General Debate 30 September 2024

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Chuck Bird

A UK MP with some principles. Are there any here?

UK MP quits Labour in protest against PM Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to poverty

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/uk-mp-quits-labour-in-protest-against-pm-sir-keir-starmers-approach-to-poverty/7WAGIQHJAFDNVI32EDHFLB6L2M/
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September 30, 2024 8:11am
- Biscuit
  
  They’ll all be along shortly to downtick you, Chuck!
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:14am
- artemisia
  
  The previous UK government left a “£22 billion black hole” the PM said, justifying belt tightening. On cue the opponents appear, preferably on front page headlines, ably assisted by a compliant media.
  
  Sounds familiar.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:26am
- Eastlander
  
  His stand on the pensioner fuel allowance laid bare just how bad his political instincts are and just what he really thinks of the country he rules. The cost of the allowance was a pittance compared to Britain’s annual foreign aid splurge but he and his gang acted like they were saving Britain from bankruptcy.
  
  Starmer and friends really do see Britain not as a country but an NGO, a tax farm there to generate revenue for their global mission. British nationals to them aren’t citizens the government has any sort of special moral duty to, they’re just donors who need to cough up more so Britain (sorry, the ‘yoo-kay’) can continue being a ‘climate leader’ and ‘model for the world’.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:33am
- Grunter
  
  His cost-cutting policies seem to be the right ones – but his personal ‘grifting’ is disgusting but not surprising for a Labour PM.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:41am
  - Colville
    
    Explain that?
    Not a dig, just a question.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:22am
- imalwaysright
  
  Starmers job is to punish Britain to the extent that they will beg the EU to take them back.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:46am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That makes sense. The commies want to rejoin with their commie mates.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:28am
- Paulus
  
  It has been already established in the UK that Starmer is nowhere left enough for many of his own close people.
  They thoughg that with him they could lead and control the revolution.
  It is beginning to hit the Labour fan, we are told and the country will feel it.
  
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  September 30, 2024 10:12am
Grunter

I find it interesting being in Dunedin and listening to the outrage over the hospital. Wake up sheeples…..we are broke and digging deeper into debt each day.

If you are this angry over the hospital build just wait for the next 5-20 years when it becomes apparent that we can not afford the bloated welfare state, basic health care, retirement funding, let alone infrastructure.

In the real world money does NOT grow on trees. Why is that such a difficult reality to understand?
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September 30, 2024 8:13am
- Tomtoddy
  
  A lot of infrastructure chickens are coming home to roost – hospitals, roads, water/sewerage reticulation, ferries, ports etc. Decades of poor economic performance, low productivity, spending too much on houses and social services that were unnecessary and unaffordable have turned us into a ‘second’ world country. Can we ever catch up?
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:53am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    All that, but I think that the chicken that isn’t coming home to roost is the real elephant in the room. That is, the loss of competence as more and more of our ablest young people leave for better prospects overseas. More and more of the jobs, both in the public and the private sector, that really, really need to be done by somebody competent – aren’t. This will make things worse, encouraging more people to leave. It’s really hard to see how this vicious circle can be broken out of
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:04am
    - Phronesis
      
      This is the real problem. There’s a pretty limited pool of talent in this country and as soon as they realised that they couldn’t compete for the top jobs against the DEI hires then they left. The public service doesn’t even know what competence looks like anymore so how could they value it? Rational, evidence based decision making is now considered to be literally racist.
      
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      September 30, 2024 10:06am
  - cmm
    
    I would argue that we can only afford to be a second world country.
    
    It is all the “first world” entitlement and spending that is really getting us into debt.
    
    We end up with all sorts of ridiculous spending on stuff that does not bring real value to society.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:08am
    - PurplePen
      
      I’ve never thought us a first world country. Always teetering and in reality second world.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:40am
      - David Garrett
        
        Purple: We were indeed most definitely a first world country once – second only to the US in the 1950’s – but that of course is the time when we were “England’s farm”, and the “mother country” bought virtually of our agricultural produce.
        
        BTW the second world was/is not a state of development between the first and third worlds; it was the communist world, which of course now barely exists.
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:02am
      - cmm
        
        DG: “; it was the communist world, which of course now barely exists.”
        
        Given the was socialism has progressed, in some ways one could argue that communism (or at least parts thereof) has expanded.
        
        I think though that the “second world” name was more a way frame the communist world as inferior.
        
        It’s a bollocks label just like calling the third world “developing nations” is bollocks. Most are not developing. Most are regressing.
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:14am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      So what would be a good example of a second-world country that we could look to as a guide for re-setting public expectations?
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:56am
      - David Garrett
        
        Dudley: See above re the “second world”. Trust me on this: I remember asking one of my profs at uni just what the term meant. Back then of course, there was a communist world.
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:03am
      - Phronesis
        
        Most of the former second world countries are doing much better than us. They have consistent real gdp growth. Maybe Belarus?
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:12am
  - Grunter
    
    “Can we ever catch up?”
    
    Not under the existing tax and borrow centralised system. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is……insanity. Socialism is what we have, and even the Germans couldn’t make that work!
    
    The answer to all this is glaringly obvious – free-market capitalism, slash big Govt. But NZ will NEVER go there in our lifetimes.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:09am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “Can we ever catch up?”
    
    No. All the government has done is slow the decline.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:32am
  - cmm
    
    “Can we catch up?”
    
    OK, I’ll bite.
    
    What does “catching up” actually mean? With whom?
    
    The rate USA, UK, Japan etc are going, they’re all in for massive tumbles in the future – possibly quite soon too.
    
    When that happens then “catching up” will be the least of everyone’s worries.
    
    USA has national debt of $US100k per person and personal debt of a further $US125k per person. On top of that there are unfunded liabilities of around another $US25k per person.
    
    So despite all the people living flash lives in $100k trucks and huge houses, on average they are standing in a $250k per person hole.
    
    Is that what you want to “catch up” to?
    
    All this happens because of over-entitlement. People – be they Americans or NZers seem to think they “deserve” fancy $3bn hospitals and $100k trucks just because of when and where they were born.
    
    Does anyone really “deserve” more than people had in the 1960s?
    
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    September 30, 2024 10:08am
    - Phronesis
      
      AD or BC?
      
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      September 30, 2024 10:13am
- imalwaysright
  
  G
  Exactly.
  The adern regime did more damage to this country than if we had fought and lost a war.
  We have no money , severely damaged infrastructure , high prices, and a much reduced productive workforce.
  
  Her most sinister attack was that on the social cohesion of the country which now sees us fighting each other over trivial matters rather than pulling together to rebuild this great country.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:53am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Ardern’s damage will be with us for decades.
    She should be in jail. Thing is she is so ignorant and stupid she does not even know what she has done.
    Not her fault!//
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:32am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Some time ago a philanthropist offered to pay for all or some of the build cost (Public Private Partnership) and Labour turned it down saying they are the ones who build hospitals – or something. Now there is no money.
  Yet another Labour fuckup, and people will still vote for them!
  Did I get that wrong? Seems labour are now saying this is National’s fault.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:56am
  - pdm
    
    Not only voting for them SO.
    
    In Dunedin they even March in the streets to celebrate Labour’s incompetence.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:02am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Ardern:
    “She said there’s enough money in the government’s capital spending allowance to fully fund the new hospital without a PPP.”
    “She said the time frame set out by National to construct the hospital is too long, and not using a PPP would mean Labour could deliver the hospital sooner. ” Really Ardern??
    August 2017 she said Labour would begin building if elected to Govt, without PPP.
    ANOTHER LIE
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/08/labour-promises-new-dunedin-hospital.html
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:16am
    - RoboRob
      
      And the coverage from the legacy media over this is ‘zero’.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:35am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I keep hearing that. Is there any evidence or is it an urban myth?
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:36am
    - wsk12345
      
      Assuming it is true, perhaps the Coalition should seek a PPP for the build. Save some money and stick one up the left at the same time 🙂
      
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      September 30, 2024 10:01am
    - Phronesis
      
      He’s confused with the Wellington hospital that was built and donated. Dunedin was a commercial PPP arrangement.
      
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      September 30, 2024 10:16am
- cmm
  
  Grunter: Fair comment.
  But still, if there is going to be spending then let us get good value for money – don’t just piss it away.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:06am
- PurplePen
  
  I can sort of understand their outrage. All they’ve been told and heard from Nats, then Labour, then Nats is that you’re going to get a new world class hospital and you’re going to get it in record time. Then effectively they’ve finally been told you’re not because it’s going to cost another $1B or so. But all the punters can see is recent announcements about $10B for transport, the misunderstood landlord “tax rebate”, half a mil on the new regulations ministry, etc. Of course they’re not going to react positively. They will feel ripped off. And natural enough they’re expressing that.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:47am
artemisia

In the Herald today, not paywalled – Working from home WFH: Christopher Luxon’s office return order overlooks hybrid benefits

This article traverses mostly the downside of working in the office rather than WFH some or all the time, plus challenges of being in the office.

What is missing is any proposal or suggestions from these authors on how working in the office can be managed better so that productivity and ‘wellbeing’ are improved.

Given the backgrounds of these authors they should be well placed to advise on all options, not just the ones they (seem to) have cherry picked research for. Like, for example, what would be useful for managers to learn and do so they can improve productivity of their staff even though, gasp, they might have to be under the boss’s eye again.

The authors – Stephen Blumenfeld, Director, Centre for Labour, Employment and Work; Chris Peace, Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety; Joanne Crawford, Worksafe New Zealand Chair in Health and Safety; Roya Gorjifard, Doctoral Candidate, School of Health. All are based at Victoria University of Wellington.
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September 30, 2024 8:16am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I have not read the article, but….
  
  Here is a way that public service managers could improve productivity in offices… Reduce the volume of folk talking and playing the fool in open plan offices below that of a crowded pub.
  
  Also at home you are “under the eye” of your boss at any time. It is called the camera staring at you.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:29am
  - Jethrod
    
    Also, somehow reduce the reliance of people on their phones. Really glaring example is when you drive past a building site there is ALWAYS someone on their phone. Also the supervisors of road cones …… the same.
    
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    September 30, 2024 8:43am
    - RoboRob
      
      The health and safety costs are now a significant portion of any job. Simply doing work on the footpath now requires one laning a road and two or three ‘cone experts’ on site over days to check and adjust 500 road cones.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:37am
      - David Garrett
        
        Robo: As I have said here before, up in Tonga – where the roads are much narrower than here – they seem to be able to manage significant infrastructure work – such as replacing power poles – with only half a dozen cones, and one guy – not wearing hard hat and gloves – slowing the traffic in the lane where the work is going on. There probably aren’t 100 cones in the whole bloody kingdom!!
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:07am
  - rouppe
    
    It is called the camera staring at you.
    
    I hope you mean the boss can call you up any time.
    
    Even though it is possible, if you think there is someone covertly monitoring the webcam of every person in the office, you are seriously out of touch.
    
    That is the equivalent of your opinion on the Pfizer jab causing heart disease.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:02am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I don’t have any opinions on the vaccine causing heart disease. I have a peer reviewed data set with 46 million records. What do you have?
      
      If a manager cannot manage people working at home, the manager is incompetent. I’m clearly referring to knowledge based workers. I understand that cafe workers can’t work at home.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:41am
      - David Garrett
        
        Bene: Aside from the twelve months I was suspended from practice, I have been self employed for 25 years, and aside from client meetings and court appearances, I have worked from home the entire time – well, the entire time I was working in NZanyway.
        
        On the rare occasions when I had to go in the shit-hole that is Auckland city, I always used to shake my head about the congestion, and wonder why on earth these people did it. Every day of the working week.
        
        Up in Tonga my commute is less than ten minutes, and “rush hour” lasts about ten or 15 minutes morning and evening. Very laid back.
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:12am
  - imalwaysright
    
    ” Here is a way that public service managers could improve productivity in offices… ”
    
    Instead of having the morning powhiri, I would invite a couple of representatives from Social Welfare to give a presentation to the staff on their dole entitlements should they be lazy enough to lose their job.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:10am
    - RoboRob
      
      Yeah. When I work from home it is on a PC, with a real keyboard and monitor, NO web cam. I have a phone 🙂
      
      Many laptops have a physical cover for the camera to block spying and if yours doesn’t some tape will do the job nicely. Your boss has no idea what you are doing as long as you are reponding to calls and emails periodically. Thats why, state services in particular, should be in office.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:39am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Sorry for my unclear language. I meant to convey that the boss can video call at any time.
        
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        September 30, 2024 9:51am
- Flossie
  
  Hard to feel sympathy for these precious office workers when others have to front up to their workplace….talking about nurses, drivers, plumbers, retail workers, chefs and many more.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:31am
  - artemisia
    
    Rob MacCulloch reckons those who have to front up every working day should get paid 20% more, and those WFH paid 20% less.
    
    https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/the-public-services-association-union-is-causing-public-services-in-nz-to-collapse-nurses-teacher
    
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    September 30, 2024 8:37am
    - I remember when
      
      Yes, no doubt the Union used the cost of getting to and being at the office when justifying their pay claims.
      
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      September 30, 2024 8:42am
    - cmm
      
      That would be an interesting experiment.
      
      I’ll wager a lot of people would go for the 20% less and, on the basis that they are being paid less, goof off even more.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:18am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        If someone “goofs off” they will not deliver what they have been asked to do. There will then be consequences. It does not matter a damn whether they are in the Wellington office, at home in Petone, in Sydney, or Tehran.
        
        I have worked on a team with folk all over New Zealand, in Sydney, and in the UK. You think we didn’t do anything because we were not all gathered in a Wellington office? We all met every morning, 12 happy faces on the giant monitor, to review milestones. We would sure know if someone was “goofing off”.
        
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        September 30, 2024 9:48am
      - wsk12345
        
        That’s naive BY. Your experience is not THE experience. I know plenty of WFH people who spend at least 1-2 days per week of work time (in time not all at once) doing personal stuff.
        
        You can’t tell if they are delivering. One is an EA. As long as she books the travel, organises the meetings and answers the phone nobody asks any questions. Does she have a lot of free capacity? Yes. Who would know? Only the people she talks to or sees personally on WFH time.
        
        Many jobs can’t be measured easily, how long does it take to carry out that complex bit of analysis – 2 days or a week? Who knows and therefore who knows if they have spare capacity that could be utilised by the person paying their salary.
        
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        September 30, 2024 10:10am
  - I remember when
    
    BY’s correction draws attention to one of the differences when working from home.
    At work management can see you without needing to check.
    
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    September 30, 2024 10:02am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  It has shown the ugliness of modern entitlement combined with a short period where there was heaps of (borrowed) money and it was hard to get staff.
  
  These people think that their employer owes them more than a pay check and they shouldn’t have to work too hard to get it.
  
  Wait you want me to actual go into your place of business to do my job
  Pfft. Your lucky I even turn my computer on.
  
  These snowflakes can’t handle being in a physical location. The anxiety that someone might have a different opinion at the water cooler (or fancy coffee machine these days) is too much for them.
  
  Things were much better when labour were splashing money around and they could wfh on 150k doing a job managing something that hadn’t started yet so there wasn’t anything to do (true story).
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:55am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “The anxiety that someone might have a different opinion at the water cooler (or fancy coffee machine these days) is too much for them.”
    
    My anxiety is caused by 20 people nearby, shouting and laughing while I am trying to concentrate on complex work. They are shouting on the phone, talking about their weekend, gossiping and playing the fool.
    
    Until managers solve this problem, these are not serious places for work.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:56am
- PurplePen
  
  Yes. Skim read it. I had to laugh as isn’t it the hallowed universities crying about students not turning up to lectures and students wanting to just view them all online. The university argument includes things such as connecting with others on campus etc.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:52am
- PurplePen
  
  I blame managers or middle managers. If some of your staff just produce widgets, of the white-collar type, then you tell them how many they must output each day or week etc and they can do this anywhere they want. If it’s other outputs, more creative or thinking perhaps wouldn’t the manager still be able to assign deliverables with a due date knowing the competency of the worker and the scope of the work required. It then doesn’t matter where they are. There will be some efficiencies from doing the work in the office, especially if you need to work with others. If you choose not to do this and ask for more time as a result, then no. You’re not working effectively.
  
  As for noisy offices and distractions, again on the manager. Why is the office allowed to get noisy in the first place. Years ago we used to have quiet time every day until 10. No internal meetings nor internal phone calls before 10 am every day. It worked very well.
  
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  September 30, 2024 10:00am
Cassandra

Massive protests in Dunedin re downsize of its new hospital. Total population of Otago is 235,000 (less than Manawatu-Wanganui) and Southland 100,000 (less than Taranaki) so 39,000 protesting is a lot of people. $3 billion is $9,ooo per person so that’s one possible solution. You’d wonder what planet these 39,000 people are on, but then you’d remember that Dunedin votes left totally, therefore money grows on trees.
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September 30, 2024 8:20am
- David Garrett
  
  Cass: The thought that immediately came to my mind was if this was all straightforward, how come Labour never got around to building it? What a complete shit show the Ardern government was!
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:28am
  - RoboRob
    
    The wonderful legacy ‘news’ outlets are pinning this all on the current government, who has been in place all of a year. There is no mention of Labour skuttling the PPP that would have helped pay for it, of Labour promising the hospital sooner then nationals 2024-2027 timeline, of labour cutting facilities from the original plan after the first blow out or of the ex Labour minister running the build.
    
    Just like with the ferries, Labour make a total hash of it, national have to pull the plug or just borrow more money and yet its all those nasty National ministers fault.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:08am
- artemisia
  
  Are you suggesting that the protesters each donate $9k to the hospital rebuild? Excellent idea, and actually they should be allowed to pledge and pay it over the next couple of years if they wish.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:29am
  - RoboRob
    
    Lol, like they would ever pay 🙂
    
    Someone posted last week that Otago doesn’t have the rich benefactors up north to help pay for this sort thing, like happened with the childrens hospital. The poster forgets one quite rich and famous southlander, Richard Taylor. The same lefty who would like to pay increased taxes to help the country but only if he could be sure the government would use it wisely (lol). Perhaps some local fundraising could plug the $1.2b overrun. Its a big number.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:12am
- Blackbob
  
  These were the same people happy with previous Govt. slashing the project as well, why spend money on a region that votes for you anyway…
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:29am
- nz_aj
  
  And there is 157+ bed hospital in Invercargill and 25 bed at Queenstown.
  South Island isn’t where the population growth is.
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:52am
  - RoboRob
    
    Not sure that’s entirely true. Christchurch, Queenstown and the Nelson area are all growing rapidly. Facilities are needed here, its a question of right sizing things, building them affordably and in a way that maintenance is affordable.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:15am
    - Ghost
      
      I would guess most hospitals need substantial investment to either extend or build new. Our infrastructure is not built for today’s population.
      
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      September 30, 2024 9:24am
      - RoboRob
        
        Totally, but you can design and build in cheaper / better ways. If you build with certain materials the cost of building might be lower and / or the cost of ongoing maintenance might be significantly lower.
        
        For example my kids old school rebuild has resulted in a beautiful set of buildings with expansive wooding decking, raised and lowered grass (artificial in places) and not a solar panel in site.
        
        Every few years (2?) the massive decks will need restraining. Every 10years or so the artificial grass will need replacing. Not putting solar power on will save $100,000 or so on upfront costs but would have paid for itself 10x over the life of a school. Just a stupid design.
        
        My primary school when I grew up was made of unpainted concrete block. Indestructible with zero on going maintenance. Year it looked a bit military but worked and as a kid I never noticed.
        
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        September 30, 2024 9:49am
    - wsk12345
      
      I heard last week from someone who bought a $1.8m house in Christchurch that “in the end we decided to just suck it up because for two years we have lost out on every place we offered on to people moving from Auckland or Wellington, and to whom this is just a fairly average price for a nice house.”
      
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      September 30, 2024 10:14am
- Colville
  
  Cass.
  
  My Brother is in Palmy hospital right now and I have visited a couple of times in the last weeks so had time to have a look at it its sad and shabby.
  Pete has a window bed on the 4th floor…on the ceiling times there appears to be dried blood spray… he commented on it because it was there when he was in there 4 months ago…so great cleaning.
  He and I were part of the rebuild done to that hospital back in about 2002… and it hasnt been touched since.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:28am
  - Ghost
    
    I was watching an old series of undercover boss Canada. Impressive. It was a large hospital that also catered to war veterans. The maintenance personal were constantly on the go, touching up paint that had been damaged, repairing walls. He really took pride in his job and keeping the hospital looking new. Meanwhile, the hospital down here had some renovation work done a while ago, including in the ED. Last time I was in there I noticed water stains on the ceiling. Although they had finally fixed the hole in the wall where someone had punched the wall.
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:49am
- Lance
  
  West Auckland has around the population of ChCh and growing fast.
  If has a clinic.. at best a half arsed hospital with a few services. The majority of surgery etc is performed at North Shore hospital. So if you come down with appendicitis, it is a long journey to North Shore hospital. This is not a sparse rural community, but a densely populated urban sprawl.
  So Dunedin is collectively throwing their toys out of the cot because they can’t have the most expensive hospital in the Southern Hemisphere, while West Auckland which would house Dunedin as a small suburb, has fuck all.
  We know where the entitlement is.
  West Auckland is constantly pissed on becasue it is not right enough or not left enough for the local and central govts.
  It also has the two most congested roads in NZ with zero chance of them ever being sorted.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:41am
  - MCōs
    
    North Shore, Waitakere, Auckland and Middlemore have a combined approaching three thousand beds, all within reach of West Auckland for a combined population of about one and a half million people
    Dunedin and Christchurch hospitals have about twelve hundred. Timaru is 132 for example
    The South Island is a big area and I expect a lot of people travel a long way out of necessity to get to one or other of those hospitals.
    
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    September 30, 2024 10:09am
- Eastlander
  
  It has been noted before but the number of protestors will not have been as high as that. News media everywhere talk up the headcounts of demonstrations they support.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:46am
- MCōs
  
  Maybe the people of NZ should have a referendum on what should get built
  Dunedin Hospital
  EW Link between Onehunga and the Southern MW which would cost about the same
  Tunnel between Kilbirnie and Wellington CBD
  Another Harbour/Bridge
  Flash Cook Strait ferries
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:47am
Bridgenag

Sunday Strip: The Gender Bias of Slaying Dragons
Playing with fire.

Man identifying as 6 year old breaks all records in T-ball league

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/sunday-strip-the-gender-bias-of-slaying?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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September 30, 2024 8:23am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  My favourite: “People who think men can get pregnant are suddenly worried about misinformation on Twitter.”
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:55am
Kiwiguy

I notice everyone has these newfangled pronoun thingys these days, so I’m thinking of jumping on the bandwagon.
Being a regular straight Kiwi bloke with a sense of humour, my new pronouns will be he/he.
16 1
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September 30, 2024 8:23am
- Grunter
  
  Ha Ha – very good! I think I’ll steal that one, and it will really grind with my woke daughters!
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:48am
- Jethrod
  
  How about mine….. she/it !
  
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  September 30, 2024 8:48am
- imalwaysright
  
  Who/What would be a mind bender for them.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:45am
I remember when

What’s afoot in Palmerston North.
A ‘foot’ is the amount of rainfall registered for August/September at Palmerston North Airport.
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September 30, 2024 8:37am
Yvette

Subtle photo mis-information?
Is RNZ photographer Samuel Rillstone establishing an personal identity through a visual gimmick, or intentionally expressing a biased view – more subjective (a perspective based on feelings, opinions, or emotions) than objective (an view based on facts and evidence, uncluttered by obscurity – literally perhaps in this case)?

Two photo examples –
• Chief Ombudsman criticises Costello over withholding tobacco documents
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/528429/chief-ombudsman-criticises-costello-over-withholding-tobacco-documents
• ‘Most benefit’ of government’s tobacco tax cuts will go to tobacco company Philip Morris, officials told Casey Costello
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/529387/most-benefit-of-government-s-tobacco-tax-cuts-will-go-to-tobacco-company-philip-morris-officials-told-casey-costello

Google ‘Samuel Rillstone photographer RNZ’, click on IMAGES, for more examples.

If an ancient adage that ‘one picture is worth a thousand word’ is true, what are the photos of RNZ photographer Samuel Rillstone saying?

And, if a article writer can be biased, why not the accompanying photos, especially as they are usually the first impression?
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September 30, 2024 8:40am
- Jethrod
  
  Why does RNZ need a photographer?
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:26am
  - cmm
    
    Maybe that’s all the photos are good for?
    
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    September 30, 2024 9:40am
Matt Long

Great to see that there’s still no accountability for city sewage spills, but fines for dairy effluent spills keep getting steeper.
Future projection, rural polluters will be forced out of business and Auckland beaches will be off limits for swimming and food gathering most of the time.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/one-of-aucklands-most-popular-beaches-off-limits-to-swimmers-after-sewage-overflow/2WJ7OJRRNJDXVMPM54VYHWTMBU/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350431749/massive-fine-305900-imposed-dairy-farm-offending
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September 30, 2024 8:47am
- pdm
  
  Matt that is known as the ‘kick a farmer, any farmer, in the guts when he/she is down syndrome’.
  
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  September 30, 2024 9:07am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

“U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon is once again stepping into the spotlight as the presiding judge for the case of Ryan Routh, who has been charged with attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump”
I am thinking Routh will be working on insanity.

https://conservativeadvocacy.com/judge-cannon-presides-over-case-against-alleged-trump-assassin/?
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September 30, 2024 9:59am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Harris to do another interview.
Maybe the reporter will ask what her policies are, but don’t hold your breath, it is Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC.

https://politicalactionalerts.com/kamala-harris-finally-faces-the-media-with-rare-msnbc-interview/?
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September 30, 2024 10:05am
Chuck Bird

Australia has a big problem with Muslims even second and third generation born in Oz. Their loyalty is more to other Muslim countries than the country they were born in.

Thousands rally in major cities across Australia against Israeli aggression | ABC News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCMVQ0zE_I
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September 30, 2024 10:11am

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