Open Mike 11/03/2026

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28 comments on “Open Mike 11/03/2026”

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  2. 2

    Just looked at the comments under one of his fb posts on covid , heaps of intelligent kiwis laying out the facts , brown you lose,

    Maybe there is hope.

    1. 2.1

      Comments on any Nat MP's facebook posts are the same, getting slaughtered by intelligent people. Unfortunately little / no engagement from said MP's or even Nat voters, or even any effort to curate the comment narrative. It's like they are slapping up posts and just walking away.

  3. 3

    @ bwag above.

    I realise it's just a turn of phrase but words matter.

    Hope is for those that have no agency. No influence or bearing.

    I​​​​​ want to trust this coalition will be gone come election time.

    Gone because the obvious problems have simple solutions. Inequality and poverty can be addressed by getting the Pay Equity reforms reinstated and completed in their original form. Tax the rich appropriately.

    Housing, free up or redistribute dwellings with an eye watering abatement on the second and subsequent investment properties.

    Insulate against the rise of imported energy costs by: electrifying the railways and get the trucks out of the system. Bring back the EV rebate and encourage companies to electrify their vehicle fleet so y'all can afford a second or third hand EV.

    All sung from the rooftops in the 6 months leading up to ballot day.

  6. 6

    In response to Christchurch council idea of pumping raw sewerage into the sea, I heard Shane Jones bloviating.

    During his spiel (which I agree with) he said "…destroying local businesses underwritten by people mortgaging their houses and having a dream to create more wealth for the future,".

    Can someone let me know some examples of the businesses he is talking about?

    It is a bit rich, him banging on about local business and workers when he does the fishing industry's biddng that loves to employ foreign slave crews.

    1. 6.1

      As a fishing company Talleys would qualify I would say.

      The own their boats and crew them with New Zealanders.

      Sealord? Well not when they basically lease their quota to foreign owned and crewed boats I believe.

    2. 6.2

      "…destroying local businesses underwritten by people mortgaging their houses and having a dream to create more wealth for the future,".

      That quote could have some interesting connotations WRT the Tarras goldmine and its potential effects on the surrounding horticulture businesses. Would be rather funny if it was quoted back to him by Ian Taylor at their upcoming dust-up

    3. 6.3

      More likely to be referring to the mussel farmers along the coast, than the multi-million dollar fishing industry (which are big fish, indeed)

      I have no idea of the way the small businesses are structured and financed – but it would seem to me that they have a legitimate beef with potential sewerage outflows which have a significant potential to wreck their business.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch/canterbury-mussel-farmer-warns-sewage-plan-could-devastate-aquaculture-as-shane-jones-says-farmers-shouldnt-bear-burden/MGCTCQI3JVATTAGZQWONVUPBYU/

  7. 7

    @ Alwyn @ 6.1

    Nice try but no.

    Talleys and Sealord are hardly " people mortgaging their houses…".

    And @ Graeme 6.3

    Jones is so much of a weather cock, he says what ever is it in accord to the political wind direction.

    He is likely to have a plethora of quotes.

    1. 7.1

      AI reports on Talleys- "Family Value: The Talley family is ranked among New Zealand's richest, with a business value estimated at $1.6 billion."

      I don't think they mortgaged their house. As Alwyn said at 6.1, "They own their boats".

      They also are anti-union and whilst local workers can here get a decent wage, they worked 60 hour weeks to get it.

      1. 7.1.1

        I wasn't talking about how rich they are now.

        I was thinking about the man who founded the company with a dream of building a successful business. Ivan Peter Talijancich started of in Motueka in 1936 and bought his first boat which had been built in 1903.

        They weren't always rich.

        I was meaning to compare it to Sealord who never built anything but simply rented out the rights the taxpayer had given them.

  10. 10

    A typical National MP performance by Paul Goldsmith on RNZ this morning. It seems National's agreed strategy in a political "debate" with Labour is to hurl criticism, with repeated reference to the COVID 19 pandemic response, speak rapidly and continuously to avoid giving space for the Labour MP to counter with fact, and when the host intervenes so the opposing MP can reply, repeatedly interrupt and continue attacking Labour and the Opposition MP, usually Carmel Sepuloni, with half truths and disinformation.

    Clearly this strategy is to deflect from the Government's decisions that have caused so much damage to the economy, with businesses failing, unemployment and homelessness rising and compounding negative effects on many people's lives.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019026416/weekly-political-panel-paul-goldsmith-and-carmel-sepuloni

    In fact:

    by Marc Daalder 10/03/2026: "The second phase of the Royal Commission into the Covid-19 response has provided a broadly favourable evaluation of the key decisions around vaccine procurement, rollout and mandates, testing technologies and the use of lockdowns.

    While it also identified lessons learned and pointed out shortcomings in the response, the commission wrote that its “overall assessment of the key decisions has been positive”…

    …“Overall, this report concludes that Aotearoa New Zealand did well in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. On the whole, the decisions taken and methods used during the Covid-19 response were considered and appropriate,” the commissioners wrote…

    …“We have not seen any obvious signs of decline in high-level economic indicators that decision-makers should have been concerned about when making key lockdown decisions in the second half of 2021,” the commission found. The most significant change was in inflation, but even here, officials advised proceeding anyway"…

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/10/lockdown-vaccine-decisions-considered-and-appropriate-royal-commission/

    [Reformatted to remove bolded text and put pasted text into block-quote – Incognito]

    1. 11.1

      International shareholder interest.

      Only local business can make a case for cheaper power to survive, oh wait the smelter.

  12. 12

    Are we not amused, nor surprised?

    (je ne suis pas surpris

    The Cook Strait Ferry Replacement Programme is already $167 million over budget, newly released documents reveal.

    The current cost estimate has hit $1.867 billion, already exceeding the $1.7b Crown-tagged contingency approved by Cabinet in March 2025.

    The Government is relying on council-owned ports to plug the gap, but the amounts are unknown or not yet approved by ratepayers.

    https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360965032/cook-strait-ferry-project-167m-over-budget-and-key-port-deals-still-unsigned

    1. 12.1

      The pertinent bit about schedules, replacing the old ferries and having an operational base for the new ones.

      FHL warned the government that delaying ship contracts to wait for finalised port deals would result in losing shipbuilding slots, meaning new vessels would not be delivered in time for the current fleet's retirement.

  13. 13

    Thanks, Nicola:

    E tū union delegate Kathy Perrin, who has worked for the company for 46 years, said she was “gutted” for her colleagues.

    “Some are retirement age, paying high rents, living pay cheque to pay cheque.

    “The devastating financial and emotional impact on my colleagues cannot be overstated. The average length of service is around 30 years. There is nowhere else to go.”

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360949802/iconic-brands-be-phased-out-heinz-watties-announces-major-nz-shake

    She refused to support, or even manage, the economy in order to support amateur landlords. Now 350 loyal, low income workers are facing incredible hardship in their twilight years.

    I hope she doesn't sleep well at night.

    1. 14.1

      He should make it a bottom line (non-negotiable) for coalition negotiations after 7 Nov. Together with an inquiry into cost-overruns of the Cook Strait Ferry Replacement Programme.

  16. 16

    Anthropic says Australia and New Zealand rank 4th and 8th globally in Claude usage, relative to population, according to the company's latest Economic Index.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/589294/ai-company-anthropic-expands-to-nz-and-australia

    The statement seems at odds with the results from a study by the University of Melbourne.

    The survey results come on the heels of a separate 2025 study from the University of Melbourne, which found the New Zealand public was among the least trusting, least engaged and least confident populations in the world when it came to AI technologies.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/09/new-zealand-is-losing-faith-in-the-internet/

    I delved into the large and detailed document and NZ doesn’t fare well in global AI stakes!?

    Is somebody selling us fibs or is Anthropic hallucinating?

    1. 16.1

      Perhaps Claude is the AI you use, when you don't want to use AI.

      Mangling the reference a bit. But perhaps kiwis, while not AI users as a whole, are more reluctant to use ChatGPT and more to use Claude when they do engage?

      I think it also depends on who you are surveying, and how willing they are to engage with you. Especially on this topic.

      1. 16.1.1

        Both Australia and NZ ranked very low in regular use of AI systems and that includes ChatGTP, Claude, and many others.

        The survey samples were representative of the populations, as shown in detailed demographics, with around 1,000 respondents per country.

        Anthropic measures actual usage (of Claude, I presume). So, to reconcile the data, you may be right that Claude is highly preferred AI in NZ and AUS, for some reason, and/or that a small number of people use Claude a lot compared to, for example, people who use ChatGTP, but I still struggle with it.

        Anyway, it’s all academic, isn’t it?

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