About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

April 19, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 April 2025

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment156

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (156)

Login to comment or vote

Maggy Wassilieff

Is Auckland University coming to its senses?

As Auckland University continues down the path of transforming itself into a seminary for Māori nationalists and others with “progressive left” views, it is perhaps inevitable that it would try to force fashionable views about sex onto academic staff members.

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/04/graham-adams-university-backs-down-in.html
32 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:08am
- Souvlaki
  
  I’ll believe it maybe IF the compulsory Maori paper is binned Maggy!
  
  42 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:15am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  To Professor Rata’s surprise, last week Cathy Stinear, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Equity), “unreservedly” apologised to her for the Equity Office “providing advice that led to interference in your academic practices”.
  
  ————————————————
  
  Professor Stinear’s card will be marked by the mob as requiring re-education.
  
  28 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:27am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  What is important is that one of the sexes is “women”, and that people of sexes other than women can and should be excluded from those spaces and services that are reserved for women.
  
  As such it’s not particularly helpful to insist that there’s only two sexes. That means you’re defining “woman” as “everybody who’s not a man”.
  
  Allowing people to define themselves as something other than a man without that automatically making them a woman, would actually make it easier to keep women’s spaces reserved for women.
  
  7 13
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:29am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Sex vs gender. Don’t confuse the two.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:17am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      I’m not confusing, I’m conflating.
      
      Under the approach I’m exploring here, the term the term “women” applies only to those who both (a) have the physiological characteristics of women, ie ova-producing capacity (women by sex), and (b) identify as women (women by gender).
      
      Thus, men can’t put on a frock and invade women’s changing rooms, because they don’t meet criterion (a), and trans men don’t have to go into women’s changing rooms where they don’t want to be and aren’t welcome, because they don’t meet criterion (b).
      
      Why would you want otherwise?
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 12:37pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That means you’re defining “woman” as “everybody who’s not a man”.
    
    Not at all…
    
    The definition of woman is dependent upon the very nature of sex.
    
    A woman is defined by her sex… i.e. she belongs to that subset of human beings that has/had the potential to produce ova.
    
    30 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:39am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Trans men fit that definition.
      
      What, specifically, is gained, and by whom, by forcing them to remain in the category of “women” for those few limited purposes where it matters whether you’re a woman? What is lost, and by whom, by agreeing that they’re not women, even if they’re not be-penised and so not actual men either?
      
      Agreeing that there’s three, or twenty, different sexes doesn’t make any difference to the only matter of real-world, practical impact here: That people who are not women, don’t get access to women’s spaces and women’s services. That remains the case whether there are one, or two, or nineteen sub-sets within the not-women set.
      
      7 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 9:56am
      - Taieri
        
        Trans men fit that definition
        ———–
        
        Whatever they prefer to call themselves doesn’t change the fact that they are WOMEN.
        
        9 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:10am
      - R
        
        Dudley, any person who claims to be other than their biological sex, are called queers; and are in need of phsycological help
        
        12 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:22am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Whatever they prefer to call themselves doesn’t change the fact that they are WOMEN
        
        But again – where is the value, where is the benefit, in forcing them into spaces where they don’t want to be, and where women don’t want them?
        
        4 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 12:31pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Dudley, any person who claims to be other than their biological sex, are called queers; and are in need of psychological help
        
        And would the rude and inaccurate name-calling be part of that psychological help?
        
        2 3
        Report
        April 19, 2025 12:40pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        What is lost, and by whom, by agreeing that they’re not women,
        
        As this sad case illustrates: lives may be lost if a pregnant trans man arrives at hospital in a state where the medicos don’t recognize a baby is imminent.
        https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/5/16/pregnant-trans-mans-misdiagnosis-leads-stillbirth
        
        And as the recent law case illustrated, legal trans men might not qualify for medical care such as checks for cervical/ovarian cancers; or treatment of endometriosis, menopausal symptoms; uterine prolapse; miscarriages, PCOS, etc.
        
        8 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 1:14pm
      - Taieri
        
        As this sad case illustrates: lives may be lost if a pregnant trans man arrives at hospital in a state where the medicos don’t recognize a baby is imminent.
        ————-
        
        You can’t have the cake and eat it too…
        
        5 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 1:19pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        legal trans men might not qualify for medical care such as checks for cervical/ovarian cancers; or treatment of endometriosis, menopausal symptoms; uterine prolapse; miscarriages, PCOS, etc
        
        And how does insisting that there’s only two genders, and a person can’t be anything else, help with that?
        
        0 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 3:25pm
  - Countrygirl
    
    Does anyone remember “hermaphrodite”?
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:52pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Is that some kind of strong glue that takes a while to cure?
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 6:22pm
- Swifty
  
  So refreshing.
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:41am
- kowtow
  
  It’s more than a bit of a worry that these universities have set up their own versions of the Inquisition .
  
  Auckland with this “Equity Office” , so chillingly Orwellian.
  
  Ivy league do it too, perhaps all “top” universities and “educators” are into it.
  
  “But behind closed doors, the university’s Office of Institutional Equity, a new bureaucracy supposedly set up to address campus antisemitism, is targeting me for expressing my Catholic faith.
  
  I recently received an email from the OIE accusing me of “conduct that could constitute discriminatory harassment.”
  
  https://nypost.com/2025/04/17/opinion/columbias-antisemitism-squad-comes-down-hard-on-catholics/
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:21am
  - R
    
    Kowtow, be assured that activists never give up; they believe that they have a calling to educate us uninformed unbelievers
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:26am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Next time Auckland Uni pleads poverty, the Minister of Education should ask them why they need an “Equity Office”. Which of course she won’t do, as she believes in “equidy”.
  
  An “Equity Office” might as well be called a “Stasi”. They don’t need to actively recruit spies, as there are already legions of woke students out there who will righteously denounce any lecturer who, in an unguarded moment, lets slip a comment about “two sexes” or “less advanced cultures”.
  
  I’m very glad there is an organized cell of resistance at Auckland Uni, and that Elizabeth Rata and her colleagues had the strength to stand their ground and defend the integrity of their profession. But the sobering fact is that she and her named supporters are all late-career academics. Their early-career colleagues either support wokeism, or else are too fearful to oppose it.
  
  20 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:53am
  - R
    
    Min of Ed….of course she won’t; well certainly not at the moment PP II as, she is fully occupied cleaning up the education mess that Hopkins left
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:30am
- PurplePen
  
  I thought I’d have a look at the AU Equity Office’s website .. I couldn’t see how they would have scope to interfere as they did. Well they do .. in everything. But this from their website pricked my funny bone .. Who knew the alphabet soup had grown so large. Madness.
  
  “Support for Maori and Pacific staff, staff with disabilities, LGBTQITakatāpuiMVPFAFF+ students and staff, carers, working parents, and mature age staff.”
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 12:16pm
- surfing
  
  It is f***ing outrageous that Auckland university forces first years to study maori .
  
  I can’t believe it is allowed, and is evidence the nation is being flushed down the toilet.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 2:16pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    If you want to help unf*** the nation, financially donate to Hobson’s Pledge, The Free Speech Union and The Taxpayer’s Union.
    
    Oh and vote for the anti-woke parties like NZF or ACT.
    
    1 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 5:23pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Did anyone else notice that Māori nationalism and progressive leftism are direct contradictions?
  Traditional Māori systems of governance are hierarchical and based on seniority and bloodlines (the ancestors). All of that is a direct contradiction to progressive leftism.
  Now they are somewhat in alliance as they are both against the Western European Civilization project, they are both feeding off the chunks of power they can tear out of it, but eventually they will have to fight it out.
  The pattern is the same around the world.
  Lesbians and Trans, American Blacks and Latinos fight like cats and dogs once they are after the same slice of the pie.
  Are the Iwi going to cut off a slice of their tribal lands and social welfare payments and give it to the Rainbow people?
  Hell no.
  Queer whanau are entitled to a share of tribal revenues because they are tribal not because they are queer.
  Sooner or later that contradiction will be sorted out, one way or another.
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 5:55pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Tinkering at the edges with these fully infested clown institutions won’t help. Only the Milei/Trump/Bukele style nuclear option will work.
  
  1 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 21, 2025 1:23pm
Souvlaki

This article below I found ‘ disturbing’, as an Aucklander. Given the success of the Urerewa’s, ( and Aucklands volcanic cones to a lesser degree)…what could POSSIBLY go wrong if this proposal were enacted??
Meanwhile, the latter day [Mod – use correct names]’is globetrotting again while his country burns!

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/04/fiona-mackenzie-co-governance-bites-in.html?m=1
13 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:11am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the article:
  
  (Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Act 2015) Section 9: The Crown acknowledges that when it purchased a large amount of land in the Waitākere region between 1853 and 1856 it failed to actively protect Te Kawerau ā Maki by ensuring adequate lands were reserved from the purchase and thereafter protected from alienation and this was in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and its (undefined-Ed) principles.
  
  ——————————————
  
  How is it that current legislators think that Maori should have been treated as children, back when they decided to sell their land? Frankly, that’s insulting to the old time Maori.
  
  Even so, Te Kawerau ā Maki have now been compensated. They therefore have no claim to this block of land.
  
  Tell ‘em to take their Deed of Acknowledgement and shove it.
  
  33 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:38am
  - kowtow
    
    nmtb
    
    Ah but the South Island crowd are now going to court for water , after their fifth “full and final” .
    
    This will never end.
    
    The Deep State actively at work to entrench race priveliges , contrary to the principles of democracy.
    
    ‘Thursday marked the penultimate day of an eight-week trial in which South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu seeks declarations from the High Court, including that it has rangatiratanga (chiefly authority) over wai māori (freshwater) in its takiwā (territory).
    
    In closing submissions before Justice Melanie Harland, Chris Finlayson KC accused the Crown of running an “almost entirely negative” case, and being unnecessarily adversarial.’
    
    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/04/gloves-come-off-in-ngai-tahu-water-case/
    
    18 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:31am
- pdm
  
  I sent in a submission a couple of days ago opposing co governance of the Waitakeres’ or anywhere else for that matter – even though I live in Hastings.
  
  Because if we sit back it will happen by stealth. Especially the way National and PM Luxon seem to be encouraging it.
  
  Complicit in their silence and inaction.
  
  30 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:53am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Yes. This fits Luxon’s vision for Aotearoa perfectly. He is opposed to co-governance of public services. This isn’t services.
    Time to roll Luxon. On the big important issues he is a woke lefty.
    
    19 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:19am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Roll Luxon and see Labour greens and TPM with the huge damage they would come
      
      3 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 1:37pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  But this can’t possibly be true. Didn’t Mark Hanley say that Mr. Luxon’s National-led government had stopped the co-governance train?
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:30am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They have, there is no co-governance in any public service, they are now going about getting every mention of the treaty out of law.
    
    Oh well, let’s usher in Labour, greens and TPM in, then see how much of a sceptic you become
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:39pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Which party does C Finlayson hail from?
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 6:26pm
- Countrygirl
  
  Some land was even gifted to the public by past owners.
  
  The problem is, when Europeans gift something, ownership is generally passed on. When Maori gift something they are prone to changing their minds, even hundreds of years later.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 4:10pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Obviously there are various cases but I think that in the Bastion Point land dispute of the 1970 the Maori were in the right.
    Tribal land is inalienable, it may be used for public benefit but not sold for private use.
    A military base is for public benefit, once that was no longer needed it should revert to tribal control.
    If the terms of the gift are violated the gift is void.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 6:12pm
Cassandra

“It is economics, not ethics, that will ultimately determine whether Trump succeeds or fails. He was elected to make America richer; his protectionist escapades are making it poorer. For the sake of the West he was meant to rescue from terminal decline, it’s time for an urgent course correction.”

This is by a columnist in The Telegraph who is generally supportive of much of what Trump has achieved: dramatically reduced illegal immigration, into the US. His war on woke and DEI has been successful. He is now turning against universities such as Harvard and is deploying civil rights law to impose colour-blind policies on institutions that spent years engaging in disgraceful anti-white and anti-Asian discrimination.

He is cracking down on the scourge of anti-Semitism. He is seeking to deport green card holders who support Hamas. Some mistakes are being made, but the overall direction of travel is excellent.

He has ditched net zero, arguing that market forces and technology, not central planners, should determine energy policy. Elon Musk has eviscerated the useless Department of Education, and the foreign aid budget, used to fund Left-wing NGOs globally, has been gutted.

But it’ll all come unstuck if voters don’t feel better off. It’s still “the economy, stupid”. Growth is reducing, a recession is possible, the midterms are 18 months away. 4D chess is starting to look like the gunfight at OK, with Trump more Ike Clanton than Wyatt Earp. For the sake of all of us let’s hope that it really is chess.
18 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:13am
- Mike
  
  It’s not chess.
  
  3 10
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:07am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  What data supports the assertion that illegal immigration has been dramatically reduced?
  
  4 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 12:44pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The boarder has virtually dropped the river of filth arriving to a handful
    
    5 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:40pm
  - Allan
    
    The statements on the huge decrease put out by the stakeholders in reducing the boarder flow.
    
    Also that the Biden open boarders plan isn’t being trumpted as still an ongoing success by Democrats.
    
    But you already know that and are just being mischevious.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 4:41pm
rouppe

What’s with this talk of a snap election? I’ve seen two stories of opposition parties preparing in case there’s a snap election.

Why on earth would the coalition do that?
20 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:16am
- Ghost
  
  Politik reporting that Winston is preparing for an election this year.
  
  https://www.politik.co.nz/why-peters-has-stepped-up-his-undermining-of-luxon/
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:01am
  - rouppe
    
    ~~Politik~~ Richard Harman reporting that Winston is preparing for an election this year.
    
    Therefore one has to enquire as to Richard Harman’s politics.
    
    From Wikipedia
    
    Harman studied English, Architecture, and Economics at Auckland University, but was as heavily involved in student journalism and politics as with study.
    
    Ah. OK.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 10:33am
    - JJ56
      
      So what, so was I.
      
      But just for a bit of balance see what Politik had to say about Peters’ and Luxon’s recent friction over Trump and trade:
      
      “What is clear ….. is that it is no longer possible to rely on the US for security or trade.
      
      “Someone needs to tell Winston Peters.”
      
      4 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 11:40am
      - rouppe
        
        I went to a student union meeting once at waikato University in the 80’s.
        
        It was such a loaded and one sided occasion I never went back.
        
        They also brought down hellfire onto the student halls where I was living that year by virtue of their anti tour activities.
        
        You were active in student politics? Same reaction.
        
        5 1
        Report
        April 19, 2025 12:53pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        From what I read into what Peter’s said has been twisted while he was off shore, all he said it’s wise for all MPs to be careful with their language, hardly a split, or a division, or a falling out at all
        
        4 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 1:49pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That was bullshit though, Peter’s had always said when Seymour becomes dep pm he would be working on the next election, he has mentioned it will be an early election, he will be working on getting his party up to 7%
    
    Any party shutting down the coalition early will be severely hammered, the more the party’s ignore this, the more legs it has, if they do not calm this out as bullshit straight after Easter then the filthy media will have won.
    
    It also is worth considering it’s only stuff spouting this shit, if there was any truth to it they would be all over it
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:45pm
- pdm
  
  rouppe.
  
  Jenna Lynch at Stuff has decreed there will be a snap election before Christmas.
  
  She knows about these things – you know.
  She has contacts – you know.
  She is always right – you know.
  
  So if Jenna Lynch says there is going to be a snap election before Christmas you had better believe her.
  
  Then again all here could say – BULLSHIT TO THAT JENNA.
  
  31 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:11am
  - john1234
    
    This would be the Jenna Lynch that drips contempt for right of centre politics on a daily basis.
    Just another biased media shill.
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:28am
    - Paulus
      
      Is she still around – I thought she had gone to maternity seed !
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 11:25am
      - R
        
        She has certainly gone to seed. Time that she is deported
        
        10 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:39am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        She waffles away on stuff, note this bullshit has only ever been mentioned by stuff, and the filthy Labour Party
        
        5 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 1:51pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, she said it was leaked from an NZF MP, it has not, they have twisted something Peter’s said they was nothing to do with an early election
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:47pm
- Gravelroad
  
  The political left know that they can start up a whispering campaign via their msm enablers – who just love a conspiracy drama – with no consequences to them.
  Sow the seeds of the need for a snap election and the media will be onside immediately.
  Float the idea often enough and it might happen.
  With Mr Peters due to step down as deputy PM and Mr Seymour apparently going to be elevated to that position, Mr Luxon needs to have his leadership skills fully on display.
  An ideal time for the opposition to undermine the stability of governance.
  
  19 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:13am
  - pdm
    
    Gravel – there is no apparently in David Seymour being Deputy PM from 31 May 2025.
    
    It is in the Coalition agreement as I understand it.
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:29am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Not doubting that pdm, but, politics being what it is,
      there are usually no guarantees…..
      All I am saying is that Mr Luxon will need to be on his game to lead this change, otherwise the opposition and msm will use it to undermine the coalition government – and are already floating the idea for a snap election…….
      
      8 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 9:56am
      - pdm
        
        Mr Luxon seems to waver from day to day on issue after issue.
        
        Especially if it needs a bit of step up and say it as it should be said sort of stuff.
        
        Mr Luxon my message is this – appeasing everyone on the left is not what we voted for in October 2023!!!
        
        13 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 10:42am
      - Paulus
        
        The media will continue to do everything they can to undermine the elected Coalition irrespective of what it is.
        
        9 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:26am
      - R
        
        Haven’t the opposition and msm been actively trying to undermine the first competent government in six years
        
        9 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:41am
      - Countrygirl
        
        All I can say is that Winston has done a good job so far of regaining his credibility. It would be a shame for him to reject that image now.
        
        5 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 2:00pm
- mandk
  
  Could it be that there is not much else to report on at the moment, so stuff gets made up and presented as news?
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:52am
  - Paulus
    
    Normal media !
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:27am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No, the dirty filthy media wait until Luxon and Peter’s are over seas, then make up bullshit when they can’t call it out, by god I hope all 3 parties come together after Easter and call the bullshit from media and Labour out and tell the mongrels they have a long wait
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:54pm
- sungsamning
  
  Just some ‘journalist’ interviewing their PC.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 10:28am
- Paulus
  
  Cos it what the so called scum media want as they want to continue to desecrate what ever the elected Coalition do.
  Remember any crap in the papers will get them still in a job – it is their jobs to sell, even if it a pack of lies, as is often apparent.
  
  7 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 11:24am
Chuck Bird

I was disapointed to hear Peter Dutton’s response when asked about the HC ruling in the UK about what is a woman. He did not say it was common sense and a correct decision. Instead, he said it was half a world away and there were much more important things in the election. He was a lot like Luxon and trying not to offend anyone.
28 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:22am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the article linked to above by Maggy; should be mandatory reading for the Confused.
  
  “The division of humans and other mammals into two sexes, female and male, derives from the fact that each individual is created by the union of a sperm and an egg. On the basis of the type of germ cell (gamete) that reproducing individuals are able to produce, there are only two sex categories in mammals. (Intersex is not a third category with respect to the type of gamete individuals can produce.)
  
  “Biological sex is defined by reference to gametes. There are only two types of gametes in humans and millions of other animals… Every sexually reproducing species produces two distinct types of gamete, which are either large (eggs in animals, ovules in plants) or small (sperm in animals, pollen in plants). There are no ‘speggs’ or ‘pollules’ (gametes of intermediate size)… All there is are two reproductive strategies based on two distinct categories of gametes that fuse to make offspring…”.
  
  21 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 8:41am
- MCōs
  
  The judgement ran to eighty eight pages, I believe. So while he might agree or mightn’t agree with the bit you want him to there’s probably fishhooks in there too that could catch him out later that you don’t have to worry about
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:03am
  - Ghost
    
    He’s busy dealing with an election where this stuff doesn’t play much when people are concerned about the cost of living, medical care, immigration, electricity, cost of housing and home ownership, taxes, foreign affairs and defence. Sir what’s a woman, asking for the Chinese war ships cruising around our waters who want to know……..
    
    8 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:24am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      Are you a woman?
      
      1 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 2:09pm
      - Ghost
        
        Feel free to prove that this is an issue people care about in this election
        
        Hint, all the polling shows what I listed above are the important issues Australians are going to the polls over.
        
        Sir can you tell me what a woman is, asking for the Russians who are trying to set up a military base at Papua
        
        There are far more important issues that Australia has to deal with than what you think is important. China, Russia, the economy, immigration, cost of living, health. No one gives a fuck about a stupid question like what is a woman. If you don’t know by now go online and google for porn, you might learn something
        
        4 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 2:34pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Ghost, have you heard of Danica De Giorgio and what she had to say on the issue?
        
        0 2
        Report
        April 19, 2025 3:42pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  My take on Dutton re this is he’s just saying the whole issue is a distraction.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:28pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Recent Cyclone Alfred stripped the sand away from Gold Coast beaches. The Aussies are busy pumping the sand back to restore them.

Imagine a similar scenario in NZ? Nope, me neither. The process would be bogged down by RMA and other Council red tape; a handful of locals would band together under a pompous name to protest, while grifters from the local iwi would demand koha.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/04/18/gold-coast-races-to-rebuild-beaches-but-full-fix-still-months-away/
25 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:22am
- G152
  
  Let me imagine the scene.
  Big storm, tidal surges, beach washed away.
  Got to be global warming
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:35am
  - R
    
    Apparently we never had big storms prior to the establishment of the environmental movement. Strange but I seem to remember being battered by gales and steady rain as I walked home from school in the late 1940’s
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:47am
- MCōs
  
  The sand on Oriental Bay, Wellington is replenished on a regular basis
  About ten years ago there was a major enlargement of the beach with sand brought over from Golden Bay
  That bay gets battered by the regular bad weather, but you can’t beat it on a good day!
  https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2021/11/oriental-bays-biannual-sand-shift-explained
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 10:23am
  - JJ56
    
    My understanding, passed down by mouth over the generations, was that the original sand was ballast from ships coming to set up the colony progressively added to over time with for exampld 10,000 t of the bristol channel being added late in WW2.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:56am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Interesting JJ.
      So Ballast coming to the colonies, no ballast going back?
      My wild presumption is passengers coming South, produce? going north.
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 12:40pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        It’s a good point, you have to get the weights right for both the inbound and outbound voyages.
        Here’s a story you probably haven’t heard before,
        from the excellent WWII historian Mark Felton.
        “The Bombed British City Beneath New York”
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRoHyzcSa3Y
        I’ll spoil it by saying that FDR Drive in Manhattan, NYC is built on the rubble of bombed out Bristol U.K.
        During the war the USA sent thousands of Liberty ships eastward across the Atlantic loaded with millions of tons of war materiel. The empty ships sailing back had to have at least 1500 tons of ballast to be seaworthy.
        The best solution was the rubble from around the port city Bristol. Then in New York city it all became fill for the waterfront development.
        
        0 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 6:30pm
  - AitchW
    
    I recall that there was a proposal to replenish the sand on one of Auckland inner city beaches some 20 or 30 years back. The sand was to be taken from Coromandel. There was the predictable outcry from one of the tribes I think on Coromandel, not on environmental grounds, but because their ancestors’ blood was spilt on those sands and it would be a dreadful sin to carry it to Auckland where those who caused said blood to be spilt originated.
    Sand was eventually spread on the Auckland beach, I think from north of Auckland. Someone with a better memory than mine might be able to fill in the gaps…
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 3:05pm
SmokerGuy

We really need to change our mentality in this country to start supporting victims rather than the offender:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rapist-luca-fairgrays-120k-taxpayer-funded-battle-to-keep-identity-secret/2C7ZOA7IZJCQ5GYUNRJMKD64GQ/
21 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Comedy gold from Legal Services Commissioner Tracey Baguley;
  
  “Legal aid is considered a loan and people may have to repay some or all of their legal aid bill, depending on their income and assets”
  
  Yeah, right. If the Government was serious about this, they’d set up a Legal Aid Loan Agreement, along the lines of Student Loans.
  
  In this case, there were several appeals, at no cost to the appellant. If he had skin in the game, he might not have put the victims through all of those trips to court.
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:28am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yes, it is stunning that this serial rapist of young girls was given home detention first time around.
  Clearly there was no “supervision” being undertaken.
  
  But here’s another worrying article…that raises the possibility that asylum seekers in NZ who commit nasty crimes are afforded all the benefits of our legal systems.
  
  https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/04/matu-kahurangi-new-zealand-must.html
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:58am
- PurplePen
  
  I read this and it made me wonder whether the lawyers involved milk it such as ‘How many ways can we keep the litigation going’.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 12:27pm
Bridgenag

breaking news: here it comes
the white house just declared war on the covid conspirators
EL GATO MALO

“as ever, proud to have stood with so many of you on rational ground. i have neither forgotten nor forgiven those who did this, only become more adamant in my desire to ensure that they may never do it again.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/breaking-news-here-it-comes?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
14 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:43am
- imalwaysright
  
  Hopefully this leads to prosecutions here, wishful thinking as NZ doesn’t do accountability.
  Ashley has got himself a gig with Barnardo’s whereby he gets trips to foreign countries to visit tourist attractions and supposedly raise money for poor children. He shouldn’t be hard to find….
  
  9 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:10am
- pb
  
  Wouldnt get too excited. A website? If they were going for jail times they wouldnt do a parade.
  
  Put it with the Bondi Epstein release farse. Till the Billionaire pedos get deported, all is parade.
  
  RFKJ had a unique mandate, yet the first thing he did was go an an anti antisemitism rant.
  
  4 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 10:09am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360657716/whats-mysterious-giant-octopus-thats-appeared-aucklands-harbour
What a lot of made-up maori rubbish.
15 4
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:47am
- imalwaysright
  
  The octopus looks great.
  Its from a myth or legend, there’s no harm in that.
  Kids will love it.
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:00am
  - Colville
    
    …right up till some pisshead breaks a limb off it and the media tells us it cost $150,000 to replace..!!
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 9:25am
  - greybeard
    
    What about this bit:
    ‘When Kupe chased Te-Wheke-a-Muturangi across the Pacific Ocean, it was on that waka that his wife sighted the North Island and named it Aotearoa.”
    I thought is was some white guy in the 1800s who called it Aotearoa.
    
    20 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 10:01am
    - Tom Barker
      
      Journal of FD Fenton, resident magistrate of Waikato
      10 August 1857
      
      Journal of FD Fenton, resident magistrate of Waikato, 10 August 1857
      “Ngaruawahia is to be the residence of the king. He is to have a fine house furnished for him to be called Aotearoa. They have also rechristened the island, New Zealand being a pakeha name, they have rejected, and now they call it Aotearoa, the name of one of the canoes that carried an immigration hither.”
      
      8 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 10:20am
      - Taieri
        
        They have also rechristened the island, New Zealand being a pakeha name, they have rejected, and now they call it Aotearoa
        ————
        
        And our Founding Document uses an entirely different name:
        
        “Ko Wikitoria te Kuini o Ingarani i tana mahara atawai ki nga Rangatira me nga Hapu o Nu Tirani…”
        
        10 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 11:57am
    - pdm
      
      greybeard.
      
      The current story has to suit the current narrative.
      
      Flexibility and adaptability is what happens when there is no written language to accurately record such things.
      
      9 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 10:45am
      - Tom Barker
        
        When did you decide that a colonising power has the right to tell the original inhabitants what the name of their country should be?
        
        0 1
        Report
        April 19, 2025 2:59pm
- kowtow
  
  Octobussy.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 4:27pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Auckland Blues , a wave and some sort of a shark
  Wellington Hurricanes, the power of the wind
  The Brumbies are a horse and there’s any number of tribal warriors and other goofy animal logos as well.
  It is ALL “made up” rubbish.
  Why focus on one ethnic group’s logos and icons?
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:44pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Ministry of Culture and Heritage CEO Stephen Wainwright is retiring at 61 after 35 years at the Ministry including 19 years as CEO.

That’s way too long in a public sector CEO role, and is an indictment on Peter Hughes and previous SSC Head Commissioners. Perhaps Brian Roche has tapped his shoulder & told him to sling his hook.

Source: Radio NZ interview, Saturday Morning show
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 9:16am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Ministry of Culture and Heritage CEO Stephen Wainwright
  
  No, no, no…
  He is the CEO of Creative NZ….
  a much smaller entity than the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
  
  The CEO of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage is
  Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 1:44pm
  - kowtow
    
    A Highland laddie ?
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 4:26pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Whoops, my bad!
    
    But, the point stands.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 7:46pm
peterwn

Another awkward immigration case:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360652828/his-family-are-kiwis-max-thought-he-was-too-now-he-faces-deportation
Young man who came to NZ as a baby ordered to leave NZ. He has effectively been an ‘outlaw’ in NZ during his young life. The answer is simple, the Minister should grant him residency. However the Minister should be requesting a big ‘please explain’ from Immigration. It was acts and omissions of Immigration which ‘enabled’ him to come to NZ as a baby and then remain in immigration limbo for many years. Immigration was ‘hoodwinked’ into allowing his mother and infant child (as he was then) to enter NZ on a short term visa and then did nothing about dealing with the situation in good time when the visa expired. The mother managed to procure residency when Immigration caught up with her, but not the (then) infant child she brought into NZ with her.
Hence the need for a ‘Please Explain’ from Immigration who most probably present a misleading response to the Minister when the Minister considers the application.
17 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 9:16am
- Colville
  
  No fucking way.
  The young man has known for many years that he was illegal.. has done nothing about it…was going to be a pro footballer but stopped training.. and has no school qualifications. Who is going to pay for him if he stays?
  I am surprised he hasnt got his missus pregnant to add to the “woe is me” tale of the world doing him wrong.
  
  14 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 9:30am
  - peterwn
    
    Downtick from me. The poor young guy would not have had a clue how to deal with the situation he found himself in. He was misled by his family about status and he was faced with a political version of the ‘Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle’ – you cannot question something without opening up a can of worms.
    I repeat – Immigration should not have allowed this sort of situation to start with. It is similar to the dependent children of 1950’s assisted immigrants (who did not need their own passports at the time). While the parents were granted residency (and would have taken citizenship in due course), their dependent kids were left in limbo immigration wise – unable to obtain NZ passports and potentially subject to 501 style deportation (and there have been a few attempted deportations of this nature). That was a momentous bureaucratic blunder at the time.
    
    8 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 11:45am
    - Colville
      
      peterwn.
      This isnt the ’50s.
      Kids have phones with internet and can do research or send a email.
      
      Primary question…why cant I get a passport like all my mates have?
      
      You dont think his soccer coach didnt say to him “you cant travel because you are a Saffer !” ?
      
      This guy has had his head in the sand and now wants his problems fixed for him.
      
      and thanks for the downtick…I didnt bother to give you one in return.
      
      10 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 12:52pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      His grandparents (who seem rather strange) and his mother bear most of the responsibility, if you read the story.
      
      Regular readers will know that I’m generally pretty tough on illegal immigrants with sob stories, but if the facts are as reported then I’d be inclined to cut this young man some slack.
      
      6 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 1:10pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  “The mother managed to procure residency when Immigration caught up with her, but not the (then) infant child she brought into NZ with her.”
  
  OK that’s on Immigration. Tough. Her infant offspring gets to stay surely? Let’s not be silly buggers.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:34pm
MCōs

Not a headline I expected to see in the Times of Israel
It has since been deleted, but the internet never forgets
https://archive.ph/NGnNv#selection-1153.44-1153.113
4 7
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 9:20am
- Jake Dee
  
  The title is
  “Lebensraum Needed for Israel’s Exploding Population”
  But it’s only the “”Lebensraum” term that is surprising. The first Zionist world conference was held in the city of Basel on August 29–31, 1897.
  The actual activity has been going on for 70+ years.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:51pm
TripeWryter

I know it will be painful for the mother to read but the young Mr Fairgray did nothing more than take what The System legally allowed.
Once again The New Zealand Herald engages in Outrage! ‘Journalism’!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rapist-luca-fairgrays-120k-taxpayer-funded-battle-to-keep-identity-secret/2C7ZOA7IZJCQ5GYUNRJMKD64GQ/
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 9:27am
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: Some Jokes…
Never get old.

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-some-jokes?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
8 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 9:57am
- sungsamning
  
  Thanks for that. I downloaded a couple for later use.
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 10:37am
  - Bridgenag
    
    Nearly didn’t post as the trolls [ 2 probably ] downtick without looking. Not enough people in this world with a sense of humour IMHO
    
    7 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 12:49pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2EwQBivDq8
Federal judge rules Google has monopoly over ad technology: DOJ Pursuing Breakup.
A federal judge has just dropped a bombshell on Big Tech: Google has been officially ruled an illegal monopoly in the online advertising space. This landmark decision could force the tech titan to break up its $31 billion ad empire and fundamentally reshape how the internet works for publishers, advertisers, and everyday users. [Lets see if the administration goes full anti-trust on them. ]
4 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 10:24am
- pb
  
  I use Grok-AI for search now. Google dinosaur-burger.
  
  Google used search as a monopoly engine for Billions in Ad revenue, yet it picked up a dose of Woke Clap. Terminal. Greedy lawyers circling the weakened beast. IMO
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 11:09am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Agreed Grok 3 provides readable results without having to read/search every google link.
    
    Research time is decimated.
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 12:48pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yeah, I’ve used Grok for design stuff. Free, and not hard to use. Thanks, Elon Musk.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 5:24pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Thanks .. just tried it and it is good.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 6:17pm
sungsamning

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2025/04/18/white-house-revamps-covid-19-website-detailing-viruss-true-origins/
White House Rips Fauci in Revamped COVID-19 Website Detailing Virus’s ‘True Origins’.
The White House has revamped the COVID-19 guidance page, which now states the likely origin of the virus was a lab leak involving gain-of-function research. [The vaccine is safe and effective. //
7 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 10:24am
Maggy Wassilieff

Yesterday TV and RNZ were running a story about a new discovery that hints at life on far distant planet K2-18b.

Here’s the paper the overhyped spin is based on….

New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8

I won’t be rushing out to buy anti-hycean bug spray any time soon.
5 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 10:46am
- Jack5
  
  TVNZ loves these science beat-ups from old BBC reporters feigning technical knowledge.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 11:14am
- peterwn
  
  I am not sure that bug spray would reach 124 light years (1,173,000,000,000,000 kilometres approx).
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 11:50am
- Philview
  
  It even has methane pollution per an article I read. We need to get a message to that planet that the Greens are going to hold protests until they sort it out.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 1:00pm
Jack5

Latest pidgin-ism – in Stuwhff…

Trying to corner a Coalition Minister into irrational lenity for an illegal migrant, a Stuff reporter uses these words from a man named Matt Brown:

‘In text messages to Stuff, Brown said his whanau had whangaied the entire Holland family and “so Ralph doesn’t want to overstep his Maori roots” and cited various statutes which he claimed provided the “legal right to adopt from any native tribe living as members on the native title”. He said Max had been issued an “identity card” by his hapu.’

Given this lead, the Maori Party will soon send a trade delegation up to the Chinese metropolis of Whangai.

The Stuff reporter lays it on Associate Immigration Minister Penk to decide whether the person can stay in the country.

To take the rational course, Penky better whriggen not.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360652828/his-family-are-kiwis-max-thought-he-was-too-now-he-faces-deportation
4 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 11:08am
- peterwn
  
  Read my previous posting on this. Disregarding all the surrounding hooha on this, he was a dependent child (baby) brought into NZ by his mother on some temporary visa. It took years for Immigration to take action – the mother managed to save her ass by being granted residency, but not the poor kid. Either both should have got residency or the mother should have been given the boot. The Minister should be placing his boot in Immigration’s backside.
  
  9 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 11:56am
  - Jack5
    
    No, it was a migration rort. The grandparents deliberately flouted immigration rules. They conned Immigration, it’s not the bureaucrats’ fault. From the report:
    
    His grandparents secured residency for themselves and two of their children. But Taana says they excluded Anastasia and Max from their application after being advised it might fail if they were included.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 12:37pm
    - peterwn
      
      I agree that it was an immigration rort to start with.
      This then begs the very serious question of why Anastasia (their daughter) got residency when she must have been a party to the rort whereas her son who was innocent of any matters surrounding the rort faces deportation despite spending pretty well his whole life in NZ. Possibly his mum was more concerned about protecting her position than protecting her son.
      As I said before if Immigration was doing its job properly it would not have escalated to the current situation. And it seems Immigration is now throwing the boy under a bus to save its face. The Minister would need a report from the Minister before he makes a final decision about the boy’s future. I hope the officials come clean on what happened, their failings and not try and pull the wool over the Minister’s eyes.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      April 19, 2025 1:17pm
      - Colville
        
        Obviously Mum “forgot” to mention existence of the son.
        
        Deport them both pronto.
        
        1 0
        Report
        April 19, 2025 6:20pm
surfing

I really want Trump to fire Jerome Powell, the equivalent of the reserve bank governor in NZ.

Trump wants interest rates lowered, but Powell wants them increased.

Trump can be the bully and get his way with interest rates. Trump can institute a price freeze when the inevitable inflation gets out of control. And, when there are product shortages, Trump can order factories to produce.
2 9
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 11:58am
- Taieri
  
  And, when there are product shortages, Trump can order factories to produce
  ———–
  
  Just as they used to do in the Soviet Union…
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 5:59pm
- Stu2
  
  Opps downticked when I shouldn’t have
  
  Yep, lower interest rates at a time of higher inflation makes no sense at all
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:00pm
I remember when

Do we believe that 501s who have spent all of their concious life in Australia should not be deported back to New Zealand.
Does this help answer Immigration NZ’s required action?
1 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 12:04pm
- Jack5
  
  Australia has rigid immigration policy and guards its borders.
  
  Australia doesn’t seem to have the equivalent internal pressure for weak borders that NZ has from:
  
  – Immigration agents;
  – the weak Immigration and Protection Tribunal;
  – Wet folk who ignore NZ’s vulnerability in a world with 43.7 million refugees and 122.6 million displaced people (UNHCR figures).
  
  On 501 deportations, I respect Australians’ right to set their own rules on migration.
  
  Australia generally treats NZ liberally on border issues, with non-visa entry to NZ citizens.
  
  What is NZ has the choice: no “501” deportees, or non-visa entry, but not both?
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 12:49pm
  - Jack5
    
    Edit:What is if NZ has the choice …
    
    Sorry!
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 12:57pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I’d opt for a similar state of affairs with Australia as with the UK. Visa-free holidays, 2 year young person working holiday, proper visas for everything else, if it meant that Australia had to keep their 501s.
    
    Win-win for NZ: our best & brightest kids are more likely to stay here & we lose the 501s.
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:15pm
  - Jethrod
    
    So, does Australia actively police their borders for illegal immigrants, particularly those from the east and Africa? Or just the easy way with Kiwi 501’s?
    
    1 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 1:16pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Wellington Council has locked in a debt of up to $439m for renovations to Council housing; this on top of everything else. They tell us that the cost will be covered by tenant rent – yeah, right.

They own some houses in Owen St in Newtown that require renovation. If you must have Council housing, why not sell off a couple & use the funds to restore the others? On whether this option was discussed, the story is silent.

http://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360657393/17-year-old-decision-will-cost-every-residential-wellington-ratepayer-3233 May be paywalled.
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 1:25pm
- artemisia
  
  Wellington CC has form for building social housing, then leasing it to KO. That means that the tenants get even cheaper rent than currently, but kindly funded by taxpayers. And Wellington CC gets to feel good. Due to the many recent KO cancelled projects Wellington CC may now intend to fall back on ratepayers. Not that we’ve been asked.
  
  In recent years the WCC rents have not covered the costs, though that was always supposed to be the intention. Plus the council committed to complete certain social housing upgrades as a condition of the Helen Clark government tipping in $200million. Completion didn’t happen. Incompetence and excuses did happen.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 4:24pm
Jack5

The Right appropriate a Communist thinker …

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian communist philosopher imprisoned by Mussolini. At one time he was head of the Italian Communist Party. His Prison Notebooks are, says a Wikipedia entry, “a highly original contribution to 20th-century political theory”.

Now he’s being read — and apparently followed — by leaders of the world Right such as Javier Milei and the American conservative activist Christopher Rufo. Right-wing figures such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, France’s Marine Le Pen, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro have all cited Gramsci’s influence.

A Wall Street Journal essay says Gramsci departed from Marxist economic theory by emphasising culture as the way to convince “ordinary people” to embrace ideas and policies.

The newspaper’s essay describes Christopher Rufo as “perhaps the most potent conservative activist in the US,” and notes that last year he led the campaign that forced Harvard University to replace Claudine Gay as president.

It reports Rufo as saying: “The right needs a Gramsci, and my own ambition is to serve in a similar capacity, an architect of the New Right politics.”

The essays quotes Jonathan Keeperman, a Far Right publisher, saying that Gramsci stressed the importance of universities in shaping culture. That makes him a model for American conservatives in their “fight against critical race theory, against trans ideology, against captured higher education institutions, against DEI.”

The Wall Street Journal essay is behind a paywall, but the link below’s to an article from seven months ago about Gramsci and the New Right. It includes this:

“… Gramsci and his concept of ‘hegemony’ … argued the capitalist class cannot dominate politically without controlling not only a state and its economy, but also the arts, the media and civil society institutions at large.”

https://theconversation.com/why-the-radical-right-has-turned-to-the-teachings-of-an-italian-marxist-thinker-237531
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 2:05pm
- kiwi_chileno
  
  Use the left’s tactics and weapons against them. Seize the means of their destruction from them.
  
  Here’s the un-paywalled Wall Street Journal article, Meet MAGA’s Favorite Communist https://archive.is/20250419010251/https://www.wsj.com/politics/meet-magas-favorite-communist-5a1132ad#selection-2515.0-2515.30
  
  Apparently, the right have been appropriating Gramsci since the 1970’s, starting with Alain de Benoist, one of the leading lights of France’s New Right. According to de Benoist, Gramsci understood that the transition to socialism occurs “neither via a coup, nor via a direct confrontation, but through the transformation of general ideas that amounts to a slow remoulding of minds. What is at stake in this war of positions is culture, which in turn is understood as the command centre for values and for ideas.” https://jacobin.com/2025/03/right-gramsci-de-benoist-trump (Read the Jacobin if want to want to know what America’s left is thinking.)
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 5:42pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360659666/quade-cooper-eyes-shock-code-switch-los-angeles-olympics
Flag Football:
Does this sound familiar ?
‘”Counting coup,” a tradition among Plains Indians, was a way for warriors to earn honour and prestige by demonstrating bravery in battle without necessarily killing an enemy. It involved touching an enemy or capturing their property, thus signifying dominance and proving one’s courage.”
4 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 2:31pm
- greybeard
  
  Honestly ! How sick and pathetic do you have to be to downtick this historical fact!
  
  2 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 3:36pm
  - Mike
    
    Perhaps the downtickers didn’t follow your alleged link between flag football and ‘counting coup’.
    
    1 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 4:18pm
  - Keith White
    
    The Wokeness titres are high in the blue-haired AWFL leagues in these parts. Do not worry overmuch – their cats will consume them when they shuffle off this mortal coil, childless, alone and unloved.
    
    0 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    April 19, 2025 5:04pm
- Colville
  
  grey…
  
  You have two reds before I started typing so dont blame me!! but…
  
  My memory of counting coup is its a scorecard of how many you have done and how you did them… they used to mark their ponies like fighter pilots to count kills but differentiated as to the way you had killed or maimed or just de-horsed the opponent.
  
  Those tribes hated each other and played for keeps…it wasnt a grown up game of tag!
  
  …and of course now everything has been brownwashed to make them sound all friendly and not savage at all. But at least they didnt eat you after they killed you…unlike some we know.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 3:58pm
NZer In Exile

Another seriously dumb climate grifter project destined to waste millions, distract from clear and present real issues, and achieve nothing of value.

From: Not A Lot Of People Know That website:

Project To Suck Money Out Of Taxpayers Begins In UK

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/project-to-suck-money-our-of-taxpayers-begins-in-uk/
0 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 3:03pm
NZer In Exile

Help a Mann Out:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/18/help-a-mann-out/
0 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 3:08pm
Mike

School kids in Texas are not able to research Virginia as that state’s seal features a naked breast.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/texas-bans-virginia-flag-breast
3 4
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 4:21pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Is there such a thing as age appropriate teaching content Mike?
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 6:17pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I’m surprised that the more militant feminists haven’t all moved to Virginia.
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  April 19, 2025 7:52pm
Keith White

The New Zealand Medical Council (and Bloomfield, and many others) keep ignoring the studies.

Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination as a Poor Prognostic Factor in Pancreatic Cancer

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202504.1167/v1

“Conclusions: These findings highlight repeated vaccination as a poor prognostic factor in PC patients and suggest that IgG4 is induced by repeated vaccination and may be associated with a poor prognosis in these patients.”

But – nothing that Dr Ayesha Verrall, Dr Shane Reti, Dr Rachelle Love, and Dame Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard want to hear or converse about.
0 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 4:58pm
Sparrow

May I suggest before the government spends $12 billion buying weapons and ships etc that it should be spent on fixing our infrastructure which is in a deplorable condition due to all previous governments doing nothing would also include our health and education systems. I am pissed off at present living rural I am suffering from Vector using the trickle effect thus my water pump has been inoperative since Thursday. Yes we have suffered storms and some poor buggers have no power at all, but every time we have inclement weather it’s a f….disaster. While we waste money on shit like cycleways and zero bollocks. Lets get real.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 19, 2025 8:33pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Greens change candidate selection rules

SIS were right to investigate »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 40.6K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Links

Member's Day
No Right Turn
Elton John: A.I. copyright changes are "criminal" — "committing theft" from artists.
Not PC
Racist or righteous? Privileges Committee versus Te P?ti M?ori
Utopia
Word of the day
Hompaddock
National panic after Chippy highlights what banishing M?ori MPs would actually amount to
The Daily Blog
My Budget for Year 2025 – Your Choice
NZCPR
New medicine approvals plan an exercise in not solving the problem
Point of Order
The Market Always Wins
No Minister
The Government blinks
The Standard
How many coffees is a house?
Stats Chat
Hard to believe really
Croaking Cassandra
The Child Report Card That NZ Doesn’t Want
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
A return to Nature.
Kiwipolitico
Social media slippery slopes
Offsetting Behaviour
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

[email protected]

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: