Kiwi on your left

Willing to bet the math is similar for Comalco who use what, 18% of the country's electricity? At cut rate prices too.

But no, the moment they start making "Oh, gee, tough to make a profit here..." noises we throw subsidies well in excess of the value of the jobs they provide.

Sources:

Board: www.kiwirail.co.nz/who-we-are/o...

FY25 (note 22, pg66): www.kiwirail.co.nz/assets/Uploa...

If I'm reading the finances correctly (sources in reply), the 7 directors earn NZ$400,000 between them per year. That means the 8 months he was in the job paid him $37k. For skipping meetings and donating company cash.

Bravo, Winston. This even outdoes your usual scumbaggery.

Sad state of affairs that I cannot picture a single journalist these days who might ask that.

Have telcos said anything about data-only devices out there still on 3g? Alarm systems, environmental sensors, people using a data stick for internet?

I dislike the phrasing "with the virus". Lets the covid minimalists shrug it off. "He also died with a bigmac in his stomach, the bigmac didn't kill him."

If whatever else they had wouldn't have caused the death without the covid infection, then it's a death directly caused by the virus.

Or rather than letting her be the scapegoat I should ask the question of all of National.

Liars, or incompetent?

Across the National party it's probably a stew of both. Some more incompetent, some more liar. All are both to some degrees.

Nicola Willis; Liar or incompetent?

You can't tell a third of the economy to cut spending, give the other two-thirds an effective paycut through rampant inflation, and expect the economy to grow. It just doesn't math.

So was she lying? Or does she just not understand the economy?

Or both?

#nzpol

Nah that's the American taxpayer. The billions he scammed from those morons went straight into his own overseas accounts.

This.

The difference isn't that they're lying. The difference is they now have automated lie-generation-and-distribution machines.

Everything from the right is going to be false. And by the time you've debunked one lie, 12 more will have been posted.

Pick your battles.

Most frustratingly, no matter what happens, he will be fine. He's already wealthy and sorted. He doesn't need to run the country to be well off.

The rest of us though, will be paying for his follies for decades.

#nzpol

Watch it sell for $2.3m in 6 months with nothing else done to it.

On normal people doing normal things, probably not. But on him it's as out of place as holding a bunch of helium balloons would be.

You just know some PR wonk said "Hey ya gotta connect with the common plebs, pick a Super Rugby team." and he sat down and looked at game attendance, win records, and merch sales and went "Clearly I am a Crusaders fan, tried and true."

#nzpol

Rampant profiteering by the oil companies since the stuff that's in the system now is a lot older and cheaper than the per-barrel price on the market today.

Smells like collusion. Commerce commission anyone?

#nzpol

Tell them he's a beneficiary. They love locking them up. Less money from WINZ, more money for Serco.

Real estate and politics, the only two careers where people advertise with just their own picture, as if that somehow makes them good at the job.

So we'd be in an actual rockstar economy if only luxon didn't meddle in his own holiday home rates?

Sounds pretty far fetched.

Or is the guy desperately trying to justify having even greedier leaders?!?

Cutting dialysis just to save a couple of dollars is truly toxic behaviour. But let's ask ourselves the question: where did the money that used to be available to keep people alive actually go?

A short thread.

#nzpol

Pak n Save Hamilton are already doing it.

They claim it has reduced assaults. But they didn't publish specific figures so take that with a pinch of salt.

Next up: screen at the door that says "Welcome back KoYL, how were those ultra-small condoms you bought last time? Need some more?"

It's a feature of the right; perception is more important than results.

"We're tough on crime" is always accompanied by policies that *increase* crime.

"We're good with the economy" is always accompanied by cuts that harm the economy.

But if people keep believing the words, it doesn't matter.

Feels great to know the due-process-hating fascism-admirer is gonna be running the law commission.

No way that could ever be a problem.

It's the "keep calm and carry on" attitude.

Which might have worked when it was randomly raining V2 rockets, but was completely inappropriate for a global pandemic.

But people do love to say "Worked for a, let's try it on b, c, d, e, f etc."

They think killstreaks restock your consumables.

Despite all the evidence of the last two years, people still clinging to that economy thing, eh? Guess rejecting the evidence of your eyes and ears has already become commonplace.

Snippet from NZHerald article at https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2026-national-sinks-to-lowest-ever-result-under-christopher-luxon-on-taxpayers-union-curia-poll/JSB5NC5B5JGSBIHHC55KH3AZPA/ National MPs and staff spoken to by the Herald on Thursday night, prior to the poll’s publication, were aware of the result for the party. While there was no desire to initiate a leadership challenge against Luxon on that number, it was acknowledged that the Prime Minister would face scrutiny. Highlighted section is "While there was no desire to initiate a leadership challenge against Luxon"

They know the next person to take over will hold the role only until the election where they lose even more seats than expected.

Nobody wants that seat-warmer role, they only want to take over afterwards when they can shout from opposition about how the left hasn't fixed the economy yet.

#nzpol

They can just replace him with grok. Wouldn't even need to give it a haircut.

How to be recession-proof.

1) Employ dedicated lobbyists.
2) Shovel money at politicians.
3a) Get heads-up on any important industry changes.
3b) Get no-tender preferential contracts from govt.
4) Give board positions to ex-MPs.
5) repeat from step 2.

#nzpol

I'm just loving the consumer options here. Destroy our local environment and pay a fortune as choice #1, or destroy the planet with carbon miles and support a fascist dictatorship as choice #2.

Personally we've landed on #3 and just no longer buy butter. But that's hardly a solution.

There's no talent at all. And none of the people in national look even remotely palatable to any of us because we know anyone in national is a destructive, greedy egomaniac.

But I'm sure they will vomit up bland corpo shill, fall in behind them and get their pet journos to glaze them.