Gerard Otto Facebook: Claire Trevett tells porkies about the poll period covered to embellish latest Verian dodgy poll

Wednesday Morning Coffee

Last evening at 6.18PM – Claire Trevett – the chief political editor at the NZ Herald wasted no time publishing the following factually incorrect misinformation in the NZ Herald:

“The polling period followed Luxon’s trip to Japan and coincided with the mass power cut to Northland after a Transpower pylon fell over, and the grounding of the Interislander ferry near Picton.” – Claire Trevett

The polling period for the TVNZ Verian Poll ended on Wednesday 19 June but the Transpower pylon fell over on Thursday 20 June and the Interislander was grounded about 10PM on Friday.

It was factually incorrect to state that Thursday and Friday coincided with Wednesday when even a child knows those events on Thursday and Friday happened after polling had finished.

If you can’t trust Claire Trevett over the small things, how can you trust her over the big things?

Some might say Trevett misled people deliberately to quell the conception that the result is now very out of date while pointing out how much has transpired over the past week since polling ended.

Talk about bounce backs that are smaller than the margin for error after Budget 24 is mere speculation on the part of Trevett and argues that such a poll is pin point accurate and that the bounce back effect did not kick in until three weeks after the Budget.

Trevett knows an Atlas Network TPU Curia poll had National on only 35.4% on 6 June 2024 – one week after the Budget and if a bounce back affect was happening then – somehow 2.6% support swung in behind National while Luxon was “C-Listing it” and swapping planes over in Japan.

Yeah-nah.

You could counterfactually argue that things improved for National the more people forgot about the crappy Budget which only reminded them how Willis had crashed into a life and death omission and made no tagged contingency to pay for the cancer drugs at the time.

The Occam’s Razor argument is that there are a number of errors in the sample and method that combine to mean the changes are not statistically significant and nothing has really changed and we are seeing poll marketing by media eager for eyes and ears over their exclusive polling products.

That’s most likely the truth and it implies a very disconnected population which is also resistant to much voter intention swing over what they call Beltway issues.

A small minority of us are labelled ( and negated ) “political tragics” which is a negative term for the ridiculous crime of paying attention to the details of what is really happening.

Political tragics for example know that this Government is attacking the dignity of the disabled, starving the Auckland City Mission of funds so it is turning away hungry people, underfunding food banks, slashing budget services, facilitating massive rates increases, pushing through structurally racist Māori Ward legislation, robbing South Auckland Police to appear more visible on Queen Street, deceiving the public about port side ferry costs being mostly associated with the large size of the cancelled iRex Cook Strait ferries, openly fibbing about their “catch-up politics” over cancer drugs and deliberately hiding the Fast Track Consenting project list from public scrutiny until after the Select Committee public submissions stage.

It’s the kind of thing that National voting people hate to hear when they say “I vote National and think they are doing a great job”, because to them it all sounds like a fiction. They never heard about any of that in their echo chambers or because they were far too busy out making money.

When they agree to participate in an Atlas Network TPU Curia Poll or a TVNZ 1 News Verian Poll – they proudly say National is my party vote and Luxon is my preferred PM.

To political tragics this looks like a sad, unplugged set of fellow citizens who do not realise what they are doing. “Forgive them father for they know not what they do”, said some fellow being murdered on a cross.

The issue then becomes for some – how do you reach the unplugged people who reinforce the destruction, deception and delusion via their detachment?

Recently we discussed how it “does not take very much to be nice”, and how rather than freezing out people from our lives due to these political differences – it’s really vital to hang on to them and strive to understand and gently offer them more to think about. Clearly some are lost and we discussed how you may never see the fruit of changed minds – but how for some you are the agent of change.

To me it’s important to stand my ground before Jacinda haters for example and I will not back down, but I will ask questions about what is at the bottom of their beliefs and offer my take on that. Maybe verifiable facts have been missed, or twisted and then if the intention is to understand rather than to be right – it is possible to deliver facts that may have escaped consideration.

I agree that this kind of influence is almost impossible with strangers who have no reason to afford you any respect but for those who do respect you but disagree – this stuff will swirl around in their heads.

Personally I find it a bit tricky to have conversations with people who do not wish to talk about things they do not know much about – so the topic has to be instigated by them in most instances.

Yesterday I did not quite have time to get across all the things that were going down – so I realise we all struggle to keep up with the play – and we can only do what we can fit in with life crowding in at times.

No wonder most people are unplugged and operating on a thin spread of information, usually from a source they prefer.

For some that’s Mike, Kerre and Dupliicty and for others it’s Maiki, BeenDick and Katie – and then there’s Thomas and Trevett or Atlas fan Luke …

On some level I find there needs to be a bit more – for example deeper digging into the iRex project costs – or what is being said in Parliament and what is being avoided.

That extra layer of factual information is gold if it can be presented and stacks up.

I think all of us making an effort to grasp some of these essentials compliments the mainstream reporting and at times highlights gaps and errors or bias ( eg. Trevett ).

It’s why I value RNZ Media Watch and sources like BHN who go over the news and offer up more observations about it. Even Bomber’s weekly podcast ‘The working group” sheds some insight on how the other side think ( wrongly as it may be ).

Like in any topic we kind of must become familiar with the whole range of takes in order to bring understanding and I think that’s a full time job, my job really.

One take is that polls do not matter right now and don’t unless there is an election looming…and that in the meantime anything goes – forget about it.

However as we just saw – National were driven to solve the cancer drug eyesore through constant public backlash because internal polls do matter to them despite the lies Luxon tells you.

They would not be paying for them if they did not matter lol.

Like you I felt a certain kind of sucker punch about last night’s poll, a disappointment in fellow citizens for their perceptions, but I try to remember that many are unplugged, and if they knew what we did, the values we have – would also be values that matter to them in many cases.

It’s hard to believe that New Zealand is cold, brutal, uncaring about the vulnerable, easily deceived, happy to destroy endangered species, easy about making climate change worse for future generations, deeply racist, obsessively selfish and celebrating all of that like blind fools.

Sure some of us – maybe 20% are hard core rotten as described but I prefer to think we are mostly just unplugged and possibly not very interested because we are too busy.

They voted for change and it’s hard to admit that this is not the change they intended.

In the fullness of time, if enough of us exert influence by bringing the facts to conversations that are invited – we will see a continuation of the trend Chippy referred to since the election.

The fuss over statistically insignificant polls will remain – but gradually as impacts like higher rates bills, prescription charges, motor vehicle registrations and transport costs kick in we will see the trends more clearly.

This crap Government has got to go.

Wednesday Morning Coffee

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook:Willis/Atlas Network/ running down assets for sale and her fiscal cliff ruse and unfunded budget spend /tax cuts that did not add up fully exposed

Monday Morning Coffee

There’s no mention about Government plans to keep some form of state owned Inter-islander ferry service operating over the next few years nor what “new ferries” may have been recommended last week by National’s carefully chosen crony Ministerial Group – at RNZ, NewsHub, 1 News or the NZ Herald this morning.

To these media outlets it’s a bit ho-hum what Willis may have said about drawing down $7.5 Billion in unallocated capital allowances over the next years – but over at Stuff there is an article covering the way Luxon is stalling some kind of announcement as once again – this inept Government is caught on the hop with its pants down about matters it messed with.

The cancer drug debacle was some kind of giant blind spot for Nicola Willis as she crashed into it – eyes wide shut – and only a magical money tree with $600 Million worth of taxpayer liable borrowed cash on it could save poor Nicola from complete political demise.

We expect some kind of announcement after Cabinet today in the post cabinet press conference – but Winston and Seymour may have other plans.

The ferry debacle is another eyes wide shut Nicola Willis special.

Nicola had rushed on her bike to give those new future proofed ferries the boot over a measly $1.5 Billion blowout – but as she sunk the solution before Christmas and neoliberal sycophants applauded – Willis had no plan B.

Cronyism rode to the rescue again as three unwise cronies set out following a neoliberal star – to investigate buying a second hand Corolla Ferry or two – from the 22 possible options that were all unavailable right now around the world.

The fact it takes several months to write a report on $2K per day was all part of the crony insider joy as others struggled and lost their jobs – and it gave Nicola some breathing space.

Nicola had counted on the existing ferries working perfectly for two more years and she was assured by the notion you could sheet home the blame to KiwiRail using Simeon Brown’s index finger of blame if there were mishaps, groundings, or even a massive catastrophe where people were drowned or whatever.

Just say you are deeply disappointed in KiwiRail’s maintenance of their assets and sit back as headlines write themselves.

Maybe blame the market – but never blame Nicola.

The main thing was Nicola would be just fine politically.

Pesky facts like how it costs more to maintain ageing infrastructure can be brushed off with push back rhetoric like, “I disagree, and look at the results of this crony review that took months to write in this report”.

Sounds familiar?

What do Pharmac, KiwiRail and Kāinga Ora all have in common?

Cronyism and half truths on the path to privatisation.

Yes the standard technique appears to be to appoint a crony say Pullya Benefit as the chair, and then sack the Board but use a positive PR word like “Refresh” to give it a sparkling ring of cleanliness.

Some Sir Bill half truth sales job dressed up as independence helps the two step privatisation medicine go down as Sir Bill collects the bling – and of course starving the house builders, or ferry operators, or drug buyers of funds is so much fun to sit back and watch while munching neoliberal dogma popcorn.

In order for Atlas Network operators in New Zealand to effect their privatisation plans one of the first steps is to defund things like maintenance programs, and services and with a “refreshed board” operating under impossible “ministerial expectations” you can then sit back and watch hapless CEs dance before cameras until things fail and – then produce that real solution – privatisation – the shiny ideological cure for all ills.

Astute observers had paid attention to words falling from the mouth of National MPs like Stuart Smith who do not think these ferries should be run by Kiwirail anyway – a state controlled enterprise.

The seeds of a privatisation conversation were carefully planted on the edge of the public consciousness like “an idea lying around” for a future time of crisis.

Stuff reports that in May last year Treasury said KiwiRail had indicated if Ministers did not provide full funding for the new ferries and infrastructure it may look to exit the InterIslander business. Well Nicola has shown KiwiRail the door to help them on their way as she now needs some “yes Nicola men” ( or women ) to sooth her political risk here.

Helen Clark was on point about the risk to our rail link across the Cook Strait cos the re-floated Aratere ferry is the only one left that is capable of carrying rail freight and trains.

Nicola has indicated she can use “the buffer money” she talked about before the election to pay for some “right sized ferries” but Luxon would not commit to these being operational before 2027.

Trouble is that buffer was meant for the unexpected and ferry replacement was expected so now if Nicola allocates this to ferries she’s just increased the risk if something unexpected happens – which it invariably will.

There’s something really arse about face and shonky about this as folk mutter about an English Literature trained Finance Minister with no experience crashing into holes she dug for herself.

The other topic that is shonky is how with the imminent demise of NewsHub – there will be no more Reid Research polls and polls cost money as TVNZ faces a $30 Million loss putting the quarterly Verian poll up for question?

The RANZ ( Research Association NZ ) Political Polling Code provides rules for RANZ member organisations who conduct and report on political polls, plus best practice guidelines for those publishing stories on poll results.

Thomas the Turd Polisher at the NZ Herald strenuosity reported how Australian Roy Morgan polls do not fully comply with this political polling code – and you can read on Reddit how that’s why media never report Roy Morgan poll results.

Talbot Mills corporate polls used to be leaked to Thomas and he referred to them monthly in election year but ever since National have hit rough ground in the past few months and started to lose points ( see Maiki Sherman etc ) – the NZ Herald have stopped publishing the Talbot Mills Corporate Polls which generally would be out by about now each month.

This means – on a monthly basis – New Zealanders now rely almost entirely on the loving arms of the Atlas Network Taxpayers Union Curia Poll – carefully conducted by National’s Pollster David Farrar and published around the 10th of the month.

Yes that helps Act and it also helps National – especially when something like support for the Fast Track Bill needs a special poll at a special time.

Anything Atlas really wants – like say getting the Environment Court and Te Tiriti out of the way of direct foreign investment can do with a good shove by the influence of a singular lonely Atlas Poll every month.

Isn’t it interesting to observe the way Atlas has it’s talons on us and to remember that Nicola was a director of the Atlas Network NZ Initiative in 2016-2017.

It’s all sounding more and more like Eyes Wide Shut by Kubrick but in our case nobody needs to wear a mask – the strategy is to perform it all in broad daylight as if there is nothing to hide.

Oh look it’s just Atlas messing up and taking over your country.

Situation normal.

Monday Morning Coffee

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook: A change of Government can’t come soon enough as this bumbling coalition of incompetents wreak havoc

Sunday Morning Porridge and Yoghurt

“We are working at pace and doing an exceptionally incredible job” is the line this Government uses to describe absolute chaos, a lack of planning and too much ideological short term detachment from reality as it covers up and tries to “Trump the gullible” with a steady stream of utter counterfactual BS.

“Self praise is no recommendation”, is the old saying my mother told me her father used to repeat at times like these …as the ferry crashed and was eventually refloated off the mud and sand as everyone thanked the heavens nobody was hurt.

People all over the Motu muttered how there’s going to be a catastrophe and loss of life soon …as they noted there was nothing in the Budget to replace these ferries despite the warnings being loud and clear to Nicola Willis – former Director of the Atlas Network NZ Initiative and architect of the Corolla Ferry Replacement Ministerial Group.

Willis had offhandedly said “Let them tug their way out of trouble” and that’s all that made her Budget as she assumed things would be peachy fine in her far away dreamworld.

Willis was in no hurry to save any lives or avoid any catastrophes in the same way she never gave a rats arse about those 1000 cancer sufferers until real political heat was applied by the public and internal polls started to show Willis was dragging down her party.

The piece of work was a public menace in my opinion.

The rash ideological decision to choose Landlords and donors over a decent Cook Strait ferry service is now coming home to roost as Nicola hides from public view and Dan Craven whispers in Simeon Brown’s ear how attack is the best form of defence and playing the role of “earnest investigator” is his best strategy.

“A pylon does not just all over” and “a ferry does not just run aground” are famous soundbites from Captain Slytherin Obvious but they set the frame that somebody other than Simeon Brown is ultimately accountable and therefore investigations will bring Nicola some assurance that the heat is not focused where it should be.

Right on her choices as all roads lead back to Nicola Willis.

Willis cancelled those new ferries with no replacement nor plan B and now the hapless Brown spins another Atlas Network line designed to stall things and buy time – the old “We are committed to…” line.

“We are committed to new ferries”, said Captain Slytherin Obvious writing headlines at Stuff yesterday as he expends enormous energy on “who is to blame” instead of “exactly when will the new ferries be operational?”

The story goes that C-Listers did a poor maintenance job, not to the ideological, fictional high standard Simeon and Atlas expected.

A standard that would only come from a privately owned Corolla ferry fleet operating in a perfectly free market. After all privately owned cars never have mechanical problems and the same goes for ferries so back to – who is to blame?

“Bloody Labour”, says the Simeon Brown meme – floating around social media. The previous government did this according to the bright blue sparks who voted this diabolical lot in.

Back in 2023 a blackout on the same ferry was caused because a repair company used tape inside an actuator and since then KiwiRail have used “accredited” actuator repair services – but Simeon Brown has seized upon this older incident and cast his pointy finger of blame while hooting “That was unacceptable”.

Meanwhile three crony taxpayer cash accumulators have come up with bugger all in Nicola’s Ministerial Group and now National are scrambling from one governance disaster to the next while a nation watches on slack jawed at the endless disaster circus show.

According to NewsHub :

“Maritime NZ Director Kirstie Hewlett says the Aratere has been safely towed from the beach at Titoki Bay, near Picton.

“When it arrives in Picton, Maritime NZ inspectors will place the Aratere under a detention order. This will enable Maritime NZ to work closely with Aratere’s Classification Society and KiwiRail to understand what has occurred, and what action needs to happen, before the vessel is able to move safely again and can be released,” she said in a statement on Saturday night.

“Our investigators will also tomorrow start an investigation into the grounding. They will carry out interviews, examine the scene and ferry, review documents and gather evidence. We will then decide what, if any, further action to take. The investigation is expected to take several months to complete.”

Righto so that’s a relief for Nicola as a foot comes off her neck – and she has up to six months before answering the real questions.

In the meantime it’s “nothing to see here, move along, move long” as the public and the media are shepherded along past David Seymour snap-chatting 14 years olds, past Dr Cigareti doubling down that it will be the original 13 cancer drugs, past the disabled working for $2 per hour, past the 20,000 more children pushed into poverty and past Tama Potaka sitting back and watching the last Kakapo go extinct as Shane Jones drinks a glass of petrol and munches on a carbonette of West Coast coal.

It’s enough to make Mr Plod blink in “thick as a brick” slow talking astonishment as the rotten luck continues from bungled Corrections Announcements, to C-Lister bloopers, to a lack of foresight about who will attend mental health calls, to how 9,000 workers are worse off about Nicola’s Budget.

Whether it’s messing up Graduate Nurses, sending Police to Australia, failing to get on with replacement planes, borrowing like never before with nothing to show for it, attacking Te Tiriti, stripping the school lunches of nutrition, mocking democracy under urgency or just squabbling over Transgender Policy, the Digital News fair Bargaining Bill and almost anything else – this Government takes the cake for being a pile of steaming incompetence and dysfunction.

I have probably understated things in an effort to stay real.

It’s hard for me to recall anyone as dangerous as Nicola Willis to vulnerable New Zealanders since Ruth Richardson – as we watch 6000 people lose their jobs so this woman can pay off her rash political promise – foolishly made under any economic circumstances – at such a cost to so many.

“We are working at pace and doing an exceptionally incredible job” repeated the Prime Minister as he prepared for another media encounter and Mandy tagged along where C-Listers are no longer welcome.

It’s only a matter of time before the coming catastrophe happens and the Government ducks accountability like we have become accustomed to.

A change of government cannot come soon enough.

Sunday Morning Porridge and Yoghurt

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook: Reasons for Government incompetence

There’s no other way to look at the 13 cancer drug debacle but heartless incompetence based on Nicola Willis placing herself first at the expense of her party and her country.

The money was always there – it was all about the choices Nicola Willis made.

It’s only the heat of a public outcry and sustained political pressure that have forced Willis to refer to her number one priority – herself – and her political future that have motivated the National Party to start offering a ham fisted, too late solution to Nicola’s big political eyesore.

Now the $600 Million has been found – possibly by slashing something else and causing harm and injury while minor coalition parties enjoy the prospect of wagging the majority in a distortion of power that highlights a failing of MMP.

At the core this was always about the values of well paid neoliberals who are dissociated from struggle and see people like cattle.

If Big Tobacco wants us to slow down smoke free legislation and have us watch 5,000 New Zealanders die of lung cancer then a suitable rationale about a fictional blackmarket and RAM Raids will be invented and doubled down on by Chris Bishop and Christopher Luxon until it’s stamped out but only after persistent effort from media holding up the counter evidence.

It’s never about the patients, the common people of the land, their lives amount to nothing but votes for National – but rather always about Nicola first and foremost followed by her party and it’s vested interests.

Because service to the public is not a priority for this Government it’s easy to slash funds to the disabled and throw up a weak moral justification – that second class non productive slaves and C-Listers should be grateful for $2 per hour while slashing the subsidies that would have made paying the disabled 100% viable for the 12 organisations who readily employ them.

Dignity for the disabled does not matter a fig to this government.

They think they are being cruel to be kind as judge and jury sitting on mountains of gold.

This morning RNZ graded Luxon’s jolly to Japan as a C – because he spent far too much time dealing with a distraction of his own making. Back home Sir Ian Taylor had penned an open letter ( as he does every six months ) concerning how he was one of those C-Listers on a visit to China with Jacinda – and in that letter Taylor reveals that Sir Peter Beck had already stitched that deal up with the Japanese before the visit – and it was largely a political favour – I mean he did just get knighted.

The show pony Luxon still had no political nouse and acted like noob PM digging himself a C-Lister hole while Mandy tagged along and he involved her publicly as a political player on his Facebook page.

Luxon had not learned from his remarks on NewsCrap Atlas ZB when he referred to sub human bottom feeders who we do not feed – nor the Atlas Network Policy Exchange Think Tank speech when he ran down New Zealand businesses – and Luxon repeated his political ham fisted elitism because it’s who he really is and how he really does have a superiority complex.

“The we care deeply” line had emerged after instructions from Atlas UK were heard at a swanky QueenTown National Party group strategy meeting in January 2022 – but it was always just a tactic to fool people into thinking neoliberals are compassionate and caring when they are anything but.

Butt covering is all over the place from Seymour as a high priest of Atlas now – but a code media silence gagged media when it came to what really shocked the public in “scrutiny week”.

There was “zero media scrutiny” over the wrong way Seymour had snap chatted 14 year olds – and many remarked how could people call themselves journalist as they all looked the other way apart from NewsRoom.

Most stories involving Seymour stepping over a line are over in 24 hours and few drag on for weeks like they might for a Green Party Maori female MP. A fact that had not gone unnoticed by observers as the polishing brigade do the bidding of the big advertisers and the business of media takes precedence over it’s democratic function.

This morning Thomas at the NZ Herald has noted that the next three budgets include $85 Billion in health spending that did not feature during “scrutiny week” because National had dragged it’s heels and will only announce the new GPS for Health on 1 July 2024 – meaning we will likely hear an announcement next week.

The shunting along of key accountability data so it is out of the spotlight is a Neoliberal tactic – and Thomas in his polishing noted that Willis had not accounted for population growth ( 90,000 – 120,000 ) meaning fark the patient yet again – do more with less from Willis etc.

Aeysha Verrall sent an email out yesterday highlighting how National has backtracked on a raft of campaign commitments.

• National has dialled back their commitment to increase medical school placements by 50, providing little for our stretched workforce
• They also promised to deliver a new medical school, but this went unfunded
• National promised pay parity for nurses, and to support nurses and midwives with student loan repayments, but this is now up in the air
• They promised to increase the number of doctors specialising in psychiatry, and double the number of trainee psychologists, but have no plan to achieve this

Yes the truth is there are reasons for this Government incompetence – and while some of it has to do with manifesto promises that do not survive coalition negotiations – much of it is about choices and values made by the Neoliberals and the agenda they do prioritise over New Zealanders.

The way Willis scrapped the new ferries not seeing the steering issue that would drive the old ones onto the rocks and how there’s nothing in the budget to solve this ( like with the cancer drugs ) screams to high heaven of the carnage Willis is bringing to the people.

The hapless Simeon Brown is blaming others and pointing out the obvious like a useless redundant bystander as others get on with fixing things that may not have broken or been so dire if the Neoliberals had different values.

Whether it’s Tama Pokata saying we can’t afford to save these endangered species but we can afford $2.9 for landlords, or Penny Simmonds saying there is no evidence her policies will work, or Louise Upston saying she met some imaginary person and resorting to ancedotes rather than answering questions put to her, or Mark Mitchell shrugging about mental health callouts cos he never thought about the impacts of his expectations for Police – it’s all gross incompetence.

It’s all about some Atlas Network neoliberal agenda and donors and not about you or me or the average kiwi next door.

This Government is carrying out something pretty foreign to what have been kiwi values of fairness and being caring towards each other when push comes to shove.

Here comes the massive rates increases while Luxon memorises what he is going to say next from the script.

Reasons for Government Incompetence

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook : Why NZ cannot afford another day of this lying treacherous corrupt and harmful coalition govt of crooks and cruelty

Friday Morning Coffee

If Christopher Luxon was still the leader of the Opposition he’d be calling that power outage impacting nearly 100,000 people up in Northland – more economic vandalism from Grant Robertson – in the same way he blamed Grant for the pandemic and Cyclone Gabrielle as if spending to fix things was just a waste of money.

To make matters even worse Luxon also equated that spending with the sole cause of inflation and dubbed it “economic vandalism”.

The myth about “right sizing” the public service was not based on any evidence about the right size neither – and as Craig Renney has repeatedly told us – the Public Service was about 20% of the overall workforce under the past six Prime Ministers…but that did not stop Luxon selling the notion that 6,000 jobs had to go to get back to a mythical right size reached in 2017.

Yes it’s fair comment to say Luxon was very dishonest and continues to be dishonest – parading false statements around with relative impunity very deliberately in order to tell National’s mythical ‘Restoration Story’. A story where he is the hero who delivered us from recession and misery into the promised land by 2026 with a surplus just two years away.

Clearly that story is wearing thin but it relies on us all having very short memories and as things begin to improve ( no thanks to Willis nor Luxon ) thanks to Monetary Policy gradually easing down the OCR – National are banking on ramming home that story over and over and over again to keep their filthy paws on power.

As Shamubeel told us – while the economic conditions may improve our fragmented society is likely to remain daggers drawn and may take much longer to be repaired.

It’s like American Politics came to town in New Zealand and set us all against each other.

In the meantime we are witnessing National MP’s ducking, diving and weaving – avoiding answering questions with such consistency that it’s clearly a deliberate tactic ordered from on high.

We’ve seen Louis Upston avoid answering questions about stealing $56 Million off the Disabled in order to pay them only $2 per hour rather than afford them the dignity of the minimum wage for the same work done by an able bodied person.

Upston deflected to something else – a different question and answered that – which is a standard technique for National Party politicians when avoiding accountability.

Simon Watts has been giving Chlöe the “avoidance” routine about how he is not responsible for climate impacts unless they are neatly under his narrow brief in a kind of abstention of his scope while saying he’s not concerned about them as well.

Worse Watt’s is not concerned about current budget cuts impacting our future emissions targets, or leaving Agriculture out of the ETS or setting up bogus selected crony “Agriculture Groups” that shut out the Climate Commission from regulating the ETS so the whole thing works properly. ( Such are the talons of the Atlas Network determination that the ETS free market operate to the advantage of special winners who happen to be members or a voting constituency ).

Meanwhile Mark Mitchell clearly has not thought through who is going to respond to all those mental health call outs that the Police usually attend – after directing the Police Commissioner to drop those like hot cakes – leaving Andy saying Police will still respond if there is violence involved – but yeah nah – the question remains unanswered – gaping like an open wound.

The job market in Wellington is worse than it’s been since 2009.

Thanks National and your ideological BS causing so much pain, suffering, stress and all based on ideological myths. Lies that do not stand up to scrutiny and Nicola’s selfish tax cuts – the real driver behind the unnecessary carnage.

The Graduate Nurses not getting jobs in our hospitals and the CE running from camera as Barbara Edmonds told us – all roads lead back to Nicola Willis.

Nicola Willis what a evil piece of work.

The utter debacle over 13 Cancer drugs now has three heads – all talking at once – and all contradicting each other with Seymour complaining there’s too much politics involved, Willis saying some drugs but not all and some is just a word, while Dr CigaReti doubles down on the original 13 cancer drugs despite some of them not being the best drugs for patients now and out of date.

It’s a bloody circus with politicians playing God with people’s lives and now seeking ways to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves. What a bloody mess and this is NOT the change anybody voted for.

It took Christopher Luxon several attempts at brushing off the facts – and accusing the media of being at fault – before he finally gave in to the truth that he had messed up over his “C-Lister” remarks and now various C-Listers are talking to media about how they feel being referred to by Luxon as third class business people.

The way the PM puts New Zealanders down to put himself up is gut punching stuff while his team makes a mess of everything and have no clue.

Who can forget the facts illustrated by Jack Tame when Willis appeared in the pink on Q&A and had to admit 9,000 people are worse off after her Budget and she had no idea about that at all.

Did not see it coming and this week Carmel found it very hard to believe that National said it did not receive even a whisper of advice about that glaring anomaly before hand. Righto!

More people are worse off than get the $250 per fortnight ( less than 3,000 households ) after the Budget and her rhetoric about 14 years since a tax bracket shift was exposed cos her solution only made up for about 3 of those years. There was zero tagged contingency funding for the Cancer Drugs – all signs that Willis only realised the gravity of her disgraceful life and death broken promise after her colleagues had given her that rehearsed standing ovation on Budget Day.

It was all dripping with staged layers of fakery which made genuine people hurl into paper cups like Phil on Wayne’s World.

Then last night the Seymour creature and the 14 year olds on Snap Chat sent ripples of disgust through the communities ups and down New Zealand as most media kept it on the down low cos well – nothing to see here.

The levels of disgust now overflow from the gutters.

Taken together this is a real shite sandwich for New Zealanders to digest and somewhere out there no brick bats will be thrown at National by Audrey Young as she finds another Bouquet to award anybody but Labour.

I hope the power comes on up North and feel sorry for the folks who are losing revenue and food and business today.

A better government who cared might have invested more in resilience instead of robbing money and diverting it to Landlords – but right now just getting things online is what counts.

Deadly heatwaves are scorching cities on four continents as the Northern Hemisphere enters Summer and Simon Watt’s avoids accountability over the Climate as scrutiny week comes to an end.

He has no concerns really apart from ducking questions as he plays his part doing nothing to serve those same short term interests that got us here.

And Luxon says six years of economic vandalism is to blame – and there’s more work to do as quarterly GDP is 0.2% positive for now until it is revised lol.

We are saturated in lies by this Government and now people are fed up and want to mobilise and do something about it.

Friday Morning Coffee

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook: G News – around the traps

1.) Seymour admits snap chatting 14 year olds

Yes Seymour admitted he’s been snap chatting teens as young as 14 years of age to NewsRoom and Seymour said it would have been impractical to ask for parental permission.

National made a statement that it is important that interactions always be appropriate.

2.) ZB morons react to RBNZ saying inflation to remain sticky for another year

Some of the biggest Dunning Kruger morons on planet Earth took to their keyboards in the comments over at NewsCarp ZB when they read that Chief economist Paul Conway had said non tradable inflation will likely remain sticky for another year.

Well the snorting of nostrils and ultra triggering as veins popped out on necks did not take long as arm chair experts typed furiously how Labour had destroyed the economy by spending too much – cos that’s what Mike Hocking had told them and Mike was never wrong.

Others lashed out at Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank as they had been groomed to do by ZB hosts as fangs were barred and saliva dribbled

Suffice to say none of them had the foggiest notion what they were talking about and why they were all wrong which is always fascinating to watch from a distance but happening all over the Western world.

Usually males who vote Act or National who have zero idea really about how the Reserve Bank calculates inflation and most who have never read a Monetary Policy Statement because they knew everything anyway – so did not need to.

These were simple folk, the common clay of the right wing “common sense” brigade – and it was not their fault they were morons cos Mike is always right. Common sense Mike.

3.) Duncan says enough of these job cuts

Duncan grasped his forlorn head in his cupped hands and shrugged – was 6000 job cuts finally enough? Duncan thought so today – somewhere in his little toe.

That’s about how scientific the editor in charge ( Garner ) really is about these things as he decided that – will do now National.

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora is freezing the hiring of graduate nurses into the hospital system, says the Nurses’ union NZNO.

It said Health NZ was pausing the mid-year intakes of nurse entry to practice and specialist practice which was a bloody dumb idea really and even Duncan saw red about it.

It did not make sense to lower the number of NZ-trained graduate nurses being hired.

“We need more of them. We’re using internationally qualified nurses, immigrant nurses at the moment, but that does not and cannot substitute for the need to train our own and give them good jobs.

“What we’ve been told is that they can no longer guarantee every graduate nurse a job.”

It’s times like these that it pays to remember what Barbara said…that all roads lead back to Nicola Willis who may be hiding behind Health NZ CE skirt right now – but Willis is ultimately responsibly for this dire rubbish.

Even Duncan has had enough.

4.) Thousands out of work in struggling economy

International recruitment firms report that they have not seen the Wellington Job Markey look worse since 2009 when Sir John was running things.

6000 Public sector jobs have been brutally slashed by neoliberals using faulty reasoning and now many recently unemployed skilled New Zealanders have told RNZ that they have given up getting a job in this country and are packing their bags.

Many say what is the point – when other nations have much more caring Governments who invest in public services.

All roads lead back to Willis again.

5.) Internal Affairs Job Cuts

DIA ( Internal Affairs ) is going to axe 17 roles in the Digital Public Service Group and the Chief Privacy Officer role as well.

The PSA say these cuts will compromise the security and privacy of New Zealanders personal data.

The hapless Judith Collins says she wants a “customer focused digital government service for New Zealanders” but look at her party laying off the very people who would do that work.

They who voted for change are now ruing the day – and all roads lead back to Nicola Willis

6.) Penny Simmonds has no evidence behind final year fees free policy

Penny Simmonds ( recently sacked by Luxon ) admitted to Select Committee that she had zero data modelling behind her dumb policy to move fees free to the final year on the basis that completion rates will increase.

Labour’s Camilla Belich questioned the lack of evidence to support this silly policy and in the end a cornered Simmonds lashed out that the policy had been “well signalled and we were required to honour it” like how dumb was that?

National’s new fee increase set to 6% to keep up with inflation also lacked any impact modelling on student well being which was very typical these days.

7.) Luxon’s trip to Japan yields bugger all of real value

“Working together is key. That is why my visit this week is so important,” said Luxon after a pretty pointless trip to Japan. Luxon sported a cornflake packet style security agreement you might find in any trade trip to a Western alliance nation as he now makes his way home without any meaningful outcomes to show for all that sushi eating.

The usual platitudes about intangibles like “deeper relationships” and all that – don’t put bread on the table – as no FTA’s were agreed – and flying around is not fooling anyone – even when he Luxon is grounded cos the planes won’t fly him.

Yes Luxon is an international laughing stock.

Luson’s “C-List derogatory elitist blooper” overshadowed the whole trip and he is increasingly unpopular. Our embarrassing PM will scurry back home soon and avoid questions again – as we all get back to “what I would say to you clearly” and “I strongly disagree” with the facts cos “Labour is to blame” and “we are working at incredible pace doing an incredible job”.

8.) Almost all of Northland is without power after a tower fell.

Civil Defence Northland said one of Transpower’s towers fell near Kumeū at around 11am Thursday.

Around 80,000 customers are without power. Transpower has issued a “Grid Emergency Notice” until midday tomorrow and it is unknown when power will be restored.

G News – around the traps

Gerard Otto Facebook: Clusterfuck Luxon’s superiority complex re insults about C-Listers and Tag-along trade delegates

C-Listers and Tag-alongs

When New Zealand signed up the EU FTA and the UK FTA nobody knew that all the people working on these deals from New Zealand were just C-Listers and tag-alongs except Christopher Luxon – yet somehow they managed to get the deals done and brought home the bacon.

Something Luxon is yet to do despite flying around like talking jelly wobble in an expensive ill fitting suit with baggy trousers.

Some say it was A Listers like Dame Jacinda Ardern and Damien O’Conner who got the deals over the line, while others say if only Todd the Bunny Rabbit had been there with some Atlas Network retail banks and Fran O’Sullivan these FTAs would have been so much fatter and bigger – the biggest FTA’s ever imagined.

Others say categorising people this way is stupid and serves only to put down perfectly good trade negotiators who in the past got the outcomes that Luxon’s mob have so far failed to achieve.

According to Jenée Tibshraeny, Wellington based business editor at the NZ Herald Christopher Luxon is having a hard time justifying his comments about C-Listers and Tag-alongs.

Apparently Luxon thought some people ( probably Amanda ) was not there for a reason and just tagging along and when media directly quote exactly what he actually said – Luxon claims they are taking him out of context like denying reality about his own words – will solve how he has been hoisted by his own petard.

Chris Hipkins thinks Luxon is continuing his habit of putting others down to make himself feel superior – which does have some merit when you think of all the times Luxon rubbished New Zealanders and Public Servants, dehumanising our fellow kiwis and telling us all we had lost our mojo and that every business owner had gone soft.

Many have come across this sort of rich man before who inadvertently reveal their shallow materialism and tribal belonging to the worst forms of elitist snobbery.

One can only imagine the horror on David Seymour’s rubber chicken face when Luxon dined out on woke sushi with so called celebrities and ran around wasting time doing C-Lister things – while his PR sycophants pointed at a miserable deal between Rocket Labs and a Japanese company to do 10 launches.

Personally I doubt that kind of stitch up was done in the room but rather pre-ordained and Luxon was trying to point at some kind of outcome as he blundered from a broken down plane and A listers left behind lol – to making a twat of himself with his elitism and boot licking to the Atlas Network.

I once knew a rich man who was like this and assessed others in the Super Rich Club as being “of the same breed” as himself – almost equal – but his super yacht was one inch longer than the other guy’s.

Stuff that I had told myself, there was far more wealth is humility and grace which is why I like Jacinda and Chippy and Grant and Barbara and folks like that.

Anyway I had seen enough and was interested in what else was in the headlines this morning – and it turned out Dr CigaReti had made the news yesterday during scrutiny week in the Health Select Committee when he was grilled to a crisp about those 13 Cancer Drugs.

This morning CigaReti’s epic fail to deliver is the number two story behind Luxon’s C-Lister and Tag-along blunder – and Jenna Lynch was all over it on Three Live at 6PM last night.

One of the oncologists who wrote the original report that CigaReti read about the 13 cancer drugs said CigaReti’s current stance on sticking with the 13 drugs was just nuts.

“Taking a three year old list is just nuts”, said Dr Chris Jackson as Dr CigaReti doubled down on delivering out of date cancer drugs no matter who dumb or stupid that was.

It was all about delivering far worse outcomes under Luxon’s watch.

He told Jenna that, “If it were me I would have said “we promise everyone who had a condition on that list will get a drug and we will make sure it is the best one”.

Hell yes he was right and Dr CigaReti so wrong and just a pawn really caught up in more neoliberal political crap driven by Willis and Luxon above him as they toyed with people’s lives like they were just tag-alongs and C-Listers.

Jenna said NewsHub understood there could be an announcement by as early as next week …which will be interesting.

Overall the whole thing stinks of horrible, insecure people who think they are better than the rest of us, deluded by self importance and detached from the concept of service – as they show us who they really are every day.

To think that some people continue to vote for that lot.

Just shows how New Zealanders should pay more attention to the types of people they invest with power over their lives.

C-Listers and Tag-alongs

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook: Joining the dots Saturday Morning Atlas Network coffee

What do The Act Party, Federated Farmers, the Tax Payers Union, The NZ Initiative, The National Party and NZME NZ Herald and NewsTalk ZB all have in common?

They all run the same influence campaigns often in service to agriculture and fossil fuel interests in New Zealand.

Once you tie all of these groups together and their common themes ( Petrol forever, Climate Change can all be handled by the ETS, privatisation is good, big government is bad, no planning but free market will fix it …) it’s possible to see the visible hand rather than the invisible one – speaking through the mouths of people like David Seymour, Simeon Brown, Nicola Willis, Christopher Luxon and of course Chris Bishop.

Bishop has been spouting like a crooked tea pot words about how “We campaigned on that” when it comes to funding more roads but the shapers of National Party policy came largely from the NZ Initiative when it came to funding infrastructure.

Just look through the papers submitted by the NZ Initiative that Bishop and his mates copied their ideas from.

All the user pays stuff – congestion charging, tolls, plus GST sharing, and big offshore investment – comes from on high at the Atlas Network.

Who else would think that the rich should use the busy roads cos they can afford the peak rates of a congestion charge at rush hour – while the poor who cannot afford the charge – can find an alternative longer route in our biggest cities?

Let them burn petrol forever, laughed the rich.

Indeed Eric Crampton from the NZ Initiative suggested in his 21 May 2021 submission into Congestion Charging that a congestion dividend – a rebate on the net remaining after costs could be distributed back to the users to deal with the equity problem. How noble – but we won’t see it.

Instead we hear bunk from Bishop about the infrastructure deficit needing to be paid for by offshore pension funds and how “we have not maintained our roads”.

As you no doubt recall David Parker told us on 16 July 2023 that Labour inherited a road maintenance crisis. National chose to freeze road maintenance funding during its time in office in order fund high-profile new highways.

“As a result, roads were resurfaced at less than half the rate they should have been. The state of our roads deteriorated, making them more vulnerable to damage from the extreme weather events that have hit the North Island in particular this year.” – David Parker.

Yet today Simeon Syltherin Brown is strutting up and down like Squirrel Nutkin about his pot hole fund in Budget 2024 and the way National created the problem in the first place is utterly obscured.

Let us not forget that Syltherin Brown is being guided by Ben Craven from the Taxpayers Union and NZ Initiative who also worked for the fossil fuel sector before scoring the job supervising Brown along the Atlas Network pathway.

Ben’s a big fan of localism too ( author of 2014 paper on Localism in Local Government – sources Hayek, Paul Goldsmith and others ) and it’s no wonder Christopher Luxon memorised how he believes in “localism and devolution” as part of his mindless election spin – except when it comes to forcing councils to do central Wellingtons’ bidding on Maori Wards. ( That’s the racist vote dominating )

Bishop reckons you’ve only heard about bad PPPs and not the good PPPs so now you will get more privatisation cos it’s always the answer…to neoliberals at the Atlas Network anyway.

Government granted funding will be the last resort says Bishop.

Bishop also boasts about a new bureaucracy in Wellington – an Infrastructure Agency that Steven Joyce is getting paid $4,000 crony dollars per day to consult on. Brilliant – especially when cutting the “bureaucracy” was all these people carped on about for months.

Suffice to say I am not going to get too deeply into the details this morning over coffee but the point is the same group of influencers are shepherding New Zealand into a dark divided future beholden to others – unable to drive on their own bloody streets without paying through the nose – thanks to the neoliberal Beagle Boys surfing off voter ignorance and resentment about pandemic aftereffects.

“Mike Hosking and Heather are always right about everything”, said DumbTown – “it’s common sense, petrol forever”.

Yes you already knew all that – but it’s good to just spell it out again as we sit back powerless to do much until 2026. Watching the destruction as polishers in the press polish it hard.

Which brings me to Thomas the Turd Polisher and his opinion published this morning in the NZ Herald about how boring recess breaks are and how Willis will face the scrutiny of The Finance and Expenditure Committee on Wednesday.

Thomas betrayed his deep partisan bias towards Nicola Willis by reporting that she came from a position of absolute dominance as Finance Minister and how she carried the mantle of Finance Minister with composite ease as Thomas grovelled on the ground licking where she had walked.

Worse Thomas reckoned Willis and Chloe had brought a forensic investigation to the Reserve Bank in the Finance and Expenditure Committee hearings previously – which told me that Thomas was now just making things up.

He talked about a pincer move from left and right – squeezing Labour in the middle – and the Reserve Bank. Whatever.

I had watched all of those exchanges, and commented upon them when they occurred and Willis had no idea what she was talking about with regard to the various types of inflation measured and had to be corrected and schooled by Adrian Orr and Paul Conway. I mean I was embarrassed for Willis at the time.

Chlöe had persisted with a line of questions around – what exactly was “maximum sustainable employment” – but I would not have called this forensic as Thomas branded it – the answer was always – not what we have now – it was always a bit lower but there was no given number for it.

So here was NZME the NZ Herald polishing up Willis a former director of the Atlas Network NZ initiative – before the event on Wednesday – but wait there’s more – Thomas put the boot into Barbara Edmonds and said she needs to find her feet and sometimes subject matter experts can’t pull off a good political attack.

Okay so polish Willis and rubbish Barbara using the NZ Herald audience ( DumbTown ) and I sit here witnessing the influence campaign first noted above at the beginning of this coffee chat.

What do The Act Party, Federated Farmers, the Tax Payers Union, The NZ Initiative, The National Party and NZME NZ Herald and NewsTalk ZB all have in common?

Exactly.

At least our eyes are open and we can all see the same things now through the lens of Atlas and it’s component parts wielding influence campaigns on New Zealand for their vested interests.

Saturday Morning Atlas Network Coffee

Morena

G 🙂

Gerard Otto Facebook: A Brief Review of the Week

This is a summary of the week so it leaves some things out :

A week ago Luxon was still in Fiji and not happy that Australians were mocking him over Direction 110 and the 501s. Luxon was no Jacinda Ardern and everything was going backwards.

JT strongly denied claims made that TPM messed with census and vaccine data at the Manurewa Marae before the 2023 election while media Hung headlines about this everywhere for days while saying nothing about David MacLeod and those undeclared donations. Nine government agencies met aver the various parts they had to play in investigations.

Mark Mitchell gloated how he had cut funding to Harry Tam’s get off meth programme at Hard to Reach no matter how successful it was.

Covid-19 hit schools and demand for relief teachers went up as schools were forced to split classes or send students home.

Act faced a declaration of no confidence in their Board after allegations of a culture of fear, unfair treatment for women and a “train wreck” campaign as senior staff quit their roles.

The David MacLeod matter returned to headlines briefly after it was revealed that the matter would be referred to Police.

Shane Currie reported that 301 formal complaints made by partisan right wing howlers against Maiki Sherman had all been dismissed and thrown in the rubbish by TVNZ. Ha ha ha sore losers in DumbTown could not handle the numbers and Maiki was right that they would talk about this and brace for impact.

The way Nicola Willis left out the 13 Cancer Drugs from Budget 24 still had DumbTown reeling and Audrey Young did not give anyone from National a brickbat.

Over 20,000 people marched down Queen Street and filled it up from Britomart to Aotea Square as they marched for Nature and sent a strong signal to Chris Bishop, Shane Jones and Simeon Slytherin Brown that there was a big backlash to their ugly grab for absolute decision making power.

Chris Bishop said everyone was wrong and he was right – something like that.

Luxon kept saying on social media that he was focused on bringing down inflation when he was doing nothing to bring down inflation.

The NZ Herald political page forgot to mention that 20,000 people marched down the street the day before protesting the Fast Track Bill.

The National led Government scrapped New Zealand’s internationally admired ban on offshore exploration for oil and gas.

Luxon boasted online that his tax bracket shift was the first one in 14 years – but failed to mention that it only made up for 3 years of tax bracket creep.

Paul Henry’s ugly head popped up at an ACT ra ra dream about getting 15% in the next election and Paul Henry said “Let’s sort this shit out”.

Nicola Willis said nothing about non-tradable inflation in fact she kind of went into hiding for a while.

Chlöe made Pumpkin Head Jones look ridiculous on TVNZ Breakfast – regarding climate action and the facts – while Jone’s resorted to insults and bollocks about an inflection point justifying 30 years of gas contracts to keep the lights on.

Steve Maharey lifted the lid on National’s BS about fiscal cliffs and Pharmac – saying that had nothing to do with the delay over 13 promised cancer drugs as Luxon had claimed. Instead National had created a mess for itself and if they kept their promise there would be no money for anything else.

Nat MP Tim Costley claimed $16,400 back from taxpayers for a property he owned – arguing he lived 58kms from parliament – a 45 minute drive away and just outside the Wellington region boundary. This sparked a media storm about the rules and Chippy said he was open to a debate and going back to an expenses only set of rules in these kinds of cases.

Luxon as caught out repeatedly fibbing that Tim Costley had to drive the 58kms for an hour and a half along Transmission Gulley.

Luxon announced an independent inquiry into the agencies involve din investigating the claims around TPM and the Manurewa Marae and Census data etc. TPM welcomed the inquiry and so did Labour.

Many remarked that Luxon saying “trust and confidence is important” was a bit rich after all the ways he had undermined it.

Nurses went on an 11 day strike and noted there was nothing to address patient nurse ratios in the Budget.

An Atlas Network TPM Curia Poll showed Luxon’s net favourability was plummeting and National dropped two points.

23 MPs rent back their own homes at taxpayer expense.

Todd the Bunny McClay scrapped He Wake Eke Noa fibbing that it was untenable when it was still tenable.

Todd also kept Agriculture out of the ETS for another five years – kicking the climate can down the road as cocky’s said good on him cos they did not believe in carbon emissions. Barbara Edmonds warned a massive multi billion dollar bill is being amassed by the likes of Todd in 2028 for NZ.

Chippy said international consumers will stop buying NZ products if they are not carbon neutral.

The Commerce Commission sent a strong warning to Petrol Companies that they were taking far too long to lower prices when the price of oil went down.

The Grand Eftpostle Brian Tamaki told Oliver Sean Plunket that Destiny complained at 4.02PM on 11th October to the Electoral Commission about TPM at the manure Marae – and sent two videos and a screenshot as evidence – but after the so called evidence was looked at it was rejected and then Tamaki went to the Commissioner who also looked at the so called evidence and also rejected it. The evidence was bunk – so Brian said the Commissioner was a liar.

Kieran McAnulty was attacked by Jenny May over the bad look of his renting off his wife – but Kieran was open to a rule change…and had declared everything when he did not have to.

Barbara Edmonds related how a cancer patient had remarked that “at least there won’t be potholes on my way to the crematorium”.

Simeon Brown wasted $1.4 Million of taxpayers money on a long tunnel investigation which has already been investigated and rejected.

120 protestors confronted Maureen Pugh about the prospect of 75,000 tonnes of arsenic contaminating the local aquifer if her mates at the Gold Mining company get a fast track consent. Unfortunately a placard touched Pugh on the chest and the issue about arsenic was erased by media as Luxon called the cops.

Invercargill Mayor Noddy Clark has been using the n-word again and faces more code of conduct complaints.

Academics has raised concern about Military Boot camps and where trauma meets punishment – but Mr Plod is not listening to experts and staying with his wrong, harmful and ineffective political grand standing over Military Boot camps.

Pumpkin Head Jones admitted Big Oil are tepid about returning to NZ in shifting political winds.

Erica Stanford visited a Kura Kaupapa Māori school for the first time and underfunded the need.

Stuff highlighted how Dr CigaReti had changed his promises about 13 cancer drugs over time and now reverted back to the original 13 cancer drugs.

The Nurses organisation say Health NZ is asking staff to pay back money given in error – despite owing current and former workers $2 Billion in remediation payments.

People are waiting for up to four months to sit a driver test to get a licence so they can get a job – as Luxon and Willis do nothing to help.

Huge rates bills are coming for many regions around the MOTU after National repealed Labour’s Affordable Water Reforms and replaced it with Local Water done Expensively. Wow. Squeezing the middle aye Nicola Willis.

Tiki Taane offered kōrero and kai to a dude online who wrote that “every kiwi should have a Māori as a pet”. Something was wrong with that person and Tiki wanted to help.

The Black Caps lost to the West Indies in the World Cup T20.

There’s a buzz about rugby semi finals around.

Productivity and Retail Spending are down under Luxon’s watch.

The warm welcome for Chinese Premier Li was all staged by the Chinese embassy here.

There’s a petition with 46,000 signatures going around against Todd’s return to cruel live animal exports.

The number of people in Christchurch’s Emergency Department are overflowing under Luxon’s watch.

Matthew Hooton says we must mine our way out of economic ruin – which is overly dramatic nonsense – while respected Scientists have published a paper in the prestigious Journal SCIENCE – that nope there’s no need to mine anymore fossil fuels cos all of that is going to be stranded soon as the world has enough already.

A Brief Review of the Week

G

Gerard Otto Facebook: G the Good News around the traps continued cost of living pressures National has done nothing yo fix in fact made worse

G News – Around the Traps

1.) Massive Rates increases are coming

Bomber’s Working Group podcast had Barbara Edmonds taking it to Simon Court yesterday and Barbara pointed out that the three big things driving non tradable inflation right now – are insurance premiums, rates and rents.

Budget 24 did nothing to ease any of these factors – but what Luxon’s idiot Government did was to get rid of the Affordable Water Reforms – leaving almost all of New Zealand up a tree – saddled with huge rates increases.

In Auckland – Slytherin Brown hurried to try and do a deal to bring the rates increases down from 25% to 7% but wait – they would have only been a 3% increase if National had kept their meddling hands off things.

Plus – now Northland people are screwed cos Auckland’s deal does not extend to them – and we have heard nothing from Luxon and Willis about the rest of the country.

The rates increases will be double digits for many regions – which will then push up rents as Landlords pass on their costs and the squeezed generation rent will become impoverished even more.

Thanks centre right voters and Neoliberals – real swell.

2. ) Luxon talks in vague language to farmers and Banking Inquiry

Christopher Luxon delivered a word salad speech to farmers at Fieldays in Mystery Creek where he talked about “needless and unhelpful regulations”, “a war on farmers by the previous government”, “reducing red tape that is preventing investment” and how we need to be Adult to Adult – and work together – while rediscovering our mojo and stop closing down NZ farms and pushing them overseas.

Naturally some farmers were inspired by this sort of vague BS but others saw straight through it.

Like when Luxon repeated the worn out spin “We are deeply committed to our climate goals” and “Technology will solve our emissions”.

Anyway while he was talking shite Luxon slipped in an announcement that the Finance and Expenditure Committee will write terms of reference for a Banking Competition Inquiry – with a rural focus tacked on to the end of it as a red herring.

This was about another one of those “pre-determined” results – as you recall Atlas Network NZ Initiative Chair Roger Partridge complaining about the RBNZ making banks hold too much capital and that – this somehow reduced competition between banks.

Well this Banking Inquiry is about competition – surprise, surprise, surprise – and right on schedule too. Good old Atlas Network strikes again…but yeah there’s a bit about rural banking tacked on the end as well.

3. ) Potholes on the way to the Crematorium

Barbara Edmonds reckoned the Budget was cynical and the worst part was promising people facing death – some hope to get their vote and then failing to deliver on that promise in their first Budget. This disgraceful and deliberate action – crossed a line on all sides of the spectrum…and we should vote this Government out.

Barbara said – she had talked to various advocacy groups and boy were they mad about this…and she said one of the worst and compelling things she read was one cancer patient commenting that …”Oh well at least there won’t be potholes when I am on my way to the crematorium”.

4.) The tensions in the Coalition may pop if polls slide even more

Ultimately everyone knows Act and NZ First – hide the way they despise each other in a marriage of farcical convenience – but Act’s self talk and wet dream about reaching 15% in the next election will eventually face a rude shock with Winston who has spent 40 years complaining about migrants and foreign investment and keeping these things Act loves out.

Winston will come out blazing and it won’t be pretty for Act nor National.

Winston’s old stomping ground – like people on Super – only got $2.15 a week more – something like that – in the Budget. Not even enough to keep up with inflation…while the Taxpayers Union howled with rage that Willis had borrowed $17.1 Billion and issued $12 Billion – talk about borrow and spend.

Punters think some time after the first 18 months Winston is going to make a move – cos Act are not the only ones after the same culture war votes and these two parties will start to clash more and more…especially if the polls have bottomed out for them by then.

5.) Thomas leaves out the important stuff in endless waffle

Yes Thomas the Turd Polisher is polishing again – this time trying to send readers to sleep by exceeding waffle word limits for about Sir Bill’s case to get rid of Kāinga Ora. OMG it’s like getting lost in a desert and wandering for days in search of some balance or comprehension of the key issues.

Suffice to say Thomas referred to another report and small tiny issues at the margins while assiduously avoiding mentioning the asset value of all those 72,000 houses on the books – balancing up any concerns about debt and financial viability.

A true case of “puff the magic pipe” and make the whole story go away.

6.) Chippy says Simeon’s tunnel investigation absolutely absurd

Chris Hipkins called Slytherin Brown’s investigation into a Wellington long tunnel “absolutely absurd.”

“I think it’s one of those kinds of flight of fancy, that is unlikely to ever happen, I park it up there probably with the cycle bridge across the Auckland Harbour,” said Chippy McChipster.

“Frankly, you’ll spend a lot of money on investigations and consultants only to conclude that it probably wasn’t a great idea in the first place.”

Chippy said the initiative has already been looked into before however it was rejected due to being too expensive.

“Bloody Labour”, said Slytherin Brown.

G News – Around the Traps

G 🙂