Chris Hipkins, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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Forums › Politics › Chris Hipkins, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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5896 posts

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#3066572 21-Apr-2023 15:39

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/govt-appointed-race-relations-commissioner-meng-foon-donated-to-kiri-allans-2020-election-campaign/5HRQROVTLBEDXKXNUHXSIJMOPM/

Ideally senior civil servants probably shouldn't be making donations to any candidates or political parties. I can't imagine anyone's rights would be trampled if that was a hard and fast rule and it probably should be.

Is it the scandal of the century? Not even close. East Coast was a hotly contested seat with two capable Maori women vying for it, but if Tania Tapsell didn't make it in then that's down to National not giving her a winnable list position and then tanking their own party vote at the same time.

I don't know whether someone thinks this is a good time to put the boot into Kiri Allan after the RNZ speech drama but this is kind of weak.

gzt

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#3066696 21-Apr-2023 17:40

This is not exactly a career civil service position. It has a renewable five year term. Foon donated to both Labour and National candidates. Aside from being neutral this can easily be seen as a desire to influence reappointment to the same position when the existing five year appointment term expires. While I personally don't think there was any such motivation, it is not a good look.

johno1234

2793 posts

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#3066835 22-Apr-2023 10:14

Nobody is putting the boot into Allen who as far as I can see has done nothing wrong here.

The boot will be applied to Foon though. As a public servant he should not be making political donations and for appearances sake now can't possibly be reappointed.

gzt

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#3066871 22-Apr-2023 11:10

The Aussie citizenship change is a huge win for Ardern. It's unfortunate she's not the prime minister to celebrate it.

Technofreak

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#3066919 22-Apr-2023 14:09

gzt: The Aussie citizenship change is a huge win for Ardern. It's unfortunate she's not the prime minister to celebrate it.

Perversely a big loss for NewZealand.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jack-tame-the-hidden-pitfall-in-the-citizenship-deal-for-kiwis-in-australia/X4AHOMOJCBDEJM4LKFA5JR45KM/

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#3066925 22-Apr-2023 14:37

Technofreak:

gzt: The Aussie citizenship change is a huge win for Ardern. It's unfortunate she's not the prime minister to celebrate it.

Perversely a big loss for NewZealand.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jack-tame-the-hidden-pitfall-in-the-citizenship-deal-for-kiwis-in-australia/X4AHOMOJCBDEJM4LKFA5JR45KM/

More an opportunity to do better. If our prosperity depends on artificial barriers to keep people from leaving, we are doomed anyway.

I just had some friends visit from Oz. They were blown away by the range of our countryside and kept exclaiming how beautiful it was here. In Australia you have to travel for days to see any difference in the landscape. Here it only takes minutes. Things like that.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

SirHumphreyAppleby

2844 posts

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#3066926 22-Apr-2023 14:38

Technofreak:

Perversely a big loss for NewZealand.

I don't think this is going to see more people suddenly going offshore who weren't already incentivised to do so. I know a few people who have moved to Australia in recent years for work. The restrictions on non-citizens and added requirements for becoming a citizen weren't a significant barrier to them.

Personally, I am thrilled with this as it makes it easier for us to get rid of the riff-raff too. We really need to be more strict on who we allow in.

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gzt

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#3066975 22-Apr-2023 14:46

Technofreak: Perversely a big loss for NewZealand.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jack-tame-the-hidden-pitfall-in-the-citizenship-deal-for-kiwis-in-australia/X4AHOMOJCBDEJM4LKFA5JR45KM/

The article is mostly a trollish headline. The writer does not say the changes are a bad thing. Kiwis return for all kinds of reasons and will continue to do so. The article makes the point wages and salary for most professions are higher in Australia. Nothing new there either. The changes won't change the reasons young kiwis go there. If anything the changes make it easier for older people to consider a move.

tdgeek

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#3067029 22-Apr-2023 17:49

gzt:
Technofreak: Perversely a big loss for NewZealand.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jack-tame-the-hidden-pitfall-in-the-citizenship-deal-for-kiwis-in-australia/X4AHOMOJCBDEJM4LKFA5JR45KM/

The article is mostly a trollish headline. The writer does not say the changes are a bad thing. Kiwis return for all kinds of reasons and will continue to do so. The article makes the point wages and salary for most professions are higher in Australia. Nothing new there either. The changes won't change the reasons young kiwis go there. If anything the changes make it easier for older people to consider a move.

Its fair, that is important. If many move, well thats supply and demand. If many move that causes less demand for houses and products, = better prices.

Now it would be good if NZ had huge resources of tin, gold and coal, but we don't. That we are TINY and remote and arent hugely aligned to any global giants is a plus. Safe, or safer.

sir1963

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#3067069 22-Apr-2023 21:20

tdgeek:

Its fair, that is important. If many move, well thats supply and demand. If many move that causes less demand for houses and products, = better prices.

Now it would be good if NZ had huge resources of tin, gold and coal, but we don't. That we are TINY and remote and arent hugely aligned to any global giants is a plus. Safe, or safer.

The issue who is leaving.

Health is about to collapse, after hours practices are having to close doors to non enrolled patients, they have doctor and nurses shortages.

When nurses leave they can not be replaced, the hospitals are funded so they can pay 20K+ more a year than GPs

2/3 of our GPs retire within 10 years, we have no ability to train that number of GPs in time. The who world is having similar issues because of burnout due to covid, and their government have deeper pockets to attract the same people we would like. The same will be true for hospitals who have having more and more "positions available" every week.

Yes, our nurses are heading to Australia too, as are our graduate doctors.

Tertiary education is severely broken and under funded, Universities are dumping courses, dumbing down courses. Academic and technical staff are leaving for Oz and then we have a large cohort who are due to retire. In the meantime Universities have no pathway for their replacements, they are destroying their international reputations so getting quality staff from overseas will be difficult. Turns out academic staff talk to colleagues overseas about what is happening locally.

Trades are heading back to Oz, pay is much better. We have large building firms going broke.

"Cheaper houses" will simply ensure no new houses are built, they will be uneconomical, especially with new rules coming in soon. This will just ensure another shortage, another price increase, but in the mean time local investors have been put off the market by government policies. Why would anyone invest extra money to build new houses when we have a government who has been shown to act capriciously.

There is no "win" here for anyone.

tdgeek

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#3067339 23-Apr-2023 12:29

All good points, many of which could have been managed by successive govts over the decades, but no, thats not a vote getter.

Many people go there anyway, so if they do, they now get treated fairly.

Its not up to Austrayan guvvimince to sort out NZ's issues, that on us. Supply and Demand. You get what you pay for.

GV27

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#3067480 24-Apr-2023 08:39

Unfortunately the things in favour of Australia as a destination are becoming more and more existential with each passing day. Sure, there's things like housing, wages, lifestyle and so on, but things like far more generous super etc (given NZ can't stop sabre-rattling about retirement changes that it never seems to want to commit to), knowing you'll actually get seen by a specialist to confirm a cancer diagnosis before you die, access to medicines for otherwise life-saving treatment and so on cannot be ignored.

If we are at the point where your best chance of not living in poverty in retirement here is to not live and pay taxes in NZ during your working career then we are approaching failed state status for anyone under the age of 60.

johno1234

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#3067484 24-Apr-2023 09:01

GV27:

Unfortunately the things in favour of Australia as a destination are becoming more and more existential with each passing day. Sure, there's things like housing, wages, lifestyle and so on, but things like far more generous super etc (given NZ can't stop sabre-rattling about retirement changes that it never seems to want to commit to), knowing you'll actually get seen by a specialist to confirm a cancer diagnosis before you die, access to medicines for otherwise life-saving treatment and so on cannot be ignored.

If we are at the point where your best chance of not living in poverty in retirement here is to not live and pay taxes in NZ during your working career then we are approaching failed state status for anyone under the age of 60.

On that point... is there an age restriction on Kiwis moving permanently to Australia, or seeking citizenship?

tdgeek

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#3067488 24-Apr-2023 09:13

GV27:

Unfortunately the things in favour of Australia as a destination are becoming more and more existential with each passing day. Sure, there's things like housing, wages, lifestyle and so on, but things like far more generous super etc (given NZ can't stop sabre-rattling about retirement changes that it never seems to want to commit to), knowing you'll actually get seen by a specialist to confirm a cancer diagnosis before you die, access to medicines for otherwise life-saving treatment and so on cannot be ignored.

If we are at the point where your best chance of not living in poverty in retirement here is to not live and pay taxes in NZ during your working career then we are approaching failed state status for anyone under the age of 60.

I feel that's been the case for a long long long time. Part of it you cannot help mas we are small and they are big, it should always be more efficient to run Australia than NZ. Unless any Govt makes it more worthwhile here, nothing will change

Technofreak

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#3067496 24-Apr-2023 09:49

GV27:

Unfortunately the things in favour of Australia as a destination are becoming more and more existential with each passing day. Sure, there's things like housing, wages, lifestyle and so on, but things like far more generous super etc (given NZ can't stop sabre-rattling about retirement changes that it never seems to want to commit to), knowing you'll actually get seen by a specialist to confirm a cancer diagnosis before you die, access to medicines for otherwise life-saving treatment and so on cannot be ignored.

If we are at the point where your best chance of not living in poverty in retirement here is to not live and pay taxes in NZ during your working career then we are approaching failed state status for anyone under the age of 60.

This is something that's been on my mind for a while. It's been happening for a long time over many governmental terms. Sometimes on a gradual basis sometimes with quantum leaps. Far too often the government of either hue has taken the easy or quick option without being bold enough or altruistic enough to think of the long term. No long term strategic thinking for the overall benefit of the country.

There has been a quantum leap during the term of the last two governments (that is since 2017). Not all of this can be attributed to the government but a lot of it can be. For example the government had no control over the occurrence of Covid but they did have control over the way the pandemic was handled. We're now experiencing the hangover from the willy nilly spending spree. The government had advice on better ways to spend the money they did during Covid but they chose not to listen. There is plenty of evidence that a fair proportion of the Covid spendng was for political benefit.

We need a government that has long term goals for this country and has a well thought out strategy to achieve those goals. We need to focus on our standard of living which has been in decline for a long time. Some people moan about governments focussing on business and money. They seem to forget that without a thriving economy we don't have the money to pay for all the things we need/demand. We have to be able to pay for our health and education systems somehow.

In my opinion with the last two governments there's been a disproportionate focus on things like diversity and not enough long term economic strategy. It's all very nice spending money on renaming goverment departments with a Maori name but that doesn't address the more pressing issues we face as a country.

It's a bit like building a house and getting the interior walls painted before you have put the roof on to keep the weather out. We need to focus on the things that put roofs over the heads of our people before we starrt worrying about other things.

We don't need a government that's popular, we need a government that has a goal for our future and has the strategy and fortitude to take us there.

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