So, Cost of Living increases

[pete376403]

Pretty sure that Switzerland has an income adjusted system for speeding tickets. The more you have, the more you pay.

"In Switzerland – perhaps surprising for a country that is normally rich-friendly – speeding fines take into account the motorist’s income as well as the speed.

The Swede is now facing the maximum possible penalty of 300 days of fines at SFr3,600 a day – a total of SFr1,080,000 ($1.02 million)."

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/driver-...-fine/23091098

And yet, for all the draconian penalties, and superb (by NZ standards) roads, people still die, but not necessarily from excess speed. Statistically it is safer to go faster :-)
From that same page:
Accidents
According to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention, 357 people were killed in Swiss road accidents in 2008, and another 25,556 were injured.

Of those, it’s believed that 147 deaths and 5,069 cases of injury were the result of speeding. 1,109 victims were severely injured.

[TheDemonLord]

And yet, for all the draconian penalties, and superb (by NZ standards) roads, people still die, but not necessarily from excess speed. Statistically it is safer to go faster :-)
From that same page:
Accidents
According to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention, 357 people were killed in Swiss road accidents in 2008, and another 25,556 were injured.

Of those, it’s believed that 147 deaths and 5,069 cases of injury were the result of speeding. 1,109 victims were severely injured.

I remember someone who pointed out, under a different topic, that despite draconion legislation - people will still die....

But back to the Swiss - When I visited, I did not have the chance to drive on Swiss roads, instead I made use of their excellent train system, riding the Chocolate Train to Gruyere. Lovely place, might go back at some point in the future.

The reason I bring this up is that one factor, I believe, in the relatively low Road toll in Switzerland is the excellent public transport system - there are options to get around Switzerland without a Car, which is not the case really in NZ.

[neels]

Cost of living....

I remember (yes I am greying, so allowed to use that expression) when I lived in my first flat....phone was $30/month, power was around $100/month, that was the bills paid. Cricket and rugby were free on TV1, and you video recorded stuff you wanted to watch later.

Now if you want access to various things you have to pay for;

Internet
Mobile phone
Sky TV
Spark Sport
Netflix
Amazon
Disney

That's without dismantling the 'inefficient' government departments responsible for phone and power to create choice and make it cheaper for the customer, and councils contracting out core business to reduce rates

[pete376403]

But you don't need all of those things - if you have power and internet, then most everything else can be obtained gratis.
I agree entirely with your thoughts about the break up of Telecom and NZED . Someone needs to interview max bradford and get his comment on how well the "market reforms" have benefitted the consumer

[neels]

But you don't need all of those things - if you have power and internet, then most everything else can be obtained gratis.
I agree entirely with your thoughts about the break up of Telecom and NZED . Someone needs to interview max bradford and get his comment on how well the "market reforms" have benefitted the consumer

The people responsible for the power reforms that created money sucking companies with shareholders and boards of directors should be bludgeoned with blunt instruments, until they admit it was all about greedy people wanting to own something that was paid for and previously belonged to the people of New Zealand.

[MD]

Pretty sure that Switzerland has an income adjusted system for speeding tickets. The more you have, the more you pay.

"In Switzerland – perhaps surprising for a country that is normally rich-friendly – speeding fines take into account the motorist’s income as well as the speed.

The Swede is now facing the maximum possible penalty of 300 days of fines at SFr3,600 a day – a total of SFr1,080,000 ($1.02 million)."

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/driver-...-fine/23091098

Oh why, why, why did you bring road crashes into this discussion. The idea that if someone on a high income crashes and maybe endangers or kills someone they should pay a higher penalty than a driver on a lower income does if they endanger/kill the same person is ridiculous. How the hell does that help the dead person? Oh I feel better I was killed by a millionaire. Bit like saying if a man deprived of sex rapes a victim it's not as bad as a man who gets regular sex and rapes the same victim. Wrong is wrong. Quite a simple equation. Our world is full of apologist. Had a gutsful of them personally. Right now a tragic crash near Picton has all the usual apologist up in arms with blame the road makers, blame the council, blame the government, and the latest is blame our reliance on trucks. Sorry but only one person behind the steering wheel was responsible for keeping that vehicle on the correct side of the road. Our roads are not dangerous. People failing to pay attention and drive to the conditions are dangerous. Yep I have had my bike spills over the years and broken bones several times. Never blamed the road makers. Only blamed someone else once who did an un-indicated u-turn in front of me. Courts held him responsible too.

I remember driving a van full of people once to Rotorua and back. I was young. They were drinking and partying. BUT the entire driving time I felt the responsibility that their lives were solely in my hands and I drove accordingly. We did pub stops. I had a coke or coffee each time.
Me, myself, alone on my bike, OK I accept I take risks and sometimes paid for it. But put other peoples lives in my hands and it is a totally different story.

[TheDemonLord]

But you don't need all of those things - if you have power and internet, then most everything else can be obtained gratis.
I agree entirely with your thoughts about the break up of Telecom and NZED . Someone needs to interview max bradford and get his comment on how well the "market reforms" have benefitted the consumer

I can't comment too much on the Energy side of things (not my area of Expertise), However, I can talk a lot about Telecom (My Gateway into IT was working for an ISP) and I think there are some very rose-tinted glasses going on.

For Internet/Telephony, the installation lead times have drastically reduced - I'll give a personal example, a while ago - my (Now deceased) Grandparents-in-law were trying to move into an assisted living Flat, their home was out in the middle of nowhere and they were getting on in years. As a condition of them getting into the Flat, they needed a working phone line for the St John Medical Alarm. This qualifies the Install/Fault as a P1 (Medical escalation). Well, Telecom weren't playing ball, but because that Exchange had been unbundled, I was able to call a competitor, give them the details - they went to the Exchange, made the connection live - they could move in that day.

Something that could not have happened under the old system.

Other advantages - the roll out of Fibre to the Premises

The costs of xDSL (ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+, VDSL etc.) have significantly decreased relative to the average earnings, so that now, some form of High-Speed Internet is the norm.

The Cost of Data has also been reduced - although to be fair on this one, that is more a factor due to the Southern Cross Cable more than anything else.

For me, I haven't had a phone line since around 2010 I think, the only real use for it would be quicker response time for emergency services, but seeing as I'm not in a high-risk bracket, Mobile it is for me.

There's some other more technical things that have improved since Telecom was broken up - mainly around the maintenance of the Copper/Fibre in the ground.

If you do some Google-foo and look up articles in NZ from the early 2000s about Internet, Telephony and alike - you'll find lots of articles complaining about how bad it was - now, not so much.

[Viking01]

The people responsible for the power reforms that created money sucking companies with shareholders and boards of directors should be bludgeoned with blunt instruments, until they admit it was all about greedy people wanting to own something that was paid for and previously belonged to the people of New Zealand.

Morning.

Interesting to note the following article on Stuff this morning:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129...ursday-morning

One can only hope we will not have a repeat of the following this winter:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121...ainst-meridian
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124...idian-evidence

Australia
Meanwhile, across the ditch, our Australian neighbours were having their share of electrical supply challenges recently.

A different operational environment and mix, but interesting to watch (and compare) industry behaviours none the less.
See the sub-section "Why are there talks of blackouts? " of the first article.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-...02-p5aqje.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61890617

[Edit]

It took me a while to find the link for a talk given by Geoff Bertram on the electricity industry back in 2019:

https://u3awellingtoncity.org.nz/wp-...ram-310519.pdf

[pete376403]

I can't comment too much on the Energy side of things (not my area of Expertise), However, I can talk a lot about Telecom (My Gateway into IT was working for an ISP) and I think there are some very rose-tinted glasses going on.

For Internet/Telephony, the installation lead times have drastically reduced - I'll give a personal example, a while ago - my (Now deceased) Grandparents-in-law were trying to move into an assisted living Flat, their home was out in the middle of nowhere and they were getting on in years. As a condition of them getting into the Flat, they needed a working phone line for the St John Medical Alarm. This qualifies the Install/Fault as a P1 (Medical escalation). Well, Telecom weren't playing ball, but because that Exchange had been unbundled, I was able to call a competitor, give them the details - they went to the Exchange, made the connection live - they could move in that day.

Something that could not have happened under the old system.

Other advantages - the roll out of Fibre to the Premises

The costs of xDSL (ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+, VDSL etc.) have significantly decreased relative to the average earnings, so that now, some form of High-Speed Internet is the norm.

The Cost of Data has also been reduced - although to be fair on this one, that is more a factor due to the Southern Cross Cable more than anything else.

For me, I haven't had a phone line since around 2010 I think, the only real use for it would be quicker response time for emergency services, but seeing as I'm not in a high-risk bracket, Mobile it is for me.

There's some other more technical things that have improved since Telecom was broken up - mainly around the maintenance of the Copper/Fibre in the ground.

If you do some Google-foo and look up articles in NZ from the early 2000s about Internet, Telephony and alike - you'll find lots of articles complaining about how bad it was - now, not so much.

Yes the old Post Office "six months to get a phone connected" mantra is well remembered, but this was in certain circumstances, not every case. The other things that you mention; ADSL, fibre, and so on, didn't really exist outside data centres so if NZPO had continued to exist, it is more than likely they would have introduced the new technologies as they came along. The rush to privatisation with Telecom bought in more than a few cockups of its own. For example - Telecom was broken into regional operating companies - ROCs - and the plan was they would compete against each other. Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North. Wellington, Christchurch. But the legislation omitted to include a ban on ROCs purchasing each other . Auckland bought out Hamilton pretty quickly. Palmerston never really got going and became a development centre. Wellington I think bought Christchurch. Then there was the "Tahi" project and they all got rolled back into one Telecom. My involvement in this was from 1987 - 1991 as an IBM employee looking after the AS400s at Tory Street (the Wellington data centre) and Herd Street (Palmerston Dev centre)

[F5 Dave]

But you don't need all of those things - if you have power and internet, then most everything else can be obtained gratis.
I agree entirely with your thoughts about the break up of Telecom and NZED . Someone needs to interview max bradford and get his comment on how well the "market reforms" have benefitted the consumer

Yeah it was fuking obvious at the time that guy needed a slap. We're not in the business of being in business. But we are in the business of being fukn stupid and screwing over the public who voted for us to work in their best interests.

Thanks cunts. Agree a stern interview with Max at the old folks home or wherever he is. Summon his spirit if needs be to hold to account.

[Viking01]

Yeah it was fuking obvious at the time that guy needed a slap. We're not in the business of being in business. But we are in the business of being fukn stupid and screwing over the public who voted for us to work in their best interests.

Thanks cunts. Agree a stern interview with Max at the old folks home or wherever he is. Summon his spirit if needs be to hold to account.

And while you're at it, could you also follow up with the person-in-charge of the past electricity (partial) privatisation, and just enquire how the sales proceeds were spent / re-invested:

https://www.nbr.co.nz/next-partial-p...ber-key-hints/

While our household power consumption has stayed fairly level over the years since (taking seasonal variation into account), I'm still waiting for my power bills (costs) to start reducing. The only way I can see of cutting my power bill in half is a pair of scissors.

[James Deuce]

I can't comment too much on the Energy side of things (not my area of Expertise), However, I can talk a lot about Telecom (My Gateway into IT was working for an ISP) and I think there are some very rose-tinted glasses going on.

For Internet/Telephony, the installation lead times have drastically reduced - I'll give a personal example, a while ago - my (Now deceased) Grandparents-in-law were trying to move into an assisted living Flat, their home was out in the middle of nowhere and they were getting on in years. As a condition of them getting into the Flat, they needed a working phone line for the St John Medical Alarm. This qualifies the Install/Fault as a P1 (Medical escalation). Well, Telecom weren't playing ball, but because that Exchange had been unbundled, I was able to call a competitor, give them the details - they went to the Exchange, made the connection live - they could move in that day.

Not entirely true. I worked for Telecom from 1988-1995 as a Data communications engineer and later a Network Design Architect. When Telecom was broken up into Regional Operating Companies, we got telephone installs down less than 18 hours from time of request in the Wellington region. I developed Statmux interface cards for the network used to communicate with a couple of mainframes, so that we were running sequent, Wang, IBM and Fujitsu based mainframes needed to service those requests off one terminal or 286 PC running emulater software. I spent the last 2 years working there designing infrastructure upgrades including fibre to the door by 2000 and multiple redundant routes and technologies to replace the trunk network, only for the Telecom Board to biff 2 years of work out the door. They thought that Bell/Ameritech would do all that stuff so wound up the ROCs and re-amalgamated Telecom into one super-inefficient bureacracy. NEC than abandoned development of any 802 standard related interfaces for the NEAX Exchanges, completely stuffing our early attempt make Internet access a thing without using dial-up technologies. The inefficiencies you are talking about were reintroduced by foreign investors.

[TheDemonLord]

Yes the old Post Office "six months to get a phone connected" mantra is well remembered, but this was in certain circumstances, not every case. The other things that you mention; ADSL, fibre, and so on, didn't really exist outside data centres so if NZPO had continued to exist, it is more than likely they would have introduced the new technologies as they came along. The rush to privatisation with Telecom bought in more than a few cockups of its own. For example - Telecom was broken into regional operating companies - ROCs - and the plan was they would compete against each other. Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North. Wellington, Christchurch. But the legislation omitted to include a ban on ROCs purchasing each other . Auckland bought out Hamilton pretty quickly. Palmerston never really got going and became a development centre. Wellington I think bought Christchurch. Then there was the "Tahi" project and they all got rolled back into one Telecom. My involvement in this was from 1987 - 1991 as an IBM employee looking after the AS400s at Tory Street (the Wellington data centre) and Herd Street (Palmerston Dev centre)

It's interesting that yourself and James both have similar experiences, and from the same time period (Late 80s, early 90s) which is well before my time in the Industry (2006-2010 I think)

When I started, Telecom was still Telecom, then it was Telecom Wholesale, then it became properly split into Chorus. I remember well the chaos of the Chorus engineer strike in 2009.... I left as the local loop unbundling was starting to gather pace.

Something to also note is that I noticed a lot of similarities, both in terms of Service and complaints between NZ's Telecom and British Telecom.

Other things that had an impact was Telstra Clear's HFC network in Christchurch, Kapiti and Wellington - HFC looked, for a brief moment, to be the next 'thing' - but the density of Subscribers in NZ (ironic!) was very high, compared to internationally - and without it being introduced to Auckland, it never really went nationwide - and then the investors for Telstra wanted a return on their investment instead of re-investing which really killed the only semi-competition that Telecom had.

[jellywrestler]

Not entirely true. I worked for Telecom from 1988-1995 as a Data communications engineer and later a Network Design Architect. When Telecom was broken up into Regional Operating Companies, we got telephone installs down less than 18 hours from time of request in the Wellington region. I developed Statmux interface cards for the network used to communicate with a couple of mainframes, so that we were running sequent, Wang, IBM and Fujitsu based mainframes needed to service those requests off one terminal or 286 PC running emulater software. I spent the last 2 years working there designing infrastructure upgrades including fibre to the door by 2000 and multiple redundant routes and technologies to replace the trunk network, only for the Telecom Board to biff 2 years of work out the door. They thought that Bell/Ameritech would do all that stuff so wound up the ROCs and re-amalgamated Telecom into one super-inefficient bureacracy. NEC than abandoned development of any 802 standard related interfaces for the NEAX Exchanges, completely stuffing our early attempt make Internet access a thing without using dial-up technologies. The inefficiencies you are talking about were reintroduced by foreign investors.

I worked in Telecom too, I used to be back in the happy hour queue each and every week at seven minutes past four on thursday to get another quart of DB as I'd consumed the first one I'd brought on the dot of 4pm.

[James Deuce]

I worked in Telecom too, I used to be back in the happy hour queue each and every week at seven minutes past four on thursday to get another quart of DB as I'd consumed the first one I'd brought on the dot of 4pm.

Mate, that sounds like you.