Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio, Rewrap.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
There and welcome to the Rewrap for Thursday. All the
best but from the Mike Lasting Breakfast on News doalgs
ed B and a Sillier package. I am being Harten today.
Mike's been mulling over the Biden pardon and wanted to
have a word about it today. Do public service CEOs
get paid too much or not enough? And public service
(00:51):
Christmas parties? Are they just?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Do?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
They just sound like the worst thing ever before any
of that turning and turning your farm into forestry? Is
that now a thing of the past?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Interesting but good move, I think overall, I thought about
this yesterday afternoon of the announcement came out. This is
on the forestry and farming. So it's an another example
of practical thinking and application in an area that relied
to be frank on laziness to solve a problem. Ever
since we became obsessed with climate change, and we became
obsessed with things that might or might not address climate change,
the low hanging fruit has been trees in carbon markets. Now,
(01:24):
carbon market says we've seen yet again this year. Don't work.
Government MUCKs around with the rules, change the prices, freaks
the market out, and all the credits that go up
for sale, by and large don't get sold. They all
pile into the next auction and don't get sold until
they get piled into the fourth and final oction of
the year, whereby they're not sold again. So they then
get dumped. Dumped as in they never actually existed. Of course,
(01:44):
in the first place, it's a mad invented idea that
only works of people believe it works, and so far
they don't. Then we plant trees, why because it's easy.
So a paddock of trees or a paddock of sheep
or crops or cows in a country where we already
build too many houses on productive land, also planting trees
on that sort of land is criminal and stupid. What
this country does is feed the world. Our ability on
(02:05):
quality in many areas is unmatched, and we get the
price return for it. But and here is where the
old freedom of movement and thinking comes in. If you've
got one hundred hectares and you want to sell it
to and the person who wants to buy it wants
to plant trees is offering more than the bloke next
door who wants to expand as farm and keep sheep.
You are now potentially limited by a government that has
decided for you what you do with your property, and
(02:26):
that's always a fairly tricky area. Ultimately, though, governments must
act in these circumstances on behalf of the nation. And
if we aren't so reliant on food as a producer,
I mean, if we were a tech center or a
space center, or an oil center, or a strategic global
based like Singapore or do Buy, it might be different.
But land is our calling card, and one day we
(02:46):
will work out trees aren't the answer to climate change,
and by the time we work that out, reconverting that
land won't be possible. So in that sense, this decision
basically saves us from ourselves.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I don't understand why reconverting it isn't possible, because when
there are trees there to begin with, and they chop
them all down and plowed out the roots to begin with,
the farmers were there originally? Were they? And also are
we comfortable with being told what we can do with
our own land like this? I don't really know.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's the rewrap Now this.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Has obviously been tuning around in Mike's mind, the Biden pardon,
which you know, I thought that was old news, but
Mike's all head up about it today for some reason.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It is hard to overstate, if you're following the American media,
it is hard to overstate the shock among many and
in particular Democrats at the moment over what the outgoing
president has done with the son. Article two, Section two
of the Constitution is where you will find the power.
Alexander Hamilton introduced the concept of the constitutional convention. They
had a bit of back and forward apparently about whether
the treason should be excluded, but they sorted it the
(03:57):
strongest example of constitutional executive unilateralism. It has been tested
a couple of times in the Supreme Court eighteen sixty
six and eighteen seventy one, but they're all the Court
could not restrict a president's pardon power. It is, even
under the most gracious, morally high and uplifting grounds, a
pretty spectacular idea if you think about him. There's something
(04:20):
so profound they decided about the office of president that,
as we have seen of late just lately, in fact,
court cases vanish and out the other side. You can
pretty much take any low renting you like and set
them free. What makes Biden's move so egregious is not
that it's unique, because it isn't many. A president has
pardoned any number of low lifes, many of them far
far worse than Hunter Biden, but one he specifically stated
(04:42):
he wouldn't do it, So he's a liar. Obviously, it
taints his reputation and legacy in the most profound way,
But more importantly, for the Democrats in particular, it destroys
a major piece of weaponry that has been previously relied on,
especially when it comes to the incoming president. The incoming president,
they will tell you, was a crook, a shyster, a
snake oil operator. He is someone beneath the office. He
is everything a good, clean living Democrat despises, and yet
(05:05):
Biden turns out to be no better. A bloke who
has claim to be above the frey, to have upheld
the ideals of the great America, a great party, turns
out to be a self serving, dishonored shill from Scranton.
Fifty years of service for what, so we can limp
into retirement with his last act, the defining moment of
his career. If one of the so called good guys
can turn out to be that slippery, how do they
(05:27):
convince anyone in twenty twenty eight that the next contender
isn't exactly the same. Decorum has at least in part
been a Democratic calling card until Biden. No wonder they're
ropable yees.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So, I mean, it's not like Mike to do sort
of an out of date, you know, it's fallen out
of the news cycle, kind of a comment piece like that.
But I suspect, giving that tomorrow is his last day
for the year, he's just been going through all the
bits and pieces that he hasn't used yet, and he's
just pulling out a few of those. If you want
(05:59):
me to just peel back the curtain a little bit,
That's what I reckon happened here. This couldn't be bothered
coming up with a new one today when he's still
got any of good stuff in the magazine. We need
to shoot out, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Rerap.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I'm not sure when all the public service CEOs are
due to go on holiday or whether they already have. Well,
maybe they're working through, probably not working through.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I reckon, like I see the chief executives of New
Zealand Rail and Transpower are two of the highest paid
public service employees. Imagine how much they get. They knew
how to turn off autopilot and how many nuts to
remove safely for a pilot not to fall labor. It's
threey good points and nice. If you didn't see that,
it was yesterday of the day before, I can't remember,
but the Herald ran a whole bunch of numbers, and
can I sound like a completely out of touch pratt
(06:42):
just for a moment. So I looked at those numbers
of people leading the public service, and I wouldn't do
those jobs for anywhere near that money. I don't care
what it is these people are ruining. It seemed to
me from meny three four one hundred thousand dollars to
run an entire public service. Now, is that a lot
of money? Of course, it's a lot of money. It's
a tremendous amount of money. But think about what they're doing.
(07:02):
They're running hundreds of not thousands of people. They've got
the media on their back constantly, they've got the government
on back constantly. They're in a no win position in general.
They're expected to be doing the job, not for the money,
but for the public good, whatever the hell that means.
And for that you get to be frank a pretty
(07:22):
ordinary sort of salary, no thank you. And I came
to the conclusion that we're not paying them enough. And
if we actually paid some proper dough, average executive chief
executive in this country is about two million. If we
started paying some proper dough, we might actually get some
proper people doing a proper job.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Do you reckon when Mike says.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And can I sound like a completely out of touch Pratt.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And then goes on to say that three hundred thousand
dollars doesn't seem like enough to be paid to run
something that he's actually more in touch than he lets
on the re rabbit. Because Mike is finishing up tomorrow,
I think that means he won't be around for our
Christmas party, which is next Friday. So everybody's going to
(08:06):
be really disappointed.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mike, you and Ryan would talking about work Christmas parties.
Not all business owners neglect their staff. This is the
business out this morning of the state sector. I'll go
through it later. It's so sad. Not all businesses neglect
their staff. This year, eight agents, three office staff and
there and their families from Real Property Real Estate Kerry
Kerey were taken from Kerry Kerey and a coach to
(08:28):
Munganui Pub for a beer, on to Carrington Estate for lunch,
the beach ed Mattai for a couple of hours with
a chili bin and food and drink, and back to
Munganue for a beautiful tire meal, no cost to staff
at all. This follows one year where they took us
for an overnight stay at Kawai Island needless to stay.
Staff turnovers zero. Now there's a lot of people looking
after the staff. It's just that you're between a rock
(08:49):
and a hard place in the state sector, aren't you.
I mean, the moment you have a party, everyone's after you.
But there comes a point, and I'll give you the
fine detail, because they've gone through department by department. When
you're asking staff to bring along seven dollars and their
own drink, it's like, don't worry about.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It, just mean having anything. It's had to bring seven
dollars precisely. Yeah, and it might have a five dollars.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Not twelve dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Fifty are getting it three dollars change from a.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Ten yeah, can I have change because I've only got it.
It's just it's hope.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I mean, seriously, surely you can. Can you just direct
credit to a transaction from your bank account? Nobody actually
has seven dollars, do they? The rerap we were making
that up by the way. In fact, here are all
the grizzly details of all the grizzly parties.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Let me come to the business of the Christmas parties
around the state sector. It is such a miserable lineup
it makes you sad. Ministry of Business as an MB,
it would not be providing a subsidy for an end
of function that end. Ministry of Housing are no Christmas
function at all. Customs it's not arranging or funding anything.
Crown Law staff they can pay to attend their b
(09:58):
y O Christmas do The agency said festivities are being
held in the office, with some costs paid for from
its Social Committee fundraising efforts. Staff need to bring their
own drinks and a small entry fee covers finger food.
Office for Mari Crown Relations being disestablished anyway, as far
as I know, they need to pay seven dollars to
(10:18):
attend the NWS staff party. Seven dollars. It's being held
off site Charter School Agency, which is new of course
planning a Christmas lunch and an external site. Staff also
have to pay for that, So an external lunch that's nice.
The new Ministry of Regulation first Christmas do this year.
Of course, staff has to bring a plate of food.
Refreshments are being provided by the Ministry Senior Leadership Team,
(10:40):
so there's some hope there. Department of Prime Minister funded
by individuals. Nothing barbecue for Kiwi rail Qui Ral doing
some barbecues. Other sites are having a morning tea. Ministry
of Health. This is where it's all on. This is
the place to be. Ministry of Health. That's got the
karaoke and the giant ginger. There is a morning tea
(11:00):
at the Wellington office. They've got five and a half grand.
That comes out at nine dollars fifteen per person, so
that's higher than pretty much every anywhere else. Catered food
is consistent with the Ministry of Health's National Healthy Food
and Drink Policy. Boring shaff at the Department of Internal
Affairs morning or afternoon tea at twelve bucks ahead. The
Ministry of Justice Ministry for Ethnic Communities has budgeted fifteen
(11:24):
dollars per person, but can't be spent. No booze, No booze.
Ministry of Primary Industries, they've reduced it per person two
twenty dollars ahead. It's gone down to twenty dollars ahead,
and twenty dollars at the Education Review Office at corrections
twenty five dollars but once again no booze.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So twenty five dollars ahead, but no booze. What is
it that you're actually getting? I mean sounds that's a
decent amount of nosh. I would have thought for twenty
five bucks. I don't now. Yeah, Like I said, our
(12:10):
one's next week. It's in the afternoon. It goes from
two to four, two thirty to four thirty or something.
It's usually when I'm asleep. It's going to stand there
pretending that I'm awake, talking to people, like, pretend that
I know. Maybe that just won't go again. We can
(12:33):
go last year. Don't anybody lists me. I am a
Glen Hat party man. Let's see you back here with
all the fun times to morrow.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.