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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga while the optics are terrible I can actually see a point to getting a gang leader to tell gang members to get jabbed. As long as that's what he did and all he did.
The Panel on National Radio had a listener poll on lowering the voting age to 16 and apparently 60% were in favour.
I reckon they misheard and thought the moot was "should the voting age be changed to 60?"!
The chances of that being all he did are about the same as a one legged cat burying its turd in a frozen pond . He’s a gang member.
Anyone with teenage kids understands the insanity of giving 16 year olds the vote , it reminds me of the when we voted for out proportional representation system . The people that stood to gain the most like the greens were right behind it , unfortunately for them Winston Peters was ultimately the winner there. This is them trying again to tilt things in their favour because most of the country finds them so unpalatable
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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga while the optics are terrible I can actually see a point to getting a gang leader to tell gang members to get jabbed. As long as that's what he did and all he did.
The Panel on National Radio had a listener poll on lowering the voting age to 16 and apparently 60% were in favour.
I reckon they misheard and thought the moot was "should the voting age be changed to 60?"!
In an environment where peope are not allowed to see their relatives die in hospital, special treatment for criminals can go and get fucked.
I was being sarcastic when I branded them the Labour Mongrel Mob, now I have to wonder if I was on the money. Literally.
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@kirwan said in NZ Politics:
@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga while the optics are terrible I can actually see a point to getting a gang leader to tell gang members to get jabbed. As long as that's what he did and all he did.
The Panel on National Radio had a listener poll on lowering the voting age to 16 and apparently 60% were in favour.
I reckon they misheard and thought the moot was "should the voting age be changed to 60?"!
In an environment where peope are not allowed to see their relatives die in hospital, special treatment for criminals can go and get fucked.
I was being sarcastic when I branded them the Labour Mongrel Mob, now I have to wonder if I was on the money. Literally.
Its now two gang leaders not one. One of them was Harry Tam , after all as he says Jacinda Ardern trusts him why don't you?
People are getting so used to their excesses now that gang members killing someone with an axe on a towns main street barely occupies the news cycle any more.
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@jc said in NZ Politics:
@jegga So a 16 year old is old enough to decide who runs the country but not old enough to decide whether to drink alcohol or smoke / vape?
Not old enough to choose a tattoo but old enough to choose who runs the country.
Pathetic really cynical , they must be assuming that National won't continue to be a joke in two years and they'll need every vote they can get.
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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga getting ready for the backlash over an ultimately fucked up Covid response? After all they were neck and neck with Bridges NP until Covid intervened.
Can you think of a single policy they campaigned on that’s actually been a success? Labour fanboys bleated about $27 mill on Keys vanity project but these clowns just blew $54 million on a bridge that didn’t actually get built .
They campaigned last time on covid and that’s turned to shit now we have gas prices going up which means inflation is on the way and already businesses going broke .If it’s any comfort to you NZ going into recession it traditionally the first sign labour are about to lose an election.
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@jegga Interesting Question. Here are their 2017 Election promises
Health
From July 1, 2018, Labour will lower the cost of GP visits by $10; provide increasing government funding for all practices that lower their fees by $10; lowering the average non-VLCA fee from $42 to $32 and the maximum fee from $69 to $59; increasing funding for GP training places, taking the intake to 300 per year Done the fees not sure about rest
Immigration
Ensure businesses are able to get genuinely skilled migrants when they need them. This will include introducing an Exceptional Skills Visa for highly skilled or talented people and introducing a KiwiBuild Visa for residential construction firms who train a local when they hire a worker from overseas. Strengthen the labour market test for work visas so they are not being used for jobs Kiwis can do, and make the skills shortage lists more regional so migrants coming in under them can only live and work in areas where there is a genuine skills shortage.Pretty hard to judge as Border came down but suspect this is a fail
Trade
Expand New Zealand's export markets through trade agreements; preserve regulatory sovereignty, including the right to ban foreign buyers of New Zealand homes and farmland; diversify the export base; support exporters to add value to exports.Too long term to judge. Pretty anodyne policy targets
Conservation
Establish a $75 million annual Tourism and Conservation Infrastructure Fund to pay for projects that will improve the experience of visitors to New Zealand and enhance the natural environment. The $75 million a year will come from a $25 per visit levy on international visitors who are not citizens or residents of New Zealand.Did they do this? Can't remember. Window dressing anyway
Transport
Create a passenger rail service linking Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga and, if justified by demand, upgrade it in stages to a rapid rail network throughout the Golden Triangle; build light rail from the CBD to Auckland Airport as part of a new light rail network to be built over the next decade with routes to the central suburbs, the airport, and West Auckland, which will later be extended to the North Shore; commit an additional $100 million from the National Land Transport Fund in capital investment to Greater Christchurch multi-modal public transport, including commuter rail from Rolleston to the CBD as a first step.LOL
Employment
Labour's workplace relations package includes increasing the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour; replacing the current National Government's "fire at will'' law with fair trial periods that provide both protection against unjustified dismissal and a simple, fair, and fast referee service; introducing Fair Pay Agreements that set fair, basic employment conditions across an industry based on the employment standards that apply in that industry; promoting the living wage by paying it to all workers in the core public service, and extending it to contractors over time; doubling the number of Labour Inspectors. I'd say - unsurprisingly - they have a pass here. Hard to believe minimum wage was less than $16 only four years ago
Housing
Building homes people can afford to buy, and restoring the Kiwi dream of owning your own place through the KiwiBuild programme and the Affordable House Authority; A three-point plan to crack down on speculators by banning offshore speculators from buying houses, taxing speculators who flip a house within five years, and ending the speculators' tax loophole; ensuring homes are healthy to live in and building state houses for families in need.Well they did expand the Brightline test but Housing has been another failYou can also add in the most transparent government ever, the climate change is our nuclear moment and the war on child poverty as high profile fails.
It was only election promises. Not many governments live up to them and Labour can say that they went out the window when they had to enter a coalition, but there is no denying they have over promised and under delivered on most things.
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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga Interesting Question. Here are their 2017 Election promises
Health
From July 1, 2018, Labour will lower the cost of GP visits by $10; provide increasing government funding for all practices that lower their fees by $10; lowering the average non-VLCA fee from $42 to $32 and the maximum fee from $69 to $59; increasing funding for GP training places, taking the intake to 300 per year Done the fees not sure about rest
Immigration
Ensure businesses are able to get genuinely skilled migrants when they need them. This will include introducing an Exceptional Skills Visa for highly skilled or talented people and introducing a KiwiBuild Visa for residential construction firms who train a local when they hire a worker from overseas. Strengthen the labour market test for work visas so they are not being used for jobs Kiwis can do, and make the skills shortage lists more regional so migrants coming in under them can only live and work in areas where there is a genuine skills shortage.Pretty hard to judge as Border came down but suspect this is a fail
Trade
Expand New Zealand's export markets through trade agreements; preserve regulatory sovereignty, including the right to ban foreign buyers of New Zealand homes and farmland; diversify the export base; support exporters to add value to exports.Too long term to judge. Pretty anodyne policy targets
Conservation
Establish a $75 million annual Tourism and Conservation Infrastructure Fund to pay for projects that will improve the experience of visitors to New Zealand and enhance the natural environment. The $75 million a year will come from a $25 per visit levy on international visitors who are not citizens or residents of New Zealand.Did they do this? Can't remember. Window dressing anyway
Transport
Create a passenger rail service linking Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga and, if justified by demand, upgrade it in stages to a rapid rail network throughout the Golden Triangle; build light rail from the CBD to Auckland Airport as part of a new light rail network to be built over the next decade with routes to the central suburbs, the airport, and West Auckland, which will later be extended to the North Shore; commit an additional $100 million from the National Land Transport Fund in capital investment to Greater Christchurch multi-modal public transport, including commuter rail from Rolleston to the CBD as a first step.LOL
Employment
Labour's workplace relations package includes increasing the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour; replacing the current National Government's "fire at will'' law with fair trial periods that provide both protection against unjustified dismissal and a simple, fair, and fast referee service; introducing Fair Pay Agreements that set fair, basic employment conditions across an industry based on the employment standards that apply in that industry; promoting the living wage by paying it to all workers in the core public service, and extending it to contractors over time; doubling the number of Labour Inspectors. I'd say - unsurprisingly - they have a pass here. Hard to believe minimum wage was less than $16 only four years ago
Housing
Building homes people can afford to buy, and restoring the Kiwi dream of owning your own place through the KiwiBuild programme and the Affordable House Authority; A three-point plan to crack down on speculators by banning offshore speculators from buying houses, taxing speculators who flip a house within five years, and ending the speculators' tax loophole; ensuring homes are healthy to live in and building state houses for families in need.Well they did expand the Brightline test but Housing has been another failYou can also add in the most transparent government ever, the climate change is our nuclear moment and the war on child poverty as high profile fails.
It was only election promises. Not many governments live up to them and Labour can say that they went out the window when they had to enter a coalition, but there is no denying they have over promised and under delivered on most things.
Ardern campaigned on reducing homelessness in fact in 2018 she claimed she’d have the homeless housed within four weeks
That didn’t go well https://borgenproject.org/homelessness-in-new-zealand/
Their biggest promise was kiwibuild which was supposed to increase our housing stock and bring down property prices . The policy itself has been an abject failure and property prices have soared under labours watch .
There’s fuck all for them to look back on and point to as a success apart from the astounding feat of isolating one of the most isolated countries on the planet which they have now managed to fuck up
Really, fuck these people. The idiots in National who backed Muller and reduced the party to a shambles can get fucked too
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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@jegga Interesting Question. Here are their 2017 Election promises
It was only election promises. Not many governments live up to them and Labour can say that they went out the window when they had to enter a coalition, but there is no denying they have over promised and under delivered on most things.
While that might have washed the first time round, they didn’t have to enter a coalition for the second term. They chose to that time.
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Newsroom has been doing some decent work at a detail level recently but Stuff and NZ Herald are still shy of headlining some news that casts the government in a bad light. They published this piece which is an amazing story:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/covid-testing-to-become-part-of-daily-life
The background is that the government bullshitted about saliva testing to an advisory group, as reported by Stuff a month ago:
"This year the Ministry of Health falsely claimed saliva testing objectives had been completed in its report to the Covid-19 independent continuous review, improvement and advice group after the February Auckland outbreak, an act which earned it a swift rebuke when the group looked into the issue in June.
“There is no clear timeline for saliva testing to be introduced into routine practice,” says a report from the group, written by Philip Hill and Debbie Ryan. “Indeed, this recommendation should not be labelled as completed, as saliva testing has not been properly introduced into practice.”
Emails and memos released under the Official Information Act reveal that issues around the ministry’s chosen saliva test, along with problems around how it went about checking the accuracy of the tests, are the big reasons for the delay.
Staff from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) struggled to come up with paired samples to check saliva testing independently, because New Zealand had such low numbers of Covid-19 patients.”
They then ran a procurement process which looked at Rako Science, which was the only organisation in the country that had a validated saliva test. They had offered it to the government for a $60m tender fee. Instead of giving it to them they awarded a contract to a competitor, Asia Pacific Healthcare, which didn’t have a product at all for the same price.
Now the government is proposing legislation that will effectively take over Rako’s labs and IP, because of course APHC don’t have a product. They’re also planning to screw Rako on the price.
Why they didn’t give the contract to a company that had a viable solution is beyond me, but it seems wrong to award a contract to a competitor the expropriate Rako’s IP and give it to the competitor. The consequences of this for companies’ R&D may be major.
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That reads really poorly as in really really poorly. I remember hearing someone from Rako talking about their test - maybe a year ago.... It is consistent with Labour's 'if it isn't our idea it's a dumb idea' ethos whereas every astute politician knows that if it isn't your idea but it's good you simply appropriate it.
I'm not sure the media in the main gets saliva testing though. They seem to confuse it with rapid antigen testing which it is not.
It's no faster than the traditional stick a swivel stick up your nose as it has to go through the same testing procedure, which I'm sure everyone here realises but the general public don't seem to.
Rapid antigen hasn't been appropriate while we have been running an elimination policy as it misses about 105 of cases. If the genie is out of the bottle however....
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Been listening to lots of Steve Jobs quotes recently with it having been the tenth anniversary of his death.
A famous one is about the world being built by people no smarter than you.
With this current government, and the current version of National, but particularly the government, can’t help but think George Carlin was closer.
Think of how dumb the average person is and half the people are dumber than that. In NZ, that half is running the country.
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@kirwan said in NZ Politics:
Indefensible in short.
It's not entirely unknown to requisition supplies in times of emergency - I certainly remember requisitions following the Canterbury earthquakes by Civil Defence, and the USA has legislation for war time which it was using for Covid. That said, this smacks of trying to salvage a terrible decision after the realisation dawned of how terrible it actually was.
Here are a few highlights of Labour's term(s) to date - I'm sure some of these aren't popular here, but they did get done:
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Cancelled National Parties tax bracket moves and increased Working for Families and Accommodation Supplements substantially
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Added a new tax bracket for the very high income earners
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Bright line test extended
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Property losses ringfenced
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Property interest deduction reduced
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Overseas investment in property mostly banned
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Increased benefit rates by the most seen in a generation (still work to do of course)
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Indexed benefits to average wage increases rather than CPI
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Introduced Winter Energy Payment
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Free lunches in schools
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Increased Student Allowances
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Fees free scheme (1st year at tertiary institutes, free apprenticeships)
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Restored adult night class funding
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Kainga Ora building more than 2,000 houses/year
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Improved tenancy legislation by eliminating no-fault terminations by landlords
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Credit contract reform
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Increased minimum wage to $20
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Extended paid parental leave to 26 weeks (from 18)
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Increased sick leave to 10 days p.a.
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Matariki
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Improved Employment Relations Act – union delegates now specifically protected, collective agreements must include pay, 90 day trial removed for medium and large employers, breaks reinstated
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Pay equity legislation and settlements e.g. social workers, admin workers, teacher aides, nurses and ECE teachers coming, others in the pipelines
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Feebates for electric cars
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Reduction in prisoner numbers by over 15%
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Restored voting rights for prisoners with less than 3 year sentences (I think that's a net positive, but acknowledge that others will disagree)
That's some off the top of my head, there are others. For all the Covid doom and gloom (and there is plenty of weakness to judge them harshly on), we have close to the lowest Covid death rate in the world and a negative excess mortality rate, so they must have got something right somewhere.
I'm not sure how to handle the public service being slow and bureaucratic - that's what they do, but it's also a feature of large organisations generally, it's not unique to government departments. There's something about large numbers of people that creates annoyingly large amounts of middle management of one sort or another that just turns processes into molasses. Any attempts to cull managers always seem to result in reviews later which create more management positions...
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Not sure if this goes in here or Covid, relevant to both I guess (the article dated this from last year post our first L4 lockdown)
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@taniwharugby Imagine that at 1pm in place of one of the usual press conferences...
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I don’t know how anyone affords anything in NZ nowadays, but this will help:
NZ Politics