If this is Back on Track - let's not.
Brickbats and Bouquets for the week.
I used to want to plant bombs at the Last Night of the Proms
But now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom,
With that big shell, listening for the sound of the sea,
The baby and me
I stayed in bed, alone, uncertain
Then I met you, you drew the curtain
The sun came up, the trees began to sing and light shone in on everything
I love you
Towards the end of 1989, at the age of eighteen, I left my home town of Rotorua to seek fame and fortune in the big smoke - Auckland. It was an eventful year.
After a term of the 7th form I’d had enough of school. The plan to go off and be a lawyer, or an accountant, had lost whatever appeal it once had. To the disapproval of my teachers and parents I dropped out to “do something creative”, whatever that meant.
I’d no idea what but there was a music course advertised in the local paper the following week, and I’d been playing the guitar for a while so I figured that Rock Star might be the go. It could’ve been anything - writing, acting, whatever. I just wanted to get on with life.
After finishing the twenty week course my girlfriend Maria, who would become my first wife, and I, packed up the car with our dogs, a guitar of course, and the few belongings we had and headed for those streets of gold.
We ended up in Grey Lynn, which was handy for walking into the central library or to the Gluepot in Ponsonby. Life was pretty good, we didn’t have much money but that didn’t seem like such a problem at the time.
I started my first band, bought many second hand records, read a lot of books, wrote songs, and I vividly remember watching the Berlin wall come down on TV. Then a few weeks after that something momentous happened in Aotearoa - TV3 launched.
That was big deal, before then we only had the two TV channels, so an increase of 50% in viewing options was quite something. The new channel seemed young and vibrant compared to state TV. It was far from polished, quite amateur at times, but boy it looked like a lot of fun.
The show I remember most is Nightline, a late night news review including a political segment with Bill Ralston and guests. Early presenter Belinda Todd sticks in the memory. In a staid word of Judy Bailey and Richard Long’s mustache it was like someone had given Ginger Spice a few cocktails and told her to present the news, just being herself.
Here’s another old clip which might jog a few memories:
In Ralston’s bit he used to hand out Brickbats and Bouquets, and in this newsletter I’m going to do the same, rather than the usual marks out of ten for the week. It’s good to have a few Bouquets, celebrating positive things, with everything else that’s going on.
As for the Brickbats - let’s be realistic there were going to be a whole lot of 0/10 ratings this week, so the numbers weren’t going to serve any useful purpose. Speaking of which, let’s start as usual with Mike.
Mike’s Right Ratings and Ramblings.
So what did the voice of the below average Kiwi have to say this week? Perhaps a little compassion for media colleagues and public servants? Or maybe for his wife who was named as a racist this week, blurring the line between ZB’s hosts and audience.
The media: 2/10 - Tough week.
That’s it. Turns out not a lot of sympathy from Hosking at seeing actual journalists lose their jobs, or maybe he was being genuine and was referring to Kate.
I’m curious, what would have needed to happen this week in the media for it to have been ranked a one or a zero? Perhaps Hosking would find more empathy for others losing their jobs?
Job losses: 4/10 - No fun for anyone but it's what you get when a previous Government spends what they don’t have and creates jobs that don’t really exist.
For how long do you think Mike will continue to blame every issue on the last government? I suspect the more that things go badly the more the narrative will be that it’s all Labour’s fault. But he can’t pin this on them.
All of these job cuts are for one thing only. It’s not to pay down debt, it looks like that might increase. We all know that the public servants who are losing their jobs are doing so for one reason - to pay for Nicola’s tax cuts.
According to Mike the jobs that are being lost “don’t really exist”. Which must come as a surprise to those losing them, who are probably worried about who is going to do them when they’re gone. What does Hosking imagine they were doing? Sitting around listening to talkback?
The next comment is from Charlie, who in my experience is a bloke worth listening to. He was happy for me to include his full name but I decided a while back to mostly just use first names when I include comments. Rest assured they’re all from real people, it’s just that I get some pretty unpleasant correspondence from time to time and I’d prefer not to be responsible for that happening to anyone else.
“I've said this elsewhere, but I'll say it again here. As much as I feel for those people about to lose their jobs, I feel equally as bad for those that are staying behind, because the work those others were doing isn't going away, and so those left in their current jobs are going to find their work loads increase quite considerably.
It might also be true that these cuts are not so called ‘front line workers’. But all of those jobs that are affected are in roles that support those front line workers. EAP is about to have a windfall of burnt out, stressed out and overworked public sector workers calling them up.
This is a horrible and cruel policy that only serves to undermine the public service so large chunks of it can be outsourced. I have never been so angry about a sitting government for all of the time I've been back in NZ.. and I'm only less angry about it than I was watching Thatcher dismantle the UK back in the 80's..”
We’re going to end up with a whole lot of media people in Auckland out of work and nobody hiring. The same in Wellington, with thousands of public sector employees being laid off and it’s hard to imagine, with the current economic downturn and the ongoing cuts, where the heck they’re going to find another job.
If this is getting New Zealand Back on Track - let’s not.
Stuff are keeping a running count of public sector job cuts here. At the time of writing there were 1,471 confirmed roles that have been, or about to be, “disestablished”. But that number is going to get an awful lot bigger before they’re done.
Today’s number includes updated job losses at “the Tertiary Education Commission, Manatū Taonga, the Department of Conservation, Niwa, Callaghan Innovation, the Commerce Commission and Environment Ministry, and an update from police.”
These are in addition to those already confirmed or still being considered at Crown Law, Customs, MBIE, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the MoH, the MoJ, the ERO, MFAT, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, MPI, MSD, Waka Kotahi, NIWA, NZ T&E, Oranga Tamariki, Statistics NZ, and Treasury. Whew.
I think that might be enough from Mike.
Nick’s Left Leaning Brickbats and Bouquets.
Ok, a few from me, starting with something that was quite surprising.
Bouquet: ACT - Supporting the restoration of citizenship to people born in Western Samoa.
The Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples, Teanau Tuiono, has a member’s bill, which he describes as follows:
“Fairness is at the heart of this Bill. We had a group of New Zealand citizens who had their citizenship recognised and then had their citizenship removed by statute. That is unfair.”
Basically this is rectifying an injustice where in 1982 the Muldoon government took away the NZ citizenship of a number of Western Samoans, which the Privy Council had ruled they were entitled to.
On the passing of the first stage this week Teanau said, “I want to acknowledge my brother Faʻanānā Efeso Collins. I wish he was standing in this house today, and his leadership will continue to guide my mahi on this important Bill. This first reading is for him.”
Surprisingly the bill was supported by all parties except National, with both NZ First and ACT voting against the lead party of their coalition.
It wasn’t a major surprise that NZ First supported it, they’re a party who do take an interest in the Pacific region. But ACT’s support was a real surprise, and there were great cheers in parliament as a result.
It’s the first time National have lost a vote since they came to power, and it’s left them in an awkward position. Shane Reti, the Minister for Pacific Peoples, was asked whether National would’ve supported the bill if they had a Pacific MP in their caucus. Which is quite a burn.
Cheering for ACT from the parties of the left, and a bouquet from me. It’s only fair to acknowledge when they get it right, and while I’m far too cynical to think they did it because it was the right thing to do if those parties see more votes in supporting the bill, than opposing it - then that’s a good thing.
Brickbat: Shane Jones - scrapping the limit on the number of sea lions the fishing industry is permitted to accidentally kill.
Yes, Shane Jones, the Fisherman’s Friend, says when it comes to this endangered species, the industry can have at it as far as he’s concerned. With of course, no pesky cameras to observe.
DOC reports that there has been “a 24 percent decline in sea lion pups in the main population on the subantarctic Auckland Islands.”
“I think that we've got bigger things to worry about. There's probably more sea lions being predated upon by killer whales than politicians,” Jones said.
Which is just the sort of nuanced argument you expect from Shane. I hadn’t actually realised that politicians posed a predatory risk to sea lions, but in fairness this particular MP is famous for his love of the kaimoana.
Others saw things differently. World Wide Fund for Nature NZ chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb saying, “We know, based on the most recent pup count for rāpoka New Zealand sea lions, that the population is in a sustained state of decline. [Based on] their population count, there's... no justification for removing one of the last remaining safeguards we have for keeping these animals safe.”
From this article by Newshub:
Jones said the data shows the fishing industry only catches about two sea lions each year. But Newshub understands scientists are concerned that evidence is gathered by the fishing industry and kept secret.
"If there are only two to three sea lions being caught per year, then I don't understand why Shane Jones is refusing to set a limit of 33 sea lions," zoologist Liz Slooten said.
Jones was not interested in speaking further about sea lions on Thursday, walking off saying, "Free Willy, Free Willy, Free Willy".
The man is a buffoon. One with significant power in this coalition, and only Winston to act as a check and balance.
Bouquet: The readers of Nick’s Kōrero - for subscribing.
In my newsletter yesterday I had a bit of a moan about subscribing. It’s not something I enjoy doing, and I’m sure it’s not something you particularly enjoy reading. But sometimes it has to be done.
Quite a few people subscribed yesterday which made a long week with little reward feel a whole lot better. I’d been feeling a bit despondent that things had been a bit quiet on that front and seeing some new subscriptions come in felt really good.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the kind words of support, but the fact that someone is willing to put their hand in their pocket and pay for what you’re doing is a really good feeling.
So thank you, and welcome on board to those who signed up yesterday. If you’d like to join them as a subscriber please click the button below.
Take care all you lovely people, hope this weather isn’t too awful where you are. Here’s your old mate Billy with a lovely song called Brickbat. This post is public so you’re most welcome to share it if you’d like to.
Jones has no place in our Parliament , he is just an appalling person.
It's a sinister plot isn't it? First they get rid of 'fair pay agreements' then they axe jobs left, right and centre. So you ask the what's the big picture? It is to get more people unemployed so that those doing the hiring do not have to give pay rises or offer huge salaries. Thus our wages go down and people, who are desperate for any kind of work will take what is offered. The employer's will then adopt the mantra, as they did in the Key years, "if you don't like it then leave, there will be someone who will do the job for that price". It is a horrible and disgusting way of doing things, and only benefits business, as once again they do not have to worry about people. In fact, this type of thing brings the whole country down.