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6:00 am, June 10th, 2026 - 79 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 …
"Constitutionally abhorrent" – if I was to sum up the present Government of New Zealand in just 2 words, I'd borrow these from Associate Professor at Auckland Law School Vernon Rive
"A legal expert who was consulted on the government's law change that would prevent companies from being sued over climate change has released his advice publicly, explaining his opposition to the proposal at the time.
Associate Professor at Auckland Law School Vernon Rive told RNZ he suspects the main reason for the legislative move is to "remove the opportunity for corporate accountability" and likened stopping the case halfway through as being "constitutionally abhorrent"." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/597707/constitutionally-abhorrent-expert-reveals-advice-to-government-on-climate-law-change
If you employ AI to answer a question, the answer will come through the lens of "American" thought and belief.
""That's important for a few different reasons. We're starting to see, even within AI summaries, cultural assumptions that are being made and answers that are being given that are based very much within a single culture, say you look at the United States," "
How very Trumpian.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/597714/a-new-ai-report-is-shocking-but-not-to-the-experts
I think that being bilingual has major advantages, even when prompting in English (and writing in English in general, for that matter), but even more so when prompting in a non-English language (as long as the training sets are large enough in that other language). This is an interesting topic!
I'd say "multilingual" and a highly plastic thinker to boot – where are those people??
I think that being multi-lingual and plastic thinking are connected.
I reckon there are many bilingual people in NZ and probably quite a few multi-lingual ones.
International students tend to do internet searches in their own language but their English is not always strong and some things can go awry in translation. Would be an interesting experiment to compare outcomes from AI based on input (prompt) language in a semi-controlled environment (in class), wouldn’t it?
I have a friend who teaches English at the local high school – I'll put the proposal to her.
I was referring to university students but high-school students won’t be much different, me thinks.
There are, and have been, many documented articles about workers abused and ill treated by farmers/orchardists. (I will link some at end..) So is it really : ACT proposes new 'Rural slaveforce Visa' to ease farmer worker shortages ?
FYI : I trust none of ACT…and possibly ex Fed Farm militant unionist leader Hoggard ..least !
Ya gotta wonder..why is that?
Some of many…..
There is no reason, apart from laziness and lack of acumen and initiative on the part of any of the present government, that a thriving, keen workforce of travelling workers could have been set up in New Zealand to go out to farms and work, with their own supply of caravan housing, We have high unemployment particularly amongst the young adults needed for such physical work.It would involve minimum hours pay with overtime, and good accommodation, a good cook, travel around the country, being with a team, perhaps in touch with another similar team and being a bit competitive and talkative with each other (not a lone unemployed person), some time off to relax, supervised. They would return home with a good sum in their pockets, or trust accounts.
But termites who have learned how to wile and preen at school and uni and perhaps gone overseas to see how other capitalist-mad-country political parties work or who have trained in Getting and Being and Staying Rich and to Hell with the Rest wouldn't think of that.
Mayors for Jobs Taskforce could have organised this but would would have needed central govt input and those suckers are too busy sucking NZ dry and getting commission of a type for it.
There are two major problems with this gloriously retro rural utopia.
Firstly, New Zealand is increasingly urban. There simply is not a huge reserve army of eager rural labour sitting around waiting to milk cows. And yes, you can take a kid from the North Shore and train him (or her — it is 2026), but dairying is skilled, physically demanding work. It takes time before someone can operate independently and safely.
Historically, a lot of that labour came from farming families themselves. Kids grew up around the work and entered the industry already knowing the basics. That pipeline is much smaller now.
Secondly, farming ownership structures have changed dramatically. Where there might once have been nine or ten owner-operated family farms down a road, there may now be two or three larger operations, often managed at scale or owned through wider investment structures.
That creates strong pressure to minimise labour costs while maintaining year-round staffing. Which is precisely why migrant labour becomes attractive across much of the developed world: not because farmers are uniquely evil, but because modern agricultural economics heavily incentivises it.
Add in New Zealand’s traditionally light-touch approach to agricultural regulation, particularly in dairying, along with the sector’s considerable political influence and ability to resist the level of scrutiny routinely applied to other industries, and you end up with conditions where labour exploitation can flourish far too easily.
That does not mean every farmer is abusive or exploitative. But pretending there is a vast pool of unemployed urban New Zealanders just waiting to join a supervised travelling dairy caravan is fantasy.
I know this because I was once a young guy from a rural family who faced a pretty stark choice: go to university, or spend the rest of my working life on the wrong end of a cow making money for the same people who exploited my brothers, capriciously withheld wages from my stepfather (who, admittedly, could be an asshole), and generally looked down their noses at the plebs they deigned to employ while attending to their more important affairs.
So forgive me if I am slightly sceptical of romanticised visions of rural labour relations.
Yes – we should always look at systems first and the incentives and pressures they generate, before attributing moral characteristics to individuals. Though it is always likely that over time the former will have a degenerative influence on the latter.
However, if ACT have anything to do with a migrant worker programme, there should be a concern that it will tend towards the 'Fremdarbeiter' rather than the 'Gastarbeiter' model
The "secret1billion fund" is for the LPG facility, right?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/finance-minister-nicola-willis-explains-1b-budget-pre-allocation-after-labour-criticism/4DNCNGSPLZGZVJZ64LCIFMP5HQ/
LNG facility not LPG.
Thank you, Matiri – I should have taken greater care.
My partner was a marine engineer cadet with Shell Tankers UK and spent some time working on LNG tankers sailing between Brunei and Japan. The safety measures were extremely stringent – the blast from one of these tankers if it exploded would be as powerful as Hiroshima plus the bunkering safety protocols due to extremely low temperatures are very strict, and expensive.
New Zealand imports LPG from Australia so all our BBQ's etc are safe!
I wondered the same. The funding of the LNG facility has a non-existent narrative, which might be why National and Willis need to have a Plan B.
This is the problem…from AI:
"The LNG import facility has been estimated to coast a billion dollars, however, commentator Bernard Hickey notes that because the government plans to pay for the terminal through a 15-year lease or hire-purchase deal, the total lifetime cost will reach NZ$2.7 billion. [1, 2]"
I think the $1 billion is supposed to cover the setting-up costs and commencing operations. It’s the Coalition’s misleading way of making some things look cheaper and other things more expensive – Nicky-no-Boats knows what she’s doing.
To ‘coast’ a billion dollars?
Jonathan Milne has written a good piece, but the questions around funding remain unanswered.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/09/big-power-users-welcome-lng-saying-its-worth-the-cost/
The Spinoff’s The Bulletin doesn’t add anything new, but for completion’s sake: https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/10-06-2026/the-lng-levy-is-dead-but-who-will-pay-remains-a-mystery
Here is yet another fast-track disaster in Queenstown.
The developers propose 1300 houses plastered across Outstanding Natural Landscape in an area fully visible from Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.
The report on yesterdays public meeting says:
"While a show of hands at the meeting showed no support for the proposal, [the developer] Hingston said few people had contacted Bowen Peak Ltd directly.
"We launched our website late in 2024… we've received 13 emails with feedback since then," he said. "It's vital to have community feedback."
This is laughable. If the developer wanted community feedback he would not have applied three times for fast-track status which is specifically designed to circumvent meaningful community input and prevents appeals to the Environment Court.
If this application had gone through the RMA based District Plan process it would have had no chance.
The RMA works well-Bishop and Seymour are lying when they say it doesn't.
Fast-track needs to be dumped on November 8.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/developer-grilled-over-bowen-peak-proposal
+100 Fast Track must go.
This is on slowly steepening slopes above the existing residential area at Fernhill. With rock structures as described in this extract….
https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/items/1b6de494-7edc-442d-b687-48b72f5fb19a
BG. This certainly sounds like a standard Qtown get rich quick scheme….(with a typical leavening of native birds and plants)
I dont know if you read or know of Crux? A local uncoverer of things certain people/organisations would like to remain covered.
They had that story, and the QLDC shit dumping in the Kawarau river (which they really hated known about,still do) and lots more.
Incl one about the so called Mooney's Bridge which I was pissed about. Seems there was some prior interaction between NZTA and Gnat MP Joseph Mooney.
It is subscriber…but FYI : Crux did an indepth, incl an OIA on it all.
Check it out if interested?
What is Labour's position on the Fast-Track Approvals Act? Will it repeal the legislation or will Hipkins wait to see which way the wind is blowing?
Don't know. It should be repealed-it acts as a developers charter with almost zero public input. There has been a constant stream of terrible developments granted consent under it. It basically looks after National/ACT’s rich mates.
Infrastructure is always given priority under District Plan rules and is very seldom if ever delayed. So fast-track is not needed for this. The Public Works Act can be employed if needed.
There have been a mass of housing proposals approved under fast-track. I would suggest that is no need for fast-track in this area either. I don’t think fast-track was ever needed for housing.
Probably Labour would repeal the Act. Hansard (13 Nov 2024):
"Hon Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. You know, something smells rotten about this bill, and—[Interruption] Yeah, and I can see why there are murmurings on the other side. I can understand that because many of those members will be as uncomfortable as I am about this list. I mean, Radio New Zealand did a great job: $500,000 of donations from people who are on the fast-track list, and there’s no good explanation for that. I’m concerned that there are close connections between donors, members of the National Party, and the fact that they’re on this list."
That is well dug out Hunter….I forgot to say fast-track is corrupt.
Q-town and Fast-track are synonymous. A marriage made in…
Race riots in Belfast. Families being put out of their houses because they're black. Fascist* thugs on the streets in masks, burning shit down. Elon Musk cheering them on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cr47x99k5n6t
*I use that word in its political meaning (not people I disagree with)
"Elon Musk cheering them on.".
When did he do that?
have a look at his tweets and replies from since the riots started.
https://x.com/elonmusk/with_replies
Bear in mind he has 240m followers. Owns one of the biggest social media platforms, and supports the UK overthrowing of the British government. He repeatedly supports white nationalist Brit Tommy Robinson (eg speaking at his event)
These so called ‘fascist thugs’ are simply reacting to the violence directed at them by recent (illegal) immigrants, who show no respect for the community they have imposed themselves upon.
Fascist thugs do simply react, yes. It's their trade-mark move.
Terry – too simplistic. Your comment is an example of why we are in the world political mess now. There is no absolute reason for anything when researched, and commenters don't add anything useful to the discussion by making such dismissive, tendentious opinions or statements.
This explains how you are wrong. While I agree that there are broader tensions around immigration, the acts of rioting and removing black people from their homes are being driven by white supremacist politics and groups.
https://x.com/RobinPercival2/status/2064616120472965522
Is there any country in the world in which an obvious foreigner trying to saw a local's head off in the street won't result in the more hot-headed locals going out looking for things to destroy and anyone vaguely portrayable as a candidate for a beating? There's nothing special about white people that might make them immune to it.
"hot-headed locals" connected via and prey to, fascist social media.
Therefore… what, exactly? The idea that white people would be immune to this if only it weren't for those damn fascist social media influencers is unconvincing.
Nobody (bar you) said or implied they'd be immune, but motivated to riot, destroy, burn etc. Yes, social media and the fascists behind that.
You seem unaware of what argument you're trying to make. It's surprising how common that is.
Imagine the hot-headed locals' horror when an obvious foreigner used a kitchen knife to make his point instead of a car bomb.
29 dead and 220 injured that day at the hands of the same hot-headed locals, a much more evil crime committed by white people I think you will agree.
See above. "There's nothing special about white people that might make them immune to it."
"immune to it" – the influence of fascists groups?
Sure.
Well, in Northern Ireland the locals, white people, have be guilty of far more depraved, unconscionable and deadly violence than any immigrant but that doesn't stop some from making excuses for those white people if they see an opportunity to attack immigrants.
I think you are on the wrong forum.
There's only one of us here trying to claim one ethnic group is more violent than others, and it isn't me.
Quite right, PM – who is insinuating this absurd notion of 'white immunity'? Social media is a foreign country (to me), so I'll fall back on the lame excuse of attributing many of the highs and lows of 'civilisation' to colonisation.
"…who is insinuating this absurd notion of 'white immunity'?"
Anyone and everyone who argues there was an angry mob on the streets of Belfast because of social media posts rather than because of the thing they're angry about.
Is your argument, PM, that social media didn't play a significant role in mobilising the mob?
My argument is that this kind of mob violence is familiar to anyone who's studied history and was happening before the printing press, let alone before social media, and it's therefore up to the people wanting to blame social media for this particular instance of it to explain how this time's different.
Lynch mobs don’t just appear & erupt out of nowhere because of a ‘thing’ [singular] and then dissipate & disappear into nowhere.
'cept the Spanish Inquisition.
'Social media' is new and different – mob violence is a numbers ‘game’.
"obvious foreigner"
I think you mean foreigner of obvious non-white ethnicity.
How did they know which black people they pulled out of their homes were illegal immigrants?
Agree that there's nothing special about white people. But in the UK, right now, there is a rising fascist movement that is using the tensions that people feel around a range of things. That's also not special to white people, but it is the situation.
Yep, just like white ethnicity made me an obvious foreigner in various countries I've visited or lived in.
Scapegoating doesn't work like that. I was in a Muslim country during the Danish cartoons controversy, and we were given security briefings because our employers and embassies were well aware the local hot-heads wouldn't give a shit whether or not we were Danish, let alone cartoonists.
As with religious conservatives like Tamaki and the gender identity issue, it would be nice if governments and liberals would stop creating massive open goals for illiberal groups to score goals in at their leisure. In this instance, people who are already furious about years of governments either ignoring their concerns about mass immigration and illegal immigration or outright telling them they're racists for not liking it, don't really need any fascist campaign to get them to riot when one of the illegal immigrants tries to saw someone's head off.
I think they do. If they didn't we would be seeing rioting of this kind without it being stirred up by the fascists.
Completely agree about the liberal own goal though. We're a long way from learning that lesson.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/06/09/northern-ireland-belfast-stabbing/acf5c054-63ec-11f1-bdd4-805ebb99a693_story.html
lol
.
In November that year, Murphy and his gang began roaming Catholic areas to find a target to abduct.
Francis Crossen (34), a Catholic father-of-two, was walking towards the city centre when he was hit over the head with a wheel brace, dragged into a car and driven to the Shankill area where he was brutally beaten. During the attack, a glass bottle was shoved into his head.
The victim was dragged into an alley off Wimbledon Street where Murphy used a butcher's knife to cut his throat almost through to the spine.
Thomas Quinn (55) and Francis Rice (24) also met their deaths in a similar way.
Both abducted and killed, their bodies were separately found in February 1976.
https://archive.li/ArI8j (irishnews.com)
One wonders what sort of culture produces people that think attacking foreigners, for an attack on a local by one single foreigner, is appropriate.
Who is promoting such a white race cultural identity nationalism, where toxic masculinity is the means to needs to secure their group from some other and why?
And what sort of people think this is normal?
Are we certain "foreign" is the issue here? Has it been determined the attacker wasn't mentally ill? If so, could the mob have justifiably descended upon a hospital for the mentally ill and burned it to the ground?
One wonders what sort of culture produces Police officers who arrest a dying man who has been stabbed, rather than the offender because the police must appear to anti racist. Like wise what sort of culture turns a blind eye to young girls who are groomed and raped, because the police and authorities first concern, is again to be anti racist. The demonstrators in Ireland have quite rightly come to the conclusion that they are second class citizens UK. The authorities will stand by while innocent people are stabbed to death, girls are raped while the authorities turn a blind eye. should anyone bring this to the attention of the media or the authorities, they get called far right fascists… They have quite rightly lost faith with the authorities so what does anyone expect. It’s becoming obvious that the actual fascists are the authorities, and the chattering classes tut tutting the oiks who are sick and tired of being treated as cannon fodder for the professional managerial class
Labour reveals public transport fare cap in long-awaited election policy | Stuff
Labour policy announcement – public transport fare cap of $20/week in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, $10/week rest of NZ. I'd like free public transport but this is a decent policy if/while other options are considered.
Probably one of the most reasonable policies brought forward for a while now. Many other cities around the world have a cap, no reason we can't, except the concept of 'public' anything is an anathema to those who lean rightwards.
Brilliant policy. Look at it this way – the two young interns on my team who live way out in Silverdale and need two connections to get to work will get an instant near 3% increase in spending power.
And it guarantees the success of the CRL when it opens later this year in Auckland.
It can only be implemented in Akl and Chch at the moment because they are the only cities that have a suitable ticket system.
The NZ-wide public transport ticket system is due to come online next year from memory.
It is so good to see a policy that isn’t cutting things.
Labour’s $20 Public Transport Fare Cap – NZ Labour
Would start 1 July 2027 (in the press conference, it was noted that they would consider implementing it earlier if they could, but 1 July otherwise) by which time Wellington should be part of Motu Move ([MOTU-MOVE] About Motu Move – Q2 2027 for Wellington). As you say, the rest of the country still to follow.
Hear hear!
Judging by the comments from National and TPU I’d say the policy hit the mark.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/10/mind-the-gap-labours-policy-platform-empty-no-more/
Surely, the Minister for Trains will support it, surely.
Luxon's comment today was "it's typical Labour".
I'd take that as a complement.
Simeon Brown labelled it “same old Labour”, which was meant pejoratively, no doubt.
Simeon Brown/ Brown slime – has a certain ring.
Luxon's Best-Ever comment!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/regions_auckland/597719/auckland-s-high-rise-row-heats-up-as-councillors-progress-two-scenarios
Song for Auckland (and Wellington's?) day – and every day.
'Everything's up to date in …City, They've gone about as far as they can go'.
It even featured the MPs for Auckland and Wellington Central! It certainly is an appropriate song.
"And then I put my ear to a Bell Telephone, and a strange woman started into talk".
Listening to the radio in the car this morning, I heard talk of a recovery for the farming sector, enabling them to spend millions at an agricultural fair in Hamilton. Was this because:
* the government has devalued the NZ dollar, thus increasing proceeds from sale of agricultural goods?
* scientific advances developed since Act1stNats came into government?
Why has our dollar declined in value compared to other currencies?
Fonterra payout + high meat export prices (US demand is up because of loss of local supply)
@ Ed1 above.
It may be the one off payout from when Fonterra sold most of the family silver in the form of their brands.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360990881/job-cuts-proposed-government-organisation-responsible-reducing-family-and-sexual-violence
Do as much wrecking as they can so they've got something to campaign on.
They don't seem to have learned anything from the 2017 election. Homelessness and other societal pressures were key to throwing out the Key/English government which studiously ignored society in favour of house price increases.
The economy was fine at that point I think but at the expense of the most vulnerable. New Zealanders hate that.
Now, the economy of a basket case and they are still cutting people and services to the most vulnerable. Hard to see where their wins come from in the eyes of most voters.