Smoke gets in your eyes

Consequences without care or responsibility.

They said, "Someday, you'll find all who love are blind
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, when your heart's on fire
You must realise smoke gets in your eyes."

Songwriters: Jerome Kern / Otto A. Harbach

---

Today in Nick’s Kōrero:

• Smoke gets in your eyes and into more people’s lungs

• Doing more with less in the health sector

• It’s the economy stupid, and it’s not looking very well

• Poo stinky, what’s that smell? It’s the Treaty Principles Bill

---

“Can’t wait to have you home, be careful on the stairs” I messaged my wife last night, and then it occurred to me that it sounded vaguely threatening.

In hindsight, it would have been better to go with a full stop or at least a semi-colon to make it sound less creepy. Syntactic pedants are most welcome to explain the error of my ways in the comments.

That comment will probably make more sense when I tell you that Fi is staying in the same tiny house in Wellington that I stayed in with Matty last week.

Photo: https://www.wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/

It was odd having a video call early last evening with her sitting on the couch that I’d been calling her from a week earlier and hadn’t imagined I’d see again. She’d been finding out more about the place, the last in what was a series of former working men’s cottages.

It must have been tiny before the bathroom and kitchen extension was built on the back. I assume they cooked on a range and had a long drop in the garden. You can read more about the place here.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I was watching the news last night, and it made me think: What is it with these people? How can they be so oblivious to the consequences of their own actions?

These are things that everybody could see coming as a result of what they have done, and yet they look around, mystified as to how things got like this. It’s like telling people they don’t have to wear a crash helmet and then wondering how Chris Bishop happens.

Chris Bishop enjoys the last publicly funded transport solution. Photo: NZ Herald.

Smoke gets in your eyes and into more people’s lungs

Do you remember when we all got outraged at the government pulling back on the Smokefree programme? It seemed hard to believe that they could so blatantly put the greed of overseas corporations producing a product that kills you when you use it as intended ahead of the people of this country. Ahh, they were more innocent times.

Image: BeFunky.

Outrageous, we said, more people will smoke, and so more people will die. But the government said not to worry and carried on regardless.

So now that we see the percentage of people smoking daily actually climbing after it had long been trending downward, do they see the error in their ways and take responsibility? I don’t want to give away the ending, but the answer is most assuredly they do not.

While it can be hard to believe anything that comes out of Casey Costello’s mouth, this latest utterance was not remarkable for being a pack of tobacco industry-generated lies but for the absolute bare-faced cheek of it.

Juliet said: “Luxon lent her that soundbite; he had some going spare...” It did sound a bit like something he would say, although he’d probably use a term that sounded less like it included him than “we”, or possibly, as Trish suggested, he’d say it was “all Jacinda’s fault”.

Debbie was sympathetic, “Well, she is working incredibly hard.... for Philip Morris....” but Mark was less so, “Whoops, I accidentally forgot to do my job.”

Noel said, “Didn't Luxon claim that the Coalition was a government of transparency and accountability?” some people thought he was joking; to be fair, it did sound a bit far-fetched.

From @SkipMccabe over on X.

Cary brought us to the next point, “And at the same time making cuts in health where some of those workers are the stop smoking team and support people. Go figure.”

Doing more with less in the health sector

A bit earlier, I posted, “In your interactions with our health service, have you wondered about people sitting around with nothing to do? Imagine the pressure on the remaining staff without them. What will not get done? What will the financial and human costs be down the line?” Regarding the following article:

• Health NZ Te Whatu Ora has confirmed plans to cut “a large number of roles”, with the Public Service Association saying a net 1478 roles face the chop.

• The health agency has also confirmed an increase in the number of people taking voluntary redundancy, to a total of 564.

• The PSA has described the cuts as “another shameful attack on an already stretched public health system”.

These cuts include “Advisers helping people to quit smoking, and dedicated Māori and Pacific public health advisers.” As with other things that this coalition is defunding, my concern is not just what happens to the health system now but down the track. Without the preventative care or assistance of so many roles towards improving the health of our people, what will the long-term impacts be?

More statistics going backwards as the Minister parrots that “we” have taken our eye off the ball?

PSA spokesperson Ashok Shankar said, “It beggars belief that the National Public Health Service is planning to cut one in four roles at the very moment when we are battling a whooping cough epidemic, which hits Māori and Pasifika babies particularly hard.

Specifically, Te Whatu Ora plans to cut dedicated Māori and Pacific public health advisers who drive health promotion strategies targeting the unique needs of Māori and Pacific populations.”

Seeing what they are doing to our country makes me so angry. Kevin highlighted its absurdity in his comment, “In the last 2 years, I have probably spent in excess of 40 days in hospital and another 20 at outpatients. I have yet to see a single staff member sitting around doing nothing.”

We deserve better than this, as do the people working so hard in our health services.

It’s the economy stupid, and it’s not looking very well

Christopher Luxon was quick to claim credit for lowering interest rates and inflation, ignoring the fact that central banks lower interest rates to stimulate the economy when things are going badly and that reduced inflation also signifies falling demand in the economy. This means that unemployment is going to continue to rise, and growth is looking more than a little anaemic.

Kirsty played along, suggesting that the economy was “Probably pining for the fjords.” Whereas others suggested not particularly polite synonyms for “subdued”.

Economic growth is like many things with this government. Some people are better off, but many other people are sacrificed to make that happen. In this case, we end up with a leaner economy, but the belt-tightening that pays for it is all done by other people.

Craig Rennie tweeted the following:

Today's announcement by RBNZ shows that the economy will remain weak going into 2025 and that unemployment will continue to climb. The forecasts show employment is likely to remain below 2023 levels until Dec 2025 – while the labour force grows 28,000 during that period.

Over the past year, our economy grew by 0.05% - effectively 0. Business investment won’t hit 2023 levels until 2027. Residential investment is still falling. Government spending will fall from now to 2026. There is no engine of economic growth except private spending, which is weak.

Unemployment is forecast to remain elevated until the end of 2025. The forecast never sees it returning to the rates seen in 2023. We are choosing a permanently higher unemployment rate without a plan to reduce it. It’s no wonder many Kiwis are emigrating overseas on this data.

Many people will celebrate the fall in interest rates and the hope that this will bring future relief. This data shows that the labour market is in for the long haul. Lower future employment. Higher future unemployment. Lower business investment. It's time for a different track.

As the number of unemployed gets larger, some people might start to question whether Luxon is up for the job as Winston Peters does in the clip below. Either due to being more in touch with reality than he’s seemed for the last few years or perhaps preparing the ground for not handing over the deputy role to Seymour or for the next election:

Poo stinky, what’s that smell? It’s the Treaty Principles Bill

I’ve written quite a bit about David Seymour’s nasty little racist bill parading as something pure and decent. He imagines he is selling freshly laundered white sheets when we can all see Act have shat the bed on this one.

I’m not going to stop here long, but there were a few things I wanted to share: a point I’d like to make, a video worth taking a look at, and a surprisingly good article.

So the point…

The thing is, I’m not just on the side of Tangata Whenua in this debate because it is the right thing to do; our forebears signed a treaty, and we should honour it.

It isn’t simply out of some white guilt over the historical crimes committed against Māori and the effects of colonisation and racism that we can still see so clearly today, but that is important too.

No, I have selfish motivations, too. You see, the things that are right for Māori are also right for me and my family. When it comes to protecting our environment, putting people first and at the heart of decision-making ahead of the interests of foreign entities that would exploit our country for profit, then if Māori concerns are being addressed, that benefits me too.

The issues that Māori are raising, from water rights to better, more equitable outcomes for people, are my fight, too. It’s really not hard to pick a side on this one; one represents honour, decency, and fairness, and the other is full of weasel words and lies, deceiving people and inflaming hate. Quite why anybody would side with Seymour is beyond me.

Now, to that video I mentioned, you might have seen it, but I thought this was a good summary of where things are at and made some really interesting points from a perspective that many of us might not consider:

Finally, the article. Now, normally, I would greet the arrival of an opinion piece from Ian Taylor with as much enthusiasm as something that has been left on the mat by the dog, but it’s well worth taking a look at this one:

Sir Ian Taylor: Stick to what you know? When rugby, politics and dancing collide.

So there you go, consequences without regard, bugger all care and no responsibility - just what you want from the people in charge. I’m sure you can think of plenty of other examples.

---

I appreciate that times are tight, folks are feeling uncertain, and there isn’t a lot of spare money going around. Having said that, if you can afford a subscription to Nick’s Kōrero, each person who does so really helps me bring this to you and to those who can’t afford a subscription but enjoy reading this kōrero.

Thank you very much if you subscribe, and to all the people who already do - I really appreciate your support, the lovely messages from happy readers, and getting paid is quite good, too. 🙂

Have an awesome day, all of you lovely people. Now, something smooth to end, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes with Patti Austin. Loving that bass playing.