This Government seems to very much favour the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", but just like our poor fire appliances it's an ambulance that keeps breaking down and won't be able to help everybody.
Rather than seeing this as a storm to be weathered it would be nice for politicians to be seeing this as a warning sign as to how fragile our dependence on imported fuel is - the whim of a mad king, a natural disaster, an Asian economic downturn not to mention the Climate Crisis. It's not as if we don't know how to make things more resilient and the time to start was yesterday.
The Greens put that proposal several days ago (as well as advocating for years sensible actions to deal with the climate crisis) and have not had the courtesy of a response from the government. The current CoC are utterly unfit to govern.
Not just Seymour whining, the majority of ministers are spouting the accusation - '..... maxed out the credit card. ' during covid response - it is clearly part of their election misinformation campaign and Goldsmith did the same on morning report today. The interviewer/s allow it to sit unchallenged and, unfortunately, Carmel Sepoloni didn't pushback on the statement either. The opposition needs a standard and robust response to repeat whenever appropriate - we all know that 2x reports have found Labour's covid response to be robust and that they left office with a strong credit rating. We all know that Willis spend/borrowing in 2+ years is exceeding labour's 6 years and pandemic response and that the current environment is not related to a fuel crisis, but to the poor decision making of the current government, then further exacerbated by the fuel crisis.
The lack of push back by the media and the Labour Party is infuriating. I understand that Labour has limited opportunities but Carmel could have objected. Shane Jones repeated the lie that Labour canceled the Marsden Point refinery 3 times yesterday.....they did not but he was not once pulled up over it. Repeat something often enough and it is believed.
Some in labour do, but Carmel is not ideally suited to that interview format and is often somewhat wishy washy and a bit vague with her responses - they need to get one of their team who are more articulate and have the skills to robustly debate and refute the lies and misinformation and there are a number of them are well suited.
Agreed although I have sometimes thought her calm responses sound infinitely better than Willis's constant interruptions and talking over in her whiny loud voice.
“The previous government spent all the money, and while we are still cleaning up that mess, it limits our ability to respond to new pressures. That means any support we provide now must be disciplined, affordable, and carefully designed.”
Seymour!!! One of the worst in my opinion. Or is it ChatGPT ‘thinking’?
Jacinda Ardern’s under her breath summation of that man was so accurate.
Interesting to note that no-one in the Coalition of Chaos states what’s happening in the Middle East as totally unacceptable re “International Law”. I actually thought NZ believed in and supported that. Silly me.
Yet another example of this deceptive omnishambles of a government teying to fool the public they are actually doing something to help! It is beyond pathetic...thanks for calling it out Nick. The proposal from the Green Party would be a much better support and address tge greed of the fuel comoanies too!
$50 a week won't be enough - it has to cover not only fuel price rises, but also the subsequent rise in the cost of everything that is transported to shops. And then, there is the crunch, when supplies run out - they have done nothing to prepare for that.
I've seen it claimed, too, that this payment is not new money - they will be cutting other government programs to pay for it.
It is their standard trick: take in more money, then use some of it to bribe a group of voters. Just asking for a friend: has anyone else noticed how deflated Shame Jones seems lately, I’m not talking about a bicycle tyre but a whole bouncy castle?
He looked absolutely shattered in a clip I saw the other day. Perhaps he is beginning to understand his lies supporting fossil fuels are lies. I'm really really hoping this whole awful fiasco will be the end of this lot.
I understand the home support carers' unions met with the govt a couple of times, along with employers. Didn't do any good of course. I saw Tamara from E tu and the PSA delegate on the news - apart from being astonished TV 1 actually played it, I thought they were incredible. They of course are among the Care and Support Workers whose Pay Equity claim was stolen by Brooke van Velden. Home Care support is ultimately funded by the government. They could have easily remedied this outstanding injustice of petrol and car costs. They didn't. The other big lie that is really getting up my nose is Shane Jone's persistence in blaming Labour for closing Marsden Point. He was outrageous pointing his finger at "that woman" Megan Woods.. It will be a replay again today cos Megan has another question to him. Someone put up a cartoon of Sir Les Patterson (comedian) in the same suit as Shane Jones. I must find it.
Surely Luxon's and Willis' inept handling of the fuel supply issue will cost them the election? We need leaders - not tepid, beige procrastinators - running the country.
And this is also the promise of things to come, so weaning ourselves off fossil fuels is absolutely necessary, as you say Nick. It's soul-destroying that this government is so blind and incompetent in this current situation and in planning for the future.
A narrow, short-term fuel tweak dressed up as “targeted and timely” doesn’t meaningfully change anything. It doesn’t reduce demand (down only ~2.5% for last week), which tells you everything—we’re not dealing with discretionary spend. People still have to drive, still have to work, still have to move goods. A marginal subsidy doesn’t change that dynamic.
And calling it targeted is a joke. The brackets are so tight the very people actually carrying the load—the squeezed middle—are excluded. Too “rich” for support, not rich enough to absorb the hit.
So what are we left with?
Not hope.
Just hoping people don’t notice how little is actually being done.
Let’s suppose that the 143000 families have 2 children each and that there are 5,000,000 people in NZ. That means that there are 4,428,000 people NOT being helped by this government. That is outrageous.
It is all a propaganda device to get the vote Right, nit-picking on detail to attract those who have plenty - but just want more! If Willis manages her household the same as the economy for Kiwi's, it must be a pretty miserable place? The budget is really managing actual goods and services and sharing resources to balance Supply with Demand. GDP is the performance measure of the economy including Inflation. Money as a measure of effect not a control of economy, money cannot control the economy only trade can.
It is pretty obvious Nicola Willis is trying to do a Jacinda Ardern in a time of crisis. The weight loss to a nice slender figure, the tumbling curls and the sweet smile combined with the 'kindness' and the supposed concern for the poor and afflicted - to which the assistance doesn't extend - is designed to attract votes in Election year.
As always, political considerations come before the welfare of those most in need because they don't vote for us, so why waste money on them.
My wife is a level 3 community support worker and she is fuming. First they lose their pay parity and are still being paid minimum wage and now she is virtually subsidising the company she works for with the high petrol prices. It's criminal!
Businesses choose their customers, their markets, and ignore the rest. Governments shouldn't do that, but this one is, 'the party of business' catering to its 'customers'.
This Government seems to very much favour the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", but just like our poor fire appliances it's an ambulance that keeps breaking down and won't be able to help everybody.
Rather than seeing this as a storm to be weathered it would be nice for politicians to be seeing this as a warning sign as to how fragile our dependence on imported fuel is - the whim of a mad king, a natural disaster, an Asian economic downturn not to mention the Climate Crisis. It's not as if we don't know how to make things more resilient and the time to start was yesterday.
The Greens put that proposal several days ago (as well as advocating for years sensible actions to deal with the climate crisis) and have not had the courtesy of a response from the government. The current CoC are utterly unfit to govern.
The Green Party has given solutions to use now.
This government is actually making money from this crisis, putting the money aside for more election bribes?
I am so sick of seeing Seymour whining about the previous government. Please let's make sure he follows Brooke out of the beehive in November.
Not just Seymour whining, the majority of ministers are spouting the accusation - '..... maxed out the credit card. ' during covid response - it is clearly part of their election misinformation campaign and Goldsmith did the same on morning report today. The interviewer/s allow it to sit unchallenged and, unfortunately, Carmel Sepoloni didn't pushback on the statement either. The opposition needs a standard and robust response to repeat whenever appropriate - we all know that 2x reports have found Labour's covid response to be robust and that they left office with a strong credit rating. We all know that Willis spend/borrowing in 2+ years is exceeding labour's 6 years and pandemic response and that the current environment is not related to a fuel crisis, but to the poor decision making of the current government, then further exacerbated by the fuel crisis.
The lack of push back by the media and the Labour Party is infuriating. I understand that Labour has limited opportunities but Carmel could have objected. Shane Jones repeated the lie that Labour canceled the Marsden Point refinery 3 times yesterday.....they did not but he was not once pulled up over it. Repeat something often enough and it is believed.
Some in labour do, but Carmel is not ideally suited to that interview format and is often somewhat wishy washy and a bit vague with her responses - they need to get one of their team who are more articulate and have the skills to robustly debate and refute the lies and misinformation and there are a number of them are well suited.
Agreed although I have sometimes thought her calm responses sound infinitely better than Willis's constant interruptions and talking over in her whiny loud voice.
“The previous government spent all the money, and while we are still cleaning up that mess, it limits our ability to respond to new pressures. That means any support we provide now must be disciplined, affordable, and carefully designed.”
Seymour!!! One of the worst in my opinion. Or is it ChatGPT ‘thinking’?
Jacinda Ardern’s under her breath summation of that man was so accurate.
Interesting to note that no-one in the Coalition of Chaos states what’s happening in the Middle East as totally unacceptable re “International Law”. I actually thought NZ believed in and supported that. Silly me.
Yet another example of this deceptive omnishambles of a government teying to fool the public they are actually doing something to help! It is beyond pathetic...thanks for calling it out Nick. The proposal from the Green Party would be a much better support and address tge greed of the fuel comoanies too!
They are LITERALLY trying to buy a block of voters for November. And using OUR tax dollars to do it.
$50 a week won't be enough - it has to cover not only fuel price rises, but also the subsequent rise in the cost of everything that is transported to shops. And then, there is the crunch, when supplies run out - they have done nothing to prepare for that.
I've seen it claimed, too, that this payment is not new money - they will be cutting other government programs to pay for it.
Nek minnit…
It is their standard trick: take in more money, then use some of it to bribe a group of voters. Just asking for a friend: has anyone else noticed how deflated Shame Jones seems lately, I’m not talking about a bicycle tyre but a whole bouncy castle?
He is looking shabbier than usual, especially in that light blue suit. Meanwhile, has anyone seen Chris Bishop lately?
He looked absolutely shattered in a clip I saw the other day. Perhaps he is beginning to understand his lies supporting fossil fuels are lies. I'm really really hoping this whole awful fiasco will be the end of this lot.
He looks as if he has expanded somewhat.
Has he pulled his head in??
I understand the home support carers' unions met with the govt a couple of times, along with employers. Didn't do any good of course. I saw Tamara from E tu and the PSA delegate on the news - apart from being astonished TV 1 actually played it, I thought they were incredible. They of course are among the Care and Support Workers whose Pay Equity claim was stolen by Brooke van Velden. Home Care support is ultimately funded by the government. They could have easily remedied this outstanding injustice of petrol and car costs. They didn't. The other big lie that is really getting up my nose is Shane Jone's persistence in blaming Labour for closing Marsden Point. He was outrageous pointing his finger at "that woman" Megan Woods.. It will be a replay again today cos Megan has another question to him. Someone put up a cartoon of Sir Les Patterson (comedian) in the same suit as Shane Jones. I must find it.
He is just showing us how stupid he is! And its getting worse. One really does have to wonder about grumpy old men.
Shame Jones & Winston are just mad old men shouting at the clouds
Surely Luxon's and Willis' inept handling of the fuel supply issue will cost them the election? We need leaders - not tepid, beige procrastinators - running the country.
And this is also the promise of things to come, so weaning ourselves off fossil fuels is absolutely necessary, as you say Nick. It's soul-destroying that this government is so blind and incompetent in this current situation and in planning for the future.
Luxon’s right—hope isn’t a plan.
A narrow, short-term fuel tweak dressed up as “targeted and timely” doesn’t meaningfully change anything. It doesn’t reduce demand (down only ~2.5% for last week), which tells you everything—we’re not dealing with discretionary spend. People still have to drive, still have to work, still have to move goods. A marginal subsidy doesn’t change that dynamic.
And calling it targeted is a joke. The brackets are so tight the very people actually carrying the load—the squeezed middle—are excluded. Too “rich” for support, not rich enough to absorb the hit.
So what are we left with?
Not hope.
Just hoping people don’t notice how little is actually being done.
Let’s suppose that the 143000 families have 2 children each and that there are 5,000,000 people in NZ. That means that there are 4,428,000 people NOT being helped by this government. That is outrageous.
It is all a propaganda device to get the vote Right, nit-picking on detail to attract those who have plenty - but just want more! If Willis manages her household the same as the economy for Kiwi's, it must be a pretty miserable place? The budget is really managing actual goods and services and sharing resources to balance Supply with Demand. GDP is the performance measure of the economy including Inflation. Money as a measure of effect not a control of economy, money cannot control the economy only trade can.
It is pretty obvious Nicola Willis is trying to do a Jacinda Ardern in a time of crisis. The weight loss to a nice slender figure, the tumbling curls and the sweet smile combined with the 'kindness' and the supposed concern for the poor and afflicted - to which the assistance doesn't extend - is designed to attract votes in Election year.
As always, political considerations come before the welfare of those most in need because they don't vote for us, so why waste money on them.
JA was genuine, NW is oil on a rock - slippery, cruel and no empathy. Pretty sure the majority of NZers are either sniggering, or turning the TV off.
Hope you're right.
My wife is a level 3 community support worker and she is fuming. First they lose their pay parity and are still being paid minimum wage and now she is virtually subsidising the company she works for with the high petrol prices. It's criminal!
Businesses choose their customers, their markets, and ignore the rest. Governments shouldn't do that, but this one is, 'the party of business' catering to its 'customers'.