Chris Hipkins, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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

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3187 posts

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#3089485 13-Jun-2023 15:09

GV27:

I'm more worried about core infrastructure being sold off or provisioned to overseas providers to the extent that the country is effectively renting its own productivity from outsiders.

Our inability to build anything of note in recent years to an acceptable standard (roads, highways) if at all (light rail, passenger rail other than the Waikato-Auckland commuter service) etc is hugely concerning, given we are now facing a future where what little infra we have will be subject to climate-driven weather damage. Do we even know how to repair what we have?

The technical know-how is not the issue, it's actually getting the job done.

The technical know-how is the issue. We are contracting out the high paid jobs overseas because no one in NZ has the skills anymore.

We should be double tacking the main trunk line and electrifying it if we want to ship bulk goods around NZ

We should be bringing back the NZ rail workshops, "cheap" from china has not worked out that well.

We should be demanding tech be able to be repaired here in NZ where full technical documentation is supplied, we throw out. lot of stuff because no circuit diagrams/ manuals/etc are supplied and its too expensive to send the overseas for repair. WASTE.

We MUST invest heavily into renewable energy.

2/3 of our energy usage is from carbon fuels , if we want all electric we need to double our electricity production and push for higher efficiency products.

Increase guarantees on everything so we stop importing cheap crap that long terms costs us more.

waiting for a miracle that will prevent pain from change is not ever going to happen.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

ezbee

2336 posts

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#3089581 13-Jun-2023 18:32

sir1963

Your aims are laudable, however this is very difficult for any Government of any colour.
Some like right to repair need work in larger economic blocks like co-operation with EU.
Latest from Louis Rossmann, someone had their whole Smart House disabled by Amazon as a delivery driver mistakenly reported an insult from the household.

Even a post Muldoon like economic collapse that gave the Labour Government steel to make radical reform only went so far.
It may also be a lesson that when you reform radically, all sorts of other agendas can get tossed in.

More recently with Greens, we got "Green School" thing vs many things that would further their aims much better.

Anyway a blast from the past...
Here an example of a curse from both sides at the time.
Don't Give me Culture. Knobz
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/culture-1980

""
The Knobz response to Prime Minister Rob Muldoon’s refusal to lift a 40% sales tax on recorded music (originally instituted by Labour in 1975), and Muldoon's typically blunt verdict on the cultural merits of pop music (“horrible”).
""

sir1963

3187 posts

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#3089589 13-Jun-2023 19:10

ezbee:

sir1963

Your aims are laudable, however this is very difficult for any Government of any colour.
Some like right to repair need work in larger economic blocks like co-operation with EU.
Latest from Louis Rossmann, someone had their whole Smart House disabled by Amazon as a delivery driver mistakenly reported an insult from the household.

Even a post Muldoon like economic collapse that gave the Labour Government steel to make radical reform only went so far.
It may also be a lesson that when you reform radically, all sorts of other agendas can get tossed in.

More recently with Greens, we got "Green School" thing vs many things that would further their aims much better.

Anyway a blast from the past...
Here an example of a curse from both sides at the time.
Don't Give me Culture. Knobz
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/culture-1980

""
The Knobz response to Prime Minister Rob Muldoon’s refusal to lift a 40% sales tax on recorded music (originally instituted by Labour in 1975), and Muldoon's typically blunt verdict on the cultural merits of pop music (“horrible”).
""

Difficult...like gong Nuke Free ?
Sitting on ones butt wringing your hands saying its too hard achieves exactly nothing.

I work servicing scientific instrumentation, and I recommend various brands simply because service information is available, and I have been to the EU for various courses as well as having done online training . Although they "board swap" more often in the EU than we do ,when I can I work to component level. And we have stopped buying stuff that does not supply service information.

As for Amazon et al, there is zero chance I would have any devices from Amazon, Google, Facebook etc in my house, they are 100% untrustable. I will not buy HP because of their ink scam. I just have a mono laser printer because that meets 99%+ of my needs and it cheaper to pay per page for colour elsewhere.

We had contherm here in NZ where getting info and parts was great, the flood in the Lower Hutt area killed them some years back when the stream broke its banks and washed through the factory.

I am about to start the reverse engineering of a Gallagher electric fence unit so I can fix it, so not all NZ companies are great... they told me I had to send it to them...LOL, NO.
I am also fault finding a 1980's ultrasonic cell disruptor, 40KHz 100+ watt resonant circuits back then are quite interesting.
I have FULL service manuals for many of my old computers from the 1970's-1980's
Unless someone is willing to FORCE these companies to move away from the throw away society then it will continue to our detriment

NZ government departments, Universities, Poly techs, research institutes should start working on open sourcing equipment.
Why not rebuild someone else's old equipment such as incubators with new controllers (Temp, Humidity,CO2, Night/Day settings, etc), I am about to go down this path so I can resurrect some controlled pens for poultry , so here I am also learning Arduino or though systems running Basic may also be useful .

EVERY journey starts with the first step.

sir1963

3187 posts

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#3089590 13-Jun-2023 19:13

ezbee:

Anyway a blast from the past...
Here an example of a curse from both sides at the time.
Don't Give me Culture. Knobz
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/culture-1980

""
The Knobz response to Prime Minister Rob Muldoon’s refusal to lift a 40% sales tax on recorded music (originally instituted by Labour in 1975), and Muldoon's typically blunt verdict on the cultural merits of pop music (“horrible”).
""

Yep I remember it well

Do you remember this one ?

https://www.folksong.org.nz/big_norm/index.html

Technofreak

6515 posts

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#3089738 13-Jun-2023 21:34

GV27:

I'm more worried about core infrastructure being sold off or provisioned to overseas providers to the extent that the country is effectively renting its own productivity from outsiders.

Our inability to build anything of note in recent years to an acceptable standard (roads, highways) if at all (light rail, passenger rail other than the Waikato-Auckland commuter service) etc is hugely concerning, given we are now facing a future where what little infra we have will be subject to climate-driven weather damage. Do we even know how to repair what we have?

The technical know-how is not the issue, it's actually getting the job done.

The Waikato-Auckland train uses refurbished carriages running on existing tracks. Nothing of note there with respect to building anything. Worse still it's a White Elephant. It's a huge money pit where my regional rates disappear into. Otherwise I agree on our current lack of ability to get things done.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

ockel

2031 posts

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#3089796 13-Jun-2023 22:31

Technofreak:

The Waikato-Auckland train uses refurbished carriages running on existing tracks. Nothing of note there with respect to building anything. Worse still it's a White Elephant. It's a huge money pit where my regional rates disappear into. Otherwise I agree on our current lack of ability to get things done.

The running costs are $10m per year (thanks to the HCC for its slides and cost breakdown). Ignoring the amortised cost of setting it up and based on the record number of passengers in the last 12 months its still $133 per passenger per trip. Its worse than a white elephant - fossil fuel costs + carbon credits (at $100/tonne) are still cheaper than catching this train.

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

GV27

5859 posts

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#3089828 14-Jun-2023 06:00

ockel:

The running costs are $10m per year (thanks to the HCC for its slides and cost breakdown). Ignoring the amortised cost of setting it up and based on the record number of passengers in the last 12 months its still $133 per passenger per trip. Its worse than a white elephant - fossil fuel costs + carbon credits (at $100/tonne) are still cheaper than catching this train.

Agreed, however the running costs and set-up for this are so bad it can best be described as a pilot program. It's nowhere near as useful as it could be to Hamiltonians until they have a proper central stop, and I get the feeling that's the most that might realistically come out of it.

But they promised it, it's there and it exsits. So I have to give them credit for it, even if it sucks. Much like the EV uptake scheme should have pivoted to FBT exemptions to drive fleet uptake - they still did it, even if I disgree with how it's currently being run.

ockel

2031 posts

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#3089844 14-Jun-2023 08:22

"Vision without execution is just hallucination". Never a truer word said for the current Labour Government.

Another blinding example of an idea from the pulpit without any consideration on the how.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491934/public-transport-discount-for-under-25s-hits-snag

Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"

johno1234

2612 posts

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#3089848 14-Jun-2023 08:31

ockel:

"Vision without execution is just hallucination". Never a truer word said for the current Labour Government.

Another blinding example of an idea from the pulpit without any consideration on the how.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491934/public-transport-discount-for-under-25s-hits-snag

Just like the much heralded ECE funding announcement in the budget.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/490600/early-childhood-sector-says-budget-plan-to-extend-subsidy-is-unworkable

They just throw out half-arsed ideas without doing the work to think them through first. We have never, ever paid so much to run a government yet got such poor value in return. This is why I do not believe increasing taxes is any kind of panacea. All that means is more money to piss away. Come up with a plan first. Think it through. Test if from all angles. Then when you have actual reason to think it will work then start thinking about funding it.

With Labour, the main KPI always seems to be how much they are spending, not how much they are delivering.

sir1963

3187 posts

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#3089855 14-Jun-2023 08:41

johno1234:

ockel:

"Vision without execution is just hallucination". Never a truer word said for the current Labour Government.

Another blinding example of an idea from the pulpit without any consideration on the how.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491934/public-transport-discount-for-under-25s-hits-snag

Just like the much heralded ECE funding announcement in the budget.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/490600/early-childhood-sector-says-budget-plan-to-extend-subsidy-is-unworkable

They just throw out half-arsed ideas without doing the work to think them through first. We have never, ever paid so much to run a government yet got such poor value in return. This is why I do not believe increasing taxes is any kind of panacea. All that means is more money to piss away. Come up with a plan first. Think it through. Test if from all angles. Then when you have actual reason to think it will work then start thinking about funding it.

With Labour, the main KPI always seems to be how much they are spending, not how much they are delivering.

Currently I believe it is "How many votes will this buy"
Desperate times for a desperate party...

Technofreak

6515 posts

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#3089859 14-Jun-2023 08:53

sir1963:

Currently I believe it is "How many votes will this buy"
Desperate times for a desperate party...

Bribing us with our own money. Trouble is some are too dumb to see that.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

sir1963

3187 posts

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#3089880 14-Jun-2023 09:22

Technofreak:

sir1963:

Currently I believe it is "How many votes will this buy"
Desperate times for a desperate party...

Bribing us with our own money. Trouble is some are too dumb to see that.

They all do it, its especially obvious when the "bribe" will only happen if they get elected

GV27

5859 posts

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#3089956 14-Jun-2023 11:25

Technofreak:

Bribing us with our own money. Trouble is some are too dumb to see that.

It's even worse than that. The refusal to index means it's also bribing you with more and more of pay rises you might get in the future to meet the rapidly increasing living costs you're already copping today.

floydbloke

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#3089986 14-Jun-2023 13:34

Another promise they can't deliver on (on time) because it wasn't thought through?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491934/public-transport-discount-for-under-25s-hits-snag

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not ****ing blue!

johno1234

2612 posts

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#3090003 14-Jun-2023 14:44

floydbloke:

Another promise they can't deliver on (on time) because it wasn't thought through?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491934/public-transport-discount-for-under-25s-hits-snag

There are concessions already you can load onto a Hop card - the common ones being for school or tertiary students. So it can be done as long as the person has proof of age (D/L, ID, passport). Getting them loaded is a real ball ache though - requires going to an AT ticket office with ID (and proof of student status). My kids are forever losing their frickin' HOP cards which means redoing the whole schemozzle. Jr. currently has no concession loaded but as everything still half price I haven't really bothered to fix it.

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