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February 8, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 08 February 2025

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General Debate

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Souvlaki

I thought this opinion piece below, in Breaking Views yesterday, on the failure of the National Party to give much cognisance to the wishes of their supporters ( many now erstwhile). Also the comments are particularly good in my view, including one ,said to be from Judith Collin’s former electorate secretary on why he’s has now left National.

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/02/john-porter-national-and-co-governance.html
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February 8, 2025 8:08am
- pdm
  
  Anyone reading that piece would see quite clearly that in the lead up to the 2023 election Christopher Luxon was bullshitting on removing Co-Governance.
  
  He had no intention whatsoever to do so.
  
  He is a Fence sitter extrordinairre!!!
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:27am
  - Mod88
    
    Fence-Sitter, Plant more like. I don’t know who is pulling the strings but it is not the NZ Voters especially the National Party voters. Where to for them next Election…??
    
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    February 8, 2025 9:00am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Mod88 “Where to for them next Election…??”
      
      Flushed down the bog and replaced by a far more worthy NZF and/or ACT. 😬
      
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      February 8, 2025 2:46pm
  - RichardF
    
    I thought someone with business experience would make a good leader but as Hooten said last year, Luxon is not a “businessman”, he’s hired labour. Just another corporate shyster who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. Lots of lame corporate speak and buzz words. His failure to explain his TPB stance is deplorable. I regretted my vote for National in 2020 and moved to Act last time. Imo Simon Bridges was the best leader National has had post Key and he was sacrificed unnecessarily during Covid. National = Labour with more expensive suits.
    
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    February 8, 2025 9:20am
    - Matt Long
      
      The events around Judith Collins’ resignation as leader, the bizarre accusations about Bridges’ alleged sexual harassment of Jaqui Deane years before, that led to Bridges leaving parliament and Luxon being parachuted in as leader are almost impossible to explain without believing the wet faction carried out a successful takeover of National.
      Conceivably Collins knowing Bridges would roll her , made a deal to ruin Bridges’ political career, and elevate Luxon, in return for a prominent cabinet position and Attorney General.
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:49am
      - CJames
        
        Bit of a conspiracy theory there. Why not go for stuffups and big egos?
        
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        February 8, 2025 2:59pm
      - Matt Long
        
        CJames, agree, it’s just that so many conspiracy theories lately have been proven right we’re running out.
        
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        February 8, 2025 3:07pm
      - kowtow
        
        CJames
        
        There can be no doubt that there was a power struggle within factions of the National party during their opposition years , what with all the coups and short lived reigns of certain ‘wannabes’ before Luxon was settled on to take the mantle , even down to that theatrical little touch the anointing by the Messiah, John Key .
        
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        February 8, 2025 4:08pm
      - peterwn
        
        I never considered Judith Collins to be an appropriate party leader. However she was the right person at the right time to for leader to deal with the ’emergency’ situation prior to the 2020 election. I consider she did a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances both in the election lead-up and helping getting things back on track after that election. but she was not really a ‘peace time’ leader so did not survive as leader. But rather than throwing the toys out of the cot she chose to continue working for the good of the party. For this, I hold her in the highest regard.
        
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        February 8, 2025 7:42pm
    - Jules99
      
      I liked Bridges too. Seemed quite balanced and hard working. I get really sick and tired of people rolling leaders that the rest of us like. In the end what good did it do them.
      
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      February 8, 2025 3:18pm
    - peterwn
      
      Perhaps Matthew Hooton should look up ‘businessman’ in a dictionary. Most dictionary definitions include CEO’s and senior executives as businessmen.
      Anyway I would far rather have someone who has learnt about governance and management being a government leader than an idiosyncratic business owner such as Donald Trump, Bob Jones, media moguls etc. especially those who inherited it rather than making it themselves.
      
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      February 8, 2025 7:33pm
  - Mark Hanley
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    And here we go again….. Don’t the ACT sycophants realize that without Luxon, Hipkins would be in charge?
    
    There is a reason Luxon is a successful businessman and now prime minister. He understands that taking to problems with a sledge hammer causes more problems… the velvet glove is much more effective.
    
    I suggested to PDM a few days ago that a little research would add to the accuracy amd value of the KB conversation. It appears accuracy and informed debate just aren’t on the PDM comment menu.
    
    Here is an extract from Luxons waitangi speech….
    
    “Progressing Crown-Māori relations also means removing areas of overreach by the previous Government – like co-governance of public services. Creating complex new bureaucracies and centralisation in Wellington will not fix anything.”
    
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    February 8, 2025 9:28am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Even if we take Luxon’s quoted words at face value (I don’t btw) the implication is that co-governance of say the DOC estate is just fine and dandy according to Luxon. He has always qualified his opposition to just public services. The rest of he puapua is an “overreach” for him at present. Best to leave that move to the next L/G/TPM government and then maybe compromise again when Nats get back in. Luxon is one of the useful idiots.
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:01am
      - Quail
        
        SS,
        One big problem for farmers and those producing real exports off the land is the RMA and it’s associated bureaucratic industries. This problem is the natural environment
        The whole RMA needs review and change to enable rural exporters the opportunity to improve the wealth and energy in NZ.
        Gratuitous regulation ,overriding any notion of property rights has choked production to the level NZ is now a nett importer of some foods (eg Pork).
        The profitability of agriculture has been destroyed largely by this act!
        Luxon won’t address this.He has said so.
        
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        February 9, 2025 12:59pm
    - septic skeptic
      
      Right now MH I think the only hope is for Hipkins to win in 23 and maybe some people succeed in a coup within National and turn the party right around. Maybe this crap can be halted in 26 or 29.
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:05am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Sceptic. aren’t you aware The coalition closed the Maori health authority, removed Maori decision making and the requirment for maori names in the public service……
        
        And your hipkins for PM in 23 comment is contender for the least thought through and most ridiculous KB comment ever!
        
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        February 8, 2025 12:51pm
      - Hollyfield
        
        Luxon may have removed the requirement for Maori names in the public service, but the experience on the ground is different.
        
        I still receive emails from Te Whatu Ora, not from Health NZ, the most recent was a week ago. Electronic letters, not printed letterhead being used up.
        
        Auckland District Health Board sends me reminder texts which open with “Kia Ora” and close with “Nga Mihi Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ”. I don’t mind being addressed with “Kia Ora”, but last week I heard staff at Greenlane Clinical Centre complaining that the maximum number of letters allowed in a text made it difficult to fit in all the content – they could remove “Kia Ora Nga mihi Te Whatu Ora/” and gain 30 characters. The first time I went there I knew I had an appt with the District Nurse, but couldn’t find the department “District Nurses”. I didn’t know, because the text didn’t say, that I should have been looking for “Adult Community Services” instead. The text could have included that vital information if they had more space in the text. Interestingly, Counties Manukau DHB which I believe has a large Maori population, texts me entirely in English, and saves characters by not including a greeting or farewell.
        
        I also phoned the Ministry of Education a couple of weeks ago, who answered the phone with something other than Ministry of Education, then told me if I was calling about blah-blah-blah press tahi, if I was calling about blah-blah-blah press rua etc.
        
        It is not surprising that people are getting impatient, especially when we see Trump saying “no more DEI” and overnight DEI is removed from websites.
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:30pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “if I was calling about blah-blah-blah press tahi, if I was calling about blah-blah-blah press rua etc…”
        
        That is insane.
        
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        February 9, 2025 5:29pm
    - pdm
      
      MH I think your loyalties to Christopher Luxon are stretching to compeete with those of G The Giant From Dunedin. In other words a sycophant.
      
      Did you click on the link and read what John Porter said?
      
      Did you scroll down to the comment by Judith Collins former Electorate Secretary?
      
      Thought not.
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:20am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Well done PDM. Last time I criticized your onesided inaccurate comment, instead of responding with facts and references you ridiculously accused me of playing the man and not the ball.
        
        And here unsurprisingly, you play the man not the ball. Of you’d like to try posting something factual look back to my comments during the election and you will see i encouraged people to vote for national or act.
        
        My loyalty is to informed factual debate. I saw the damage illinformed voter debate and decision making did to our country 7 years ago.
        
        Your misguided and inaccurate comments will contribute to a repeat of.the adern disaster.
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:00pm
      - Damocles11
        
        The sycophants problem is that they think we are all stupid. They think empty slogans like ‘Economic Growth!’ will be enough to get us all onside. They think a list of purported ‘successes’ will get us all lined up like sheep behind Luxon and his crew. Then there is the ridiculous scaremongering about how only a vote for National can stop Labour.
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:26pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Domacles. Matt Long, Jack, Pope etc.
        Interesting but not surprising, you say you don’t line up to vote for someone with a list of successes who is committed to facilitating NZ economic growth..
        
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        February 8, 2025 6:04pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “who is committed to facilitating NZ economic growth..”
        
        Tell me how. How is the government going to increase GDP per capita, say an extra 2 percentage points per year over the next 10 years? Can you name 3 things?
        
        BTW the increased emissions targets will reduce growth so you need to factor that in.
        
        Sorry I am way past “economic growth” slogans from this lot.
        
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        February 9, 2025 5:32pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      He understands that taking to problems with a sledge hammer causes more problems… the velvet glove is much more effective.
      
      Yeah, GOP voters heard the same from their party for three decades, which is why the GOPe (establishment) now have their worst nightmare in charge.
      
      PM Luxon Invited to Penz-Walz Spa?
      (complete with a disturbing picture) 🙂
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:56am
      - sirknz
        
        Did not expect a mention of the Lemon Party in the comments there…
        
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        February 8, 2025 4:27pm
    - Grunter
      
      Mark
      To get the full gist of Luxon’s position on his ‘Maori Partnership’ you have to read his entire speech. Yes he is against co-governance in public services, but that’s where it ends.
      
      He is pro co-governance in treaty settlements. He is pro “we have a partnership”. He is pro “the Treaty has evolved over the past 184 years”, he is pro ongoing funding to selected iwi on top of their historic settlements being full and final, he is pro the continuation of the Maori Roll and seperate seats…….
      
      He clearly likes the idea of dividing us into some sort of ethnic based society where a small percent of your genes means you can claim to be a Maori and therefore claim to get special treatment.
      
      That is not a society that will ever succeed. That is not a society that I want to live in. But it sounds like you’re happy enough with it.
      
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      February 8, 2025 12:17pm
    - keepcalmcarryon
      
      I think it’s more a velvet condom.
      
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      February 8, 2025 1:54pm
    - sirknz
      
      “the velvet glove is much more effective.”
      
      Milei and Trump would beg to differ.
      
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      February 8, 2025 4:14pm
  - cmm
    
    I am staring to wonder whether he is really a fence sitter.
    
    A true fence sitter is is a quivering mass of nerves that is too frightened to act in any way.
    
    It would appear that Luxon actually wants certain outcomes and is prepared to get off the fence to nudge those along.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:08am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      I pointed out a certain outcome but it has disappeared.
      Must be close to the truth.
      
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      February 8, 2025 10:13am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Luxon. Not all maori activists are maori.
        
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        February 8, 2025 10:52am
    - kowtow
      
      Yes , compare and contrast his comments prior to the election ,”one man one vote, no co governance”etc to his Akaroa speech where he drops “partner” in it’s various forms into a short delivery , no less than eight times.
      
      I hate to say it , but Luxon and the the rest of the left wing , wet faction of the Nats are a danger to the constitution and dmocracy as we’ve understood it .
      
      Either he lied before the election of he’s been “captured”.
      
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      February 8, 2025 10:43am
      - PurplePen
        
        I get the impression he’s been captured.
        
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        February 8, 2025 11:57am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Captured – by you know who.
        Luxon and Tama Potaka – They are “captured”!
        
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        February 8, 2025 3:53pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He went to the election saying there would be no separatist services there now is not. He said there would be no Mari wards around the council table, is there not a referendum on that at the local body elections? Apart from that, where is go governance? Don’t say Te O wai what ever, because that has also been dumped
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:19am
    - pdm
      
      `Apart from that, where is go governance?’
      
      Coming to Wanganui and then every town near you.
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:22am
    - Grunter
      
      G
      You keep saying Te Mana o Te Wai has been dropped. I’ve sent you links before to the Otago Regional Councils website that spells out their Te Mana o Te Wai plans. These are still active and in place. It’s right u der your nose but you keep ignoring it.
      
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      February 8, 2025 12:55pm
      - Damocles11
        
        Reminds me of the quote from A Few Good Men: “you can’t handle the truth!”
        
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        February 8, 2025 2:22pm
      - pdm
        
        Grunter – Taumata Arowai is still there too!!!
        
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        February 8, 2025 2:23pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        The Govt is lying to us.
        Words like “repealed” about 3 waters. Repealed my left tit, it is just a name change.
        
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        February 8, 2025 3:58pm
  - bennerg
    
    Looking at the various events prior to the election, and after, I now truly believe that Luxon is a stooge, and the events of his entry into politics, and who has been behind that, and their agenda, needs some sunlight.
    
    We appear to be heading down the line similar to South Africa, with the same consequences of reverse apartheid – not that we had it here anyway.
    
    I’ve been looking around for someone in New Zealand who truly has the ability to exude leadership, is a good orator, and understands the rot that maorification is bringing to New Zealand. Right now the only person exhibiting such qualities is Shane Jones. I love listening to him speak, not just for the words he says, but the competent delivery. Well paced, no ums and ers. And he can also deliver it in Te Reo with ease and comfort. While I acknowledge David Seymour’s work re the ToW Bill, he still comes across as a the head boy at the school instead of the principal.
    
    If there is anyone else that others can nominate, please do. We desperately need better leadership, and it is time for us to get it.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:47am
    - PurplePen
      
      Agree with you about Shane. But Shane also is all about himself, comes across as arrogant and in love with himself. Perhaps that’s the price for getting someone that doesn’t mind upsetting the apple cart. Probably not too much to pay.
      
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      February 8, 2025 12:01pm
    - Grunter
      
      Never forget the history of Shane Jones.
      1. Was a Labour Party MP
      2. Ignored the majority of voters in 2017 and anointed Ardern, a known extreme socialist, as the PM.
      3. Pretty much a career politician.
      
      He might say some good things. But NEVER trust him.
      
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      February 8, 2025 2:03pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        ……or any politician.
        
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        February 8, 2025 4:04pm
    - Damocles11
      
      He was parachuted in by the woke DEI corporate establishment, just like Key was. He has no conviction, he is a ‘swim with the tide’ blancmange. He has been through the corporate indoctrination brainwashing wringer and is now a totally neutered individual.
      
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      February 8, 2025 2:25pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  I am in Judith Collin’s electorate.
  
  An email announcing the AGM and renewal of membership arrived in my inbox last week. I wrote to the secretary advising that I would not renew my membership for a number of reasons. Being a minion and having never attended one of their meetings, I was somewhat floored to receive a phone call from the branch secretary. She thought similarly to me and was obviously frustrated that the MPs were not listening to the members of the party. This gave me hope that there are sufficient grassroots people who are up in arms.
  
  The troops are revolting. Watch this space.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:34am
- Inandout
  
  Sou, The Dem Party learnt very quickly that dissatisfied voters care little for politics, just action. Luxon had a perfect opportunity to slash government funding for non earning feel good ventures and plough the money into increasing production. He has instead decided to cozy up to extremists because they have managed to gather up numbers for a Wellington demo. He has reached a stage where he must either man up or step down. In these times for a politician to sit on the fence is to invite scorn.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:42am
- coge
  
  Every passing day. Luxon appears to be a man waiting for his payoff.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:43pm
  - Michael Sommerville
    
    His Knighthood?
    
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    February 8, 2025 5:02pm
Cassandra

Richard West “one of the finest foreign correspondents of the 20th century” came to feel that the Vietnam war was ultimately righteous and only collapsed because of the cultural revolution erupting back home (in America). He also admired the South Vietnamese, whom most people regarded as corrupt and incapable of fighting for themselves. He often remarked that Americans were well-liked in Vietnam, and that the Vietnamese – especially the southerners – longed for capitalism. Some three decades later both of these assertions now seem justified. It’s interesting to see how Vietnam has evolved. Still ostensibly communist but economically capitalist. A “socialist” country with no welfare state and a thriving private sector. And very wary of China which has invaded Vietnam many times. Preferring short term French rule to long term (“They’ll be here for a thousand years”) Chinese imperialism Ho Chin Minh in 1946: “As for me, I prefer to sniff French **** for five years than eat Chinese **** for the rest of my life.” It turned out to be a bit more than five years but ultimately it’s all come good. Hope for Gaza? Or is that unrealistic?
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February 8, 2025 8:10am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Hope for Gaza? Or is that unrealistic?’
  
  Can’t compare . Islam is unreformed and the few small sects that are genuinely peaceful and kind are considered heretics and in many places , in fear of their lives, literally.
  
  So yes , unrealistic .
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:40am
- Allan
  
  Vietnam wants to be left alone and will live in peace with its neighbours.
  
  Gaza and Hamas exist for one single reason; destroy the state of Israel and murder or enslave every jew in Israel.
  
  There is no similarity and never will be while Hamas exist.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:55am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Gaza is a geographic area.
    Hamas is a political/Paramilitary organisation.
    
    While Hamas may indeed exist, wanting to get rid of Israel(the feeling is mutual)
    
    Gaza does NOT exist to destroy the state of Israel.
    
    But never let it be said I stood in the way of ignorance.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:08pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Vietnam/Gaza chalk and cheese comparison.
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:14pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Apropos of Mark Brown’s pivot to China, it does make you wonder whether he’s thought things through. For starters, many more Cook Islanders live in Auckland than in the Cooks. The Cooks use NZD, NZ provides a majority of air & sea connections, tourism etc, not to mention outright cash to run their dependency (the clue is in the name).

I respect the Cooks right to move to China, but there must be consequences. It’s not hard to work out what Donald Trump would say.

There needs to be a clear choice made by Cook Islanders at their next election.
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February 8, 2025 8:14am
- Philview
  
  John Tamihere had a meeting with the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party last year. No surprise that I read about this in overseas media and not in NZ. We are heading in the same direction as the Cooks.
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:15pm
mandk

Yesterday here in Hutt Superior, the maximum temperature was 6.6 degrees higher than in Wellington City, just 25 km away.

And so far this year, the top temperature has generally been 4-5 degrees warmer.

It actually feels a bit like summer.
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February 8, 2025 8:18am
- imalwaysright
  
  Sounds like the Hutt might have a carbon dioxide problem!
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:56am
  - pdm
    
    There was a lot of `Hot Air’ in Upper Hutt yesterday about a certain English soccer outfit.
    
    Could that have lifted temperatures?
    
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    February 8, 2025 11:25am
- 3-coil
  
  mandk: until your lame claim of “Hutt Superior” this morning, I have only ever heard it used by the desperate, sad, local-loser ex-PM ChippieHipkins! 🤔
  
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  February 8, 2025 11:06am
  - mandk
    
    I’ve never heard Hipkins refer to it that way. His electorate is Remutaka.
    
    But, back to our city, one of the best things about it is that we don’t have a Labour Party stooge for Mayor. Nor do we have a chaotic, spendthrift Greenie for Mayor.
    
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    February 8, 2025 2:59pm
Matt Long

I learned a new word today; Etiology, which means the cause or causes of a disorder, or the study thereof.
For example; poverty is not the etiology of social ills but a symptom of social ills.
https://x.com/ThomasSowell/status/1887934877447946390
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February 8, 2025 8:19am
- cmm
  
  I can’t see that etiology brings anything to the party that “cause” does not.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:28am
  - John Loveridge
    
    Cause makes a better verb, too.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:56am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Well you would be wrong.😀
    
    Etiology is a more complex concept than causation. Etiology extends to the study of the manner of causation and the reasons and drivers of causes.
    
    Think of etiology as the umbrella for the relationship betwen causes, how they came about, and time.
    
    Of course this is me just being an English language pedant. 😀
    
    Funny thing when I consult AI for the Maori translation of etiology, I get “Orōkohanganga” which means the “beginning” or “creation”.
    
    It is telling that there is in fact no Maori equivalent concept to etiology. The closest you get is the religious concept of creation.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:58am
    - David George
      
      “there is in fact no Maori equivalent”
      The Maori language has many inadequacies; the ambiguity due to a profound lack of vocabulary not the least of it. Doesn’t stop idiots pretending otherwise; I recall that Bloomfield telling us about the new cases of covid with this nonsense: “Two hundred whanau across the motu” had been infected. What does that mean? Precisely?
      
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      February 8, 2025 9:34am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I often read this phrase in the press “across the motu”. No idea how it started.
        
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        February 8, 2025 9:40am
      - pdm
        
        I will have a shot DG.
        
        Bloomfield has 200 relatives who all got covid.
        
        Motu being a small area between Poverty Bay and Bay of Plenty and famous for its Car Rally section.
        
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        February 8, 2025 9:40am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        I believe “across the motu” started with TV1 weather reports.
        They think they are clever – they are not.
        
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        February 8, 2025 10:15am
      - cmm
        
        All languages have inadequacies which is how we have ended up with English being a mish-mash of French, German, Latin, Hindi and all sorts.
        
        English uses many different words for similar concepts to give slight nuance.
        
        The big difference is having a written language which is used globally and provides a structure that can support such subtlety.
        
        In unwritten languages concepts end up being very vague. Bloody useless for administration, science, law or anything that needs precision.
        
        It is for this reason that the Swahili was developed on the east coast of Africa in the – to provide a language with sufficient precision to conduct relatively complex trade in a meaningful way.
        
        In my opinion this is the fundamental reason why the Maori version of the treaty is so bloody useless and should certainly not be regarded as “the” version of the treaty.
        
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        February 8, 2025 10:23am
      - David Garrett
        
        David G: AFAIK “motu” just means “island” in several Polynesian Islands, including Tongan.
        
        St. Ashley and others used it to mean “country” during the pandemic…but then I don’t think the pre-European Maori had a word for country…since they had no concept of same
        
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        February 8, 2025 10:33am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Motu is the Maori word for island. As in Motuhoa in the Tauranga harbour meaning long island.
        Or Motutapu in the Hauraki gulf meaning sacred island.
        
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        February 8, 2025 10:42am
      - bennerg
        
        CMM,
        
        In my opinion this is the fundamental reason why the Maori version of the treaty is so bloody useless and should certainly not be regarded as “the” version of the treaty.
        
        As an author of document management systems, I can state that a document “version” is a different document with different information. A translation of any version is not considered a different version as such, but a convenience for those not familiar with the language with which the document/version was authored in.
        
        Now we know that the Treaty was authored in English, making it the seminal and hence the authoritative version.
        
        Many copies of the treaty were made, translated in Te Reo, for the convenience of the Maori Chiefs who did not speak English, and sent around the country for signing. Now we don’t consider those copies as versions either.
        
        I have a very early version of an English – Maori Dictionary, and it shows just how simple Te Reo was. My great great grandfather, a German Missionary who came to New Zealand in 1843 who came to mission to the Maori natives, wrote the same thing.
        
        However, in spite of that, the Chiefs knew exactly what they were signing. There was significant debate, and that would have included bilingual Maori, who had a good understanding of the intent in it’s original form – in English.
        
        All claims made in recent times about “partnership” etc, are actually insulting the Maori chiefs who signed. I wrote at some time before that the Maori culture prior to the Europeans was essentially “stone age”, but unlike many native cultures of the era, they had an incredible capacity to learn, adapt, and better themselves.
        
        But the reality of the time was that they, also as visitors coming to this land, did not have the capacity to govern peacefully, or defend themselves against the might of other nations, such as the French who had designs on the country as well. They had embraced slavery and many unsavour practices such as cannibalism.
        
        They chose the British to align themselves with, and have been treated better than any other native culture of all time. The intent was “one people”, as “British citizens”, leave behind the old ways, that had stuck their culture in a time warp for many centuries. In 200 years you have to say they have embraced the world, yet maintained the memory of their past. However that past has long gone.
        
        But what appears to be happening is a return to the old ways, a cynical attempt to reintroduce tribal rule, and their own form of oligarchs to rule and control the riches. This return to what made their culture so archaic is only going to lead to a decline in our country in the same way we see in South Africa.
        
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        February 8, 2025 11:27am
      - slijmbal
        
        @DG
        
        to be fair English has a huge number of words even when compared to other sophisticated languages such as Mandarin, Arabic and the main European languages including Russian. Arguably largest lexicon in the world.
        
        I don’t have a link but was told Dutch has a larger lexicon as well. Number 2 to English by all accounts. This supports the premise that one of the major growths in the lexicon of a language is through borrowing with the Dutch having been a successful sea state.
        
        There is also the historical English habit of deliberate creation of words for specific situations.
        
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        February 8, 2025 12:30pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Quite a few languages with large lexicons:
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dictionaries_by_number_of_words
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:54pm
      - Jethrod
        
        How do we account for the waterway on the East Coast….. the Motu RIVER …. recognized as the only wild river left in the land
        
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        February 8, 2025 5:51pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Can you post the link
      
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      February 8, 2025 9:44am
      - Geoff1
        
        Cmm -Agree that the Maori version of the treaty is so bloody useless and should certainly not be regarded as “the” version of the treaty.
        Prior to the Treaty Maori didn’t have a written language. The Treaty was drafted in English (Littlewood Treaty) and translated to Maori.
        The written Maori was devised by missionaries who wrote it down as it sounded, with a number of anomalies
        
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        February 8, 2025 3:22pm
    - Sparrow
      
      Benedict, I have to smile when discussions occur around the supposed purity of language. I note you are an English language pedant. My question is what is English? Can I suggest and its not my original thought that the beauty of English is its a sponge. Its absorbs words from many languages and changes and mangles them. Take your word etiology its roots are Greek and Latin and became Englishfied ( yes no such word) in the 15th century. Embrace languages such as Te reo. In many countries signs and Government departments are in more than one language does it matter. There is nothing to be scared about. We have far more important issues.
      
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      February 8, 2025 9:59am
      - Don Beckett
        
        ” Englishfied” ???
        
        The word you are looking for is “anglicised”.
        
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        February 8, 2025 11:47am
      - Cassandra
        
        But don’t mix English and Maori if you want to communicate!
        
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        February 8, 2025 12:22pm
  - AitchW
    
    I think ethology is slightly more layered than cause.
    It’s more akin to predecessor than cause. It’s a medical term which refers to the (sometimes) complex and manifold conditions that lead to a specific medical condition.
    
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    February 8, 2025 11:30am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I think ethology is slightly more layered than cause.
      One letter swap and the meaning is transformed…
      
      ethology- the study of animal behaviour
      
      Anyways… English is full of synonyms….
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_(medicine)
      
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      February 8, 2025 12:43pm
      - AitchW
        
        Thank you Maggy. Bloody autocorrect and lack of proofreading. Perhaps a kind mod might correct my stupidity!
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:50pm
- kiwi_chileno
  
  Etiology is most common in medicine to explain the complex of factors that contribute to illness.
  
  I like ‘eschatology’ – the theory of of last things (death) or of tribulations, which climax in the end times (eg, Apocalypse), and what follows (a prophecy of a new era of renewal or transformation). For example, God will resurrect the dead or God will return the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. Here’s my favourite: ‘After bringing ruin upon themselves, and enduring much suffering and misery, NZer’s will repent and rise up, throwing down the false prophets and spirits; and a righteous New Jerusalem shall rise.’
  
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  February 8, 2025 6:54pm
goNZ1

nzherald today.
‘Former Labour MP Tāmati Coffey and husband Tim Smith expecting third baby.’

Not my cup of tea,that’s for sure…
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February 8, 2025 8:20am
- imalwaysright
  
  Temu?
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:58am
  - bennerg
    
    No that was Morrison …
    
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    February 8, 2025 12:47pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I wonder if there are regulations governing same sex couples ordering children.
  Shouldn’t children be entitled to a mother and a father?
  
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  February 8, 2025 11:02am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Given the multitude of kids that suffer horrific abuse in this country – two Mums or two Dads just isn’t an issue IMO.
    
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    February 8, 2025 11:33am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Shouldn’t children be entitled to a mother and a father?
    
    All children have a mother and a father.
    
    Extraordinary as it may seem, all humans have a whakapapa…..Ancestry is not solely a “Maori” thing.
    
    But whether children are ENTITLED to anything is a debatable point in NZ, it seems.
    
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states as Article 3:
    Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
    
    But Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, Maori Party, believes that Ancestry trumps safety of a child.
    
    “Often in your rhetoric, you refer to ancestry cannot matter more than the safety of a mokopuna, which is absolutely abhorrent to tikanga, it is abhorrent to Māori, it is abhorrent through the way in which we see the world,” Kapa-Kingi said.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/boot-camps-te-pati-maori-mp-says-karen-chhour-does-not-understand-essence-of-being-maori-in-heated-exchange/P72G5D3I6RCP3AWYNNTKHPU6KI/
    
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    February 8, 2025 1:02pm
    - Dave
      
      If Ms Kapa-Kīngi is quoted correctly by the Herald, that’s one reason I’m not very interested in starting my te ao Maori journey. Another is the unscientific, animistic notion of mauri.
      
      According to
      
      https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/just-transition/just-transitions-guide/foundations/principles-from-te-ao-maori-the-maori-worldview
      
      there are nine principles of te ao Maori; some of them are admirable and found in any civilised twenty-first century society, but mauri and whakapapa – as explained by Ms K-K, no thanks.
      
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      February 8, 2025 2:13pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        If Ms Kapa-Kīngi is quoted correctly by the Herald,
        
        You can view and listen to Ms Kapa-Kingi stating these words in the video clip near the end of the Herald article I linked to.
        
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        February 8, 2025 3:55pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      I actually agree with Mariameno Kapa-Kingi on this one. No one wants to put a child in a dangerous situation but this is about more than any one child. Strong families are the best protection for children and ultimately society, and ancestry is the family spread across time and space.
      Seeing people just as atomized consumer/worker units with ties of family and kinship (old Anglo-Saxon word there) is one of the great curses of modern life.
      
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      February 8, 2025 10:58pm
- Allan
  
  Who cares, normal couples start families and have babies and it is not plastered over the news as if it is an amazing event.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:15pm
  - Allan
    
    Imposter!
    
    Now we are really going to confuse them.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:57pm
- crikey
  
  GoNZ1: Praise be. Another miracle.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:05pm
Dudley Quaffquaff

Articles have been appearing on my feeds recently, about how this or that government, concerned about the aging and apparently inexorable decline in its country’s population, is trying various measures to persuade people to have more children. None of which is working, as more and more populations fall below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. Apparently at present rates of reproduction the Japanese are on course for extinction, and others follow.

Then this week I saw a play here in Wellington, about how in the near future the Government here has legislated that people determined by doctors to be in the last year of their lives, should receive palliative care and medicine only. This was apparently prompted by the playwright learning that 80% of health expenditure currently goes to such patients, and that this can only increase as the proportion of older people in the population continues to rise.

It’s hard to see how a Government could actually do this in real life. No policy measure that would imply any reduction of advantage for older people is politically tenable, given the sheer and ever-increasing weight of the grey vote.

But what can or could be done, to address in positive and constructive ways the reality that our and other societies are now likely, permanently, to have more old people, including some very old people, and fewer young ones than has ever been the case before?
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February 8, 2025 8:27am
- PurplePen
  
  80% of healthcare for the dying seems unbelievably high? I’d question if the playwright (Jenny Patrick) has this correct.
  
  In any case, isn’t this how hospices and the equivalent service operate, palliative care only, no actual cure or staving off the inevitable.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:13pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Generally yes, because all other options have failed or exhausted their usefulness. I have had a brother & a sister-in-law in those circumstances.
    
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    February 8, 2025 2:00pm
- sirknz
  
  So the play is basically Logan’s Run: The Musical…
  
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  February 8, 2025 6:27pm
Cassandra

Souvlaki’s reference to the Porter piece (above) is a must-read. It shows where NZ is heading under Luxon, a well managed slide to becoming an ethno state. I’m not even sure about the well managed bit! How can this be? The members of the National Party do not want it; their MPs do not want it, just Luxon and his ministers. Something has to change.
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February 8, 2025 8:28am
- Souvlaki
  
  ‘Quislings’ is not too strong a word, imo, considering what is at stake.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:35am
  - kowtow
    
    “Deep State” both major parties involved along with beltway /ngo/academia etc
    
    We need a full and final settlement via binding referendum.
    
    Are we a liberal democracy based on individual rights or are we a tribal ethnocracy .
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:43am
    - AitchW
      
      Kowtow I get the impression the the ‘Deep State’ is a lot like the ‘Illuminati’, a nebulous and unidentified group who somehow control the world. Both terms are liberally sprinkled through rabbit hole websites and despite my asking countless times no one has ever given a credible answer as to who they are, just vague references to Jews, Freemasons, the Bush family, international bankers and other undefined mobs.
      Can you put me out of my misery and enlighten me as to who the ‘Deep State’ is?
      
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      February 8, 2025 11:36am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        I’ve never liked the term Deep State; it stinks of Far Left paranoia about things like the CIA, paranoia that was rampant in the 1970’s American Left, presented in a stack of books and movies like The Conversation and Three Days of The Condor. Small, conspiratorial little groups of people doing their stuff inside US government agencies. It’s even funnier – if you like black comedy – to see how the Left has now embraced the FBI, CIA and others: extolling them, defending them.
        
        I prefer to call it The Administrative State.
        
        And one of the keys to this is the Professional Management Class that easily move between the private and public sectors; The USAID that’s currently in the news is a microcosm of “The Deep State” in that it’s part of the other cycle between government and the private world – the tax money flowing to NGO’s that then advocate for more tax money to be spent on good causes.
        
        But it’s not just RWNJ’s like me who observe this. Here’s the Left but dcidely based NZ commentator, Danyl Mclauchlan, who, after lambasting the Labour government for its uselessness in getting anything done (hit the link), wrote the following:
        
        In 1994 the US historian and cultural critic Christopher Lasch died, and a year later his final book The Revolt of the Elites was published. Lasch started his career as a socialist and ended it as a hard-to-categorise hybrid of anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist pro-environmental conservative. The revolting elites in his book are the professional managerial class: the educated technocrats who occupy a commanding position across post-industrial economies, not by direct ownership of capital or overt command of the political system but by managerial control of all our institutions. They run everything. I’ve written about the professional managerial class [PMC] before – I don’t think you can understand 21st century politics without them – and for Lasch their most important qualities are: a) they’re a global class; b) they’re more concerned with the virtual and abstract than the physical, and, c) the primary purpose of their politics is therapeutic.
        
        Although not liking the term “Deep State” it certainly works as a metaphor when you consider that these people and their systems are so “deep” that they are almost always unaffected by elections.
        
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        February 8, 2025 12:12pm
      - kowtow
        
        happy to oblige and already alluded to in my post “beltway/ngo/academia etc”
        
        What we think we see when we’re presented by “opposing” political parties with allegedly differing /opposing policies , what the media present to us as a genuine contest of ideas /philosophies in these parties is merely a pretense ,a staged, played out act that we mere Plebs in our democracies get to have a say in our lives and an active choice in who runs the govt .
        
        That’s the official line .
        
        However if one examines what actually happens , despite the so called left and so called right claiming they’ll fix things ;
        
        race relations
        immigration
        house prices
        health waiting lists
        gosh even the weather now
        crime
        education
        
        international relations and trade “deals” with all manner of add ons not relating to trade and secret clauses
        etc
        
        Nothing actually changes , in fact things get worse .
        
        Why . Because behind the parties are people like their donors , others they depend on like the trades unions , the senior bureaucrats , the people who have “access” for whatever reason . These may be former senior MPs , ministers , or party officials , bishops , academics , foreign diplomats , foreign trade officials , representatives of organisations like the UN ,ngos etc
        ( Local example that’s current ; we’re told Watts has met a number of orgs such as Greenpeace and other “green” lobbies relating to the latest shafting we’re getting re emissions but he hasn’t formally met Fed Farmers )
        ( Note too how we get get quotes that the likes of Nestle won’t buy our products unless we wreck our farmers)
        
        Note too how MP selection is based not on merit but race and donations ( that was the crux of the Bridges Ross scandal) Who are those donors , how do they get to influence MP selection .
        
        If you examine how our constitution is literally being undermined and replaced , incrementally with race “treaty” concepts , none having been put to the people , but slid in here or there and the incredible adhesion by the public service , and now frighteningly the courts ( and many others) to same , that is what I call the “Deep State” at work .
        
        No one elected them , no one voted for it and yet here we have Luxon , on the election campaign tub thumping “one man one vote” but now shilling for “partnership” , you can tell , intuitively that there’s some nefarious shit going on.Labour did it with He Pua and the very underhand Waters co governance model ( who came up with that , it certainly wasn’t Ardern )
        
        Another example , from the UK .
        
        Try as they might the Conservatives just couldn’t deport illegal immigrants ( not significantly , and they literally can’t control their border , and nor do they know how many illegals there are). They were thwarted at every twist and turn . By their own bureaucrats and many many others .
        
        Liz Truss was deligitimsed by very powerful unelected forces there . The excuse was “bond markets” ( which is some sort of immutable power that no one can resist) but the current chancellor and pm are every bit as shit and jittering the “bond market” in an even more extreme manner , but there is no resounding chorus of ” Be gone!”
        
        That’s because the Deep State there ( and here) is very left and happy with the way the west is being pushed ( for some unknown reason) to its own destruction at the hands of “progressive forces” .
        
        Soros making donations to extremist DA’s is a great example of something very very starnge at the very heart of both race relations and the administration of justice (or maladministration)
        
        No rabbit hole , no conspiracy websites , no freemasons , no Jewish conspiracies .
        
        On a light note simply think of it as a lot of Sir Humphery Applebys of a very left wing or “progressive” bent always getting their way .Not for a quiet life but for societal change.
        
        And that’s why “we” need Disruptors , not centrist “managers” who only ever seem to take us more and more to the left .
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:08pm
      - kowtow
        
        Tom Hunter
        
        Russia conspiracy and the 50 “Spies who lie” re the Hunetr Biden laptop.
        The whole of the Biden administration covered up his febility ( is that a word) along with a very complicit media ( the WH press gallery must have been in on it and if they were so were their editorial bosses and owners)
        
        The lies that Bush Blair Establishment produced to create the excuse for the Second Gulf War .
        
        And relatively recent history we see so other examples particlarly from authoritarians but not exclusively for starting or escalating conflict.
        Gulf of Tonkin and Bay of Pigs for example.
        
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        February 8, 2025 1:18pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        The Deep state is the informal networks of state power that exist outside of the formal structures.
        The old British term for it was “the Establishment”.
        
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        February 8, 2025 11:04pm
- Unity
  
  Unless there is dramatic change away from everything to do with race, National will not be getting my vote in the next election. I’ve been a supporter all my life but I’m totally disgusted with Luxon who obviously has a hidden agenda aided by Potaka who is constantly at his elbow and is also an activist.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:50am
- igm
  
  He is a WEF/UN/WHO adherent so really tells the story. He must be removed now!
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:52am
- Simon
  
  Productive and hard working being treated like shit by National. From National point of view if you don’t like it you can fuck off, you can be replaced by third world immigration with it all financed by Blackrock.
  
  National are a disgrace. Many here don’t get it.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:18am
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: Snort Out Loud –
And the fun has just begun

https://www.malone.news/p/friday-funnies-snort-out-loud?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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February 8, 2025 8:32am
- sungsamning
  
  Thanks for this.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:46am
Matt Long

I recommend reading this post by the ever thoughtful Bryce Edwards. In it he explains why Act’s Regularity Standards Bill, which will hopefully be passed this parliamentary term, is the most important Bill in many years.
By invoking the opposition by the worst of the Ivory tower Marxists, he illustrates just how important this bill will be for supporting economic prosperity in New Zealand, by providing certainty of property rights, for people who want to invest their lives in building for the future of New Zealand, against caprice of government regulators. I only hope National are unable to spike the bill again or water it down to meaninglessness.
https://x.com/bryce_edwards/status/1886841792043343903
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February 8, 2025 8:37am
Benedict Yu

Interesting article about New Zealand race relations. This is SBS, an Australian Government broadcaster.

From the article you would think that David Seymour is proposing to abolish the Treaty.

This caught my eye. A quote from activist being interviewed.

“She says people need to understand that the Treaty didn’t give Māori people rights, adding that “those rights were pre-existing before the British got here”.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/new-zealands-waitangi-treaty-may-be-at-risk-these-young-maori-are-fighting-to-protect-it/4j7uqmbxj

Right there is the problem. Of course the Treaty conferred rights on Maori. The right to be British subjects with all the rights and protection as all the British subjects who would subsequently settle here. These rights were extraordinary at the time. AFAIK there was no precedent for this happening in the British empire.

I would remind that activist that after 1840, Maori were largely protected from being killed or enslaved by their neighbouring tribe.

There is also reference in the article to Maori having “self determination” which David wants to remove.

Do Maori have self determination?

From Oxford..with the indulgence of the moderators I will quote this in full as it warrants careful reading.

“(in international law) The right of a people living within a non‐self‐governing territory to choose for themselves the political and legal status of that territory. They may choose independence and the formation of a separate state, integration into another state, or association with an independent state, with autonomy in internal affairs. The systems of mandates and trusteeship marked a step towards recognizing a legal right of self‐determination, but it is not yet completely recognized as a legal norm. It is probably illegal for another state to intervene against a liberation movement and it may be legal to give assistance to such a movement. See also erga omnes obligations.”

https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100453230

A contemporary example is the ‘self determination’ being sought by the indigenous people of New Caledonia. Or the people of Bougainville.

It is clear that Maori do not currently have “self determination”. They are subject to the same laws as all of us, with some minor exceptions, eg customary fishing.

So what is my point?

The country is descending into race relations chaos. Wheh David Seymour’s Bill fails, what does Chris Luxon plan to do? Does he have a plan for New Zealand in 2040? He has stated that the “Treaty is a partnership”. Sadly the “partners” are increasingly in conflict.

Even five years ago, I would have mocked anyone who who had suggested that New Zealand could experience civil armed conflict. I now think that is quite conceivable.
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February 8, 2025 8:39am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  On civil conflict, I hope you are wrong Ben, but fear that you are correct.
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:48am
- Gravelroad
  
  “When David Seymour’s Bill fails, what does Chris Luxon plan to do? Does he have a plan for New Zealand in 2040? “
  You have hit the proverbial nail on the head.
  That is exactly what I want to know from Mr Luxon and his supporters.
  All we are getting is weak PR waffle about race relations from National at the moment.
  Where is the substance?
  
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  February 8, 2025 8:50am
  - Paulus
    
    I will await the next election and Luxon’s response.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:56am
    - Damocles11
      
      If they leave it to the run up to the next election to start articulating a clear position, they won’t be believed no matter what they say. “Fool me once” and all that.
      
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      February 8, 2025 9:21am
  - Cassandra
    
    And that’s the problem, National has to address these big questions – what does the ToW actually mean? – yet consistently fails to do so. It has policies eg doing away with the racist seats , but won’t implement them. All it does is give in to the Maoris inch by inch. And dollar by dollar. Your dollar. If you don’t want racism, don’t vote National – unless they bite the bullet, and I see no evidence that they’re prepared to do that unfortunately.
    
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    February 8, 2025 9:14am
    - Gravelroad
      
      The other thing National appears to be facilitating (or looking the other way about) is the now regular re-writing of the T0W.
      Young, and not so young, radicals are spinning the Treaty contents to give them what they want and what they feel they are owed.
      This is classic stuff – reinterpret “old fashioned” laws and invent them to suit today’s conditions.
      Doesn’t matter if it didn’t appear in the original document signed by their past chiefly leadership – let’s just change it.
      Anyone going to challenge them?
      Not the National Party leadership apparently.
      
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      February 8, 2025 10:05am
  - pdm
    
    Read the piece by John Porter that Souvlaki linked to at 8.08am.
    
    Here is another option to see it:
    https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/02/08/a-must-read/
    
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    February 8, 2025 9:45am
  - G152
    
    And the dreaded bill is still there waiting
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:19am
  - alwyn.a
    
    “what does Chris Luxon plan to do”?
    He’ll probably do the same thing as the PM before Hipkins.
    He’ll bugger of overseas for good and leave the rest of us to rot.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:24am
  - kowtow
    
    If you want the answer look no further than his Akaroa speech .
    
    Partnership.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:49am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Eight times in fact, in one short speech.
      
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      February 8, 2025 12:30pm
- kowtow
  
  Urewera “raids” 2007 .
  My maths make that 18 years ago .
  
  We know a drug gang have receivied military style training and have their own armouries ( not registered ) and perhaps of even greater concern senior Labour MPs use literally militant language in opposition to Crown policies.
  
  Combine those threads with the militancy , aggression and sovereignty claims by what ,by anyone’s standards, is an extremist Maori Party , when aligned to Greens who have a soft spot for “political violence” ( they support Hamas)
  then I’m surprised that anyone would be surprised at that inconceiveability.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:01am
- rouppe
  
  To say Maori do not have self determination is also wrong. That suggests that Maori are akin to serfs, or slaves, and not having any agency.
  
  That is patently not true.
  
  Maori have complete agency over their lives, the same as anyone else.
  
  To propose that self determination means not having to abide by any societal rules, conventions or restrictions really means anarchy, and a return to the primitive pre-1800 situation that, as you said, meant slavery, summary murder, and acquisition by force.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:29am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That’s the problem, when the opposition started whining about he wants to change the treaty he did not rebuff them, he let it fester, and nw we are where we are
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:23am
- I remember when
  
  The reason that Maori embraced the Missionaries was that a Mere Christmas became a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:31am
- PurplePen
  
  “The right to be British subjects with all the rights and protection as all the British subjects who would subsequently settle here.”
  
  Rights and DUTIES of British subjects. I’m sure duties must include such things as obeisance to the crown etc.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:19pm
Bridgenag

Saw this somewhere……

A country run by banks will always be in debt.
Healthcare run by big Pharma will never cure disease.
A state run by war will never know peace.
A nation run by media will never know the truth.
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February 8, 2025 8:41am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “Big pharma” does not run New Zealand Healthcare. New Zealand’s monopsony government buyer is just a pain in the arse for them.
  
  BTW as someone who takes life maintaining medication every day, I would remind readers that good things have emerged from pharmaceutical companies.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:45am
  - Cassandra
    
    Me too, BY. Pharmac is a good organisation (doesn’t fund my meds but I understand why). Until NZ sorts out its productivity and economy we’ll never be able to afford the health care we want. McCulloch identifies working from home, lack of meritocracy and endless Treaty waffle as likely impediments.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:19am
- Ruahine
  
  “A nation run by media will never know the truth”.
  
  That is so true, sadly.
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:13am
  - MCōs
    
    What you really mean is a media controlled by either the government or vested interests
    Fortunately not an issue in NZ and if you think it is just look around at some other countries
    A hundred years ago there was only radio and newspapers and it wasn’t too difficult to convince them in places like Germany where their patriotic duty lay
    Now people have their particular beliefs reinforced by whatever they choose to read on social media. So one can get an entirely different viewpoint on the same event depending on the source of their information
    
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    February 8, 2025 12:36pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    The good news is that Media as we know it in 2025 is slowly self destructing.
    
    Less and less of the population watches TV News and read newspapers(who are moving from paper to Websites)
    
    Ask any 19 year old where do they get their news from? London to a brick its not by watching 6pm news on the Telly.
    What do they do when they want to know about some newsy item?
    Just for laughs ask them when was the last time they watched telly.
    
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    February 8, 2025 3:52pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Imagine if NZ was a business and the directors called in management consultants to review operations.

Observations would include that large parts of the business are not profitable, and many people should be let go. Not only would this cut transfer payments, it would reduce demand for NZ’s huge economic drag, housing. Demand for electricity would drop, reducing prices. Any immigrants would need to demonstrate that they and their families provide a net gain to the country.

Rural production is good and should be encouraged – back winners. Ditto fishing and aquaculture. Exploit natural resources, ensuring adequate post-mining remediation. Scrap solar and wind renewables – or at least, don’t replace them as they wear out. Reduce central & local government headcount, especially in middle management. Invest in education at all levels, with secondary and tertiary increasingly focussed on vocational outcomes.
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February 8, 2025 8:55am
- MCōs
  
  NZ is not a business of course. It’s a social democracy. You get crook, fall on hard times or reach retirement age, society chips in to help out — some people forget it might be them one day who falls under the bus
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:48pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/michigan-lawmaker-sterilization-trump-abortion-b2694145.html

A democratic State representative has had herself voluntarily sterilised because she doesn’t want to bring a child into Trumps America.

If I could give the Dems a nickles worth of free advice. It’s stupid reactionary shit like this that will the average voter towards Trump and the Politicians that will come after him.
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February 8, 2025 9:12am
Damocles11

Does anyone know what platform National could run on in 2026? Lower government spending? No. Less borrowing? No. Removing co-governance? No. Erasing maorification from the public service? No. Reforming or selling State funded media? No.
If they were going to run on any of those things and convince the public to believe them and vote for them, then they would have done them this term. It seems ‘the plan’ is to hope for an economic miracle and hope everyone forgets about the other stuff. It seems to be a pretty threadbare strategy.
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February 8, 2025 9:19am
- Grunter
  
  I might be wrong, but I predict a lot of the historic centre voters (National and Labour) will move to the far left or to ACT. How many is anyone’s guess.
  
  The Nats are encroaching ‘no-man’s land’ as are Labour. They stand for whatever is blowing in the wind. Neither has any solid principled platform. Neither is the solution to NZ’s debt wrecked future.
  
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  February 8, 2025 2:15pm
- Quail
  
  Add in RMA reform.!
  So far it still applies with its indigenous privilege in the Natural Environment.
  The only change so far is fast tracking for the built environment which just means more bureaucratic staff.
  Luxon has already voiced his approval of Maori’s special involvement in the natural environment,with absolutely no regard for farmers as exporters.So there will be no change.
  National promised to remove this impost on hard working and “producing “New Zealanders regularly at past elections.
  They have lied to their supporters.It has not happened!
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:42pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  National platform for 2026. “We are not as bad as Labour.” 😀
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:51pm
  - sirknz
    
    “We are still not as bad as Labour”
    
    You missed a word.
    
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    February 8, 2025 6:37pm
    - pdm
      
      `We are still not as bad as Labour but, trying bloody hard to match Labour.’
      
      That looks more on track.
      
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      February 8, 2025 8:31pm
Yvette

History –

“In September 2007, at the United Nations, 143 countries voted in favour of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. New Zealand was one of four countries that voted against the Declaration.

Today [20 Apr 2010], New Zealand changes its position: we are pleased to express our support for the Declaration [UNDRIP]

Hon RODNEY HIDE: The ACT Party is both shocked and appalled to find itself supporting a Government that has covertly given recognition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration asserts that Māori have rights and privileges not enjoyed by other New Zealanders. The declaration is the very antithesis of ACT’s policy of one law for all New Zealanders. It is the antithesis of the policy that we should have one law regardless of people’s religion, their race, the colour of their skin, their ethnicity, their culture, or indeed their degree of indigeneity. The declaration is divisive and is a further step for New Zealand down the path towards being a divided nation. The declaration clearly splits New Zealand into two rather than bringing New Zealand together as one.

The UN declaration sets us up to enable foreigners from the UN to come to New Zealand to pontificate and to criticise New Zealand’s race relations, policies, laws, and processes. For these and for other reasons the former Prime Minister, Helen Clark, refused to ratify the declaration. At the time the Hon Parekura Horomia said that the declaration was incompatible with New Zealand’s laws and democratic processes and that it ignored reality and would be difficult to implement. Helen Clark and Parekura Horomia were both right
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/49HansD_20100420_00000071/ministerial-statements-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of

Why was Pita Sharples flown in secret to the UN in New York?
Why did former Prime Minister, Helen Clark, refuse to ratify the declaration?
And how accurate was ACT’s summation –

The declaration is the very antithesis of ACT’s policy of one law for all New Zealanders. It is the antithesis of the policy that we should have one law regardless of people’s religion, their race, the colour of their skin, their ethnicity, their culture, or indeed their degree of indigeneity

– of what has happened with the Ardernity of allowing the Maori cat out of the bag, and the inevitable task, Luxon won’t look at, of herding the cats back into Pandora’s Box – Rodney Hide verbalises the shambles and David Seymour is now vilified for trying to do the impossible to fix it.

For tips on cat herding please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_MaJDK3VNE “EDS, an HP Company ‘Cat Herders'” (16 years before AI!) and for a meme (that doesn’t involve people’s reputations or appearances) think ACT and CAT and what Seymour is trying to do – cat-herder
Consider this the next cat you see, that you can’t stop thinking of elephants or rabbits.
ACT and CAT
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February 8, 2025 9:24am
- PurplePen
  
  Who are the indigenous in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France I wonder. Oh what the heck, I’ll throw in India and Pakistan.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:24pm
  - MCōs
    
    The Britons were the indigenous people of England, the Welsh Wales, the Picts and Gaels Scotland.
    The indigenous people of India were the Adivasis and Bakarwal, Jogi, Kabootra, Kalash, Kehal, Koochis, Rebari and Sanyasi in Pakistan
    Off the top of my head
    
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    February 8, 2025 3:23pm
Steve Otto N Shore

WHO Warns Trump Funding Cuts May Delay Release Of New Pandemic.
How will we cope with this? How can the WHO destroy the US without funding? Clever Trump.

https://babylonbee.com/news/world-heath-organization-warns-trump-funding-cuts-may-delay-release-of-new-pandemic?
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February 8, 2025 9:24am
- Matt Long
  
  Putting aside the satire, if DOGE got the opportunity to go over WHO and the UN, the level of corruption and graft would make USAID look like the parish councils Sunday lunch budget.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:57am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    All Musk needs is approval from Trump but I doubt that will happen.
    Hornet’s nest.
    
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    February 8, 2025 10:03am
- Yvette
  
  The next pandemic (besides the rapid spread of a certain culture here in New Zealand) will be bird ‘flu to jump from poultry to humans as has started in the USA, and the scarcity of eggs there, and so their rises in price.
  
  If New Zealand’s cats, defecating in paddocks so water run off carries toximathingiemewhateveritis, into the water cycle, streams to rivers to the moana (mountains to the sea) to kill off Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, the chances of the world getting bird flue are pretty high.
  
  Someone else has said it, but it could have been Donald … “Dead chickens don’t lay eggs”
  
  Nor cats kill Maui dolphins
  Indeed if you study New Zealand ocean currents, as I have, you would be aware it must be Australian cats droppings containing toximathingiemewhateveritis spores in the Blue Mountains (still Aussie mountains to the sea) that are killing Maui’s dolphins and our cats are getting the bloody blame for it, although they may be killing something off Chile, or anything in between – like Easter Island, where the first nations people there moved the mawai on logs, cutting down every tree on the islands, without realising if they had chain-sawed those logs into reasonable sections they would have invented the wheel – a first for Polynesia – as well as having more to go around.
  Pity their cat poo can’t get past Chile so the circle (wheel) is not broken.
  
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  February 8, 2025 9:57am
  - PurplePen
    
    toximathingiemewhateveritis .. you have to love the English language. German does a good job with made up words as well …
    
    Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, the name of a food safety law that was in effect until 2013.
    
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    February 8, 2025 12:29pm
- pb
  
  Looks like RFKJ was right.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Wuhan-Cover-Up-Officials-Conspired-Childrens/dp/1510773983
  
  It also looks like the USAID payments were a part of the long lambasted Mockingbird “conspiracy”. Who in else NZ media are on the payroll?
  
  When the left lose their ability to Cancel “Big Balls” they lose their main weapon.
  
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  February 8, 2025 11:49am
Scooter

I read the transcript of Luxon’s Waitangi Day speech and notice he has now brought up the date of 2040 as some future date to look forward to or to set goals towards (200 years after the signing of the Treaty), and politicians love to set dates by which time they will have achieved something or usually nothing. I predict that by 2040 NZ will have a co governance model with Maori, and well before then most councils will already have achieved it, in fact it’s happening now in Wanganui and Rotorua. I might be wrong, hopefully, but NZ seems so entrenched in appeasing Maori and too afraid (Luxon) to fight against it that I don’t see any govt party challenging the inevitable.
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February 8, 2025 9:30am
- PurplePen
  
  Govt agencies are rife with appeasement. If you’re not getting any joy with them you only need hint that it’s not in keeping with Te Tiriti and they’re off … doing all they can to appease.
  
  I do note the new Public Service Commissioner has asked that instead of the above reaction the public service get facts for decisions rather than the above approach.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:32pm
- Grunter
  
  Nah – if we remain on this idiotic path the country collapses before 2040. This existing pathway is guaranteed to fail big time. It is just a matter of when. We have already run out of money to fund the socialist ethno-state that Luxon’s speech spells out.
  
  The collapse will be very painful, but at least it will bring in massive change. Of course, some societies completely eradicate themselves through the change period.
  
  Human nature throughout history shows that the reality is “fight or flight”. So far the fight is verbal. For some the flight has started.
  
  I have no idea how this plays out from here. But 2025-2035 will bring about massive change of some sort.
  
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  February 8, 2025 2:26pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Dam good 60 second speech on illegals.

https://conservativeadvocacy.com/woman-silences-immigrant-protesters-with-fiery-60-second-speech/?
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February 8, 2025 9:38am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6lT9ocAgsQ
Europe Fears that Germany’s Economic Disaster Could End the Euro .
The ECB has just been throwing good money after bad for the past 15 years without any attempt to fix the real structural problems. It is slowly leading to the fragmentation of the EU, which we see gathering pace now.
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February 8, 2025 9:39am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  The EU was set up for many reasons, but they slowly developed into a Government that wanted to control the ‘Governments’ of Europe.
  Am I wrong?
  
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  February 8, 2025 6:27pm
sungsamning

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/3312757/obama-coalition-flips-to-trump-as-youths-and-parents-back-47/
Obama coalition flips to Trump as youths and parents back 47.
On the job for just 17 days, President Donald Trump isn’t just keeping his approval at an Election Day high, but he’s flipped the coalition that easily pushed former President Barack Obama into two terms over to his camp.

In a shocking new survey, Trump has the support of younger voters, millennials, parents, and the growing majority of those who get their news from new media such as long-form podcasts hosted by celebrities such as Joe Rogan.
Pollster Jeremy Zogby said that the president has maintained his 49%-48% approval-disapproval rating over his first weeks in office.
But, he added, that is with support from a group new to Trump and steady backing from Hispanics and black voters.
“Building on our final poll release of the 2024 election, which highlighted Trump’s new broad coalition — notably younger and first-time voters that played a large part in carrying him to victory — we find today that the under-45 vote buttresses the president’s approval rating,” said Zogby, the managing partner of John Zogby Strategies.
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February 8, 2025 9:39am
Matt Long

Socialists and people with more melatonin have a special relationship with the environment, especially water, as can be seen in Wellington.
Feel that wairua.
https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/810238/famous-south-african-lake-goes-from-popular-recreational-hub-to-polluted-mess/
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February 8, 2025 9:51am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  people with more melatonin
  
  Sleepy people?
  
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  February 8, 2025 6:50pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Melanin 😆
    
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    February 9, 2025 7:07am
NoFax

It feels the culture around the world and NZ has shifted. I don’t think President Trump is the cause but rather reflecting that shift. However, for us in NZ appears that PM Luxon is yesterday’s man. His corporate speak that intends to offend no-one is now appearing more and more out of place. The world is entering a post-liberal world. I mean Liberalism as a political thought that has been going for 2-3 hundred years in the West. We all swim in it and has been the guiding light for many years. However, the left is getting more and more authoritarian to keep Liberalism going and the right is nostalgic for a previous time; some golden age that they convince as the pinnacle of Liberalism. Our host often says he is a “classical liberal”. Time waits for no man and Liberalism for all is good and bad can no longer answer today’s questions. Either it’s shut up or let’s go back. Disruption is coming and in NZ it will come sooner or later as we have seen with disruptors around the world. The question will be what that disruption will look like.
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February 8, 2025 10:03am
- artemisia
  
  Agree there’s more than a few ripples in the global water. Maybe not a tsunami (yet) but certainly waves. Astute politicians will be watching carefully. Some will see fair winds and a following sea, some will miss the boat.
  
  New Zealand? National pollies are not stupid. Suggest they might allow one or both coalition parties to make some serious running and change course. Feels like the country might welcome some of that woke spending lashed to a boat anchor. (To make the boat go faster, of course.)
  
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  February 8, 2025 11:48am
I remember when

Marijuana Dependence Linked to Higher Risk of Death: NY Times.
The article details two Canadian studies which are the largest to date looking at death rates and psychosis associated with cannabus use disorder.

*Reseach suggests three in 10 users will develop cannabus use disorder – defined as unable to stop using even although it’s causing serious health and social problems.
* Numbers suggest use disorder is about half as dangerous as opioid addiction and slightly less dangerous than alcohol use disorder.
* As with alcohol, many people use marijuana recreationally without adverse affects or addiction.
*Cannabus use disorder results in 3.5% dying within five years of treatment, compared with 0.6% of same age, sex comparison group.
* The percentage of cases of schizophrenia cases attributable to use disorder increased to 10.3% during legalization period, up from 3.7% before legalization.
* The rate of psychosis (without a diagnosis of schizophrenia) nearly doubled after legalization.
Young adults 19 to 24 were the most vulnerable.
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February 8, 2025 10:17am
Scooter

If only more were like Trump, good luck and live in peace…

https://youtu.be/AT7zFDniNyo?si=WLxRvyQYhGTl2bVq
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February 8, 2025 10:51am
I remember when

Canadian doctors refuse to debate COVID report exposing lockdown failures: Centrist.
“The Final Report of the Alberta COVID Pandemic Data Review Task Force, commissioned by the province’s premier, Danille Smith, criticises lockdowns and vaccines mandates while recommending a different approach to future public health crises.
Rather than engage with its 269 pages of findings, the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) and dozens of doctors have dismissed it outright – without serious debate.
The AMA’s response was a 64-word statement condemning the report as ‘biased’ and ‘anti-science.’
Days later, 48 doctors and academics signed an open letter demanding the report’s rejection, with more signotories reportedly joining.”
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February 8, 2025 11:05am
- bennerg
  
  Was Dr Donald Duck, Dr McScrooge on that list?
  
  With over 96,000 registered doctors in Canada the 48 amounts to 1 in 2000 doctors, or 0.05 percent.
  
  Further indication that the medical profession as a whole (rather than most whom I believe are good people) has lost the plot, and their reputation as arbiters of medical truth is going further downhill daily.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:59pm
PurplePen

The Herald reports today the MSD paid the food costs for a funeral. The rationale given, from the authority, is that it was that ‘reasonable funeral expenses’ can be broadly interpreted and allows consideration of cultural, spiritual and religious practices of Maori and all New Zealanders. The authority goes on to say the Supreme Court had recognised that traditions of funerals were central to Maori society.

I’m assuming that this must be the first time anyone has challenged MSD for not providing for expenses related to cultural traditions related to funeral practices. Good on the person having a go at getting more funds from the taxpayer.

No culture, including NZ culture is any less significant than any other. Yes, New Zealand has its own culture, and it needs to be respected and celebrated. You only need to visit Australia to see that there is a uniqueness that is NZ culture.

To be fair and to not be racist, all cultures, including NZ culture, have traditions related to funerals that are central to the society of each culture. A reason for this, oddly enough, is that the death of a human is a very significant event in any society, community and family. With very few exceptions, a funeral in any culture is a spiritually significant event.

It is odd that the decision to fund food for this particular funeral is particularly decided on race, in this case Maori. Food for any culture, its gathering, preparation, serving, sharing, etc is significant. It’s significant at all levels; family, community, societal. Food, and particularly hospitality at a funeral for any culture is highly significant. Can you imagine going to any funeral and then not being able to attend a gathering following and then the gathering not having food provided.

The authority would have been better to remove any reference to Maori practice here as the practice is equally as significant and important in other cultures. By specifying Maori in this case, the authority, and the Supreme Court, is saying that Maori culture and cultural practices are more significant or more important that other cultures and their practices. This is racist.
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February 8, 2025 11:06am
- pdm
  
  Note to self and mrspdm.
  
  Ensure all money is spent so that we die paupers.
  WINZ will then do funerals, including tucker and a few beers.
  
  A bit worried about lifestyle over the last few weeks/months though.
  
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  February 8, 2025 12:50pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    To whom it may concern:
    
    There will be NO food and NO booze served at my funeral.
    
    In fact there will not be a funeral, or a funeral notice.
    
    I’ve never been attracted to death cults.
    
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    February 8, 2025 1:26pm
    - H. Upmann
      
      The condensed version of the first line of my will; no funeral, no public notification.
      
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      February 8, 2025 1:56pm
    - John Loveridge
      
      Maggy, I very recently lost my mother and stepfather, three weeks apart. No funerals. We’re doing a commemoration and internment of their ashes later in the year when the whole family can get together and enjoy the occasion.
      
      I want the same for me.
      
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      February 8, 2025 8:10pm
- Jules99
  
  I ordered sandwich platters and sausage rolls from New World for my mum’s final event (she did not want a funeral). Surely that’s good enough?
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:31pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Yet another example of institutional capture. If challenged, I imagine MSD would say something about “treaty partnerships”. The slide towards a Maori ethnostate has slowed under the current government, but certainly hasn’t been arrested.
  
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  February 8, 2025 5:57pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trumpoholic meeting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcBesy1qdAQ
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February 8, 2025 11:31am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360573052/childs-ashes-lost-suspicious-car-fire
Sorry if this sounds heartless, but I won’t be contributing to this woman’s givealittle cash collecting account at this time.
I might reconsider if the fathers of her six children also chip in……..with money to look after their children.
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February 8, 2025 12:42pm
- David Garrett
  
  Gravel: I only count four children – the young one, and three others, who are staying with her mother.
  
  I note that although apparently impoverished, she could afford at least one tattoo, on her leg. I suspect it’s not the lone ranger.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:45pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Somehow I get the idea that these bleeding heart pleas have happened before. Can’t pay car insurance but can pay for a tablet?
  
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  February 8, 2025 4:48pm
Morgan H

What would a Labour-National coalition look like? And how would it be different from our current Government?

These two parties are the biggest two and have enough votes to be a two party coalition. The main thing stopping this from ever happening is the egos in both parties.

The biggest point of difference appears to be on “social issues”. National leans conservative, Labour leans progressive.

This government would be a victory for the “centre” and status quo. It would keep any fringe parties from having a proper say.
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February 8, 2025 12:50pm
- Mod88
  
  Believe me if either or both of those parties were the minor partners in their respective coalition camps after an election they would do a deal so quickly it would be breath taking and in NZ’s MMP environment the Party with the most Votes does not form the Govt. National are actually racing towards that exact scenario with the beans-in-their-ears attitude towards their voters/party faithful. Watch this space.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:26pm
- Damocles11
  
  Well I am against it if it is all about maintaining the status quo. The status quo is big government spending, big government borrowing, co-governance, intensifying maorification, climate lunacy, DEI nonsense, and a rabidly leftist MSM. The status quo disgusts me and must be swept away, not defended.
  
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  February 8, 2025 1:32pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, the status quo is a trajectory towards a Maori ethnostate.
    
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    February 8, 2025 6:05pm
- MCōs
  
  A Labour-National coalition.
  A wonderful idea, said nobody ever
  
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  February 8, 2025 2:04pm
- kowtow
  
  Morgan H
  
  In Europe there have been quite a few coaltions of former opposing mainstream parties .
  
  Done allegedly to keep out the “extremists” .
  
  It cold happen here.
  
  It will not be a victory for the “centre” , but the left .
  
  We are being pushed ever leftward .
  
  What was once considered literally nuts is now being actively mainstreamed or is already legislated for.
  
  So many examples.
  
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  February 8, 2025 2:09pm
- pdm
  
  No thanks.
  
  Co governance would reign Supreme
  
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  February 8, 2025 2:51pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Don’t we already have it?
  Labour and Labour-lite.
  
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  February 8, 2025 5:16pm
  - pdm
    
    Not really a Coaltition though SO.
    
    Just taking turns as electoral cycles roll through.
    
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    February 8, 2025 8:35pm
- NoFax
  
  In what way does National lean conservative on social issues. What social issue can you identify that separates the two?
  I think National and Labour should go into coalition as there is a thin piece of paper between the two – your heart is where your treasure is and there is about $5 billion separating the two now. In this way, we will see real change as those deluded that any day now we will get real reform from National will wake up.
  
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  February 8, 2025 5:35pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  “The biggest point of difference appears to be on “social issues”. National leans conservative, Labour leans progressive.”
  
  Got any examples of National leaning socially conservative? It’s true that 8 Nats were the only MP’s who had the good sense and courage to vote against the inclusion of trans in the so-called “Conversion Practices” legislation, but 3 of those 8 have since left parliament. Social conservatives comprise a dwindling minor faction of the Nats’ caucus.
  
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  February 8, 2025 6:03pm
- AitchW
  
  Apart from the fact that most Labour MPs were part of the last government which did generations long damage to the economic and social fabric as well as race relations in NZ? And the fact there’s not one Labour MP capable of holding a cabinet position and doing a half decent job?
  The longer Labour, Maori and Green parties are kept away from the government benches the better it will be for New Zealand. Regardless of who they are in coalition with.
  
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  February 8, 2025 10:00pm
DimChappie

A rahui has been put on a stretch of coast past Burdan’s Gate in Eastbourne, Lower Hutt but no news of the apparently fatal incident on Waitangi day has been reported. (I heard it was a diving accident.)
I was driving past the area at about 11am on Waitangi Day and there were many police interviewing some of the crowds.
Despite what I saw and news of the rahui, I could find no police report about a death at Eastbourne on Waitangi Day. There might be something I have missed, but there is certainly no news report about a Waitangi day death there.
Hutt Council said: “Due to an incident at Burden’s Gate, the Ahi kā of Te Āti Awa iwi have laid down a rāhui at 6.30am, Friday 7 February 2025.
Out of respect for the whānau, we ask the public not to take kaimoana from the area outlined in the map below (shaded grey area).
Our thoughts are with the whānau, and the community at this time. Arohanui and kia kaha.”

https://www.facebook.com/huttcitycouncil/posts/pfbid02JpxmujAdnjbEpMmUd3LfptgX2yy1NWfy5cVJA9p4WMA7arzvHxjW6E2JNhA9cjDTl

On what grounds might police suppress any news of a fatal accident? Even when they are unsure of the facts, we always get to hear when someone dies accidentally.
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February 8, 2025 1:17pm
- PurplePen
  
  And yet, cannibalism was OK as a food source. It’s all nonsense.
  
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  February 8, 2025 3:46pm
Tom Barker

The large number of Elon Musk’s minions who have been parachuted in to the upper levels of the new Department of Government Efficiency include the interesting young Marko Elez. His social media account included comments such as “I was racist before it was cool,” and “You couldn’t pay me enough to marry outside my ethnicity.” Mr Elez worked for several years for Musk’s companies while making no secret of racist attitudes. Which raises the question – how many of his colleagues, who now have virtually unlimited access to the databases of the Federal government, share the same noxious ideology but are perhaps more discreet about expressing it?
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February 8, 2025 3:09pm
sirknz

I remember fondly when the women who appeared in this were actually in the top tier of physically attractive.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360574187/parris-goebel-feature-sports-illustrated-swimsuit-edition

16 year old me would’ve struggled to do anything on the month she is going to be featured on, but at least she is an actual XX female, unlike the trans-woman who featured last year. They should take a leaf out of the Carl’s Jr playbook with their recent return to eye candy in their advertising methinks…
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February 8, 2025 4:10pm
Jack5

Labour-controlled Britain is on the bones of its financial arse.
Yet the British Foreign office is to open talks with Caribbean officials who are demanding trillions of pounds from the UK, the Telegraph reports “sources” as claiming.

Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a political grouping of 15 states plan to visit Britain in April. The newspaper says Caribbean sources says demands will be restated that Britain pay for its role in the slave trade.

Or, or, or … maybe a Labour-freed UK will some day organise tours to Africa to show Caribbean folk they are better off politically, educationally, and perhaps financially.

Or UK activists might help Caribbean countries sue African nations over initial enslavement and sale to Atlantic traders.

What could this mean for NZ? The New Zealand Government paid compensation to Chatham Islanders enslaved by Taranaki Maori, though the enslavement and genocide occurred before colonisation and the Treaty of Waitangi. What of thousands of Maori descended, or in-part descended from slaves taken in pre-colonisation tribal wars? Who should pay for the humiliation of their ancestors?

Barbados’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, reckons the UK owes Barbados 3.9 trillion pounds because of the slave trade. Member states of the Caricom group are at:

https://caricomreparations.org/about-us/
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February 8, 2025 5:05pm
- Greenheart
  
  Downing Street has reiterated that theUK will not be issuing an apology for its role in the transatlantic slave
  trade, nor will it entertain demands
  for financial
  compensation
  There are no plans for a ministerial meeting.
  
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  February 8, 2025 7:12pm
sungsamning

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2025/02/07/parents_move_right_pundits_panic_while_trump_delivers_on_education_1090009.html
Parents Move Right, Pundits Panic, While Trump Delivers on Education.
While progressive voters, Kamala Harris’s campaign team, and the Pod Save America guys wax poetic and point fingers about November’s election results, President Trump is delivering on his campaign promises to parents—firehose style. My sense is that most in the pundit class still don’t grasp how much parents with school-aged children influenced the election–shifting 7 points to the right between 2020 and 2024. Based on the first few weeks of President Trump’s second term, he did not take those votes for granted. His actions have shown parents across the political spectrum that he is delivering on promises made.
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February 9, 2025 9:21am
sungsamning

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/02/07/winning-doge-saves-american-taxpayers-another-182-million-n2185346
DOGE Saves American Taxpayers Another $182 Million, This Time at HHS
Tax season is coming up. My wife does our taxes, which through the close to 30 years I’ve been self-employed, has always been a complicated process. She is quite good at making sure we pay every penny we’re required by law to pay – and not one penny more. That is, of course, what all good Americans should do; rendering unto Caesar has its limits.
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February 9, 2025 9:21am

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