Open mike 18/05/2025

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 51 comments
Categories: open mike


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 …

51 comments on “Open mike 18/05/2025”

Comment numbers have changed to permanent references. Older quoted numbers may no longer identify the same comment.

  1. 1

    Does anyone have difficulty commenting on TS using a mobile device (Phone or tablet)?

    Can you please describe what happens, along with the type of device and the operating system.

    Edit: Please Use the reply function to reply directly to this comment. The issues appear to be with replies not new comments.

    2. 1.2

      I have in the past had issues with my Samsung A33 phone and my Samsung Tab A9+, both Android,but gave them a quick test a while ago and they were working OK – I do prefer to use my PC for typing (an old school touch typist!)

      2. 1.3.2

        Both Redmi phone and windows surface tablet.

        Often have to reopen and close the reply box several times, before I can type anything in it.

        No problem if I attach a Bluetooth keyboard.

        But it is both android and Firefox on the phone and windows with edge on the tablet.

          1. 3.1.1.2.1

            how come your first comment was a new comment instead of a reply? Trying to figure out if there is something technical there, or how the site is being used. eg does the new comment box look like the reply box?

  4. 4

    Onya Andrea Vance for your eloquent and forceful rebuttal to Brooke Van Velden’s; as Andrea put it, ‘faux outrage’ in Parliament last week to her original article the previous Sunday. An excellent read. I don’t always agree with what Andrea writes and sometimes I get a case of ‘outrage’, faux or not on my part at some of her opinion pieces, but as the old adage says if a journalist upsets all stripes of political opinion, they must be generally hitting the spot. It will be interesting to see whether the ‘girl bosses/hype squads’ or the Prime Minister and his Deputy have another swipe this coming week. I may even watch Parliament this week, if I have the inclination or time.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360691630/columnist-dismisses-faux-outrage-after-pay-equity-column

  5. 5

    wtf?

    /

    The Clerk's advice about historical norms

    As Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson is the head of Parliament's Secretariat and the chief advisor to the Speaker, the House, Committees and MPs on the interpretation and practice of Parliament's rules.

    The Clerk wrote a background advice paper for the Parliament's Privileges Committee on the current case.

    The committee particularly asked for contextual information about penalties. One member even asked for information about imprisonment.

    New Zealand's Parliament has no power to imprison.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/561329/the-house-parliamentary-privileges-race-as-an-aggravating-factor

  6. 6

    One member even asked for information about imprisonment.

    I'm guessing that was another right-wing champion of free speech.

    1. 6.1

      'One member even asked for information about imprisonment.' – actually I can amagine who that might be. Would love to find out though and see if my reckon is on target!!

      1. 6.1.1

        The one who drove up the steps of Parliament after being told "No'. No Privilege Committee for him!!!
        Or the guy who yelled across the house about Mexicans?

          1. 6.1.1.1.1

            I read the article in the link, and was gratified to see that Jacinda is not the only Ardern to have their name misspelled in public print. Not in a one-time typo, either.

            1. 6.1.1.1.1.1

              I never noticed the mistake with the missing "r". Mind you, I barely even noticed that he was ever in Parliament.

              He could drive a tractor though. Tizard stalled the one he was driving and started rolling backwards down the steps.

  7. 7

    Just on the inability to reply to a comment. I had a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and now a Z fold 6, and I have not been able to reply to posts in either using Chrome or the inbuilt browser for a long time now.

    1. 8.1

      And National to distract from budget and pay equity debates.

      The whole framing and over dramatisation looks rather rather fluffy, deceased and a little too cute, along with being foisted vigorously across the media

  9. 9

    Oh dear.

    While the Green Party have been running ad's claiming the the Government are cutting nurses wages, which isn't true, they are proposing a Budget that would cut the income of the average nurse. Not by much but a cut none the less.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/an-average-registered-nurses-after-tax-pay-will-fall-under-the-green-partys-tax-plan/NGZMP2M4HRF7DP4UWMPBJW7PXA/

    [for clarity: “an average registered nurse earns $125,662 – meaning they would be hit by the relatively modest $3 a week tax rise.”]

    1. 9.1

      Not by much but a cut none the less.

      That’s big paywalled news – how much would be shaved off an average nurse's income?

        1. 9.1.1.1

          Thanks weka – the average nurse might weigh an annual $156 loss against public service gains. If, sometime down the track, the GP is in a position to push elements of its budget through, then nurses can choose to join the rush to Australia.

          ‘Hollowing out’: New Zealand grapples with an uncertain future as record numbers leave [9 May 2025]
          “I [Nicola Willis] am very concerned if New Zealanders don’t believe that they have good prospects in New Zealand. I want people to see that this is a place of enormous economic future and enormous social future.”

          The enormous futures of hollow men are assured, but what about bottom feeders?

    2. 9.2

      The article is by client journalist, Thomas Coughlan, who admits that Simeon Brown's office supplied some of the information to use in his attack on, bizarrely, the Labour Party by claiming the average nurse earns $125,662. That's nearly double the average wage which I find hard to believe.

      Simeon Brown's office no doubt had another motive which Coughlan dutifully transcribed, that nurses get paid far too much as it is.

      https://archive.is/qmH4T#selection-3999.221-3999.229

        1. 9.2.1.1

          The 10,000 above $125K and average earnings figure are weird and the subject of debate. I only heard the tail end of it but a nurse had texted Hoskins this morning calling bullshit and he the figures were from StatsNZ and "they don't lie".

          According to the article, the figures were from Simeon Brown's office which got them from HealthNZ. Hoskins didn't mention that.

          A least one nurse is upset (I sure there are many more) that Simeon Brown in collusion with some sections of the media are claiming the average nurse is paid over $125K. How does this figure exist? Maybe it included loads of upper level HealthNZ and hospital management, ie nurses who no longer "nurse" in the accepted sense but are still registered nurses?

            1. 9.2.1.1.1.1

              Yep, I know that. You got the figure from the same place Simeon Brown's office did.

              Statistics with an agenda can be made to say certain things, I'm saying the reality might be a little different.

    3. 9.3

      oh dear, $3/wk

      Which would be offset for most nurses by free dental and GP visits, and free ECE.

        1. 9.4.1.1

          Earnings and salary are different things. The quoted figure is inflated by overtime and allowances and includes Senior Nurses. Coughlan got the latter wrong because he referred to only Registered Nurses.

          Looks like the troll-bot has done a runner, oh dear.

    1. 10.1

      I cannot see the Coalition surviving this PR debacle unscathed.

      yes The CoC's pay equity debacle is a 'free' hit for Kiwi cartoonists – keep 'em coming!

    1. 11.1

      The CoC plan is obvious, pour jet fuel on the housing market so homeowners 'feel richer' and spend more, then provide some token social harm mitigation measures to try mask the fallout.

      They got away with it for three terms last time but thrown out of office in 2017 because of it. This govt nowhere near as stable or convincing as that one.

      1. 11.1.1

        With the Natz still the largest single party after that election, them and their adherents only a few seats short of a majority, they weren't exactly "thrown out". (Not that I complain at their not retaining office, or the reason why that happened. Far from it.)

        And I don't believe they'll be "thrown out" in '26 either. With all the resources in cash and media airtime they can command, it'll be a very close-run thing. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them clinging on by a whisker and subsequently regarding that as an overwhelming mandate to continue with their full-bore ERW agenda.

        1. 11.1.1.1

          And that exact dynamic is what needs to inform the left’s electoral and political strategy heading into 2026.

          I'd argue the most effective approach is two-pronged:

          First, flip National’s 2014 “rowing team” attack ad on its head: tie ACT and NZ First (and all their deeply unpopular culture war nonsense) as tightly as possible to National.

          Sure, ACT exists to let National export blame and avoid consequences. But I think they’ve seriously underestimated just how much the average voter resents being caught in the crossfire of their ideological games.

          Second, go after ACT and NZ First relentlessly. Attack them. Mock them. Treat them like the unserious wrecking balls they are. If that drives some of their voters back to National, or turns others off voting entirely, that’s a win.

          The goal isn’t to make Labour the biggest party. It’s to leave National isolated—maybe still the largest single party, but stranded on 57 or 58 seats with no one to govern with.

Comments are closed.