Question Time 02.05.2023

My birthday. I'm turning 29. 🎂 - Watching on TV. I felt like having a quiet day. Upsides: I can type more. But being in the room where it happens is a more interesting perspective. - Question 1: Boring - tax isn't something I really know much about. Gary reckons Grant could step up for the drugs Kaupapa now that he's not standing for an electorate seat. - Question 2: Hopefully I'll get the Winter Energy Payment. The accommodation supplement was my main goal, but it looks like I can sign back onto the dole. We'll see how that meeting goes - 19th of May. Temporary Additional Support isn't something I can get with Amy's trust (that's what my Mum called it 👋). MSD is loaning me $150 per week until my next meeting. I already owe MSD $1,000, but I'm hopeful that was a mistake on their part rather than mine - I declared my income, but then they got my IRD statement from RNZ, and said I owed them. 😺 - Question 3: The sound mix for TV is better than the microphone balance IRL. The heckling is more obvious when you're really there. It's all electioneering, which is more or less what I figured it'd be. Tax, tax, tax.. I really wish that my income was untaxed until $15,000. That'd make my life easier, and it'd save me a few hundred bucks. One positive change since 2018 with MSD was the increase in weekly income that people were allowed to make. That allows me to have 2-3 students, or to deal a small amount of weed. I don't wish to sell weed, though. I'm that desperate, but it's such a risk, and it's not like I could hide my sales given my high profile. 🐸 - Question 4: yeah, I thought this was uncontroversial. High class sizes are the bane of all education systems... That was an upside of homeschooling -- even though we used Correspondence School courses, it felt very personalised .. Mum likes to say she tried 'unschooling' with how she taught us. - Question 5: The PM isn't present. That's surprising. Robbo schooled the Nats on Parliamentary procedure. - Question 6: Chloe on attack. Parroting the stats from the tax review. Tough day for Robbo - I think he's done well. - Question 7: Reti spruiking the Nats scheme for nurses re: student loans. Gary isn't a fan of Verrall as the health minister; I think she's better than Little or Clark, but Reti has consistently surprised me. - Question 8: 1.6 million visitors since July 2022. Personally, I'm unsure if tourism should be such a large part of the economy -- if carbon-friendly planes develop quickly, I think it's a solid possibility, but I wouldn't be surprised if the planet shuts down again before 2030. - Question 9: ACT, Three Waters .. fill in the blanks lol. - Question 10: 'plant hemp, not pines' Processing wood onshore -- I remember being surprised as a teenager that we exported trees to China for processing. - Question 11: Brown vs. Wood. Teslas.... clean car discount scheme.👍 111,000 low-emission vehicles registered in NZ. 6,157 Teslas -- less than 7% of the total. ... I wonder if Groundswell has anything cooked up for this year.... 🧠 Simeon Brown just made the Clinton Thumb gesture. Michael Wood's quite fond of that one as well... that's a US politics trick. 🤣 - Question 12: new Minister For Oceans and Fisheries - Rachel Brooking. Looks like a Labour Party hippie... dunno anything about her. ☘️ Eugenie Sage with a stern question (for Greenpeace).