Dave

joined 2 years ago
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[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 week ago (7 children)

As per a response I found on the orange site, try adding these block lists in pihole: https://github.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do siblings argue over TV channels if you can't put your hand over the IR receiver to stop your sibling (who was quickest to get the remote) from changing the channel?

I guess they all have their own screens now.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

From what I understand if the new laws, you have to ask permission to have pets, your landlord can't say no without reasonable grounds, and they are allowed to hold a pet bond.

Landlords (as you say, especially property managers) definitely put in clauses they know are unenforceable. I believe there was a different law change that meant if you won at the tribunal you don't get your name published, because in the past landlords would refuse to rent to people seen as trouble makers even if they were in the right. With all the complaints about lack of action, Labour did manage some strides for the working class.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I've just had a browse through this PDF explaining the process.

I actually thought the quarantine was much longer than 10 days, but it seems there's a huge amount of work prior to this in getting vaccinations and tests at the right time and get a rabies antibody test at the right time, among other things but it seems rabies is the biggest concern. I'm assuming you're not coming from Hawaii, the only part of the US that's on the category 2 (rabies free) list.

It mentions that some airlines won't even let you fly your pet unless done through a pet travel service, so it seems like a no brainer to let them work it out if you have to pay them anyway 😅

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Upcoming law change:

Landlords will only be able to refuse a tenant's request to keep a pet in the property on reasonable grounds

The current page also says it's pretty dubious as to whether a landlord is actually allowed to ban pets, but I guess the new law coming into effect makes it clearer that pets are allowed unless the landlord has reasonable ground to deny it.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 week ago

The plug won't be, you could get a universal plug converter or if it charges through USB C or is internationally common (e.g. Mac) then you can just buy a charger in NZ.

For voltage differences, I'd expect more issues in hair dryers or toasters or that sort of thing. Many these days support both so they can be sold in different markets, I'm not sure how much of an issue it is these daysbut it's worth checking. They normally have it printed/engraved on them.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Just as a warning, I have heard there are hideous costs to bringing a pet. NZ has very strict biosecurity requirements, our ecosystem is quite fragile due to being completely separated from another other land mass. So you'll be paying for weeks of quarantine, plus travel costs to fly them here. Thousands of dollars. So waiting to see if you'll stay long term seems like a good move!

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well being an adult is taking a giant bite through a bunch of giant kitkats, then putting the rest away for another day.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 week ago

Right, good point! For the most part, the expensive electronics will be compatible with both as they will be sold internationally. But definitely a good idea to check!

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 week ago

Basically "Collins only said this proposal clashes with the Bill of Rights because she's required by law to review it. But we will do it anyway."

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 week ago

After the post-COVID inflation problems, plus the first single party government since we ditched first past the post in the 90s who were left-wing and seen to do absolutely nothing with their power, plus all the right-wing propaganda in international media, the country voted in a coalition of right wing and populist parties. One of these parties campaigned on significantly reducing the wait list for emergency housing. Surprise, surprise when their solution was to make the criteria a lot harsher, basically preventing many people from being able to access emergency housing.

As mentioned in this article, it's estimated that 14% of people leaving emergency housing were becoming homeless.

I guess the party met their commitment to reduce the wait list for emergency housing, but in the cruelest possibly way.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I am LGBTQ, so it seems like Auckland or Wellington will be my best bet.

Yes, good call. You'll be welcomed, but just remember everywhere has bigots.

If I’m in a big city, I would prefer not to have a car.

I know many people in Wellington (where I live) who have no car. Public transport is pretty good, and for day to day life you don't need a car so long as you're somewhere serviced by public transport (preferably with a direct route between you and where you work). As I understand it, Auckland public transport has taken great strides in the last decade or two and so should be similarly easy to get around - but the city is spread over a huge area so consider where you are working and make sure there's a transport route that doesn't take two hours and three bus changes to get there! If you have work lined up then when looking for housing just throw it into Google Maps and see what the available routes look like.

I’m a nurse, and it looks like salaries are good but not great (between 70-90k/year is what I seem to be finding).

I believe there's a lot of available movement from that - for example, as a Nurse Practitioner with a lot of experience you may be able to double that range. That range might be appropriate for you now, but the top range for experienced nurses will certainly be a lot more than that, it's not that nurse salaries cap out at $90k.

Is NZ easy to settle into?

As NZ born I can't answer that, but know that over 25% of NZ's population was not born here. You'll be surrounded by other immigrants, which is especially true in larger cities.

I have a nurse cousin who said the US doctors struggle with the autonomy of NZ nurses. Apparently in the US if the doctor prescribes a patient some paracetamol (you might also have to learn new names for the same drugs), then the nurses will make sure they give it to them. In NZ, the nurse might ask the patient how they are doing, and give them all, some, or none of the paracetamol (or whichever drug) based on how well their pain is being managed. It's apparently quite a change for US doctors to understand that in NZ nurses can use their own judgement.

In terms of settling in, I have heard it can also be hard to form new social circles. Other parts of Lemmy have posts on this from time to time, I think the general consensus is to join clubs to meet people with common interests. Often immigrants will form social circles with other immigrants due to the shared experience.

Am I going to be broke all the time (I also have a cat I am bringing unless I am physically unable to)?

Realistically that salary should be enough, even for Auckland/Wellington, but the biggest single expense is likely to be housing and how much you spend there is likely to determine the outcome to this question. Also be aware that housing can be cold and damp in NZ, so it might be worth feeling poor to have a warmer house. I would expect that in Auckland or Wellington, $70k-$90k is not going to make you feel rich but should be enough to live comfortably if you have no debt.

I'd also suggest buying electronics or other big purchases before you come (or at least researching what they cost to buy locally). Imported goods can be quite expensive here.

I did some research prior to applying, but I find more and more opposing views on where the country is headed. I guess I am just looking for some folks that had a similar situation to see how it worked out for them.

NZ is not immune to the same things that are affecting other developed countries. However, I think we are a long way from the government kidnapping people off the street and sending them to prisons in El Salvador without trial, so I think you'll find it a nice place to live if you can build up your social circle. You can also stick it out to get citizenship then jump to Australia if you find the salaries not enticing enough in NZ.

Just as a final comment, I'd make sure you actually have a job lined up if at all possible. I have read recently that the NZ heath department used to hire 90% or more of all new grad nurses in NZ, and that has dropped in the past couple of years to more like 50%. To me that sounds like it's getting hard to find a nursing job, though you might not struggle if you have enough experience. Best to actually line something up though if you can.

 

TL;DR if you haven't already, please fill in the Lemmy.nz Census (even if your account is on another instance). Skip any questions you aren't comfortable answering! Literally any!

This is a reminder post to please fill in the 2025 Lemmy.nz census survey if you haven't already.

You can see the previous post here.

None of the questions are mandatory. They cover questions about where you're from in the country/world, who you are (demographic info), how you use Lemmy and the fediverse, and some extras at the end. Skip anything you're not comfortable answering.

Everyone is welcome! If a question doesn't apply to you then just skip it. Nothing is mandatory so skip anything you don't want to answer.

I worked with Lemmy.ca to try to get a good set of questions that they will also use (with tweaks to suit their audience and learnings from ours).

Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer the Lemmy.nz 2025 Census

This will be the final reminder post.

412
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
 

A British billionaire with links to offshore tax havens and a history of controversial political donations has been granted New Zealand residence, and he’s been meeting with government ministers in Wellington.

Peter de Putron had a packed schedule for his trip to Wellington late last year. At 10am on Monday, December 2, the British billionaire met with Todd McClay in the forestry minister’s office at the Beehive, then was back at parliament at 2pm to catch up with finance minister Nicola Willis. That evening, he had dinner with science, technology and innovation minister Judith Collins at Jardin Grill at the Sofitel Wellington (Shed 5, the first choice, was booked out). At 11am the next morning, he returned to parliament for a meeting with associate finance minister David Seymour.

Four ministers in 25 hours.

De Putron’s meeting with Seymour the following morning had been set up by Lewis, who emailed Seymour’s deputy chief of staff on October 10. “Wondering if David would be keen to meet if schedules align (its less ministerial and more as ACT leader)?” he wrote. “It would be purely a meet and greet but Peter [redacted text] so could have some insights that might be of interest to David… He expects to significantly expand his New Zealand investments over the next few years, and is building a portfolio across multiple sectors and regions.”

“Significantly expand his New Zealand investments” is a line that is likely to have made Seymour’s eyes light up.

Just two days after Lewis reached out, Seymour announced a shake-up of our overseas investment policy settings, which he said were “the worst in the developed world” – so restrictive that wealthy offshore investors were giving New Zealand the cold shoulder, he lamented. Change was coming, though: a shake-up of the Overseas Investment Act to fast-track the assessment process, with “yes” being the default message sent to international investors unless a clear risk to New Zealand was identified.

Often described as secretive, de Putron keeps out of the public eye. While his wife Hayley de Putron pops up in society snaps with the likes of Carole Middleton (mother of Catherine, Princess of Wales), not a single photo of him can be found online, but he has links to everything from Formula 1 (US court documents suggest he is the ultimate owner of the Williams F1 team, with employees referring to him as ODL or “our dear leader”), to fuel to, in New Zealand at least, forestry.

According to the MPI briefing prepared for McClay, de Putron is the sole shareholder of a company called New Zealand Forest Industries (NZFI) Ltd, through which he owns 830 hectares of commercial pine forest and 230 hectares of native bush in the Marlborough Sounds. Overseas Investment Office documents released to The Spinoff, however, suggest his land holdings total closer to 1,780 hectares. According to the documents, de Putron acquired NZFI Ltd when his British Virgin Islands-registered holding company, Issoria Offshore Ltd, was granted permission to acquire NZFI Ltd’s Singapore-registered parent company, NZFI Sing, in July 2019. NZFI Ltd owned a 1,116-hectare forest at Te Whanganui/Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds known as Underwood Forest. Consent was also granted for the purchase of Hakahaka Forest, a smaller “bolt-on” block immediately next to Underwood. Later that year, two further consents were granted for NZFI Ltd to acquire another unnamed block adjoining Hakahaka, as well as Whataroa Forest across the bay.

With what’s looking likely to be a tightly fought election just over a year away, the quiet quest for influence over our elected officials is likely to ramp up, and de Putron will be far from the only cashed-up client working with lobbyists to secure a spot in the diaries of our leaders. Even if the mysterious billionaire does return to New Zealand to make his presence (and feelings) known to our politicians, we may never put a face to the name. While the caricature of globetrotting billionaires may often be one of headline-grabbing interjections and flamboyance, many of the most powerful – and effective – of their number prefer to operate as invisibly as possible.

 

A man leaving his home for work at 6.30am went to jump into his work van but unexpectedly found his landlord sitting in it, drinking a handle of beer.

On another occasion, the landlord, Jake Sim, left a note for the tenant on the bench saying: "It's fixed ya winging pr**k" after going to the property to fix a heatpump".

The incidents were a part of a bigger tenancy issue in which Sim turned up at the property intoxicated and banging on the doors, and on other occasions, unlawfully let himself in.

The tenant told the tribunal that on 23 April that year, he went to the rental, the location of which was redacted from the decision, and found a treadmill set up and a TV mounted on a wall.

Around mid-2024, the tenant changed the locks to the house.

He acknowledged it was a breach of his obligations as a tenant but said he felt he had no other option.

The tribunal ruled it would not order him to pay exemplary damages, given the context in which the locks were changed.

Sim then said he had used a lock-picking kit to let himself in on November 14. Then, on November 15, when he believed the tenancy had ended, he climbed through a window.

The tenant claimed that when he returned to the premises on November 16 to finish moving, his gun safe had been opened and $3000 in cash and two rings were gone.

He was ordered to pay the tenant, who was awarded name suppression, $2000 compensation and $1500 in damages.

 

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

  • Something interesting that happened to you
  • Something humourous that happened to you
  • Something frustrating that happened to you
  • A quick question
  • A request for recommendations
  • Pictures of your pet
  • A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
  • Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

 

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

  • Something interesting that happened to you

  • Something humourous that happened to you

  • Something frustrating that happened to you

  • A quick question

  • A request for recommendations

  • Pictures of your pet

  • A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant

  • Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

 

TL;DR if you haven't already, please fill in the Lemmy.nz Census (even if your account is on another instance). Skip any questions you aren't comfortable answering!

This is a reminder post to please fill in the 2025 Lemmy.nz census survey if you haven't already.

You can see the previous post here.

None of the questions are mandatory. They cover questions about where you're from in the country/world, who you are (demographic info), how you use Lemmy and the fediverse, and some extras at the end. Skip anything you're not comfortable answering.

Everyone is welcome! If a question doesn't apply to you then just skip it.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer the Lemmy.nz 2025 Census

 

The Reserve Bank has revealed a dispute over funding was behind Adrian Orr's abrupt resignation as governor.

A raft of documents - released by the central bank under the Official Information Act - reveal an "impasse" as Orr argued Finance Minister Nicola Willis was not providing enough funding for the next five years.

In an accompanying statement, an RBNZ spokesperson said it became clear in late February that the board - chaired by Neil Quigley - was willing to agree to a "considerably" smaller sum that Orr thought was needed.

"This caused distress to Mr Orr and the impasse risked damaging necessary working relationships, and led to Mr Orr's personal decision that he had achieved all he could as Governor of the Reserve Bank and could not continue in that role with sufficiently less funding than he thought was viable for the organisation."

Both sides engaged lawyers to negotiate an exit agreement, resulting in an immediate departure and "special leave".

On 5 March, the Reserve Bank revealed Orr's sudden resignation, with three years still to run in his five-year term. At the time, Quigley said it was for "personal reasons" but would not be drawn on any details

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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
 

Possibly related:

screen shot of memory usage by app, showing Firefox using over 18GB of RAM

I also don't understand why every chat app needs 1GB of RAM to itself.

 

Widespread internet outages are being felt around the North Island, telecommunications company Voyager says.

It says it has identified an issue affecting "Chorus Wellington UFB (ultrafast broadband) handover".

"This handover services Wellington, Kapiti, Hutt Valley, Palmerston North and through to Napier."

Voyager said Chorus had identified the source of the issue and are working on a fix.

Currently around 90 percent of connections are offline.

 

TL;DR If you are reading this (regardless of what instance you are on) then please fill in the Lemmy.nz 2025 Census

Last year we did a census to get an idea about the people using Lemmy - both who they are and how they use Lemmy. You can see the results here.

Lemmy.ca did one the year before, which was our inspiration. The results can be seen here.

I had intended to repeat this each year, and so here we are. I have worked with @otter@lemmy.ca who ran the Lemmy.ca census, with contributions from others, to come up with a refined set of questions that we will keep largely standardised. We also expect to have a LimeSurvey template available that other instances can use if they want to (I can do this right now if someone reading wants it, but it's Lemmy.nz based at the moment so would need tweaks for the specific instance). LimeSurvey is a self-hostable survey tool.

The intent is to catch anyone who interacts with Lemmy.nz. If you see this post, that's you! You're interacting with us by reading our content! Anyone can fill in the survey, it can help us get other insights across Lemmy.

None of the questions are mandatory, so just answer what you are comfortable answering. I expect to leave this open for a while and have some reminders to make sure we get as many responses as possible. I’ll do a results post once the results are in and I have had a chance to analyse them.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer the Lemmy.nz 2025 Census

 

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

  • Something interesting that happened to you
  • Something humourous that happened to you
  • Something frustrating that happened to you
  • A quick question
  • A request for recommendations
  • Pictures of your pet
  • A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
  • Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

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