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6:00 am, May 19th, 2026 - 41 comments
Categories: open mike -
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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 …
Good coverage of the shift on the Green front here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/595611/nature-and-climate-in-the-spotlight
Gary Taylor, in the sidebar, got uppity. Hoggard is doing lateral-thinking on it. Potaka and Goldsmith are doing a Maori united front against Mike Smith. I feel like I'm with Mike, but I'm open to anything intelligent the BlueGreens may be trying to do.
Does look like it may be a schism though. Gary has done his BlueGreen thing a long time since he was Shadbolt's sidekick. Chance for the Greens to be more than the usual light-weights in the situation, so the possibility of BlueGreens and Greens collaborating seems to be emerging…
First pay equity, the next step here.
Denying carers, employee status.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/595604/government-seeks-to-clarify-disability-support-services-functions
Hiding it in the budget build-up period
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/595658/disability-support-services-bill-worst-piece-of-legislation-i-ve-ever-seen-advocate
Somehow I don't think our free trade deal weith India is going to be worth the paper it is printed on. Labour has signed up to a lemon that'll lose it thousands of votes in return for pleasing National and ACTs donors.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/18/the-guardian-view-on-indias-iran-shock-asias-neoliberal-era-starts-to-fracture
Public perception is that by supporting the deal, Labour too is mindful of the economy's health and doesn't block progress simply because the other side proposed it. That's a reasonable assessment of the situation.
Whether the deal is of value is another matter altogether.
Can't we just have only good news for a day?
They propose to cap the public service at 1% of the population.
It is now 1.2%
Massive layoffs are proposed in the budget.
Massive layoffs are not an election-winner.
Heralding a economic success from a positive budget will fail to impress the public if the reality behind it, especially expected "massive layoffs" is well advertised.
It is aspirational. A target they will set.
The impact being after the election.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360980612/thousands-public-servants-lose-jobs-potentially-saving-government-over-billion-dollars
Nice. Heralding. I like. A new neologism enters the language : describes something as good,from particularly RW MSM…but, not necessarily, for anyone un sorted….
"A new neologism" and here's another one 🙂
lool. Easter eggs aren't just for Easter : )
This is all the Right Wing Magical Efficiency Tree Bullshit. They have been selling these lies for decades.
This cheered me up. Led by Donkeys put a video screen up at the side of the protest organised by white nationalist Tommy Robinson.
https://youtu.be/YD_3fEsZNyk
Brilliant Weka…that gave me a laugh while suffering under the inversion cloud layer in Hawea.
https://www.positive.news/
Nothing but more bad news today – the World Championship surf event in Raglan has just been cancelled because there are ….. no waves!
Cancelled? Bloody Labour! I blame Jacinda.
But wait, it's only on standby, so the news is also good – in parts
https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/361006857/surf-gods-may-smile-raglan-swell-builds-weekend
Another thought provoking discussion from Novara about the crisis of the UK Labour party, but it is wide ranging enough to discuss the existential crisis facing social democratic parties in the liberal west.
IMHO, the Standard could do worse tan reach out to Novara and see if these long form "downstream" discussions could be promoted here as featured content.
Not my cup of tea but if another Author wishes to pick up the gauntlet I’ll do what I can to help.
Novara M is always worth a look for UK content + that wider view.
Makes me realise how rubbish the Bradbury Group are.
Please not splitting critical remarks aj. Can we limit the jousting with others and avoid if possible personal feelings of negativity unless they relate directly to the matter in hand. Hold onto that matter FGS it's slip,slip, slipping away. It's frustrating – while the world is coming apart like cardboard in water – to have pot-sh.t fired at earnest people trying for the direction of better things in a good way.
I withdraw and apologise.
What's a good NZ political panel show?
I put your question to Google & it came up with this at the top of the list:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/politics-nz/2026/political-commentators-dale-husband-and-ben-thomas-pnz2%5D
You may not be younger gen enough. I'm not so have never checked it out.
In the art of the deal, a dealer is only ever as good as his latest successful deal. Trump seems to have pulled off another, but it looks murky: https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-dismisses-lawsuit-against-irs-court-filing-shows-2026-05-18/
Notice the headline implies an IRS deal yet the report doesn't quite say so. It predicts the future (enterprising behaviour for a journo).
Yet a deal is a racket is a law when you make it so, huh? Don't hold your breath waiting for leading Dems to announce that they will repeal any such law.
Newsroom, in a serious attempt to convince us that it ain't msm, has published a glimpse of reality in this country: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/19/kiwi-infrastructure-balances-performance-risk-and-cost-in-trillion-dollar-trilemma/
Where in that overly-long and (s)lightly-edited (!) copypasta of yours is Newsroom’s “serious attempt to convince us that it ain't msm”?
What is that “glimpse of reality in this country”?
Just regarding how you might pay for re-nationalisation of something like the BNZ. You don't need to pay for it with cash. You can pay the owners — shareholders — using government debt instruments rather than large cash payments. You can issue government bonds, or long-term Treasury stock or fixed-interest compensation stock
For example:
A BNZ shareholder surrenders their private shares. The government then issues securities paying a fixed rate of interest over time. The former BNZ shareholders would then hold government debt instead of shares in a private company. This spreads the cost over decades rather than requiring immediate taxation or cash expenditure.
A shareholder who "surrenders their private shares" is selling them – and they would value the securities at the assessed cash value from an immediate sale, which may be for less than face value. So what you are suggesting is government borrowing to raise the cash to pay for shares at a value set by shareholders who would rather keep the cosy cartel going . . .
The BNZ is a wholly owned subsidiary of NAB. There are no shares owned by the public or available for purchase by the public. The only way to buy BNZ is to do so from NAB. I doubt that they would want to accept long term NZ Government bonds.
Personally, I think we don't need another bank (waste of money) we would be better off investing in the one we own Kiwi bank so it can compete with the Australian banks.
We also don't need nor can we afford all those national roads of significance, we need to fix and maintain our current roads and highways to a high standard. Note I say we don't need all NRS as we may need some, but we can't afford them all. Instead of NRS we should be investing in good quality public transport and looking at other policies to reduce traffic congestion.
We also need to utilize rail more to reduce the damage and danger on the roads created by big heavy trucks.
We need to hold on to our strategic assets and if need be, invest in them also, as we pay taxes and we are not getting much bang for our buck. And why would we want to reduce the state agencies at a time when our population is growing and we have an ageing population and run down state services already struggling to deliver, where is the evidence to show this approach is in our best interests.
It would be good to encourage more NZers into saving for their retirement, but do we need to make it compulsory, many NZers get their backs up when they are forced to do anything.
Government debt has increased under this current government and yet too many NZers are struggling, so this means their policies are not working, at least not for the majority of people.
The election looks like it is going to be a ding dong voters need to do their due diligence and double check facts and figures.
Innovative legal tweaking as state subversion, using a triad as method:
Public servants will love this opportunity to become middlemen in the economy. Middlemen have profited by finagling trade, thus originating the capitalist system, since ancient times. Despite the education system, many servile folk have learned this.
To be fair, the 8000 public servants the govt is tipping into the dustbin of history ought to be able to apply for the emerging job prospects. A suitable uniform and badge reading Economic Liaison Specialist ought to be manufactured as inducements.
ELS? No don't bring me down, hop over to ELO and get some vitality, frenetic stuff. They also do Livin' Thing which we need to play often. This is from 1970s when all were fizzing. Shake us up a bit and see if there's some fizz left to froth up. Don't Bring Me Down – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rD-0tlGGPo
They make our living look pale – Living Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvBOZCrJsAI
Are you on the Telephone Line – you Nactzos? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKElk9zTB04
We should have put Winston out to grass years ago.
Remember when Seymour, back in February, said we should get rid of Air New Zealand and sell it off? Winston rubbished the idea saying "He said the airline was operating in a difficult market and demanded to know, "who on earth would sell" at the current share price."
Well the price then being paid for the shares was $0.60 each. Now it is $0.41. So much for Winston's recommendation.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2602/S00173/winston-peters-rails-against-blind-ideology-panic-amid-talk-of-air-nz-sale.htm
Slightly personal question for LPrent: are you left handed?
The reason for asking is I do most my viewing here on my phone. I regularly hit the reply button inadvertantly with my thumb. Then the keyboard opens up….
If there were to be any tweaks to the layout, it would be great for this user if the reply button was on the bottom left of comments.
Chur.
Where's our tax?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/google-new-zealand-increases-profit-sends-12-billion-offshore-to-singapore-where-the-tax-rate-is-much-lower/premium/RINHK7JIEZFANFUKI7CXIAS5RU/
Sorry it's paywalled , but the headline tells enough. $1.2 Billion exported to skive on paying taxes in New Zealand. I believe the EU was looking at legislation to capture the revenue by these 'Multinational Corporate Criminals' (my mislabeling) I think it's high time New Zealand does as well.
For the 17% tax rate, instead of our 28%.
https://archive.li/rH7ok#selection-4937.17-4937.46
“About 92% of [Google NZ] total revenue is paid as the service fee to Singapore,” says Tax Justice Aotearoa member Nick Miller, a former EY senior manager in Britain and senior investigator with Inland Revenue NZ. Singapore’s corporate tax rate is 17% compared to New Zealand’s 28%."
Scandalous. Labour/Greens need a policy addressing this issue in their manifestos.
The COC will do nothing but waffle of course.
The other trickery when it is a product – say Shell gas in Australia being sold to Shell Singapore – is to sell that product to your own company in a low tax jurisdiction for little more than the cost of production (or less if you need tax write-offs) then that company sells the product elsewhere.