Open mike 18/08/2016

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 80 comments
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80 comments on “Open mike 18/08/2016”

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  1. 1

    KiwiSavers invest in cluster bomb, land mine manufacturers

    Hundreds of thousands of KiwiSaver members in government-appointed default schemes may be unknowingly investing in companies making cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines.
    At least five of the nine default KiwiSaver providers invested in these types of companies, despite them being banned by government agencies such as the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and ACC.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/311225/kiwisavers-fund-cluster-bombs,-land-mines

    1. 1.1

      What an interesting little list.
      I presume Mr Shaw will be having harsh words with the rest of his caucus.
      There are about half them who subscribe to the traditional Green approach of “Do what I say, not what I do” aren’t there?
      Half the Green Party MPs have their Kiwisaver investments with these supposedly terrible organisations.
      Explanations will no doubt be forthcoming do you think? Apologies and the transfer of the tainted money to a charity perhaps?

  2. 2

    Greenstone TV describes it as “A compelling fly-on-the-wall look at the way the rental scene works in New Zealand”, but Renters (TV2, Monday 8pm) is a dishonest and exploitative reality television series. It mostly portrays people who are renting in the worst possible light. Meanwhile, the many transgressions of landlords go unexamined.

    Television could do some really good journalism investigating this crisis but, of course, these are the days when TVNZ prefers to have a right wing presenter host a show every weeknight in order that he can tell us just how great the government is.

    Instead Greenstone TV have taken the opportunity to exploit this crisis to produce a show for TVNZ called Renters. Greenstone specialises in reality-based television shows. It is responsible for such gems as Highway Cops and Highway Patrol.

    http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/working-for-vampires.html

    1. 2.1

      We need a companion show, possibly called “Slumlords”, where the cameras take a tour of leaky, mould-ridden plague pits being rented out for $500 a week by shivering peasants whose children all show signs of respiratory diseases.

  3. 3

    Although you wouldn’t know it from the coverage being provided by the large New Zealand media contingent in Rio de Janeiro, protests against the interim presidency of Michel Temer are occurring on a daily basis.

    Despite the rather large New Zealand media contingent in Rio de Janeiro right now, no one seems particularly interested in reporting on the daily protests that continue in the city beyond the various sporting venues. While TVNZ’s Peter Williams and TV3’s Mike McRoberts stand in front of stadiums and deliver stories about sporting heroics that could of just as easily been delivered from an Auckland studio, the protests continue to go unremarked on.

    Brazil might be in the midst of a economic and political crisis but New Zealand’s media contingent main concern seems to be why the New Zealand team isn’t delivering as many as medals as expected. Any conception of any crisis has not extended any further than the awful realisation that injured All Black Sonny Bill Williams will be out of rugby for nine months.

    http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/crisis-what-crisis.html

    1. 3.1

      Given a free hand (which I assume neither Williams nor McRoberts have) I would never expect anything from Williams in any event. He is the far less objectionable notional uncle of his preening notional nephew Hubrism Hosking.

      McRoberts is a different story I believe. I say that because of my recall of his reporting a few years ago from Palestine in the middle of yet another of Zionist Israel’s ‘shooting-fish-in-a-barrel’ child-murder tours through Gaza.

      His demeanour betrayed truly mortified and despairing senses at what he was seeing. I came away with the feeling that the man has a humanity about him.

      2. 3.1.2

        North:
        ” Hubrism Hosking?” I had to look that up.
        Hubris- ‘excessive pride ……leading to nemesis.”
        nemesis-‘ the inescapable agent of someone’s downfall’
        A bit complex but I like it.

        That aside, I guess Williams and McRoberts have been given instructions on what their jobs are and have to stick to them.

        Be nice to see John Pilger reporting on the Olympics though.

  5. 5

    I was talking to a check out operator in my supermarket yesterday about the awkwardness of people using their own bags. She said that people who bring their own bags are encouraged to fill them themselves, and that operators are expected to get customers through the checkout in a certain amount of time. Which explains why when I take a bag I don’t even have time to fill it (slightly further along from the checkout operator) while they are already serving the next customer right beside be. It creates a sense of rush and panic as if I am holding up the line.

    The point of this being that I wonder if supermarkets really appreciate people using their own bags as it slows down the speed of the queue. While we have ideals of reducing plastic bag use, in reality the checkout system sees them as a hindrance.

    This is like a lot of things in society where systems have evolved to the point where they can’t manage changes in behaviour necessary to protect the environment.

    1. 5.1

      In the old days long gone, a check out operator would not even think of packing your bags in Germany, they had a separator at the line so that when they finished ringing you up and you had paid she push the barrier over and start the next customer while you continued to pack your bags.

      just let them put the things back in the trolley, take your trolley and pack at the bench. Heck once there you an even remove all the un-needed packaging of certain products and leave that behind for the supermarket to dispose of instead of you carrying home tones of extra waste. 🙂
      i like doing that….all the plastic wrappers, boxes n stuff that is just there to make a small product big, just leave it behind. 🙂

      1. 5.1.1

        “Heck once there you an even remove all the un-needed packaging of certain products and leave that behind for the supermarket to dispose of instead of you carrying home tones of extra waste. 🙂
        i like doing that….all the plastic wrappers, boxes n stuff that is just there to make a small product big, just leave it behind. 🙂”

        Exactly my practice. Having a living area of 7m x 1.8m makes one very conscious of unnecessary stuff.

        My hope is that eventually pak n spend will have recycling bins…I believe the redshed does this already.

      2. 5.1.2

        Thats cool Sabine. I have recently been in Holland and they have exactly the same system there too. So your stuff gets shoved over to one side and the next person gets served.
        They have now also developed compostable bags that you can take away your shopping in which may change things once again.

        1. 5.1.2.1

          Those bags are probably not compostable. More likely the degrade in sunlight into tiny pieces or are only compostable in a commercial system.

    2. 5.2

      ” and that operators are expected to get customers through the checkout in a certain amount of time. ” That is what the supervisors are watching over, next time you go to the supermarket watch the watchers, they look at the clock & they note who is fastest & who is slowest, it’s a huge part of their job.

    3. 5.3

      One action which would dramaticly reduce the use of plastic bags would be reducing the use of supermarkets !

  6. 6

    Govt admits data vacuum on motel help

    The Government has no idea how much money it lent to beneficiaries to stay in motels, the Ministry for Social Development has admitted.

    It means there is no data which shows how much taxpayer money was borrowed by people on benefits and no broad understanding as to the level of need for emergency housing assistance.

    It’s a knowledge vacuum which has been criticised by social commentators and political opponents who have asked how the Government can manage the situation when it has no data to guide its decisions.

    Yeah, this government has a habit of not measuring anything.

    And then the NZHerald ran with this lie:

    Social Development Minister Anne Tolley and Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett have now moved to provide 3000 emergency housing places each year, putting up $41m over four years to contract emergency housing providers and to cover emergency housing grants.

    You know, the three thousand beds that were already there before the funding.

  7. 7

    Having spent last night on the road, I treated myself to a RNZ fest.

    Listened to the Hooten spout on with a very ineffectual/weak Mike Williams as a counter to attempt at bringing some semblance of balance to the discussion.

    FAIL! Mike Williams comes across to me as the old fat tom cat that is just going through the motions that allow him to curl up on his mat in front of the fire. Occasionally he’ll crack an eyelid to see a mouse (or in Hoots case) a great big rat scuttle about on it’s business……… but he’s not at his fighting best and actually can’t really be f**d, it’s real cosy and warm by the fire, wouldn’t want to ruin a good thing or stretch oneself.

    Time to kick out the old and bring in something scrawny with a bit of mongrel in it to throw some light on the increasingly large pile of BS the Hooten gushes every time a mic gets put in his face. Currently getting away with way too much propaganda and aided last night by the presenter Kathryn Ryan?

      1. 7.1.1

        Who was that union leader that schooled a dippy panel a couple of years ago? – well-informed, articulate & highly bullshit resistant.

        1. 7.2.1.1

          There’s a steady move to the right on RNZ with their National appointed managers, and I find I’m just turning it off more and more often.

  8. 8

    From Russell Norman (on Facebook) – Best solution to NZ’s drinking water problems isn’t to add chlorine to the water, it is to stop adding faeces. This isn’t just a Hastings issue. For example in 2010 Dunsandel (on the Canterbury plains) got animal faeces in its drinking water from a 70m deep well. The town is surrounded by dairy cows. When the local council investigated they concluded it was contamination from a ruminant animal – and suggested it could be a goat, a sheep, or a llama. They didn’t even mention the possibility that it could be a sacred dairy cow!.So they chlorinated and UV treated the water – presumably the cow faeces are still in there but the bugs have been killed. Such is the power of dairy sector in NZ that this is acceptable.

    1. 8.1

      +100 – esoteric pineapples – excellent quote from Russell

      Best solution to NZ’s drinking water problems isn’t to add chlorine to the water, it is to stop adding faeces.

    2. 8.2

      Comment from Mike Joy on Facebook – Ok so so waternz says lets chlorinate all municipal water to be safe.
      The water bottlers who only take the best & cleanest (for free) will have massive increase in sales because chlorinated water tastes disgusting and worse makes shite coffee. How about we stop the cause – massive intensification of dairy, horticulture instead?

      1. 8.2.1

        Horticulture is a great idea they just need to get away from using tanalised post by the million , i believe all those poles they have used for the massive grape planting in the top of the south have polluted the ground water.

        1. 8.2.1.1

          Very good point wags ditto the ten cubic meters or so of toxic waste produced every time a new house gets built we sure AINT very clean OR green .

    3. 8.3

      RNZ had some expert going on about how all town water supplies should be chlorinated blah blah. Good to see Norman pointing out the bleeding obvious. If you think chlorination is the solution then the public health message must be to never swim in a river or lake in NZ or picnic with kids by a lake or river.

  9. 9

    It’s hard to think of anyone more dishonest and shamelessly partisan than
    Kathryn Ryan’s outrageous “U.K. correspondent” Dame Ann Leslie
    Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Thursday 18 August 2016, 9:50 a.m.

    I only caught the tail end of today’s performance, but that rancid old hypocrite seemed to be in vintage form. Today the object of her venom was not teachers or people from “godforsaken countries” or the Labour Party leader; it was the recently arrested radical preacher Anjem Choudary.…

    this highly articulate, cold-blooded monster, and I use that word advisedly…. head chopping lunatics… [snarl]…I never appeared with him on BBC television because I REFUSED to collude with him. …[splutter]… He drives me MAD….”

    Lest anyone think that such refusal to interview Choudary indicates that Dame Ann Leslie is a decent, principled journalist, refusing heroically to collude with evil, just consider what she said after her visit to the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 after it was attacked by more than 150 Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery, backed by F-16 fighter jets, killing more than fifty people: the massacre, she assured her readers, parroting the Israeli regime’s propaganda, “wasn’t actually a massacre”.

    Aficionados may like to inspect some further nuggets of Dame Ann gold….
    http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03122015/#comment-1104309

      1. 9.1.1

        Indeed, Poission, he did use the media for that purpose. The point of my post was to point out the selective morality of the dreadful Dame Ann Leslie, who is at least as hateful and violent in her promotion of her ideals as Choudary.

    2. 9.2

      Debutante version of Monty Python’s Upper Class Twit of the Year.

      Born to British Colonials in Rawalpindi, oil company executive’s daughter; raised in the twilight of the British Raj, sent away to boarding school in England in the 50s, then Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and eventually the Daily Mail. Usual story. Slightly eccentric, somewhat dizzy, overly-privileged, massively-entitled, Upper-Middle Boof-head.

      She’s long been a regular on BBC WORLD’S ‘Dateline London’. Dyed-in-the-Wool Right-Wing, Thatcherite Tory, who generally has no idea what she’s talking about. Her knowledge of foreign affairs is absolutely bloody abysmal.

      Everything, for Dame Ann, is “simply ghastly” – “ghastly man !”, “ghastly people !”, ‘ghastly regime !”

      Perfect example of how the British Class System privileges the decidedly mediocre as long as they went to the right school.

  10. 10

    Just an indication of the exploitation rife in the film industry. Sausage Party is apparently popular as a raunchy animated flick, all good dirty fun, and in this interview the directors congratulate themselves on what a great job they’ve done.

    …and then you scroll down to the comments.

    The animators were screwed royally. Demands for unpaid overtime, names removed from credits for complaining about this and so on:

    http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/sausage-party-directors-conrad-vernon-greg-tiernan-making-2016s-outlandish-animated-film-142425.html

    It’s pretty typical for creatives in the film industry. You’ve spent years learning the skills, but you have huge student loans to pay off, there’s low pay, long overtime without pay, deadline stress, your work is appropriated and used without acknowledgement and you have zero security.

    And of course it happens here. Many of my former students had similar experiences.

  11. 11

    When will Cuba follow the lead of the Polish government?

    The Polish government has approved a new bill that foresees prison terms of up to three years for anyone who uses phrases like “Polish death camps” to refer to Auschwitz and other camps that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during the second world war…..

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/poland-approves-bill-outlawing-phrase-polish-death-camps

    Surely it’s long past the due date for Cuba to take similar steps to prevent the hated Guantanamo Bay Prison being associated with Cuba, rather than the outlaw regime that is responsible for it.

    1. 12.1

      Yeah I agree, it sucks when people are drummed out of the media simply because other people don’t like their opinions

      1. 12.1.1

        It all depends.

        Fairfax is a business, maybe Stewart is annoying their customers that much that they won’t buy their paper or advertise in it , if that’s the case then she has to go.

        No doubt she’ll end up at RNZ, seems to be were all the lefties come a shore at.

  13. 13

    Fletcher’s have made billions in profit from construction contracts around NZ.
    See what happens when you donate to the Nats.
    You can almost hear Keys blind trust accumulating.
    No wonder he is always grinning,must be great to be a Nasty Nat.

    1. 13.1

      Billions? Over what period is relevant here.

      You do realise that they have been around since 1909 and employ thousands of people. Would you rather they made a loss and had to lay people off?

      Who is going to help build Andy’s 100,000 homes? DYI perhaps?

      Why does the Left consider a company making a profit is a bad thing?

      FYI, in the last 10 years Fletcher has lost many large contracts, just like the other players in the market. Your corruption accusations are BS and ill-informed.

    2. 13.2

      @Mosa +1 Even better when you can give yourself a zero rated tax haven and refuse to disclose publicly the trusts receiving them.

    3. 13.3

      Fletcher Building has always been pretty ecumenical in their donations to political parties. They didn’t just give to National you know.
      In 2011 for example they gave $20,000 each to ACT, Maori, Labour, the Greens and National.
      None of the parties seemed to have declared receiving anything from them in 2014.

  14. 14

    Back to the sub-standard-steel fiasco which is haunting this country. This morning on Morning Report RNZ there was an expose of sub-standard-steel in the largest sewage works in South Auckland, they had this guy on who said the Steel Certifications were most certainly fake and that we didn’t have good compliance on our large projects with steel. He said if you literally don’t stand over the Chinese in situ they will issue fake certificates on their steel. In years to come there are going to be huge problems and serious mal-functions on these structures and roading flyovers etc just because we chose to do things on the cheap and nasty. This country doesn’t have the capacity to understand and learn from previous experiences – leaky homes come to mind, now it will be homes with steel framing. We are a Micky Mouse outfit when it comes to quality and control.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201812606/gaps-in-testing-of-giant-sewage-tank's-steel

  15. 15

    “Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction so intense that, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world on average has just 60 more years of growing crops. Even in Britain, which is spared the tropical downpours that so quickly strip exposed soil from the land, Farmers Weekly reports, we have “only 100 harvests left”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/25/treating-soil-like-dirt-fatal-mistake-human-life

  16. 16

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/83274805/govt-call-for-labour-mp-grant-robertson-to-apologise-to-government-statistician

    “Labour MP Grant Robertson has offered an apology of sorts to the chief statistician for suggesting there had been “political interference” in the production of the latest unemployment figures, saying he is sorry if she took any offence.”

    I suppose you’ve got to try something when the unemployment rate drops to 5.1%

          1. 16.1.1.1.1

            Paint yourself closer into a corner CV. With your can of high gloss bitterness. You’re little more than a weird spectacle now mate.

              1. 16.1.1.1.1.1.1

                We know the public service is ‘bought’ and all wrapped up in the Keydashian banana republic CV. I expect not in terms of greased palms but certainly in terms of moral bullying and unspoken threats by the incompetents in the Cabinet. “Watch it boy/girl……..there’s your high powered, fabulously remunerative job on the line here…….’we’ can destroy any professional reputation you have.” – you know the story CV.

                But no, you’d rather ‘Trump-et’.

    2. 16.2

      When it drops because Stats NZ are incompetent, then it’s entirely appropriate to suggest that Stats NZ might have become incompetent because the government made them so.

  17. 17

    A post for Robert

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/25/treating-soil-like-dirt-fatal-mistake-human-life

    “The government’s deregulation bill, which has now almost completed its passage through parliament, will force regulators – including those charged with protecting the fabric of the land – to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth”. But short-term growth at the expense of public protection compromises long-term survival. This “unambiguously pro-business agenda” is deregulating us to death.

    There’s no longer even an appetite for studying the problem. Just one university – Aberdeen – now offers a degree in soil science. All the rest have been closed down.”

    1. 17.1

      Thanks, Pat. I emailed that to each of the 12 councillors at the Southland Regional Council for some sobering evening reading. This evening, I talked with my 12 adult Go Organic students about George’s article – we talk soil every Thursday night and his article was not a surprise to any of them. They weren’t discouraged though, knowing as they do, how to make the stuff. Now, if each of us had 12 people to talk with about important issues…

      2. 17.1.2

        The ‘only 100 harvests left’ is an great way to frame this and change thinking.

        Re the Organics people, I think showing people reading articles like the Guardian one that we can rebuild soil is critical. Otherwise people get despondent and hopeless and go back to their tv or smart phone.

  18. 18

    Scare mongering and blaming the Russians…now seems the leaks came from inside NSA

    ‘Leak in-house? NSA data dump could be work of insider’

    https://www.rt.com/usa/356326-nsa-leak-data-insider-worker/

    “The leak of tools used by the NSA’s elite hacking team has resulted in speculation and finger-pointing in a desperate attempt to identify who could have exposed the government agency’s secrets. But one source says it was an inside job.
    The chances of a hacker remotely breaking into the National Security Agency’s systems are very unlikely, according to an anonymous insider who spoke to Motherboard.

    Despite accusations that the leak is Russia’s meddling, the data dropped online under the name “the Shadow Brokers” would have required someone with the ability to access the NSA’s server, the former NSA employee told the news outlet…

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/331978-pentagon-budget-us-military/

  19. 19

    Well….Anne Tolley and the rest of the Current Mob have given the single digit salute to the new Children’s Commissioner.

    Despite a Fairfax Poll saying the new name was as popular as a camplylobacter outbreak, despite the Children’s Commissioner saying the the name was “cripplingly disappointing”, the new ministry for preventing the abuse, neglect and murder of Kiwi children will actually be handicapped by the name Ministry for Vulnerable Children.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/82571122/Faces-of-Innocents-Planned-Ministry-for-Vulnerable-Children-labelled-stigmatising-and-cripplingly-disappointing

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/82699004/Ministry-for-Vulnerable-Children-name-stigmatising-and-labelling

    And, the CEO of this new ministry IS going to be a career manager…with no experience in the area of children and young people and their families.

    Oh no, her latest job was as the CEO of BUPA NZ…a multinational in the area of aged care and health insurance…with a less than exemplary reputation.

    If this is the life raft….
    ….god help this ministry, and all who have the misfortune of having to sail in it.

    Damn them.

    1. 19.1

      Yes Only the Nats could think of such a stupid name…
      ” Good morning. I’m from the Ministry for Vulnerable Children..that is-your children..I hear they’re vulnerable. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
      Good on the Children’s commissioner for refusing to use that derogatory name, opting instead for the sensible and valid Maori name, ‘Ministry for Children’s health and well-being’.

      I hope this new CEO from the privatised welfare business world ( why can’t they just have a general manager) is better than Christine Rankin….Who?

    2. 19.2

      I’ll add to my comment above…a warning.

      Take VERY good note of individuals and organisations who attend the inevitable launch (with much fanfare and tame media in attendance) of the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.

      These will be the buttsnorklers who will have their snouts perpetually in the funding trough…singing the praises of the new Ministry and keeping silent when things go horribly wrong.

      These people will call themselves Advocates.

      1. 19.2.1

        Rosemary-So what’s new? and yes it will be interesting to see the ‘ buttsnorklerss’ -what? who?
        I’ll bet Rankin and Bennett will be wallowing there. After all, there’s money to be made out of vulnerable kids.
        It somehow reminds me of Don Brash’s idiotic proposal to have a minister/ministry for combating anything PC.
        A ministry for children’s health and well-being I can accept.

    3. 19.3

      My personal favourite is Ministry for All Young and Adolescents or MAYA; it does have a nice symbolic and maternal ring to it that could counter the one-stop-shop (investment) approach that is the only ‘shoe size’ that National seems to know. Is it sheer arrogance or stupidity (ignorance) that makes them do this, time after time?

  21. 21

    What is this scurvy pap and crap that leads the Herald’s main online page? Eighth most liveable city…….for whom?

    For the virtually nil interest overseas money called here by the simpering, effete traitor John Keydashian. That’s about it. Palpably not for the two-jobs, car dwelling families of South Auckland. And against all of that……..the Herald wanks.

    T’Audrey and Trev’ of the Herald……..where the hell are you?

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11696591

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