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6:00 am, March 27th, 2026 - 59 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 …
Shane Jones has pulled out of the scheduled debate with Sir Ian Taylor about the Tarras mine.
I sure hope the organisers go ahead with it anyway, and put a rubber chicken in the opposing chair.
I'd be very happy to turn up to that fundraiser.
‘A question of trust’: Why I’m walking away from the NZ Herald
Sir Ian Taylor, showing some integrity.
"
OPINION: Today I cancelled my subscription to the New Zealand Herald.
I did not do this lightly, but I can no longer reconcile what I read in The Herald this week with the values I believe New Zealand stands for.
My decision comes in the wake of a recent court case involving rhetoric that has been found, by that court, to be racist. "
Based around the arguement that Jim Grenon funded Julian Batchelor.
Some TS readers may wish to read the opinion piece in full but without a link it’s not quite as straightforward.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360956465/question-trust-why-im-walking-away-nz-herald
The Herald has been making one-sided, incredibly biased attacks on Hipkins all week. It is not journalism. Facts are not referenced.
Today the headline is:
Cabinet Paper Shows Hipkins Received "unnecessary risk" advice about Covid jab for teens.
ONE teen's death over the last 6 years has been "most likely" linked to the Covid jab. The advice headlined (Hipkins says the cabinet did not receive this advice) was to reduce the covid jab from two to one jab for teens, not to stop vaccinating teens.
What took him so long? I cancelled my subscription to The Herald in 2005. I won't have it in the house.
If I recall correctly, a few years ago Ian Taylor was getting comments published in the Herald being critical of the then Labour government, even though he had voted for it. And now, even though he used to have his stuff published in the Herald, he wouldn't buy it anymore.
Does Ian Taylor's 'life journey' contain any other decisions that he makes then quickly repudiates in public? Does he just have bad judgment – either in the initial decision or in the rapid repudiation of it – and for some unfathomable reason is given a platform to share that fact with all of us? Why are this goose's opinions aired so widely – is it because he has money?
Bugger, thought I'd added the link. Sorry.
No worries, it does look like your comment was done in some haste – don’t forget to breathe and stand still for a moment, occasionally, in these stressful times.
March has not been a good month for Hipkins.
Chris Hipkins says he never got the ‘unnecessary risk’ advice on teens and Covid vaccine. This Cabinet paper shows otherwise – NZ Herald
Doing a bit of trolling Jimmy. The article makes it clear that when Hipkins received that advice 92% of 12-17 year olds had already received two covid jabs.
You also seem to ignore the fact that having two jabs for most 12-17 year olds will protect them better than one jab. So this is a balancing act-more lives may be saved with two jabs. Hipkins would have had advice to this effect aswell.
When you add this to the fact that to date only ONE death of a 12-17 year old has "most likely" been linked to two Covid 19 jabs, we are all dancing on the head of a pin here.
Just pointing out the slow feed of bad news stories against Hipkins. Someone wants a change of leadership. NZ First? Your reply reminds me of this Blackadder episode.
Blackadder – Bring me some other news!
Our CoC ('govt' by and for the sorted) supporting the WHO? Not on Winston's watch.
This is not about whether or not the vaccine is safe, it is not about higher risk/benefit of the vaccine in 12 to 17 year olds.
It is 100% about Hipkins lying that he never saw the advice in March 2022, and continued the 2nd dose vaccine mandate for 30,000 12 to 17 year olds until a month later, with parents not being informed of possible risk, and having the option to decline.
Any Minister caught out lying at this level would expect the PM to sack them.
Hipkins should resign immediately, his position is totally untenable.
Is started reading teh NZH piece above (archive version below), and I can't make sense of it.
If you want to make the argument here that Hipkins (or anyone) lied, you have to provide evidence. Read the site Policy.
Evidence means:
https://archive.is/R9yes
My emphasis.
I don’t have time to look right now, but if BG is correct and you are misleading readers here with that comment, just know that if I see you do that kind of trolling again I will ban you until after the election.
We don’t generally allow people to make comments by mainstream media headline. Some people do it and get away with it because they’re known and trusted. You’re not and that trust just decreased by quite a bit. Next time, make the argument yourself in your own words and then see if you can defend your position.
Yet still 20% better than Luxon's March.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/590347/rnz-reid-research-poll-labour-extends-lead-over-national
This COC Government would have to be the most racist, corrupt and anti-worker Government in the History of New Zealand?
Signs of the Left recovering its mojo in Europe, partly due to revulsion at Trump's antics.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/25/the-guardian-view-on-a-significant-week-for-european-politics-progressives-have-some-reasons-to-be-cheerful-
Trump is now the best reason to vote Left and the best reason to buy an EV.
I am not sure if the public grasp the seriousness of the diesel crisis that confronts us. Without diesel, people go hungry. It isn't lack of food that will be the problem. The entire food distribution network is built around 3-4 hubs where foodstuffs are shipped to and from on diesel powered trucks. If we can't distribute food, it will rot where it is grown while the cities go hungry.
The fact the government hasn't ordered an immediate cessation of all private non-commercial diesel sales when the date for the onset of famine can be marked on a calendar is astonishing.
We have zero resilience – coastal shipping has vanished, the railways are severely truncated and besides, they still wouldn't feed Taupo or Queenstown – Queenstown-lakes has 60,000+ people utterly dependent on road transport that require a minimum of around fifty tons of food a day to be delivered. No diesel, post harvest would mean an urgent and rapid evacuation of almost everyone or they'd literally starve in weeks. Maybe they could do an emergency recommission of the Kingston branch line and the the flyer and the Earnslaw could roll up their sleeves, and get back to work…
But yeah, we are literally weeks away from food rotting while the population goes hungry. Let's all hope and pray the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) with Singapore actually means something if the war in the middle east drags on to June.
Completely agree. Some of the people I’m talking to get that there’s a problem but I think a lot of people can’t quite get their heads around that it could be that bad, and particularly because the government isn’t acting. Surely if it was that bad the government would be taking action. Some people are in for a rude awakening.
Not sure if the Kingston line goes all the way to Kingston any more. But that’s exactly the kind of thinking we need, it takes the pressure off the diesel supplies for a start.
The other issue that we have is just how many systems waste diesel. Lots of our food supply does double miles as does a lot of NZ Post and similar services where they run their cargo to central sorting points and then run them back out. Those are systems that need Reedley redesigning right now but you can’t do that if people don’t understand what the seriousness is.
I’m thinking about it hard, because I live a reasonable distance from the main trunk line and the coast. On the other hand I live in the country so there’s gonna be plenty of meat and dairy for awhile. Tracking hunting ammunition sales would be an interesting data point right now.
The thing about Queenstown is it is a city built entirely on the premise that cheap and abundant fossil energy to keep it supplied will last forever. Jet fuel brings the tourists, diesel brings the logistics.
There is a reason that until the last sixty or so years cities were all built on the coast, or on navigable rivers, or with fertile immediate hinterlands. The basic laws of physics pre-fossil fuels dictated how they were fed and how they communicated with each other.
A standard horse-drawn wagon can carry enough food for about 15 people for a month, but that same horse needed to eat its own weight in fodder every few weeks. This “diminishing return” of land transport means that after a 100km the wagon is only feeding 7 people, and at 200 or so km it is feeding no one except the horse. If you need to do a return trip then of course you can halve those distances again.
Ships and barges are by orders of magnitude the most efficient way to move supplies. Then rail and lagging far in last place is road.
New Zealand is difficult country for roads and rail, cut by mountains and steep terrain with gullies and ravines along with huge braided rivers. By far the most efficent way to get around is coastal shipping, which is why all our towns and cities were once on the coast or navigable rivers. We need an insurance policy built around a resilient coastal shipping service.
There is an interesting report below Sanc. It shows on the map that Central Otago leads NZ in solar power uptake percentage per home with 10.7% uptake. Queenstown is 6.4%, the average being 3.7%, with places like King Country on 1.5%. (The report is dated January 2026)
I live in Central Otago as defined by the map and have noticed strong recent solar uptake when viewing Wanaka from Mount Iron.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/26/which-regions-lead-nz-in-rooftop-solar-and-which-ones-lag-behind/
My guess is strong EV uptake correlates to some extent with strong solar uptake, so resilience/self-sufficiency is on its way at least in this region.
For example, in Marlborough, Blenheim until the Sixties had a coastal shipping service from Wellington up the Opaoa River, Picton of course is a port, as is Kaikoura and Havelock and wool was seven shipped from Ward. In a civil emergency, as during the Kaikoura earthquake, the seacoast is a navigable option. This option is more important in these shaky isles, and fuel shortage is only one of the threats to transport. Earthquakes, land slips, extreme weather, all are threats as well.
How much depends on one railway line, one State Highway? The Kaikoura earthquake severed SH1 and the rail link. Transport went up and down the South Island on the Lewis Pass adding hundreds of daily truck movements with an extra 80 km to Christchurch. If the Lewis was blocked? Then other mountain passes and the West Coast would be involved.
We are vulnerable.
I have advocated for a hospital ship for NZ that would be coastal, independent of road and rail, and be able to supply medicines, drinking water, medical and surgical services to coastal NZ and the Islands as well. The Americans have one plying the South American coast for example.
Most of NZ's population is coastal. 65% of our population lives within 5 Km of the coast.
A $100 million for a hospital ship? Google tells me "Acquiring a hospital ship varies widely based on size and purpose, ranging from approximately US$14.8 million for a small, new 28-meter commercial vessel to hundreds of millions for large, specialized ships like the Global Mercy. Smaller used vessels might cost $1–5 million, while major purpose-built vessels can exceed $100+ million."
These vessels can be used for training medical personnel, including military and civil emergency response teams and for minor medical procedures for small centres without a hospital.
I had this idea twenty five years ago as a political candidate. Perhaps it's time to revisit the logistics of this again.
it is. Well overdue. Not only the oil crisis, but how long can we keep repairing roads and bridges from big weather events?
there are two kinds of collapse at risk. One is economic, the other is food security. Neither are inevitable, but the latter seems more amenable to mitigation than the former at this point if we have a major fuel shortage.
Queenstown economy aside, there are two things that help with food security. Lots of people will leave town (tourists and WHV workers first, assuming they have time to get out), and Queenstown has a fair number of people growing their own food, doing seed saving etc. Lots of land to convert in the medium/long term too. It's a crowded basin, but all those wealthy lawns are at play. I'm not joking here.
NZ is well placed because of our electricity supply. We don't know how vulnerable that is yet to fuel shortages (thinking repairs and maintenance rather the burning fuel to produce electricity). But if power stays on, that's a huge advantage compared to other places in the world. Power to water supply to water gardens for instance.
I doubt there are many horses around that could handle pulling wagons long distances, but over shorter distances around the basin, sure.
"We need an insurance policy built around a resilient coastal shipping service"
Doing that would require the 'creative destruction' of thousands of jobs (and profits) in the trucking industry. How is such a transition made and who gets to suffer during it?
This is the hole we are stuck in. No form of large-scale, collective action towards resilience seems possible without it being too late to prevent mayhem.
The creation of a resilience reserve if you are hell bent on molly coddling the trucking industry could simply be done by, for example, the creation of a reserve manned fleet auxillary force or a coast guard, operating 3-4 small (20,000 ton or so) replenishment ships and a tanker or two, like the old coastal tanker Taiko did until very recently.
They'd be an immensely useful adjunct to allies as a fleet train, and could do fisheries protection work as well.
Apart from the rail ferries, we have three coastal cargo ships registered in New Zealand. All owned by overseas interests. One a reasonable size and two tiddlers. And various small tugs and barges. Good luck.
The, so called, open Coast policy from the 90's decimated NZ shipping.
Another National party, own goal.
I think the Kingston Line goes south as far as Fairlight, the old Kingston Flyer run.
South of this it is now a cycle track to about Mid Dome. From Mid Dome to about Winton, perhaps as little further south to Makarewa, there are only the remains of the old rail bed. From memory most bridges are gone.
Good are trucked in, and nothing will replace that in the short term.
More or less confirmed by:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Branch
@ Beardy @ 1.1.2
If there is one death, how many chronically ill or seriously sick young folk are there? How many families hurt?
It is the authors of the report that called it "unnecessary risk".
There is a surprisingly big group of folk that aren't happy with Hipkins in regards Covid. Not a cooker amongst them. His signature was on every order that came out. Ardern copped a lot of the immediate flack but his presence makes those wounds hard to heal.
Below are the conclusions reached by the two reports. While not perfect, NZ seems to have done rather well and had "one of the best pandemic responses in the world…..with relatively good social and economic outcomes".
Page 5
Phase One Report
Overall, New Zealand’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic was
successful. The elimination strategy achieved its goal of saving many lives.
The Inquiry’s Phase One report found that while our lockdown measures
were strict, New Zealand spent less time in lockdown than many other
countries and experienced relatively good social and economic outcomes,
at least at first. There were, however, many lessons to be learned and these
were outlined in the Phase One report released in November 2024.
Page 17
Phase Two Report
Many of the people we heard from expressed pain and anger about the impacts of the pandemic and response. Some of these impacts on people’s lives continue to this day. There are lessons to be learned from their personal experiences. It is clear, however, that ministers and officials were facing a series of complex, high-stakes decisions in a rapidly changing environment and were doing the best they could at the time. Evidence shows New Zealand had among one of the best pandemic responses in the world.
You can download it here.
https://www.covid19lessons.royalcommission.nz/reports-lessons-learned/main-report-phase-2/introduction/summary-of-the-report
If you still believe that Iran is the greatest threat to world peace then consider yourself propagandised completely by the US / Israeli regime.
Currently in the news is the story of an 18 month old child brutally tortured in front of the father, a civilian, to gain information.
All the atrocity propaganda levelled at Hamas has been thouroughly debunked and through the genocide we have seen confirmed the suspicion that in coming up with these fantasies, the Israelis simply thought about exactly what they would like to do to Palestinians. The list includes the beheading of babies and the Kuwaiti war propaganda of turning off ICU incubators.
So just remember, if you can, that "Iran is the greatest threat extant in the world", has been brought to you by Israeli regime genocide and war crime specialists who annul sexual violence criminal charges against their soldiers and security staff, aided and abetted by the criminal US regime headed by a child raping pervert.
https://mondoweiss.net/2026/03/israeli-army-tortures-a-palestinian-toddler-in-gaza-in-front-of-his-father-family-says/
https://substack.com/@bettbeat/note/c-232991624?r=b9n9c
You're peddling "atrocity propaganda" yourself here, and claims made on propaganda sites don't count as being "in the news."
Sorry to break it to you but Mondoweiss is an extremely creditable news site. Also extremely credible are the brave Palestinian journalists that continue to be systematically targeted by an Israeli regime that wishes all its sexual and war crimes to remain "our little secret". Only a "die in the ditch" Zionist would try to proclaim otherwise.
If there is one thing the Epstein Class is teaching us, is that the most astounding and unlikely reports about atrocities, corruption and sexual abuse can be correct until proved otherwise.
A"Zionist" is just someone who doesn't have a problem with the existence of Israel, which I don't. Using it as a pejorative says more about you than me.
A credible news site wouldn't present someone's entirely speculative and obviously politically motivated narrative as a news story with no caveats and no attempt to ascertain any of the facts. It's atrocity propaganda and you're peddling it on this site.
Zionism is an ethno supremicist ideoloy that places jewishness, laughably as gods chosen people, at the top of a hierarchy that can only be sustained in an apartheid state that limits the ability of other ethno goups to survive
In Israel this means disenfranchising Palestinians and forced poverty along with periodic violence that inevitably leads to genocide. All this was baked into the founding of the zionist state of Israel with the atrocities that were the Nakba and is carried by the very statement "I believe in the right of Israel to exist as a nation for the Jews". No caveats like not at the expense of Palestinian lives.
So yes. If you claim to be a zionist it is definitely a pejorative and a very strong one. Genocide. Sexual deviance as punishment. Extreme violence and invasion of regional countries and a settler colonial mentality
Please keep your gross fantasy life to yourself.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/27/palestine-and-israel-brief-history-maps-and-charts
and from a different country:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/17888/maori-land-in-the-north-island-1860-1939
Al Jazeera's scam is that they pretend the green areas are an Arab country called Palestine, when in reality the only green parts that could legitimately be called an Arab (rather than British) Palestine are on map 4. Useful idiots in the west are sucked in by this because they don't know the history rather than the fake.
Do you have an illustration of changes in land control that you believe are unbiassed:
This?: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567
How long will Iran toy with trump? How does this war end, Trump has probably figured out by now he's lost, short of going nuclear. !
Post up on the government's National Fuel Plan announcement
https://thestandard.nz/nationals-national-fuel-plan/
The Finance Minister appears to have [deleted] recently. Four possibilities are:
Stress of the (terrible) job she is doing.
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
It is of no business of yours or anyone else's if she has or not, just focus on what she is or is not as the case maybe, doing job wise.
don't be a dick. You're now in premod.
Play the ball not the (wo)man.
I've not read the original post.
But even so, I think I can clarify by making a prediction; this years summer duty minister will comeback lighter next (whether in government or not).
@bwaghorn
My guess is that this will be a long war since Iran cannot afford to allow the US/Israel to rearm and try again some time in the near future.
They have a list of demands that include the cessation of hostilities by Israel in Lebanon as well as other resistence allies. Also included are recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Staight of Hormuz and reparations for the war of agression so far enacted. These reparations could take the form of imposition of a $2M fee for each tanker passage as is already being imposed on some tankers that are given a transit authorisation.
So as you can see these are demands that will require significant damage to the world economy before they are agreed to by the West or else every nation excepting US/Israel will have struck agreements with Iran (who are only interested in dealing with nations as opposed to commercial entities).
Iran also demands the withdrawal of the US military from the Middle East.
People forget that Iran prevailed against a Saddam Hussein invasion that was even supported by the USSR. This war was devastating and even involved chemical warfare with gas supplied by German chemical companies.
After 8 years Khamenei reluctantly signed off on a cessation document even though much of the population thought a greater price ought to have been extracted. Iranians back themselves and are eager for Trump/Netanyahu to send in an invasion force. The assasination of Khamenei has created a lot of anger and the demands for Utu will be loud and heartfelt. Iranians will also view this as a chance to avenge the death of the much loved Qasem Soleimani by Trump in his first term
https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/iran-outlines-conditions-end-war-demands-complete-us-withdrawal-region
This will keep Nicola Willis awake at night on the heels of the recent negative outlook by Fitch.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/26/truckies-worry-as-diesel-slows-to-a-trickle/
Newsroom does do its own fuel forecasts and the figures in the article are clear & informative.
I don't think that any RW politicians are kept awake at night by anything, except maybe at election time.
COC Government MP's and RW Politician's are immune to stress, they do not have a conscience, and have hides thicker than Rhino's.
Someone should ask our Minister of Defence how AUKUS is going.
Such a great idea …. never.
The Wall Street Journal seems to have noticed our increased emphasis on Defense.
https://www.wsj.com/world/oceania/new-zealand-military-china-2a776b24?mod=trending_now_news_2
I wonder if Helen Clark still considers that we are living in an incredibly benign environment?
Seems unlikely, 25 years later – incredibly benign environments don't last forever.
https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
Perhaps patch protection is the best response to resource scarcity – time will tell.
How are we ever going to lift the level of defense spending to 5, 10% of a shrinking GDP if we don't carry on with AUKUS? The military-industrial complex is depending on us.
/sarc
There are 13 USA bases throughout Middle East, which Iran has bombed to the point that troops have been withdrawn from them, and can only operate from hotels remotely. Russia is helping with arms and intelligence.
I heard a report on exchange rates today, and based on my memory, it does seem that the $NZ has dropped in value compared with many other currencies – how bad must our government have been to lose value against the $US? Or am I missing something?