Wellington at Risk

New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, could be about to experience a serious depopulation event. That's because its ageing infrastructure is collapsing but its idiotic and immature council insist on prioritising cycleways over sewers. 

Currently, the main sewage processing facility is out of action, and this may go on for months. But, added to that is the underground pipes are old and giving away. Not only that, but the fresh water supply sees the streets leaking. This is a matter of urgent public health concern as sewage may get into the fresh water supply. If this gets much worse, I can see Wellington having to be evacuated, it is that bad. Birmingham type bad.

The government seems unable or unwilling to do anything about it. The New Zealand prime minister, Christopher Luxon, should sack the Wellington City Council and put in commissioners to run the city. In the last 16 years across NZ, this has occurred three times, but this disfunction in Wellington is by far the worst NZ has seen in 40 years - but nothing is done. Luxon is a craven middle manager, scared of his own shadow. He's indecisive and weak. 

Sack the Wellington City Council and put people in charge who actually know how to get things done. 

Chris Hipkins Silent

The series of rain events and resulting floods have destroyed parts of New Zealand, including areas of Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti and Hawkes Bay. Apart from the few flyovers to observe the damage, there hasn't been much heard from the prime minister about the recovery. A few handouts have been announced, but that doesn't even scratch the surface of what is required. Road links need to be re-established to save farms from failing. They're running out of fuel. Billions of dollars are what is required, and thousands of earthmoving machines. Let's do this.

Jacinda Ardern: Kind?

I found this personal account quite moving. So many in New Zealand are now injured, possibly infertile, and excess deaths are running at 15%. What a nightmare.

And please read this lengthier look at what kind of legacy Jacinda Ardern leaves behind: https://expose-news.com/2023/01/20/jacinda-arderns-legacy-of-national-division/

 

Jacinda Ardern Steps Down

The big question comes now that New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has announced her resignation.

Was she pushed or did she go willingly?

Right now is an odd time to step aside. With the General Election due in 2023, she's dropped her caucus team in it. They'll struggle to obtain any traction over the months leading into the campaign season.

Make no mistake, Ardern will go down as New Zealand's worst ever Prime Minister. Worse even than Bill Rowling. What, did you think I'd mention Robert Muldoon? No way, he loved his country and always did what he thought was best. He wanted to see New Zealand fully develop.

Jacinda Ardern leaves the country in tatters. The people are downtrodden and the economy a mess. Things are so bad, there may be no coming back from this. 

What the new PM could do is immediately scrap the state of emergency that the government uses to beat the people with. We want our basic human rights back, something Ardern took from us. She's a World Economic Forum puppet and prefers Big Tech censorship, Big Pharma poison, and creepy weirdo let it all hang loose cancel culture (it's as if I'm starting to wake up from a nightmare knowing that she is going).

She won't be missed. No doubt she'll move on to work for the WEF or the UN or she'll perhaps take up some Big Tech leadership role. She'll have to leave the country, that's how hated she is. And as they say in the movies, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Jacinda Ardern and her speech at the UN

Exactly how did New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern's speech go over at the United Nations? If you believed the media, then you'd think the world was blown away by her perspicacity and wisdom. Except one clever person installed Google Chrome's app which restores dislikes of YouTube videos, and the result may surprise. See the picture below...

Cute Bird while the other is Jacinda Ardern

 

Niceness Over Everything Else

New Zealand is now defined by a new standard, niceness. Gone is competence, talent, work, achievements or anything tangible. Now we have niceness trumping all of that. You must be nice at all times. Niceness reigns supreme. 

This sentiment now permeates everything, promulgated by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern who must be NZ's most incompetent leader by far, and there have been many contenders for that title. 

New Zealand Back Into Lockdown

New Zealand has been touting itself as having the answer on how to deal with COVID-19. Well they don't, I couldn't put it more bluntly than that.

At the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, NZ was somewhat reluctant to close its borders. It did close to China reasonably early, but remained open to the rest of the World. So the Coronavirus arrived on its shores from Iran and Italy. Then what followed was the most drastic lockdown anywhere. This wrecked the local economy, wiping out all inbound tourism which accounted for almost 20% of export revenue.

Not that clever New Zealand and did this approach work? Not on your life; COVID-19 is back and now NZ goes into Level 2 lockdown across the country and Level 3 in Auckland. The authorities say for a few days, we'll see, I'm not holding my breath.

So what's been going on? I can only give my own opinion about this; I believe community transmission has been around the whole time. This may even extend in some form, right back into last year - 2019. Why do I think this? One of the early casualties was an older person from a remote part of the country, someone who had not come into contact with many people, especially tourists. She was initially diagnosed with pneumonia and this was put down as the cause of death, only to have that revised and updated. It's highly likely there have been many cases like this that have gone unnoticed.

Then recently NZers have gone overseas, and were found to be carrying the virus when they arrived. How did they catch it? At least some of those must have caught the virus when in NZ, meaning community transmission was occurring, something NZers were told no longer existed.

NZ is going into an election campaign that will decide the country's future. It seems NZ's inexperienced and somewhat shallow Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern is using the Coronavirus to ensure reelection. That is being done through the timing of these lockdowns to coincide with the election campaign. NZers had a fairly clear indication this was coming; as soon as electioneering began in earnest, the government COVID-19 television advertisements began again. Then a few days before the latest lockdown announcement, talk of requiring the wearing of masks was all over the media. This, despite there being no community transmission according to official sources. In other words, NZers were being softened up.

Rather than announce policy, and debate the direction of the country, Ardern is using a fear campaign to ensure victory. This comes after she effectively bankrupted the country. 

Will people see sense and realise a change of government is needed? Maybe, but if they do not and NZ experiences another three years of Jacinda Ardern at the helm, that may spell the end of the country. It really is that serious. On the plus side, this Coronavirus does not appear that bad after all. You wouldn't want to catch it, but if you do, there is every chance you'll recover. But the panic associated with it is being used by politicians to further their own agendas.

Coronavirus and New Zealand

So far New Zealand has dodged the bullet. There have been a handful of COVID-19 cases but they seem to have been isolated early and there is no transmission of the virus within the wider community.

That said, calls are being made for NZ to do more, to shut down inbound flights, and for areas to be locked down with proven known cases. Reality check; NZ can't do that as it relies on air freight on passenger services to transport its pharmaceuticals, and without tourism the country would go bust fast. Districts can't be locked down either as NZ has no equivalent force to Italy's Carabinieri, its form of gendarmerie. NZ almost got there, once it had the Ministry of Transport road policing officers, a form of Polizia Di Stato, or civil lower level policing unit. The NZ police were placed over the top of that. But NZ cost-cut and merged the two, creating one large civil force and then underfunded it. NZ cannot now decide to be big bossy boots as it won't work, it is not possible to mobilise the gendarmerie as it completely lacks one. Thus, areas of the country cannot be isolated, the resources do not exist to do it.

And forget the army, those military bases are empty. NZ is so weak it can't pull the skin off a rice pudding. 

The answer is to hope and pray. Trust that people will behave and isolate when required to. Wash hands, cover sneezes and coughs etc. That's it, there ain't no more. Good luck Kiwiland.

[ Update@ 14/03/2020 - the NZ government has announced it is requiring all inbound travellers to self-isolate for 14 days. This is voluntary and cannot be rigidly policed (see above as to why not), I expect a bail out of Air New Zealand is on the horizon, it always gets the handouts, hotels and motels will not be so lucky]

[Update @ 09/06/2020 - after several weeks of the most all-encompassing lockdown in the world, NZ has emerged with a broken tourism sector, a national debt level that is at record highs, widespread unemployment, and a closed border. NZ did actually close that border but some flights still occur, possibly to ensure air freight continues. It's a huge mess, but the way NZ's dear leader spins it, she's saved the country from its imminent demise. If you put this in a novel no-one would believe it. Now NZ has no resistance to the virus, and must stay shut away, potentially for years. ]

Jacinda Ardern to Scott Morrison

About time a leader in New Zealand called out Australia on their despicable practise of exporting its criminals to NZ.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119916746/jacinda-arderns-confrontation-of-scomo-is-a-turning-point-in-transtasman-relations

The Fall of Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern have come under fire recently.

Trudeau has dressed in brown face and costume for a party, something he says he regrets and has apologised for. The first evidence of this was an event he attended in 2001 at the age of 29. Think about his age and the year. What? 2001 and 29. Not 1961 and 19. 

Justin Trudeau, the most 'woke' person on the planet, turns out he's just another racist. He's been playing the electorate like fools all along. Anyone who voted for him must feel badly cheated.

Then we have Jacinda Ardern. Six months ago she did an astoundingly good job in the wake of the Christchurch massacre. New Zealanders overlooked the stage managing of her hug of the Muslim woman, a picture that went around the world. NZ wanted to heal, and the picture helped. Okay, they ensured the angle was just right, and she held the other person long enough for the right picture to be taken, but who really cared, what happened was truly shocking and stage managing was acceptable.

But six months on and things have changed drastically. Now we have a different stage, this time it's the Beehive and Bowen House where the executive of the NZ government hangs out. Inside those buildings it is alleged a number of serious sexual assaults occurred. The predator initially kept his job while, apparently, his many victims were sidelined. What's worse, the PM may have known but did nothing. The Minister of Finance may have known but did nothing. It's hard to know what the two knew, when they knew and what they did about the allegations because a wall of silence has gone up. Inquiries will be held, the terms of reference for which are secret (yes, secret), while the alleged perpetrator has finally resigned. It's all very murky indeed and not a good look at all.

Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern have experienced a sudden and astonishing fall from grace. One word sums up why that is: hubris.

Jacinda Ardern's Credibility Shredded

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern's credibility has been brought into question over her handling of a serious complaint of sexual assault within the executive branch of her administration. What did she know about it, when did she know and did she cover it up.

Read about it here, short video is embedded: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/video/mike-hosking-pm-jacinda-ardern-is-donkey-deep-in-sex-scandal-botch-up/

This is all really concerning and right now, Jacinda Ardern is not believable and quite frankly, she's shredded her chances of re-election. What she should have done is talk to the woman who was allegedly assaulted and brought in the police toot sweet.

The Jacinda Ardern Media Approach

I've finally figured out the media approach of New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. She's known for jotting things on the back of an envelope or in a notebook so I'll describe her approach imagining looking over her shoulder at her notes and sounding the way she does....

Talk about:
Communidies
Opportunidies
Diversidy
Tamariki
Kuia
( add other Maori words as appropriate)
Absoludely
Remember to nod nod nod
Concerned frown - nod nod nod (three nods, nice)
Position face for photograph, ensure photographer ready
Compassionate smile, embrace someone.

Prediction: Ardern Leaving in 2019

That's right, last year I said New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern must leave in 2019 and head overseas. That's because the only way for her now is down in NZ Politics. She's peaked and she relies on unstable tiny parties to stay in office.

But recently I've been observing how Andrew Little has been behaving. He was leader of NZ Labour before Ardern took over in the run-up to the 2017 General Election. I think he knows she's going and that he will take over her role and become Prime Minister. Remember, you heard it here first.

Jacinda Ardern and 2019

That was interesting, in just a couple of days since posting my prediction and why I think the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern will step down to move on, the post has become my number 1 most popular post of 2018. There must be something in this then!

My thinking, in short is that Jacinda Ardern must use the Xmas/New Year period to look for another job. If she misses out then the outlook is all downhill, being propped up by a ragtag bunch of minor parties and an often incompetent Labour party behind her. Who wants a former PM dumped by the electorate on their payroll? Surely it is far wiser to jump before the slide really kicks in. Watch this space.

Pike River Latest

The latest video footage from inside the Pike River mine is interesting to say the least. There is at least one wooden pallet still intact which means the temperatures inside the mine weren't that hot after all. It's quite likely there are bodies down the mine. There really is no reason for the continued refusals to enter the mine.

Has there been a cover up? It certainly looks that way but I don't see what exactly is being covered up.

The very weak and ineffectual New Zealand Prime Minister Simon "Bill" English should finally do something. New information and all that. But then with English's performance this past week regarding the Todd Barclay matter, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

New Zealand Environment and MMP

New Zealand has a major flaw with its economy and that is it has an anaemic secondary manufacturing sector. NZ does make some things, but not enough of its national income derives from secondary industry. This has a major impact on the environment. To maintain its position as a fully developed OECD economy NZ finds itself having to do two things in the absence of manufacturing; it must flog the land to exhaustion and pollute the rivers.

The intensification of agriculture has got to the breaking point. You will find commentators saying the answer is the service sector and Kiwis doing things smarter. Yes, fine, but NZ is small and isolated, it's hard to get noticed. Its all very well trying to be the next Microsoft or Google but how realistic is that? Not very realistic is my reply, and NZ does not have really big global scale service sectors and I'm thinking banking and insurance. NZ relies on overseas funds from banking and overseas owned insurance companies.

For little NZ, the answer is to extract mineral ores and transform them into metals. Then take those metals and make products from them. Then sell those products worldwide. And if feasible, make those same products in other countries with the design aspect handled in Kiwiland. You may think of Toyota when I say this but I'm thinking Scania. Scania are Swedish heavy trucks and made in factories around the world. But Sweden only has a population of 9 and a bit million. Less than twice the size of NZ. And they have Volvo construction equipment to boot, and on and on. NZ should try to emulate their example.

Will this happen with the current political set-up? Never. The German style of Mixed-member Proportional (MMP) voting introduced in the mid 1990's ensures NZ is stuck with the way it is. The country has professional naysayers in the Greens, refusing to lead or take any responsibility, hogging positions that could be occupied by more able parliamentarians. And contrary to what NZ was promised, the country has rarely had majority governments, instead being led by minority governments hanging on by pleasing the myopic middle ground in order to survive in office. NZ has ended up with the worst of all worlds.

And it will get worse. The day could come where MMP delivers tyranny. One example is where a party receives, say, 60% of the vote but all others fail to get to the 5% threshold. This means all Parliamentary seats would go to the one party making the threshold (in theory but with some seats being won without many party votes, there would be one hell of an overhang in that Parliament). Or how about the ultimate minority party, say one with 35% but the rest unable to garner much more than 10% each, with a large number of votes wasted on parties not making the 5% threshold; meaning the government would rule a country where the overwhelming majority had not voted for it. Incredible, it could actually happen. Who were the fools that foisted this system on the NZ people.

NZ School Funding: Predictive Risk Modelling

New Zealand society is about to change forever, it will mean an end to the 'give everyone a fair go' Kiwi concept and a new darker future where Kiwis will be ranked according to their familial surroundings and social status. What I'm talking about is Predictive Risk Modelling and linking that to funding of NZ schools. >>Link explaining the issue here<<

Why is this a bad idea? It stigmatises. Consider a child with no criminal record, doing okay at school, well behaved, gets along with others. But she comes from a broken home, father is in jail and a brother in jail as well. Mother was raped in the past, sister the victim of sex abuse. That child who is doing okay will be tagged a risk. Extra funding is made available to any school that takes her. The child carries a code that attracts funding and extra attention. But why?  She is not a victim apart from being in a difficult family, and has committed no crime.

The incompetent Prime Minister of NZ, Simon English is behind this. He hates the poor and wants to see all disadvantaged persecuted. NZ is on a very slippery slope, one where some will be tagged for life, while others receive a free pass. It is a very dangerous precedent.

Stop obsessing over whether NZ has surpluses and instead work toward fully funding all schools in NZ, so parents don't have to put their hands in their pockets. That'd solve the issue. Educate, educate and then educate some more. Stop with this find someone to blame nonsense and rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The Retirement Income Problem

Once again New Zealand is being subjected to more lies, damn lies and statistics. I've listened to the barrage of propaganda that NZ's universal form of superannuation is unaffordable and most of what I've heard is untrue or skewed toward an agenda.

That agenda is to raise the age of entitlement to national superannuation. Superannuation started out at age 60, then it was raised to 65, now NZ's incompetent Prime Minister, Simon "Bill" English, wants to kick-start another 'debate' on the issue. That's a coded message for lifting the age of entitlement to 67 or even 68.

Winston Peters, leader of NZ First opposes the move and good for him. He's said he won't allow any coalition involving NZ First to countenance such a move.

New Zealand superannuation is not a large sum of money for each person who qualifies, but it is paid twice monthly for their entire life from age 65 and even if they work fulltime and no matter how rich they are.

What New Zealanders are told when this debate arises, is that the population of those aged over 65 is going to rise to an unsustainable level and will become unaffordable. What is never mentioned is that this is a population bubble and when the cost will begin to fall due to natural attrition. Kiwis are left to imagine the cost remaining high indefinitely.

I've got a few suggestions and these do not involve changing the official retirement age of 65:

1. Allow people to retire earlier but receive less. A sliding scale could be used but anyone choosing the earlier option would not catch up to those retiring at age 65 until they were 70 (for those who chose 60);
2. Currently immigrants need to be resident for 10 years and no less than 5 of those over 50 years of age. Change that to 15 years permanently resident, no less than 7 years of which over the age of 50.
3. Anyone over the age of 65 and in fulltime employment cannot qualify for national superannuation but they can receive a tax credit at 40% of national superannuation (encourages staying in employment).

The following are macro policies the NZ government could employ:

A. Reduce the size of government. Halve it, that's the head count I'm talking about. And sink the cost of departments by moving them to the regions.
B. Own overseas infrastructure. That's right, when a toilet flushes in London, NZ gets paid. Or if goods are put on a train in the US for export, NZ gets paid.
C. Borrow.

Do these things.

[Update: Simon English has quickly followed up his comments by announcing the retirement age will rise to 67 by 2040. National has decided to screw over the young. Never underestimate National's pure greed, they always line their own pockets first. But even this shows English is an idiot, it's more decisions that are not really decisions at all. He did the same thing back when he was Treasurer in the late 90's with his pathetic and microscopic tax cuts (Helen Clark won the next election, everyone went to sleep listening to Simon the Sleep Inducer).

The policy as announced will exacerbate the brain drain as the young won't want to stay around to fund everyone's retirement but them, and student loans on top of that, as well as facing ridiculous house prices created by successive governments unwilling to do anything about it.]

Bill English and Employment Drug Testing

Once again we see why Bill English is unfit to lead New Zealand. He thinks workers are lazy and drug addicted. >>See Labour's reaction here<<  On top of that, he doesn't even know what the law is on drug testing. Here's a guide from the government he leads:

https://www.employment.govt.nz/workplace-policies/tests-and-checks/drugs-alcohol-and-work/

It is the employers responsibility to deliver a safe workplace, and it is better to work on prevention rather than trying to manage the effects of drugs and alcohol. This is the official line.

What do employers need not do? They do not have to test prospective employees nor do they have to randomly test all employees. They cannot even target an individual for a test if that is not provided for in their employment agreement. I score the Prime Minister a D- on this effort. Not only is he a bigot, he's uninformed and stupid as well.