Open mike 21/05/2024

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 46 comments
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46 comments on “Open mike 21/05/2024”

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  1. 1

    The first question out of any journalist mouth to Chris Bishop ought to be – "This damning report on Kianga Ora was written by Bill English, and in the words of Christine Keeler – "Well, he would say that wouldn't he?"

    1. 1.1

      Yeah the emphasis most reports seem to be putting on "independent" as if it actually is.
      And of course they are not mentioning how much the debt has increased the value of the land holdings and other assets.

      This is the same National Party of course that took hundreds of millions of dollars per year out of poor people's rents to pay into the consolidated fund to make the government books look better last time meaning much of the housing maintenance was deferred. They are such dodgy bastards.

      Pity they don't have the same criticism of debt when power companies are borrowing to give shareholders dividends.

      Debt to build houses bad debt to pay shareholders good.

        1. 1.1.1.1

          McAnulty was good, while Ingrid showed how easily the public is confused once they hear the big scary word "debt".

          McAnulty might have gratuitously added that the guy who did the report was "the worst finance minister in NZ's history". Because if Luxon can do a fact-free smear of Robertson using those words and not get any pushback, then everybody's reputation is up for trashing on a whim, so we may as well all get down to it.

          2. 1.1.1.1.2

            Totally AB. English's ‘fiscally neutral’ bs with the gst rise/top rate drop cost us over $1b annually in lost tax revenue.

            Nothing to lose telling it like it is as double dipton takes more taxpayers cash to pop a cover sheet over their ongoing nobbling of public housing.

    2. 1.2

      If gathered up the stats from 70,000 privately owned rentals ,do you think their debt level would match kianga ora's I reckon it'd be higher!!?

      1. 1.2.1

        Kāinga Ora has a debt-to-equity ratio that home owners dream about.

        .

        Kāinga Ora is a large Crown entity with an annual expenditure of $2.5 billion and total assets of $45 billion.

        A report by the Treasury and the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development found Kāinga Ora's level of debt had grown from $2.7 billion in 2018 to $12.3 billion in June 2023.

        https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/05/bombshell-k-inga-ora-review-finds-agency-not-financially-viable-new-chair-board-refreshed.html

      1. 1.3.1

        I was about to comment to that effect – but had to go out. Pleased I am not the only one here who remembers the "Profumo Scandal"'

  2. 2

    Meanwhile in rich peoples land important things are not happening.

    “A group of us haven’t had even one match since joining, and are questioning whether it’s because there are not enough men,” said one romantic hopeful, who Stuff agreed not to name.

    There are two different membership options: Platinum ‘Match Me’ at $5,995 per annum, which Gattung told Stuff was “priority matchmaking”.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350283288/men-shortage-theresa-gattungs-6k-year-dating-biz

    1. 2.1

      To much squid and not enough whales.

      But anyway, it is a fact of life that a lot of blokes over 40 who can afford to pay 6k for a dating site are not going to be particularly interested in dating someone their own age.

    3. 2.3

      Seems like a continuation of the Telecom business model that Gattung inadvertently confessed to years ago. Namely, that confusing your clients/victims can be profitable.

      1. 2.3.1

        Part of the plutonomy memo that Citibank tried to hide.

        There is however a more refined way to play plutonomy, and this is to buy shares in the companies that make the toys that the Plutonomists enjoy. As the rich have been getting progressively richer over the last 30 years, saving less and spending more, the fortunes of companies that sell to the rich ought to have been good. Not only have the rich been earning and spending more, but they are less price elastic than typical consumers. In fact we believe they have a preference for Giffen goods, i.e., the more expensive they are, the more they are purchased.

        https://delong.typepad.com/plutonomy-1.pdf

        https://arktimes.com/street-jazz/2011/11/09/the-citibank-memo-and-the-gop-attacks-on-american-voting-rights

  3. 3

    Radio NZ, 21 May 2024: "What will it take for NZ to be a 'rockstar' economy again?"

    It's not a good analogy. Some rock stars snort all manner of drugs, then die early.

    I'm not even certain we had a "rockstar" economy to begin with, but it sure makes good headlines for politicians.

    1. 3.1

      It is part of a general right wing framing of the Key era in a warm glow of complacent nostalgia that has been swallowed hook, line and sinker by the MSM. The smug amnesia of 2008-17 apparently represents something of a pinnacle of capitalist achievement in NZ.

    3. 3.3

      They should get Fonterra in and ask them that.

      All the legislative breaks they've had, market dominance, getting their own way and what can they show for it in 2024 !

      Hardly a rockstar peddling desirable value add milk products is it ?

  4. 4

    Just read the most fulsome analysis of the Fast Track Bill by:

    Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister, King’s Counsel and author of the book Unbridled Power challenging Muldoon-era decision-making, says the Fast-Track Approvals Bill is a bigger threat to constitutional government

    Avatar photo

    The Prime Minister is the ultimate guardian in our system for the values of constitutional propriety. He needs to call for restraint here and search for some solid middle ground. Greater efforts must be made to develop inter-party consensus and secure a balanced approach. New Zealand’s environment is too valuable a resource to be put at risk in this way. The complications with this Bill are so numerous that it cannot work. And further it cannot be successfully amended to be make it work.

    How can the present Coalition keep going on this disaster specially for our Environment.

    Thanks again to Newsroom.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/20/a-fast-track-to-environmental-degradation/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    1. 4.1

      This collusion government won’t listen to critical experts but only to friendly ones, e.g., from the NZ Initiative, the NZ Centre for Political Research, and other RW shill-tanks.

      Alexander Gillespie is a professor of Law at the University of Waikato and he wrote a damning analysis.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/517329/fast-track-laws-parliamentary-urgency-treaty-tension-media-retreat-warning-signs-for-nz-s-brittle-democracy

      Analysis – There have been so many submissions on the government's proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill – 27,000 written, with 2900 wanting to appear before the select committee in person – that a ballot system has been introduced to manage the process.

      Given the already widespread disquiet over the bill's shape and intent, it is a fair assumption most of the submissions will be critical of its potential environmental and democratic impacts.

      For those with memories long enough, it also calls to mind the original "fast-track" methods used by the then prime minister, Robert Muldoon, to expedite his "Think Big" projects in the 1970s. Then, too, special laws were passed to circumvent normal planning mechanisms.

    2. 5.2

      "Hats off to the English legal system, even if it took a while"…..are you doffing your hat to a legal system that has imprisoned the most important journalist in the modern age, in one of the most brutal prisons in the UK for over FIVE years, without chance of bail, has impaired and disrupted his legal defense team at every opportunity…the UK legal system has done exactly what it was supposed to do…send a message to every journalist working now or becoming one in the future, or any potenial whtleblower…and that message is simple, brutal and to the point ….'Don't Fuck with the Western Hegemony, because this is what we can do to you..right out in the open, in broad daylight, and there isn't anything anybody can do about it'

      So I say, Fuck the UK legal system…it is corrupt and rotting to it's stinking core.

      2. 5.2.2

        Fair points both of you…Assange should have been free long ago….I've got the t- shirts.

        But what I am saying is that a couple of HC judges finally got it right in London. He will be free soon…..this is a highly embarrassing legal defeat for the US and nobody could be happier than me.

        If these 2 HC judges hadn’t made this decision Assange would have been on a plane to the US next week. Listen carefully to the audio.

  7. 7

    We read that the Kainga Ora report was done by Bill English and we laughed and we laughed and we laughed. How many more leeches are going to attach themselves to the CoCs corpse trying to make them relevant? Look what just happened to their key man Key. Karma has snuck up on him and about time.

  8. 8

    As was the head of the Labour established Tax Working Group in 2019 – Sir Michael Cullen. As was Heather Simpson, appointed by Labour to head the Health and Disability Commission Review in 2018.

    Pot … Kettle

    1. 8.1

      Sir Michael Cullen headed the tax working group so, rather than reflecting his personal views, his report would have reflected the (majority) views of the group. I imagine it would have been the same with Heather Simpson.

    1. 9.1

      You don't need to fake anything. Just read the Glossary of the Year 1 to Year 8 Relationships and Sexuality Curriculum and it tells you exactly what the mindset is for the Education Department.

  10. 10

    Hipkins has just accused Luxon of mis-leading the House.

    This was after Brown had to apologise for "mistake" in the false graph that he presented to the House last time.

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