Open Mike 16/09/2026

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 44 comments
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44 comments on “Open Mike 16/09/2026”

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  1. 1

    Denial is the last refuge of a scoundrel and Simeon Brown is a sad sack of denials.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/1409610/health-minister-simeon-brown-denies-telling-hospitals-to-save-money-as-flu-surge-bites

    Simeon Brown and National have been running Health NZ into the ground and preparing the way for privatisation. It’s sickening behaviour.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/16/millions-in-wasted-roading-projects-are-competing-with-a-starving-health-system/

    Reply
    2. 1.2

      The smokescreens obscuring hundreds of millions of shortfall in health funding [The Post (paywalled), 16 Sept 2026]

      OPINION: The Minister of Health is still claiming that his Government increased the number of nurses in our public healthcare system by 2000 when Te Whatu Ora’s own data shows that all but 54 full-time equivalent positions were the responsibility of the previous government.

      The Government increased funding to GPs by $95 million for this year – but the money came from the already stressed hospitals.

      Reply
      2. 1.2.2

        It's a great cartoon – but I think you should link to where you sourced it from. Copyright applies to cartoonists as well as authors.

        Just taking it for your post, with no attribution, doesn't really sit well.

        Reply
        1. 1.2.2.1

          Just taking it for your post, with no attribution, doesn't really sit well.

          Thanks B, that Sharon Murdoch cartoon appeared in several media ‘outlets’ – I sourced it from the Waikato Times, and here’s the link to Murdoch’s 30 August 2026 post on X. Hope this addesses your concern.

          https://x.com/domesticanimal/status/2093802121695207844
          The cartoon is unlikely to sit well with health minister Brown and PM Luxon smiley

          Reply
          1. 1.2.2.2.1

            Your understanding of copyright is lacking.

            The cartoonist (or their employer if they are contracted) owns the copyright of a cartoon. They have absolute control over how and where it is reproduced during the copyright period.

            Individuals may use part of a copyrighted work for the purposes of review, criticism or reporting (the last would be closest to TS usage), so long as it is properly acknowledged

            So, as a minimum, you have to acknowledge where you sourced it from, and (according to TS policy for all quotes) link to that source.

            Having said that, it is difficult to see how you can use 'part' of a cartoon (as is required to be covered by the 'fair use' concept). So posting it at all may be technically illegal.

            Reply
            1. 1.2.2.2.1.1

              So posting it at all may be technically illegal.

              Thanks again B, this time for your warning.

              There's a rich vein of political cartoons to mine in the lead-up to the general election. I'll have a go at posting at least one per day on OM – oh what fun.


              Sharon Murdoch. Published in the Dom Post, 10 Feb 2012. Ref: DCDL-0020191

              Sharon Murdoch is one of the few women cartoonists currently being collected by the Cartoon Archive. Her drawing has a quaintly humourous quality that is unbeatable.

              This cartoon is a favourite because of the pitifully innocent lack of awareness of the man, who must be Prime Minister John Key, banging the signpost into the head of the Taniwha. This cartoon was drawn around Waitangi Day 2012 when the government was preparing to drop a clause relating to the Treaty of Waitangi where assets were opened for sale to private buyers.
              https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/some-closing-cartoons

              Reply
    4. 1.4

      This is a scandal-Labour and the Greens need to broadcast it far and wide.

      "….the Government has spent nearly half a billion dollars creating business cases for so-called ghost roads that have now been in effect shelved. This includes $323m on Roads of National Significance projects that were quietly abandoned after sustained criticism of their high cost and low value"

      Reply
  2. 2

    Talbot Mills, now known as Anacta, poll last night:

    Lab 31 Gre 12 TPM 2 =45

    Nat 30 NZF 10 ACT 8 =48

    Opp 7

    So similar to the Freshwater poll….it all depends on Opp.

    But assuming Opp would negotiate first with the largest party (and btw the largest support party-the Greens) the Left would have a working majority; 52-48. In fact Lab/Gre/Opp could form a government on their own.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/labour-slumps-in-another-poll-but-still-ahead-of-national/HDUVF4SBJJHK3LYLGXLVLG3F7U/

    National shill Thomas Coughlan makes a desperate attempt to paint this as good news for National, saying it is a Labour "slump". The Nats had an 11.2% lead over Labour at the 2023 election….Labour has now turned this around to a lead of 1%.

    Reply
  3. 3

    The 2% prospective majority in your scenario is well within the margin of error of the polls.

    All this poll tells us is that NZ is still deeply divided, and that there is no clear frontrunner in this election.

    Too close to call.

    Reply
  4. 4

    There was a post here recently pointing out that National hate the poor. Many examples were given and the premise was proven.

    It occurs to me ACT hate workers.

    Van Velden, who doesn't appear to have done a weeks hard work in her life, weakened Health and Safety and encouraged Worksafe into a 'education' role away from enforcement role. Undoing the changes made in the long shadow of the horrors of Pike River.

    Just heard the same old superannuation drum beaten by ACT about raising the age of eligibility. No notion of increasing funding for it by taxing things such as currency and housing speculation.

    And then there is this, freezing minimum wage after it has failed to rise adequately for the last few years.

    "The minimum wage rose $1.20 cents per hour in 2022, $1.50 in 2023, 45 cents in 2024, 35 cents in 2025, and 45 cents in 2026."

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361033496/act-pledges-freeze-adult-minimum-wage-lower-youth-training-rate

    Reply
    1. 4.1

      The poor and the workers will fall further backwards & down if the Coalition gets a second term. Worse, the numbers of poor and under- & un-employed will swell if that happens.

      Reply
  5. 5

    Mining, drilling, burning, fast-tracking, polluting, and pillaging are not enough and meet too much resistance (aka burn too much political capital). So, to pay for their Roads of National Nonsense, National is likely to put asset sales back on the table – it always was waiting in the top-drawer for the Right moment. Of course, and as always, National will not be upfront about their plans and claim their ‘mandate’ after the election.

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2609/S00105/simeon-brown-must-come-clean-with-voters-is-national-planning-to-sell-off-the-states-silver-again.htm

    https://www.labour.org.nz/news/release-whats-on-luxons-sell-off-list/

    Reply
    1. 5.1


      https://art.manukabay.co.nz/abode/23/images/2024/23_The-Sacrifice.jpg

      “When you sell off our public assets you lose them forever, and our kids end up paying for it later.
      https://www.labour.org.nz/news/release-whats-on-luxons-sell-off-list/

      Might future asset sales be 'necessary' because of the 6th National (nACTf) govt's failed economic strategy? Private capital's appetite for profit is insatiable – public asset sales allow the sorted to maintain their income streams in increasingly uncertain times.

      New Zealand sold around twenty billion dollars of public assets and has paid foreign owners more than five hundred billion since
      [News Wire, 11 May 2026]

      https://newswire.co.nz/2026/05/sold-public-assets-paying-rent-forever/

      It's all going to plan.

      Reply
    2. 5.2

      To justify selling NZ assets to foreign interests (usually at fire sale prices) the government will no doubt call on its good friend TINA (there is no alternative).

      They've played card before.

      Reply
    1. 6.1

      Nah all we need is

      "“the only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,”"

      What a pity the US hasn't got one.

      Reply
  7. 7

    It may be heralded as the Duel of the Deputies but I doubt it’s worth my time listening to Morning Report.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1410174/national-and-labour-deputies-clash-over-health-system

    From the little write-up it’s clear, and no surprise from the Minister of Spreadsheets (aka Nicky-no-Boats), that she, just like her boss the Prime Mincer, is still wedded to idea of targets, health targets in this case.

    Measuring and achieving targets is an outcome in its own right and often becomes the intention and target by and for itself. It’s a meaningless exercise in futility but National always had too many Target Porn addicts.

    Ian Powell wrote this a year ago:

    While the Government continues to describe health targets as measurements of health system performance and productivity and blame public hospitals for non-achievement, the opposite is true.

    Legislatively mandating a flawed and overhyped policy framework will compound health system inflexibility and accelerate the system’s tipping point.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/15/simeon-brown-places-target-on-patients-heads/

    Unfortunately, he was right and by all accounts, Health NZ is closer to the tipping point thanks to the mismanagement and mis-governance by National (and let’s not forget lackey Lester Levy).

    Reply
    1. 7.1

      It's come to me. Our problem is targets, the present government and others, have all been focussed on the wrong ones. A little? change of angle and perception and they might find us Kiwis in their sights again. But what then? Would they use us as target practice as with Tom Phillips?

      Reply
  8. 8

    National has organised another three way handshake/coalition.

    This break-up will be hard to do.

    Shared Distribution and Supply Chain

    • The Parent Co-operatives: Both supermarket brands are owned and operated by the same parent co-operatives—Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island.
    • Shared Infrastructure: They use the exact same distribution centres (DCs), transport networks, and warehousing infrastructure to source and deliver stock to both New World and PAK'nSAVE stores.
    • Integrated Operations: A single distribution hub handles goods, cold storage, and logistics for New World, PAK'nSAVE, and Four Square stores within each island.



    Under National, finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the Commerce Commission would have six months to test the separation proposal and make a formal recommendation.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/09/16/national-to-pursue-paknsave-new-world-and-four-square-break-up/

    Reply
      1. 8.3.1

        Google Countdown and Woolworths in New Zealand, a history of separation and recombination.

        1929 (The Arrival of Woolworths) trading initially as a general merchandise variety store

        1981 (The Birth of Countdown) as a large-format discount food market

        long story period

        Currently both operate here as a single operation Woolworths and are effectively a subsidiary of their Australian arm.

        Reply
        2. 8.3.1.2

          I always found it amusing that the Australian and New Zealand Woolworths is named after the American Woolworths, but has no other connection to it.

          Reply
          1. 8.3.1.2.1

            They wouldn't get away with that today. Corporations are very protective of their brand. I guess NZ was just too far away to bother with in the early 20th century.

            Reply
    4. 8.4

      They've announced the announcement of the conclusions of an investigation.

      It doesn't get more action-oriented than that – surely? This is what I would expect from Luxon, a man whose behaviour is most charactised by what I would call "performative high function". That is, he acts in the way that he imagines high-functioning people do. But both his imagination and his acting performance are inadequate.

      Reply
      1. 8.4.1

        Stalling for time is an effective tactic used by the tobacco industry, for example, through [seeding] doubt, delay, dilute & diminish, and derail.

        Reply
    5. 8.5

      Sounds like Labour have a soon to be announced plan of action to bring prices down

      Labour leader Chris Hipkins dismissed National's policy as little more than "another review" and said New Zealanders deserved "more decisive" action.

      "It's not a commitment. It's another review," he said. "New Zealanders can't eat a review."

      Hipkins would not be drawn on whether he supported breaking up Foodstuffs, but said Labour would have more to say about supermarket competition before the election.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1410766/national-vows-to-pursue-break-up-of-supermarket-giant-foodstuffs

      Reply
  10. 10

    Okay, one last stab at the 'ai is scary-bad' cover-story splashed about by a naughty ai company, this one by tech people who unpick the systemic disregard of safety. Note this blogpost is dated early August, so the company took a long time to work out its spin before dropping it into the public domain.

    Not only did OpenAi not properly sandbox their malicious code, they 'Outsourced sandboxing and cybersecurity evaluation, because apparently it’s not important enough to have that in-house… The LLM given the hacking task was not firewalled off completely from the public internet, but had access [via a server]…they forgot to put the actual thing that the LLM was supposed to hack into the sandbox it was in…ran this specific task… over many weeks without noticing that it was completely broken…'

    There were apparently no logs kept of the process, or any review of the agent endeavours. After the frustrated agents hacked the server connected to the net and created a noticeboard, OpenAi noticed that, but just stuck on a patch without shutting down the server, and therefore ongoing internet access. It also continued to use the attempts as training data for their LLM.

    Naughty, naughty, naughty.

    https://www.verysane.ai/p/felonybench-style-points

    Additionally, and creepily, there is an actual death-cult within some ai programmers, with weird ideas about transhumanism, etc, from people who have cooked their brains with too much online time and micro-dosing assorted drugs. This is the source of the nihilist message being spread, now in the mainstream media.

    'In the worst nightmares of people like Yudkowsky and Bostrom, AI doom looks like an omnipotent version of Hal, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey that starts jettisoning humans from a spaceship’s airlock when they conflict with its sense of mission.'

    https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence

    Reply
  11. 11

    So Nicola Willis says that forcing greater splitting of ownership for supermarkets will reduce prices – perhaps she could explain why that does not appear to to apply to the electricity market.

    Reply
    1. 11.1

      Extra management, duplicating systems costs gives them scope to increase prices.

      Yet more spray n walk away BS from the coalition of caos with zero questions from the owned media.

      Greens are onto it. You'll only keep them low by offering kiwis a better price.

      Reply

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