Open mike 17/06/2025

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 35 comments
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35 comments on “Open mike 17/06/2025”

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    1. 2.1

      From your Link…

      BusinessNZ's chief executive Katherine Rich said the services sector had been contracting for several months, apart from a small expansion in January.

      And she further opines (obliviously, and with a complete lack of Irony that BusinessNZ fully support all that NACT1 have done, and are doing, to employees/customers..)

      "Comments noted customers spending less, delaying decisions, and responding cautiously to inflation interest rates, and broader market instability."

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/564274/economy-hits-a-brick-wall-as-services-sector-continues-to-decline-economist

      These type…will never get it.

  3. 3

    Once were navigators.

    Islands below standing stars.

    This year’s Matariki celebrations have expanded to include an extra star: Puanga.

    Puanga (Rigel), or Puaka as Māori in Te Waipounamu-South Island call it, is one of the brightest stars in our sky and is associated with the weather, season and kai.

    Puanga is located "above" the constellation known as Tautoru, or Orion’s Belt – the three stars that make up the bottom of ‘the Pot’.

    It marks the new year for many Māori from the west coast of Northland, Taranaki, Whanganui and Rangitīkei, parts of Wellington, and the South Island.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/06/17/matariki-2025-celebrating-puanga-an-extra-star/

    First, find the prominent constellation Orion. Then locate the bright red star Aldebaran. Orion’s Belt always points to Aldebaran (in the Taurus the bull constellation). Then, generally extending that line takes you toward the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters.

    Sirius is not only the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog, it’s the brightest star in the sky. Plus, Sirius is a future pole star for the Southern Hemisphere. You can be sure you’re looking at the correct bright star by drawing a line from Orion’s Belt to Sirius. From the Southern Hemisphere, turn the chart upside down.

    https://earthsky.org/sky-archive/use-orions-belt-to-find-two-other-stars-2006/

      1. 3.1.1

        FACT CHECK (Seymour's lips were moving)

        A public holiday is unrelated to personal use of an annual leave entitlement.

            1. 3.1.1.1.2.1

              Thanks for the other Bards latest work. Well crafted wit : )

              And. re Seymour as Jester in Bard Billot's ode ? Sometimes when I look at him….I see Joker " Burn it all down"…

              Maybe its a trickster of the light?

    1. 5.1

      As everyone discovered with the ferry debacles, contracts don't mean anything to a government that is willing to repudiate them.

    2. 5.2

      They are discussing the long-term 10 year private contracts for non-complicated surgery on ZB at the moment.

      First a guy came on and said he had been waiting over 2 years for a knee replacement, and he was still months away from getting it. He had talked to the surgeon who had told him he could do it in a couple of weeks if he went private. It was $33k to go private.

      Then (to ZB's credit) an expert on health policy came on and said handing the easy operations to the private sector "was no substitute for a properly funded public health system".

      Labour really should campaign on this. I have said before on TS that if they instituted a Wealth Tax, but called it a "Social Investment Levy" they could use this money to properly fund the public health service and for other social purposes-dentistry, public housing etc.

      1. 5.2.1

        That sounds all well and good.. but the national opposition will say ..why are you spending $$ on whale songs for kauri trees??

      2. 5.2.2

        @bg… ring fencing the soak the rich taxes for health/other good works ..makes perfect sense…

        And it makes the policies much easier to sell to the rest of us….

        In fact..they would be silly not to do that…

    3. 5.3

      Yeah – the agenda is always to divert the money that the government gets from taxes away from public sector employees who provide services directly to the public. Instead, this money must go into the hands of business owners as profits and to their private sector employees as wages for delivering a shadow form of those formerly public services.

      They're not really about small government or efficiency at all. They're about enriching their own social class by enforcing this more circuitous flow of money that now includes a profit extraction stage that adds no extra social value at all, but rather substracts from the sum of social value because the services provided become inferior.

    1. 6.1

      Which is why the surgical out-sourcing referred to above might not go anywhere. MH service provision has been out-sourced for 20+ years, and is a cost this Government is trying to reduce. Same will happen to surgical services, unfortunately that will be able to speak up for themselves. Also why the providers want long term contracts, they're more worried about the current Government and it's offspring than Labour & co.

    1. 7.1

      To be pro Palestinian is now being posed as UnAmerican. It's as if support for a Palestinian state is seen as supporting a DEI hire.

      1. 7.1.1

        It's weird. It's appalling. It's reaching the point when people dare not voice an opinion one way or another for fear of being targeted – even in NZ. It's as if reason, commonsense and impartiality has gone out the window.

        World leaders are prostrating themselves before the psychopathic tramp who is leading the charge towards global oblivion, whilst pretending to be the peace maker. The Yanks have lost their collective minds and those who are still living in reality are having to hunker down like hunted animals.

        The last time that happened……..

        1. 7.1.1.1

          When combined with the more isolationist position of the GOP, as per any support for Ukraine, it appears like appeasement of the aggressor.

          Hopefully the EU/UK/UN/Arab League step into the breach and propose a plan to get aid into Gaza, remove both the IDF and Hamas, set up a UN administration (with Arab League peacekeepers) for the rebuild.

  9. 9

    David Seymour is acting PM.

    After reading Ardern's book he references the impact on our schools as per our border policy.

    He appears ignorant of the fact that our school lockdowns were in fact shorter than many nations, because of our border policy.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/acting-pm-david-seymour-takes-swipe-at-dame-jacinda-ardern-after-reading-her-book/BDZKX4HVWVFYJE2MEZGD2V2UVU/

    https://www.ifo.de/en/publications/2021/article-journal/europes-schools-coronavirus-pandemic-country-comparison

    1. 9.1

      The Anti Ardern creeps seem to think it was just Jacinda Ardern behind our NZ decision.

      Reality : there were many extremely professional Doctors, Professors, Scientists et al…

      Thank you…

      New Zealand's Covid-19 response saved 20,000 lives – research

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/499516/new-zealand-s-covid-19-response-saved-20-000-lives-research

      Where we maybe could have been under a NACT1 type govt….

      Rod Jackson: Has Sweden made a fatal mistake with Covid 19 coronavirus?

      If New Zealand, with half the population of Sweden, had taken a Swedish-style approach to Covid-19, as has been suggested by some, just divide the Swedish numbers by about two to work out the implications.

      As stated above, instead of 21 deaths there would already have been 2000 deaths. Of
      even greater concern, this would possibly rise to 30,000 before herd immunity would be achieved, sometime in 2022.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rod-jackson-has-sweden-made-a-fatal-mistake-with-covid-19-coronavirus/RUR7CV376CXFC4Q2M7J7YAYW6M/?c_id=1&objectid=12335221

      And even worse ?…

      UK PM Sunak reportedly said 'just let people die', Covid inquiry hears

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/502883/uk-pm-sunak-reportedly-said-just-let-people-die-covid-inquiry-hears

      Fuck Seymour.

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