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October 1, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 01 October 2024

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General Debate

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Swifty

Welcome to beautiful Birmingham!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHSxVafIoo

What a delight!
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October 1, 2024 8:06am
- David Garrett
  
  Swifty: I find it extremely puzzling that it is taken as a given by many that “diversity” is a great thing, and that it, and the multi-culturalism that goes hand in hand with it, should be encouraged. I fundamentally disagree, and would rather see the NZ of the 1970’s than where we are heading.
  
  I grew up in Gisborne in the 1960’s and early 70’s. Gisborne always had a large Maori population, but there was also a sprinkling of Chinese – mostly market gardeners, and all very well respected – and a few Indians. Other than them, there was the Zame family from Italy, and the Greek chap who ran the Lyric Cafe – the closest thing to an ethnic restaurent we had back then. There was no doubt that the dominant culture was New Zealand European, followed closely by Maori.
  
  I go now to parts of Auckland which are starting to resemble the Birmingham shown in that clip: Mostly Indian shops with a few ethnic takeaways. Every dairy, gas station, and liquor store is owned and run by Indians. The language on the the street is a polyglot – with very little English. Signage in languages I don’t understand. That is not how I want my country to look and sound like.
  
  I currently live in Tonga, where palangis like me make up perhaps 1-2% of the population, with Indians and Chinese making up perhaps 10% – maybe a bit more. The population is overwhelmingly Tongan, and Tongan culture – very different from ours – is clearly in evidence everywhere.
  
  And that is just as it should be – while being very polite about it, they make it clear that it is for us to adapt to their way of life, and not the other way round. And their way of life is very different from ours. I regularly tell palangis who moan about this or that to fuck off it they don’t like it – it is their country.
  
  However the corollary of that is I need to get out regularly; I want to hear my own language spoken, and not only hear Tongan. I want to be able to go into bars and cafes that are staffed by smiling white girls speaking English. I want to be able to park in the street without fear of some clown parking right behind me, and then fucking off for 30 minutes, which is a constant worry up there. I want to be able to approach traffic roundabouts 95% certain that no-one will come steaming through oblivious of me or anyone else.
  
  But after a few weeks of “decompressing” I am happy to go back to all the positive things up there. But I am and will always be a foreigner, a palangi, and it is for me to adapt to how things are done up there, and not to expect them to adapt to me.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:49am
  - cmm
    
    Diversity being a good thing is just one of those things people say with zero proof – however if you say it enough then it becomes “the truth”.
    
    Same as “women can do anything men can do” etc etc.
    
    There are now cafes in Chrishchurch with ??Arabic?? signage.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:02am
    - mandk
      
      It’s the same with “progressive”.
      
      People always use the word in a positive sense, but I think the reverse is generally true.
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:21pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Diversity now means a collection of low achievement ill educated fuckwits with the same marxist beliefs.
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:27pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Agreed.
      
      If we select people based on skill, we will automatically get diversity in those we hire.
      
      If we select people based on skin colour, what tribe they came from, whether they have a penis or a vagina, or are a troubled cross dresser, we are creating membership based on those criteria, at the expense of sacrificing capability.
      
      And the same goes for immigrants. We need a certain standard of capability and industriousness when allowing immigrants. And that principle we usually already naturally and instinctively apply with allowing newcomers into any group, whether that be a business, church, social club, knitting group or whatever.
      
      Mildred: “I’ve invited Hector to our knitting group.”
      
      Jane (knitting club president): “Is he a knitter?”
      
      Mildred: “No, but he’s black and hung like a horse. And we need to comply with the govt mandate percentages male and coloured ratios.”
      
      Jane: “I think you are in the wrong group. You need to join a swingers group. Your membership to this knitting club is hereby revoked.”
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:28pm
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Ethnic diversity is neither good nor bad. But immigrants from India are certainly a net benefit to NZ. The small retail businesses may be what you see, but health, IT, and telecommunications in NZ could not function without Indians. They are also generally responsible, law abiding, and great parents.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:11am
    - David Garrett
      
      Nigel: I agree with your point regarding the place of Indians in the economy. But ask yourself: Have you never – after a long wait listening to muzak – had a helpline answered by an Indian with very poor English, and found yourself thinking: “Oh no…” Well, I sure have.
      
      At the very least, immigrants to our country should be fluent in English – to a standard where an ordinary European or Maori New Zealander can readily understand them. It’s not an onerous requirement: our local general store and liquor store is Chinese run, and the family who own the stores – hugely respected by the way – are all able to communicate in English.
      
      The kids of course, who were born here, speak English with a NZ accent. I so envy them when they switch effortlessly from English to Mandarin and back again. And their parents taught them Mandarin without $1 from the taxpayer being required to fund those lessons.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:25am
      - Nigel Kearney
        
        Are those helpline people even in NZ? If the problem is NZ businesses outsourcing their call centres then I think that is an inevitable consequence of high minimum wages and other costs of doing business in NZ. Nothing to do with immigration or promotion of diversity. And if your call ends up being answered by someone in the Philippines, you are probably going to have a better experience than if a Kiwi answered it.
        
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        October 1, 2024 11:00am
      - JackRabbit
        
        @nigel
        
        …I think that is an inevitable consequence of high minimum wages and other costs of doing business in NZ…
        
        High minimum wages is another example of state intervention in an attempt to create Marxist “diversity, equality, and inclusion” at the expense of capability.
        
        One usual mantra amongst brainwashed Marxist followers is the concept that street sweepers and brain surgeons should be paid the same wages. And the usual Koolaid drinking Marxists are people who are fundamentally lazy and do not aspire to improve themselves, so they see Marxism as a way of getting loot without changing or improving.
        
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        October 1, 2024 12:34pm
      - Paulus
        
        What makes you think that listening to a younger Maori person, usually a woman, that you comprehend what they say !
        To me it is high voice pitch that I have difficulty with as well.
        
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        October 1, 2024 3:49pm
    - Jack5
      
      It’s not the immigrants themselves but the over-all surge in immigration that’s a worry, and it’s happening all over the developed world.
      
      Not only New Zealanders’ per-person wealth is being hit by high immigration.
      
      Britain’s real (inflation adjusted) GDP per capital shrank 0.3 per cent in the June quarter, writes an economic reporter in the Telegraph. This comes as net migration hit a near-record of 685,000 last year.
      
      New Zealand’s GDP per capita fell 0.5 per cent in the June quarter.
      
      New Zealand had a net migration gain of 96,200 in the year ended July 2023.
      
      The UK population is about 68.5 million people. NZ has about 5.2 million people. The UK population gain was about 1 per cent of the population. NZ’s was about 1.85 per cent of its population. NZ’s migration net gain is about twice that of Britain’s.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:43am
  - TripeWryter
    
    David Garrett: I don’t mind diversity, as such. As long as ‘diversity’ isn’t used oppessively as a weapon against people.
    I looked at a page of my part-Filipino granddaughter’s school in Auckland. Her class’s faces of Chinese, Indian (her closest friends are Chinese and Indian), Korean, Malaysian, South African, various South American. Their teacher is Indian.
    Yet the newsletter is littered with te reo phrases …
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:40am
    - I remember when
      
      The other problem with diversity is that you apparently need one of every type.
      
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      October 1, 2024 2:51pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        Diversity always means fewer whites. Just think about that. What non-white country tells its population “There should be less of us!”
        
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        October 1, 2024 4:52pm
  - pdm
    
    DG were the Zame family market gardeners on Ormond Road or just off Ormond Road – maybe a couple of ks past Lytton High from town?
    
    I was in Gisborne 1977 to 1981 and knew of them. They had about 5/10 acres and were such good prolific operators that they could live of what they sold from it.
    
    At least that was my understanding.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:57am
    - David Garrett
      
      Pdm: there were a few Zame families…one guy was a wine maker – pretty terrible stuff to b honest – His vineyard was on the corner ot Stout street and Lytton road…some othe Zames had a couple of fishing boats IIRC…I wasnt aware of the family you refer to
      
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      October 1, 2024 3:19pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Courtesy of the Objectivist blogger, Not PC (Peter Cresswell) is this post from 2019 on the matter: “Open Borders Are a Trillion-Dollar Idea”, where he further quotes the author of that phrase, Bryan Caplan:
  
  To see the massive missed opportunity of which I speak, consider the migration of a low-skilled Haitian from Port-au-Prince to Miami. In Haiti, he would earn about $1,000 per year. In Miami, he could easily earn $25,000 per year. How is such upward mobility possible? Simply put: Human beings are much more productive in Florida than in Haiti—thanks to better government policies, better management, better technology, and much more. The main reason Haitians suffer in poverty is not because they are from Haiti but because they are in Haiti. If you were stuck in Haiti, you, too, would probably be destitute.
  
  But borders aren’t just a missed opportunity for those stuck on the wrong side on them. If the walls come down, almost everyone benefits because immigrants sell the new wealth they create—and the inhabitants of their new country are their top customers. As long as Haitians remain in Haiti, they produce next to nothing—and therefore do next to nothing to enrich the rest of the world. When they move, their productivity skyrockets—and so does their contribution to their new customers. When you see a Haitian restaurant in Miami, you shouldn’t picture the relocation of a restaurant from Port-au-Prince; you should picture the creation of a restaurant that otherwise would never have existed—not even in Haiti itself.
  
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  October 1, 2024 11:53am
Yvette

“Treaty” Law
I have commented a couple of times, that I think it is a pity ACT does not just propose legislation which states – totally independent of the Treaty – that the Government does have the right to govern, restate legal property rights, and that all New Zealanders have equal rights and responsibilities.

It can be claimed that current two consecutive Prime Ministers claim two utterly opposite views – Luxon that Maori ceded sovereignty, and Hipkins that they didn’t – that the late Maori King said in January there are no Principles, the Treaty is written and that is it, but Geoffrey Palmer had in the 1970s inserted s9 in Law (outside of Cabinet), Tukuorangi Morgan believes Maori own water, and the present National Government has retained the Maori Advisory Council to the Water Regulator (Taumata Arowai) which could seem to confirm Morgan’s propriety view, when it is clearly the essence of life but still just pure water, and that should be it – all this garbage gives a context where law is required to clarify the circumstances but should not be entangled in it. Observe the crappy last sentence is to appreciate what I mean.

Maori did not seem to condemn Labour for it re-interpretation of the Treaty – ‘akin’ to a partenersip, and Geoffrey Palmer’s single handed ex-Cabinet efforts and then embedded for all Ardernity, Mana o te Wai and so on – it was in their favour, but promise a stink greater than the 1981 rugby protests, because ACT would put the Treaty back the way the Maori King claimed it to be.

If ACT’s proposed law is halted where National and New Zealand First plan it will (the latter not placing New Zealand first), does that mean the baby of “democracy, property rights, and equality in voting and social responsibilities” is thrown out with the Waitangi bathwater?

Will all New Zealanders’ rights be diminished by entanglement with New Zealand’s so-called “Founding Document”? Not ironic … much!

Once a simple law restated Government, property and equal rights, then all contradictory departures from the Treaty could have been challenged, but unfortunately we are going to try it arse about face, and without a plan B.
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October 1, 2024 8:06am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Luxon has to consider the consequences of refusing to back ACT’s principles bill. The likely outcome would be a huge boost to the elite driving separatism, Māori language forced even further on us, more division, more uppity actions over land, controls, representation, etc,
  
  The renewed vigour and greater arrogance that would follow the ditching of the bill should be keeping Luxon and his team awake at night. NZ will become even more of an ugly place, race wise as the elite will be emboldened to push harder and faster.
  
  Civil unrest will become a factor that Luxon and co will need to consider. There has to be a way to stop the current growth of division before hot heads take over.
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:33am
  - Colville
    
    Tomtoddy.
    
    I think you have it totally backwards. Its the center you need to be thinking about not the fringes.
    
    New Zealand has moved a long way leftward under the boot heel of Jacinda and co and it will take a while for the ship to come back to center. If Luxon and co back anything to overtly anti Treaty they will get booted out and not get to bring the electorate back to their side of the fence.
    In my view getting the bulk of New Zealand back to thinking about earning a living, that crime is bad and needs to be punished, that kids need to go to school and that taxes should be spent carefully. Real basics that have somehow become strange and need explaining. Look at the shit they are getting over the Dunners hospital…a total cluster of not their making and they are expected to eat that shit and deal with that problem and find $3bil!!
    
    It wont help anyone if Luxon is booted out in 2026… he needs to cement his position and National (and ACT) need to be there for at least 3 terms and hopefully as many as 5 terms.
    
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    October 1, 2024 8:59am
    - David Garrett
      
      Colville: I take your point – but I agree with those who say things have gone so far that helm needs to the swung 20 or 30 points to starboard (the right) and not the 10 points or so Luxon is steering.
      
      No matter what he does, there isn’t a hope in hell of his government winning five elections, and frankly it would probably be bad if they did. All governments “run out of steam” at some point, and arrogance and entitleitis takes root.
      
      The most any government has served in NZ is four terms, under Keith Holyoake and Jack Marshall in the 1960’s. And that was first past the post, where there were effectively on two choices: a National government or a Labour one. Things are much more complex now.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:00am
      - Colville
        
        DG.
        With respect to your history knowledge I think its a different ballgame now under MMP. If ACT can stay circa 10% and NZF above 5% its game on. If Nats are mid 30’s NZF are not reqd (which would be great!)
        Labour is rudderless and who in their ranks looks anything like a leader??
        
        I do take your point about the born to rule entitledness coming into a long term govt tho..they need to forcibly retire people after a couple of terms as a Minister.
        
        The coalition seems to be doing a good job of giving everyone a bit of airtime to keep profile up.
        
        (Simon Court is impressive…ACT is doing well.)
        
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        October 1, 2024 10:34am
      - Manu-Rau
        
        David, I think you will find the 1891-1912 Liberal Government did seven terms. And before anyone says “that’s too long ago to count”, the 1890 election has historically been considered the start of the modern political era.
        
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        October 1, 2024 5:51pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Coalville: the pendulum won’t swing by itself. Every opportunity Nat MPs get to state the obvious – we’ve got to wrk together – must be taken. And that includes using the media properly. Ardern’s great skill was moving the media dial; Luxon should copy that. Some funding here, favouritism there, a bit of stick – will do the trick. Okay, a lot of stick then.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:14am
      - Colville
        
        You think Luxon should stoop to the same level of corruption as Jacinda??
        
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        October 1, 2024 10:38am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Luxons biggest mistake is feeding the media daily.
        He’s just fueling the fire that’s being used to cook him.
        Politics has turned into a reality tv show.
        He should do a Friday afternoon press conference and broadcast it on the Parliament channel. Take an hour of questions and that’s it.
        Starve the activists who pose as journalists. They are his enemy and they are our enemy.
        
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        October 1, 2024 12:37pm
      - Paulus
        
        Sadly the media only want what they want, and in no way take any notice if the Coalition Government they did not back to win the election.
        
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        October 1, 2024 1:50pm
    - Arthur Fleck
      
      The National coalition won’t do anything to stop the leftward slide of the centre. Three terms, five terms, it won’t matter. At the end of it, NZ will still have moved further left. I agree, pushing back may lose him the next election, but doing nothing but keeping the seats warm for the left is what got us here in the first place.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:17am
      - Colville
        
        AF.
        
        Maybe you need to a bit of reading.? Reti stopped race based health care, Seymour has the treaty in the media every day… lots more that I cant be bothered explaining..
        
        Its front of mind now and the people are waking up.
        
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        October 1, 2024 10:41am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  You first paragraph is already covered with the three Articles of the Treaty.
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:38am
  - Yvette
    
    Steve, the first paragraph says – “it is a pity ACT does not just propose legislation which states – totally independent of the Treaty”
    It is anticipated the National-led Coalition Bill will link to the Treaty.
    
    I contend that is a mistake, as the ‘three Articles of the Treaty” would be incontestable if stated independent of the Treaty, supported by the UN Declaration of Human Rights and supposedly by our Bill of Rights.
    Otherwise it is just another argument about the meaning of the bloody Treaty.
    That is the difference.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:09am
    - pdm
      
      I like that thinking Yvette.
      
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      October 1, 2024 9:25am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yes. I was thinking of it as ACT just re-wording the Articles.
      Then with the Principles Bill there is Luxon. When will he wake up and stop playing “I am the boss” games?
      
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      October 1, 2024 11:13am
- slightlyrighty
  
  The problem with the far left is that it cannot grasp the concept that preferential treatment to one ethnic group is the same discrimination to other ethnic groups.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:41am
  - Arthur Fleck
    
    Oh they grasp it just fine.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:11am
  - Eastlander
    
    They are aware of this and it is a desired result.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:15am
  - Yvette
    
    Anyone, like Maori activists, if they oppose equal rights for all, need to exactly state any privileged group, how they would precisely define that group, and explain what any right other than equal would be.
    
    Co-governance – 50 | 50, Maori equal to non-Maori – rather than the present rough 17.5 percent compared to 83.5, would need Maori votes multiplied by 3 and non-Maori by 0.6, meaning in effect give Maori a 5 vote value for non-Maori vote value of one.
    Any system other than the present equality, must of course simply be unequal.
    
    Willie Jackson, for one, rants against the “tyranny of the majority”, but let him name an alternative that will allow this nation to advance, rather than live in the 1840s.
    
    slightlyrighty, I agree that preferential treatment to one ethnic group is the same discrimination to other ethnic groups.
    Raising one ethnicity above others was also the germ of Aryanism, as in 1930s Germany
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:33am
    - Ehlana
      
      If the Maori chiefs who signed the Treaty did not cede sovereignty, then, logically, they held it. It would have been passed down with the chieftanship.
      
      So co-governance would be between those 500 who represent the signers today and the Crown. Some tribes might choose elected rather than hereditary leaders, but that would be up to them. Many people of Maori descent might have no say in their tribal representation.
      
      The Crown has devolved sovereignty to the people and as all Maori have at least one non-Maori ancestor, this would include them too.
      
      In theory, each Maori representative would have 1 vote and the Crown 500, with 501 votes needed to pass, but I suspect that would not actually be accepted.
      
      And, of course, all 500 representatives would need to have the status and taxpayer funded remuneration of the Crown representative.
      
      I suspect it would make our current Parliament look like a model of fiscal restraint and efficiency.
      
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      October 1, 2024 11:09am
Swifty

I foresee new positions being created in our zoos – people running around with brush and shovel collecting lion, tiger, chimp, monkey and exotic bird hairs and feathers to repatriate back to their country of origin:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350430889/international-kiwi-feathers-making-14000km-journey-home

Surely a most life-fulfilling job for those lucky enough to get them.

//
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October 1, 2024 8:14am
- cmm
  
  I expect it was flown first class – couriered in a box accompanied by a Maori escort.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:44am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: A Maori escort of four or five, just like the Great Kumara Repatriation in the 1980’s.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:01am
    - cmm
      
      I grew up in Africa eating kumara. It was funny as hell when we first got here having NZers introduce kumara to us as NZ food.
      
      In Zulu/Xhosa they are called patat (probably derived from the batata – the Portugese word for potato). My favourite was roasting them in the ashes of a fire on the beach.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:07am
      - ISeeRed
        
        WTF? How dare you! You’ll be telling us kiwifruit came from China next!
        
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        October 1, 2024 4:59pm
  - Paulus
    
    And both farewelled and received with a pōwhiri and a haka by taxpaid one time native people.
    
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    October 1, 2024 1:54pm
Swifty

Dagestani life hack:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/5QoNBDrpNmL2mXQr/?mibextid=UalRPS

Diversity is our strength!

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October 1, 2024 8:21am
pdm

I am pleased to see The Taxpayers Union taking up the cudgels for Hastings District Ratepayers by challenging the giving Voting Rights and Remuneration to Volunteer Youth (and youthess) Council Advisers, including I believe 2 15 year olds,

I have made Jordan Williams aware that the same deal has been applied to a presently unknown number of Volunteer Iwi Advisers. These are not to be confused with the two Maori Ward Councillors put in place under the Nanaia Mahuta rort.

I remind you the Youth Council deal went through due to Mayor Sandra Hazelhurst’s casting vote. Furthermore I found out late yesterday that Councillors were given less than 48 hours notice of this item being on the agenda.

If Mayor Hazelhurst had any morals she would resign immediately. and maybe CEO Nigel Bickle should do the same.
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October 1, 2024 8:24am
- Blog-aholic
  
  I think it is clear that the mayor has a dim view of democracy (the thing she used to get elected) and a dimmer view of reality…..as to morals and ethics, I think her actions speak to those too…..
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:29am
  - Paulus
    
    In tody’s world she cannot be wrong as she is an elected Mayor and a Women, both aspects being, of course correct.
    
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    October 1, 2024 3:58pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I do hope Jordan Williams gets the hard questions answered, and exposes any perceived corruption. Those interested should get themselves on the Taxpayer’s Union mailing list.
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:43am
  - pdm
    
    Taxpayers Union are raising funds for a Judicial Review through the High Court.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:08am
- Grunter
  
  I think most, if not, all local Councils have inserted paid Iwi representatives into committees and sub-committees where they have voting rights. Even those councils with no Maori Wards, the dilution of democracy by stealth has happened under our noses.
  
  I challenged the Dunedin City Council on this a few years ago and got the usual “you’re a racist” response. One councilor even added that I should visit the Dunedin Museum and learn about local history as that would educate me on why local Iwi have special rights.
  
  A National-led Govt will never challenge this IMO. A Labour-led Govt will entrench it even further.
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:55am
- Paulus
  
  I am sure that the IRD will be interested in the taxable earning of these young people like anybody else.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:57pm
Bridgenag

The Blokes at Bowls swear by this stuff

DMSO is a Miraculous Therapy for Chronic Pain and Musculoskeletal Injuries
The decades of evidence DMSO revolutionizes the practice of medicine

https://open.substack.com/pub/amidwesterndoctor/p/dmso-is-a-miraculous-therapy-for?r=3rl49t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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October 1, 2024 8:38am
- Don Beckett
  
  A rather boring and repetetive sell job. Why doesn’t the writer come out and say where it can be bought so one can trial it for themselves?
  
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  October 1, 2024 10:50am
- Ghost
  
  I find cbd oil to be very good
  
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  October 1, 2024 10:53am
  - Don Beckett
    
    I tried CBD but had no noticeable effect.
    
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    October 1, 2024 11:30am
    - Ghost
      
      I’ve had good results with it. I had no luck with prescription meds, muscle relaxers, NSAID‘s, Cortisone shots, nothing gave me any relief. CBD oil is the first thing that has.
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:53pm
      - Anthony Melchett
        
        Do you get a cloudy brain in the morning?
        
        I have used it but sleep so deeply from it I’m no good for a couple of hours first thing!
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:13pm
      - Ghost
        
        I take it twice a day, morning and night. Haven’t noticed any side effects.
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:30pm
  - rouppe
    
    I was recommended CBD oil for sleep issues, but it had no effect
    
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    October 1, 2024 12:45pm
  - marleybob
    
    I was using the same but now on amitriptyline. Works wonders. Sleep well and a lot less shoulder pain.
    
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    October 1, 2024 4:49pm
    - Ghost
      
      I was on amitriptyline for over year, did very little for me. Got some help with Low dose naltrexone, but nothing comared to cbd oil.
      
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      October 1, 2024 5:24pm
MCōs

This day in 1926 Suzanne Aubert died and a few days later had the biggest funeral ever for a woman in NZ
She established a soup kitchen in Wellington in 1901 that is now located at 132 Tory St.
She also started the Sister of Compassion who instigated the first crèche in Wellington to look after the little kids of mothers’ who had to work.
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October 1, 2024 8:40am
- Jack5
  
  Does this make some others feel ancient, too?
  
  Sixty-seven years ago today the film The Bridge on the River Kwai had its premiere showing.
  
  The march melody it featured – Colonel Bogey – is still widely known to whistlers round the world.
  
  The legend’s that Frederick Joseph Ricketts, who wrote under the name Kenneth J. Alford, based the whistler-friendly melody on a warning he whistled in golf instead of yelling “Fore!”. The legend fits the march’s name.
  
  A version by the Royal Marines, of which Ricketts/Alford was a bandmaster (the drums are good, but you can jump to the melody at 1:22 – and it’s easy to jump the advert at the beginning):
  
  https://youtu.be/mWIqc64PKtg?si=Je40PoXY1gHevVc_
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:06pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    I saw “The Bridge on the River Kwai” – an excellent movie.
    
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    October 1, 2024 12:32pm
    - greybeard
      
      According to a recent doco on TV about the actual Burma railway construction that film was a load of offensive rubbish: wrong river, wrong bridge, wrong construction, prisoners treatment a fantasy, and much more.
      https://www.britannica.com/topic/Burma-Railway
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:51pm
  - MCōs
    
    In 2014 Australian Richard Flanagan won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which in part is set in a prison camp on the River Khwai.
    Really grim reading with guys constantly succumbing to starvation and disease
    
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    October 1, 2024 2:20pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  They say that the front of the procession arrived at Karori Cemetery before the end of it left St Mary of the Angels.
  
  She’ll be NZ’s first saint.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:41pm
Tomtoddy

“The 65 and over share of the population in the USA rose as much in the 10 years from 2010 to 2020 as it did in the 50 years from 1960 to 2010.”

“The USA’s working age population is projected to grow by 6 million between now and 2040, while the over-65 population will swell by 20 million.”

I expect NZ’s numbers would be similar. The challenge is partly having to pay retired people a reasonable income but more importantly its their health care costs that loom as unmanageable.

Commonsense demands something be done now and not to wait when the problem is a tsunami- sized issue.
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October 1, 2024 8:54am
- ChristopherW2
  
  I’m reminded of Peter Costello noting that to frame an aging population as a terrible problem obscures the fact that people – ourselves and our loved ones – are living longer. Our loved ones not being dead is a good problem, if it is even a problem at all.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:06am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Australia moved about 20 years ago to progressively increase eligibility for the aged pension from 65 to 67
  It was done gradually with protection for anyone over 50 when the decision was made.
  
  It should have been done here. Eventually it will be forced, without the smooth, 10 years transition that Australia managed.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:11am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Yes, this is however the NZ way, we will put it off until there is a crisis, then we will ram it through because TINA.
    
    This is how we did the 1990s reforms – 20 years later than Australia had incrementally started to open its economy.
    
    MMP and the pandering for votes that it requires, simply means the crisis, when it inevitably comes will be much tougher and much nastier.
    
    #New Zimbabwe
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:17am
  - peterwn
    
    Winston Peters will need to be pushing daisies first. Keeping super at 65 is his bottom line. If there is any hint of change he will make it an election issue.
    I have sympathy with raising it to 67. However I do agree with a comment made by Andrew Little a while back that people who do significant manual work and cannot really carry on after 65 should receive the super then.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:24am
  - pdm
    
    BY – I agree.
    
    In my view we should start from 1 April 2025 raising age of eligibility for NZ Super to age 70 by 2050 using 6 monthly increments.
    
    At 70 I was working at least 45 hours a week as a Security guard checking properties, climbing stairs, opening/closing heavy gates etc, over two 13/15 hour shifts and one 7 hour shift – all at night.
    
    Sometimes I got an hour off at midnight but often that was interrupted by alarm call outs.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:32am
  - cmm
    
    It was considered under John Key, but they didn’t want to rock the boat.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:45am
  - MCōs
    
    Treasury recommended the age be raised about fifteen years ago, but PM Key said there was no need and it would remain at 65 as long as he was prime minister.
    Winston would never agree to a change and he’s been a pivotal part of two of the three administrations since Key’s time.
    So there the matter rests. A dead duck.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/personal-finance/kiwisaver/no-need-to-raise-nz-super-age-key/3RQJYMGONGI3NXUJGR47GUXGW4/
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:34am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      It is not a dead duck. The age will go to 67. Only question is when.
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:24pm
  - Bridgenag
    
    Not just age. Assets taken into consideration
    
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    October 1, 2024 11:33am
    - Don Beckett
      
      So means tested, as it is in Oz for those who don’t have a sufficient level of their own super.
      
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      October 1, 2024 12:34pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Means testing is a bit hard. That said the Ozzies seem to manage it. Does involve assessing the value of some assets though which is a bit hard. Trusts and the like can murk up the picture.
        
        Income testing is easy. MSD and IRD are already in each others pockets keeping track of working beneficiaries. Given the super is just another benefit it would not be hard.
        
        As I have noted before, I have enough (declared and tax-paid) income that paying me this benefit is a nonsense. I will however keep taking it for as long as the gummint are happy to pay it.
        
        I’m not sure that raising the age to 67 is going to make a lot of difference. Two years where the cost of incoming folk is reduced to zero and some people die. Then we go back to where we are now. Someone must have done the sums on this somewhere but I’ve never seen it ..
        
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        October 1, 2024 12:57pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        One of the Blokes at Bowls came over from Ozzie and had plenty of money. NO chance for a pension in Oz …. was delighted to get one straight away here……. Eligibility should not just be age IMO
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:05pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “NO chance for a pension in Oz …. was delighted to get one straight away here…….”
        
        Come on. You know that is impossible. You have always needed to be resident in New Zealand for ten years to qualify for National Superannuation. That is gradually being raised to 20 years.
        
        https://www.govt.nz/browse/tax-benefits-and-finance/new-zealand-superannuation-and-the-veterans-pension/applying-for-nz-superannuation/#:~:text=To%20qualify%20for%20NZ%20Super,2024%20and%201%20July%202042%20.
        
        You can’t just come over from Australia and get it.
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:11pm
      - MCōs
        
        This is a requirement to have been here five years since the age of fifty. When I applied I just squeaked in
        I met a guy who came home and was tripping up by the five year requirement. He was having to wait until he was 70 and was selling used cars on commission
        It’s a long time ago now and I forget the details, but I believe the compulsory contribution scheme the National Superannuation replaced might have negated those strictures
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:42pm
      - Flossie
        
        You can arrive from Australia (If you are either a NZ or Australian citizen) and get a pension straight away. We have a reciprocal arrangement. And while you may well be means tested there and they’ll give you nothing, NZ will give you the same as every other pensioner in NZ.
        
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        October 1, 2024 7:05pm
  - Paulus
    
    And as starter that what we should follow as a sensible move.
    Gentley move the age of eligibility- oh, I forgot Maori want it actually lowered to say 30 years of age perhaps for them only.
    So it will not happen here as a result..
    
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    October 1, 2024 2:01pm
- Flossie
  
  Any suggestions as to what the something that must be done ought to be? Sure raise the pension eligibility age a couple of years, but that’s not going to do anything much to help the problem of health care for the aging population.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:13am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    It has to involve transitioning to a system where people are responsible for their own retirement, through forced savings if necessary. Retirees being funded by the next generation is a form of pyramid scheme which will collapse when the population stops growing or when high income earners have had enough and arrange to pay tax elsewhere.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:16am
- Inandout
  
  Tom, Muldoon arranged for the retiring age to increase from 60 to 65, but over a long period of time.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:17am
  - Cassandra
    
    Bolger I think. Muldoon not keen on 65.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:21am
  - MCōs
    
    Mr Muldoon, Nat, introduced the unbelievably generous National Superannuation in his first term as PM, backed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Muldoon and Leader of the House, Mr Muldoon
    Taxes were raised to pay for it and my father who loathed Mr Muldoon, couldn’t believe his good luck!
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:45am
    - Cassandra
      
      85% of the average wage at age 60. It was unbelievably generous and believably unaffordable.
      
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      October 1, 2024 11:45am
- Grunter
  
  I agree, and I think it is now most likely too late, but the change is a necessity. By 2060, NZ will have 2 million retirees. The numbers simply do not compute when you plug in the unrealised liabilities for healthcare, retirement funding, and tax revenue. NZ Treasury has done the numbers, see here:
  Treasuries long-term fiscal analysis
  https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2021-09/ltfs-2021_2.pdf
  
  The only detailed analysis and alternative thinking on this that I see as a workable way forward is Sir Roger Douglas and Rob McCulloch’s recommendation. I have posted that several times before, link below (thanks NZCPR):
  
  https://www.nzcpr.com/theres-got-to-be-a-better-way/
  
  Countries such as Singapore have a completely different philosophy – save for the future rather than hope that future taxpayers will simply cough up.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:23am
  - Miritu
    
    “Countries such as Singapore have a completely different philosophy – save for the future rather than hope that future taxpayers will simply cough up”
    But NZ is a socialist paradise, so all will be fine
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:02am
    - MCōs
      
      They’re so fucking marvelous in Singapore!
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:47am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Yes they are.
        
        Imagine New Zealand if it were populated by Singaporeans.
        
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        October 1, 2024 1:00pm
      - MCōs
        
        Singapore not Singaporeans
        People here look with envy at the country, but it would be a different matter if huge numbers migrated over here
        Oh! They’re taking our jobs
        Oh! They’re pushing up the price of the houses
        
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        October 1, 2024 2:57pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Mcos
        I was thinking in terms of a thought experiment.
        Look at what they have achieved with so little.
        If they had access to the vast natural assets of NZ just imagine what they could accomplish.
        New Singapore would be one of the wealthiest and well run countries in the world. Probably number 1.
        
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        October 1, 2024 5:21pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Tom,
  Roger Douglas brought this matter to our attention FIFTY years ago.
  And still little has been done about it.
  The problem I see is that people aged 60+ have a high voting percentage. People under 45 have a much lower voting percentage.
  Hence, the eminently suitable National Superannuation Surcharge was politically unfeasible.
  The Greedy Wrinklies would ensure that any party which proposed re-introducing such a sensible surcharge would have two shows in the polls;
  1. My show
  and
  2. No show.
  My 50 year old daughters tell me that I am a wrinklie, BUT I am not a greedy wrinklie.
  
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  October 1, 2024 9:23am
  - Inandout
    
    TN, yet in local elections the green youth seem to vote and not the older age groups.
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:06am
- David Garrett
  
  Tomtoddy: What “something” do you have in mind? Or does your thinking go no deeper than that?
  
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  October 1, 2024 10:04am
  - Grunter
    
    DG – I would be interested to hear the ‘inside story’ (if there is one) on why Sir Roger’s plan has been dismissed, even by ACT it appears?
    
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    October 1, 2024 10:20am
    - Colville
      
      Numbers.
      Too many affected by it will vote against it so its a losing proportion for any politician.
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:50am
- rouppe
  
  Remember that by 1960 the USA had fought in WW2 and Korea, with Vietnam and Iraq to come before 2010.
  
  Statistics, statistics…
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:51pm
imalwaysright

Here’s an article on child abuse in care.

“https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/24/new-zealand-probe-finds-200000-children-vulnerable-adults-abused-in-care

“Sexual abuse was “commonplace”, with abusers grooming those in their care and, in some cases, trafficking survivors to members of the public, the report said.”

To be included in a RC report there must be evidence.
Who was trafficked, by whom and to whom?

There are government records of where these kids were, when they were there, and who the staff were.
We also have survivors capable of identifying these people.

But selling kiwi children to kiwi adults for sex doesn’t seem to be a big deal.
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October 1, 2024 9:27am
- imalwaysright
  
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/24/new-zealand-probe-finds-200000-children-vulnerable-adults-abused-in-care
  
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  October 1, 2024 10:44am
Bridgenag

Eleven Serious Problems with the New York City Spring 2020 Mass Casualty Event
Critical issues that demand immediate attention from authorities and citizens.

“The specter of death & doom in New York City was used to substantiate a pandemic declaration, upend life as We the People knew it, and usher in months & years of harms against children and adults around the world.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/woodhouse/p/eleven-serious-problems-with-the?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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October 1, 2024 9:42am
zubrick

15% of oz population nz born and growing. currently 670k. people are seeing the writing on the wall. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-01/the-great-kiwi-rate-hike-experiment-and-where-it-all-went-wrong/104412704
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October 1, 2024 9:58am
- Arthur Fleck
  
  The number of 670,000 Australian residents born in New Zealand is 15% of New Zealand’s population.
  
  But yes, the writing is on the wall and it isn’t solely about economics. I have sadly watched many family members and close friends emigrate to Australia. Despite being only a shortish flight away, the reality is we don’t see them very often any more.
  
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  October 1, 2024 10:44am
  - MCōs
    
    Nobody from our family has moved to Australia that I can think of except for my wife’s neice, which my wife is pretty sad about
    In fact with very few exceptions most of our whanau can be found milling round Canterbury or Wellington
    
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    October 1, 2024 3:16pm
- Anthony Melchett
  
  Seriously considering it now. Wouldn’t be any better off financially over there but the weekly shop would feel better and nz is now such a negative country. Everyone is always fighting with each other while pur kids don’t go to school and our infrastructure falls further behind.
  
  I can’t see nz recovering from this and very little reason to stay to watch the fall
  
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  October 1, 2024 11:43am
  - nz_aj
    
    I don’t like most of Australia for multiple reasons. If I had to choose it’d be somewhere south of Perth, i.e. Bunbury or Albany.
    If I leave, it’s more likely to be to small town Japan. I would go to Taiwan but I feel its too at risk from China.
    
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    October 1, 2024 1:18pm
    - Paulus
      
      Agreed with your choice of places in WA – I like both but Bunbury is my choice,
      
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      October 1, 2024 2:05pm
    - BullyHayes
      
      i was in Perth a couple weeks ago… laying the groundwork for a move next year…
      
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      October 1, 2024 10:13pm
cmm

Regardless of which side he is on, I think it is wrong of John Key to express an opinion on who should win the US political race.

Politicians need to work with other politicians no matter what side they are on.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350434743/why-sir-john-key-thinks-donald-trump-should-win-us-election
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October 1, 2024 11:14am
- Ghost
  
  Just because he used to be prime minister shouldn’t limited his free speech
  
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  October 1, 2024 11:17am
- peterwn
  
  He is better placed than many to give an opinion on US politics since he did a stint on Wall Street earlier in his career.
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:08pm
  - MCōs
    
    Things have changed since 2001
    
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    October 1, 2024 12:25pm
- Philview
  
  I don’t think it is an issue of side. John Key used to play golf with Barack Obama and he was criticised by the NZ media for doing that.
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:41pm
- cmm
  
  I am sure he is well informed and has an opinion, but it is skanky to voice it.
  
  Past or present, a PM should still be somewhat diplomatic. They still are seen to have influence. They should not be voicing opinions on who they think is a better president.
  
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  October 1, 2024 3:31pm
  - wsk12345
    
    I honestly can’t see why not. Celebrities get to have a say, sportspeople, and past US politicians.
    
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    October 1, 2024 5:25pm
- Manu-Rau
  
  Great! I’m looking forward to you having a crack the next time a certain mustachioed woman who used to be MP for Mt Albert has another bout of verbal diarrhea.
  
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  October 1, 2024 6:07pm
cas

Living in NZ at the moment and looking into the future, I’m glad I’m old.
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October 1, 2024 11:29am
- Flossie
  
  My thinking with regard to the whole world.
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:44pm
- NothingLeft
  
  We’re entering the Singularity – latest O1 AI from OpenAI now testing at about 120IQ (top 10% of humans), with a clear path to building Superintelligence within a couple of years – soon smart AIs will build smarter AIs in an intelligence ‘explosion’.
  
  It is going to be an era of miracles. We’ll initially see radical life extension, cures for most diseases, home robot housekeepers for the cost of a car, huge drops in cost of everything as jobs are automated.
  
  But soon most people will be unable to find any job that can’t be done cheaper/better by AI. Social problems will escalate, value-of-human-work basis for our economics will be gone leading to at minimum temporary global economic collapse, we will end up as pets or irrelevant ants to the superintelligent AIs that take control of the planet, and at some point between 20 and a thousand years from now humanity will go extinct – from active malevolence, or lack of consideration for our needs, or, best case, because we are turned into machines (transhumanism).
  
  All the other long term social/political/environmental and economic issues and problems that people seem to think matter at the moment are totally inconsequential in the face of this. But most people just aren’t capable of embracing new realities like this and continue to play make-believe that everything will just procede in the ways that they are used to. We’ll passively watch like unthinking dinosaurs as the big glowing rock in the sky gets ever closer.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:22pm
  - cmm
    
    Oh please, there is no way AI is achieving 120 IQ.
    
    On some specific tasks computers can do very well, but when it comes to true “general intelligence” AI is still thick as two planks nailed together.
    
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    October 1, 2024 3:28pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yes, if AI was told that 1+1=11 it would regurgitate it.
      
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      October 1, 2024 5:32pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      O1 model is able to reason it’s way towards answers to problems – better than most adults in many cases. It’s not superior to humans at everything yet, but is better than most of them at a lot of intellectual tasks.
      
      A good summary:
      https://medium.com/@researchgraph/how-openais-o1-series-stands-out-redefining-ai-reasoning-9e499937139e
      
      The problem is that unlike the humans you are measuring against, AI improvement is continuous, and if anything accelerating, and now that they have figured out how to implement reasoning/problem solving most (perhaps nearly all) of the key breakthroughs needed to exceed humans have already been made. It can’t replace your in your job today, but you can’t say that with any certainty about 1-3 years from now. It’s ends the possibility of a career in many many currently intellectually demanding fields – permanently screwing the chances of anyone under the age of 20 (and many older as well).
      
      It’s inevitable that in near future (mode of predictions appear to be 2027 ish) and almost certainly before end of decade AKA real soon now they will exceed intelligence of all humans. That will whip the carpet out from under us in a permanent and likely irrevocable way. All the assumptions, arrangements, and patterns of behavior that undergird our society and economies will start to fail at that point
      
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      October 1, 2024 5:56pm
- MCōs
  
  I’m not glad I’m old.
  Things are starting to deteriorate physically as the years go by!
  I had a bone density scan a couple of months ago after breaking my femur last year when I had cancer and the Geriatrician told my GP some of my bones are technically fucked.
  The GP prescribed alendronic and foolishly I looked up the side effects on Google. On rare occasions this medication may have lead to fractures of the femur!
  Just whose side is this stuff on?
  The manufacturer’s name isn’t written on the box. I bet it’s Pfizer
  
  Never had these issues, long sightedness & epilepsy when I was young!
  
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  October 1, 2024 3:41pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Old age ain’t for whimps, Cossie
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

From Nuclear for Australia. (Will Shackel)
“This US Department of Energy report has debunked Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese’s anti-nuclear claims.”
“Analysis from the US shows that electricity costs are ~30% cheaper with nuclear and renewables in the energy mix!”
Will any of this get to NZ Energy Suppliers? Pity we are so backward.
Summary:

https://www.nuclearforaustralia.com/usreport?

Full Report:

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nfa/pages/2616/attachments/original/1727695859/LIFTOFF_DOE_AdvNuclear-vX6.pdf?1727695859
Small Modular Reactors and Microreactors page 27.
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October 1, 2024 11:58am
- rouppe
  
  Breeder reactors seem to be the next step. They can use the spent fuel from standard and small modular reactors
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:57pm
  - cmm
    
    Maybe. But breeders have been hyped for over 30 years now without making any real breakthrough yet.
    
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    October 1, 2024 3:26pm
Inandout

On the subject of superannuation and whether Muldoon’s scheme was bad for NZ.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/personal-finance/kiwisaver/ibrian-gaynori-how-muldoon-threw-away-nzs-wealth/SCLHC7PSJVDE4QCRJWCO4LDYNE/
There is one issue I have with Labour’s scheme and that involves the Board which would have looked after the billions of dollars amassed. It was mooted that after 10 years the Labour scheme would have bought into every NZ company and the resulting power would be immense. All well and good for those times but fast forward to today and would you trust a current government not to stack the Superannuation Board with their own? We shall never know for sure but like many on here we have an inherent distrust of politicians.
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October 1, 2024 11:58am
- Don Beckett
  
  The scaremongering by Muldoon with the Dancing Cossacks ad. was actually very misleading, and so the superannuation scheme was dumped. The line was that with the billions amassed, the board would invest in businesses and over time take over NZ industry – the socialist dream.
  However, that was not correct, as there were safeguards to prevent that happening, but that info was buried. IMO, it was a very good scheme, and NZ by now would not be burdened with an unsustainable burden on the taxpayer to fund super. All that money would by now be being invested in infrastructure etc., and NZ wouls be a much wealthier country, as Oz is now.
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:42pm
  - rouppe
    
    Though we would have had to borrow to build all the think big projects, some of which are still operating, some of which only recently aren’t.
    
    Not saying that’s either good or bad, but it was a trade off at the time, a time when we didn’t have a floating dollar, and you needed friends in high places to import the car of your choice.
    
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    October 1, 2024 1:01pm
  - Inandout
    
    DB, aside from the Cossacks some compare NZ with Norway’s massive scheme, but there is a huge difference in that we are not oil wealthy. We could be wealthy from oil reserves but Labour prevented that.
    
    ‘As of June 2011, it was the largest pension fund in the world, but it is not a pension fund in the conventional sense, as it derives its financial backing from oil profits, not pension contributions. In September 2017, the fund exceeded US$1 trillion in value for the first time, a thirteen-fold increase since 2002. With a population of 5.2 million people, the fund was worth $192,307 per Norwegian citizen’.
    
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    October 1, 2024 1:24pm
  - MCōs
    
    Inasmuch as communism is all about state control as opposed to individual rights, Muldoon could hardly point the bone at any other administration
    Careless days, wage freeze, price freeze, sheep retention scheme, think big, ginormous public service, controlled dollar, General wage orders
    
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    October 1, 2024 4:18pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Of course, the 1987 sharemarket crash would have had quite an impact on the Fund’s value.
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:51pm
- Paulus
  
  But who was to pick up the pieces, both financially and the workforces, when we owned all the shares, when they went bust.
  
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  October 1, 2024 2:07pm
  - MCōs
    
    It never happened to something that never happened
    On the other hand we retirees might all be absolutely fabulously rich, but that never happened either
    
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    October 1, 2024 4:46pm
Surely Knott

AUT research receives $7m boost

From NZ’s Endeavour fund the largest science fund.

Research project 1: $6million “for a project that examines “boosting productivity growth by creating equal workplace opportunities for all.””

““A lack of workforce diversity can lead to substantial gender and ethnic pay gaps, which have significant financial, health and wellbeing consequences for affected individuals, and their whānau,” says the professor.

Research project 2: $1million. Professor’s “research aims to develop a new method to accurately measure blood flow in intensive care patients to reduce the risk of amputation or death resulting from low blood flow to the limbs.”

$6million to study diversity and inclusion vs $1million to work on a new methods in medicine. Do we have our priorities straight?

Does studying diversity change real outcomes? Or will it just be used as “evidence” by media to beat their political drum.

https://www.aut.ac.nz/news/stories/aut-research-receives-$7m-boost
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October 1, 2024 12:00pm
- Swifty
  
  “A lack of workforce diversity can lead to substantial gender and ethnic pay gaps, which have significant financial, health and wellbeing consequences for affected individuals, and their whānau,”
  
  Tell that to The Brethren. They own half of Palmy.
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:57pm
- cmm
  
  NZ Endevour Fund.
  aka the taxpayer.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:02pm
- Eastlander
  
  Equal opportunities already exist, but the usual suspects are not interested in any endeavour besides admiring themselves and collecting rents. A contractor who did forestry work for a certain north island Iwi broached the idea of an apprenticeships scheme for Iwi youth to the tribe’s leaders. They weren’t interested – why train up any of their people when they could just hire contractors for what they needed?
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:25pm
Swifty

This is what Phil Twyford, the New Zealand Labour Party and the NZ Green Party want for New Zealanders to experience:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=heCMVQ0zE_I

The open celebration of terrorists and their leaders and frightful displays of loathing towards Jews and their nation.

Yep, Phil Twyford wants to bring in large numbers of terrorist sympathisers at great taxpayer expense and which will only further division in third country. And for what? How do we gain from it? What do we gain? What’s in it for us?

Palestinians have been trained from birth to loathe Jews, that the killing of Jews is to be celebrated and in dying in attempts to kill Jews will be rewarded with martyrdom and an automatic place in heaven.

It’s purely a political ploy with the intention of hoovering up votes from the supportive communities and to try to make National and the Coalition look mean and nasty.

https://www.labour.org.nz/news-visas_needed_for_palestinians_with_family_in_new_zealand

https://www.parliament.nz/mi/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20240828_051960000/twyford-phil/
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October 1, 2024 12:14pm
- Swifty
  
  More of what is going on in Oz:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo8DJVsYSjc
  
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  October 1, 2024 12:55pm
- mandk
  
  Twyford should be sent on a tour of inner cities in the UK, to see what Muslim immigration does to them.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:24pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Time for a fact-finding mission to Birmingham!
    
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    October 1, 2024 9:53pm
- Paulus
  
  Violence is endemic over very many generations in the Muslim way of life throughout most of the Muslim world.
  Like somewhere I can think of closer to home where such as the Haka is endemic for violence for which it was written.
  
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  October 1, 2024 2:11pm
Flossie

I say good on Christopher Luxon for getting a profit from the sale of his properties. Those dissing him have not considered all the selling costs such as real estate and legal fees, and have ignored what he may have spent on improvements.
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October 1, 2024 12:47pm
- lifesgood
  
  Agree, and if you want to buy another property you need a profit to pay for it due to rising costs. I can’t believe the envious lefties don’t get it. You are not making a profit if you want to buy like for like.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:16pm
- greybeard
  
  Agreed. And of course in the time since he bought that apartment thousands of others have also bought and sold properties at a profit. Quite normal.
  
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  October 1, 2024 1:30pm
  - Paulus
    
    But it is not Helen Clark it is Christopher Luxon the scourge of the working classes of Labour and the Greens.
    How dare he do what others do all the time !
    
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    October 1, 2024 2:13pm
  - kevn
    
    grey… and some have done very poorly. Those who bought the leased land apartments in Auckland central.
    
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    October 1, 2024 2:14pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    If he put the money in the bank or the stock market he may have made more money and no one would know.
    The fact that his investment was a home has been used as a type of shaming.
    I wonder if the media will report his donations to charity?
    
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    October 1, 2024 5:40pm
pdm

Help.

I just heard NewstalkZB News talk about – back end support!!!

Would that be a new form of truss?
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October 1, 2024 1:03pm
Sparrow

Congratulations to Jimmy Carter reaching 100 today. Forgetting the politics he is a decent and honest man who has done a lot of good since loosing the presidency at a grass roots level.
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October 1, 2024 2:37pm
cmm

“Kiwi family stranded in Lebanon”

WTF is a “Kiwi Family” doing in Lebanon?

How stupid can you be to go to Lebanon after a war has been hotting up for a year.

“A Kiwi mother is desperate to get her young children out of war-torn Lebanon”

Geez, how stupid can you be? You’ve had a year to get out. Why wait until the bombing starts?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwi-family-stranded-in-war-torn-lebanon-israel-conflict-escalates-as-flights-out-cancelled/U2NYZ7R6T5FGDBRDWXRW2BFNSY/
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October 1, 2024 3:37pm
- Ghost
  
  Became a citizen last year
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/ceremony-welcomes-citizens
  
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  October 1, 2024 3:52pm
  - cmm
    
    … and then went straight back to Lebanon?
    
    It seems there are quite a few “Kiwis” who just got their NZ citizenship as a bolt hole.
    
    She can’t be that desperate.
    
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    October 1, 2024 4:16pm
    - MCōs
      
      You can’t just buy a NZ citizenship without jumping through the necessary hoops (unless you’re Peter Thiel)
      My wife has had pr for maybe twenty years, but still doesn’t qualify for citizenship.
      My mother came out here in 1945 from England. In 1963 she went back ‘home’ on a NZ passport. None of us know how she got. She didn’t go through any rituals. I think they just handed them out to any Brit who wanted one in those days.
      
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      October 1, 2024 4:35pm
      - cmm
        
        How can your wife not be eligible for citizenship after 20 years of PR?
        
        We applied for citizenship after approx 6 years of PR. Got it no problems.
        
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        October 1, 2024 8:05pm
      - MCōs
        
        “You need to have been physically present in New Zealand, as a resident, for a certain amount of time during the last 5 years counted backwards from the day you apply for citizenship. To meet this requirement, you need to have been in New Zealand for: at least 240 days in each 12-month period.”
        That has never been achieved.
        
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        October 1, 2024 9:45pm
    - Jethrod
      
      Are you going to the Hastings meeting tomorrow?
      
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      October 1, 2024 5:07pm
    - Ghost
      
      She went home because her mother is ill.
      
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      October 1, 2024 8:03pm
      - cmm
        
        Taking her kids too? Into a warzone?
        … and expects the NZ taxpayer to bail her out?
        
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        October 1, 2024 8:06pm
      - Ghost
        
        Does she? I never read that, I did read she had booked flights out that got cancelled. Can’t see her asking for taxpayers help
        
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        October 1, 2024 8:13pm
  - Manu-Rau
    
    Dunedin must be an absolute shithole if she decided to go back to Lebanon.
    
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    October 1, 2024 6:13pm
- kowtow
  
  Another appalling aspect to that article ( other than not telling the reader the full context behind the expensive trip ) is the description of ;
  
  ‘Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and military group, began firing rockets and artillery at Israel in solidarity with Hamas, the political and military group ruling Gaza, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel last October.’
  
  Er , is this ‘reporter” a fan of Damian O’Connor’s and Chloe River to the Sea Swarbrick.
  
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  October 1, 2024 6:34pm
- artemisia
  
  The family went ‘home’ despite travel warnings in place for several months.
  
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  October 1, 2024 7:54pm
  - Ghost
    
    Would you not travel back to be with your mother when you find out she is ill? I would.
    
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    October 1, 2024 8:04pm
    - cmm
      
      Taking the whole family?
      Yeah right!
      
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      October 1, 2024 8:07pm
      - Ghost
        
        If she is flying over to be with her mother, I’d say it is serious, and possibly a last chance for the grandchildren to see her.
        
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        October 1, 2024 8:12pm
snowy

Nice to see pairs of police officers patrolling up and down Queen Street over the past few weeks. An extremely rare sight under the last government!
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October 1, 2024 4:59pm
Swifty

Māori in space:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JfYnyZnszC0

All aboard the gravy rocket!🚀
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October 1, 2024 5:07pm
- imalwaysright
  
  MASA
  
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  October 1, 2024 5:47pm
All_on_Red

Who has Israel attacks Iran’s Nuclear Facility in their 2024 Bingo?
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October 1, 2024 5:24pm
- cmm
  
  Attack nuke developments likely. Attack a denonatable (yes that’s a word) nuke – absolute last resort only.
  
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  October 1, 2024 8:04pm
kevn

There used to be 300+ posts daily on KB GD.
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October 1, 2024 6:04pm

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