The Government is looking at a freeze on residential care funding, and being stricter on who is eligible to reduce costs, a leaked policy document reveals.

    The document, which was leaked on Tuesday, states that in order to meet the Government’s financial objectives there is likely to be no net increase in costs for individuals and residential care services, and no net increase in the number of people in residential care.

    “To stay within the indicative and fixed budgets, Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination (NASC) and Enabling Good Lives (EGL) sites will need to apply eligibility criteria strictly for new entrants,” it states.

    Residential care refers to long-term care given to people who are elderly or have disabilities who stay in a residential setting rather than their own home or a family home.

    NASC and EGL sites provide support for people with disabilities and those who require residential care.

    The hold on growth to residential care, according to the document, would extend to group homes and live alone arrangements, high and complex forensic care, rest home care, hospital level care and residential rehabilitation.

    It said other expenditure lines that may be affected include facility-based respite.

    Parents of Vision Impaired NZ spokeswoman Rebekah Graham said the document makes it clear that disabled people and their families will have their allocations cut.

    “The restrictions are so severe there is significant risk of harm to disabled people and their families, particularly for ageing parents who are finding care work increasingly difficult,” she said.

    “It is clear from this document that the Government is looking to severely curtail disabled people’s lives, reduce allocated supports.”…..

  9. Jenny 9
    31 August 2024 at 6:50 am

    Decision on Auckland’s fortnightly rubbish collection coming soon

    Story by Torika Tokalau, Local Democracy Reporter NZ Herald

    Auckland Council has proposed to move the weekly bin collection to fortnightly, like recycling bins, as part of their Waste Management and Minimisation Plan to reduce waste and carbon emissions.

    Decision on Auckland’s fortnightly rubbish collection coming soon (msn.com)

    On the news that Auckland is to go to a fortnight not weekly household rubbish collection. Weirdly the council say this move is being made to reduce waste.

    To borrow an old saying related to computers.

    'Garbage in Garbage Out'

    Trying to plug the garbage coming out, without stopping the garbage coming in will not solve the problem.

    Not until local and central government start cracking down on the single use plastics and packaging industry, will less garbage come into the system.

    Auckland Council Plastic Flows Plastics diversion in Tāmaki Makaurau August 2023

    There are approximately 190,000 tonnes of plastic estimated to be consumed in Auckland annually. Of this, consumer packaging makes up approximately 38,000 tonnes (20%), durables account for 32,000 tonnes 17%, while commercial and pre-consumer material makes up the largest share at 88,000 tonnes (47%). Finally soft plastics account for some 11,000 tonnes (6%) and agricultural plastics 1,200 tonnes (1%) The majority (77%) of material is landfilled while only 13% is estimated to be recovered.* 70% of recycled plastics are being processed onshore, while 30% of plastics recovered for recycling are shipped to export markets. Key export markets from Auckland include Malaysia and Taiwan. Based on the available data, an estimated 10% of the material in the system is unaccounted for and is either littered (44 tonnes), stockpiled, in flux, or otherwise lost to the system…..

    https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/plans-projects-policies-reports-bylaws/our-plans-strategies/topic-based-plans-strategies/environmental-plans-strategies/docswastemanagementplan/waste-assessment-appendix-h1.pdf

    *I added the block emphaisis to hi-light the fact that 77% of our single use plastic waste goes to landills.
    The next sentence says that of the 13% of plastic that is recovered, 70% of that is shipped out of the country, for others to deal with. Malayasia and Taiwan are two countries mentioned where we ship our waste. Good news for Malayasia, bad news for us, Malayasia will no longer accept our rubbish.

    Plastic waste imports to be banned in 2025

    23 Feb 2023

    THE country is restricting plastic waste imports and will ban scrap shipments of the material starting in 2025, as officials seek to halt a flood of refuse from rich countries that has impacted the health of its citizens and polluted its air and water.

    Plugging up the outlet without turning off the tap will only see more illegal dumping.

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