Open Mike 18/03/2026

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 47 comments
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47 comments on “Open Mike 18/03/2026”

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  1. 1

    "The government essentially wipes their hands and say, your partner is your welfare system"

    People are now finding out the very hard way about this particular 'feature' of the welfare system. In my cynicism, I have to wonder how many of these people ever bothered to learn about the reality before it suddenly affected them. Or maybe I'm just at the point where I can't be empathetic anymore, which isn't a great headspace to be in.

    The flip side of the 'relationship' rule, is how many people on long-term benefits have to stay single, because most people aren't going to take on a new partner if they're obliged to fully support them finacially.

    But of course, getting everyone into work that is not there is so much easier than forcing the State to take responsibility for it's (in)actions.

    Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said the thresholds were a long-standing feature of the welfare system.

    "Raising the threshold is not something I am looking at right now, my focus is on getting people off the jobseeker benefit and into work." (No mention how this with apply to people on SLP also affected by the rule).

    RNZ asked further questions of Upston on Monday including what advice she had for people who could not get work, nor a benefit.

    Her office said the minister had nothing further to add.

    Coward. But rest assured, Labour won't make it a priority either.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/589877/your-partner-is-your-welfare-system-coupled-up-with-not-enough

    1. 1.1

      The Green Party has this

      Disability Support: Transforming ACC to guarantee a minimum payment of 80% of the full-time minimum wage for those unable to work due to illness or disability.

      Otherwise a minimum income policy.

      https://assets.nationbuilder.com/beachheroes/pages/9612/attachments/original/1754443009/Policy-Greens_Livelihoods_Policy_2025.pdf?1754443009

      For mine, they should add a policy of individual support eligibility, moderated down to a combined figure if both are on income support, as we do with Super.

      We currently use the WFF tax credits where there are children and a parent loses their job.

      Why not for couples without children?

      Otherwise the income support system does not work for them.

    2. 1.2

      Long term beneficiaries always laugh in dark cynicism. My edge is not feeling sorry for couples, because at least you have a partner. Imaging being disabled on that income and you don't have anyone to do all the things that need to be done. Agree with it not being a good headspace, I find politics keeps me out of it mostly. I will always argue for fairness for all.

      I assume the original design was done at a time when not as many women had full time jobs and households functioned on 1 or 1.5 incomes. Also a time when people's double income wasn't maxxed out by the mortgage payments. Bizarre we still use that.

    3. 1.3

      The Upper Socio-Economic Groups in New Zealand aligned with the COC Government do not give a rat's an*s about anyone apart from themselves. I'm alright Jack, Tax Cuts for Landlord's and the Fat Cat's Around Town ???

  2. 2

    Hipkins considered quitting after the hit-job from his ex.

    Now sure he's not my cup of tea but a full revenge move using the children is unbelievably low.

    Hang in there leader we need all your fighting energy focused on November.

  3. 3

    Cookers win.

    /

    Helen Clark

    @HelenClarkNZ

    NZ rejects new #IHR. “We’re in fringe territory. This is not what people expect of NZ. We’ve been seen as a good international citizen. We adopt conventions, we play by the rules. This is reputation-wrecking. People will think that we’ve lost our mind.”

    https://xcancel.com/HelenClarkNZ/status/2033968209523560901

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/18/nz-aligns-with-fringe-rfk-jr-in-rejecting-who-pandemic-rule-changes/

  4. 4

    The Post’s Luke Malpass​ (paywalled) agrees, observing that, for governments, a crisis response “needs only to be moderately competent to confer a large advantage on the incumbent”. He goes on: “As it happens, the Government’s response to the oil price shock so far has been more than competent – it has been good. Willis especially.”

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/18-03-2026/deja-vu-at-the-beehive-how-the-fuel-crisis-might-transform-the-governments-fortunes

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and bias is a blessing.

    Arguably, NZ is not experiencing an oil crisis, at least not yet; there are no real supply issues, at least not yet, only perceived ones.

    However, NZ is in a crisis that has been handled very badly by the Coalition and, in fact, worsened by the Coalition’s austerity measures.

    Quiz for Luke Malpass and BusinessDesk’s Dileepa Fonseka: what crisis is NZ currently experiencing?

    1. 4.1

      Winston and his Voices for Freedom, Winston and his reckons (this Gulf problem will just go away in time).

      All we have from the Hon Minister of Finance is a perspective related to inflation and budgetary management (all within her ball park).

      No real response plan but reference to that put in place by the last government (general contingency), but taking away the wider Labour plan to diminish reliance on oil on our roads.

    2. 4.2

      Talking of crisis responses, I googled how many deaths have been due to the Covid jab for 12-17 year olds in NZ. The result: NIL (but possibly 1)

      I know that this is AI-based, but I'm guessing it is correct. I wonder if Luke Malpass has praised Jacinda's Covid response? More likely he has been burning her book. As for Winston, read this and correct the record in parliament.

      "Official New Zealand data has confirmed no deaths solely attributed to the COVID-19 vaccine in the 12 to 17 age group. However, a coroner's inquiry found one teenage boy's death could not definitively rule out the vaccine as a possible cause for the myocarditis he developed."

    1. 5.1

      Who knows? Probably just the government funding which was agreed in 2020, due to open in April, and according to Gemini summarising from somewhere (no obvious links)

      "…is a $683 million, 30,000-seat multi-use arena scheduled to open in April 2026. It is funded through a partnership between the Crown ($220M–$300M, including land) and the Christchurch City Council ($253M–$453M), with significant ratepayer funding for the latter portion."

      Ouch… It is going take a lot of concerts to make recover that last portion.

      Personally I've lived about 2km from Eden Park (in a staight line on Grey Lynn ridge) for decades and it was been confounded nuisance since they started doing concerts there. The lights are obnoxious, the sounds reverberates up to us, and we wind up with cars and busses clogging our roads on any large event.

      Not exactly a benefit to the local community.

      The last time I went to Eden Park was when I was about 14 when I was still playing Rugby for the Eden rugby club down at Gribblehurst park (aka Cabbage Tree Swamp).

      1. 5.1.1

        I have lived 800m from Eden Park for 45 years. Even before they got concerts the Park Management showed nothing but contempt for the local communities. Any sort of mitigation for traffic, access, noise etc has had to be forced upon them through conditions of various Resource consents,

        I remember a Jehovah's Witness convention there in the early 2000's which gummed up traffic and parking for kilometers around the Park. There was no traffic management, no car pool or bus requirements, just large nuclear families in large vehicles, all trying to park within walking distance. Auckland City Council did not even know about it until it started getting phone calls from local residents and businesses about the congestion and the bad parking.

        The concerts are noisy by design and the closing of bus stops on New North Rd and Sandringham Rod mean that locals cant even get on a bus to escape the racket. The Edinburgh Tattoo involved fireworks at 10.30 pm every night for 3 nights.

        Now, the Park Board's mates in the NACTFirst Government are going to allow the Park considerably more opportunities to maximise the economic value of the Park by granting rights for an increase in the number of night events.

    2. 5.2

      Yes they gave money for the tour

      Global pop superstar Robbie Williams is bringing his BRITPOP world tour to New Zealand this November, thanks to support from the Government’s $70 million Major Events and Tourism Package.

      1. 5.2.1

        So we a funding Rock Stars but we can't afford to feed and cloth lower socio-economic groups children here in New Zealand ???

      2. 5.2.2

        I can't tell if that's what it means or if it's just badly worded. Was hoping someone would know how to look it up

            1. 5.2.2.1.1.1

              One can only guess they are sharing promoters costs and or the cost of taking the show here.

              They will claim commercial confidence, we may just get the total spent out of the $70M.

            2. 5.2.2.1.1.2

              He told Checkpoint the money would not go directly to the popstar but instead make it viable to put on two Aotearoa shows, contributing to around half of what the freight to and from Australia and New Zealand will cost.

              He did not disclose how much the government had put towards the shows, and said it was commercial in confidence.

              https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590090/robbie-williams-shows-touch-and-go-without-government-funding-says-frontier-touring

            1. 5.2.2.2.1.1

              Yes, it would take a carefully worded OIA request or two by a professional journalist, I reckon. They may hide [parts] behind commercial sensitivity, as usual.

    3. 5.3

      Robbie Williams is going to be easier to defend than the State of Origin match they are bringing this way.

  6. 6

    Gangster state runs extortion racket.

    /

    The State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with H.I.V. in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government of the southern African country to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals.

    “We will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale,” a draft of a memo prepared for Secretary of State Marco Rubio by the department’s Africa Bureau staff says. A copy of the memo was obtained by The New York Times.

    Some 1.3 million people in Zambia rely on daily H.I.V. treatment that is provided through the decades-old U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (known as PEPFAR) and on tuberculosis and malaria medications that save tens of thousands of Zambian lives each year. The Trump administration is considering whether to “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May, to increase pressure on Zambia, the memo says.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/health/zambia-hiv-aid-minerals-trump.html

    1. 8.1

      If able to move apply for an Australian job.

      yes Cut your losses if / while you can – We Don't Know How Lucky We Are, and were.

      Jacinda Ardern's move to Australia renews spotlight on New Zealand's brain drain problem [BBC, 3 March 2026]

      Housing Minister Chris Bishop told the BBC's World Questions programme his government is achieving "good progress" in making the country a place its citizens want to stay.

      "But I don't pretend for a moment that everything is perfect in New Zealand. Clearly it isn't," he said.

      "There is a deep unease amongst many New Zealanders about the state of [the country]."

      Ballantyne says she suspects the former prime minister's decision to move to Australia is more nuanced than that.

      "There's probably a level of harassment out and about still, she's a public figure… [and in] Australia, she might be able to lay a little bit lower.

      Opinion: govt failing NZers on housing, we will not
      [The Star, 12 March 2026]

      Not everyone is “wealthy and sorted” like the PM.

  9. 9

    MBIE provides some information

    Shane Jones reassures

    Resources Minister Shane Jones, who has responsibility for fuel security, said New Zealand is so far dealing well with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

    “I want to be clear that at this stage, there is no need for fuel restrictions. Introducing rationing or restriction measures before there is clear evidence of a genuine shortage won’t create more fuel in the system,” he said.

    Correct. Yet if we use less now the normal supply will last much longer than the 50 days (fuel in system level, on the water or stored here) .

    We are impacted when unrefined oil does not leave the Gulf to parts where our oil is refined (or earlier if they start to retain rather than ship refined oil onto us).

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360952707/new-figures-show-nz-has-49-days-worth-fuel

    2. 10.2

      Ms Rogers FA and now she's FO that refusing to obey a lawful instruction from a police officer is a criminal offence.

      2. 10.2.2

        …. and if that doesn't stand up, there's always that good old catch-all "conduct liable to cause a breach of the peace", or whatever its equivalent is in NZ.

    3. 10.3

      Lucy Rogers stands guard over protestors interested in a peaceful Middle East. She's also one of four authors at Kiwiblog. They are:

      David Farrar (Corrupt pollster, right wing and Zionist activist)

      Alwyn Poole (charter school founder and activist)

      Lucy Rogers (Lawyer, Zionist activist and counter protester)

      Kokila Patel (Admin)

      It’s worth going back to the restructure of Kiwiblog immediately after the Christchurch massacre at the hands of an Australian visitor and Islamophobe. Kiwiblog was forced to introduce moderation on all posts and that policy survives today.

      1. 10.3.1

        Please at least try to consider the possibility that whether you agree with the political opinions of any individual involved or not is completely irrelevant to the principles involved.

  11. 11

    A powerful essay from a bereaved daughter. A watchful victim of institutionalised hatred and distrust of the Islamic community:

    I invite people to consider one thing: that violence rarely appears without warning. It whispers first – in speeches, in comment sections, in policies that quietly divide people into “us” and “them”. When we ignore it long enough, it shouts. The question becomes: what are we allowing to take root on our own soil, long before it grows loud enough to be recognised as violence – and how those same seeds travel beyond our borders.

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/15-03-2026/march-15-taught-me-how-to-read-the-world

    This happened on Kiwiblog in the years leading up the Mosque shootings. But the whispers continue there loudly, and here more softly…

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