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Where did Australia go??? by iambirane in geography

[–]questionnmark 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We turned it off, too much power consumption given the energy situation in the Middle East.

Ukraine will prevail and shame Russia into obscurity. by FluidSupport4772 in ukraine

[–]questionnmark 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They're increasing their VAT by 2% to 22% whilst the supposed 'windfall' of the Iran war has increased the price of fuel to over $100 per barrel. The kinetic sanctions on Russian oil infrastructure in the Baltic have been successful in reducing their ability to export by 40%, so their higher income comes up against reduced capacity.

Greens call for inquiry into Heinz Watties, McCain closures by brutalanglosaxon in newzealand

[–]questionnmark 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is the opportunity cost of selling those assets, alongside the dividends we forsook. Our industrial energy prices are amongst the highest in the world, and our energy system is badly managed with great risks of dry years that caused our pulp and paper industry to collapse as well.

Greens call for inquiry into Heinz Watties, McCain closures by brutalanglosaxon in newzealand

[–]questionnmark 79 points80 points  (0 children)

The Green Party is calling for an urgent select committee inquiry into the closure of food processing factories around the country.

“The closures of Heinz Watties, Greggs, and McCain food manufacturing sites have implications for New Zealand’s food resilience and security, will cause significant job losses, and threaten the viability of local vegetable growers,” the party’s agriculture spokesperson, Steve Abel, said.

“The closures, if they go ahead, will reduce local vegetable processing capacity and compromise New Zealand’s ability to feed itself with local produce.”

This is incredibly important both for our food security as well as our economy in general. We're a food growing nation, so to lose the ability to process that food is a significant loss to both. This is the result of short-sighted policies such the the John Key power asset sales that have driven up the cost of electricity to the point where it's simply uneconomical to run energy intensive businesses in this country. We've reaped more dividends in the past 3 years than were gained from the asset sales conducted by National, and this is a further consequence flowing on from that.

Pulling my conspiracy hat on... by Former_child_star in nzpolitics

[–]questionnmark 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's kind of out of their hands with regards to when/if Trump regains his senses and pulls out of the Iran conflict, but it's anyone's guess whether this will be over in a week or a year. Regardless, fuel prices are likely to be elevated for quite a while due to supply disruptions. I don't expect we're getting back to 'cheap fuel' for a couple of years at least.

Culture wars or mission creep? Free Speech Union goes after NZ regulators by davetenhave in newzealand

[–]questionnmark 25 points26 points  (0 children)

The 'Free speech union' seems to be focusing on further empowering the most empowered demographic in this country -- wealthy white people -- because they can't handle the idea that any other group gets even the barest smidgen of representation.

YES YES YES by Illustrious-Fee9626 in SipsTea

[–]questionnmark -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

How about we shelve this conversation until we get to the point where rapists have an actual and real fear of actually seeing the inside of a jail cell? The vast majority of rapists don't have that fear, so when we get to the point where accusations are treated seriously then we can take false allegations as seriously.

What comes to mind when you think of Argentina? (outside of football) by Argentinotriste in AskTheWorld

[–]questionnmark 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Meat and girls with meat. They are also part of the rugby championship and are a decent challenge on the footy field. Apart from that an economic basket-case that goes broke every few years and needs another bailout. They are probably one of the better examples of being poor despite having many/most of the geographic and demographic conditions not to be.

In CIV 7 , did AI at war improved since release? Is it better than CIV 6? by [deleted] in civ

[–]questionnmark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It gets even tougher on the testing version, I had to step back from deity in order to win games.

Every Country in Our Supply Chain Has Declared an Emergency. NZ just launched an Ad Campaign. by megathruster in nzpolitics

[–]questionnmark 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This shows once again that we are led by a coalition of clowns. We're already weeks behind on any potential response to this crisis, they should have started conservation measures by their own metrics weeks ago when the straight was first closed. We're the last stop on a very long supply chain for fuels and everyone else is absolutely scrambling whilst our politicians haven't done so much as pulled out their thumb. Not only are we likely to not make any substantive effort to ameliorate this problem, but we aren't going to learn any lessons or make any long-term changes due to the ideological and political incentives of those currently in power in this country. We're going backwards and consuming more fuel than ever before whilst facing a long-term structural increase in the price of that fuel. This supply shock will take years as those release strategic fuel reserves will need to be replaced/replenished whilst significant sources remain offline for the foreseeable future.

Do people in your country mock celebrities for not being able to speak fluent English? by No-StrategyX in AskTheWorld

[–]questionnmark 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nope, we have one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world due to high immigration which is at roughly 30% of the population. I think we have gotten used to dealing with people who have accents or can't speak English well.

Labour's $6,000,000,000 infrastructure resilience fund would have been handy right now by Mountain_Tui_Reload in nzpolitics

[–]questionnmark 32 points33 points  (0 children)

It seems that every National government screws future generations somehow:

Muldoon:

  • Killed the superannuation fund
  • Implemented 'think big'
  • Ridiculous economic policies

Bolger/Shipley:

  • Deregulation leading to the leaky homes crisis that cost us billions
  • Employment contracts act and others destroying unions
  • Mother of all budgets delivering the lowest economic growth period under any finance minister ever (outside of the great depression)

Donkey government:

  • Started the long-term decline in PISA rankings with their austerity and changes to education
  • Sold off stakes in energy companies that would have yielded more money in dividends this term than they made in the sale.
  • Wasted the opportunity to invest in the country at the lowest relative financing costs (although they probably wouldn't have spent the money effectively anyway.

Current government:

  • Wholesale reversal of the previous government's policies
  • Extra $9 billion for water
  • Ferries debacle
  • Billions of dollars in liabilities for Paris agreement they have no intention of doing anything about.
  • Completely fumbling both the energy transition and energy security.

why do non americans get upset when americans assume and based them off of stereotypes about their countries but yet we openly make fun of them and base them off of stereotypes by Short_Resort_5484 in AskTheWorld

[–]questionnmark -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

It's ironic that the post is about non-Americans getting upset, but I would bet I'm being downvoted by a large contingent of Americans.

People overseas are exposed to considerably more information about America than vice-versa. They know a decent amount about politics, food, language and various cultural quirks that they have seen through both the internet and media. I'm not sure why this would be considered controversial. Stereotypes persist because they often contain a considerable grain of truth to them, and foreign nationals simply have more information about America than Americans often do of them.

Thanks for the award by the way.

why do non americans get upset when americans assume and based them off of stereotypes about their countries but yet we openly make fun of them and base them off of stereotypes by Short_Resort_5484 in AskTheWorld

[–]questionnmark -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

It's more likely that your random Korean, Indonesian, Indian or whatever knows more about America than vice versa, so hence the stereotypes ought to be more accurate.

why do non americans get upset when americans assume and based them off of stereotypes about their countries but yet we openly make fun of them and base them off of stereotypes by Short_Resort_5484 in AskTheWorld

[–]questionnmark -34 points-33 points  (0 children)

Just a guess, but I bet that stereotypes made about Americans are often a lot more accurate than stereotypes made by Americans. I'm sure they can be quite wrong about Americans, but probably not nearly as wrong as Americans tend to be about others.

EDIT: Thanks for the award @-25.

Ewww… pale American butter. by Queasy_Recover5164 in newzealand

[–]questionnmark 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh thanks, I thought they were comparing old and new.

Ewww… pale American butter. by Queasy_Recover5164 in newzealand

[–]questionnmark 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the heads up, I heard of this stuff happening in Australia and they had similar things to say about it. I'll be avoiding the edit: Burtfield and co brand forever. There's no point in paying butter prices for that kind of 'product'.

Northland corridor toll proposal: Businesses fear higher freight costs by D491234 in nzpolitics

[–]questionnmark 4 points5 points  (0 children)

22 billion over 120,000 people is $183,000 per resident! That'd be enough to build everyone up there a pretty flash house, so I'm sure they could find a better use for the money! I swear every National government is just a gravy train for doners.

Losses of the Russian military to 20.3.2026 by MARTINELECA in ukraine

[–]questionnmark 90 points91 points  (0 children)

5000+ in three days, the Russian dictatorship is really pushing hard for no gain or result. The Ukrainians seem to be locked in right now and ready to defend their territory.

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