What a stupendous job the Government is doing at getting the country back on track. “What I would say to you”, is that the government cares deeply about us all, and is prepared to cut off both its own feet, to go with the arm and a leg it has already cut off, and to leave the bloody stumps and decaying flesh to one side as Willis and Luxon sail off into the sunset, never to return. “We, the people” does not concern them one bit. No one ever wins an election in the middle of a self-engineered recession, and this recession can be squarely laid at the feet of our gaunt Minister of Ozympic, the MP for List, Nicola Willis, who has brought this all on herself, and unfortunately also on ourselves as well.
Starting off as she intended to carry on, on day one she cancelled the Ferry contract, losing NZ about a Billion dollars and about 5 years in progress, and she and her bitch protege Luxon have succeeded in screwing us royally ever since. This week’s proposed sacking of another 8700 civil servants (check out the story on Scoop of how many people that really means over here), with most of those (all of them?) in Wellington, they have at last fulfilled the prophecy of JohnKey who proclaimed Wellington dead. “They thought it was all over – well, it is Now!!” Worst. Finance. Minister. Ever.
So – it is clear that the jobs won’t be coming back – Kaitaia is now also completely fucked – so is Tokeroa – and Wairoa – and Dargaville – and everywhere. It is also clear that the Housing Market is fucked as well – having successfully engineered a housing price crash. So I too am now looking for a new job, a new house, a new town, a new life, because there is no point in staying here in this town. Shit still flows out to sea on all sides (Porirua, Moa Point, Sludge factory, Hutt Valley etc), and now that the wonderful Predator Free has got rid of all the small mammal pests, there is only one more mammal to get rid of, which Nicola is working on fast as we speak. It is clear that she will get voted out at the election in a few months time, and in the meantime she has evidently got plans to screw us all on the way.
Where to go next then? Auckland? Sydney? Perth? Hong Kong? London? Kazahkstan?
Post script: I should make the point that No, I have not yet lost my day job, although I’m sure that day will come one day. But as I have all my adult life as a Fish, I’m on the lookout for new opportunities to swim towards, and perhaps get hooked on, hoping that someone will get me on the line and haul me in. But as an Architect, living in a town with zero prospects of growth for the foreseeable future, and no likelihood of a sudden windfall to the population, meaning no new buildings, no new houses, ie no new work, there has to come a time when you say: Thanks for all the Fish.
Sorry to hear that, Nemo
I blame Orr for the recession but keep in mind the great quote from some bloke on Aus TV when a chipper anchor doing a voxpop asked him how he felt about unemployment coming down x percentage – He looked straight down the barrel of the camera and said
“I’m a hundred per cent unemployed”
Aus has some infrastructure funding and the states are building a few public works still but it is still at time of writing chock-full of Australians
HK is a non-free speech zone and that would end up rustling your jimmies
London is too damn cold half the time
While Auck may seem tempting I can recommend looking at the regions and the one going gangbusters is down South
Dramatic landscapes, good skiing, expensive houses to build (unfortunately with some difficult clients)
Queenstown traffic is a bit shit but the regions are pumping away even as your beloved Capital is left to rot
You can always move back in a year or two, think of it as a sabbatical
Aaaah, bless you 60. Thank you for your uplifting words, and as always, a good story. Yeah, I’ve had a bit of a weird week, and I’m getting a bit over the eternal wind and rain, so I think I honestly need a holiday with sunshine and sangria, somewhere on a beach.
But it’s the political news that’s getting me down at the mo – especially from the US (never going there again!), and the UK (probably not there either), and I’m thinking that maybe I should just go on a repeat of what I did when I was 18 – the Peloponnese. Great memories of warm beaches and simple food. But in the meantime I’m still here, just need to find some time….
You can find more on Kazakhstan here & here.
https://en.tengrinews.kz/
https://thediplomat.com/regions/central-asia/
There is some stunning architecture, And some stunning weather. And some stunning geography.
Good luck. . .
You could always consider the provinces. Even Shamubeel Eaqub admits he gets it wrong sometimes…
oops:
https://www.facebook.com/simplicitykiwi/videos/2404664400016992/
Hang in there Fish (also pls watch out for anything identifable – it’s a small town – to get smaller)
I agree it is hugely frustrating that the government strips back Wellington first, rather than looking at new ways for the public sector and govt employees to support schemes for economic growth and development. Which many good governments do.
Nobody ever cut their way to growth.
They could also incentivize private businesses, start-ups, global firms etc to choose WLG as a home, as well as other parts of NZ to address the looming Auckland problem.
Why invest in all these lovely new trains and tracks in Wellington if nobody is travelling regionally or commuting. It’s an incredible place – and yes the movie industry helps with diversity as does the associated tourism – but it really needs more of a global czar (ugh, i know) with vision to drive the good things forward – and crucuailly – to publicize those to the world.
I can sympathise all too well. From our islands surrounded by the world’s biggest moat, we’re seeing what happens when Reaganomics & Thatcherism stubbornly refuse to die, and turn undead. The end result is MAGA & Brexit/Reform UK respectively – demagogic populism that’s very good at demolishing, but terrible at building anything except walls.
Australia, Canada & of course NZ aren’t immune despite all the guardrails in place. “Sane” conservatism is in freefall, and political arsonists are taking its place. But we still have a chance to halt the rot before NZ has another 1981 Tour moment, only this time HART is now “tax the rich & honour the Treaty” and “we want rugby” is now “taxation is theft & one law for all”.
More mis-information from National :
“Fixing the basics, building the future and backing families from day one.”
Day One of the Budget: We’ll have all women giving birth staying for 3 days in hospital care.
A video posted shows a number of female National MPs describing their birth experiences, followed by the health minister saying: “That’s why this Budget is extending post natal stays to three days for all Kiwi mums.
Day Three statement: Whoops, No we won’t. We mis-spoke, we will phase that in over the next 3 years (ie when we are not in power).
Yep they’re definitely not the cream of the crop, this lot
Funny how hard they resisted the idea of uniting Lab and Nat, I reckon there are about 20 effective pollies across all of the parties
Word I’m hearing is that apart from the first home buyers at one end of the market and the recession-immune high net worth folks at the other end, people are remodelling rather than moving
The 3 D’s (Death, Desire, Divorce) are barely an eddy current rippling the flag of our fine housing market ship; the HMNZ Ponzi
Development wise the only ripe pickings are all of the neglected 2nd tier mid rise office blocks that can’t get tenants since the rise of work-from-home – get in there with a new floorplan and convert to build to rent so the exasperated Gen Xers can finally kick out their last dependent children who are, ahem, 26 years old FFS
It’s interesting watching the big companies fishing for work in the smaller provinces, I did a double take seeing an LT sign in Palmie a few weeks back
Our local shower installer is booked 3-4 weeks in advance so I reckon it’s a nesting, vege growing mend-and-make-do vibe abroad in the land where people will splash out on one of those godawful louvre roofed pergolas on the patio and replace the shower but cautious, careful..
As long as no one starts seeking spiritual guidance from Gwyneth Paltrow we should muddle through
The money is all in defence drones, new strains of kiwifruit and cow collars that are wifi-enabled
Aus looks like it is coming to it’s own debt reckoning, the Gulf tax-free jobs are drying up quicker than a bombed desalination plant in the desert and Blighty is having another one of their self-inflicted conniptions over weak leaders such that they are losing their heads and looking favourably at someone called Nigel who cannot reasonably explain just where that 5 million quid actually went
Those Greek islands are sounding mighty good
Sell the house and whack the lot into NVidia shares and you’ll be away laughing