Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: The miserable archive

Sacha

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 14:18:32 +1200

pining for the fjords

Jeremy Andrew

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 13:34:03 +1200

Key was a surfer on the human wave. He rode it, but he did not cause the wave.

"Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.
Zaphod Beeblebrox was amazingly good at…

nzlemming

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 02:52:45 +1200

Yes. It's one reason I left the public service after National got in. Their weaselly VFM bullshit gave a licence to every closet arsehole in the public sector. Tone comes from the top, but its the front line who let it happen.

I, too, was very pleased to have got…

nzlemming

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 02:49:54 +1200

Key was a surfer on the human wave. He rode it, but he did not cause the wave.

The wave is neo-liberalism. We've reached the point where it crashes on the rocks destroying those who cling there.

Adam H

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 19:18:49 +1200

WHAT?? So a law can be interpreted differently by a government?

Paul Campbell

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 08:26:56 +1200

Today's Tremain

andin

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 08:26:02 +1200

Theres one question I’d like to ask, but will never get an honest answer, from all those on the govt side during this debacle. They obviously mistakenly thought they were dealing with monkeys, the arrogance just drips off them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAOyh7YmEc

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 22:14:27 +1200

Key was a surfer on the human wave.
He rode it, but he did not cause the wave.
Spooky indeed...
He is after all merely a particle, but one that could seemingly pass through both slits – if you could observe him you wouldn't know what he was up to,…

Joe Wylie

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:47:31 +1200

Thats him 2nd from the right
Spooky, considering he'd have been barely 5 years old, though those reptilians really hit the ground running once they're out of the egg.

BTW the Wall of Surf party outpolled the Communist League and Blokes' Liberation in the 1990 election, though there's been no…

andin

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:19:58 +1200

Key was a surfer on the human wave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKG0p6Tv9Q

Thats him 2nd from the right

BenWilson

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:55:09 +1200

Something psychologically very, very dark happened during the John Key era.

If it did, John Key was a symptom of it, rather than a cause. I just don't think he was anywhere near as influential as his fan club and his haterz made out. National's polling would appear to be…

Tom Semmens

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 12:02:09 +1200

God that’s brutal, it outlines social engineering toward a class system which is not the old NZ way. Who’s culture have we imported ,and why hasn’t MPI stopped it at the border?

Something psychologically very, very dark happened during the John Key era.

andin

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 11:50:27 +1200

Andrew McKenzie needs to go for a start. He was/is earning $46000 a month . He is not morally fit to hold this job, judging by his behaviour

Sacha

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 11:47:35 +1200

that Deloitte report

Courtesy of Benedict Collins: dropbox pdf, 24 pages.

Worik Stanton

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 10:55:30 +1200

As reported by Radio New Zealand Andrew McKenzie was asked about a Deloitte report at select committee...

... the Deloitte report the agency commissioned last year.

That report again told Housing New Zealand the guidelines were designed only for cleaning up meth labs and warned its eviction campaign was not…

andin

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:58:52 +1200

The people involved have shut up and are using the johnkey tactic of hand waving it away, saying nothing to see here, move along please.
They need to be made accountable.

william blake

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 08:59:44 +1200

God that's brutal, it outlines social engineering toward a class system which is not the old NZ way. Who's culture have we imported ,and why hasn't MPI stopped it at the border?

andin

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 08:18:55 +1200

Spinoff has an excellent article
Andrew Mckenzie HNZ and a lot of people at HNZ and on Tenancy tribunals should be in fear of losing their jobs over this. Rightly so

Tom Semmens

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 07:52:06 +1200

We used to have a NZ Guidelines Group with a team of researchers highly skilled in analysing and grading scientific evidence. This whole saga shows why we need such an independent and skilled team in a public agency so the process cannot be captured by any interest group.

Funnily enough,…

FletcherB

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 22:29:07 +1200

Whether methamphetamine contamination in a dwelling is via use or manufacture the exposure risk is the same

You can also (in a weasel way) read it as true if you take "exposure risk" to mean the risk that you might get exposed to it.. instead of the implied "the risk…

Moz

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 20:49:15 +1200

“for the same level of contamination" ... That’s also bullshit. Methamphetamine is not the same as the bubling chemicals and gas, which are used to manufacture it.

I'm not sure whether that's a reading comprehension fail or a political answer – you've responded to something I didn't say with a…

Hilary Stace

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 17:41:18 +1200

Joe Wylie

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:54:53 +1200

The cyanide can kill the photographer if they fuck it all up by adding the sulfuric acid at the wrong time. But the photograph it self isn’t going to have any halmfull residual cyanide.

I guess some people never really got over those primary school stories about the kids who…

Russell Brown

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:47:21 +1200

so who appoints the ‘judges’ on these tribunals? who prosecutes? can tenants get legal aid?

Tenants can only turn up with legal representation in certain circumstances, and many of the adjudicators are lay people.

Paul Campbell

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:03:58 +1200

so who appoints the 'judges' on these tribunals? who prosecutes? can tenants get legal aid?

Russell Brown

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 12:49:07 +1200

That right there is an insta-fail on administrative law grounds.

Wait till you hear about how they determine essentially criminal allegations on the balance of probabilities.

Idiot Savant

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 11:06:10 +1200

When I appealed, guess who heard the appeal? The same guy who made the original decision. These people are a joke.

That right there is an insta-fail on administrative law grounds.

Russell Brown

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 10:32:37 +1200

We were talking about the Tenancy Tribunal making stuff up. Here it is, literally, from a real estate website.

In certain cases, we have found one adjudicator of the opinion that any level of Methamphetamine contamination is too high, even if it is under the Ministry of Health guidelines. Adjudicator…

Paul Campbell

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 10:11:02 +1200

Today's Tremain

Jackie Jones

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 09:13:44 +1200

As a former drug user, i can confirm that drug use and dealing has been going on at the Imperial apartments on Hobson Street for at least the last two decades. The building is well known amongst the drug using community. I do not understand how Housing New Zealand could…

Stephen R

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 09:04:28 +1200

Note the US has implemented the obvious version of this policy: it applies to everyone, not just the criminally poor.

I'm aware of cases where drug dealers were couriering drugs to houses they expected to be empty during the day, and then picking the package up before the owners got…

Tom Semmens

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 08:20:26 +1200

So what the hell happened? Housing NZ refused to comment. And the Group Manager for Courts and Tribunals says the tribunal does not comment or decisions or the evidence offered in hearings.

Andrew Mckenzie has finally fronted up this morning. But he didn't sound particularly contrite. Very cool, very technocratic…

BenWilson

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:58:37 +1200

I wouldn't put it past HNZ to have used private detectives to follow Jesse around. Debt collectors seem to do this almost as a sideline.

andin

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:55:14 +1200

interpretation is always dictated by the Government

??WHAT?? So a law can be interpreted differently by a government? More like place themselves above the law.
Drag these fuckers through court someone please!
I was glad to see the back of the shonkey govt cause John took his idiot son with…

Sacha

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 21:11:40 +1200

that advice was rejected

I'd like to see some actual people held accountable for doing that.

Sacha

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 21:08:44 +1200

The other issue I don’t hear mentioned much is liability.

Wonder if the insurance industry set some standards of their own – it's their bread and butter.

kiwiwolf

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:25:24 +1200

Difficult to imagine any tribunal giving anyone a fair hearing under Nationals Regime

Kevin McCready

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:10:20 +1200

My experience of the tenancy tribunal was shocking. It was pro-landlord to a disgusting degree. They acknowledged an agent had lied and left me out of pocket, dismissed my case. When I appealed, guess who heard the appeal? The same guy who made the original decision. These people are a…

Russell Brown

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:06:32 +1200

Bridget Burke's Checkpoint story: she got in touch with Jesse and discovered that he's still paying that testing fee back.

Turns out Jesse went to Waitemata DHB, which is the one that provides detox services. They insist they didn't tell Housing NZ.

So what the hell happened? Housing NZ refused…

Russell Brown

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 17:59:15 +1200

In the absence of any legal standard for safety around meth contamination (other than the Ministry of Health report in 2010 which sideswipes the question), what was the Tenancy Tribunal supposed to do prior to revised numbers in late 2016? Serious question. I’ve seen the grenades tossed, but what was…

kiwiwolf

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 17:48:08 +1200

Having worked in a Government Dept abroad for many years I can assure you that the rules are laid out for you by law but the interpretation is always dictated by the Government and there minister and we are all aware now of the devastating agenda laid down by National...bordering…

Bart Janssen

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 16:38:55 +1200

If it was found to be unsafe

But it was never unsafe. Never ever ever. Not a single piece of data showing harm or even potential harm. Just a misused and misunderstood number.

There should have been no remediation costs because remediation was utterly unnecessary.

Bart Janssen

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 16:35:49 +1200

what was this Tribunal supposed to do in *legal* terms?

Ok to toss a grenade – In legal terms they were breaching the rights of tenants based on "evidence" that was false and known to be false.

In legal terms – well I'm not a lawyer – but I'd say…

andin

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 15:56:18 +1200

, however inadequate that information may have been.

Inadequate is a polite term to use for the cock ups that followed.
They took advice from people who stood to profit from that advice being acted upon.
There's a warning bell right there.
Whoever it was should have gotten other views…

Steve Withers

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 15:38:34 +1200

Tom Semmens

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:58:40 +1200

I believe we have had plenty of examples in the past of how a virulent, all pervading ideology at the political leadership level that wishes to dehumanise a section of the population can then easily harness the power of a powerful bureaucracy eager to prove how effective it is at…

Moz

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:26:29 +1200

a culture that is focused on punishing people ... Somehow we've allowed our core social services to lose their raison d'etre.

That's contested, though. The oligarchs have been vigorously pushing the idea that poor people are both worthless and must be punished. Many are Randians if not explicit eugenicists or…

Moz

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:21:22 +1200

Whether methamphetamine contamination in a dwelling is via use or manufacture the exposure risk is the same

That's technically true, but elides the crucial "for the same level of contamination".

When we were trying to buy a house we dismissed a couple because they'd clearly been long-term dens for indoor…

Moz

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:17:04 +1200

Note the US has implemented the obvious version of this policy: it applies to everyone, not just the criminally poor.

In the USA people can (and do) lose their homes, anything they have that's worth anything, and often their freedom, merely because the police think that someone might have or…

nzlemming

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:10:46 +1200

Are there any cases where testing for meth was negative?

Russell Brown

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 12:45:25 +1200

Here's another one. The tribunal couldn't make a finding on whether the tenant was responsible for meth traces, but ordered that HNZ be allowed to make her leave her home "on the basis that the premises are uninhabitable due to the contamination by methamphetamine."

Housing New Zealand Corporation, (HNZ), had…

Bart Janssen

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 11:04:23 +1200

What I find so utterly depressing about this is that it's become clear that HNZ and now ADHB have a culture that is focused on punishing people who use the services those agencies are meant to provide.

Somehow we've allowed our core social services to lose their raison d'etre.

I'm…

cindy baxter

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:50:11 +1200

Makes for such grim reading. Those poor people – agree with Minto's comment this morning that both Housing Corp and WINZ, by the end of nine long years, appeared to be operating a system that ran on vindictiveness, and the targetting of some of society's poorest people. But the problem…

Public Address

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:50:11 +1200

Discussion from blog post.