Labour Thus Far....

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

The thing I'm warming up to is the hilarity of the merger being costed at $368 million in the budget, when the combined valuations of the two companies, according to their annual reports, is $366 million.

a) we all know that there's no way this is only going to cost $368 million

b) by the time it's completed, the value of the two companies will be a fraction of what it is now

I'm guessing the bulk of that value is TVNZ? What dollar value would RNZ have?

[Ab]

TVNZ 298m, RNZ 67m

Insert Simpsons meme of Homer telling Bart "they're worth 298m and 67m at the moment"

[Lightspeed]

I expect TVNZ's value to drop in the medium term. If they're being asked to align themselves more with RNZ's practices.

Our commercial media is complaining they'll lose if they have to compete with TVNZ/RNZ, which I think is true in the long term. But in the short-medium term, during the period TVNZ drops some of it's more lucrative advertising while it tries to find more socially responsible alternatives, the commercial media is going to be able to pick up the slack, exploit its free hand.

Altho I confess I have no real idea of how big a footprint TVNZ has on the commercial landscape, but I assume it's significant if private organisations are complaining.

In the long term I think there's a question of how we actually measure the value of these entities. I'm pretty sure there are any number of things in NZ worth $67m that the country would see burn before we lost the broadcaster.

[Ab]

I expect TVNZ's value to drop in all terms because it's the 21st century and it's a television station.

I presume the commercial networks are complaining because they are regulated by the government and about to be competing with a government-owned entity that doesn't have to make a profit. Which seems like a reasonable objection.

[Lightspeed]

Well, RNZ is a radio station. One that is somehow worth $67m. With only the interests of its listeners at stake, without regard for commercial interests.


🤷

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Well, RNZ is a radio station. One that is somehow worth $67m. With only the interests of its listeners at stake, without regard for commercial interests.


🤷

Yeah but radio is booming. It's the biggest sector in online media now, it's just that people call that sector "podcasts". If RNZ can pivot to being a specialist podcast network, rather than a radio network that has some podcasts, then it's worth a bajillion dollars. If its owners don't fuck it up, that is, oh shit what am I saying

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

The thing I'm warming up to is the hilarity of the merger being costed at $368 million in the budget, when the combined valuations of the two companies, according to their annual reports, is $366 million.

•327 million over three years from July 2023/24 when the entity will begin operating, through
to 2025/26
• $40.1 million over four years for change and establishment costs

From that link it looks like 327mil is the cost of operations for three years that would be spent anyway and so the actual merger cost is only 40mil

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Ab

Wtf faafoi is jumping ship?

Update: he quit halfway through a parliamentary term to become a lobbyist.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...ist-and-pr-guy

The system is beyond redemption. Burn it all down.

[Lightspeed]

I guess he figured he worked hard enough, long enough. Now it was time to get paid.

It's seems like this is better than politicians being able to line their pockets while still in power.

I'm still counting on the youth. Hopefully their lead free, cyber-enhanced brains will pull us through.

[Lightspeed]

Education Ministry expects to cut teacher funding due to decreasing enrolment

[StN]

Originally Posted by Karen

I'vE dOnE mAh rEseArcH oN tHe FaCebOOk anD AftEr CovId I cAn HoMeSkOOl maH kIdS!

[Lightspeed]

That's one subset of parents. Then there are those who see what their schools are like and are horrified of the thought of leaving their kids there 25 hours a week.

[Lightspeed]

Photography essential part of intelligence gathering, Minister of Police says

Just in case kids get sick of dumpster diving I guess?

[Ab]

Minister of Health: nothing to see here

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/waikat...JSDXNEUJUWB24/

[Ab]

Ministry of Education: nothing to see here

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/govt-p...2BJBK3JTKRN2I/

[Ab]

Literally nothing to see here
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ncea-c...6F624HRHWPRBY/

[xor]

98% of decile 1 high school students do not have foundational levels of literacy to engage in the world.

Fucking grim.

[Lightspeed]

Schools and hospitals rot under both Labour and National. Goes to show where our priorities lie.

But at least we don't have no smarty-pants kids coming up, thinking they're better than us old buggers. Imagine how hard it would be running the cons we do if we had a sophisticated community on our hands to deal with?

[xor]

Pretty much. But hey, it's the school's fault right that the kids aren't learning right?

[xor]

https://vimeo.com/764002885?embedded...owner=91701080

What a useless pack of cunts, These useless sociopaths couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.

[_Incubus_]

Originally Posted by xor

https://vimeo.com/764002885?embedded...owner=91701080

What a useless pack of cunts, These useless sociopaths couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.

Or apparently make an exam for kids that can't read....WTF?

[Ab]

Originally Posted by xor

https://vimeo.com/764002885?embedded...owner=91701080

What a useless pack of cunts, These useless sociopaths couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.

Jesus Christ, that was awful.

[Lightspeed]

Fair Pay Agreements Bill passes third reading in Parliament

The Fair Pay Agreements Bill has passed its third reading in Parliament, with the support of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.

The bill provides a framework for collective bargaining across occupations - like cleaners, supermarket workers and security guards - rather than just between unions and employers.

This seems appropriate, right? After the role essential workers played during the pandemic, they were due some kind of support in leveraging the value they offer the community.

[xor]

On the face of it, heck yeah! Would need to read more into the legislation though.

[Ab]

The anti-free-speech PR roadshow is going well.

[Ab]

Our tax dollars at work

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...NYUTQ6XRWNV6M/

[xor]

Labour's printing of currency go brrrrr with the new policies

[_Incubus_]

So why does Clarke get to go on endless govt funded trips? I just noticed his free trip to Scott base...other than sight seeing what was the purpose of him being in tow?

[xor]

To be fair, being a PM is a shithouse job. Being able to bring your significant other should be one of the few perks.

[DrTiTus]

Government spending is now a staggering 42% of the whole NZ economy

[Ab]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[xor]

Print some moar moneys for the consultants brrrrr brrrrrr

[fixed_truth]

Lol taxpayers union stats without context. OECD average? Ratio trend here to compare to?

[Ab]

Australia's about 25%. I think when the COVID stimulus was roaring it got up to about 28%.

[Lightspeed]

If the Taxpayers Union is bringing it up, it's certainly bullshit. The kind of thing that gets eaten up by people who use the phrase "it's simple" a lot.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

Australia's about 25%. I think when the COVID stimulus was roaring it got up to about 28%.

So varying around the same amount as NZs is.

General government expenditures in OECD countries averaged 40.8% of GDP in 2019. In 27 of 36 OECD countries, government expenditures were between 35% and 50% of GDP. European countries tend to have higher government expenditures than others, accounting for 9 of the 10 OECD members with the highest government expenditures. General government expenditures increased in 2020: in all 26 countries with data available, government expenditures rose as a share of GDP.

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/...nt/6c445a59-en

[DrTiTus]

I hate it when you need to justify millions/billions of dollars of spending with a political slant.

Fact is, government doesn't do shit for us. They're supposed to provide roads [fail], police [fail], fire service [fail], healthcare [fail] and law and order [fail]. Beyond that is socialism and even THEN they still fail.

It's fucked.

Learn to grow food or die and I don't care what you choose.

[xor]

The govt couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

[Lightspeed]

They did organise a world leading response to the pandemic tho. But if Facebook says so...

[fixed_truth]

Labour doesn't make the lunches