Open Mike 22/08/25
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6:00 am, August 22nd, 2025 - 50 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
Fight Like You Mean It: Why Message Discipline Matters
NZ consumed 30% more Russian disinformation than the USA during Covid
New Post up:
NZ consumed 30% more Russian disinformation than the USA during Covid
RNZ reported this (quoted and linked below) yesterday. Yet failed to ask some important questions.
How many other policies has Labour opposed in the house that they don't plan to repeal?
Why do they oppose policies that they won't repeal.
And isn't not repealing a policy signaling to voters you support it?
How are voters meant to trust Labour when it looks as if Labour are having a bet each way?
Because Labour aren't stupid.
The government expects homeowners, not employed as teachers or nurses, to be grateful for downward OCR adjustments – to 3% then 2.75% and onto 2.5%. So they retain some of their votes.
But a lower cost of debt for the businesses with a loan off the home mortgage is of no use if there is no profit, because of a lack of custom, don't ya know.
And what if voters work out that the OCR is only going down because the 3 man shower is useless at governance?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360799112/were-broke-exhausted-doing-everything-right-yet-still-called-merchants-misery
Its all Pretty Legal I'm sure?…..
Amidst the burbling blurb from Foodstuffs North Island chair Dean Waddell I found this to be a wtf?! You are joking right?
However IMO Steven Joyce's close (very) connectedness to the Nat party, and previous interesting appointments doesn't bode well for value …or indeed fairness for most New Zealanders.
And there was this….
Oh I'm sure he hasn't….
Fucks sake. Kick these NACT1 scum out soon…before the last of New Zealand is sold….
Nicely put together Psyc.
The NZ people want competition and cheaper prices from the supermarkets. Instead one of their cronies is appointed to Foodstuffs board which will mean the exact opposite will occur.
Brilliant. I hope Labour shouts this from the rooftops.
Cheers BG. Just seemed like cronyism. (and of course..it is : )
The French want a civil war (Lactalis vs Danone).
Fonterra has no New Zealand partner to add value to its farm produce so passes the ball.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360799713/fonterra-agrees-3845b-sale-consumer-business-lactalis
AI
One receptionist job…
400450 applicants ? IMO NZ is in real trouble…Those who maybe voted for change? Did they really want this ? And FFS, IMO, I give zero credence to any of Nicky's reckons…
The new Catch 22 : NACT1 version ?…(and despite MSD's clarification, read the article for more actual at the contact point info..)
Earlier volunteer options
“Jobseeker sanctions: 'Forcing people to volunteer is a contradiction in terms'
The government is better off using its resources to help people find work, rather than punishing those who can not, says the Salvation Army.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562100/jobseeker-sanctions-forcing-people-to-volunteer-is-a-contradiction-in-terms
Isn't it ironic?
That perhaps some of those that voted for going hard on beneficiaries are now finding themselves being laid off (or seeing their businesses fold) and ending up on a benefit.
I am really enjoying that aspect of it, having lost my ability to empathise. And I continue to have zero sympathy for those who find out the hard way what they voted for.
Just another example of the left being at least as cruel as the right.
Stop speculating on misery.
They weren't thinking about this. All they heard was "tax cut." RW voters are first and foremost greedy and selfish.
Fonterra's sale of all its iconic brands for NZ $ billion is by a long way the largest single commercial transaction ever in New Zealand.
Fonterra sells Mainland, Anchor brands to French food giant | RNZ News
Very sad but it's done.
The question is: after 24 years in operation, how will this moment really launch Fonterra to be the company New Zealand needs it to be?
What exactly is the plan?
It seems to be a higher rate of pay out to farmers by reducing debt.
They established a value to brands based on their supply, then sold them.
Not the first company to grow from a small (local) to medium sized (international brand) business than sell out to a major world market player.
Fonterra is going to essentially give to farmer shareholders about $2 billion on $2 a share tax free.
Fonterra agrees sale of Consumer and associated businesses to Lactalis for $3.845 billion
The strategic question is whether they can deploy even some of the remaining $2billion to become a protein-delivery machine for older and very young humans, in high value markets.
After 21 years we should have got a state-originated business that delivered far more value for New Zealand than it has. Massey and Palmerston North for starters haven't become the dairy version of Silicon Valley. But there's every social and policy reason for us all to expect that they should.
Farmers have a higher debt cost than Fonterra. That would explain the shareholder thinking – half for us.
Fonterra has a decision to make between paying down debt or investment. It can do both – being able to borrow off low debt when is develops an investment strategy.
The older human being boomer turf … .
R and D comes in a range of forms – pure research, industry research and Fonterra corporate research (tax credits). This government has no plan.
That Fonterra doesn't have a growth investment strategy other than expanding their exiting channels, when they have spent over 5 years selling major assets culminating in this their largest sale … is surely beyond belief.
The last time government had a research plan for dairy and pastoral farming generally was the big Fast Forward Fund set up in the last year of the Clark government. Would have been great …
One has to go back to government ministers like Anderton and Cullen and the old Minister for Research Since and Development Pete Hodgson to imagine a necessary political response to this critical piece of New Zealand business being sold. Together they would recognise the scale and importance of what Fonterra has done.
Yet with this massive Fonterra sale not a single political party has put out a media release at all.
Since then the government seems to have left Fonterra to dominate the industry and do all the R and D.
They have exited offshore production and brands (with some game left in China) to focus on the rate of return off capital.
The problem is not limited to dairying, as there is a decline of the entire R and D sector of the economy under this government (including universities – lack of focus on investment in post graduate research study, local and foreign students, the talent pool to sustain the sector after the ageing staff retire).
And worse they laid off the research sector staff (many will be off to Oz/overseas) and then down-sized. Madly saving money by amalgamation ( losing specialised focus). The total effect is destructive to the future of the country.
Oh sure low Research and Development isn't limited to dairy.
But dairy is the biggest and most important industry New Zealand has.
Fonterra is by a country mile our largest spender in R and D in New Zealand. And it's still small.
Fonterra's partnership in Palmerston North with Massey University is pretty well known, and has barely produced more than 2 patents in 20 years. Massey exists pretty much as a codependent unit with our dairy industry.
To give a comparison of how much this means to New Zealand, Fonterra earns nearly as much per year as the government spends in its entire health budget.
They do achieve stuff there.
https://www.massey.ac.nz/research/research-impact-stories/riddet-institute-scientists-innovation-leads-to-ferri-pro-acquisition-by-nestl%C3%A9/
Brian Easton's Pundit column (22 Aug) talks about research and patents for biotech – well worth a look: https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/how-should-we-organise-research
Presumably the future beneficiaries of Government funded agricultural patents, will now be the Lactalis shareholders?
Another good reason for capital gains taxes.
Removing an incentive to "pump and dump".
Bigger countries don't need excuses.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-releases-proposal-rescind-obama-era-endangerment-finding-regulations-paved-way
Officials warned the government that reneging on climate commitments could have a domino effect and give bigger countries, like China, an excuse to do less.
The advice was mistakenly released under the Official Information Act by the Ministry for the Environment (MFE).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/570686/officials-warn-of-damage-to-diplomatic-relations-in-secret-climate-change-memo
The NZR new five year agreement with Sky results in this.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/570734/nz-rugby-and-sky-seal-new-broadcast-deal-with-tvnz
Two things… 1) it's a bit of a gamble as they are getting $20m LESS than their prev deal 5 years ago but they get to leave 5 tests matches OUTSIDE the deal (so maybe these are pay per views or Netflix? and are in Saudi or NYC etc)
2) Rugby is toast and is boring AF… 20 years ago AUS& NZ rugby was worth $50 mil in broadcast and NRL was worth $30 mil. Rugby has grown for 50 to 80 mil. NRL has grown from $30mil to $500mil. Rugby is toast and boring AF.
SA vs AUS was a great game for something boring AF.
League ATM is a great product. They are starting to have issues with players choosing to play for Tonga Samoa etc. Balancing State of Origin eligibility and players acknowledging their family connections.
Report released today by the Public Health Advisory Committee (established by the Ministry of Health to look at health needs until 2040) supports a wealth tax as a means of funding the health service and wellbeing measures as well as reducing inequality.
I hope Chippy is listening-a CGT will raise sod-all whereas a WT raises lots.
The UK Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering a WT at the moment.
"A new report by a public health group is calling for a wealth tax and a cross-party focus on wellbeing, saying it's needed to support the health system…..Further use of income and wealth tax levers is needed to reduce income and wealth inequities, and to support adequate investment in social and health services."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/570751/public-health-group-report-calls-for-wealth-tax-cross-party-focus-on-wellbeing
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/20/rachel-reeves-considering-tax-expensive-homes
It would be a whole lot easier to consistently expand the role of ACC and increase what it covers.
It is already our de facto public health insurer.
And all you would have to do to achieve it is keep upping its compulsory levies.
But would that act as a WT? That is the whole point.
The point of the report you cited was to fund healthcare. ACC is the efficient and well tried public mechanism.
How would we deal with the risk based weighting of the levies if Health was funded on an insurance basis. Incentivising improved safety is kinda ok in the accident sphere, but translating that to health could lead into some tricky areas
The report argues that reducing wealth inequality….that is transferring money/income from rich people to poorer people….will in itself improve heath outcomes…hence the specifically cited need for a WT.
I'd be down with acc becoming a full health system , take it out of my wages, bit private Healthcare needs to run out of town so we're all in it together.
Yep, if not run out of town, train their own staff and build all their own infrastructure. Clients that opt in to it, stay with it, not get moved to public when they become unprofitable.
Their clients can also wait till the private ambulance service turns up to take them for emergency care.
I'm picking you don't ride a motorcycle.
You'd be upping the flat/regressive component of revenue gathering while (I assume) reducing the progressive component of revenue gathering. You'd also be further/fully privatising the operational side of health.
How does this improve outcomes for low income and the vulnerable?
If a capital gains tax was in place…would fonterra sale have been liable…?
Are they just reading the reeds…and selling before that…?
There bye essentially ripping the rest of us off..?
The gain goes into the farmers estate (is still captured by estate taxes, which we had till 1993).
If they got any brains they'll smash debt, but probably new tractors utes and farms,
This must strengthen the case for a wealth tax and a capital gains tax.
The money is not going to farmers…it is going to animal-fatteners…
Farmers plant seed…and grow crops..
Animal-fatteners breed and fatten animals..for slaughter..
Fonterra is an animal-fatteners co-up..
..not a farmer within coo-ee…
Arable fears plant seeds.
Dairy farmers milk cows.
Sheep n beef farmers , you get the picture!
I do indeed ' get the picture'..
You however clearly do not…
..you believe that 'farmer' bullshit…(Pun intended)
Payouts to dairy farmers
They pay down debt (fair enough)
All that money zooms straight off to Australia
How, exactly is this good for NZInc? Are we not running out of things to sell yet?
They probably won't pay down debt massively, money spent clearing debt is taxed , money spent on the business or interest isn't , the games rigged I tell ya.
Anecdotal evidence suggests most farmers are allergic to paying the Taxman but they do pay some.
I found this IRD note responding to an OIA request: https://www.ird.govt.nz/-/media/project/ir/home/documents/oia-responses/july-2022/2022-07-22-profits-losses-and-averages-of-income-tax-for-farming-groups.pdf?modified=20220815004720&modified=20220815004720
They are bit yip they pay plenty, bit I recall suggesting to a close freind, just viable size farm , pay some extra debt in a good year, and they said they get wolloped with extra tax then that'll affect provisional for next year , and there's never a gaurentee on next year in farming