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Comment: Open mike 07/06/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:15 pm, June 7th, 2025
Essentially, yes, RBNZ policy is not really that independent from the govt. If they are doing something undesirable that should be ultimately the responsibility of the finance minister for allowing them to do that. Of course, what Rimmer described is not ...Comment: Open mike 07/06/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 5:13 pm, June 7th, 2025
The finance minister sets out the goals of the Reserve Bank every year in letter form and can wholy override its independence for 6 months without intervention from parliament. On top of that its usually unnecessary as the Reserve Bank usually knows how to ...Comment: Writing in the time of Genocide
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 10:59 pm, June 3rd, 2025
Israel should be willing to agree to a settlement for a number of reasons, but several of these don't apply if the point is to genocide and ethnically cleanse the population from Gaza (and the West Bank). Those reasons are, 1) The IDF would there by stop ( ...Comment: Writing in the time of Genocide
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:19 pm, June 3rd, 2025
That's an utterly pathetic and unconvincing attempt at sophistry. Benjamin Netanyahu recently undermined your lie by rejecting a Gaza withdrawal agreement, put by Hamas negotiators (via Steve Witkoff), which both stated Hamas would give up all ...Comment: Writing in the time of Genocide
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:37 pm, June 3rd, 2025
Since you clearly agree with the punishment being dished out, why is this "Gazans are feeling the real-world effects of having a government that started a war against a far more powerful nation and would rather they all die than that the government ...Comment: Shut up you dickhead
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 3:08 pm, June 1st, 2025
To be fair to Chris I will mention seeing him leaving a performance of Bluey with his family. The look on his face suggested the performance had felt similar to hearing a ManU supporters detailed summary of why Arsenal have been such a failure this season. ...Comment: Open mike 26/05/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:32 pm, May 26th, 2025
The basic problem with UBI are right in front of you. For a start it needs to be at a level which we call, in the present economic context, the living wage. Firstly by having such a high UBI you end up with a large expenditure which mostly goes to wage ...Comment: Our growing stress is everywhere
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:34 pm, May 25th, 2025
Verity is actually understating the case quite a bit. First a digression to Greek economic history. In 2010 Greece was having an actual govt debt crisis. Greek govt debt was at risk of default and importantly the only bailout/ rescue plan supported by the ...Comment: The worst Finance Minister ever?
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:51 am, May 14th, 2025
This is a non-sense argument. Virtually every single figure dealt with by Treasury and the finance minister are an estimate. This includes the latest GDP figures which are only available looking back 3 months and are usually revised to final within 6 ...Comment: Daily review 08/05/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 6:35 pm, May 8th, 2025
ITV bought franchise rights to "The Block"?Comment: National wants to make voting harder
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:03 am, May 7th, 2025
Trump won the US election due to vote suppression tactics. This was legalized using literal Jim Crow era laws. Trump Lost. Vote Suppression Won. - Greg PalastComment: Open mike 03/05/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 1:22 pm, May 3rd, 2025
Its relatively simple to understand this, the meaning of productivity used is highly effed up. The actual biggest loss of productivity is anybody unemployed (in the true sense that they would rather be employed) because the result is them not adding any ...Comment: The Greens’ Industrial Strategy: Green Jobs Guarantee and Ministry of Green Works
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 9:07 pm, May 1st, 2025
That sounds like a bad faith reading of his comment, because that would be hideous idea.Comment: The Greens’ Industrial Strategy: Green Jobs Guarantee and Ministry of Green Works
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:29 pm, May 1st, 2025
Unfortunately this takes the form of a Green party press release. As you imply it should be something the govt makes available at every MSD office across the country to sign up to do something in the non profit or public sector for a living wage. The real ...Comment: Open mike 30/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:47 pm, April 30th, 2025
Background problem here is the fictional idea that monetary policy is more effective than fiscal policy. This fiction was only ever seen an plausible with an inflating housing bubble going on, this has ended in NZ. The effect of this is the government ...Comment: The Fall of Saigon 1975. Fifty years of repeating what was forgotten.
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 10:05 am, April 25th, 2025
Good on you for still being willing to affirm your commitment to the genocide of Palestinians (a phase of the much longer running ethnic cleansing), in public. As the article accurately describes this is simply the ongoing practice of long established ...Comment: Open mike 21/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 1:50 pm, April 21st, 2025
Bad luck to that mysoginist. The implication of hangman is the player gets hung for failing to guess correctly isn't it?Comment: The Empire strikes back
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:07 pm, April 13th, 2025
This effect is just the smart money doing risk avoidance. With a large tax on imports, it's at least likely for a lot of US import purchases to go away (note this is different from tariffs succeeding which would also involve actual US import substitution, ...Comment: Open mike 12/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:50 pm, April 12th, 2025
They were not voted out for running a deficit, and the current lot will not be voted out for pushing out the anticipated return to surplus with their austerity policies either.Comment: Open mike 12/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:16 pm, April 12th, 2025
It does. Labour did no tax reform and it was going just fine.Comment: Open mike 12/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 6:30 pm, April 12th, 2025
Completely untrue. Public sector spending levels were only just beginning to approach a healthy level at the end of the last govt term.Comment: The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 12:33 pm, April 12th, 2025
Agree, with the caveat that in the event of genuine demand driven inflation they can be justified. For most of the west that is a situation not observed for the last 40 years. Also worth highlighting that the Labour government surpluses were equally not ...Comment: The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 10:04 am, April 12th, 2025
"Economists generally believe that a government must run a budget surplus if it wishes to run a current account deficit, and vice versa." While some may believe this, it's clearly the wrong economic strategy. The budget deficit (surplus) offsets the ...Comment: Open mike 07/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 6:42 pm, April 7th, 2025
Should go on to point out that National are already defunding the police more than any sensible budget policy would suggest, and that they have zero chance of hitting their recruitment targets in their term.Comment: Trade Like You Mean It: How Aotearoa Can Lead with Values in a Volatile World
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 5:48 pm, April 6th, 2025
Not really any better though. I guess the statement is that 60% of NZs GDP is involved in trade (exports + imports). That may be true, but in terms of GDP those two terms have opposite signs. A meaningful statement would be that NZ trade is somewhat ...Comment: Trade Like You Mean It: How Aotearoa Can Lead with Values in a Volatile World
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 7:30 am, April 6th, 2025
NZ has never earned anywhere near 60% of GDP for its exports. This peaked around 2000/2001 near 36% and presently sits around 26% of NZ GDP. Exports of NZComment: US imposes 10% tariff on NZ imports
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 6:52 pm, April 4th, 2025
It's not clear to me how you are suggesting that selling to particular international markets affects prices set. I would suggest that very limited NZ demand explains quite a lot in relation to how the country works, low savings, little share market ...Comment: Open mike 04/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 9:56 am, April 4th, 2025
If NZ is looking to get in Trumps good books, sucking up has a much better track record than logic. Fortunately NZ has furnished itself in advance with a suitably invertibrate PM, we are in a naturally strong position.Comment: US imposes 10% tariff on NZ imports
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 8:08 pm, April 3rd, 2025
First off, we should understand what exporting is doing for the country. There is no advantage to a business of selling overseas over selling locally, both are just revenue. The main advantage to an export enabled business is picking up extra demand. ...Comment: Open mike 01/04/2025
Written By: Nic the NZer - Date published: 9:48 pm, April 1st, 2025
Can I please pay in installments of $99.99?
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A protest group carries out repeated non-violent actions to highlight its cause, highlighting the fact that the regime's foreign policy is in violation of international law and is at odds witht he values and wishes of its people. The regime responds by banning the organisation, and threatening 14 year jail ...2 weeks ago
- Strangle it, strangle it now
Sometimes you've got to take your chance at the flood, even when everyone says you've got it all wrong. Sometimes you've just got to back yourself and ride that tide.Sometimes this is the worst advice you could possibly give yourself. You imagine you know better than everyone else, but you ...2 weeks ago - For Quad to be taken seriously, it must formalise and expand
The Quad must formalise through a permanent secretariat and expand to include South Korea and New Zealand to remain relevant to Indo-Pacific security. Now is the time to assess whether the group’s current structure is sufficient ...2 weeks ago
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- Shotgun and meth found during search of car
Two officers patrolling in Northcote stopped a BMW on Ocean View Road and found a gun in the driver's footwell, police said. ...21 hours ago - Almost half of young workers expected to work unpaid overtime, while a quarter aren’t paid compuls...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Howe, Associate Dean (Research), Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Anna Kraynova/Shutterstock A young person gets a job, excited to earn their first paycheck. Over time, they realise the hours are long and the payslips small. They are told ...21 hours ago - Will 2026 be the year that Auckland gets its mojo back?
A new international report paints a bleak picture of Auckland in 2025. But with major infrastructure projects finally nearing completion, there’s hope the city might yet reclaim its spark, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Have Aucklanders ...22 hours ago - Why The Spinoff is explaining the news on TikTok, explained
This week we launch Now You Know, a video series explaining issues that matter to young people. Head of audience Anna Rawhiti-Connell explains why. Last week, I was brainstorming something and threw a few stats on social media use and attention into Gemini. The AI yelled its summary back at ...1 day ago
- The Fold: How Auckland FC aced (almost) everything – including its media strategy
Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker joins The Fold to talk the secrets behind the club’s successful first season. Nick Becker is an Aucklander who spent 15 years in the UK, much of it in key roles with huge EPL teams Arsenal and Manchester City, before a spell in Melbourne. ...1 day ago
- Auckland’s annual report card is out again – and its grades have barely budged
The 2025 State of the City report shows marginal improvements more than cancelled out by some big drops. So what can be done to turn around the persistent malaise that grips the supercity? Mid-July is a tough time to be in Auckland. In summer the sea all around is calling ...1 day ago
- The cost of living crisis is over – this is just our reality now
New Zealanders are participating in mass delusion by insisting we are still in a ‘crisis’, argues a nihilistic Mad Chapman. Imagine you don’t smoke. You tell everyone you don’t smoke, and it’s true. Then one night you drink a few too many beers at a party and find yourself smoking ...1 day ago
- Mini crossword, Tuesday 15 July
The post Mini crossword, Tuesday 15 July appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago - Daily crossword, Tuesday 15 July
The post Daily crossword, Tuesday 15 July appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
- Plummeting participation in council elections ‘a threat to democracy’
Local Government NZ working group will this week propose a ‘radical shake-up’ in how elections are run The post Plummeting participation in council elections ‘a threat to democracy’ appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 15 July
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 15 July appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
- How to solve an empire state of mind
Opinion: It took a year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building – less time than it can take to get planning permission to build a supermarket in NZ The post How to solve an empire state of mind appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
- Land of the long white saviour fiction
William Delisle Hay is despicable. He travelled to and lived in New Zealand in the 1870s as part of the larger 19th-century British imperial project, and his 1880 novella, The Doom of the Great City, imagines the land as a site primed for imperial conquest and repopulation. He posits the ...1 day ago
- RNZ reviving a national news wire as it aims to be journalism’s cornerstone
MediaRoom column: Public broadcaster RNZ plans to launch a national news and content ‘wire’ service this year, bringing together at least 30 other media partners. The wire – which would be the country’s first substantive news sharing-system since the NZ Press Association was closed in 2011 – is in the ...1 day ago
- Scrapping census could compromise infrastructure planning
Reduced data quality expected to be felt from counting homelessness to infrastructure planning The post Scrapping census could compromise infrastructure planning appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
- Rough times for a classic NZ fish
The country’s deep-sea darling, the orange roughy, is once again at the centre of controversy. Once hailed as the “white gold” of our oceans, this elusive, slow-growing fish is fast becoming a symbol of what happens when demand outweighs caution. It’s led to our largest orange roughy fishery, accounting for ...1 day ago
- Anne Salmond: Freedom, for whom?
The debate over the Regulatory Standards Bill has been illuminating. New Zealanders have learned a great deal about how our society is being run at present, by whom and for whom. In this bill, a small libertarian minority is attempting to use the law of the land, past and present, ...1 day ago
- Tertiary Education Union says sector’s become a political football, slams Te Pūkenga disestab...
The Tertiary Education Union says the sector has become a political football. ...1 day ago
- Space Minister Judith Collins goes to ground over alleged government failures managing NZ’s fi...
An astrophysicist wrote to government officials in March warning the public was being given a "materially incomplete" picture. ...1 day ago
- Israeli settlers shoot, beat to death 2 Palestinians in latest lynchings
BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied West Bank Two young Palestinians were shot and beaten to death on their land, and 30 injured, by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. A large group of settlers attacked the rural Palestinian village of Sinjil, in the Ramallah governorate, ...1 day ago
- View from The Hill: Segal’s antisemitism plan gives government controversy, not clarity
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may be rueing what seemed a good idea at the time – the appointment of a special envoy to combat antisemitism (as well as an envoy to combat Islamophobia). Or ...1 day ago
- David Robie condemns ‘callous’ health legacy of French, US nuclear bomb tests in Pacific
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – A journalist who was on the Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap last night condemned France for its “callous” attack of an environmental ship, saying “we haven’t forgotten, or forgiven this outrage”. David Robie, the author of Eyes of Fire: The ...1 day ago
- ‘Policing is policing’: Australian recruiters say they’re just making sure Kiwi co...
Police recruiters will be in Christchurch and Auckland this month to host jobs and information sessions for the Northern Territory. ...1 day ago
- Was the Air India crash caused by pilot error or technical fault? None of the theories holds up – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guido Carim Junior, Senior Lecturer in Aviation, Griffith University Over the weekend, the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released a preliminary report on last month’s crash of Air India flight 171, which killed 260 people, 19 of them on the ground. The ...1 day ago
- Ray Chung’s ‘vile’ email condemned across the political spectrum
Both the prime minister and the opposition leader have given scathing rebukes of the Wellington councillor's actions. ...1 day ago
- Confusing for doctors, inequitable for patients: why Australia’s medicinal cannabis system needs u...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Mary Hallinan, Senior Research Fellow, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne Vanessa Nunes/Getty Images In 2024 alone, Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), authorised at least ...1 day ago
- Treasury warns the government it may not balance the budget or meet its housing targets
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Head, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra Kokkai Ng/Getty In the runup to each election, federal treasury produces a “blue book” and a “red book”, with advice tailored to the priorities of the two alternative governments. One of ...1 day ago
- UNESCO grants World Heritage status to Khmer Rouge atrocity sites – paving the way for other sites...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Hughes, Associate Professor of Geography, The University of Melbourne A series of atrocity sites of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia have been formally entered onto the World Heritage list, as part of the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee. ...1 day ago
- How do you stop an AI model turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy & AI4Media, CC BY Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot embedded in X (formerly Twitter) and built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, is ...1 day ago
- Author condemns ‘callous’ health legacy of French, US nuclear bomb tests in Pacific
Asia Pacific Report A journalist who was on the Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap last night condemned France for its “callous” attack of an environmental ship, saying “we haven’t forgotten, or forgiven this outrage”. David Robie, the author of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow ...1 day ago
- The Green Party’s Universal Basic Illusion
The Green Party’s UBI is a reformist containment strategy, not a pathway to liberation. ...1 day ago - Tāmaki Makaurau by-election to be held in September
The byelection was triggered by the death of Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Moana Tarsh Kemp last month. ...1 day ago
- Washington’s war demands – Australia right to refuse committing to a hypothetical conflict with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Andy. LIU/Shutterstock The United States can count on Australia as one of its closest allies. Dating back to the shared experiences in the second world war and the ANZUS Treaty ...1 day ago
- Te Pūkenga changes: 10 polytechs to return to ‘regional governance’
The government is moving ahead with its long-signalled plan to re-establish polytechnics merged under Labour into the super-institute Te Pūkenga. ...2 days ago
- Watch: Christopher Luxon on the the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga
10 polytechnics to replace the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology on 1 January 2026. ...2 days ago
- A radical tax plan to avoid an economic ‘car crash’
The idea proposed by a former finance minister and an economist would have you paying into savings rather than tax. ...2 days ago
- A play-by-play of Ray Chung’s train wreck interview with Sean Plunket
What’s even worse than a days-long PR crisis as a mayoral candidate? Getting owned by Sean Plunket. Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung was under fire in a way he had never experienced before. Donors were abandoning him, and his support was cratering. The root cause: An email he sent to ...2 days ago
- New Finance Rules Risk Cutting Off Rural Lending
Without real-world knowledge of farming systems, the framework fails to reflect the operational realities and sustainability efforts already embedded in New Zealand’s primary sector. ...2 days ago
- How much salt is OK in drinking water? Without limits, Australia’s health gap widens in remote and...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Juliette Crowther, Researcher in Food Policy, George Institute for Global Health Andrew Merry/Getty Most Australians consume far too much sodium, mostly in the form of salt (sodium chloride) in the food they eat. The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends ...2 days ago
- More students passing maths and reading, fewer in writing
Pass rates improved in crucial NCEA maths and reading tests in May. ...2 days ago
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