Thank goodness the hort industry response showed Luxon to be talking out of his backside. Also, did he think young people would pack a backpack and a tent and head rural to these jobs? They would need a tent, because accomodation costs in many of the places where the seasonal jobs are, are expensive. Luxon is definitely not up to speed on much requiring detail, evidence or fact - it astounds me how he can front up every time, talk up what is essentially superficial rubbish, be unbothered by big life impacting issues, smile and be smug about dumb stuff like tennis court rooftops, support a fascist and then go home and feel good about himself. It is laughable - if only he is wasn’t hurting so many people struggling or on the brink. If only his lack of moral courage wasn’t destroying and staining our country and the mana Aotearoa used to hold on the international stage. Luxon is a tone deaf cancer. Let’s vote this naked emperor and has band of cronies out. E tu Aotearoa.
Well said. Why are we aligning ourselves with a fascist (near racist state). Ralph Nader, Robert Reich and Chris Hedges have sounded the warning bells. Eerily, Chris Hedges has warned how quickly America could descend into a full facistic state, and that regular Americans are finding hard to believe (see his recent 'Q&A' on his YOuTube channel. He speaks with lived authority).
This was exactly my thought. Many years ago, as a 17 & 18 year old, I spent two summers as a raspberry picker in the Tapawera area. There was a very fixed season (December January). We had accomodation on the property. (basic huts and a kitchen shower complex for 30 of us). The labour department provided bus transport as long as we stayed 1 month. I don't see any framework that would assist these young people to participate in horticulture even when the jobs do seasonally arise. Its a lot for young people to take on.
Those jobs were hardly money spinners were they Heather. My partners uni daughter was down Otago way one year just before the ChCh earthquake picking some crop or other in order to try and keep body and soul together at Canterbury Uni. Crap accomodation with rat droppings and generally not fit for purpose and she became really unwell into the bargain. Luxcon has no clue about real world struggles and is just full of trite BS that I'm sure appeals to some of his followers who hate on us bottom feeders.
My thought too. Sounds as though you may have picked raspberries where I also picked them. Accomodation basic but as many raspberries as you could eat and as we went as group all the emotional/ social support we needed. Doesn't sound as though the PM has thought this through well as the seasonal work might be there during the season but where are people going to live? In their cars if they have them?
Yes probably about the same time. Yes we went as a group 4-5 as a summer job before going to university. The pay rates by weight picked) were quite minimal but it was an interim summer 'adventure' mainly in the sun. It wasnt ever a job that would lead to any future career.
I do wish the media would pick apart this policy around 18/19 y.os a bit more. Luxon doesn't have a clue. Kumara jobs in Dargaville are seasonal. Digging and packing finished in April. Planting begins in October for three months. All the jobs he quoted in Primary Industries are seasonal too. That means no permanent job ; it is temporary work as the Hort industry is pointing out: unlikely to qualify for a year off the dole and in work pathetic $1k bonus. Then there's the rest : casual work, 90 day fire at will trials, 18 19 year olds getting $3 an hour less than minimum wage on Starting Out,. I could go on, but noting that one of our largest seasonal employers in Invercargill Alliance NZ, is looking at going broke and 4000 workers could lose their jobs.
Not only is Luxton incompetent so is Willis as between them, and with the help of their clingons, they have completely wrecked the economy hence these young people not being able to secure jobs. Kumara picking he says. 16 jobs in the Dargaville area and all for doctors and nurses so again he has done what he does best which is lie. Surely all the voters who have been shafted by this Govt.- women, young people, homeless, unemployed etc. will vote them out next election.
Are they incompetent? Or are they following a plan? I've worked and done business in a few 3rd world counties. The first thing you notice, is no middle 'class' i.e. no tradesmen, no small business owners, no middle management. What you really notice is a bunch of really really wealthy autocrats and the rest are abject peasants. I cannot help but look at NZs rapid progress towards the "sorteds nirvana" with sadness and horror for my grands and greats
Interesting to read commentaries from people who worked for him at AirNZ. Unsurprisingly at one stage he tried to give all staff payouts do he could give himself a payrise. Only backed down after threat of all staff walkout. Believe it because we are seeing the exact same playbook. Everything for me, and you bottomfeeders can pay for it. He is just loathsome
I think it's all very depressing. Luxon is clearly incompetent and sadly that is massively impacting on our society. I don't like living in an unjust society that keeps kicking down on thise with the least. It's just despicable. As for sucking up to the devil....is there a worst word in the English language?
This is the kind of leadership style NZ wanted. I can imagine them going boohoo while people are homeless and money is getting tighter. Why should the Coalition show any humanity when their voting base isn't bothered.
Surely the public system is only for the serfs and bottom feeders? I doubt the sorted who will only go to private practices and clinics will give a toss. If they can’t get private treatment here they will go to Australia or America rather than mix with the peasantry.
Except of course, if you are involved in an accident, break a bone, have a fall, a stroke or heart attack or some other medical emergency, your first port of call is the public system. It has to serve everyone regardless of income or level of private insurance
Got me there Christine!😀. There are exceptions of course, but I was thinking of those who have a choice. I was in a car crash which gave me a few broken bones some years ago and was only too happy to see the ambulance arrive and take me off to hospital. After the paramedics filled me up with morphine on the way I didn’t really care about anything at all😵💫
The private system is also under immense pressure... trying to get a private scan or specialist appt has potentially months of waiting. They are short-staffed too.
In the last two months I’ve had two cataract operations. Fortunately I have health insurance, otherwise, my optometrist told me, I wouldn’t have even been considered as eligible if I had to go through the public system. I couldn’t drive at night and my eyesight wasn’t good anyway. I would have been lucky if I was considered eligible within the next year or two, a shameful state of affairs.
You should have been in the room after my partner was told he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The specialists faces lit up at the end when I said we had health insurance. Six months later he's at the end of 12 palliative chemo treatments and his cancer markers are down. If he'd had to wait for public health he would most probably have been too weak for chemo, it's a tough regime for pancreatic cancer.
I keep remembering how the specialists in room reacted
but it was only last year we considered cancelling our health insurance because of the cost.
The same doctors, specialists and surgeons that treat you in the public system also provide the same treatment services in private clinics. It does make me wonder if that’s why you get rushed through outpatient services in the public system with barely time to take in what you’re told, let alone as questions, and how much time you would have if you were at the private clinic for the same thing. It’s spreading resources too thinly.
🤔 Not sure that this IS the kind of leadership style NZ "wanted" ⁉️ From my perspective Luxon et al were unknown quantities on the campaign trail & kept a lot of their unhinged policies well hidden even from their own voters, plus a lot are NZlast & ACT coalition hostage negotiation additions... If anything, Luxon sold his leadership style as CEO & all the CEO's I've ever dealt with would not front up to media so poorly prepared, nor would they allow fellow "board members" (Peters, Seymour et al) to hi-jack the organisation ⁉️ We'll see whether their voting base is bothered as no-one but the "wealthy & sorted" are doing well, and really they each only have 1 vote per person, groups they are favouring can't vote at all, and the "bottom feeders" vastly outnumber all of them IF we vote for our preferred opposition parties 👀🤷
Beyond absurd. What will happen to these teens? Some are likely to turn to crime. And maybe some will leave for Australia. Some may have medical issues. This is cruelty and very Trumpian. It’s concerning that Luxon seems to admire Trump and is sucking up to him in denying the truth about Gaza. And it does parents no favours who likely are struggling too.
Will we care enough to declare a public holiday for all the public servants who have been screwed by this so called government? How about PUBLIC Day..Parliamentary Utopia, Bullshit Luxon Is Crushed?
I'm grateful my daughter had her fees free for an Art School her first year of post school hifh school education.
With that now gone how are parents meant to support their young adult children into making choices of any kind instead of being funneled by necessity into a cycle of poverty?
My question exactly, Juliet...far as I know, any young person simply HAS to have rich 'sorted' parents to even begin to contemplate going to university.....
Another insightful read Nick, thank you. quick digression, I was talking about you at a very high powered meeting, with very high powered people ( do Jeremy Corbett and Mike King count ? I didn't think so lol. ) So, I was at a morning tea with 2 has-beens, 3 if you count me...and after they were escorted out by security , the question I wanted to ask you was , do you have a never ending list of songs and lyrics that you source at the beginning of your column , or a you just a walking almanac of musical knowledge ?
Thanks for being a paid subscriber. If this one reaches 100 likes by this afternoon, I'll open it up to others.
Thank goodness the hort industry response showed Luxon to be talking out of his backside. Also, did he think young people would pack a backpack and a tent and head rural to these jobs? They would need a tent, because accomodation costs in many of the places where the seasonal jobs are, are expensive. Luxon is definitely not up to speed on much requiring detail, evidence or fact - it astounds me how he can front up every time, talk up what is essentially superficial rubbish, be unbothered by big life impacting issues, smile and be smug about dumb stuff like tennis court rooftops, support a fascist and then go home and feel good about himself. It is laughable - if only he is wasn’t hurting so many people struggling or on the brink. If only his lack of moral courage wasn’t destroying and staining our country and the mana Aotearoa used to hold on the international stage. Luxon is a tone deaf cancer. Let’s vote this naked emperor and has band of cronies out. E tu Aotearoa.
Well said Janine!
Well said. Why are we aligning ourselves with a fascist (near racist state). Ralph Nader, Robert Reich and Chris Hedges have sounded the warning bells. Eerily, Chris Hedges has warned how quickly America could descend into a full facistic state, and that regular Americans are finding hard to believe (see his recent 'Q&A' on his YOuTube channel. He speaks with lived authority).
Please God may these incompetent assholes be only a one term stain on our Political history...
There aren’t enough jobs now and if they are temporary rural what are the living arrangements?
Delusional!
This was exactly my thought. Many years ago, as a 17 & 18 year old, I spent two summers as a raspberry picker in the Tapawera area. There was a very fixed season (December January). We had accomodation on the property. (basic huts and a kitchen shower complex for 30 of us). The labour department provided bus transport as long as we stayed 1 month. I don't see any framework that would assist these young people to participate in horticulture even when the jobs do seasonally arise. Its a lot for young people to take on.
Those jobs were hardly money spinners were they Heather. My partners uni daughter was down Otago way one year just before the ChCh earthquake picking some crop or other in order to try and keep body and soul together at Canterbury Uni. Crap accomodation with rat droppings and generally not fit for purpose and she became really unwell into the bargain. Luxcon has no clue about real world struggles and is just full of trite BS that I'm sure appeals to some of his followers who hate on us bottom feeders.
I live in the B.O.P. & some of the dwellings they put workers in for some of the orchards are a disgrace.
My thought too. Sounds as though you may have picked raspberries where I also picked them. Accomodation basic but as many raspberries as you could eat and as we went as group all the emotional/ social support we needed. Doesn't sound as though the PM has thought this through well as the seasonal work might be there during the season but where are people going to live? In their cars if they have them?
Yes probably about the same time. Yes we went as a group 4-5 as a summer job before going to university. The pay rates by weight picked) were quite minimal but it was an interim summer 'adventure' mainly in the sun. It wasnt ever a job that would lead to any future career.
I do wish the media would pick apart this policy around 18/19 y.os a bit more. Luxon doesn't have a clue. Kumara jobs in Dargaville are seasonal. Digging and packing finished in April. Planting begins in October for three months. All the jobs he quoted in Primary Industries are seasonal too. That means no permanent job ; it is temporary work as the Hort industry is pointing out: unlikely to qualify for a year off the dole and in work pathetic $1k bonus. Then there's the rest : casual work, 90 day fire at will trials, 18 19 year olds getting $3 an hour less than minimum wage on Starting Out,. I could go on, but noting that one of our largest seasonal employers in Invercargill Alliance NZ, is looking at going broke and 4000 workers could lose their jobs.
Not only is Luxton incompetent so is Willis as between them, and with the help of their clingons, they have completely wrecked the economy hence these young people not being able to secure jobs. Kumara picking he says. 16 jobs in the Dargaville area and all for doctors and nurses so again he has done what he does best which is lie. Surely all the voters who have been shafted by this Govt.- women, young people, homeless, unemployed etc. will vote them out next election.
Are they incompetent? Or are they following a plan? I've worked and done business in a few 3rd world counties. The first thing you notice, is no middle 'class' i.e. no tradesmen, no small business owners, no middle management. What you really notice is a bunch of really really wealthy autocrats and the rest are abject peasants. I cannot help but look at NZs rapid progress towards the "sorteds nirvana" with sadness and horror for my grands and greats
They are following the Atlas plan like the callous fools they are.
Exactly Alma....
Interesting to read commentaries from people who worked for him at AirNZ. Unsurprisingly at one stage he tried to give all staff payouts do he could give himself a payrise. Only backed down after threat of all staff walkout. Believe it because we are seeing the exact same playbook. Everything for me, and you bottomfeeders can pay for it. He is just loathsome
Oops paycuts! Not payouts. Damn you autocorrect
Despicable! He really is so loathsome
Playing well to the National base no doubt. One horrible blow on the same old bruise at a time.
I think it's all very depressing. Luxon is clearly incompetent and sadly that is massively impacting on our society. I don't like living in an unjust society that keeps kicking down on thise with the least. It's just despicable. As for sucking up to the devil....is there a worst word in the English language?
This is the kind of leadership style NZ wanted. I can imagine them going boohoo while people are homeless and money is getting tighter. Why should the Coalition show any humanity when their voting base isn't bothered.
True, but when they need our public health system, then they'll care.
Surely the public system is only for the serfs and bottom feeders? I doubt the sorted who will only go to private practices and clinics will give a toss. If they can’t get private treatment here they will go to Australia or America rather than mix with the peasantry.
Except of course, if you are involved in an accident, break a bone, have a fall, a stroke or heart attack or some other medical emergency, your first port of call is the public system. It has to serve everyone regardless of income or level of private insurance
Got me there Christine!😀. There are exceptions of course, but I was thinking of those who have a choice. I was in a car crash which gave me a few broken bones some years ago and was only too happy to see the ambulance arrive and take me off to hospital. After the paramedics filled me up with morphine on the way I didn’t really care about anything at all😵💫
The private system is also under immense pressure... trying to get a private scan or specialist appt has potentially months of waiting. They are short-staffed too.
In the last two months I’ve had two cataract operations. Fortunately I have health insurance, otherwise, my optometrist told me, I wouldn’t have even been considered as eligible if I had to go through the public system. I couldn’t drive at night and my eyesight wasn’t good anyway. I would have been lucky if I was considered eligible within the next year or two, a shameful state of affairs.
You should have been in the room after my partner was told he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The specialists faces lit up at the end when I said we had health insurance. Six months later he's at the end of 12 palliative chemo treatments and his cancer markers are down. If he'd had to wait for public health he would most probably have been too weak for chemo, it's a tough regime for pancreatic cancer.
I keep remembering how the specialists in room reacted
but it was only last year we considered cancelling our health insurance because of the cost.
The same doctors, specialists and surgeons that treat you in the public system also provide the same treatment services in private clinics. It does make me wonder if that’s why you get rushed through outpatient services in the public system with barely time to take in what you’re told, let alone as questions, and how much time you would have if you were at the private clinic for the same thing. It’s spreading resources too thinly.
Exactly we would have had the same oncologist in Auckland Hospital.
🤔 Not sure that this IS the kind of leadership style NZ "wanted" ⁉️ From my perspective Luxon et al were unknown quantities on the campaign trail & kept a lot of their unhinged policies well hidden even from their own voters, plus a lot are NZlast & ACT coalition hostage negotiation additions... If anything, Luxon sold his leadership style as CEO & all the CEO's I've ever dealt with would not front up to media so poorly prepared, nor would they allow fellow "board members" (Peters, Seymour et al) to hi-jack the organisation ⁉️ We'll see whether their voting base is bothered as no-one but the "wealthy & sorted" are doing well, and really they each only have 1 vote per person, groups they are favouring can't vote at all, and the "bottom feeders" vastly outnumber all of them IF we vote for our preferred opposition parties 👀🤷
The problem is that the Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori supporters didnt get out to vote as they did in the previous election.
A lot of those people did not vote because they became anti-Jacinda/anti-Vaxxers during the Covid era, I think....?
I didn't vote for any of the CoC, thought the CTU billboards were a bit over the top at the time, but every day they seem more relevant.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/gloves-off-national-party-unleashes-at-nasty-chris-hipkins-and-union-advertisement-in-the-herald/
Nick, he said "I don't care" on other occasions. That is patently true, and he is creating cruel untrue narratives.
Beyond absurd. What will happen to these teens? Some are likely to turn to crime. And maybe some will leave for Australia. Some may have medical issues. This is cruelty and very Trumpian. It’s concerning that Luxon seems to admire Trump and is sucking up to him in denying the truth about Gaza. And it does parents no favours who likely are struggling too.
I'm sure we will show the same "don't care" attitude when he is rolled as leader.
Will we care enough to declare a public holiday for all the public servants who have been screwed by this so called government? How about PUBLIC Day..Parliamentary Utopia, Bullshit Luxon Is Crushed?
Good joke!
Incompetent leadership, Incompetent government coupled with arrogance is a very bad mix.
One term government please 🙏
I'm grateful my daughter had her fees free for an Art School her first year of post school hifh school education.
With that now gone how are parents meant to support their young adult children into making choices of any kind instead of being funneled by necessity into a cycle of poverty?
My question exactly, Juliet...far as I know, any young person simply HAS to have rich 'sorted' parents to even begin to contemplate going to university.....
Another insightful read Nick, thank you. quick digression, I was talking about you at a very high powered meeting, with very high powered people ( do Jeremy Corbett and Mike King count ? I didn't think so lol. ) So, I was at a morning tea with 2 has-beens, 3 if you count me...and after they were escorted out by security , the question I wanted to ask you was , do you have a never ending list of songs and lyrics that you source at the beginning of your column , or a you just a walking almanac of musical knowledge ?
I think he’s a walking almanac of musical knowledge.
agreed Diana, what can't he do ? !