Open Mike 30/09/25
Open Mike 30/09/25
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6:00 am, September 30th, 2025 - 31 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
Gaza peace proposal ignores the terrorism of the Zionist state
New Post up:
Gaza peace proposal ignores the terrorism of the Zionist state
Labour in the UK has attacked billionaires who are undermining net zero targets.
Labour is in a fight against “global network of rightwing billionaires” who want to undermine net zero for their “vested interests”, said energy secretary Ed Miliband….he said that the Conservatives and Reform UK were “importing a net zero culture war” and that accelerating the green transition would be key to winning the argument with the public.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/29/labour-must-fight-right-wing-billionaires-undermining-net-zero-ed-miliband
Miliband recognises that the unions in Britain have also undermined progress to Net Zero by arguing to continue fossil fuel extraction because this involves high paid unionised jobs. His solution is to require unionisation of jobs associated with Net Zero, especially those in renewable energy.
"Miliband will also promise to accelerate unionisation of the green energy sector – amid a backlash among trade unions on the drive to net zero which they have said comes at a cost of highly paid unionised jobs in oil and gas. The energy secretary has come in for fierce criticism from some unions, including GMB and Unite, over the risk to the jobs for workers particularly in the North Sea."
The government is set to require offshore wind developers to pay into a skills fund to support oil and gas workers, apprentices or school leavers to move into offshore wind.. …he will pledge to create a “fair worker charter”, which will mean that companies which receive public funding will have to guarantee fair pay, flexible working and access to unionisation."
Labour in NZ could learn a lot from the Labour UK approach. Hipkins is making a lot of sense right now in relation to this issue on RNZ’s Morning Report, starting at about 8.06am-worth a listen.
Certainly helped that petrol and diesel car sales in the UK are down to under 60% by last year. Back in 2020 petrol and diesel market share was 80%. That's a whole bunch of car companies selling the narrative for you.
Record number of electric cars were sold in UK during 2024 | Automotive industry | The Guardian
Also UK's total electricity generation is now down to 40% from fossil fuels.
That's a whole bunch of electricity generators and retailers selling the narrative for you:
National Grid: Live
Excellent Ad.
“The number of new cars sold in the UK rose by 2.6% in 2024 to 1.95m, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) lobby group. Of those, 19.6% were electric, up from 16.5% a year earlier.”
That puts NZ to shame.
I was also flagging that we are in a much darker place now than the UK.
Our scope of government is now very small. Most corporate entities now successfully resist reform:
– Fonterra and Dairy NZ and Federated Farmers resisting water reform at all costs
– The Big 4 electricity retailers resisting electricity market reform
– 3 main alcoholic drink suppliers, happy to weaponise any little hearing
– The top 2 airports, and 1 main airline, resisting each other and nay price competition
– 2 meat producers, 2 horticultural foods providers, 1 dominant milk company
– The top 2 insurers, and just 1 main health insurer
– 2 councils covering 50% of the population
– 3 fuel retailers
– 3 main banks covering about 78% of all local banking, continuing to chip away via Willis
– 2 supermarket chains successfully resisting anything
– 4 constructors, employing about 80% of the construction workforce
You know the rest. All of them have successfully resisted reform, some inciting massive protest against government.
– For some reason related to low union membership and 5% of New Zealand owning about 40% of all the assets and most of the directorships of the companies and entities above.
… against all that we have a shrinking state with weakening capacity to cope let alone design and execute new and effective regulation of any of them.
Batshit crazy. Well..yes!
And of course here in NZ we have an anti Science Govt which has slashed Science….IMO leading a dumbing down. (apart from their drive for Science as a Commercial aspect..IE money : (
Further to batshit crazy,trump et al, including NZ's own maga drillers. A good Newsroom article by someone I have read for many years..Dr Kevin Trenberth Climate Scientist.
IMO I find as ever, the antivax conspiracist….quite often also climate deniers
Last year I tried to defend Biden as a great president, until I realised that by the time Trump leaves office in 2028 he will have dominated US and world politics since at least 2016 ie 12 years, and massively and permanently so.
Whatever our mental and theoretical framing was in 2016, it's not working now and will work even less in 2028.
The scary thing is that the LLMs feeding the current AI [gen-AI] hype have been trained on that and future versions will too, i.e., GIGO.
The government wants cover for its flawed gas policy.
They are clearly failing to attract interest in exploring for gas and would like to pretend this is because of Labour policy.
If they want more gas for local use in the next 10 years they have to talk to Methanex. Then the future of gas is renewable gas.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-urges-labour-leader-chris-hipkins-to-commit-to-offshore-gas-exploration/7KU5AMPDERGXPMTL657PZCI6HE/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360839142/hipkins-read-letter-luxon-after-it-was-made-public
Looks like clutson thinks he can corner chippie by useing the media, who opens the initial stage of trying to get consensus by going to the media?
Performative PR aka political grandstanding that sums up the immature one-upmanship of the Prime Manager of NZ, Christopher Luxon.
100%
Heh!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574530/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-asks-labour-leader-chris-hipkins-to-support-offshore-gas-exploration
Mr Thumb is asking for bipartisanship on allowing looking for unobtanium.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574530/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-asks-labour-leader-chris-hipkins-to-support-offshore-gas-exploration
That should be an easy yes as most of the korero is that it's gone, not there.
The key is what do Labour ask for in return?
Obviously a big increase in the % the government gets in commission on discovery.
But what else?
Reinstatement of the Pay Equity rollbacks?
Reinstatement of Maori Health Authority?
Radical revamp of tax system?
….
Great opportunity for chippie to explain the reality v coalitions maga like drill baby drill bs they banged on about.
If it was there in economically extractable amounts they'd be knocking the government doors down.
NZ need to have it explained they got played by the likes of jones etc just as the voters in usa did.
I well remember sitting next to an eletrical engineer on a flight from Singapore, who was coming to NZ to join an oil drilling rig off Southland, to work on repairs as it was towed to its next destination. "Was there anything there ?". "Its been plugged, will be back when economically viable".
Well, at least we're all safe now from the ravaging hoards.
The coalition Government has maintained an unapologetic stance to its tough on crime approach, in the face of a surging prison population and skyrocketing costs
New annual justice sector projections released in June show a much steeper rise in the expected prison population than previous projections, taking into account the impacts of the coalition’s law and order policies.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/29/prison-population-reaches-new-all-time-high/
We have a high imprisonment rate compared to the rest of the OECD.
Māori are overrepresented at every stage in the criminal justice system.
Our reoffending rates are high.
Most people that are in the criminal justice system have been abused.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/justice-sector-policy/key-initiatives/key-initiatives-archive/hapaitia-te-oranga-tangata/
Debunking the RW deliberate misinformation that the majority are imprisioned for violent crimes.
I think most people will agree there is a small group of prisoners who need to be incarcerated to protect society, due to the nature of their offending.
I've experienced being institutionalised (not in prison, but the effect is the same) so completely understand that unecessary incarceration is completely counterproductive to any sort of rehabilitation. I can confidently say that a lot of re-offending is due to needing to return to the place they were institutionalised because it's easier to be told what to do and when to do it. I really wish this was acknowledged more, because less institutionalisation = less reoffending.
There are plenty of alternatives for a lot of crimes, plus the punishment of just having a criminal conviction that makes getting employment near impossible, and problems travelling abroad is more than enough. (Although, having employment is vital for rehab, so not sure what the solution is there.)
What about a Rehabilitation of Offenders Act such as the UK has had now for over half a century? After a certain time without reoffending you'd no longer have to disclose most past convictions. Devil is in the detail of course, but that's the guts of it.
I read this a while ago and it resonated very strongly with where we are. Sorry,
Don’t have the link to the original author.
We have the similar Clean Slate act, championed by Green MP Nandor Tanczos which became law in 2004:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Records_(Clean_Slate)_Act_2004
The increased prison population in NZ is entirely by design and an implicit KPI of the Coalition:
Some people who voted for the Coalition might have second thoughts.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/574483/auckland-prison-expansion-plans-under-fast-track-legislation-surprises-paremoremo-residents
This is in Mark Mitchell’s electorate [MM is the Minister of Corrections].
Quick, more tax breaks!
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President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday he will be imposing a 100% tariff “on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/29/economy/trump-movie-tariff
Have they considered what the dividends being paid on the privately held shares is, compared to the current cost of public debt (and then the amount of income tax they receive from that dividend income)?
There may be little real cost to getting control in one go.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/574564/unions-call-for-return-of-electricity-generators-to-public-ownership
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574574/goverment-changes-how-new-zealand-buys-medical-equipment
As a patient I couldn’t care less about the ‘value’ of those items as long as they enable delivery of good care for me. Get your priorities right [without capitalised first letter], Minister Simeon Brown.
Patient, how quaint.
Nowadays you are seen as a client, a consumer or a statistic.
Anyone would think you own and fund the health system/sarc.
To be fair to Brown, he did seem to find or remember his speaking notes:
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/30/ministerial-compromise-seeks-efficiencies-in-buying-1-5b-of-medical-devices/
I see myself as a human and as a patient when I’m unwell enough to seek and require medical care, which is when, and only then, I’d go to hospital. I know this is an unusual way of looking at it but so be it.
Centralising the purchasing was surely one of the pluses of Andrew Little's changes in health. Rather than multiple DHBs doing it. It does make sense.
HOWEVER, I am suspicious of the hugely increased role Pharmac is now going to have, and if they have the right skills there for equipment purchasing. Seymour is the minister and I would imaging he is strongly connected to Big Pharma. Pharmac is getting to be quite a powerful little organisation. Hmmmm.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360839822/first-films-then-forests-trump-launches-another-tariff-while-nz-trade-minister-responds-film-threat
So why did we suck up to Trump over Palestine?
The government has explained.
Canada, Oz and UK are led by the "left". France by a centrist.
Germany and Italy have right wing governments and have not recognised Palestine.
They are not left. They are further to the right than the governments of Germany and Italy.