Human Rights Commission report exposes awful practices in NZ’s biggest visa scheme, which enables businesses to expand by importing temporary workers, and often abusing and underpaying them
Excellent output thanks. I just wonder about the residual romanticism in heading 1 and whether we can move towards what we aim to become - essentially naming the core element in your huge project.
There is something fundamentally rotten in how nations such as ours continues to wilfully act. There is shame in the pride we strut about giving everyone a fair go and equality when all the while we “export” the consequences of how our economy works so it’s “out of sight and out of mind”. We are doing exactly that with emissions; and we do exactly that in the exploitative way we treat and foreign workers, and then just “dump and discard”. Be good to get this opened up too please…
So many jarring truth bombs. On the migrant abuse (because that’s what it is); whether the individuals impacted are on temporary visas or not hardly matters when we hold the door open; as people leave or are kicked out, so we bring in more temporary migrants; and therefore I think we need to look at the number of individuals on these temporary visas at any point in time. And use that to force the infrastructure conversation.
Thanks for all the mahi @Bernard.
Let’s keep shining bright sunlight on each and every festering problem.
We should feel a daily collective shame for the inhumane way we treat temporary migrants. But then I look at the way we treat people on a benefit, disabled people, those abused in State care, Maori, Pacific people's... Maybe this is a feature not a bug of our current society. A mostly white home owning elite unwilling to share their abundance so everyone can have enough. Gulp!
How long until one of the other countries the migrants have come from call out Aotearoa for the treatment of their diaspora on the world stage. It’s probably the only thing that will force action
Modern Slavery. Correct. The wealthy capitalists controlling our churn and burn economy want cheap uncomplaining slaves to fuel the machine. It will not grow the economy for the rich pricks otherwise. The ordinary voter will be placated by land prices and bread and circuses and will not complain. Onward the Coalition!
Interesting re the solar buy back mentioned in dispatches. I'm actively looking at installing a grid tied battery backed system as I'm most unhappy with the strangle hold the 4 gentailers have and do not see this government (or the last tbh) taking any significant action. Also noting that panel prices (only part of the cost) have fallen 50% in the last year.
I'm in the process of installing. When looking at buy back prices you need to also look at when that price is given and also what are they going to charge you for the grid usage.
21c sounds great but if you export the battery power in the evening peak hour and then pay 33c to use grid power, it might not be worth it and you're better off with someone offering less for buyback but you use the battery storage during peak time.
Yes, doing a install with my sparky mate, I'm doing the hole drilling, racking etc. Leave the tricky stuff incl certification to him. I'm also very fortunate that I can pony up the $, effectively paying 5 years of power bills up front. I have modelled it with flat 12c buy back rate.
We have had battery and panels for almost a year and that was my instant thought but if you clear out my battery then I will have to pay 33c, although their off peak buy back is still better than our current rate.
That property owners are allowed to just ignore court ruling is outrageous. The solution can be simple. Just like tenants are required to pay bond, the property owners should be required to do the same and if there's a tribunal ruling against them & they decide to ignore, the payment will be made from that bond money.
My nephew had a dispute with the landlord when the tenancy ended. Long story short, Tenancy Tribunal found bond had not been lodged (and landlord was serial offender in this regard), no punishment ordered. Tenants awarded $2500 for bond repayment, but it took 12 months and filing a claim in court to get actual $ to be paid back. A really shocking experience, and this is for a 21 year old with very supportive whanau.
I can't imagine what it is like for less supported tenants.
Wasn’t exactly glowing form our Untied Nations UPR. We are reporting back on the 269 recommendations sept/Oct, 6 directly related to modern slavery. Considering we just went backwards doubt the UN UPR will achieve much except deminish further our international standing. https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/07/world-shines-a-light-on-nzs-human-rights-breaches/
It makes sense that rooftop solar repurchase rates should fetch a premium during peak demand. But peak demand does not coincide with peak solar generation, so the only surplus energy a user is likely to have available is whatever they have stored in their battery that they don't need for their own peak hour needs (which is likely to be nothing or next to nothing). Even if say an entire 10kWh battery could be discharged back to the grid (extremely rare probability of that) you'd only be getting...$2.10 for you efforts.
Yes, in hot climates peak solar can align well with peak demand (for AC etc). In our temperate climate the battery can help to lower peak demand rather than working to increase supply - nega watts if you prefer. The economics are avoiding buying 'lecy at 33c per unit. I have modeled a payback of 4 years for the battery.
A friend of mine (on a 3 year work visa from the US) had to go and do fruit picking in Tauranga during the lock down. She said it was probably one of the worst jobs she had ever had and there was a lot of dicey stuff going on. She felt that she was treated better as she spoke Engish and was white. I encouraged her to write it up and be a whistle blower but she felt it was too tricky given her work visa status. That's why I was appalled to see that immigration had announced a further 20,000 RSE visas (have I understood that correctly?) who will be on lower salaries and have to pay more for their living quarters. Of course we have fewer immigration staff who will inspect such workplaces and Worksafe jobs are not safe so they will be of little use. No doubt they will say that we trust employers to be self regulating. Was it also this last week that Immigration Minister Eric Stanford said she hadn't replied to the Mayor of Dunedin for 6 weeks as to his request to issue visas to family of a Dunedin based Palestinian Doctor because she had 3 really, really big portfolios and was too busy. Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day and MFAT posted about its commitment to to protect international human rights. I emailed Mr Bede Corey (the head of MFAT) to therefore commit to calling for the Minister to issue humanitarian visas. I wonder if he will bother to reply. Sometimes I am so ashamed of our country.
Exploiting immigrant workers sort of makes sense in respect to the global market. Many NZ companies have moved manufacturing overseas- making the most of the economy of scale and/or worker exploitation overseas.
This is no way to treat a guests of this country. But is it really any different to how the people who make all the cheap junk we import are treated- we have known it all along but because it's happening within the country it is something new?
"enabling potential human trafficking, with signs of systemic migrant exploitation and modern slavery"
you dont have to leave waiheke to see some of this reality Bernard... yet is under the "working holiday " scheme... and it gets compunded by the particula realities of the housing crisis we face in the island.
In April this year, our local newspaper the Gulf News did a review of homes to let on the island that found there were only nine places available for people who wanted long-stay accommodation, and there were 698 Airbnb listings. [The nine] houses that were available weren't affordable.
my undertandng is that it was based solely on airbnb listings... yet is very common that the same house is in bookabach and others at the same time. Not sure what is the total number of residential dwellings, but allegedlly only 40% are permanetly occupied, meaning by people who live full time in the island... also having lived in the island since 2000 we have very few hotels (3?), motels (1) and backpackers (2-3)
It surprises me that the world doesn't already know we are a pretty scummy capitalist mean spirited bunch of islands that kid themselves with delusions of superiority, We could be better, but it seems we are not
Excellent output thanks. I just wonder about the residual romanticism in heading 1 and whether we can move towards what we aim to become - essentially naming the core element in your huge project.
There is something fundamentally rotten in how nations such as ours continues to wilfully act. There is shame in the pride we strut about giving everyone a fair go and equality when all the while we “export” the consequences of how our economy works so it’s “out of sight and out of mind”. We are doing exactly that with emissions; and we do exactly that in the exploitative way we treat and foreign workers, and then just “dump and discard”. Be good to get this opened up too please…
So many jarring truth bombs. On the migrant abuse (because that’s what it is); whether the individuals impacted are on temporary visas or not hardly matters when we hold the door open; as people leave or are kicked out, so we bring in more temporary migrants; and therefore I think we need to look at the number of individuals on these temporary visas at any point in time. And use that to force the infrastructure conversation.
Thanks for all the mahi @Bernard.
Let’s keep shining bright sunlight on each and every festering problem.
We should feel a daily collective shame for the inhumane way we treat temporary migrants. But then I look at the way we treat people on a benefit, disabled people, those abused in State care, Maori, Pacific people's... Maybe this is a feature not a bug of our current society. A mostly white home owning elite unwilling to share their abundance so everyone can have enough. Gulp!
Probably right on! But not entirely. There are many exceptions.
As an antidote I watch docos on Maori TV and some of them about are outstandingly inspirational.
How to get all of the information out there.
How long until one of the other countries the migrants have come from call out Aotearoa for the treatment of their diaspora on the world stage. It’s probably the only thing that will force action
Hi Bernard
Modern Slavery. Correct. The wealthy capitalists controlling our churn and burn economy want cheap uncomplaining slaves to fuel the machine. It will not grow the economy for the rich pricks otherwise. The ordinary voter will be placated by land prices and bread and circuses and will not complain. Onward the Coalition!
Patrick Medlicott
Interesting re the solar buy back mentioned in dispatches. I'm actively looking at installing a grid tied battery backed system as I'm most unhappy with the strangle hold the 4 gentailers have and do not see this government (or the last tbh) taking any significant action. Also noting that panel prices (only part of the cost) have fallen 50% in the last year.
I'm in the process of installing. When looking at buy back prices you need to also look at when that price is given and also what are they going to charge you for the grid usage.
21c sounds great but if you export the battery power in the evening peak hour and then pay 33c to use grid power, it might not be worth it and you're better off with someone offering less for buyback but you use the battery storage during peak time.
Out of interest what was your payback period? We got quotes last year & 7-8yrs, so didn’t pull the trigger
Yes, doing a install with my sparky mate, I'm doing the hole drilling, racking etc. Leave the tricky stuff incl certification to him. I'm also very fortunate that I can pony up the $, effectively paying 5 years of power bills up front. I have modelled it with flat 12c buy back rate.
We have had battery and panels for almost a year and that was my instant thought but if you clear out my battery then I will have to pay 33c, although their off peak buy back is still better than our current rate.
That property owners are allowed to just ignore court ruling is outrageous. The solution can be simple. Just like tenants are required to pay bond, the property owners should be required to do the same and if there's a tribunal ruling against them & they decide to ignore, the payment will be made from that bond money.
My nephew had a dispute with the landlord when the tenancy ended. Long story short, Tenancy Tribunal found bond had not been lodged (and landlord was serial offender in this regard), no punishment ordered. Tenants awarded $2500 for bond repayment, but it took 12 months and filing a claim in court to get actual $ to be paid back. A really shocking experience, and this is for a 21 year old with very supportive whanau.
I can't imagine what it is like for less supported tenants.
Wasn’t exactly glowing form our Untied Nations UPR. We are reporting back on the 269 recommendations sept/Oct, 6 directly related to modern slavery. Considering we just went backwards doubt the UN UPR will achieve much except deminish further our international standing. https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/07/world-shines-a-light-on-nzs-human-rights-breaches/
It makes sense that rooftop solar repurchase rates should fetch a premium during peak demand. But peak demand does not coincide with peak solar generation, so the only surplus energy a user is likely to have available is whatever they have stored in their battery that they don't need for their own peak hour needs (which is likely to be nothing or next to nothing). Even if say an entire 10kWh battery could be discharged back to the grid (extremely rare probability of that) you'd only be getting...$2.10 for you efforts.
Yes, in hot climates peak solar can align well with peak demand (for AC etc). In our temperate climate the battery can help to lower peak demand rather than working to increase supply - nega watts if you prefer. The economics are avoiding buying 'lecy at 33c per unit. I have modeled a payback of 4 years for the battery.
Interesting article ‘Conservative Republican endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy’
CNN - Politics. Jamie Ganges and Gregory Krieg.
A friend of mine (on a 3 year work visa from the US) had to go and do fruit picking in Tauranga during the lock down. She said it was probably one of the worst jobs she had ever had and there was a lot of dicey stuff going on. She felt that she was treated better as she spoke Engish and was white. I encouraged her to write it up and be a whistle blower but she felt it was too tricky given her work visa status. That's why I was appalled to see that immigration had announced a further 20,000 RSE visas (have I understood that correctly?) who will be on lower salaries and have to pay more for their living quarters. Of course we have fewer immigration staff who will inspect such workplaces and Worksafe jobs are not safe so they will be of little use. No doubt they will say that we trust employers to be self regulating. Was it also this last week that Immigration Minister Eric Stanford said she hadn't replied to the Mayor of Dunedin for 6 weeks as to his request to issue visas to family of a Dunedin based Palestinian Doctor because she had 3 really, really big portfolios and was too busy. Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day and MFAT posted about its commitment to to protect international human rights. I emailed Mr Bede Corey (the head of MFAT) to therefore commit to calling for the Minister to issue humanitarian visas. I wonder if he will bother to reply. Sometimes I am so ashamed of our country.
Exploiting immigrant workers sort of makes sense in respect to the global market. Many NZ companies have moved manufacturing overseas- making the most of the economy of scale and/or worker exploitation overseas.
This is no way to treat a guests of this country. But is it really any different to how the people who make all the cheap junk we import are treated- we have known it all along but because it's happening within the country it is something new?
"enabling potential human trafficking, with signs of systemic migrant exploitation and modern slavery"
you dont have to leave waiheke to see some of this reality Bernard... yet is under the "working holiday " scheme... and it gets compunded by the particula realities of the housing crisis we face in the island.
In April this year, our local newspaper the Gulf News did a review of homes to let on the island that found there were only nine places available for people who wanted long-stay accommodation, and there were 698 Airbnb listings. [The nine] houses that were available weren't affordable.
This RNZ article explores that that https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/525599/calls-for-regulation-on-short-stay-rentals-as-waiheke-island-faces-housing-crisis
what is the total number of residential dwellings (excluding hotels, motels and backbackers) on Waiheke?
"698 Airbnb listings" does that include bookabach etc listings or is it solely Airbnb?
my undertandng is that it was based solely on airbnb listings... yet is very common that the same house is in bookabach and others at the same time. Not sure what is the total number of residential dwellings, but allegedlly only 40% are permanetly occupied, meaning by people who live full time in the island... also having lived in the island since 2000 we have very few hotels (3?), motels (1) and backpackers (2-3)
Yep. A crisis very close to home. Thanks Francisco.
It surprises me that the world doesn't already know we are a pretty scummy capitalist mean spirited bunch of islands that kid themselves with delusions of superiority, We could be better, but it seems we are not
I think becoming neoliberal was what made us mean