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@Hooroo said in NZ Politics:
@Donsteppa said in NZ Politics:
Local politics - some things that were being whispered about three years ago are starting to be said more publicly. Sad if true.
The report said Shadbolt’s difficulties were becoming increasingly apparent, and it notes that “three southern mayors” contacted Thomson, raising concerns about Shadbolt
A legend of the area but that status goes down the toilet the longer he stays. Time to retire, Tim
It's becoming sad. There's no shame in getting old and a bit past it, but hanging on when that happens is tarnishing a proud record. This is also a good advertisement for why term limits can be a good idea.
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This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
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@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
It reminds me of the saying "anybody that wants to be a politician should automatically be banned form being one".
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@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Saw him on telly during election coverage. I was underwhelmed, seems a perfect fit for the Greens
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@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Looks like a big immigration win for NZ!
Menéndez March came to New Zealand as a student to study psychology but with costs at $20,000 a year couldn’t afford to continue. He dropped out in 2010, broke, unemployed, and grieving the suicide of his mother. “I only got through that part of my life because of the radical love and collective care others showed me,” he says.
After years spent as a minimum-wage worker in the hospitality sector, plus a period as a projectionist before automation took that job away, he became an advocate for migrants and low-wage workers. His move into politics began when he appeared as an extra in a Green party advert for the 2014 election.
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@Smudge Predictably boorish, racist, sexist and homophobic little rant from Jones. He does have a way with words but he really is a dinosaur.
Take away all the bullshit prejudice and he'd have a much more effective tirade against the Green loser who really does seem to epitomise entitled wokedom.
I did actually think the Are You OK, Boomer was sort of mildly clever in its allusion to Swarbrick
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@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live in NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
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@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live on NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
Oh, and Merry Christmas
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@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live on NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
Oh, and Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad.
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@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live in NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
It is staggering that this person could possibly have met the requirements for a work permit after flunking their studies let alone meeting the minimum requirements for Permanent Residence and maybe even, horror upon horror, Citizenship.
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@Smudge said in NZ Politics:
@Toddy said in NZ Politics:
A tremendous takedown from Sir Bob.
It will just give Ricardo lots of publicity. Good publicity as they are supposed to be on different teams. And Bob gets to promote his pro immigration credentials That they almost certainly both share
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@Higgins said in NZ Politics:
@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live in NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
It is staggering that this person could possibly have met the requirements for a work permit after flunking their studies let alone meeting the minimum requirements for Permanent Residence and maybe even, horror upon horror, Citizenship.
There is nothing in the student visa rules then or now about having to pass, just meet the attendance requirements and not work more than 20 hours per week, or not work at all, depending on course. Provided he did that much, Immigration NZ would have had no ability to do anything about it on work visa applications as nothing in his immigration history indicated that he would breach his work visa if granted.
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@Godder He can't have held a student visa for the ten years he has been in NZ so somehow has fluked his way into a scheme where he managed to either i) have skills on the skills shortage list which appears a somewhat pie in the sky or pigs can fly occurence or ii) be granted a Visitors Visa, which does not allow him to work or WINZ assitance or iii) qualify on a Partners Pathway to Residence route
Somehow or other he was complaining about access to financial assistance from WINZ so must have had a Permanent Residence Visa. How he obtained that does not appear to have been disclosed/leaked by the media (or Sir Bob!) so remains a mystery. -
@Higgins I don't know his exact pathway on terms of specific categories, but in order to be take his seat in Parliament, he must be a NZ citizen, which requires 5 years as a NZ resident, so that doesn't leave long on the temporary visa pathways before he obtained residence. I'm on my phone, so will write more later, but it wasn't hard at the time.
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@Higgins Following up on my earlier post, his main areas of work were as a film projectionist and later in hospitality. To get residency at the likely time he got it, and assuming it wasn't via an investor or business category, either he got residency under partnership of a New Zealand citizen or resident, or the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), or as the partner of someone else getting residency at the same time (most commonly under SMC, but there are other categories).
Partnership isn't very exciting, but would certainly explain everything easily, and it's a love story as old as time itself - move to NZ, struggle with study for whatever reason, fall in love with a NZer/applicant for residency, get a work visa, then get residency. (What can I say, I am a hopeless romantic...)
Partnership aside, there is a Mexican Working Holiday Scheme, so that was a work visa option available at the time to get 12 months of work experience under the belt, find a longer term job and then use that to get more work visas.
That aside, getting work visas in hospo in places like Queenstown wasn't hard pre-Covid as long as employers could show they advertised a position and failed to attract suitable NZ resident/citizen applicants (not especially onerous when job listings could easily get no applications from NZ residents/citizens at all). Occupations being on skill shortage lists helped, but was never required, as any skilled occupation qualifies for SMC, and in hospo, that was (and still is) cafe and restaurant managers, retail managers, hotel managers (including F&B and general managers) and hotel service managers, cooks and chefs.
Getting residence under SMC is based on a points system, and at the time required 100 points if it was based on employment in NZ. A job was worth 50 points, or 60 points if the applicant had been in it for 12 months or longer. Based on his age, he would have been in his 20s, so that was worth 30 points. Assuming a minimum of 3 years' experience or a qualification of some sort (required to get SMC), that would have been worth either at least 10 points (work XP) or 40 points for a qualification. There were points for other factors (jobs outside Auckland were an extra 10 points, anything related to the long term shortage list was worth extra points, family in NZ was 10 points), but a skilled job of 12 months, aged under 30 and 3 years' total work experience (including the current job) would have been 100 points and SMC with it.
It is harder now as 160 points has been the threshold since October 2016, but at the time he got residency (being 2015 at the latest), SMC was not especially difficult to get, so it's entirely believable (to me at least) that he just slogged his way to it like thousands of others at the same time.
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@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live in NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
Careful Trump.
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@Frank said in NZ Politics:
@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Billy-Tell said in NZ Politics:
This guy sounds like a ball of fun.
Chooses to live in NZ but hates the culture.
Fuck off back to Mexico and see how that country cares for unqualified drop outs.
Careful Trump.
Not sure I see the parallel. This Mexican hates where he's coming to, and those in the States want to be there.
NZ Politics