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March 30, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 March 2025

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General Debate

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NK

Sam Ruthe finished 7th last night in Melbourne in a field of 15 class adult runners – 3minutes 40seconds and change. A new world record for him.

Gout Gout beaten in the 200m.
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March 30, 2025 8:04am
Cassandra

Quelle surprise! Left wing pressure group masquerading as charity hires left wing economist Eaqub to say old and rich people have no idea how little people on benefits get and how unequal that is.

He said the research showed that rich people thought that benefit levels were enough, but poorer people thought they were not.

The “charity”, the Helen Clark Foundation, wants society to be more cohesive by, for example, having a chat with your neighbours over the fence. My neighbours are already very friendly and caring and worth a poultice so I can’t see how that’s going to help.

I suspect the Eaqub report might include a bit more than that and is simply an opening salvo for Labour to increase benefits. The UBI? Of course NZ is the wealthiest country in the world. Money will,come from rich people? Thin air? Trees? I wonder if Eaqub says anything about getting beneficiaries’ children to school on time with a home made lunch? And the education system gearing itself to produce all children leaving school being able to read, write and count in English?

The report is on RNZ’s website. Another surprise. Not.
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March 30, 2025 8:15am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  No mention in the article of how much many beneficiaries receive in housing assistance, or state houses etc.
  
  This omission is a form of lying, missing the second element of “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:25am
  - artemisia
    
    Quite so. End of Feb 2025 377,831 recipients of the Accommodation Supplement and 108,193 recipients of Temporary Additional Support. And they are just housing related ones, by no means all additional support. Many thought not all will be beneficiaries or super recipients.
    
    Not trivial numbers, or amounts.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:51am
  - pdm
    
    Bollocks it is The Helen Clark Foundation.
    
    What did you expect?
    
    Full and correct details are not part of that organisations agenda.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:56am
    - Kevin
      
      I would like to know what Helen Clark, in her capacity at UNDP, knew about the money shovelled at UNWRA ‘for the children’ that paid for tunnels and weapons in Gaza.
      
      Before accepting any of her arguments for public spending here.
      
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      March 30, 2025 2:33pm
- artemisia
  
  Do you know what people on benefits actually get?
  
  Not going to find out from the RNZ article where the only numbers compare ‘basic benefit’ for single over 25 with no children, and super. No mention of the potentially significant amounts in the hand over and above ‘basic benefit’ even for those singles with no children. Though TBF there might be more info in the full report which RNZ has not mentioned. Maybe a Centrist summary will?
  
  He said the fact that the JobSeeker basic benefit is $361 a week for single people over 25 without children, compared to $538 a week for people on NZ Super might surprise some people.
  
  ‘Social cohesion’ is really a fancy way of saying more taxpayer money stat.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:30am
  - OlderChas
    
    $538 a week for NZ Super must be the before tax amount because I sure as hell don’t get that in my hand! (Is the $361 a week quoted before or after tax?)
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:51am
    - HeatherW
      
      $538/wk is the super rate starting from 1st April 2025. This is the highest super rate and applies to a single person with no other income and living either alone or with a dependant child under 19 years old.
      $361 is the lowest jobseeker rate at that age level and doesn’t include other handouts.
      
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      March 30, 2025 2:30pm
    - Paulus
      
      Superannuitants pay tax like other taxpayers.
      
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      March 30, 2025 3:00pm
- peterwn
  
  Education is a charitable objective so a charity which peddles this sort of wares is legally legit even if the wares are dubious. The long suffering taxpayer effectively donates to the charity 50% of what its other donors donate to it. And there would be enough wealthy people with leftist views who would donate to Helen’s charity. In fairness to Helen she was a relatively sane Labour Prime Minister compared with the following Labour Prime Ministers 9 years later.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:42am
  - Cassandra
    
    It’s no more education than any other pressure group. Education would be hiring Robert McCulloch. It’s Clark’s opinion, all very interesting but it should not be tax free. I managed health charities for 35 years, mainly funding research into complex diseases and providing services for cancer sufferers. That’s charity, Clark’s foundation is just another political lobby.
    
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    March 30, 2025 8:52am
- Paulus
  
  I have always maintained in simple terms if you cannot read and/or speak English (correctly) you can never master any other language whatever.
  Maori included, as it is based upon what are very limited primitive origins.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:49am
  - Taieri
    
    if you cannot read and/or speak English (correctly) you can never master any other language whatever.
    ————–
    
    So the Chinese can’t master Spanish? And Russians can’t learn French.
    A very interesting idea…
    
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    March 30, 2025 11:09am
    - peterwn
      
      A broader scope is if you cannot master the language your parents and the people round you speak, you can never master another language. That is why Harrow did not teach Latin or Greek to pupils like Churchill who had not mastered proper English. And he was very grateful to his English teacher there.
      
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      March 30, 2025 12:22pm
      - Jack5
        
        Institutions “pressure cooking” languages into the military and diplomats disprove your assertion, Peterwn.
        
        Mostly they are learning-science based, but even France’s Foreign Legion gets results, if with more spartan methods.
        
        The internet is abuzz with online language schools, self-tuition courses, and schemes in which people with varying native languages exchange help with foreigners. They are helping each other learn languages.
        
        Then there’s the question of what does “master” a language mean? Hear, speak it like a native speaker? Or just understand it and be understood.
        
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        March 30, 2025 12:44pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Maintain all you like Paulus, but your opinion is provably false.
    
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    March 30, 2025 3:54pm
- Gravelroad
  
  “Charity hires left wing economist Eaqub to say old and rich people have no idea how little people on benefits get and how unequal that is.”
  However, old and rich people do generally have an idea about working to earn a living, paying tax for 40 plus years, contributing to society in a positive manner and saving money when they can – even when they were sick, unhappy and life went against them.
  Instead of the constant excuses, how about get off the couch, stop smoking the weed and meth and genuinely start looking for a job?
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:55am
  - Countrygirl
    
    And any job to start with, not something paying $100k a year or it’s not worth the bother. Yesterday I heard about someone who turned down a job paying $90k because it wasn’t worth going off the benefit for as she would have to start paying for transport, childcare, clothing etc.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:34am
  - Ian Boag
    
    genuinely start looking for a job
    
    A laudable notion. Probably not a good idea to mention that finding one is real hard right now ….
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:35am
    - cmm
      
      There are tens of thousands of labourers brought into the country every year for farm work, fruit picking, laying fibre optic cables, painting, etc.
      
      The work is there. Finding it only takes getting off your arse.
      
      Of course it might, actually, involve work.
      
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      March 30, 2025 9:49am
      - artemisia
        
        More relevant, it might actually need employers to say yes. Finding one might be real hard ….
        
        Speaking from experience taking on entry level people from the dole, attempting to give back a bit. We don’t do that any more.
        
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        March 30, 2025 9:58am
      - Jack5
        
        The Ardern-Hipkins Government of 2020-2023 caused by far the biggest immigration surge into NZ since the first Polynesian canoe hit a beach a thousand years ago.
        
        This has caused a surge in social-services demand in this country with its Scandinavian-style welfare system. We’re now down to 44th in the world by GDP per capita.
        
        Trump and Vance are signalling the end of cheap labour from heavy immigration. Those days are ending, except in Britain, which talks of defending Ukraine from Russia but can’t even control the English Channel.
        
        https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2029191/jd-vance-slams-britain
        
        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14513423/Britain-stagnating-immigration-JD-Vance-says.html
        
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        March 30, 2025 10:34am
      - peterwn
        
        Hearing all this whining from those on Jobseeker and their advocates about the new policy of partially withholding money from those who will not engage with seeking jobs. It never occurred to these people that if they just turn up where and when expected they won’t get money withheld. But presumable some ‘Jobseekers’ follow the Sue Bradford philosophy that if a benefit is available you might as well take it. And about 10% of the people vote for a party which seems to support such an attitude. Why should they try and get a job when they are in a state of equilibrium with their lives and do not need to get up in the morning to work or learn skills.
        
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        March 30, 2025 12:32pm
      - pdm
        
        Learn the work ethic by working for the dole.
        
        There is still a lot of cleaning up to be done around Hawkes Bay after Cyclone Gabrielle. Roadside drains, rubbish and long grass would be a start.
        
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        March 30, 2025 1:00pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @pwn
        
        the Sue Bradford philosophy that if a benefit is available you might as well take it
        
        Sort of like – any pensioner with other income – includes me 🙂
        
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        March 30, 2025 4:42pm
  - Quail
    
    O and R people end up asking for a release from life before the NZ State hoovers up with inflation and other taxes the last of their assets including the savings they have spent 50 (or more ) years accumulating .
    All this so those who have produced or done nothing with their lives can live in the manner they are entitled to.
    
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    March 30, 2025 8:25pm
- Simon
  
  When Clark was PM around 2.4% of GDP was spent on welfare . ( non Nat Super). Its now around 20 billion pa close to 5% of GDP. Something has badly wrong.
  
  Mass low wage immigration from the third world has displaced those who were at the margins but were sort of ok into full time welfare.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:59am
  - cmm
    
    Was it really only 2.4%?
    During Clark’s time there was a huge push to reclassify people who were just unemployed to being medically unfit to work.
    
    Clark is very much the statist. I struggle to believe she would support people looking after each other unless it is done through the state.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:29am
    - Ian Boag
      
      a huge push to reclassify people
      
      Is this “cmm-anecdotal” or can you point us at some numbers …. ?
      
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      March 30, 2025 9:37am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Pretty sure he is talking about when the split the dole into work ready, and the bums they pushed onto a seperate benefit if they did not want to work, can you not remember that?
        
        It also distorted the unemployment figures as i remember
        
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        March 30, 2025 9:46am
      - Yvette
        
        During Prime Minister Helen Clark’s tenure (1999-2008), New Zealand experienced a notable increase in the number of individuals receiving sickness and invalids’ benefits, surpassing those on unemployment benefits in several regions. For instance, in 2005, National Party Welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins highlighted that, except for Wellington, all regions had more people on sickness and invalid benefits than on the unemployment benefit. She expressed concern that true unemployment was being obscured by these numbers.
        Sickness And Invalids Outnumber Unemployed
        Monday, 28 March 2005,
        https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0503/S00524.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com
        
        Similarly, in 2005, ACT Welfare spokesman Dr. Muriel Newman reported that the number of adults supported by sickness and invalids’ benefits had increased from 103,000 to 139,000 over six years, a 35% rise. She attributed this growth to the government’s “soft on welfare” policies.
        Welfare sickness explodes under Labour
        Monday, 5 September 2005
        https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0509/S00112.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com
        
        However, it’s important to note that Prime Minister Helen Clark refuted claims that people were being moved from unemployment to sickness benefits to manipulate unemployment statistics. She stated that such actions would be “completely out of order, uncalled for and wrong.” Social Development and Employment Minister Steve Maharey also rejected suggestions of such practices, noting that since 1999, less than 6% of individuals transitioning off the unemployment benefit had moved to a sickness benefit.
        National says get tough on benefits
        26 Jul, 2004
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-says-get-tough-on-benefits/3VJDLCEU5G63AN3MLNRZKWTCDU/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
        
        In summary, while there was a significant rise in sickness and invalids’ benefit recipients during Helen Clark’s leadership, direct evidence of a deliberate policy to reclassify unemployed individuals as medically unfit to work is lacking. The increase may be attributed to various factors, including demographic changes and evolving health diagnoses.
        Sickness And Invalids Outnumber Unemployed
        Monday, 28 March 2005
        https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0503/S00524.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com
        
        time for medications
        
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        March 30, 2025 9:54am
      - artemisia
        
        Have you considered checking numbers and offering a rebuttal? That would be a value add.
        
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        March 30, 2025 10:01am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        So you were a scientist, Ian? Good with numbers were we?
        
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        March 30, 2025 11:31am
      - pdm
        
        [Please read the blog rules unless you wish to take a long holiday. mod.]
        
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        March 30, 2025 1:05pm
    - Simon
      
      Around 2.4% . Can check the 2007 govt financial statements. If remove the ACC payments and family tax credit and just look at the spending on “poverty” $7.8 billion or so.
      
      GDP in 2007 was NZ$282 billion vs $420 billion now with spending on non-super over $20 billion now. Could take out the family tax credit in 2024, but I think now that is some low income top up, whereas in 2007 the family tax credit was sold as negative taxation.
      
      There has been a clear deterioration for those at the bottom. These Clark type reports never go over why. Do they want to spend 8 or 9% of GDP on “poverty” Its heading that way anyway. Keep importing low wage people. It will happen.
      
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      March 30, 2025 10:02am
- imalwaysright
  
  Eaqub is suddenly an expert on every problem that the country faces.
  He and his ilk were very quiet when the damage was being inflicted by Clark’s puppet.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:51am
  - Jack5
    
    Shamubeel Eaqub in 2012 was advising people to rent rather than buy houses (link below).
    
    You can see how house prices have trended since then in the graph at the second link below.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/economy/rent-dont-buy-says-economist/MP2TXZUW4XY75NXXR7ADLDM7FI/
    
    House price trend:
    
    https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/pacific/new-zealand/home-price-trends
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:43am
    - Keith White
      
      He is kind of an honest political figure – he stays bought.
      
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      March 30, 2025 11:04am
    - RoboRob
      
      He was also Labours pet economist that checked the numbers on there budget and found no issue (despite a ‘billion $ hole’). He backed kiwibuild and was confident of the governments ability to ‘build’ houses.
      
      Like Mathew Hooton, he will say whatever his political pay masters want him too.
      
      Scarily, as someone who uses simplicity, he is also the head economist at Simplicity, https://simplicity.kiwi/about-us/our-team. However I am guessing he is ‘more honest’ there.
      
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      March 30, 2025 11:12am
    - PurplePen
      
      What’s that saying about economists? Ask 10 the same question and you’ll get 10 different answers.
      
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      March 30, 2025 12:21pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        11 different answers Purple. 🙂
        
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        March 30, 2025 3:58pm
    - peterwn
      
      Someone who is very good at investing in shares or a business can get a better overall return by renting their home than owning it. I know a guy in Remmers in that situation. He is lucky since their landlord treats the property as a ‘never never’ holding investment. So you have two people with diametrically opposite investing outlooks who have happily coexisted for many years in a landlord tenant situation.
      I understood that Don Brash had a similar ‘pro-rental’ outlook.
      
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      March 30, 2025 12:40pm
  - AndyW
    
    Eaqub is an absolute sanctimonious twat: he wrote an article about taking a pay cut for a better work-life balance, encouraging others to do the same. What he didn’t tell you was what he was earning at the time (a hell of a lot more than the average salary).
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:56am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Hmm, I’m older and some might say I’m rich I guess. And I know how much bennies get. They get way too much. Otherwise most of them would have a job. Or wouldn’t have kids they couldn’t afford. Or wouldn’t be scamming the Supported Living Payment (there’s one that National should be sorting out, 100k people on it, with a good few getting holidays for their family to the islands).
  
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  March 30, 2025 10:18am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Its a western desease. I call it you poor thing syndrome.
    
    UK, USA, Australia all went soft in the 70s. Yep Regan, Thatcher times.
    
    The state started handing out chunks of money to you poor things (solo mums, unemployed/employable). etc etc
    
    Removed the incentive to take personal responsibility for your situation.
    
    Most of the current financial based problems in NZ IMHO have been caused by governments importing bodies(immigration) to boost GDP to look good.
    
    Remove all those extra bodies and the free market would give. mIMHO
    Lower house prices, better health services(ie not overloaded) decent education (small class sizes and better teachers)
    
    The interesting point(IMHO) is that most of the current service jobs, taxi drivers, nurses aid, hospitality front line would NOT be filled by foreigners!!
    
    Show me any country that has supported mass immigration that is socially and financially better off.
    
    Yawn, waiting for those who tout Scandinavian countries!!!! Without including the suicide levels and no-go areas.
    
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    March 30, 2025 4:07pm
- Fender
  
  Im so old I recognise “worth a poultice “
  Not sure the next generation will
  
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  March 30, 2025 10:25am
  - pdm
    
    Fender I am so old I remember having `hot bread’ poultices placed on festering sores, boils etc.
    
    The cure all of the 50’s and before.
    
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    March 30, 2025 1:10pm
    - Keith White
      
      I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a free phlebotomy. And certainly, I would rather avoid a prefrontal lobotomy…
      
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      March 30, 2025 1:19pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Had to keep the bread to eat.
      I remember sugar mixed into soap, heated & slapped on & tightly bound.
      A bit of squealing involved. 🙂
      
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      March 30, 2025 2:31pm
- Cassandra
  
  It’s noteworthy that in his report Eaqub quotes the lowest possible figure as his example of how mean benefit levels are. Some benefits are twice as high as the ne he uses. He is not an economist and this so called charity is simply an arm of the Labour Party.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:30am
  - Keith White
    
    He’s certainly economical with the truth, the dunderheaded vacuous quote-twerp.
    
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    March 30, 2025 1:20pm
- Allan
  
  BB&H has a breakdown.
  
  The report is BS.
  
  It is to support another line of socialist lies.
  
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  March 30, 2025 12:19pm
NK

Doesn’t it just! He shouldn’t be in parliament.
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March 30, 2025 8:17am
NeverMindTheBollocks

11,000 of the total population of 270,000 have left New Caledonia since the indigenous people rioted and told the local French that they are not welcome. Among them are 20% of doctors and nurses, leaving the place short of medical services.

Steps on a path for independence followed by a collapsed state followed by Chinese “assistance”. No more croissants for the Kanaks.

The moral of the story is, be careful what you wish for.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/556583/thousands-leave-new-caledonia-in-civil-unrest-as-long-recovery-awaits-those-staying
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March 30, 2025 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  Amazing how the Great and the Good ,so concerned about Orange Man Bad make noises about the sovereignty of a barren , basically uninhabited Arctic waste that is a European colonial era project , the same people who side with Spain over Britain’s sovereignty over Gibraltar , have so little to say over French and Spanish colonial possessions in Africa , the Pacific and South America,.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:26am
- cmm
  
  Geese, golden eggs etc.
  
  In some way we’re having the same here, just a bit less obvious.
  
  40,000 leaving per year – mainly high value people (doctors, nurses, engineers, business people etc) who were going to pay dole and super and are now going to do so elsewhere.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:34am
  - surfing
    
    2 young NZ born nurses on my partner’s ward will be Sydney nurses in about 2 months.
    
    I say good on them, NZ is not the best place for those who are not the special race. Your kid’s education will be harmed, as well as their opportunities.
    
    And, the loss of democractic rights is not to be sneezed at either.
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:44am
    - Don Beckett
      
      One of my grand-daughters will finish her nursing degree this year. She is planning to go to Maloolabah in Queensland where her sister lives & get a nursing job over there. That will be four of my six grandies in Oz.
      
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      March 30, 2025 2:34pm
  - Taieri
    
    40,000 leaving per year – mainly high value people (doctors, nurses, engineers, business people etc)
    ———–
    
    Is there an actual breakdown available anywhere?
    
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    March 30, 2025 11:14am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Oh no! Consequences.
  
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  March 30, 2025 10:17am
  - Paulus
    
    Consequences of Emigration to Australia is that you cannot get in if you have a Criminal Record, so we have the dregs left eh !
    
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    March 30, 2025 3:34pm
- Keith White
  
  Well, the indigenes wanted rid of the invasive Europeans. And now they have to live – or die – with their choice.
  
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  March 30, 2025 1:21pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I would bet it’s only a small fraction who wanted it (and even smaller who rioted)
    
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    March 30, 2025 2:05pm
Gravelroad

Similar to this was on here yesterday.
All the comments were removed.
So I guess someone in high places complained……..
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March 30, 2025 8:27am
- Chuck Bird
  
  The pictures were there so it cannot be defamatory.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:30am
- Inandout
  
  Grav, I would imagine our host didn’t want to act in haste.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:32am
- NK
  
  Really? I’d be very surprised to see DPF act like this.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:40am
- grumpy
  
  I saw that, very disappointing. Maybe a new policy today after it has been all over other media (except mainstream).
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:05am
artemisia

Object lesson in ensuring robust processes for party candidate selection. Including for ACT local government candidates, where deep dives into 10 year old social media should be expected from the usual suspects.
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March 30, 2025 8:36am
CJames

One can contrast the media’s behaviour in this incident to the continued furore about the now Tauranga MP’s schoolboy bullying. Why the difference in media response? Or does this just prove yet again the bias?
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March 30, 2025 8:40am
- Paulus
  
  Of course that so called media will take every opportunity to denigrate any Nationl MP.
  Sam is doing a very good job for his Constituants.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:52am
Bridgenag

This one interesting

Trial Of Lyndon B. Johnson for Assassination of his President
Guest editorial by David Marks

“On November 22nd, 1963, the actions and orders of the defendant in this matter, Lyndon B. Johnson, culminated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, ensuring Johnson would become the President of the United States.

We are confident you will return a guilty verdict at the conclusion of this historic case after you have heard all of the evidence.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/trial-of-lyndon-b-johnson-for-assassination?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 30, 2025 8:45am
- Cassandra
  
  BS. Of all the crackpot theories this takes the biscuit. There’s never been a shred of evidence that LBJ was involved.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:55am
  - JackRabbit
    
    I agree, as kill orders would come from the puppeteers, not a low level puppet like LBJ. Mind you the theory that Oswald did it was also as crackpot.
    
    A lone gunman in possession of a standard rifle, taking multiple shots at a moving target that an SAS trained gunner with a high power sniper rifle with sights would need to take. As well as using bullets from the 22th century that could change direction multiple times, leaving the trail of entry and exit wounds that made it look like there were shooters in 3 directions. Equally as crackpot.
    
    I doubt we will ever get the truth.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:43am
    - Jake Dee
      
      You’re well wrong on all those points.
      The distance from the 6th floor window of the Texas School Book Depository to the position on Elm street where JFK was hit is about 88 yards – 81 meters.
      The presidential limousine was moving away from the building causing minimal lateral motion. The rifle, usually called a Mannlicher-Carcarno, but more correctly called a Carcarno M38 (model of 1938) with an en bloc clip had a 4X optic and could be sighted out to 2000 yards. The ammunition (6.5 X 52mm Carcarno) is rated for large game (deer etc.) out to 250 yards.
      It’s a very do-able shot.
      The “magic bullet” theory is explained by the seating positions and exact postures of President Kennedy and Governor Connally when hit. The trajectory of the bullet only seems implausible if Kennedy and Connally are assumed to be static, upright, and perfectly aligned. When their actual postures (Kennedy leaning left, Connally turned right) and seat elevations are factored in, the bullet’s path becomes straightforward.
      The apparent twisted path of the projectile through the air is actually the twisted posture of the men it hit. It is perfectly possible for a bullet to pass through multiple men and multiple parts of those men, it happens all the time.
      
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      March 30, 2025 5:02pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Of course LBJ was INVOLVED in the events around the death of JFK, he stepped directly into his shoes.
    In any murder investigation he has to be considered as a suspect.
    What I think you mean to say is that there is no evidence to show he was involved in a plot to murder him.
    
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    March 30, 2025 4:19pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  What utter drivel
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:58am
- NothingLeft
  
  A claim floating around social media that some news channel has identified a photo with Oswald in the crowd in Dallas – meaning he couldn’t have been the shooter.
  
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  March 30, 2025 2:07pm
- Jake Dee
  
  I have to say that I find all the JFK assassination theories fascinating. For me it is the Ur-conspiracy, I started reading up on them when I was a kid and reading about the death of JFK it lead to learning about American society, history geo-politics and so much more.
  But the real golden nugget of knowledge is not so much learning any particular detail but how the mind puts it all together.
  I saw a video lecture by an American Philosophy professor (Rick Roderick, Duke University) who asked something to the effect of
  “What’s the problem with our understanding of the JFK assassination? Is it that we don’t have enough information, or is it that we don’t know what to do with the information that we do have?”
  here’s the questions all JFK theories have to answer, whether they put LBJ, the CIA, the Mossad, the KGB, the Mafia, the Illuminate or anyone else in the frame.
  Even with Means, Opportunity and Motive why did they chose THAT PARTICULAR METHOD to kill JFK?
  Consider the case against LBJ, he was Kennedy’s 2nd in command, a powerful politician in his own right, what was he thinking directly BEFORE the event?
  Presuming he wanted to remove Kennedy why did he think that having his brains blown out in public was the best of all the possible options he had?
  
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  March 30, 2025 4:12pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Union says most people support the government mandating its suppliers pay the Living Wage. Well, in the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies, they would say that, wouldn’t they. It also begs the question of whether e Tu would have released the poll result if it had been otherwise. One can only assume that the poll respondents think that they do not have to pay (OPM and all that).

Regardless, no public agency should be outsourcing its minimum wage policy to a vicar from Lower Hutt, his heirs and successors.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/556581/new-e-tu-union-poll-shows-most-kiwis-oppose-removing-living-wage-from-government-contracts
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March 30, 2025 8:45am
- Jack5
  
  NMTB’s … the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies …
  
  The Profumo affair in the UK of 60 years ago!
  
  Christine Keeler, Rice-Davies, Lord Astor, Russian agents.
  
  The heyday of Britain’s tabloid newspapers.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:59am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  NMBT, E-Tu are just another parasitic group that long ago lost their rationale to exist. Now they are just another part of the Labour Party selling Labour Party policies.
  
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  March 30, 2025 12:29pm
Bridgenag

The Climate Scam is Over..
Peer-reviewed AI analysis completely debunks all of the “man-made” claims

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/the-climate-scam-is-over?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 30, 2025 8:45am
- G152
  
  Its all weather whether or not
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:55am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Definitely cyclical
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:48am
- Cassandra
  
  Published today in Science of Climate Change, the paper, A Critical Reassessment of the Anthropogenic CO2-Global Warming Hypothesis, suggests natural forces—like solar activity and temperature cycles—are the real culprits. Fascinating it’d it’s kosher.
  
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  March 30, 2025 8:58am
  - Gravelroad
    
    I went to a presentation recently about “Space Weather”.
    Was rather complicated and technical,but bottom line was that we had to be prepared for future solar activity, explosions etc.
    ‘Space weather” refers to the variable conditions on the sun and in space that can impact technology on Earth, like satellites and power grids, caused by events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
    We were told that there is no pre-warning and nothing can be done to stop these events.
    If something along these lines happens, day to day stuff like eftpos machines, money machines at banks, supermarket check-outs and fuel dispensers could/would be put out of action.
    
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    March 30, 2025 9:14am
    - JackRabbit
      
      A good reason to not get rid of cash.
      
      Besides any EMP pulse big enough to wipe out electronics would probably do serious brain damage.
      
      EMP wipes out electronics by inducing electrical charges, voltage and current with wavelength, into heavily shielded electronics. So it would induce the same electrical charges, voltage and current with wavelength, into your body.
      
      AI say’s that humans would be safe, and only electronics would be affected, and we know AI (programmed software) lies about important stuff, so yes, humans WOULD be at risk.
      
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      March 30, 2025 9:50am
      - Gravelroad
        
        Yes, the need to have cash on hand was brought up at the meeting I attended.
        That and the necessity for local body councils to have “Readiness plans of action” in place.
        It was all a bit nebulous.
        There might be a space weather incident one day which could interfere with your internet banking and Eftpos transactions and stop the electronic petrol pump from working. It might get hot for a while.
        But nothing can be done to stop it or give warning that it is about to happen.
        People being people will mostly take no notice.
        
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        March 30, 2025 11:16am
      - cmm
        
        ” any EMP pulse big enough to wipe out electronics would probably do serious brain damage. ”
        
        Naah. MRI and CT scans etc can completely destroy electronics without causing any brain damage.
        
        Our species has faced many EMPs with little consequence to our bodies.
        
        The biggest threat from EMPs are low frequency power surges that are induced into power lines and can wipe out electrical infrastructure (power grid transformers etc).
        
        These sorts of surges have little impact on electronics (ie. are unlikely to fry your phone or car).
        
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        March 30, 2025 11:19am
      - JackRabbit
        
        @cmm
        
        You’ve made my point.
        
        “any EMP pulse big enough to wipe out electronics would probably do serious brain damage.”
        
        The majority of electronics are shielded one way or another, in a virtual Faraday cage, so anything than can penetrate that e.g. cosmic radiation, won’t have much trouble penetrating the brain.
        
        But as you say, biggest threat from EMPs are low frequency power surges.
        
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        March 30, 2025 11:53am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        There are many good reasons to keep a decent supply of cash on hand always.
        
        Number one would be your cellular network going down. This does happen from time to time and can seriously screw up many things we take for granted for daily survival.
        
        Having several days stored water and several weeks stored food would not be a bad idea either, especially in a country prone to seismic activity. Also a hand cranked and solar powered rechargeable waterproof am/fm radio with light and SOS flasher.
        
        A bug out bag ready to go also if you want to be seriously prepared for SHTF (sh.. hitting the fan).
        
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        March 30, 2025 7:40pm
    - cmm
      
      ” bottom line was that we had to be prepared for future solar activity, explosions etc.”
      
      When?
      
      Other than high rate periodic cycles eg sunspot cycles of 14 years or so), most things that happen in the sun will take at minimum hundreds – if not thousands – of years to happen.
      
      Sure we see changes, but many of those observations are only due to improvements in sensors – not actual changes in patterns.
      
      Explosions are only likely to happen when the sun changes to a Red Giant at which time it will also expand and consume the earth. That’s of the order of billions of years by which time we will no longer exist.
      
      Before then we have a few hundred ice ages to worry about.
      
      Still none of this is going to bother you, me or our great grand children.
      
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      March 30, 2025 11:10am
      - sirknz
        
        Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections happen often enough to be a problem for us today.
        
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        March 30, 2025 5:34pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Solar flares, not so frequent.
        
        Hackers, everywhere, like cockroaches.
        
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        March 30, 2025 7:52pm
- Cassandra
  
  Everyone: read this report. Indeed read the paper if you have enough skill. It’s amazing. I wish I understood it! Now we need someone to review the authors, although it was written by a robot..
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:05am
  - Yvette
    
    Cassandra, here, indeed written by a “robot’ – Wild Robot? –
    
    The article A Critical Reassessment of the Anthropogenic CO₂-Global Warming Hypothesis challenges the mainstream view that human-generated CO₂ is the primary driver of global warming. It argues that empirical evidence contradicts the climate models used by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The authors claim that historical temperature and CO₂ data do not show a direct cause-and-effect relationship, as temperatures have often risen before CO₂ levels increased. They also critique the reliability of climate models, asserting that they overestimate warming and fail to account for natural climate variability, particularly solar and oceanic influences.
    
    The paper further argues that past climate shifts—such as the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age—occurred independently of human activity, implying that natural factors dominate climate change. The authors suggest that current warming trends are within natural variability and question the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions. They advocate for a broader, more skeptical reassessment of climate science that incorporates alternative explanations for observed temperature changes.
    
    In summary, the article disputes the IPCC’s conclusions, emphasizing natural climate drivers over human CO₂ emissions and calling for a reconsideration of climate policies based on these findings.
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:14am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Debunks all of the man-made claims? That’s a pretty strong statement, especially considering the article was published in a journal the stated aim of which is to “to publish … peer re-viewed scientific contributions, which contradict the often very unilateral climate hypotheses of the IPCC.” We should be sceptical of any publication that sets out to “prove” a particular point.
  https://scienceofclimatechange.org/
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:24am
- quarterpack
  
  Proof that you can find anything on the internet to suit your view.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:28am
- cmm
  
  Is adding “AI” to the description supposed to add credence to the article?
  
  AI doesn’t understand anything. All AI does is learn to look for patterns of bits and spits other bits out when it sees them.
  
  And no, I am not some Luddite. I first did some post-grad AI courses at university in 1984 and numerous refreshers since then and occasionally consult in the field in one of the specialised areas.
  
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  March 30, 2025 9:39am
  - JackRabbit
    
    So true.
    
    AI said…
    Ardern said…
    Hipkins said…
    Klaus Schwab said…
    
    If any of the above tools are saying something important, the opposite is usually true 99.9% of the time.
    
    AI is simply:
    (a) A programming platform/program.
    (b) Formulas and algorithms that the program uses to determine outcomes. The “operator”.
    (c) Supplied data, that the program processes. The “operand”.
    
    GIGO. Garbage In Garbage Out.
    The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
    
    Ask Alexa anything critical and it either lies, or does not reply.
    
    It takes less than 60 seconds to find that Alexa, or any AI is corrupt.
    
    Why would you trust an AI to write code, when it cannot be trusted on more important things?
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:05am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    In this case I suspect that the AI isn’t curating the science to achieve the “correct” result, because as you say, it isn’t smart enough!
    
    Wonder what it will do if asked to critically evaluate the costs and benefits of diversity?
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:20am
  - Yvette
    
    AI…
    The statement oversimplifies AI. While AI doesn’t “understand” like humans, it goes beyond basic pattern matching. Modern AI can analyze complex data, generate creative content, diagnose diseases, and solve problems in ways that mimic intuition.
    
    As for adding “AI” to an article, it depends on context. If AI genuinely enhances the content, mentioning it is valid; if it’s just a buzzword, skepticism is fair.
    
    Given the commenter’s AI background since 1984, their view may stem from experience with earlier AI models, which differ from today’s deep learning systems. While AI lacks consciousness, it’s reshaping industries and human interactions in profound ways—far beyond just “spitting out bits.”
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:31am
    - cmm
      
      “While AI doesn’t “understand” like humans, it goes beyond basic pattern matching. Modern AI can analyze complex data, generate creative content, diagnose diseases, and solve problems in ways that mimic intuition.”
      
      How do you know this? I’ll place my standard bet of 50 cents and a servo pie that you are in no position to make such assertions based on your own experiences and evaluation.
      
      No, AI cannot analyse anything because it does not understand it. Nor can it really create anything.
      
      All it does is mimics these activities through rather rudimentary pattern matching.
      
      However if you put together sufficiently large numbers of these rudimentary pattern matching blocks the output, it is astounding what can be accomplished.
      
      There are many challenges with AI. The biggest, IMHO, are:
      * It has no self-awareness and is unable to know the boundaries of its knowledge. Thus many of the ways we learn are not available to AI.
      * It learns extremely slowly. Thousands to millions of times slower than a person.
      * It does not scale well. A small increase in complexity leads to exponential increases in learning time.
      
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      March 30, 2025 11:30am
      - JerJer
        
        AI is also IP theft. You should never use AI which is on the internet and share anything with it that represents your IP. IP theft lawsuits are just starting and there will be many more in the pipeline. Our organisation turned off AI so no one can access it for this very reason (and a bunch of security concerns). All AI is is a renamed old technology for consultants to con you out of money with. It’s another another blockchain (yes remember BlockChain). AI is not new, so there will be successful projects as there always have been, but +90% of what you hear about AI is false.
        
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        March 30, 2025 12:02pm
  - JohnRidd
    
    “Is adding “AI” to the description supposed to add credence to the article?”
    
    That isn’t the point. This has been an experiment to see if AI can be successfully used to carry out a review of the literature. The human co authors say the paper was almost entirely written by Grok3. They did have to have some input as there are some things AI does not do well.
    The paper covers a wide range of areas relating to climate change. Of particular interest to me is that the paper states that changes in CO2 follow after changes in temperature. I have confirmed this myself. I downloaded the sea surface data from the Hadley Center, CO2 data from GML put the data into a spreadsheet, calculated the differences and plotted the graph. Hopefully the link below will work and you can see the graph. If you download it the quality is better. This is observational evidence that natural forces and not humans that are responsible for the change in atmospheric CO2. This is not a new discovery. It has been known for years. It completely destroys the rationale behind net zero.
    
    Another bit of evidence in the paper that nature and not humans is responsible for the changes in CO2 is that human emissions of CO2 (about 10 billion tonnes C per year=GtC/yr) are only about 4% of total emissions,(about 230 GtC/yr) .
    
    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sudv60iwobwzugpb9cu4g/Sea-Surface-change-in-Temp-Anom-and-change-in-CO2-growth-both-monthly-subtract.doc?rlkey=qezjq33olxia029dp8o3dsl4j&dl=0
    
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    March 30, 2025 10:54am
    - JackRabbit
      
      The human co authors say the paper was almost
      entirely written by Grok3. They did have to have some input as there are some things AI does not do well.
      
      An AI platform needs programming, including programming on how to learn and a hierarchy/priority of learning and of course data. Otherwise said AI is just a CPU(s), memory, and a blank ‘hard drive’.
      
      No AI can write something on it’s own without inputs. If that was the case Microsoft and Co would not be looking at Datacentres in NZ with a goal of 1GW of power demand. That’s a shit load of directives, programming, processing shit loads of data.
      
      If AI was indeed sentient, all you would need to do is tell it the 3 laws of robotics, and it would work it all out.
      
      While I agree that climate change is a hoax, you don’t need AI to verify that.
      
      But all arguments about AI are predominantly fruitless until those debating it, first define “intelligence” and “artificial intelligence”.
      
      Much of AI is being developed by people who defy the meaning of intelligence and many have questionable ethics and philosophy.
      
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      March 30, 2025 12:02pm
      - JohnRidd
        
        Hi JackRabbit.
        
        I agree with you entirely. LLMs have a long way to go before they are close to being intelligent or sentient. They are data processing tools and like all tools they can be used well or poorly. A hammer can be used to build a house or it can be used as a weapon.
        
        Given that what you said is true, I am still happy to describe the paper as being “written by Grok3” as a shorthand description of the process that created the paper.
        
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        March 30, 2025 1:23pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “Peer-reviewed AI analysis”
  
  I didn’t realise AI had human peers.
  I’ve met people with various levels of intelligence, but I have never met one with “artificial intelligence”.
  (misnomer)
  
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  March 30, 2025 10:01am
  - JackRabbit
    
    AI should be treated with same level of discernment as people.
    
    If you employ a coder on contract, to analyse and check your code, and in the process copies your code to his flash drive or sftp web server and uses it elsewhere you would (a) fire said coder, and (b) engage a barrister to sue the arse off said coder for theft of IP.
    
    But companies think nothing of allowing AI (or for that matter cloud service companies) to do exactly that. And said AI is owned and controlled by people. People who benefit from your copied or scraped data.
    
    How dumb is that?
    
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    March 30, 2025 12:12pm
  - Paulus
    
    Human Peers are only employed by the Unions, the Labour, Maori and Greens Parties.
    
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    March 30, 2025 3:38pm
- Ra Henare
  
  The interesting bit. Not explained.
  What was Grok asked.
  I notice that 3 people are noted as having guided Grok 3. Including the well known Climate change denier Professor Soon.
  
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  March 30, 2025 7:10pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    RH as climate alarmist dogma was not handed down by God to humans on stone tablets, there is no such thing as a climate (alarmism) “denier”. That is just rhetorical BS created by alarmist propagandists.
    
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    March 30, 2025 7:43pm
Damocles11

Chis Bishop is on Q&A just now saying that within 25 years Hamilton and Auckland will be “essentially the same city”. Apparently the regions “have to grow” i.e. more urban sprawl and more people. Bishop is apparently “an urbanist”.
Sorry, more people and more urban sprawl is a nightmare vision for New Zealand. I don’t believe the New Zealand people want it. We need political options which we can vote for to stop it.
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March 30, 2025 9:21am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  So what’s your answer? 15 minute cities? I listened to Bishop this morning, he is saying that is the state of what will happen in 25 years, he never suggested that’s what he is working on, he is stating facts.
  
  One thing I noticed, he never let that swine Tame push his nose in when answering, Bishop seems to have the ability to stymie vulgar journalists, I thought it was great when he said how come when Labour had a super majority you never asked Labour these questions, hold on him for pushing the corrupt media
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:19am
  - Damocles11
    
    I never said a word about ‘15 minute cities’. 🤦🏻‍♂️
    The answer is to stop importing huge numbers of people, obviously!
    If saying that in 25 years Hamilton – Auckland will be a joined up megacity is “stating a fact” then New Zealand is in huge trouble.
    
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    March 30, 2025 12:26pm
    - Mark Hanley
      
      As the ceo of gatwick airport told residents when they apposed the airport expansion in the late 90s, we either grow or we shrink….. you cannot stay the same.
      
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      March 30, 2025 1:47pm
    - Conservatarian
      
      Hamilton’s north-eastern suburbs have grown the fastest since I moved there 33 years ago. But they have expanded north no more than 5km in that time. At that rate *maybe* Hamilton and Ngaruawahia will be joined up by 2050.
      
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      March 30, 2025 4:47pm
- RoboRob
  
  Controversial….
  
  Personally, I am of the view that if we want to succeed NZ needs many more people. If we doubled our population suddenly costs like state highway maintenance become significantly smaller on a per person basis. We could have more supermarket chains (and competition), manufacturing would benefit from economies of scale, shipping costs would reduce etc.
  
  There are good reasons things are expensive here, one of them is a tiny population.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:19am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And I am of the view that doubling our population will double our problems, not halve them.
    
    To wit, we have doubled our population since the Second World War, and our relative standard of living has gone downhill. Lots of reasons for that, of course. But, we should ensure that any immigrants are the right sort of people (net contributors, fill in gaps in our economy, able to run exporting businesses); that they fit into our culture; and that the volume is not greater than our ability to absorb them.
    
    Still not sure how an Auckland-Hamilton conurbation can be considered a good thing, though.
    
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    March 30, 2025 1:10pm
    - Paulus
      
      We are already seeing that immigrants from Asia are now numerically superceding that of the so called Maori, and that will continue exponentially, as the birth rates will show it declining, so immigration is only answer.
      A FTA with India will cause a huge increase when it happens, as this is surely part of the overall strategy and agreement, and has been discussed openly for many years.
      20 years will show the population and social conditions arising from that once it occurs.
      It is changing already if you look around.
      
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      March 30, 2025 3:47pm
  - kowtow
    
    Yet some of the richest states in the world are both physically very small and relatively low in population.
    
    There are smarter ways of getting wealthy and staying wealthy than simply importing people .
    
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    March 30, 2025 2:17pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  This is what economists call a trifecta, where you can have only two of three desirables, because any two of them will make the other one worse.
  
  Avoiding urban sprawl; affordable housing; avoiding intensification, ie high rise blocks and less garden space in cities.
  
  You can have only two of these, at the expense of the other. Which one are you willing to sacrifice?
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:29am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Its called the impossible trinity
    
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    March 30, 2025 12:02pm
- cmm
  
  Of course politicians want growth. That’s the way their power increases.
  
  There are 4 choices:
  1) Stagnation. We don’t grow at all. (Or not significantly). In 100 years NZ is still just around 5M people and Auckland is less than 2M. The valuable people will continue to leave NZ.
  2) Build more cities in places which can grow easily (eg. Canterbury plains). Let Auckland max out at 2M and grow elsewhere.
  3) Increase city density. Slowly turn Auckland into thousands of apartments with lots of public transport.
  4) Grow outwards – ie. urban sprawl. No need for a central city. Have people move their lives out into these smaller centres.
  
  Auckland is fundamentally limited by its location on an isthmus. One of the worst places to choose for a major city.
  
  The age of the CBD is dead. We now have the internet and phone.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:39am
  - Damocles11
    
    ‘Stagnation – we don’t grow at all’.
    Unfortunately we now have people equating population growth with economic growth. 🤦🏻‍♂️
    Perhaps why this is kind of thinking is why we have a growing population….and falling productivity rates and GDP growth per capita.
    
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    March 30, 2025 12:28pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    4 lane Whangerei to Tauranga motorway would help
    
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    March 30, 2025 2:10pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Why?
      
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      March 30, 2025 7:13pm
- newview
  
  Agree D. If that were to happen it would take out all the fertile land that grows the vegetables and market garden produce for mainly Auckland. Those in power turn a blind eye to local authorities with no brain, that continually build over the best land we have so they can rate it. Hastings another good example with spreading suburbs over the Heretaunga plains. No real incentive to develop lesser land because of inconvenience and cost.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:39am
  - Damocles11
    
    Yes, it’s crazy. Our best horticultural land will be buried under concrete and asphalt, and the population growth mongers think that represents progress. 🤦🏻‍♂️
    
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    March 30, 2025 12:31pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    It’s urban use of horticultural land around Auckland is a total irrelevancy. NZ has huge amounts of land that can be used to grow the small quantities of veges we consume. Eg intensive irrigated dairying around Canterbury is creating enormous quantities of valuable horticultural land as it builds up top soil by 10mm/year over 20-30 years. And it’s better than Auckland because it is flat and allows larger tractors etc to be used for lower costs
    
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    March 30, 2025 2:13pm
    - newview
      
      Hardly irreverent NL. “The Pukekohe hub comprises 4,359 hectares of some of New Zealand’s most fertile and productive soils. Fruit and vegetable production contribute $1.2 billion to Auckland’s economy. The hub generates $327 million, which is 26% of NZ’s total domestic value of vegetable production.
      
      “From 2002 to 2016, vegetable-growing land across the country was reduced by 30%. Land like the hub faces increasing threats like urban sprawl. The future of the hub is important for Auckland. With a forgiving and temperate climate and proximity to essential transport routes, the hub is well-positioned to supply year-round vegetables to help feed Auckland’s growing demand for fresh food.”
      
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      March 30, 2025 4:21pm
    - rouppe
      
      NZ has huge amounts of land that can be used to grow the small quantities of veges we consume.
      
      You want us to become a subsistence economy?
      
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      March 30, 2025 4:48pm
  - Colville
    
    The Heretaunga plains grows a couple of billion apples and not much else. The only impact if it was all paved over, all 30,000 Ha of it is that those apples would be grown elsewhere in New Zealand.
    
    Hawkes Bay needs approx 8000 houses today just to catch up on the population growth it has missed out on over the last 20 years due to incompetent council planning.
    
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    March 30, 2025 2:26pm
    - newview
      
      Plenty of hills around Hastings to build those houses on Colville. That apple industry relies on the cold storage and port at Napier. It’s stupidity to build houses over beautiful fertile land. A large employer with a crop worth 450 million. Don’t come at me about cheap labour. I’m talking about the port packing sheds and the industrial park at Whakatu.
      
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      March 30, 2025 4:35pm
- pdm
  
  They have been saying that about Hastings and Napier for years.
  
  It won’t happen in my lifetime.
  
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  March 30, 2025 1:21pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Yeah, but
    
    3 0
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    March 30, 2025 1:45pm
sirknz

Sure, let’s bring in people who have not paid into the system and give them all the benefits of being a citizen, right at the point where their healthcare costs are going to increase.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360619857/have-mercy-grandparents-plea-after-10-year-struggle-join-only-child-nz

There doesn’t appear to be any opposing view, just boo hoo hoo.
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March 30, 2025 9:32am
- Damocles11
  
  Mug taxpayers will support them, in the name of ‘kindness’ and ‘empathy’.
  Socialist Banana non-Republic of Te Tiriti led Aotearoa, a wokesters paradise.
  
  11 1
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  March 30, 2025 12:32pm
- PurplePen
  
  Exactly. “I just don’t know how to explain to the kids why their grandparents can’t stay here”.
  
  Boo hoo. You’re the one that left your parents in Argentina. You’re the one that instead of returning to Argentina, decided to stay here and have children. The obligation is on you not NZ if you had any thought at all about maintaining a connection with your children’s grandparents. There is nothing stopping you returning home to Argentina BTW. And maybe your parents should have had more children or not let the only child they have leave them.
  
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  March 30, 2025 12:36pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Harsh!
    
    But fair.
    
    7 0
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    March 30, 2025 1:13pm
- Colville
  
  Yip reading it made me angry.
  
  A couple earning less than the minimum needed to support the parents has rightfully failed to be allowed to apply. Minister has no discretion as its never reached that level, failed at the first hurdle.
  
  Yet Stuffed reports it as a tear jerker.
  
  Die MSM die!*
  
  *credit to the originator of that saying.
  
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  March 30, 2025 2:31pm
- Eastlander
  
  We ought to emulate the Gulf monarchies and admit the vast majority of migrants only as temporary workers who cannot become citizens.
  
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  March 30, 2025 5:24pm
rjay

How good is AI?
Ask Chat this question:
Mary has one brother and two sisters. How many sisters does Mary’s brother have?
Tell us what answer you get.
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March 30, 2025 9:59am
- Hard Cheese
  
  Grok gets it right first time, as does DeepSeek. The convoluted reasoning DeepSeek outputs is both fascinating and hilarious, it has a schizophrenic conversation with itself double checking its answer.
  
  Claude gets it wrong first up, but asking it to try again gives the right result. ChatGPT 4 mini is hopeless, it gets the answer wrong 4 or 5 times but eventually gets there with enough prompting.
  
  6 1
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  March 30, 2025 10:56am
- Max Mansplain
  
  I asked gemini and copilot.. both said 2… When I questioned further they realised there were 3 girls in the family but the brother.. “couldn’t count herself”.. seriously
  
  6 0
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  March 30, 2025 11:02am
- RoboRob
  
  Copilot..
  
  Mary’s brother has two sisters—Mary and her other sister. Simple and sweet math!
  
  If you ask it why, the reason for the wrong answer is clear.
  
  Sure! Here’s the reasoning step-by-step:
  
  The question tells us that Mary has one brother and two sisters.
  
  Among these siblings, Mary herself is one of the two sisters.
  
  Therefore, Mary’s brother has two sisters: Mary and her other sister.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:25am
- PeeJay
  
  Did this for fun.
  Google Gemini says two sisters, Copilot says two sisters and ChatGPT says one sister.
  Think we’re safe for a little bit yet.
  
  8 0
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  March 30, 2025 11:43am
- JackRabbit
  
  Just ask it who killed JFK, or which human created the Covid-19 virus. It is incapable of answering accurately and truthfully.
  
  Better yet, ask for list of all the good things Ardern did for NZ, and a list of all the bad things she did.
  
  6 2
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  March 30, 2025 12:18pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Short answer on DeepSeek;
  “Mary is one of three sisters (herself and two others) and has one brother. The brother’s sisters include Mary and her two sisters.
  
  Answer: Mary’s brother has 3 sisters.”
  
  Long answer on DeepSeek;
  
  “Okay, so Mary has one brother and two sisters. The question is asking how many sisters Mary’s brother has. Hmm, let’s break this down step by step.
  First, let’s figure out the family structure. Mary is a girl, and she has one brother. So, that brother is Mary’s sibling. Then, Mary also has two sisters. So, in total, how many siblings are there? Let’s see. Mary, her brother, and two sisters. That makes four siblings total: Mary, 1 brother, and 2 sisters. Wait, but is that correct?
  Wait, hold on. If Mary has two sisters, those sisters are also siblings of Mary’s brother, right? So, Mary’s brother would have Mary as a sister, plus the two sisters Mary has. So, that would be three sisters in total for the brother. But let me make sure I’m not missing anything here.
  Let me visualize the family. Let’s say the siblings are Mary, her brother (let’s call him Tom for clarity), and Mary’s two sisters (let’s name them Anna and Lisa). So, the siblings are Mary, Tom, Anna, and Lisa. So, from Mary’s perspective, she has one brother (Tom) and two sisters (Anna and Lisa). Now, from Tom’s perspective, his siblings are Mary, Anna, and Lisa. All three are his sisters. So, Tom has three sisters. Therefore, the answer should be three.
  Wait, but let me check if there’s any trick here. Sometimes these problems might try to trip you up by making you forget to count Mary herself. So, the key is that Mary is a sister to her brother. So, when the question asks how many sisters Mary’s brother has, it’s Mary plus her two sisters, totaling three.
  Alternatively, maybe there’s a different interpretation. Suppose the family has Mary, her brother, and two other sisters. But if Mary is a girl, her sisters would be the same as her brother’s sisters. So, unless there’s some half-sibling situation or stepsiblings, but the problem doesn’t mention anything like that. So, we can assume all siblings are biological and share both parents.
  Therefore, the brother’s sisters would be Mary and the two other sisters, so three in total.
  But wait, let me think again. If Mary has two sisters, that means in the family there are three girls: Mary, sister 1, sister 2. And one boy: the brother. So, the brother has three sisters. Yes, that’s correct. So the answer is three.
  But sometimes people might make a mistake by thinking that Mary’s brother’s sisters would exclude Mary herself, but no, because Mary is a sister to her brother. So, each sister is a sister to all her siblings of the opposite gender. So, the brother has three sisters: Mary and the two others.
  Therefore, the answer should be three. Let me just confirm once more. If Mary has one brother and two sisters, then the brother has two sisters plus Mary, making three. Yes. That’s right. So, the brother has three sisters.
  I think that’s solid. I don’t see any other angles here. Unless there’s a step or half-sibling thing, but the problem doesn’t indicate that. So, straightforward answer is three.”
  
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  March 30, 2025 5:12pm
pb

Fast Track, whilst well intentioned, is like lipstick on a fat sweaty pig. The underlying laws and corrupt stiff necked consultants still swarm like sandflies. Angry desperate sandflies. Until the RMA, the Bio-dei-versity and sacrifices to Rongo are stricken from the record, keep your expectations low.
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March 30, 2025 10:09am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  I agree. Fast Track doesn’t address the deep-seated institutional problems in this country.
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:40am
- Colville
  
  Fast Track is a banner policy where they allowed 149 (?) projects (2A list) thru that had mainly been stalled due to issues that needed Ministerial override.
  Lots of great projects (approx 200) got onto the 2B list which didnt happen due to capacity constraints.
  How shit is that …housing and infrastructure projects that cant go ahead because we dont have enough experts to review and consent them.
  
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  March 30, 2025 2:37pm
pb

America putting removed statues back. Presidential order signed overnight.

Yesterday KB had an article on a proto-marxist-iconoclast trying to remove a statue in Dunedin, because, reasons. I can’t wait for a bigger brassier horse riding Robert E Lee to rise again like the Phoenix.

I read about the Phoenix yesterday in Herodotus. An Egyptian story. A large red and gold eagle that lives for 500 years, bursts into flame, and from the ashes a new Phoenix arises.
6 2
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March 30, 2025 10:23am
- Jake Dee
  
  I have no idea why you think the anonymous person trying to remove the sculpture (not a statue) was a “proto-marxist-iconoclast”.
  The only information we have about here is that she claims she was sexually assaulted by John Middleditch when she was a child. A claim that I asses as most likely to be true as John Middleditch was convicted of multiple sexual assaults on minors and what would be her motivation for lying? She can’t be anonymous and after publicity and there is no compensation money on offer. her reasons were clearly stated, she doesn’t want the work of her attacker on public display and wants his crimes publicly known.
  The only politics here is being injected by you.
  
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  March 30, 2025 5:23pm
Yvette

À propos, “Art and the artist are seperate” DPF yesterday 3:00
Creativity is the freedom to make mistakes –
art is knowing which ones to keep
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March 30, 2025 10:23am
slightlyrighty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS0pDwPkR60

The other side of TDS.
4 3
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March 30, 2025 10:25am
AndyW

Hey, there have been two posts exposing the [Mod – deleted] a current MP that have mysteriously vanished! What’s up? Winston’s happy to publicise them…why not Kiwiblog?

[Mod – these are serious accusations that are being made, until they are verified our job is to protect this blog]
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March 30, 2025 11:00am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  I seem to recall that many of the current allegations and insinuations about said MP were around when they first became an actual MP. Interesting…
  
  For my part, I believe a fuller figured wahine who enjoys pole dancing, would make for splendid representation in aotearoa’s future parliament!
  
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  March 30, 2025 11:51am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    P.S. and thank you mod for acknowledging the seriousness of the accusations.
    
    It seems that some of said MP’s social media supporters can’t fathom what could possibly be wrong…
    
    15 1
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    March 30, 2025 12:24pm
  - pdm
    
    Suze I don’t worry about Aotearoas Parliament.
    
    However, I do worry about the appalling dress and other standards I have been seeing in New Zealand’s Parliament since the `Despicable’ Mallard promoted lowering of dress and other codes within it’s precincts.
    
    14 1
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    March 30, 2025 1:26pm
  - Paulus
    
    Well its OK in Aotearoa, wherever that is, but not in New Zealand !
    
    6 0
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    March 30, 2025 3:52pm
- AndyW
  
  Fair call.
  
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  March 30, 2025 12:24pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Shame. It was such a promising thread.
  
  8 0
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  March 30, 2025 1:19pm
  - pdm
    
    Promising?
    
    Enlightening for this country boy.
    
    8 0
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    March 30, 2025 2:41pm
spanish_tudor

[See the reply to AndyW @11.00. mod.]

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/03/general_debate_30_march_2025.html#comment-3699896
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March 30, 2025 12:34pm
Chuck Bird

Chris is sticking up for children being abused by puberty blockers.

Billboard Chris speaks out after being forcibly removed by police in Brisbane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPUXVlKS7dU
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March 30, 2025 1:38pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Another colossal waste of money in the offing. The Golden Mile is to be turned into another bike lane, and feature layabout spaces for derelicts.

Before the anti Wellington brigade piles on, may I thank you for your 51% funding contribution channeled through the vanguard of the cycling fraternity, NZTA.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/03/29/wellingtons-golden-mile-project-main-work-planned-to-start-next-year/
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March 30, 2025 1:44pm
- pb
  
  Cycling track advocates are hard core communists, milking the system. The green lanes, concrete helmet-splitting dividers, and spandex swarms are designed to be a stab in your eye. They represent communism applied. They are taking your money and laughing at us all, with their weak propaganda billboards painted on the streets.
  
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  March 30, 2025 4:59pm
Jack5

Elon Musk’s business empire – a 22 minute video critique.

It’s by Patrick Boyle, fund manager and Internet finance guru. No matter what you think of Musk, Boyle’s statements and figures are relevant.

A taste: “Tesla’s been dead money for investors for some time.”

Boyle also suggests Musk companies have benefited by $US38 billion from US Govternment contracts, loans, subsidies ….

https://youtu.be/AT7x31Jm9go?si=XhnNYVtkVjBwWOv1

And Boyle’s background:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=who+is+patrick+boyle+Youtube+commentator%3F&atb=v393-1&ia=web
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March 30, 2025 1:54pm
- NothingLeft
  
  For my money Tesla is hugely overvalued if you look at it as a car business, P/E >100 is insane. The Self driving thing is still years is still years from viability, they need to eliminate about 999 out of every 1000 current disengagements and have recently plateaued in development – no significant gains in a year. They will need 10-100x faster computer in car and perhaps an AI breakthrough to work, though I’m pretty certain it will pan out within 5 years.
  
  But it is possible that they will take a big section of robot market which will be 10x car market in 10 years. In which case maybe their valuation as a growth stock is justified.
  
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  March 30, 2025 2:20pm
  - bennerg
    
    Tesla (the car company) is but the first step in the journey. Elon basically refers to the Tesla cars a robots, and humanoid (and other forms) will simply be a rework of the same underlying technology. And each will feed back into each other.
    
    Same with the battery technology used already in Home solar installs with Tesla powerwall units.
    
    I guess you go with the flow and see where it takes you.
    
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    March 30, 2025 6:29pm
- Fender
  
  Smart guy then find a hole that govt wants and make easy money , I’m guessing Alot of it is space related
  As long as its all above board then good luck to him
  Whether you want tesla shares is entirely your decision and at your risk
  
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  March 30, 2025 3:23pm
- pb
  
  How many billions has Patrick Boyle made? How many engineering miracles has he achieved? Gnat.
  
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  March 30, 2025 5:01pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360633692/myanmar-monks-watch-disbelief-building-collapses-near-monastery
There is something a bit odd here: monks who reportedly eschew worldly things in favour of a simple life are in fact running around with smartphones ?
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March 30, 2025 7:55pm

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