The Daily Blog Open Mic – Sunday – 17th January 2021

1. Here’s something worth reading from Bernard Hickey:
   https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300205858/the-brutal-catch22-politics-of-trying-to-move-to-affordable-housing

   And then there’s the ghost houses!
   And then there are numbers of NZers who’ve been out of the country for years (many not having contributed to the NZ economy) who have the Divine Right to return ‘home’ – and who’ll arrive cashed up in currencies worth a third or double NZ’s. They’ll be in the housing queue well ahead of anyone who stuck around on shit wages.

   Since the election, I’ve come to think that what JA thinks is standing on principle is actually a stubborn streak at play, and that having backed herself into a corner on what was probably a spur-of-the-moment comment on CGT, while rhubarbing in the language of PR spin (going forward), now can’t be changed

   • Identity fraud, bribes, corruption, rape, child abuse and the glorification of these are our new citizens that the woke welcome with open arms, while ‘hating’ the Kiwi’s that return without committing crimes!

     Foreign visitor turned permanent resident crims all need housing and in many cases (jail, justice and police time) but no media articles about the problems from key woke supporters. Go figure!

     (As far as I am aware Sroubek and Lovepreet Brar are still in NZ, and Sroubek started committing crimes in 2004 and Brar 2014…. tick tock, more housing, justice and jail time being taken up….. )

     Gun-toting YouTube sensation whose hit video ‘Jail’ has been viewed more than 13 million times faces deportation for his role in a grubby driving licence scam
     https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7258975/Gun-toting-YouTubeer-faces-deportation-role-driving-licence-scam-shoots-fame.html
     https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/108896521/man-who-took-bribes-for-drivers-licence-scam-takes-witness-stand

     Immigration New Zealand let Karel Sroubek in after overstaying
     https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/386301/immigration-new-zealand-let-karel-sroubek-in-after-overstaying

     Weird how people like Bernard Hickey/Susan ST John and the woke, don’t seem to be concerned about new visitors right to social welfare and pensions in NZ (let alone criminal activity that can be avoided in NZ) but now worried about Kiwi’s their perceived Divine Right to return ‘home’ instead.

     Immigration: Labour manifesto signals significant changes to border, visa rules to ‘get more people in’
     https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/11/immigration-labour-manifesto-signals-significant-changes-to-border-visa-rules-to-get-more-people-in.html

     Legally being a citizen of a country gave a person rights to that country, however under neoliberalism global citizens with most money and power even if you are a criminal, have more rights and ordinary people’s rights are being eroded to favour those with money and opportunity.

     And also eroded to favour those who are criminals to get the ‘compassion’.

     Child abuser wins right to stay in New Zealand for humanitarian reasons
     https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84891031/child-abuser-wins-right-to-stay-in-new-zealand-for-humanitarian-reasons

     Child abuse dad avoids deportation on humanitarian grounds to stay with family
     https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76059417/

     New resident convicted of sex offending twice, won’t be deported
     https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11837608

     Judge’s difficult sentencing of a former refugee who won’t stop offending
     https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/111480343/judges-difficult-sentencing-of-a-refugee-who-wont-stop-offending

     Rapist wins case to be allowed to stay in NZ
     https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/327784/rapist-wins-case-to-be-allowed-to-stay-in-nz

     • I’m not at all justifying the immigrants that turn out to be arseholes thinking NZ is a soft touch (which it has been).
       Btw, there are returning Kiwis with convictions who’ll be leading the queue for buying houses.
       Whereas you’re at the other extreme. Calling Hickey woke is a bit of a stretch for a start.
       I’ve changed my mind on things like PR and dual citizenship over the years especially since it was turned into just another commodity that the likes of Peter Thiel are able to purchase.
       And I agree – I don’t see why some liquor barons, one or two immigration ‘advocates’, and a few former owners of PTEs among others are still here – they obviously weren’t of “good character” to begin with

       • +1 OnceWasTim… It’s interesting how people with varied views on immigration are becoming more aware of what a soft touch NZ has become and how it is victimising more people in NZ to have such woke/right wing stupidity operating on immigration.

         As for Hickey, in my view he should not be allowed to comment on housing at all and shows how pathetic our media is to promote him as he predicted a property crash for about 7 years when housing was going through the roof from immigration.

         He and his mates like Shamubeel Eaqub (of don’t buy a house as shares are a better investment) decided immigration did not affect housing at all….. I know of many people who listened to those two idiots and are now renters… one friend could have bought a house for $500k but didn’t buy after reading Bernards articles about how housing would fall, and then the same house they were about to buy sold 5 years later for 1.4 million…. my friends essentially lost $900k and have now left Auckland because it is too expensive to buy a house…. Another friend after a marriage break up, held off buying a new house after listening to their advice. Prices have rocketed beyond them and now instead of a nice house they should be living in had they bought when they should have, they have now bought a caravan to live in, instead.

         I don’t bother reading Bernards/Eaqub articles subsequently…

         Many of the so called left commentators have an agenda to promote the sharemarket and financial market interests. Their advice on housing has been proven to be very harmful if you listen to their views.

         • As far as immigration goes, we need to be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush as some of the arseholes we’ve let in – at present we do. And we keep being told it’s “best practice” based on policies often copied from various other places within an imperial bubble, and often enforced by people circulating internationally in that same bubble.
           And remember, it’s not the immigrant who’s created the system.
           It’s not the immigrant’s fault that there are ‘skill shortages’ in various sectors.
           And when we do allow immigrants in to fill various ‘skill shortages’, expecting them not to have a life (i.e. to be in relationships or have children, or be able to engage in and contribute to society) is not a go. It wasn’t great a decade or so ago but it’s all been industrialised since the creation of the Ministry for Everything. It is now a self-serving Immigration Industrial Complex, and fundamentally and inherently racist.
           As for housing and inequality, while you might not like Hickey or Equab or one or two others, collectively they’ve so far offered up more creative and realistic solutions than anything that’s come out of policy advisors or the politicians they’ve managed to capture.

           If Labour thinks it can rely on spin merchants, comms and marketing sperts, the type of neo-liberal managerialsim that’s now pervasive, I’m not sure they’ll be doing very well next time round – especially when it actually has the means to do better.

           • @OnceWasTim – I agree it’s the governments/immigration advisors/lobbyists fault in many ways for their bad immigration policy that is more about political agenda (Natz) and Rogernomics (Labour) ‘bums on seats for a quick easy ponzi, no questions asked, tick box mentality. Not to mention the woke stupidity (some of the Greens). Our government is not focused on a quality society going forward which is why I highlight the amount of criminal new permanent NZresidents .

             Funny enough, it’s the Maori party who is most worried about what is going on, And the MP got back in (like Labour) when they started questioning our poor and extreme in numbers immigration policy that is driving many locals into poverty.

             While there may be some legitimate skill shortages – let’s face it, the skills shortages of chefs, labourers and Burger King/supermarket/retail ‘managers’ is a crock of shit. Now we are still supporting them via the wage subsidies.

             The reality is, that NZ unemployment is rising, hard working local people can’t get work as they are discriminated against aka

             64yo Christchurch man who lost job during lockdown still unemployed despite nearly 200 applications
             https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/01/64yo-christchurch-man-who-lost-job-during-lockdown-still-unemployed-despite-nearly-200-applications.html?fbclid=IwAR21XjpN04MobQvaoHDbkqeaP8OZpxlBoFbntBdqst8y5TKB-W08QPUWu8o

             And gang recruitment is in double figures

             Gang recruitment up by 13% with almost 900 people joining a gang this year, police data shows
             https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/gang-recruitment-up-13-almost-900-people-joining-year-police-data-shows

             Why bother studying in NZ, when our educational institutes are all focused on the foreign student Ponzi and domestic students are lying dead in the university halls https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7505393/Family-Christchurch-student-body-sat-university-residence-EIGHT-WEEKS-break-silence.html

             And the foreign students never leave as their visas are nothing to do with the increasingly flakey education here, but about getting Permanent resident NZ status for family members into NZ via the student visa, followed by the ‘graduate visas’ and of course by the time you have kids and been in NZ for a few years, there is an entitlement supported by government policy and the media, that you will gain permanent residency here and be a ‘Kiwi, even if you are not very successful, most of your family are a drain on NZ and your are a criminal’.

             Hmm look at the statistics above aka NZ unemployment figures, Gang recruitment and housing issues are escalating in spite of a decade of government focus to solve the issue the statistics show, everything is worse.

             Immigration is a mill stone around NZ’s neck and getting worse and worse…..

             NZ migrants should be like the NZ/UK former relationship aka people can live and work in the UK, but the visa lasts 2 years and then expires and 50% of the time of the migrant is spent not working but on holiday.

             UK was a superpower with strict but fair visa arrangements to promote friendship but not be bought and sold. As soon as they allowed purchase of UK citizenship from the rest of the world’s wealthy and welfare and jobs for all in the expanded EU, the UK economy and society became a basket case as the world’s people flocked in, the rich bought up everything and the UK society, health system and housing were inundated with demand from hundreds of thousands of additional people.

             • I can’t disagree with a lot of what you say (as one of the more legitimate immigration lawyers (as opposed to charlatan advisors – often vertically integrated with a labour hire company, or shitty PTE, etc.) once told me.
               Do I think Labour in its current form will get it? I doubt it. As the guy also told me, along with various worker’s rights advocates – in many ways they’ve been worse, and lately they haven’t shown much sign of egalitarian values or concern for the people they purport to represent. I guess that’s what 30 plus years of a neo-liberal agenda, and even the 3rd way produces.
               Fuk ’em. For me they’ve had the last dance, unless they can actually sign up to what they were elected for last time – i.e. kindness and transformation.
               And lets be clear. That Immigration Industrial Complex in lil ‘ole NuZull that punches above its weight has actually created a set of its own refugees.
               (I know of/am adoptively related to one family that’s actually now doing better in Trump’s America). And with them gone, we lost the skills, expertise and motivation required to create NZ’s Green economy).
               So yep – Fuk ’em (Labour) and all who sail in it until they can bring themselves to get with the programme

2. Suppliers concerned as Foodstuffs presses ahead with centralisation
   https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/suppliers-concerned-as-foodstuffs-presses-ahead-with-centralisation/LVYAHIUBXCT5Z5PWG4ZEZXSKLM/

   Centralisation makes things worse for NZ farmers and growers, and consumers. It is already extremely hard to find any ‘local’ fruit in the frozen section at supermarkets… funny enough our strawberry, blueberry and other fruits don’t make it into supermarkets frozen foods sections….. it’s from China and Chile.

   I was amazed to see that frozen pizzas were from Italy and pastry from France in the frozen sections. Surely we can make these simple items in NZ! Even worse as Covid can survive freezing.

   Centralisation means quality is down to the lowest cost with highest volume highest , supply chain is more compromised by overseas events like Covid.

   The government and society seem to be ignorant that if farmers can’t sell their fruit in NZ easily, and the big players don’t buy it, farmers will stop growing a lot of crops here and biodiversity will decrease.

   In addition when the next Covid hits, no food available in NZ, as it takes years to develop fruit for harvests.

   • Never mind @SaveNZ, There’s a year-long inquiry scheduled in this space, going forward. I think it’ll probably be undertaken by the Ministry for Everything too. Hopefully it will tell us all the bleeding bloody obvious before the next election after which there’ll be some half-arsed solutions put in place.

     • OnceWasTim – didn’t government already have the supermarket investigation a couple of years ago with Shane Jones? making noise, nothing done… supermarkets get worse after constantly getting away with it… now after supermarkets ripping everyone off with Covid, nothing done, and now new plans to destroy the small farmer even more with more centralisation monopoly…. another enquiry, nothing done….

       I think I reported the price of apples and Kiwifruit is outrageous and funny enough very similar pricing between the two supermarket main brands… the countdown groups and New world groups.

       They don’t even bother selling kg of fruit anymore, instead it has gone to 800g for Kiwifruit packs.

       Supermarkets are not about food, they are about maximising profits, including having more and more food of dubious origins, nutrition and chemicals that lasts for years to improve their extreme profits, and not fresh unadulterated food produced sustainably, locally and fairly.

Comments are closed.