Portrait of a Man.

Royal Red Paint and Doubling Bus Fares.

I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man
Who has taken all the heart aches,
And all the pain he can stand.
I am using all the colors of blue,
I have here on my stand.
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.

This has been an interesting week for me. For those who’ve read my newsletters in the last couple of days you’ll know I was feeling a bit despondent. Reader numbers keep going up, but subscriptions had gone backwards a bit.

So I put out a bit of a plea with a special offer, which doesn’t come naturally. The response from you guys has been brilliant, with lovely messages of support and encouragement, as well as a good few subscriptions.

When I say it doesn’t come naturally, I mean the sales and marketing side of things. I love the writing, I do the selling because it needs doing - it doesn’t bring me any joy and quite frankly sometimes it makes me cringe a little. Like - what next Nick? Some free steak knives? Buy one, get one free? Subscribe to Nick’s Kōrero and defeat the government - I wish that one was true.

I’ve appreciated offers of additional money from subscribers. But I’ve declined them because those people have already paid. The thing is I don’t want this to be about charity, it should be simply that I have something to offer, a product that some will enjoy and opt to purchase and others won’t - and that’s fine.

The complication is that over the last three decades, since the advent of the Internet, we’ve gotten a bit used to getting news and online content for free. Media organisations made land grabs where they basically gave away all of their content for free, to win market share, with the advertising dollar going to the dominant players.

So even though most of us grew up when you paid a newsagent for a magazine or a paper we now expect it to be free. But that model’s failing, and besides which it has other problems. For example, to what degree are content providers beholden to their advertisers? You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and obviously the advertiser has to be comfortable with the content or they’ll go somewhere else.

Plus who wants to look at advertising?

It detracts from your enjoyment and the thing is you’re ultimately paying by buying the product, so why not just give the money to the content providers, not the advertisers? Even if you pay a little more at least you won’t have to look at advertising.

As much as the subscriptions have been appreciated, the messages have been wonderful to read too. Some have been pretty tough though. As a non-scientific survey your correspondence painted a picture indicating that many have already been impacted by this government. Be it losing a job, being unsure how much longer you’ll keep your job, or the increase in costs we’re all experiencing.

I mentioned to my son Johnny, who’s in his second year at Auckland Uni, that I’d made the tweet above. He told me it’s a big talking point on campus, that sudden jump in bus prices after National cancelled the subsidy put in place by the last government.

That’s a lot of extra money for a student or for families, and it’s hard to imagine that whatever tax cuts come in the budget will cover it, let alone everything else.

Te Atatu bus interchange. Photo: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/auckland-nw-bus-network-patronage-peter-moth-brgdc/

Michael replied saying, “Free bus trips was a great way for my 12 year old son and his friends to get out and about adventuring, which is an important part of growing up. Now we have to limit his travels. Just how does the coalition measure quality of life? Or do they see that as a luxury only for the well heeled?”

Over on X (Twitter) the comments were less sympathetic.

“Tell him that people like me struggle to feed the Tamariki's [sic] because my rates are so high in order to subsidise his bus fares.” Offered a Chris Hipkins impersonator.

I thought of mentioning that cancelling Three Waters might have a bit of an impact on rates, but based on his follow up comments it was clear that he was philosophically opposed to the funding of public transport.

You do have to wonder at that mentality. It’s a bit of a no-brainer that public transport is the best way for us to address urban traffic congestion. Even ignoring the whole climate change thing.

A right wing troll account, “Cap’n Twit”, which is followed by National MP Chris Penk, offered “Congratulations on teaching your son to be a liar. Hopefully he has enough good character from his Mother to keep him decent.” How delightful.

John Connor, also followed by Penk, asked “Did you explain the massive increase in unfunded debt the previous regime will have him and his kids and their kids paying off as well?”

Actually I have talked about the fact that during Covid the previous government did have to spend a lot of rainy day money, on account of it pissing down. This was to avoid the tens of thousands of redundancies which would have occurred without that money being pumped into wage subsidies to keep businesses afloat.

On the other hand the new government is laying people off and borrowing money our kids will have to pay back, for tax cuts. So thank you John, I’m quite happy explaining the actions of the last government. This one though, not so much.

Backblock, a blatant troll account, followed of course by Chris Penk, kindly said “Way to make your son a lifetime victim.”

I’m not sure if Mr Block was suggesting I was hampering my son by teaching him to think critically, beyond the shallow smiles and meaningless words of this government? Or whether it was the subsidised public transport sending him towards eternal victimhood. Did Mr Block berate other users of public services? Does he walk up and down hospital corridors saying “get out of bed you lazy commies and do some work - that’ll sort ya”?

This being Twitter someone said, “Well it could be worse I suppose, at least your not convincing your child to take puberty blocking drugs.” It seems those who cannot use the word “you’re” seldom offer words of wisdom but despite that “Mr Faust” was inevitably followed by, you guessed it - Chris Penk.

Ministers Brown and Penk. Photo: Facebook.

Jay said it would be “$160 a month for our single income household”. I felt sick thinking of the callous decision to cancel that subsidy and the reality of someone needing to find that much money on a single income.

I wonder how many families are making tough choices, having hard conversations, about things they can no longer afford. Is this what getting Back on Track means? Getting back to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? That seems to be exactly what it is.

The job losses are another magnitude of awful again. So many public sector job cuts at a time when the economy is retreating are grim. The fact they’re being made to give others tax cuts just feels awful. As a society we’re literally sacrificing the happiness of some for the financial benefit of others.

Just before Christmas in 2008 I got made redundant. It was a huge shock, especially as with the Global Financial Crisis unfolding nobody knew how far the economy was going to fall. Many speculated that we were on the precipice of a 1930s level depression.

At the time we were on a sole income, Fi was a stay at home mum with our three kids under five, we had a large mortgage, and me losing my job was not part of the plan. I recall the absolute panic - would we lose our house? I even recall ringing Fi and asking if I should cancel the order we’d made for bikes for the kids. It felt like my world had dropped off a cliff.

While I think of it, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier newsletter, if you’re a paid subscriber and you lose your job or something similar please let me know and I’ll put your payments on hold until you get back on your feet. It isn’t much but it’s one small thing less to worry about.

Sadly it doesn’t appear that those in charge are very worried. Like this guy…

My take on the new portrait of the King. I quite like the painting of Charles. There's something about his eyes, they convey so much, and the butterfly is such a lovely touch.

I asked people to pick a title for the Luxon version above, here are a few of their suggestions:

Mark went with the old classic, “Hi, I'm Chris, I used to be head of Air New Zealand”. While Anne offered, “The man who would be king?”

Lexie opined that the artist could be “Jackson Bollocks”

Maria spelled out the difference between the two, “The portrait of King Charles, the leader of a vast empire, is fabulous. This is a nasty clueless man who can’t control two idiots!”

Trish suggested there might have been “Too much sun in Te Puke”, and Simon submitted, “Lord Luxon of Lympdick”.

Liz said, “Penis with Ears with Butterfly”, which sounded like an artwork. As did Alan’s option of “Knob in a Blue Suit.”

One friend said they’d “fixed it”, they certainly captured the essence of the man:

Image: Debunking Conspiracies Aotearoa.

Judith summed things up, “Some light up the world with their love and compassion. Some consume it with their greed and entitlement.”

Just a quick one from me this morning before I get into the meatier stories of the week. Should be plenty of time for reading and writing this weekend.

Fi, along with Thea, Matty, and his girlfriend Lis, left before sunrise for the airport. They’re off to a Hip Hop competition in Chris Bishop territory with their squad, plus Matty’s doing a solo. So it’ll just be me, the dogs, and Johnny of the bus fares - who’ll probably get up around midday, for the next few days.

Frat Pack (Matty on the right). Image: https://www.facebook.com/DANZA.Studios

The next newsletter will be a paid one. I’m continuing that special of 30% off for the first year on monthly or annual paid subscriptions until the end of May. I’m not planning to have another special of that size any time soon so if you want to jump aboard and subscribe this is the best time to do it.

Today’s song is from the wonderful Marlon Williams in the Auckland Town Hall.