The Daily Blog Open Mic – Monday – 7th October 2019

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.

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20 COMMENTS

  1. A real shocker, and incredibly depressing:

    “The four largest private landowners in New Zealand are all foreign-owned forestry companies, an RNZ investigation has found.

    “Despite a clampdown on some overseas investment, including a ban on residential sales to offshore buyers, the Labour-led government has actively encouraged further foreign purchases of land for forestry through a stream-lined ‘special forestry test’.

    “Since the government was formed, the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has approved more than $2.3 billion of forestry-related land sales – about 31,000 hectares of it previously in New Zealand hands. Of that, about half has been sold via a streamlined ‘special forestry test’ introduced by the government last October.

    “Overall, nearly $5b of sensitive land has changed hands through the OIO since the government was formed.”

    ….

    “RNZ has compiled a list of what we believe are the 100 biggest private landowners in New Zealand by area, not including the Crown and public entities (which control at least 28 percent of the land) or iwi.

    “Together, these landowners have freehold ownership of 1.42m ha of land – more than 10 percent of all privately-owned land and about 5 percent of New Zealand’s total land area of 26.8m ha.”

    • + 1 Exactly leasing would be a better solution.

      And charging new taxes for exports of NZ resources like water and sand. But I guess the 7 out of 10, trade deals which are sided one way for the bigger countries don’t allow that and NZ officials are too dumb to work it out before they signed it. In fact are begging overseas firms to come here to exploit us and buy land!

      I’m all for some industries being international like IT, but physical resources linked to environmental outcomes like water and sand should be heavily regulated, preserved, and treated as a generational social good for the communities that live around it.

      • “physical resources linked to environmental outcomes like water and sand should be heavily regulated, preserved, and treated as a generational social good for the communities that live around it.”

        Exactly right. That is so fundamentally true that it seems incomprehensible… why we are giving it all away and copping the mess that’s left behind.

  3. Goodbye Pensions Gen X and millennials… so they can support the often wealthy parents of new migrant workers who pay tens of thousands of dollars to come to NZ, which the locals compete for jobs and houses with…

    New visa scheme for parents of migrant workers

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400429/new-visa-scheme-for-parents-of-migrant-workers

    “The financial requirements will increase and will be based on the adult child’s income rather than their parents’.”

    This clearly does not work, because the migrants often ‘abandon’ their parents and the parents go on benefits as this article shows, not to mention the health care, pension and rest home care which is already filled to the brim in NZ with existing people!

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/315435/migrants'-parents-cost-nz-'tens-of-millions‘
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1110/S00572/grey-power-warns-of-impact-of-high-immigration-rates.htm

    Clearly if the migrant adults have already left their parents, then they have already prioritised working away from them, it should not be the NZ taxpayer who then has to fund their parents to help the adult children feel better and support their parents in their retirement.

    The first and last three years of someone’s life are the most expensive and reliant of resources, for what ever reason the NZ government is keen for both aged retirees to come to NZ and young adults having children here… meanwhile being indifferent that health care and housing costs are skyrocketing and now locals live in motels, deliver their babies in Southland carparks, and get their meals at food banks.

    • It’d be funny if is wasn’t so sad. Of the things that need to change, it’s the prioritisation of the various changes that I find really weird – and it can’t all be put down to the need to compromise with coalition partners either. (refer our discussion on that Mike Treen post).
      I personally wouldn’t mind at all if this gets implemented, BUT ONLY AFTER other issues have been addressed – such as the continuation of tying visas to an employer, or seriously sanctioning those doing the exploiting. (For me, just doing the decent thing as far as removing the racist policy over refugee intake isn’t going to cut it – nor is it for many others)
      – The inherent racism (oops, sorry – ‘ethnicity’)
      – The policies that simply view people as economic units to be exploited without any consideration for any social or cultural value. (Something which now pervades most of our public service)
      – The willingness to continue to charge forward with an agenda that clearly hasn’t worked and that is unlikely to succeed in future (let’s see – where to begin – automation almost – implementing a bloody green card lottery might be better given the fuckups and repeated fuckups to date, etc., etc., etc.)
      – Doing away with the absolute bullshit and spin that accompanies almost every fuckup that’s made (and often repeated), and which more often than not means that Ministers and associates are being sidetracked from the real stuff they should be doing (from Karel bloody whatshisname to Carla Cardno’s stepfather to the latest shit regarding 80 students having been fleeced [2months down the track and still no resolution]).

      Really it beggars belief at times. I’ll give you just a couple of examples off the top of my head:
      Nearly 10 years ago – the bloody alarm bells that were ringing over worker exploitation:
      ‘Bubbly’ and ‘Uncle’ Singh, CLS contractingand AWF et al evading ACC tax and other obligations and treating their workers like shit.
      The pitfalls in commercialising education that many (including Gordon Campbell were warning about
      The Masala restaurant shit.
      The number of people that actually DID attempt to report instances of exploitation that were fobbed off.
      (there are way way way too many instances to list, but rest assured they’re all recorded)
      All the warnings being given way way back by unions, and advocates and journalists and those involved in education (e.g. the pressures being put on educators to pass people at tertiary institutions).
      Even the polemic back in 2013 by Shane Jones telling us the MBIE CEO was acting like an Emperor…….
      The bloody siren has been ringing 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago to anyone that was actually bothering to listen.
      Even in late 2017, (September 7 to be precise) that siren wasn’t loud enough apparently to wake up Stuey (Lumsden) and his colleagues because even in 2017 when we had things that were so blatant (such as half of kiwifruit orchards that were audited weren’t compliant; or the ‘old boys network’ that was identified; or..; or.; etc……. etc……. etc……..), he came up with this gem: (re Labour Inspectorate) “it was sufficiently staffed and its strategy was to get the industry to take responsibility.”
      Strange how he has now reinvented himself as a concerned good guy with the change of gummint – along with a few other of his colleagues (or maybe they’ve been jerked out of their complacency a bit).

      Still, Rome wasn’t built in a day eh? Maybe the threat of a class action, or a bad performance review, or a few positive responses to OIA requests might pick up the pace a bit, although I won’t hold my breath. Politicians don’t seem to be able to comment on “operational matters” that are considered as such when convenient, or not when convenient, and nor does the SSC seem to be the public’s friend – even though given a quirk or two, he’ll probably live to regret not taking the reigns with a firmer grip

      • @OnceWasTim, Clearly worker exploitation is something the government like to pretend to do something about, but secretly are keeping it going, just like Rogernomics, as they don’t want the immigration Ponzi to burst on their watch, that, and stupidity and asking business what they should do, for every policy is part of the issue… surely they realise that trickle down does not work by now, or that business is driving up the prices of everything like constructing houses and food and power…

        I am totally against getting people here under the fake pretences that they will make money here. Most migrant low and middle wage workers being bought in, will be worse off, and more in debt after working here. Just like the locals!

        They come for the chance of residency, but weirdly it seems the more criminal and militant ones are getting residency and the honest ones don’t!

        An maximum visa allowed aka 10,000 work visas a year, and academic institutions imited to 10% overseas students, to drive out fake standards and help the invisible locals, and would be the first step because then the Ponzi is at least limited and they can’t trawl the third world selling NZ visa documentation for a fortune to people who have little hope of getting a legitimate job in NZ.

  4. saveNZ, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the problem:
    “health care and housing costs [& groceries, power, fuel and living costs] are skyrocketing and now locals live in motels, deliver their babies in Southland carparks, and get their meals at food banks.”

    Yes, that is all so wrong.

    However I disagree as to the cause, and the remedy. Aotearoa NZ has an abundance of natural resources, not least our land, our water, our food supplies, timber for housing, options for energy supplies, and many bright minds that allow for innovation and growth as needed. Potentially we have it all – all that we need and more.

    Yet we seem to be giving it all away to overseas corporations and multinationals, at the expense of our own population. We’re giving away our water, our land, and possibly control over our own destiny as a nation. I am NOT an economist in any way, shape or form, but the signs of abundance are everywhere, and all the more starkly contrasting with the poverty of people. Something is not right here…

  5. save nz
    Applying far-seeing and practical thinking to our version of immigration policies will do your head in. Think this morning about Lees Galloway Immigration Min, e&oe , and talking about bringing parents over. What he should have said was we are amending our regs so as to assist the devastated immigrants who are dealing with the sad losses of family caused by a death-dealing of a hyped up anomic male loser fueled on negative emotions. Unfortunately that description I have just supplied for the terrorist is a parallel to that of many in our Parliament today. So keep thinking savenz but don’t get too distressed at the lack of probity and practicality you have exposed now you have cleaned off the fairy dust over NZs political machinery.

    • Surely with the parent issue, someone needs to remind them, the migrants booked the tickets leaving their parents in the first place???? Why cry crocodile tears now! If they loved their parents why pay circa $50 – $100k to come here on visas etc.

      Also why the McMansions always have a ‘granny suite’ so that the grandparents pension can contribute to the family coffers while getting free child care from the grandparents! win win.

      Not even good for the grandparents either as apparently as many don’t speak English, feel isolated and miss their own culture and feel lonely… so luckily they can get married again at 79 and sponser someone else in!

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376220/10k-11-days-and-one-failed-deportation

      The Ponzi continues and the government is driving it by changing the laws to get more Ponzi applicants in, and make the locals pay for it!

  6. Brexit – some UK media outlet calling itself Scram hah!, has come up with this picture of a young, keen robber baron backing Forage (that devious heistman of the UK).
    https://scramnews.com/bullingdon-boy-george-farmer-funding-the-brexit-party/

    And I connect it with the template/portrait of a bunch of Dorian Grays from UK exclusive schools for males who want to be where the money and power is when they grow up.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018707127/dr-nick-duffell-why-boarding-schools-produce-bad-leaders
    Britain’s public school system has for generations produced a high proportion of its political leaders, despite the number of children attending these schools representing a tiny fraction of the larger population.
    Boris Johnson is Britain’s fifth Eton-educated prime minister since World War II, there have been 21 from Eton in total; David Cameron went there to along with Prime Minister’s Alec Douglas Hume, Harold McMillan and Anthony Eden.
    But a British psychotherapist says schools such as Eton produce damaged individuals and very poor leaders suffering a form of “privileged abandonment.”

    Those who have been through the School of Hard Knocks, or are to use a humorous put down from the past, ‘Borstal Old Boys’ haven’t got much of a chance against these Hooray Henrys.

  7. On NZ male top-ranking secondary schools; the retiring Nelson College Principal Gary O’Shea says that educational entities that don’t make changes follow one of two paths:
    ” “Single sex schools tend to go in one of two directions,” O’Shea said, who spent most of his career in co-ed schools, before taking the helm at Nelson College over 13 years ago.
    “They either become more conservative and entrenched in their traditions.”

    He recommends mixing in real society and the world, as in learning incorporating the other gender and immigrants. They are also incorporating in their thinking trades careers, and business, “There were now coordinators for refugee and gifted students, and opportunities like trade building courses, paid for with income from new commercial ventures.”
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/115826960/more-girls-needed-in-boys-school-outgoing-headmaster-says

    • Sure it wasn’t a train rumbling by @ Kheala. Ah no, can’t have been – they let all that collapse years ago.
      Maybe it was Gerry Brownlee on a bike trail – he’s been known to have to have a pilot or two diplomatically request other passengers assist on rebalancing a plane.

  9. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400458/pharmac-confirms-funding-for-three-new-drugs

    How can we cope with the costly demands of people who wish to use expensive medications at the country’s expense so they can prolong their time on earth, delaying their death for an indefinite period? We have it from the elderly, from cancer patients, from parents with children who will never be self-sufficient adults. When did people decide that state welfare could be demanded to put them at the head of the queue for medications and temporary alleviation. Also to have rights to continue to bring genetically challenged children into the world, while ignoring the rights of the desperately needy of at the poorer end of the spectrum, just to have healthy conditions and timely treatment for the ailments of both adults and children.

    Terry Pratchett wrote about DEATH and his inevitable call. Nearly everyone is awfully surprised and he has to explain that it is the end for them, and he will take them on their way. As the saying goes; ‘Death is the cure for all ills’. We cannot afford the one-eyed focus on Me having what I want from Our community purse. There are obvious conflicts in this thinking. There are conflicts when the spending comes out of the private purse also. When someone in the family spends savings and leaves extra debt incurred to pay for the nostrums that will keep them up and about for another year or two, it is out of the pockets of the remaining family then burdened with repayment of often large borrowings that those ‘brave battlers’ have run up. What is brave is facing up to the diagnosis, trying to gain as long a time as reasonable with the family, then allowing the end to come, hopefully with the aid of medication to quiet the unhappy body trying to carry out its involuntary services.

  10. Did others hear the academic having a go at Adrian Orr, our Reserve Bank Governor, for speaking plainly about The Market and being accused of verbal brutality! https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018716504/reserve-bank-head-criticised-for-shocking-the-market

    Reserve Bank head criticised for shocking the market
    From Morning Report, 7:23 am today Listen duration 4′ :29″
    Adrian Orr’s leadership style at the Reserve Bank is under fire from an economics professor who says the governor’s desire to court celebrity status by shocking the markets will damage confidence in the economy. Robert MacCulloch, the Professor of Macroeconomics at Auckland University, also says the central bank now lacks intellectual fire-power and that much of the senior talent has walked out the door.

    Pretty shocking really, that the market that punches above its weight is so delicate. So contrary, on the one hand, sensitive and open to emotion, but on the other, so able to kick contractors in the guts, and prone to grinding people into the ground when it suits. Toughen up you lily-livered landlubbers or hop on your privateer pirate ships and go elsewhere to despoil other places from which you can extract profit. Promise them jam tomorrow, and take off just after midnight while the citizens to be the planned victims, are still asleep.

  11. Latest travelling spotlit Brexit problem – EU resident Brits and their healthcare: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/07/like-death-sentence-retired-britons-eu-face-loss-healthcare
    Britons with serious, sometimes terminal, illnesses who live in the EU say they have no certainty about how or even whether their healthcare costs will be covered after a no-deal Brexit and are suffering a “living nightmare” of anxiety and despair.
    “It’s like a death sentence,” said Denise Abel, who moved to Italy in 2012. “It’s all you think about. I feel abandoned, betrayed and furious. There are no words for the rage I feel. We’re the collateral damage in the government’s war with the EU.”

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