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6:00 am, November 3rd, 2025 - 29 comments
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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 …
Must.buy.Mogami's……ah, on the other hand. I laugh : )
"We have always been at war with East Asia". All those armchair generals and deck chair admirals !
Helen Clark et al have it right….
Can one assume that, with 50,000 + fewer visas to process, more layoffs at Immigration are coming? (partly /s)
Its all planned? (lol who would know?)
I was kinda stunned by this…(not 300,or even 3,000..but 30,000!?)
Who watches the watchers? Indeed.
You think they would have learned. The Gardai in Ireland had a similar problem a few years ago when someone did a comparison of the breath tests supposedly administered, and the numbers of disposable tubes actually issued.
And all this is the 21st century. With so much data quite easily retrievable. Did they think they were above the law?
I really do wonder at their (both the uniformed falsifiers and the nothing to see here top end ) thought process….
Probably die to lornaorder party grabbing huge targets for amount to be done out of their arses, by an under paid overworked police force.
A classic example of Key Performance Indicators in action. If you give your staff a KPI of X hundred drink-driving tests conducted, records will duly show X hundred tests were conducted and staff have met the KPI successfully. Whether or not X hundred drivers were actually tested is a different matter.
On another (positively positive : ) note…Anyone with more knowledge of Sam Stubbs/Simplicity and this plan? It maybe sounds good? (I hope thats not a bad thing : )
Likely to take small percentages of large projects, similar to ACC, NZSuper, and Infratil.
They will be BOOT projects in which you're essentially just taking rent for a decade or two from tolls.
Ok thanks for your opinion. I am also quite mindful of their wanting it to be NZ specific. Hopefully a good thing.
There is an interview with Bernard Hickey which gives a pretty good explanation of Sam's intentions. I can't figure out how to paste the link sorry.
It's a pretty exciting well thought out plan as far as I can tell.
You'll find it by searching " The Kka with Bernard Hickey"
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/mini-hoon-simplicitys-sam-stubbs
Oh many thanks for that John G…and awesome Bernard Hickey for providing it !
Well, I have had one opinion (Ad) and in the link Bernard Hickey gives his, in the above Link….
I have read a lot from BH…and greatly respect his views. And much so on this too….
Hickey is flat wrong re Labour.
Clark and Ardern stopped charter schools. Special Character ones stayed.
Clark formed a new public bank.
Clark formed a massive public superfund.
Clark formed Pharmac to de-commercialise all prescription drugs and equipment.
Clark unwound private jails.
Ardern was locked too deep into Transmission Gully PPP to get out.
Ardern re-centralised public sector health.
Ardern gained much stronger control of public transport operators.
Ardern via Lake Onslow was preparing a new public electricity company.
Ardern got close to joining all water entities into 6 with v strong government influence.
Hickey is such a wet he makes Gordon Campbell look like a cactus.
Thank you for reminding us how much we've lost and remains to lose.
I wasnt too sure of your meaning here? So I googled wet..
I kinda like to think Bernard Hickey would laugh ?…Anyway confirms something for me : )
Along the same lines, an interesting essay on TDB.
"Privatising the supply of your own currency is dumber than playing a World Cup final in bare feet."
"But that’s exactly what the Public Finance Act (1989) did.
It forbade us from issuing credit (the green line in the graph) to ourselves through our own national bank, the RBNZ."
There are other ways forward unfortunately the main parties aren't gonna do it.
The takeaway from that should be that we have a long history and track record of underfunding public services in NZ, and that's entirely a voluntary political choice being made there. There is no existent financing constraint on the government. Actually, nothing involuntary is able to get between the government and the RBNZ simply because the RBNZ is encapsulated into the NZ budget already, the RBNZ are no more independent than any other government department is of the government.
In practice these things became quite obvious via the QE program. Money managers got a small slice for buying govt bonds in the primary market and then re-selling shortly after to the RBNZ in the secondary market. Did this make any difference to the govt ability to implement its spending program, no not at all, and frankly the cost involved for simply operating the financial system as it stands here, was inconsequential.
On the other hand the costs of underfunding NZ's public services are consequential and significant and that's got to be the priority to reform.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360870428/transmission-gully-rebuild-dig-6km-125b-motorway-over-summer
Do tax payers ate fixing a ppp highway and still on the pool for 25 years of payments to to the builders(ticket clippers in the middle really)
Geniuses
Should have been tolled. Could still be, since there's a free alternative.
It's the underwriters that are on the hook for this not taxpayers. Nature of a PPP.
If roads are tolled there should be a Rebate paid for thr rucs while on those roads , fuck double dipping,
Guyon Espiner to Midday Report on RNZ.
Good news.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/rnz-confirms-guyon-espiner-to-host-midday-report-from-january-2026/7AKZCINASFF5PK7IF66ZWBJNWI/
Talk about going on the attack. Tamihere pulling no punches here.
Will TPM survive all this?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/577653/greed-avarice-and-entitlement-te-pati-maori-president-urges-mps-to-quit
"Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere has told MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris to "do the honourable thing" and quit Parliament, accusing the duo of "greed, avarice, and entitlement"."
Hipkins should distance Labour from TPM as much as possible. Imagine being in coalition with them.
Boy! Right out of the Winston Peters playbook. Nothing is as unforgivable as perceived disloyalty to the supreme leader.
Neither MP is at all likely to resign. And both have a better than even chance of retaining their seats at the next election (Maori electorates traditionally reward personality over political affiliation).
Tamihere has pretty much depth-charged any hope of papering over the cracks in TPM.
IMO, it will certainly survive – but in a rump with a coalition of a few central MPs. And, apart from the leaders, will be looking to see if being independent holds greater benefits than an uneasy coalition.
"Greed, avarice and entitlement" – sounds like Tamihere has been looking in the mirror.
Look at the sources of funding for his Mayoral campaigns.
Greed!?!? From Tamihere!?! This from the guy who's daughter (who is Rawiris wife) is the SOLE shareholder in a company called Toitu te Tiriti. No wonder some maori are calling it 'toitu te scam'. I hope Labour sweep all Maori seats, Cushla is a gr8 local MP for us in Gissy.