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.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420003/tobacco-law-changes-will-see-stricter-border-rules-from-next-week
Can we get away from the purist approach to everything we decide we don’t want? Tobacco should be brought slightly down in price, and the annual upward charges stop. The health measures be kept up, and controls on synthetic drugs be held steady. Times are hard, government is not doing what it should for healthy living, eg drinking water being fit for health and available. Discourage people from smoking for sure, but find a way to reach them with warnings, well fund the therapeutic systems, and encourage those who want to give up with sessions with life coaches with whom they can talk and work out achievable goals lessening their stress and worries. This should be available to law-breakers too, so they can find a better path in their life. Talking to an informed person, who is able to help without derision or negative attitudes would help a majority who were ready to break away from their past default patterns.
I don’t know when this will come up to be seen and heard. But Sunday mornings Media Watch at 9.06 am 28/6 is really interesting. All about the political fixers and myth makers and stirrers and …. insert your own description here!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018752569
Thinking about our National Civil Defence body. I find it has changed as in December 2019 – taken out of being a Ministry of Government and into an autonomous body apparently under the Prime Minister’s wing. I am wondering why, just gathering info.
This was a statement from previous Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare about what the new outfit will do and it sounds like what I thought the old outfit would have done and been. Will his salary go down, and be transferred to the new Manager? Will the Civility be replaced by Uncivility? Will the ability of police to stop rescue activity and movement within control zones by certain members of the public with property or family in areas of destruction be now controlled by the new Civil Defence, under advisement of police as to containment of evidence of malpractice etc? And why; is this just the grinding on of Newliberal economic policies to smaller government, less responsibility and control, and enlarged distanced bodies making plans for us going forward, whether we want them or not, whether we need them, whether we want something else if we only had the right to stop, think, argue?
“The National Emergency Management Agency will provide strong, national leadership, putting people and their communities at the heart of our national emergency management system. The National Emergency Management Agency will help New Zealand better prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies by boosting the performance and capability of the system across all hazards and all risks,” Peeni Henare said. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/launch-national-emergency-management-agency
Is this what has happened in the USA? The actual work of politicians and administrators becoming more about the competitive environment of their own stage of theatre to preserve themselves in well-paid positions of power, while the actual work is hived out to these autonomous semi-business entities, with everyone having a hand in the pot and the population being managed in the best interests of the semi-corporations.
See the Transport Department here, has now become the ‘Authority’, which is an interesting example of power transferred from the ‘authority’ of government to that of this growth on the body-politic, like a gall! And possibly cancerous. Will we see a death notice for the NZ citizens honouring us for our period of vitality with trite words about us having bravely battled this cancer for …. decades?
Green Party wants to increase main benefits:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300044157/green-partys-8b-plan-would-guarantee-income-of-325-a-week-and-pay-for-it-with-a-wealth-tax-on-millionaires
Problem is yet again, those on TAS and Special Benefit will not get more unless they change the assessment and calculation formula of those supplements. They also did see little or nothing of the 25 dollars increase on 1 April.
Do the politicians actually understand how the benefit system works, or are they just telling us BS?
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