Less Than The Minimum.
A bad week for Bottom Feeders and Shock Jocks.
This morning it occurred to me that I felt a bit sorry for Mike Hosking.
Not because of the things he must have to listen to inside his head. Although that must be like a scene from a ghastly horror, in which the victim is locked in and can’t escape the neverending words of a narcissistic sociopath. Speaking in their own voice.
No, it was simply that on a Friday Mike likes to produce a segment called Mark the Week, or as I refer to it Mock the Weak, in which he discredits anything to do with the left, blows smoke up the backsides of the right, and intones whatever horrendous mantra he happens to be pushing that week.
By the way this week that happened to be Mike telling us that he lacked sympathy for Golriz Ghahraman, quelle surprise.
Yes, many of us have been feeling concerned for Golriz, sad at how things turned out, but not old Mike. No, in his words “If she did it, she is a thief and she deserves what's coming to her.”
Nice. Real subtle Mike. To be honest it wouldn’t have been much different if you’d just said “Brown woman bad”, I’m sure that’s what your listeners heard in any case.
“Yes, women get attacked online. We all get attacked online… But it doesn’t mean you nick stuff”, he said.
Which was ironic considering Hosking is probably more responsible than anyone for the stream of abuse and threats that people like Golriz constantly face. Whipping his poorly educated, fearful audience into a fury against things he disagrees with.
So yeah, I thought about Mike trying to write his Mark the Week, attempting to make a silk purse from the performance of his government this week and I thought “good luck with that pal”. Although I didn’t really mean it.
What a calamitous performance it’s been. From the soap opera around Casey Costello with the drip feeding of details by the day, the Bishop and Brownlee show in parliament, or Jesus - where do you even start with David Seymour this week?
To be fair, despite the displeasure of a lot of people over his Treaty makeover bill, you’d have to say that ACT are playing hard to win.
Look at all the money being pumped into advertising from ex Act MP, and current Newstalk ZB commentator, Muriel Newman’s group the New Zealand Centre for Political Research.
I’ve had a number of readers contact me from different regions, concerned at this propaganda being distributed with their local paper.
It left me with both a question and an answer.
The question being - who has funded such a large scale distribution of this material in the interests of swaying opinion ACT’s way for a Treaty referendum?
Many have speculated that ACT want to take us back in time in terms of race relations and the progress made. Well the answer I got from this distribution was to the question - just how far back do they want to take us?
Apparently the answer to that is 1922! That’s when the explanation of the Treaty being foisted on people was written. More than one hundred years ago.
I wonder how long it’ll be before NZ First take a leaf out of ACT’s book and start distributing advice on smoking from 1922? Although I’m not even sure that would be as absurd as some of the comments made by Casey Costello.
Yes, among a number of things that were hard to fathom Ms Costello, using a tactic employed by Tobacco lobbyists, declared that Nicotine was no more dangerous than caffeine. Come on folks, lighten up. Sorry, that should read light em up - they’re no more dangerous than a Cappuccino, apparently.
Although based on what the folks at the National Library of Medicine have to say about Nicotine, you might want to step away from that coffee!
“Nicotine poses several health hazards. There is an increased risk of cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal disorders. There is decreased immune response and it also poses ill impacts on the reproductive health. It affects the cell proliferation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, DNA mutation by various mechanisms which leads to cancer. It also affects the tumor proliferation and metastasis and causes resistance to chemo and radio therapeutic agents. The use of nicotine needs regulation. The sale of nicotine should be under supervision of trained medical personnel.”
Yesterday Casey Costello had to stand in parliament and pretend that she didn’t know where a piece of paper saying “Freeze the excise rates on smoked tobacco for three years starting 31 December 2023”, that was sent from her office to officials came from. It was a mystery.
Labour’s Health spokesperson, Ayesha Verrall, asked: “Do things in her office just appear out of thin air?”
It was like the worst ever performance on the game show “Would I lie to you?” With the opposition panellists obviously knowing that the contestant was talking absolute bollocks.
In addition to that David Seymour was asked to answer, on behalf of the PM, whether the Tobacco Industry had any part in developing or writing documents issued by Casey Costello to Ministry of Health officials.
That was followed by excellent work from both Carmel Sepuloni and Grant Robertson raising Points of Order. James Shaw summarised things very well too. Bishop on the other hand looked like an ineffectual prat running interference, while Seymour obviously had no intention of answering the question.
It hasn’t been a stellar week for Speaker Gerry Brownlee. Although given that he is often arbitrating between Grant Robertson and Chris Bishop it has made siding with the government quite a challenge. Especially when Grant calmly and slowly explains things, as if telling a small child why they shouldn’t run into traffic. Bishop meanwhile went from bad to even worse.
Bishop declared that his mansplaining shouldn’t be considered mansplaining because he was just answering a question from a woman. Maybe we need a new phrase - Māorisplaining - to describe the actions of a European explaining the benefits of colonisation to Māori?
So why were the likes of Seymour and Bishop left to run things? Well Deputy PM Winston Peters, and Defence Minister Judith Collins, were across the Tasman representing us - you feeling proud yet? Meanwhile Christopher Luxon was so inspired by his team’s performance that he went back on the campaign trail.
I watched One News last night and what was the Prime Minister doing? He was campaigning, visiting a school to smile and wave. It’s like he never stopped. I thought it was kind of early to be on the trail, but I guess it’s a sure sign they’re not planning to run on their track record. The way things are going that might be a hard sell.
The Bottom Feeders will certainly need a few more crumbs.
To be fair it was good news yesterday that the coalition announced there would be an increase to the minimum wage.
Good because ACT had campaigned on freezing the minimum wage for three years, intending to replace Fair Pay Agreements with their preferred employment arrangement of Treat em mean, Keep em keen.
But the bad news is - it was only two percent. That's all. Just two percent for those on the lowest wages, the people Christopher Luxon refers to as Bottom Feeders, compared to the rise in the cost of living.
The thing is I might have had a modicum more sympathy for such a “cautious approach” if it wasn’t coming from a government who’ve spent the last year telling us the sky was falling and there’s a cost of living crisis.
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said, “Between June 2016 and June 2023, overall, the minimum wage increased at nearly twice the rate of inflation, with a 48.8 per cent increase in the minimum wage and a 25.1 per cent increase in consumers price index… This Government’s approach sets the balance right.”
So there you go Bottom Feeders, the reason you’re only getting a fraction of the rate of inflation this time is because you’ve had it too good, for too long. But don’t forget to be grateful - it could’ve been a heck of a lot worse!
The two per cent rise is already the lowest in a decade but Brooke wanted it to be even smaller, and proposed lifting the minimum wage by only 1.3 per cent.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) reviewed a range of scenarios on the wage increase, including keeping the status quo or increasing it anywhere from 1.5 percent to 14.5 percent.
It recommended an increase of 4 percent to $23.60, which was expected to impact the earnings of about 164,400 workers, resulting in an economy-wide wage bill increase of $145 million.
But Brooke didn’t recommend 4 percent, and she didn’t even go with 1.5 percent, the lowest increase MBIE reviewed. She “proposed and recommended that Cabinet adopt a 1.3 percent increase - a 30 cents difference on the current amount.”
That’s right, ACT wanted to give less of an increase to those on the minimum wage than even the minimum. The very lowest percentage considered by MBIE.
It’s worth noting that MBIE identified the following agencies as being those most likely affected by the minimum wage change. “The Ministry of Social Development, Accident Compensation Corporation, New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand Police and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.”
So next time you hear Luxon talk about Bottom Feeders, or people on talkback whine about those on the minimum wage not being worth an increase - those are the people we’re talking about. People who work in Health, for the Police, or the Defence Force. Something to think about.
Of course if you’re going to make the minimum wage less appealing then you’re going to need to make life quite a bit harder for those on welfare - otherwise where’s the motivation? I’ve no doubt that the coalition has measures for that well in hand.
So it was slim pickings for Bottom Feeders, although it looks as though their cigarettes might be getting a prize freeze soon. So maybe that’s one little ray of sunshine for Mike Hosking to celebrate.
What do you reckon Mike, what are you going to give Bishop, Brooke, and Casey Costello as a rating this week? 10/10 perhaps? Sounds about right.
I’m not sure what the lowest score is. Zero, I guess. But I can’t help thinking they deserve less than the minimum after the performances this week.
What about you? Any brickbats or bouquets for the week?
In my opinion the album Liverpool by Frankie Goes To Hollywood is criminally underrated. The whole album is stunning but this track seems like an uplifting note to end on, hope you like it.
It was a shocking week in parliament for the government. It took me a while to work out why
Seymour was the Prime Minister in Q time yesterday but oh that's right, he's no 3. (OMFG what have we done Aotearoa? ) He was also the Minister of Education yesterday because he is the only associate education minister and the Minister was off in Browns Bay with her master. So he took the chance to not answer the question, but chirrup on about charter schools. Illustrated to me how much ACT has seized control and how weak old Luxon has let them. Chippy was great on Wed, and you're right about Grant and Carmel. They were formidable in the House, as was Ayesha. Experience matters. As for Costello, I hope they keep the pressure on her. She should resign but I betcha Winston won't allow it. And don't get me started about the men in gumboots and the highjacking of the parliamentary prayer by Barbara Kurig for "rural communities".
Just imagine what Stuff and NZH would be doing to Costello if she was ‘of the left’! I am glad that media are looking for connections between our coal-ition and big tobacco but they should also be looking at connections with other ‘beneficiaries’ of new policies. I think particularly of trucking, fisheries, and real estate.