Open mike 30/03/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 30th, 2016 - 47 comments
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openmikeOpen 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 …

47 comments on “Open mike 30/03/2016 ”

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  1. Paul 1
    30 March 2016 at 6:48 am

    ‘The government has no plans to sell New Zealand Post despite the company continuing to struggle with fewer postal deliveries, Finance Minister Bill English says.’

    Yeah, right.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/300139/struggling-nz-post-won't-be-sold-english

  2. Skinny 2
    30 March 2016 at 6:52 am

    Hooton bathes in his own celebrity. Hmm let me guess who his main client is these days?

    Probably deals in milk powder, swamp kauri and bottled water. Just happens to have a wife who is a power hungry Minister who is not adverse to knocking over rivals.

    Little is not that much of an idiot Matthew to call you out. Tickets please…tickets please…clipping tickets for a price!

    “Some of which are highly paid PR consultants I might add.”

    http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11613354

    • Paul 2.1
      30 March 2016 at 6:54 am

      It is a disgrace that RNZ give this spin merchant a platform to dissemble each week.

      • Gosman 2.1.1
        30 March 2016 at 7:56 am

        They also give someone from the left the same opportunity. At least Mr Hooton criticisms his own side (often very vigorously). The current representative from the left seems to just be an apologist for everything Labour does.

        • Colonial Viper 2.1.1.1
          30 March 2016 at 8:54 am

          Wonder why a pseudo-left winger like Pagani didn’t get the spot

        • weka 2.1.1.2
          30 March 2016 at 8:58 am

          “They also give someone from the left the same opportunity. At least Mr Hooton criticisms his own side (often very vigorously). The current representative from the left seems to just be an apologist for everything Labour does.”

          Poor Gosman. He can’t tell the difference between a coherent argument that can be debated and a line of PR that is designed to manipulate the listener towards a certain bias. Or maybe he can 😉

        • Skinny 2.1.1.3
          30 March 2016 at 8:58 am

          Some would say Hooton works to keep Collins at the top of the peaking order of Natcorp. It is in her best interests to crack Key every now and then. Bennett is Key’s pet so trimming her up also serves Collins.

    • Draco T Bastard 3.1
      30 March 2016 at 7:57 am

      The big question there is: Why did the sluice gates break?

      I suspect that the answer is lack of maintenance.

      • Kevin 3.1.1
        30 March 2016 at 4:06 pm

        Same reason the Napier to Gisborne railway line has been mothballed. Lack of maintenance which caused a culvert washout during a storm.

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1
          30 March 2016 at 5:32 pm

          And we’re seeing this lack of maintenance around the world. US engineers estimate that the US infrastructure needs trillions of dollars spent on it. Political response? Cut taxes on the rich and cut social spending including spending on infrastructure.

          Makes me wonder just how bad NZs infrastructure is because we’ve been doing exactly the same for the last 30 years.

  4. Jenny 4
    30 March 2016 at 7:09 am

    What’s missing?

    http://www.labour.org.nz/

    http://www.labour.org.nz/diary_spy_160324

    Diary Spy
    By LabourVoices · March 26, 2016
    Parliament wasn’t sitting this week, so in lieu of the Whipping Post, here’s the week that was outside the House.

  5. Gosman 5
    30 March 2016 at 7:45 am

    Just listened to Andrew Little being interviewed on Morning Report regarding his views on politicians being attacked on social media. It was so bad I felt sorry for him. Why did he try and make a political point on this topic?

    • Jester 5.1
      30 March 2016 at 8:42 am

      A barking dog and passing cars comes to mind.

    • weka 5.2
      30 March 2016 at 8:55 am

      Just read Gosman shitstirring on The Standard this morning regarding his feelings about politicians being political. It was so pathetic I felt sorry for him. Why did he try and make an astroturfing point out of this topic?

  6. logie97 6
    30 March 2016 at 8:40 am

    Is there a website where we can see copies of all the flags submitted for consideration? Failing that, the shortlisted flags before the “expert kiwis” rejected them. Also, we know how the politicians voted but has anyone asked the “panel” how they voted? Wonder if any of them still preferred the original.

    • Pasupial 6.1
      30 March 2016 at 9:25 am

      Here are all 172 pages of submissions, the pencil & crayon drawn ones have the most charm for me. There’s a link on to the longlist of 40.

      https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/gallery/?sort=random

      • Sabine 6.1.1
        30 March 2016 at 10:03 am

        there are a few really good designs amongst them.
        But frankly i hope to never ever have to see a design from that Lockwood dude. He had way to many entries. Maybe they should have just limited it to one entry per person, and we would have gotten a bit more choice.
        In saying that….Hypno Flag and Laser Kiwi….t’would have been a hard choice.

        • Pasupial 6.1.1.1
          30 March 2016 at 10:27 am

          All five of the Lockwood designs in the top 40 were the same thing in different colours (one of them had previously won a Devonport design a flag competition, but couldn’t say which). The peculiar thing is just how based around the fern they were, considering that he can’t draw a fern for sour apples. Sven Baker also had four different designs in the longlist, but at least they were all different (5 different kinds of repulsive). Any future flag design panel should have a one finalist per designer rule (some designers and vexillogists would help too).

          Personally, I liked Frizell’s black&green Manawa design, but the black jack was good too:

          https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/gallery/

  7. sabine 7
    30 March 2016 at 8:52 am

    lets not speak about this….erosion of benefits – no not the bludger benefits like unemployment benefits or single parent benefits – they obviously need to be as low as possible to get people to ‘choose’ work instead of ‘live on the dole’, no the other good benefits like Accom Supplement ( i was told by a WINZ drone it is not a ‘benefit), Student Allowances, WFF, Legal Aid………
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78333951/some-government-benefits-are-quietly-being-eroded-at-the-expense-of-families

    “EROSION OF SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

    Student allowance is a fairness mechanism there to help the children of poorer families get a tertiary education.
    Whether a student gets it or not depends on their income, and those of their parents.
    The parental income levels have been frozen since April 2012, and will not be inflation-adjusted from their current levels until March 2019.
    The number of people getting the allowance has fallen from nearly 70,000 in 2011 to about 54,000 in 2015.
    The amount paid dropped from $78.8 million to $58.7m. A similar decline happened for student accommodation allowance.”

  9. Tautoko Mangō Mata 9
    30 March 2016 at 9:21 am

    We need an NZ version of this. Read the whole piece for best effect.
    An Open Letter To All Supporters Of The TPP

    Now, the legislative bodies of twelve Pacific Rim countries are presented with a secretively created trade agreement and encouraged to approve it WITHOUT ANY MODIFICATIONS. This agreement simply builds on and greatly expands the corruptive practices that previous corporate created agreements have had.

    It is critical that the media accepts its moral responsibility and honestly inform the public at large of the detailed ramifications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). After all, this is the largest trade deal in history and was created by a cabal of international corporations and bankers who explicitly stated that it was designed to counter the enormous economic influence of China. However, that is a rather narrow expression of what a more complete examination of its underlying objectives reveal.

    While continually excluding the public, lobbyist from some of the largest corporations and banks in the world created this agreement. It is designed to maximize profits at the expense of the rest of humanity. Among those who were not invited to be involved in its creation, were representatives of labor organizations, environmentalist, civil rights organizations, international human rights organizations, advocates for an open Internet, the medical community and numerous other groups of similar ilk.

    This agreement provides more international protections for these large corporations and financial groups when it comes to intellectual property, patents, trademarks, copyrights, loans, securities and global franchise agreements. At the same time, there are minimal to no protections for workers, small investors, health workers, consumers, the Internet, personal privacy or the environment.

    http://www.opednews.com/articles/An-Open-Letter-To-All-Supp-by-Terry-Sneller-Tpp-Trans-pacific-Partnership-160328-458.html

  10. Pasupial 10
    30 March 2016 at 9:33 am

    This is a few days old now, but new to me. Even if someone has already linked to it, it does deserve viewing:

    “…changes in this space”
    “what space?”
    “the space where the news used to be”

  11. Bearded Git 11
    30 March 2016 at 9:56 am

    John Gascoigne is good in the Herald today. In particular:

    “New Zealanders are told they have a “rock-star economy” and are doing well. But they also experience low wages, almost 6 per cent unemployment, job insecurity, housing unaffordability, crippling student and national debt, homelessness, a metastasising underclass, grotesque inequality, desolate communities and so on. But we are doing well, apparently.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11613468

  12. saveNZ 12
    30 March 2016 at 10:01 am

    Gosh there is a lot of right wing Troll activity on the blogs at the moment as well as attacks on Little.

    I think the polls might be looking shaky for the Natz.

    • Bearded Git 12.1
      30 March 2016 at 10:19 am

      Agreed saveNZ. I wonder if there is a strategy here directed by Joyce/Crosby Textor to drown out the debate on genuine policies. Some quiet words at BBQ’s and cocktail parties-nothing in writing of course;”keep up the trolling pressure chaps”.

      IMO the only way to fight fire is with fire-attack Key at every opportunity. Knock the rapidly disintegrating gloss of his image.

      • gsays 12.1.1
        30 March 2016 at 2:23 pm

        or articulate an attractive alternative vision.

        ubi, cleaned up waterways, a diversified economy, chase up the foreign fat cats and make them pay their fair share…

        and leave the tories to their unattractive sniping.

        remember when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty. only the pig enjoys it.

        • Bearded Git 12.1.1.1
          30 March 2016 at 10:09 pm

          @ gsays
          Yeah maybe you are right. Trying to drag Key into the mud never seems to work-Dirty Politics being the best example.

          The people will work out he is a duplicitous liar working mostly for his 1% mates….eventually.

          My only solace is that his reign will be looked back at negatively by most people, probably even his own side, in the future. He just doesn’t have the vision thing. At all.

      • Chuck 12.1.2
        30 March 2016 at 10:22 pm

        Dam you are on to us! Just last week the Crosby Textor drones were out in force delivering instructions to thousands of BBQ’s gatherings all over NZ. Some inside info…just like on mission impossible after the instructions have been read by all it self destructs to stop any vital Intel falling into the hands of left wing spies!!

        Seriously guys your comments are surely tongue in check?

    • TC 12.2
      30 March 2016 at 11:05 am

      Smearing and firing up the DP machine is all they have as the facts, shonky deals, corruption and chooks of their ecomonic incompetance come home to roost.

  13. Sabine 13
    30 March 2016 at 12:01 pm

    Interesting read on D. Trump Presnit to be and his foreign policy. Go read it, you know you want to 🙂

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-transcript.html?_r=0

    • ianmac 13.1
      30 March 2016 at 1:24 pm

      Only read part of it Sabine, but Trump dissembles like Key does when speaking unscripted. Transcripts show that there are lots of words but little of substance.

  14. weka 14
    30 March 2016 at 1:50 pm

     Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies

     Imagine an economy without bosses. It’s not a utopian vision but a growing daily reality for many enterprises. A close analysis of the performance of worker-owned cooperative firms—companies in which workers share in management and ownership—shows that, compared to standard top-down firms, co-ops can be a viable, even superior way of doing business.

    The term “co-op” evokes images of collective farming or crunchy craft breweries. But Virginie Perotin of Leeds University Business School synthesized research on “labor-managed firms” in Western Europe, the United States and Latin America, and found that, aside from the holistic social benefits of worker autonomy, giving workers a direct stake in managing production enables a business to operate more effectively. On balance, Perotin concludes, “worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses, with staff working ‘better and smarter’ and production organized more efficiently.”

    http://www.thenation.com/article/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/

    • gsays 14.1
      30 March 2016 at 2:29 pm

      hi weka,
      during the weekend i rewatched ‘the four horsemen of the apocalypse’ (great film).

      it touched on how the workplaces (factories and other places of production) were worker owned.

      seems absolutely logical.

      also an article, highlighted on the standard, about a ubi run in a town in canada.
      the findings included how productivity took a lift during this time.

      watch the tories diss this as they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

  15. Tautoko Mangō Mata 15
    30 March 2016 at 2:48 pm

    Kaipara District Council claim settled

    The Kaipara District Council and the Auditor-General have agreed to settle the claim by the Council against the Auditor-General in connection with audit issues identified in the Auditor-General’s report Inquiry into the Mangawhai community wastewater scheme tabled in Parliament in December 2013.

    As that Inquiry established, the Council failed to adequately perform its responsibilities to the community in connection with the wastewater scheme. The Council’s claim alleged that the Auditor-General failed to identify these failings in a timely manner and take appropriate steps to bring them to the attention of the Council. The Council alleged that some of the poor decisions made by the Council in this period could have been averted if the Auditor-General’s office had performed its responsibilities appropriately.
    In the Inquiry report, the Auditor-General offered an unreserved apology to the Kaipara District community for the failings in some audit work carried out by her office. However, the Auditor-General disputed the Council’s claim for damages arising out of those failings. In particular, the Auditor-General considered that it was the Council that had the responsibility to comply with its statutory obligations, and its failure to do so is not attributable to the Auditor-General’s office.

    The parties agreed to participate in a mediation of their dispute conducted by Hon Rodney Hansen QC, a retired High Court Judge. The outcome of that mediation is that the parties have agreed to settle the dispute, without any admission of liability. The sum of $5,375,000 (including GST, if any) will be paid to the Council on behalf of the Auditor-General, and the parties will bear their own costs in the litigation to date. The mediator has confirmed to the parties that, in his opinion, the settlement is a reasonable one for the parties to enter into.

    http://oag.govt.nz/media/2016/kaipara-settlement

    • Tarquin 15.1
      30 March 2016 at 4:47 pm

      Hope it works, I know people involved on both sides of this story and nobody is looking too flash. I feel sorry for ratepayers in places like Ruawai and Dargaville who will no doubt end up paying for it in the long run.

  16. Penny Bright 16
    30 March 2016 at 3:04 pm

    PROTEST THE PRIVATISATION OF STATE HOUSING IN TAMAKI!

    Seen this?
    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Please join us in protest outside the Tamaki Regeneration Company offices, 244 Apirana Ave Glen Innes this Thursday the 31st March, at 3pm.

    This Thursday, the 31st of March, 2,800 state homes are to be transfered to the Tāmaki Housing Association. This affects 2,800 households that will be anticipating eviction, and subsequent demolitions of state housing in Tāmaki in favour of the government’s proposed ‘urban renewal’ promise to build more homes.

    Mixed tenure communities is used as a way of socially cleansing low-income communities through a process of state-led gentrification.

    The government says that demolishing state houses and building a mixture of private, affordable and social housing will lead to affordable housing.

    This is a con, as land values in Glen Innes have increased by more than 100% since the redevelopment. The transfer of homes is not a new idea, it is a continuation of what the privatisation and gentrification of Tāmaki since 2011.

    This is a further privatisation of state assets and gentrification of lower socioeconomic areas as in Pomarie, Tauranga and Invercargill.

    This is happening all over Aotearoa and is similar to Thatcher’s regime, where council estates were transferred to housing associations which led to privatisation, displacement and homelessness.

    This is the first major step in the National government’s privatisation of state housing, and we need to make a stand now or we stand to lose more than just a state asset.

    Come and support the Tāmaki Housing Group, and all state housing tenants that are, or soon will be, directly affected by these reforms.

    We live in a low wage economy where people are already struggling to pay rent, getting rid of state housing is not a solution to the housing crisis, it only leads to increasing unaffordability.

    Everybody is affected by these reforms. Let us resist the state’s neoliberal agenda on a basic human right to for families to have a home to live in.

    Please join us in protest outside the Tamaki Regeneration Company offices, 244 Apirana Ave Glen Innes this Thursday the 31st March, at 3pm.
    https://www.facebook.com/events/1695882720676368/

    Ngā mihi,

    Tāmaki Housing Group

  17. Chooky 17
    30 March 2016 at 3:27 pm

    Crosstalk discussion /debate:

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/337391-terror-attacks-nato-ukraine/

    “Why can’t Europe protect itself from terror attacks – does Brussels have misplaced priorities?

    Also, Russia as universal bogeyman – when the US and the EU stare failure in the face blaming Russia is the first excuse of convenience.

    And is Trump on to something – should there be a serious re-think about the necessity of NATO?

    And finally Ukraine again – Crimea’s democratic return to Russia two years on….

    CrossTalking with Patrick Henningsen, Dmitry Babich and Xavier Moreau.

  18. McFlock 18
    30 March 2016 at 4:15 pm

    Bunnings back down on store defibrillators.

    Obviously not caring if your staff or customers died on site was a bad look.

    Now, hopefully, they’ll think twice about continuing their current dispute with the union over rosters. Too much shitty publicity so close together is a bad plan for anyone wanting to keep customers.

  19. Penny Bright 19
    30 March 2016 at 7:18 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/78339440/council-belonging-to-developer-body-is-conflict-of-interest-lee-says

    “Auckland Council’s membership of a property developer body is “crony capitalism” of the sort pushing Americans to vote for Donald Trump.

    So says veteran local politician Mike Lee, who has called for councillors to vote on Thursday to end the association with the Property Council of New Zealand.

    The Property Council lobbies central and local government on behalf of property developers. It was a glaring conflict of interest that Auckland Council was also a member, Lee said.
    …..”

    I agree with Auckland Councillor Mike Lee.

    Again – I will be pushing that Auckland Council and all CCOs which are members of the NZ Property Council cease their membership forthwith, when I address the Auckland Council Governing Body (tomorrow) Thursday 31 March 2016, at 9.30am, Auckland Town Hall, in ‘Public Forum.’

    If YOU are opposed to the ‘regulator’ / ‘referee’ effectively playing on the same side of one of the ‘teams’ – then come along?

    Penny Bright
    ‘Anti-corruption Public Watchdog’

    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.