Open Mike 05/09/25
Open Mike 05/09/25
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11:26 am, September 5th, 2025 - 44 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
Simeon Brown toying with Kiwi lives
Wonder why?
And found what
Inflationary pressures and reprioritisations to cope.
Well well.
Is there any more detail
I wonder how businesses are surviving in this inflation environment, low profits might make it difficult to fund maintenance or provide for replacement of assets (depreciation) etc.
A lot of quantification of the problem.
This reminds me of when sinking lid was applied by Muldoon (in a time of higher inflation than anything this century) and one had to identify areas of spending that needed to separated out (immune from the sinking lid) because of necessity – contracts with escalation clauses etc.
The question is, is there an economist who can explain why they are in this situation to help them out of it?
This makes it seem that Treasury is run by accountants, running government like a household budget?
And what measures were looked at
The government reaction was in the budget.
So a government would appear to have an on-going problem with a lack of revenue growth that it has no idea for how to address – so far – fast track legislation, seeking foreign investor activity, opening up the conservation estate and the OIO rule changes.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/572116/budget-documents-find-8-point-5-billion-gap-between-costs-and-savings
Hopefully this will open the door to this thug being charged for his alleged war crimes.
.
The High Court has thrown out Ben Roberts-Smith's bid to overturn a ruling there was substantial truth to war crime allegations against him.
It came on the same day as a decision about the costs of his unsuccessful appeal was handed down in Sydney.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-04/nsw-ben-roberts-smith-special-leave-application-rejected-court/105733410
I (and I think you also) have commented about that scumbag before. No VC hero…IMO could well be just a murderer. I did credit the other SAS troopers who gave evidence…quite possibly at risk to themselves.
If fully staffed wards are required then the Minister can jump the queue for an allocation of funding.
http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/572089/health-minister-simeon-brown-demands-union-and-health-nz-go-to-arbitration
An apology
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571975/health-nz-apologises-to-nurses-union-after-ombudsman-s-scolding
The background.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571718/union-says-health-nz-s-delay-in-releasing-data-was-politically-motivated
It seems the growth in homelessness has led to a semblance of taking the matter seriously.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/572188/broken-housing-system-more-support-coming-for-rough-sleepers-government-announces
Concerns about the emergency housing policy.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/07/20/many-link-govts-emergency-housing-policy-to-homelessness-rise-minister/
I wondered if Luxon is quite relaxed about the fiscal hole because he knows he won't be in government when it bites.
It's an old political trick, when the government is sinking like the Titanic, scuttle the other lots lifeboats.
Excellent long-term planners, but only where it counts – arise Sir Spanners Luxon
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/fire-in-cardboard-city-2017
Luxury Luxon, so relaxed..he's almost horizontal ! (though of course he's sorted)
There is normal optimism..and then there is the purblind faith type.
All your doing, Mitch (a good chunk of it, anyway):
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/trump-dangerous-period-mitch-mcconnell
It's what it says on the tin.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360815002/green-mp-benjamin-doyle-resigns-citing-safety-concerns
Does anyone know of Mike Davidsons credentials? A Christchurch Community Board candidate.
This is from 2022 but he was a Christchurch City Councillor for six years. plus a little more about his background.
https://policy.nz/2022/christchurch-city-council-papanui-ward/candidates/mike-davidson
That he was a manager before councillor suggests he is competent enough to add value to the Green team.
He worked at the Earthquake Commission and is related to Leanne Dalziel by marriage. https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/85307289/new-christchurch-city-councillor-mike-davidson-breaks-family-curse
Havn't dealt much with NZ management, have you?
The two don't follow each other.
The assumption that "Managers" AKA, bean counters promoted to "post turtles" are competent, is how we got, Luxon!
Hopefully, for the Greens sake, he is an exception to the generally dismal quality of NZ Management.
Yep, fair point.
Has been councillor…
Greens playing musical chairs again. Helen Clark with John Key in China to support totalitarianism, along with the Russian & North Korean dictators. Just a couple of light entertainment blips in the endless tedium of politics…
Thought I may get told off for not linking the latter bit, so here's the guts:
I wouldn't wait that long. The nation will be dead keen to know where – precisely. You can see why she didn't declare she would be giving Helen a piece of her mind: it would have to be such a tiny piece that there would be enough left to operate with, and Helen may not even detect the impact.
Collins, sheesh!
There has to be a whakatauki or proverb for being judged by someone of low morality and so lacking in principles.
I don't know his credentials, here's his local board candidate page
https://www.greens.org.nz/mikedavidson2025
nice to see a solid focus on environment and community.
He's married to a woman so that ticks a diversity box too.
lol
Well if Doyle has been getting death threats i think its disgraceful and I dont understand how people can get so wound up. Yes he is a man in a frock, but so what?
it's the rise of the far right and fundamentalist right. Peters emboldened them. We should be very concerned about the trend.
All true. At the same time when it was confirmed Tana was to be removed I looked at the Greens' 2023 list, looked for his bio etc, and thought "oh dear".
He is not a "man in a frock". He is a middle class, white bloke with a female partner and a child. He seems to have some "interesting" hobbies and like many opportunists and paraphilics, has fastened onto the "Alphabet Swamp".
Any threat to an MP should result in a follow up from the Diplomatic Protection Service. It is long past the time we need to make it quite clear that such things are not acceptable.
Doyle has Ngāpuhi ancestry.
And I also agree that threats of violence, death, etc are totally unacceptable and there seems to be too much of that happening, especially to high profile people. And threats to MPs' families are totally out of order.
I cannot take "non-binary" self ID seriously. It seems an easy option for anyone to claim special status. Most of us could easily make that claim – I could just cite my formative years as a widely known 'tomboy', and adult life where I have failed to conform to sex-based stereotypes and expectations.
I am more obviously gender non-conforming than some people I've seen who self ID as non-binary. The sex of all the ones I've seen, including Doyle and Darlene Tana, can easily be identified visually.
Some say it's not necessary to be androgynous to be an NB, so I don't really know what non-binary ID actually means, if anything.
for some it seems to be a rejection sex roles and stereotypes, and for some it's about being queer in the sense of outside the social norms of self expression. That's fine, let's just call it a range of people that are gender non-conforming. As you point out there are GNC people who aren't queer, and the problem with the queer community is what they want to enforce.
The blurring of GI and sex leads to people saying NB males should be in women's spaces, but there's never any explanation or examination of that, and it just comes across as sexist nonsense, as if woman is the default category for people that don't want to be men. By all means men, opt out of your gender stereotypes, that's what feminists have been on about all this time. Just don't do that without regard for women's politics. Stand up proud in your own.
Totally agree – especially re NB men appropriating women's spaces and provisions, which makes no sense and is not acceptable.
There’s an added thing with NB ID in that they also seem to believe that gender self-ID, including non-binary ID, trumps sex.
hence the Law Commission Review. Can't bring myself to read it yet. We had an opportunity to do right by women and trans people and the LC just blew it.
I've had a look through it and read some bits. It's basically just repeating the theory and provisions dictated by the trans lobby.
It does recommend that the HRA keep sex as a protected characteristic, but won't define it. It's definition of 'gender identity' is a non definition because it defines gender ID in terms of itself + the misnomer 'gender assigned at birth' + possibly 'gender expression',
It recommends including gender identity in the HRA as a protected characteristic, where it is defined as:
“a) gender expression, and
b) the relationship between a person's gender identity and their sex assigned at birth.”
'Sex assigned at birth' was originally used for people with DSDs who were misidentified as the opposite sex at birth due to having atypical genitalia. DSDs are medically and scientifically identified and often their actual sex is not identified til puberty.
Given the Law Comm report also recommends to include "innate variations in sex characteristics" ( ie people with DSDs, without defining 'sex'?) as a protected characteristic in the HRA, I think the term "sex assigned at birth' should be kept for them.
The report recommends that in the vast amount of cases, women's/girls' spaces should allow anyone who self IDs as a woman/girl to access them. They say it's too difficult to police people by sex as NZers would not accept carrying IDs that could be used to verify sex.
They repeat the dodgy trans lobby lines that women who are GNC would easily get excluded from female spaces, and that people can't easily tell who is male or female (research shows they can).
The report is effectively recommending that any male who says the magic word's "I ID as a woman/girl', or "I ID as non-binary", should be able access women's girls spaces/provisions, without afore mentioned IDs. That would be far more difficult to police than making women's and girls spaces for the female sex only.
They recommend refuges be left to decided who they include in their spaces and how.
In the end the reasoning and evidence they present is poor.
They recognise that some women (and some men) want sex-based changing rooms, and refuges, etc for privacy and dignity. However, they claim that trans IDed males are harmed more by being excluded from the spaces of their choice, and that over-rides women's/girl's needs for privacy and dignity.
They quote submissions that claim trans people are psychologically harmed by gender critical views. So, I guess they mean psychological harms to trans IDed males by being excluded from female spaces are a valid concern, but there's little consideration of any such harms to women from including them.
They give a bit of a fig leaf saying that if it is a big concern in those instances cubicles should be provided.
What I found surprising was that there were little more than a 100 submissions (many by groups).
I think it was mostly groups who were invited to submit – I could be wrong.
No they present discussion papers and invite public submissions.
PS
One can see the Law Society submission to the Law Commission on Hate Speech via this list (14 March).
And also the one on
A review of the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics (Issues Paper 53), 5 September 2024.
https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/professional-practice/law-reform-and-advocacy/submissions/discussion-papers/
Oh. Actually, I submitted to that. I checked my email and have a reply saying it had been received. I've done so many submissions in the last couple of years, I've lost track.
I have a word document in which I wrote my answers, and then I think I added to them to the online form.
I remember seeing the (Sept one) form with all the questions on it.
I got an email this week on the 14 March one.
“We received 96 submissions in total. We received submissions from community organisations, members of the public, legal professionals, academics and other experts. The submissions received will help us decide whether to recommend changes to the law on hate crime and what any changes should look like.
The submissions received and a summary of them can be viewed below.”
Do the non binary born male (biological sex) claim the right to enter women's spaces?
The non binary simply claim not to identify as on the male or female spectrum, for some it is probably connected to being bi-sexual because they present as androgynous.
PS Calling this a paraphilia is the same bigotry as some display against gay, lesbian and bi-sexual people.
This is one of the less appealing features of a culture war, a bit like "civilian casualties".
An eg, Nelson Women's Centre:
I have heard there are non-binary, or 'gender diverse' males in some women's sports in NZ.
Here is a contested eg of a Kiwi 'gender diverse' male netballer wanting to play in an Aussie women's netball team.
The Law Comm recommends sports decide male inclusion in women's sports on a case-by-case basis. Some overseas experts say such a system is un workable. I agree given the aggression and bullying exercised by the powerful trans lobby in claiming trans/NB males should be in women's sports.
How many of those who identify as non binary (born biological male) do seek/make a claim to a woman's place identity though?
I would have thought it minimal.
Their turf being the unisex ones (including mixed sports).
Women's sport has those non binary born biological female.
Not all NB. But some do, and it's def a trans rights position. I guess if you're going to let in trans identified males, by not NB males?
Short answer, the non binary are not making any claim to be women – they have neither self-identified, nor done so via the "health system process".
The trans group position appears to gone beyond the bounds of their own claim, as per the non binary (most of whom probably never asked them to). The word that applies is oxymoron and related synonyms.
Great to see this collaboration taking place. I can't link to it, his cartoons don't appear in the on-line free version, but a great cartoon by Yeo in today's Otago Daily Times on what they are finding up there.
🤣
https://scienmag.com/intensive-year-and-a-half-study-of-new-zealand-clouds-under-new-zealand-german-atmospheric-research-collaboration/#
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360815231/simeon-brown-hopes-auckland-hits-brakes-speed-bumps-law-change
Oh great. FFS.
Simeon Brown has decided to rip out the Central Loop and all the rail lines and make them a trucking corridor!
Wayne Brown has decided to take out all the traffic lights and all the traffic cones.
They’ve decided to end any project that had already been extensively publicly consulted so that the public can have their say and plan to pass a bylaw that would put responsibility on drivers to try to push bike riders off the road where possible and hit them with car jacks where it isn’t.
Brown (S) then ran around the room ripping off his clothes and yelling about how he wanted to be on South Park and sleep with Satan too before climbing into the rafters and having a nap.
You’ll never catch me! He cried I can go to the McDonald’s on either side if my 6 lane Pakuranga highway!!!!