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May 4, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 04 May 2025

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Tomtoddy

The elections in Canada and Australia hold an important message for those of us who prefer less government, lower taxes, less regulation. In both countries there was a “Trump” factor largely concocted by the media and there was a small measure of ‘unelectability’ about Poilievre and Dutton that played a role given the stupidity of some people who are affected by the “look” of a leader.

However, the over-riding factor is the shift in attitude among voters, particularly younger voters, who have been through an education system that is heavily biased toward socialism and big government, “tax the rich”, combat inequality, “gender and diversity matters”. This pressure for “fairness” is reinforced by the media constantly. There is now an entrenched swing to the left that is gathering momentum. Academia leads the debate, big business only focuses on where they can exploit their customers to best advantage while the MSM is now openly pushing communism. Most voters are sadly ignorant of the economic issues that ultimately determine wealth and well being. They only know tax and spend.

Those of us who still have a passion for classical liberalism and smaller government are watching New Zealand head in the same direction. It is clear from the polls that someone as weak and slippery as Hipkins and his motley mob can command as much support as the Coalition. Voters are still supporting the Green party which can hardly do more to self destruct and Te Pati Māori continues to hoodwink enough electors to hold seats. A return to Labour/Greens is a very likely option at the next election.

Maybe new ownership at the Herald will help and there are several blogs doing a great job but with too small an audience. Snuffing out RNZ and TV1 would help. Charter schools might help in the medium term but there needs a lot more of them a lot more quickly and the education sector is now so infiltrated by lefties at all levels it may be an impossible option.

New tactics are needed. The left have been more strategic, more patient while the right assumes too much including mildly accepting voters will act sensibly. It is looking very gloomy.
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May 4, 2025 8:00am
- Cassandra
  
  Tom: this is a very thoughtful post. Good analysis and a great recommendation for Luxon. Steady as she goes and hoping for growth will not cut it. I particularly endorse your media plan. The only way to reform the state media is with an axe.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:17am
  - Mike
    
    What ‘analysis’ do you think supported this?
    
    the MSM is now openly pushing communism
    
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    May 4, 2025 8:23am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Those of us who can think for ourselves would utilise basic comprehension skills to discern what is true.
      Reliance upon a third party to do your analysis for you is a central factor of Marxism and communism.
      
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      May 4, 2025 11:25am
- pb
  
  Never despair. Brexit just gave the globalists another wedgie in England.
  
  German Globalists launched a domestic spying operation against the leading political party. Won’t be popular.
  
  Trump sadly now owns the war against Russia, which he will lose. He just needed to cut the arms and money. At least he fired Waltz whom wanted to bomb Iran. The ships are enjoying going around the Horn of Africa, courtesy of those dastardly Houthis.
  
  The next generation reject the Uniparty, but their options are limited. For now.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:26am
- Paulus
  
  Very good, but am afraid that much damage has been done and may not be retrieval in the forseeable future.
  Education of our children hs been the problem over the last probably 30 years, and in now embeded in mediocraty throughout as those earlier pupils are now the Teachers of current beliefs and thinking, as they no know no different.
  Our PISA results say a lot as to why we are moving down the gurgler, and I cannot see any foreseeable change as we are now taught that the State knows best, and will look after us no matter, and anybody else will go overseas as we are seeing daily.
  A sad inductment really as expressed in the article by Tom.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:35am
  - leoj
    
    If I had 1000 upvotes, you’d get them all.
    
    Primary, secondary and tertiary education is infested with leftism and our so-called journalists and reporters, who are a direct result of the education system, are similarly infected.
    
    It’s time to ban all government unions whose best interests are served when they can hold private enterprise taxpayers to ransom while still receiving their pay cheques, also funded by private enterprise taxpayers.
    
    Snuff out RNZ and TV1 now.
    
    Can’t wait for the Herald AGM. That change is paramount if we are to have any chance of a fair say in how our country is viewed.
    
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    May 4, 2025 7:10pm
- kowtow
  
  I think polling as also shown a certain demographic of women are behind these trends , be it here , the US , Canada or Oz .
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:39am
  - Paulus
    
    Kowtow
    Yes, very much here by which it has allowed the Renaissance of Maori to slide through in everything, particulalrly the tattood wahine at a young age now, – and then asked they support the movement which they helped create.
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:46pm
- yossarian
  
  I accepted a while ago that the left has won. Over the past 20-30 years we have seen what I can only describe as a full bodied Dark Revolution take place right under our noses.
  
  While Marx espoused violence to enact revolution today’s Marxist have been smarter that than. In the past, revolutions took place under a violent uprising (not always) but today’s revolutionists are far more subtle and have played (remember they’ve won) the longer game. During these past violent uprisings what did the revolutionists target first to take control of a country? Well the media for a start, then generally the judiciary, then education and then finally indoctrination of the young.
  
  Look now, who controls the media? The far left
  Who controls the Judiciary, the far left.
  Who controls our universities, the far left.
  Who controls education, the far left.
  
  And they’ve only just started. Imagine what hell Labour and the Greens, will bring to NZ the next the they’re in power? And don’t for an instant think that they won’t get control, they will.
  
  They’ve won, best try to live your life under their rule
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:39am
  - rouppe
    
    They’ve won, best try to live your life under their rule
    
    On Wednesday I’m leaving for Thailand for 2 months to see if I would like living there long term.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:40am
  - Burtland
    
    The kids and now the parents are fully brainwashed socialists – the kids are surrounded by state normalised social dysfunction and know no bounds – what future chaos will it unleash? plenty
    
    Only the boomers are holding it back but not for long
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:42am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      I’ve not yet seen any demographic breakdowns of the Aussie votes but in Canada the Boomers and their single-minded focus on Trump were the overwhelming reason that the Canadian liberals won their astonishing come-from-behind victory.
      
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      May 4, 2025 10:51am
      - Mike
        
        I see Trump is now taking ‘credit’ for the Canadian election result. The political consequences don’t matter so long as it is all about him.
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:06am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      “Only the boomers are holding it back but not for long”
      
      This all happened almost entirely under the Boomers. At least, the seeds were sown when the Boomers were young, but they did little about them as they came to fruition, so complacent and comfortable most of them were in one of the most prosperous periods in history. But (to mix metaphors) the rust had already set in below the surface, to become readily visible only later.
      
      Rolling back the current status quo requires a fundamental change in worldview. It is, by and large, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, particularly the males, who have rejected the tenets of the Boomer Truth Regime (to borrow a phrase from Academic Agent). In short, this is the set of socio-political assumptions that have been integrated into the worldviews of the masses since WW2. Rejecting them is necessary to change a situation that came about under the sway of this set of ideas.
      
      This change in attitude, combined with the diminished and widely disillusioning material state of affairs they will be forced to endure, may motivate radical reform, but, for the most part, the Boomers will be living out the remainder of their lives in relative abundance and comfort – hardly the conditions to inspire a revolt.
      
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      May 4, 2025 11:52am
      - Bridgenag
        
        No Someone will decide they have more money to be spread around
        
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        May 4, 2025 12:34pm
  - AitchW
    
    Don’t forget that with Labour and Greens you’ll get TMP as well. The damage they will do will make Ardern look decidedly prudent and conservative.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:12am
  - PurplePen
    
    It will swing back the other way. Bit certainly not in my lifetime I suspect. I do hold out a slim hope that the youf-of-today will turn on their teachers and adults as teens tend to do once they’ve left home.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:31am
    - Bridgenag
      
      Trouble is they don’t leave home
      
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      May 4, 2025 12:35pm
- DistantObserver
  
  “Hoping for new ownership at the Herald.”
  Yeah Right!
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:40am
- artemisia
  
  Broadly agree. There are options though for individuals and households to bypass ‘eat the rich’ by taking our ball and going home. As in creating our own robust environments, especially by raising the next generation/s to be financial literates and critical thinkers. (And tradies.)
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:44am
  - Cassandra
    
    Let’s try vouchers. Reform the media (with axe) first, to emasculate the teachers’ unions.
    
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    May 4, 2025 8:50am
    - artemisia
      
      Centrist seems to be attracting readers, my view based solely on the increasing volume of comments on items.
      
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      May 4, 2025 8:56am
      - pdm
        
        I am a new Centrist reader in the last 3/4 weeks and recommended it to so far one like minded person.
        
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        May 4, 2025 9:48am
  - Keith White
    
    artemisia: Exactly. Just as all politics is local, all improvements are local.
    
    What was that famous early saying about the Internet? “The Internet recognises censorship as damage, and routes around”.
    
    I recognise people like Ardern and Bloomfield Swarbrick and Packer and Menendez and Hipkins as societal damage and I do what I can to route the fates of my family and myself around them – at a cost, yes, but that’s the reality of our communal situation.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:46am
- Philview
  
  Recent election results indicate that incumbent governments are being rewarded in unsettled times. Our current Government isn’t perfect but look at the the absolute extremists sitting on the Left. The Albanese version of Labour appears to be 100% more electable than an NZ Labour/Greens/TPM Government.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:44am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Yes, but there are now many clever dicks is the msm and opposition who like to say that our current government has ‘trumped’ every major issue.
    
    It must be popular – even Tory Whanau tried it a few short weeks ago…
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:59am
  - AitchW
    
    National must push the “vote Labour, get the Greens and TMP” at every opportunity.
    The Pasifika vote, which traditionally goes left might just swing the other way if the pro LGBTQIM+ Greens are part of the package.
    And I suspect that a great many rusted on blue collar
    Labour voters will find TMP too bitter a pill to swallow.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:17am
    - Paulus
      
      But are we not to understand that many Pacificas are integrating and assimilaing with so called Maori, often now by marriage, and may well vote that way as they are told the way to Nirvana is via Maori.
      
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      May 4, 2025 1:50pm
- CJames
  
  Is there an entrenched swing to the left? In Britain, France and Germany, they are now suffering the consequences of those big government policies. That has caused a rise in populist parties – they aren’t “right-wing” in the classical senses, just don’t like the repeated failures of the ruling elite. The parties seem to have old fashioned nationalism at their core. And what has been the response of the ruling parties? Seek to ban them to “save democracy”. Seems to be a redefinition of the catchall phrase fascism here.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:48am
  - Tomtoddy
    
    Interesting response, CJ. I wonder whether the European pushback is tied closely to very high energy prices and related climate policy pain and maybe a relatively short term event in what is a longer swing to the left.
    
    Be interested in your and other’s reaction to that reasoning.
    
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    May 4, 2025 9:17am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The BBC certainly thinks so.
      
      The UK parliament’s 2019 vote for Net Zero by 2050 was unanimous. Now, Labour and the Greens want 2030, the Conservatives want to go slower while Reform question the whole policy.
      
      Why? The BBC posits that while concern over climate change remains, the low hanging fruit has been picked & everything else is expensive. The price of gas & electricity in recent years in the UK has gone through the roof, and it’s only going one way.
      
      Voters will vote with their wallets. Short of a suspension of democracy, I predict further pushback against Net Zero both in the UK and here.
      
      http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx20znjejw1o
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:33am
    - kowtow
      
      Those countries have huge issues with uncontrolled mass immigration .
      The fact that whole electorates in England return Islamist candidates , based on a genocidal assault on a democracy on Oct 7 speaks volumes .
      
      Note too how the German Blob , or whatever we’ll call it , now seeks to delegitimise the AfD .
      France too has waged lawfare on Mde LePen .
      
      Watch how the UK Blob , assisted by their msm will target Farage .
      
      None of this is coincidence . The Left ( Blob) in the US did all they could to keep Trump off the ballot.
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:45am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Kow
        It looks like the governments you mention are in concert.
        The question therefore is – who is the conductor?
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:33am
      - Jethrod
        
        It’s not a conductor, it’s a Flashpoint or magnetic attraction with orange complexion which has caused a rejection by those who are pushing back.
        
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        May 4, 2025 12:42pm
    - Fender
      
      Seriously doubt that because the dumbing down of the population has won
      Nobody will ever put 2 and 2 together to blame net zero for the power increases
      We all can see it partly from history and hindsight but I bet a servo pie no 25 year olds will or those who will vote years later after having it preached their entire lives will connect the dots
      If you don’t get told the facts you will never question and anyone who does still think will be vilified into keeping quiet
      It will make living easier when ai has taking alot of jobs and you are unemployed
      Thinkers and intellectuals are just trouble
      
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      May 4, 2025 12:25pm
    - CJames
      
      TomT
      A number of countries have polled their citizens on how much they would pay to reduce climate change. Energy prices are directly related to this. The polling was a number of years ago. The results showed a majority would not be prepared to pay even an extra $10 a week per household. They weren’t told how much they already pay. This was everywhere they did it. The majority agreed it was a serious problem but it was for “others” to pay for it. They were all reputable poll companies and were not push questions. Because of the results, I suspect they got memoryholed. I can’t find the results but maybe Maggy or one of the other sleuths can.
      I am surprised that the Taxpayers Union of the like haven’t commissioned Curia to do it as part of their regular surveys.
      
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      May 4, 2025 1:18pm
- Isobar
  
  I think you make some good points Tom. I do think you are correct at noting a generational change. I do think though it is simplistic to say that its the educational system to blame.
  
  Moreso I think the issue lies in the fact that these parties have spent the last 40 years pandering to the boomer generation. Offering them increasing amounts of handouts and tax breaks, whilst neglecting others and cutting investment for the future. This worked for the longest time, but the tide is changing and any parties that are still trying to fight a 20th century election in 2025 are going to be punished.
  
  The inter-generational bond has long been broken here and elsewhere and personally i cant blame younger generations facing infrastructure deficits and a future in which they will have worse living standards than their parents for wanting to send a strong message that businesses as usual is no longer ok..
  
  As an aside on the MSM, i can tell you now whatever gripes you might have with it, people under 60 are hardly watching or listening to it anyway. So i don’t think changing this, even if it was possible will really have any impact.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:30am
- MCōs
  
  In Australia and particularly in Canada the conservative opposition was expected to win these elections until Trump, also a conservative, came along and both P² and Dutton were seen as aligned to his ideas.
  Some people would find that to be a good thing, most don’t
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:30am
  - ISeeRed
    
    Yes, the Trump Effect. ORANGE MAN BAD! Mostly trumped up by a disgustingly partisan legacy media.
    
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    May 4, 2025 9:55am
- pdm
  
  TT my understanding is that the Herald Ownership will not change.
  
  Rather the hope is for the election of a new Board which will endeavour to get journalsts/reporters and Opinion writers to report on the news rather interpret and create the news as they want it.
  
  That will hinge on voting at the AGM and shareholders wanting change will have to ensure their lobbying carries the day.
  
  Will that change Stuff and TVNZ too? I doubt it – they both are entrenched even deeper into the lefty mantra.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:45am
  - Keith White
    
    The best way to change the Herald is to refuse to fund it.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:48am
    - Keith White
      
      Is that you downticking, Fran Sullivan and Matthew Hooten?
      
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      May 4, 2025 12:06pm
- Souvlaki
  
  Certainly…under Luxon it seems we are doomed, charging down this misguided path 🙁 :
  https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/05/nzcpr-newsletter-radicalising-parliament.html
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:06am
- Ipanema69
  
  TT,
  
  I like the post. However my own view on the 2026 election is that Winston will once again get to decide the next prime minister.
  
  Frankly the outcome will be decided by whoever offers him the most.
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:12am
  - Keith White
    
    We have all known for years what NZ’s Winston is. We just never quite know his current price.
    
    Hat-tip to Sir Winston Churchill.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:49am
  - PurplePen
    
    Will never forgive him for giving us Ardern over English. A serious lost opportunity for the country.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:42am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Labour and Greens will need TPM, no way they will get enough support to cut TPM out. If anything they will need Peters .
  
  As for these 2 elections being won because of Trump, yes possibly because of the tariffs which will be gone before our election, and in the case of going to the left because of Trump, to me it’s more of sticking with the status quo against Trump, similar to the ludicrous 2020 fraud of that Covid election
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:52am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  Who are the “conservatives” really opposing? I don’t think it is the left, mainly because, looking at accepted political discourse holistically, they agree on almost every issue, with only a few minor disagreements on the details thrown in to make voters think there is a real choice on offer.
  
  Conservative parties tend to spend more time denouncing “the far right” and disassociating themselves from large segments of their natural constituency than they do denouncing the left, which is very instructive. They too are obsessed with diversity, inclusion and so on, mainly because they are all liberals.
  
  As a wing of the perpetually ruling Uni Party, they have a gatekeeping role wherein their main opposition is not the left but parties or the section of the electorate that is further to the right than they are. They have to absorb and nullify the sentiments of the actual right, and direct it into “safe” territory where it can do no harm.
  
  If there is too much dissent or disquiet expressed by the public, they’ll make a few empty noises about reducing immigration, rolling back “wokeness” and so on, but as soon as they get in on these statements they roll them back and say it can’t be done because they have to win the largely mythical centre.
  
  Reform in the UK is a classic case of this, where the voters are promised something different, only to not get it. Even Trump is a case in point, whose 2016 rhetoric (anti-immigration, anti-foreign wars, anti-free trade) has largely disappeared and in 2024/25 been significantly neutered to become reducing the deficit, creating jobs, and (in a complete inversion) actually increasing immigration (“as long as it’s legal”). In other words, the initial promise (the establishment would say threat) of Trumpism has been successfully assimilated into the mainstream and steered into by-the-numbers GOP waffle which will have little to no effect.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:06am
- Gussy Fink-Nottle
  
  You reference tax and spend Toddy, but it is also the borrowing.
  There is no cogent strategy to significantly reduce debt (or even slow the rate of increase), all the while our liabilities grow.
  It is this that will scupper our society.
  
  I have no idea who will come out on top (comparatively speaking) after that particular cataclysm, but it will be nothing like the status quo ante.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:32am
peterwn

Fran O’Sullivan pontificates on raising the superannuation age:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/economy/finance-minister-nicola-willis-needs-to-address-nz-superannuation-age-now-fran-osullivan/D4HW7PULYZDX5MJY2OLGL5UQ3U/ (paywalled)
Fran has interviewed her keyboard and expresses concern that Nicola Willis is doing nothing to address the alleged need to raise the Superannuation age from 65. Fran either forgets or wilfully neglects to mention that there is no way that Winston Peters would agree with increasing Superannuation age from 65 while he is on the Earth’s side of the pearly gates. So there is no point for Nicola to even think about it. If Fran was going to bring the subject up, she should have acknowledged this.
More ominously Fran is dragging Nicola’s kids into the situation. Now I thought it was a well established convention that the media, politicians and others do not drag MPs’ kids into the political arena. But Fran blatantly ignores this convention and brings Nicola’s kids into her article. Presumably she thinks that Nicola is so terrible that her kids are now fair game. John Key’s adult daughter apparently took off overseas to avoid this sort of political fallout, but this is an option not open to Nicolas’s kids at their age. Shame on you Fran O’Sullivan for helping to drag the Herald down to gutter press standards.
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May 4, 2025 8:01am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  No, you are allowed to target kids of national or act politicians, because we (the media) don’t like them and you shouldn’t either.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:47am
- pdm
  
  Most unlike Fran O’Sullivan who is usually informative and generally a good read.
  
  The lefties in the Herald must have worn her down.
  
  BTW if Super age of entitlement is changed it should move to 70 to prevent another increase in age in 10 years or so.
  If a change is made it should last like the change from 60 to 65 has.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:52am
  - Ian Boag
    
    And of course it could be done the way the 60-65 was done. Start tomorrow and increase the age by 6 months a year. It worked the last time …..
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:19am
- Ghost
  
  You’re making too much of what she said
  
  Let’s just park all the tiresome sloganeering about “no frills” Budgets and warnings about no “lolly scrambles” this time.This is kindergarten stuff and even Nicola Willis’ own children are well past that.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:52am
  - Anthony Melchett
    
    So what she is really saying is that Nicola Willis is so stupid, even her kids are smarter than her.
    
    Got it.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:50am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It’s a pointless exercise Her trying to suggest this, ants policy is by 3037 at the earliest, they see projections that means by say 2040 that something has to give
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:15am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  All she suggested is that Nicolas kids are past worrying about nursery rhythms, not sure why she actually mentioned it, but Nicola used the analogy to answer media bullshittery, what is she supposed to say? Black budget mark ll
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:17am
- rangitoto
  
  Just dumping the Paris accord will solve the super issue.
  
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  May 4, 2025 3:41pm
Yvette

Green MP Benjamin Doyle

• Sean Plunket – 15 April at 16:56
Should Herald journalist David Fisher disclose that he too is transitioning his child?
https://www.facebook.com/SeanPlunket/posts/should-herald-journalist-david-fisher-disclose-that-he-too-is-transitioning-his-/1078351300781124/

• Youtube – Winston Peters On The Disturbing Social Media Posts Of Green MP Benjamin Doyle – The Platform NZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4MZ_zLmcfI. – one month ago
transcript
Winston Peters – 8:56 There is enough in those posts for the police to make a inquiry as to whether they breach the law or not.

To make this last comment, can it be assumed that Winston Peter’s has seen the posts Doyle took down? – in keeping with Winston probably knowing the answer to his question before he asks it, but asks anyway because that is the point of the exercise.

• According to RNZ reporting, there is only one death threat currently known to be officially filed with Parliamentary Services — and it is not clear if it ties to Doyle’s earlier support for puberty blockers or the controversy over his Instagram posts. According to The Platform’s Sean Plunket “Those death threats came after a speech outside Parliament where [Doyle] strongly advocated for the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children on the taxpayers’ dime.”
https://centrist.nz/mainstream-media-close-ranks-as-greens-defence-of-doyles-sex-innuendo-backfires/?

Is it ethical for the Centrist to reference the Platform and Sean Plunket regarding the “one death threat currently known to be officially filed with Parliamentary Services”, but not mention that Sean Plunket has quite openly stated that three reliable sources have told him that Doyle is transitioning his young son to become a daughter, which vastly extends the entire issues being looked at, and deepens the gravity of the whole matter, with of course concerns for the child’s well-being, but also Doyle’s Early Childhood spokes-position.

Is Green MP Benjamin Doyle (and his partner – unconfirmed as female or male) transitioning their young son to become a daughter, and under what circumstances is this legal or not, if in fact that is happening?

So it s a minor point to question transparency (transparency about transitioning?) or the hypocritical stance of claiming your pronouns to be plural, with which the media struggle to comply with sometimes rendering what they write to be incomprehensible, but in your own speech you use ‘I’ and “me” fairly inveribly. So identitiy in one aspect is a sham, while other aspects smear the culture you misappropriate.

And in regard to any “investigation”, Labour demonstrated with their summer party gone wrong and then the rape or not of a research worker, that these types of questions should be immediately handled by the Police, as Winston calls for, rather than any internal party or Speaker investigations, or KC reports.
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May 4, 2025 8:06am
Maggy Wassilieff

Anyone notice that Singapore had a General election yesterday?

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ge2025-polling-day-results-watch-live-blog-5098641

Seems to have been overlooked by our MSM
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May 4, 2025 8:06am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  To be fair, not much changes following Singapore elections.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:10am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Not much changes after any contemporary election, does it?
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:18am
- kowtow
  
  This one and the stunning results in England are elections that can’t be twisted so as to blame Trump .That’s why msm not covering.
  
  I see Oz result already down to Orange Man Bad .Bigly by the msm activists.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:22am
  - Ghost
    
    I think you were looking for it in the herald yesterday weren’t you?
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/reform-uk-shakes-up-british-politics-with-local-election-wins/YW4ZTYL56VCGZMI2O52TD7ABWM/
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:41am
    - kowtow
      
      That is one relatively small paragraph in today’s print version , which I was referring to yesterday , the print paper.
      
      Oh and a very small para compared to huge stories ( space and photo wise in the latter ) on a wayward prince and an allegedly wayward Russel Brand .
      Not to mention they include a report smearing the AfD.
      
      I rest my case.
      
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      May 4, 2025 11:25am
- Mike
  
  Perhaps that’s because elections in Singapore are not very notable, given that it’s practically a one-party state.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:29am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Singapore may be a one-party state, but do you really think the liberal democratic system is not characterised by rule by a single regime, and is merely cosmetically “democratic”? The difference is that Singapore doesn’t pretend it isn’t, whereas in our system, there is an elaborate scheme in place to disguise the obvious from most of the people. A further difference is that Singapore seems to be a coherent society, whereas, increasingly, the same can’t be said of the liberal democracies.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:23am
- MCōs
  
  Their general elections are not really ‘news’ inasmuch as nothing ever changes and the same party has won since independence from Malaysia sixty odd years ago
  Singapore and NZ are like chalk and cheese.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:39am
  - kowtow
    
    News nonetheless.
    
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    May 4, 2025 8:50am
  - rouppe
    
    The same party wins, but with shrinking margins… Still very healthy at 65% of the vote, but well off the 90’s they used to get.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:49am
- DistantObserver
  
  The MSM would not want to risk showing how a competent parliament operates.
  
  Compare and contrast with the absolute shit show Brownlee pretends to preside over.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJBfcMZ_s6I
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:39am
- Ghost
  
  RNZ had an article up about it this morning
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/559844/singapore-ruling-party-wins-election-in-landslide
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:41am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    ..yeah, at 8.25am….(hours after results were in)
    
    somebody at RNZ must read KB
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:43am
    - R
      
      ‘Somebody at……’ that would indicate that there is at least one reasonably informed staffer at RNZ
      
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      May 4, 2025 2:59pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

How to unnecessarily offend people. Hardly statesman-like. What exactly was the point?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360676121/trump-draws-criticism-ai-image-himself-pope-ahead-papal-conclave
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May 4, 2025 8:12am
- Keith White
  
  All the usual bien-pensants could just ignore him and not give him room to live in their heads, but they can’t.
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:50am
- Mike
  
  While it is increasingly hard to satirize the president, given Trump’s own efforts, I thought this one was quite good:
  
  Trump Says Eric is Biden’s Fault
  WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump stirred controversy on Friday by claiming that his son Eric was former President Joe Biden’s fault.
  Responding to a reporter’s question about Eric, Trump shot back, “That was Biden. That wasn’t Trump.”
  “I took office on January 20,” he continued. “That person [Eric] was already around.”
  Reached for comment at his home in Delaware, Biden said, “I’d rather be blamed for the recession.”
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:54am
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Downticked you but to be fair that is good satire.
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I watched him being asked who should be the next pope the other day, he said me. What the crazed Dems forget was he was laughing and joking about it, why do these deluded media have to twist stuff
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:12am
- pb
  
  Catholics thought it funny and ok. Secular Christian haters like MSM got most animated. Gloria!
  
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  May 6, 2025 7:34pm
  - Ghost
    
    No
    
    https://nz.news.yahoo.com/catholic-officials-slam-trump-deeply-151449812.html
    
    https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5386516/catholic-leaders-criticize-trump-ai-pope-photo
    
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    May 6, 2025 7:46pm
Scott

Some more good news. Mark Cameron from Act has introduced a bill that stops banks from debanking farmers based on climate change rules.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJI8yVFzYJp/?igsh=dDdzZWdvMzVqNTZx

I think it’s terrible that banks are debanking people unless they are criminal terrorist money scammers. We saw debanking happening in Britain with Nigel Farage because of his political views. The debanking was so egregious that even Prime minister Rishi Sunak had to step in forcefully with the bank governors and tell them to stop it.

Secondly something has to be done with the climate change cult. It’s another substitute religion, a way for people to signal their virtue, a way for people to say, “I am a good person”. I say again, go to church and repent of your sins and you won’t have to engage in virtue signalling that does in fact harm other people.

And thirdly, this is another good thing the coalition is doing and I for one am grateful we have them in charge and not the last lot. The previous govt would have been all in favour of debanking bank customers because of “climate change”. We’re now getting a lot of what we want rather than 100% of what we don’t want.
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May 4, 2025 8:14am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Has there been any examples of this happening?
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:06am
- peterwn
  
  A problem banks face is they most probably have to do bullshit reports on what they are doing about climate change etc etc and to help meet targets should not lend money or provide banking services to farmers etc seen as environment unfriendly.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:43pm
- Ghost
  
  Surely you were able to read the press release Scott from New Zealand first where they said
  
  This Bill amends the Financial Markets Act 2022 to remove the ESG Framework’s stranglehold on corporations.
  
  The problem stems from labour passed, not from the banks.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:07pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Warren Buffet to retire. How dare he!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360676144/warren-buffett-shocks-shareholders-announcing-his-intention-retire
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May 4, 2025 8:15am
- Jack5
  
  Buffett said at the annual meeting that trade shouldn’t be a weapon and the United States would be better off if other countries shared its prosperity.
  
  “We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world, and we should do what we do best and they should do what they do best,” Buffett said.
  
  But Buffett also repeated his concern about large trade deficits with other countries.
  
  The Wall Street Journal reports:
  
  An investor asked Buffett about a 2003 article in Fortune magazine in which he proposed the U.S. seek to balance its foreign trade by issuing certificates that would be required to import goods. Giving the certificates to U.S. exporters who could then sell them to parties wanting to bring goods into the country would allow American producers to cut their prices in international markets, he wrote.
  
  “Charlie thought it was a little Rube Goldberg,” Buffett said of Charlie Munger, his longtime business partner who died in 2023, and his views on the import-certificates idea. “It’s gimmicky, but it’s certainly a lot better than what we’re talking about now. … Look at the attitudes it’s brought out in the United States.”
  
  (Goldberg was known for cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in convoluted ways.)
  
  Reuters reports Buffett parried a question about the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, while warning that federal budget deficits are “unsustainable” and the U.S. government must get its fiscal house in order.
  
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  May 4, 2025 12:24pm
Cassandra

Professor Robert McCulloch: “Election 2026 will be close because National is not delivering on lowering the cost-of-living, nor delivering on providing a world-class sustainable health-care system, nor delivering on enabling NZ’ers to build savings even 10% as large as Australians now have in their retirement accounts.”

McCulloch is an advocate for big changes to health and retirement funding but, even allowing for his opposition to the way National is doing it (more of the same) he presents a compelling case for change. With a rapidly aging population something has got to give and neither of the major parties is addressing it.

National and Labour have kicked the can down the road forever. NZF won’t tolerate change to the pension. The Greens want socialism and the Maori Party wants race-based feudalism (I think – whatever it is is not all that clear and it’d be a total,disaster). That leaves Act favouring the McCulloch approach and possibly Social Credit. Although you could argue that Labour and National have implemented what Major Douglas and Vern Cracknell wanted already. Like much of the world we are living on a credit card. Unsustainable.
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May 4, 2025 8:19am
- Yvette
  
  Cassandra – … and the Maori Party wants race-based feudalism (I think – whatever it is is not all that clear and it’d be a total,disaster) – you can get an idea of race-based feudalism from the hōiho’s mouth itself:
  
  From te Pati Maori website –
  We don’t just talk about Land Back, we will force the Crown to return our land …
  https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/mana_motuhake
  The tino rangatiratanga of Tangata Whenua is inalienable. Te Pāti Māori will: [among 16 policies]
  • Introduce a first right of refusal policy for mana whenua on all private land
  
  Does this policy, among 16 others, mean when you sell your house and section will Maori first right of refusal policy imposed on it if Maori deem the land was originally theirs – and where does that stop, as indeed collectively they owned all of New Zealand?
  
  There are other polices –
  * Insert relativity clauses into all Te Tiriti settlements retrospectively
  * Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown, and
  implement all unaddressed WAI claim recommendations
  
  Do you need to worry?
  Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke was warmly greeted by an audience of 35,000 outside the place she was suspended from for 24 hours just a week ago. She has been an international viral sensation over the past week after leading a world-shaking haka in Parliament’s debating chamber.
  “If every single Māori person registered on the Māori roll, we would have 20 automatic Māori seats in Parliament.”
  
  Ending the speech, she said the hikoi wasn’t just for iwi Māori but for all indigenous communities across the globe.
  “The world is watching us te iwi Māori, whatever we do next. All indigenous people are relying on us.
  “It’s not just about us te iwi Māori, it’s about us as indigenous people liberating ourselves to Hawaiki mau, so who’s coming with us?”
  https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2024/11/19/i-ripped-that-in-half-and-chucked-it-away-hana-rawhiti-delivers-speech-after-world-shaking-haka/
  
  20 automatic Māori seats in Parliament should position te Pati Maori as king-maker!
  That could well achieve te Pati Maori’s first aim –
  * Establish a Māori Parliament
  
  … race-based feudalism from the hōiho’s mouth itself
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:28am
  - Keith White
    
    What I think many of these ethnic based parties fail to understand, and I’ve seen the results in actual action around the world in past years, is that while people on the left side of the political spectrum seem to think that violence is like a dial, you can turn it up and crank it back once you’ve got the effect you want – people on the right side of the political spectrum understand that violence is like an on off switch. You try to avoid switching it on for as long as you possibly can because you know that once you switch it on the consequences will be forever life-changing for yourself and for others. But, get pushed too far, the switch goes on. And the consequences are dire.
    
    To segue from the metaphysical to the more direct: if a few hot-blooded TPM-types turn up and attempt to evict e.g. rural Kiwis off the land that they bought, paid for and many have owned and developed over successive generations – well, they may well FAFO.
    
    And what’s very clear from descriptions of ethnic violence that come before NZ courts, is that most of these types only really “get it on” when they can can get it on with the vulnerable – babies, toddlers, teenagers, women. They are not so much Mythical Warriors when they are confronted by equals.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:58am
  - pdm
    
    `Does this policy, among 16 others, mean when you sell your house and section will Maori first right of refusal policy imposed on it if Maori deem the land was originally theirs – and where does that stop, as indeed collectively they owned all of New Zealand?’
    
    Kahungunu thought they were dead certs to buy (Back) Kahuranaki Station SE of Havelock North.
    
    Obviously their offer was too low and it has been sold to another buyer who will farm it.
    
    I think that is a good thing because it is (looks – I have never visited the station) fairly hard country and had Kahungunu got it a lot of it would probably have reverted to gorse, scrub and blackberry.
    
    An iconic hill it maybe but, I am sure the farm will prosper more under new farming owners.
    Here is Hawkes Bay Todays take on the sale:
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/iwi-misses-out-in-hawkes-bay-sheep-and-cattle-station-kahuranaki-bid/WR3MV27ZOVHJJPVH7BZXMWAASQ/
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:07am
    - AitchW
      
      Be thankful Ardern isn’t PM, she’d have bought the place and given it to iwi by now. For a massively inflated price.
      
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      May 4, 2025 11:23am
    - Paulus
      
      What does the Raglan Golf Course, as was, look like now ?
      
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      May 4, 2025 1:57pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        A different story. IIRC, the land was either taken or compulsively acquired during WW 2 for an airfield. Subsequently, it became a golf course and was not offered back to the original owners, at least at a price they could afford.
        
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        May 4, 2025 2:38pm
- peterwn
  
  “NZF won’t tolerate change to the pension”
  That is a parameter both main political parties have to work within. That will not change until Winston’s coffin is nailed down and buried six feet under, and that is not going to happen before the next election at least.
  
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  May 4, 2025 8:29am
  - MCōs
    
    Not quite right
    He has to be part of a governing coalition to have any influence and this time next year Act and the Nats will be looking to do without him.
    
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    May 4, 2025 8:50am
    - Cassandra
      
      They’d better have a Plan B then. The Great Charlatan is looking very energetic.
      
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      May 4, 2025 8:51am
    - peterwn
      
      It is extremely unlikely National/ACT would have the numbers to be able to govern without NZF after the next election. It is similarly unlikely that NZF would be wiped out at the next election.
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:59am
    - PeeJay
      
      National will do everything possible to avoid going into a single coalition with Act, particularly if Act have strong numbers. Even if National could govern with Act alone, they’ll try and get another party in the mix so they can stop Act having the ability to play brinkmanship with key demands. 2008 election was a good example of this.
      
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      May 4, 2025 10:19am
      - pdm
        
        Peejay – that is why ACT need 20 seats in the next election.
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:13am
      - MCōs
        
        The problem that both Act and the Greens have is they have only one road to power, which is through an alliance of some sort with one of the two major parties.
        That leaves them in a weak position compared to Winston who plays the Nats and Labour off against each other
        
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        May 4, 2025 2:03pm
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    I agree with these remarks. However can we change the terminology, for clarity, and yes, it’s pedantic.
    We do not have a rapidly ageing population, we have a rapidly growing proportion of our population over the retirement age. In fact our aged population are aging much more slowly than their parents did, in general, hence the steadily increasing life expectancy.
    
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    May 4, 2025 8:54am
    - Ian Boag
      
      we have a rapidly growing proportion of our population over the retirement age.
      
      Would that mean that the – unfunded – universal – old age benefit is a rapidly growing % of government costs …… ? Knock me over with a feather 🙂
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:02am
      - Keith White
        
        That word ‘unfunded’ does not apply here as you think it applies here, IB.
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:30am
    - rouppe
      
      Where is this proportion coming from?
      
      It’s not baby boomers because the vast majority of baby boomers are already over 65. The last of us in only 4 years, in 2029. We’re well past the peak of the curve.
      
      It might have rapidly increased in the last 10 years but if it is increasing now where is that coming from?
      
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      May 4, 2025 11:01am
      - Keith White
        
        Family reunification.
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:30am
      - Flossie
        
        People living longer?
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:54am
      - rouppe
        
        @Flossie’s assertion that people are living longer – ie to 90 instead of 70 – combined with Keith’s assertion that lots of migrants are bringing their parent over might explain an increasing number remaining on super.
        
        However, increasing life expectancy is very slow. It doesn’t jump up by 10 years over a 2 year span. Family reunification must mean a huge number of recent migrants must be bringing their parents or siblings in.
        
        There are steps being taken, such as the increasing of residency requirement from 10 years to 20, though that’s happening gradually as well, but it may put a brake on the numbers of migrant parents coming in since they have to be here longer. Are the sponsors required to financially support them over that time, or are the “reunified” eligible to lounge out on other benefits in the meantime?
        
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        May 4, 2025 12:20pm
- Philview
  
  I enjoy Prof McCulloch’s posts but NZ has a media problem. If I want to read the sort of intellectual analysis he offers I will not find it in a newspaper. How do we get a reasonable range of arguments in front of the NZ public? The NZ media is essentially an echo chamber on Maori grievances and nothing else matters.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:05am
  - Ian Boag
    
    The NZ media is essentially an echo chamber
    
    Someone orta do somthing about it.
    
    Good ole free market.
    
    If there was enough demand for what you want, someone would start up some sort of (profitable) media outlet pushing a rightish line. Of course that means that people would have to pay for it even if Harvey Norman bought a lot of advertising. It would have been eligible for the PJIF even.
    
    Hasn’t happened so far. Needs a bit more than whinges on KB.
    
    As I recall – when I was a lad the press steadfastly endorsed National. Only the Grey River Argus (hardly rating as MSM) was different.
    
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    May 4, 2025 9:21am
    - Cassandra
      
      Auckland Star. Herald was National. Truth was Labour Right ie now NZF.
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:26am
    - artemisia
      
      I mentioned Centrist earlier. Interesting business model as they are mainly an aggregator of other media articles, but summarised within (apparently) copyright rules. I assume major AI in the mix. Along with Centrist commentary and some of their own items. And increasingly reader comments.
      
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      May 4, 2025 10:16am
      - Ian Boag
        
        aggregator of other media articles
        
        So they don’t go out and gather their own news at the coalface. Basically no journo staff of any political persuasion. Probably not much of a path to greatness ….
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:12am
    - Paulus
      
      Don’t buy the Newspapers – they are crap anyway !
      
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      May 4, 2025 1:59pm
- Taieri
  
  Much is being said about the (un)sustainability of the old age pensions, increasing eligibility age, means testing and all that.
  
  Very little is being said about the (un)sustainability of various forms of other expenditure in the social area, such as jobseeker allowance, supported living payments and sole parent support. Jobseeker allowance alone is being paid to almost 200000 recipients, without any time limits. At the same time, farm workers, bus drivers, checkout operators and such like are being imported in ever increasing numbers.
  
  Another 100000 or so are suffering from “health condition and disability”, which prevent them from taking up paid work. There’s no time limit on eligibility for “supported living” allowance paid to these people, enabling them to continue to suffer from their “health conditions” and “disabilities” forever and a day.
  
  Almost 80000 fathers do not see it fit to provide for their offspring, leaving this onerous job to the taxpayers.
  
  The state also sees it fit and affordable to provide meals to hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, who undoubtedly would starve without them. Of course this noble practice is entirely sustainable.
  
  But all those sprightly Mitre10 or Bunnings floor assistants trying to supplement their fortnightly pittance know as National Super are much easier target. At least, most of them paid taxes all their lives. And the ones that are still working still do.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:28am
  - artemisia
    
    One area where there has been significant improvement is social housing. Waiting list March 2025 – 19,308. Down 6,125 from October 2023. (March 2025 – 47% Maori – do we understand why?)
    
    Emergency housing, number of distinct clients March 2025 – 946. Down 3,592 from October 2023. MSD is declining about a third of applicants each month, some because they are considered to have contributed to their own immediate housing need. Some of that reduction will be simply a change in expectations, plus more monitoring.
    
    Big savings.
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:51am
    - Keith White
      
      “(March 2025 – 47% Maori – do we understand why?)”
      
      When a group does 50% of the crime, it may very well be that 50% of them don’t do honest work for a living.
      
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      May 4, 2025 12:03pm
  - kowtow
    
    Climate bollocks and massive regulation are a huge weight and expense on the economy. But the centre and left love it , along with the media.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:32am
  - PurplePen
    
    “Jobseeker allowance alone is being paid to almost 200000 recipients”.
    
    At dinner with friends who run their own business. They had a vacancy advertised for which they got over 80 applications. They had to advise they were no longer looking as the applications kept coming in. But they found that a number of applications were just a name and email address. No CV, nothing. Turns out it’s jobseekers scamming the benefit system. It’s how they prove they’re actively looking for work. Pisses me off that sort of thing, and that the administration is so easily fooled.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:58am
    - artemisia
      
      Forward the ‘applications’ to WINZ. There is a lot more oversight of jobseekers these days, including case managers. But they don’t know what they don’t know.
      
      Maybe via anon tip line?
      
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      May 4, 2025 2:02pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      80 applications
      
      And “a number” were fake. So I guess that “another number” were not obviously fake.
      
      This would be a bit more convincing if “a number” was quantified. On the face of it one might guess there were a few dozen “real” applications for this one job …..
      
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      May 4, 2025 2:14pm
      - PurplePen
        
        of course there were real applications. it was just part of general conversation over dinner .. how’s things, what’s been happening …
        
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        May 4, 2025 3:14pm
- rouppe
  
  The Greens want socialism and the Maori Party wants ~~race-based feudalism~~ fascism
  
  Fixed it for you
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:51am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It delivering in the cost of living? So inflation back to 2% interest rates dropping by 200s a month, petrol dropping, good price inflation was 10% under labour for 2 years but has levelled off, stolen taxes have been returned, what more should she do? Give handouts to people all around the world like Labour? Dictate to businesses and power companies and councils like a Marxist regime. I bet the families who have lower inflation, and far lower mortgage repayments are extremely happy, they said the other day it’s dropped about $600 a month , if that does not help families god knows what we expect
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:24am
  - Keith White
    
    What we expect is that people who make many, many promises to get votes, keep all those promises. Silly us, huh.
    
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    May 4, 2025 12:01pm
- pb
  
  Most working people are right wing. So after sucking on paper straws, paying extra $10k for a Ute, getting upset about inviting pedophiles into libraries to read to their kuds, they turn to limp luxon. That idea immediately rises gorge. Hence the only choice left is burn it down, and vote for the commies harder. Bring on the conflagration.
  
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  May 6, 2025 7:40pm
Mike

Why can’t we have politicians as entertaining as this?
Opening a halal restaurant is just like the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.
https://newrepublic.com/post/194806/republican-congressman-mike-collins-meltdown-halal-restaurant
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May 4, 2025 8:48am
- Keith White
  
  Luckily we have you to entertain us with faux-analogies, mindless metaphors and random downtix.
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:59am
CJames

There is a very good quote from David Horowitz that sums up much of today’s politics.
“As a young man, I was present at the creation of the New Left, editing its largest magazine, Ramparts. The New Left was a socialist movement that began as an attempt to rescue the “Old” Communist Left from the “mistakes” it had made in serving masters who murdered more than 100 million people. In peace time. “Mistakes” was our weasel term for the epic crimes our fellow Marxists committed against ordinary human beings who refused to go along with their utopian schemes. Our goal was to revive the quest they had begun and finally create a world of “social justice.”

I soon discovered that there was no new Left fundamentally different from its predecessor. The evil the left did flowed directly from the noble ideal itself. You cannot create a world of perfect equality because people are not equal, and the attempt to make them so requires taking away the freedom of most for the benefit of what turns out to be a few. You cannot create a government that is socially “just” because the people who will run it are the same people whose lies, bigotries, selfishness and greed created the unjust world you are attempting to leave behind. The new rulers, corrupt as ever, will have more power than ever. You can only make things worse. Much worse.”
When one thinks about the above and who benefits from changes, it explains a lot. Power is what they seek “equality” is just the figleaf to encourage gullible people to get them there.
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May 4, 2025 9:04am
- Cassandra
  
  The late (recently) Horowitz.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:27am
- Yvette
  
  CJames – “When one thinks about the above and who benefits from changes, it explains a lot. Power is what they seek “equality” is just the figleaf to encourage gullible people to get them there.”
  
  Here is a tool behind the figleaf –
  ‘Almost traitorous’: Laws slams Claire Charters for inviting UN to investigate ‘racist’ New Zealand
  https://centrist.nz/almost-traitorous-laws-slams-claire-charters-for-inviting-un-to-investigate-racist-new-zealand/
  
  – even a trans-Maori?
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:28am
  - Yvette
    
    Michael Laws has accused leading Māori academics of “almost traitorous” behaviour after they told the UN that New Zealand is a racist, backwards regime guilty of cultural genocide.
    
    Laws called the claims “a woeful and appalling misrepresentation of equality and democracy.”
    “There is no rights being stripped from Māori… one might well argue that Māori actually have more rights than non-Māori in this country,” he added.
    
    Auckland law professor Claire Charters called the coalition’s agenda “the most regressive policies I have ever seen” and urged the UN to send a special rapporteur and impose the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on New Zealand. “This is from Professor Claire Charters… funded agreeably by the New Zealand taxpayer… now selling us down the river,” said Laws.
    
    … and, did they have permission of those guardian spokes-people of the legally recognised personage, the river, to do that?
    __________________
    italised quote – https://centrist.nz/almost-traitorous-laws-slams-claire-charters-for-inviting-un-to-investigate-racist-new-zealand/
    
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    May 4, 2025 10:09am
    - Yvette
      
      Thinks: “Rivers …
      
      If Aucklanders are using an arm and a leg of our Waikato for their drinking water, shouldn’t they be paying an arm and a leg?” //
      
      What we’re interested in is the proprietor rights over water [1], and that is a discussion to be had with the Crown, not with councils.” – Tukoroirangi Morgan, Iwi Forum, and Waikato Tainui descendant, a guardian and a spokesperson among the Waikato Iwi and for the Waikato River personage [2]
      Not //
      ____________
      [1] Proprietary rights, also termed property rights, are the rights that accompany legal ownership of tangible or intangible property; rights over or in respect of property. [2] https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/09/claims-maori-will-own-nzs-water-infrastructure-dismissed/
      
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      May 4, 2025 10:33am
      - AitchW
        
        I wonder just how much water as
        
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        May 4, 2025 11:58am
      - AitchW
        
        The average out flow of the Waikato river is 340 cubic metres per second. That’s a little over 29 billion litres a day. Auckland is allowed 300 million litres a day.
        That’s roughly one percent of the daily outflow. And that’s the maximum allowed, they may well take much less than that when their dams are full and it’s raining.
        Hardly an arm and a leg.
        
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        May 4, 2025 12:10pm
      - Dave
        
        Ah, AitchW (@12.10). Those are just colonial facts and calculations which ignore Maori data and the sacred personhood of the Waikato.
        
        To put it in material terms, which even spiritually impoverished colonists can understand, this is exactly the same as taking a human pound of flesh as envisioned by Shylock.
        
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        May 4, 2025 1:13pm
      - AitchW
        
        Dave, how silly of me. I forgot that matauranga Maori is infinitely superior to colonialist logic and simple maths.
        I shall repeat Poi e 10 times as penance.
        
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        May 4, 2025 4:22pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  This sums up my disillusionment with the Left (liberal when young, conservative by 30, yada yada). I realised that it’s human nature to aggregate power where the system makes it possible; the outcome is just a different type of autocrat.
  
  Which is why I support the market just as much as I support democracy. People have limited resources; how they choose to deploy them represents their personal priorities and is therefore a strong proxy for freedom; for me, this is the greatest ideal. And so I find myself aligned with Karl Marx – People are born free but everywhere are in chains.
  
  He was an insightful analyst, albeit a lousy philosopher.
  
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  May 4, 2025 9:44am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Germany’s Foreign Office has branded one of the country’s largest political parties as extremist. There’s an interesting map per the URL below showing seats by party; AfD holds pretty much all of the old East Germany. Without commenting on the merits or otherwise of their policies, it’s clear that 35 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the mark left by 40 years of communism endures.

Food for thought for those looking to change entrenched views.

http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4vz9jed5lo
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May 4, 2025 9:05am
- kowtow
  
  Another possible explanation is that the east is the area that has been most de industrialised area of Germany and so gets that result ?
  
  Kaiserlauten , in the west returned an AfD candidate. That may reveal an insight?
  
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  May 4, 2025 12:09pm
sungsamning

https://www.dailywire.com/news/epa-to-slash-climate-programs-promises-return-to-reagan-level-staffing?topStoryPosition=undefined&author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&category=News&elementPosition=0&row=1&rowHeadline=Top+Stories&rowType=Top+Stories&title=EPA+To+Slash+Climate+Programs%2C+Promises+Return+To+Reagan-Level+Staffing
Return To Reagan-Level Staffing.
The Environmental Protection Agency will save $300 million per year through a massive reorganization by completely slashing unnecessary climate programs and reducing staffing levels to levels not seen since the Reagan administration, the agency announced Friday.
[Is ‘global warming’ on the way out. What new scam will the globalists come up with to replace it?]
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May 4, 2025 9:09am
sungsamning

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/temu-stops-shipments-from-china-after-trump-ends-de-minimis-exemption-5851468?src_src=Bright&src_cmp=bright-2025-05-03&est=E0Ju3nSkxzHHaWv88JSefODdb32yqxwckkU2kDCG7B0uyfyCY9KLq75LFdefK2g%3D
Temu Stops Shipments From China After Trump Ends de Minimis Exemption.
Low-cost online retailer Temu is ceasing shipments to the United States from China, the company announced on May 2.
On Friday, Temu, which is run by a U.S.-based subsidiary of PPD Holdings, said in a media statement released to The Epoch Times that the platform is transitioning “to a local fulfillment model.”
“Temu’s pricing for U.S. consumers remains unchanged,” the May 2 statement said. “All sales in the U.S. are now handled by locally based sellers, with orders fulfilled from within the country.”
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May 4, 2025 9:09am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It’s a e we under Trump even wants that shit in the country
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:26am
John Loveridge

Tory Whanau persists in her staggering self-delusion, I see:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/559790/tory-whanau-believes-politics-has-become-a-lot-more-toxic-especially-for-wahine-maori
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May 4, 2025 9:17am
- Keith White
  
  “It’s Torytown, Jake.”
  
  (Classical movie allusion).
  
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  May 4, 2025 3:03pm
imalwaysright

Watching the new Public Service Commissioner, Brian Roche, on Q&A.

Scary fact: NZ has 67,000 core public servants and in total, 480,000, public servants !
(That’s a big overhead for a country of 6 million.)

He also believes the public service aren’t politically biased and all senior appointments are merit based.

Is he naïve, or…
32 2
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May 4, 2025 9:22am
- Keith White
  
  “And”. Naive, and woke.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  When Ardern planted Marxists then that changed, same with bribing media. It’s great to see the likes of Brown kicking woke and DEI hires out of health
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:29am
  - Paulus
    
    Public Service Women are not Marxists, they could not be as Helen Clark said Women can do Anything and she pushed it with Ardern following.
    
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    May 4, 2025 2:05pm
- PurplePen
  
  You only need to do a quick scroll down the Government Electronic Tenders Site to see the overly complex state of the public service. Full of waste, overlapping etc. AI counts over 200 agencies.
  
  https://www.gets.govt.nz/ExternalAgencyListReport.htm
  
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  May 4, 2025 12:15pm
Pope Punctilious II

Nothing screams “democracy” like banning a popular political party for holding the “wrong” views.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/germany-labels-far-right-afd-party-as-extremist-group/
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May 4, 2025 9:23am
Swifty

Trump’s next role.

https://x.com/atensnut/status/1918678409556672571

Pope Donny!
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May 4, 2025 9:24am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  If Boomer cringe like this were a sign of winning, Trump would be unstoppable.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:33am
Toes on the nose

I thought National were gonna end this dumbness…everywhere I bike in Gissy there’s massive ‘water wai done well’ billboards about consultation.. at what cost. Turn on tap= fresh safe water. Flush toilet = it goes away. There saved you millions. Muppets!!
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May 4, 2025 9:30am
Ghost

I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone. This failure of giving people home detenetion for serious crimes needs to stop

A Canterbury woman who started seeing a man she met on Tinder was shocked to find out – months later – that he was using a “fake” name and was on home detention for child sex offending.

She said Blake Ivan Miller told her he was on home detention for “poaching” or “trespassing” and when she learned the truth and confronted him, he claimed media reports about his offending, were “made up” with “only the slightest bit of the truth”.

Article

When a judge “ described Miller’s offending as “serious and depraved” and the most “unusual” circumstances he had encountered in more than 20 years on the bench. . Yet he still gets home detention

Miller was facing up to seven years in prison for what the judge said was “extremely serious” offending; however, 75% of the sentence was cut due to his personal circumstances, including his age, “developmental issues and depression”.
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May 4, 2025 10:19am
Sparrow

I realise Chris Trotter would not be a favourite of KBs. However he makes an interesting observation in an article written in February this year which I came across by chance. Why has there been this upsurge in support for Māori causes by academics, media, middle class liberals the Springbok Tour of 1981. Its very interesting connection. The young middle class white protestors of 1981 have entered academia, teaching, media and have helped to indoctrinate following generations. In 1981 they were supporting black African demands so the protestors should also support Māori demands. Is his observation correct ? I find it compelling the country was divided then as it is now.
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May 4, 2025 10:22am
- Mike
  
  I think there were two parallel trends:
  – growing disgust with apartheid and it’s proudest emblem, the Springboks
  – growing awareness of Māori grievances over their treatment since colonization
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:36am
  - Keith White
    
    So now we have apartheid burgeoning in New Zealand. Lovely.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:01am
  - rouppe
    
    growing awareness of Māori grievances over their treatment since colonization
    
    Their treatment? Like in the colonial hospitals which are curing cancer for Maori like Marama Davidson?
    
    Or the technology that underpins boats, nylon fishing line and metal hooks that allows far more efficient fishing than hollowed out logs or flax fibres.
    
    Or the introduction of the wheel, so Maori can get around in their Ford Rangers?
    
    Yes Maori were treated poorly by the British not complying with their obligations particularly around land. But Maori also gained huge advantages from colonisation, none of which are ever recognised.
    
    I also look at every other colonised nation. Not only by the British, but also other likely contenders at the time, the French and the Dutch. Is there any other post-colonial country Maori would rather live in, because life there is so much better? Angola? Nigeria? South Africa? The Phillipines? Ask some of them their parent’s stories about Japanese colonisation. Vietnam? Go to the museums in Hanoi or Saigon and look at how they were treated under French rule.
    
    On balance, Maori have huge advantages over most colonised populations, and have zero disadvantages in law or society compared to other New Zealand citizens.
    
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    May 4, 2025 11:22am
  - Sparrow
    
    Mike is just stating the situation at that time he is not offering an opinion. So why does he always get all these downticks ? I guess I will get loads of downticks because I am asking why. Bizarre
    
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    May 4, 2025 2:39pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Sparrow: You are new here I think…hang around for a few weeks and you will learn why Mike Many Names gets downticked, often to the point where his comments disappear.
      
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      May 4, 2025 6:00pm
- Philview
  
  I enjoy Chris’s writing but does surprise me how he seems to write different viewpoints on the same topic. I have noticed in his new substack that he argues with strong modern left wing viewpoints in the comments. He is old school Left but anti Woke.
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:56am
  - kowtow
    
    Yes , I suspect much of his unease is really about how old school cloth cap industrial socialism has been derailed and now seems to concentrate / be concerned less with the marxist dialectic and more with new fangled “identity” stuff .ie race and gender , which is more soft middle class type concern .
    
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    May 4, 2025 12:18pm
- Yvette
  
  And, Sparrow, is there an element of – not only is a greater anti-Apartheid driven guilt here, because the “indigenous” group are “our” perpetual victims: Maori? – but if middle class liberals and “academics” ignore the “Maori position”, they make a lie of their earlier stance in 1981?
  
  And being history 44 years ago (better part of half a century, for argument sake) is it enough in the past to not be the lived experience of those who the academics now influence?
  
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  May 4, 2025 10:58am
- pdm
  
  Chris Trotter is usually a good read whether you agree with him or not.
  
  He may be a longstanding Labour `diehard’ but, what he writes is usually objective and well thought out.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:20am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agree. He refuses to sell his most valuable asset, his integrity.
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:19pm
    - Keith White
      
      He doesn’t have integrity, he simply sways with the prevailing wind for traffic.
      
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      May 4, 2025 5:36pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  If someone is fundamentally anti-White, it is logical for them to back any anti-White cause, although invariably concealed as being a pro-non-White cause.
  
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  May 4, 2025 11:31am
Ghost

Bloody hell, 14 children arrested.

The body of Layton Carr was found after a fire started at Fairfield industrial park in Gateshead, Northumbria Police said.

After the fire was extinguished emergency services found the body believed to be the teenager who was reported missing yesterday evening.

Eleven boys and three girls aged between 11 and 14 were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Article
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May 4, 2025 11:22am
- Keith White
  
  It’s interesting, for some awful values of interesting, how the media resolutely refuse to identify the ethnicity of the perpetrators.
  
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  May 4, 2025 5:34pm
  - rouppe
    
    I’m not going to jump to any conclusions just yet.
    
    Monsters come in all kinds.
    
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    May 4, 2025 9:54pm
I remember when

In Kentucky 147,406 people turned up to watch the Kentucky Derby run in a ‘sea of mud.’
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May 4, 2025 11:54am
I remember when

Fact. The Treaty of Waitangi gave Maori the rights of a British citizen.
How much more equal can you be?
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May 4, 2025 11:58am
- Keith White
  
  Tribal ‘elites’ be channeling Georgy Orwell:
  
  “All animals be equal, bro — but we wanna be more equal than youse others.”
  
  10 1
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  May 4, 2025 1:02pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    The ability for the Maori race to regenerate has gone, the race is anthropologically extinct due to assimilation.
    
    This is the appropriate time to retire the treaty, otherwise we will just end up arguing with ourselves.
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:31pm
- MCōs
  
  Not quite right
  The English version
  Article the third
  In consideration thereof Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects.
  An English translation of the Maori version
  The Third
  For this agreed arrangement therefore concerning the government of the Queen, the Queen of England will protect all the ordinary people of New Zealand and will give them the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England.
  So the English version refers to ‘natives’ and ‘Rights and Privileges of British Subjects’
  My first passport describes me as a British Subject
  One can argue all day if that translation of the Maori version is correct, but it’s not the same as the original English version
  
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  May 4, 2025 2:38pm
AitchW

Maggy, I owe you an apology. Yesterday I called you “Maggie”.
It was careless of me and I apologise unreservedly.
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May 4, 2025 1:04pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m only Maggy because that’s the spelling my husband mistakenly used when he engraved our wedding rings.
  
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  May 4, 2025 1:25pm
  - Ghost
    
    And he survived. Lucky man
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:28pm
  - AitchW
    
    Hmmm then I must be 9ct……
    
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    May 4, 2025 1:29pm
David Garrett

Trump is becoming more and more deranged by the day…Now he fancies himself as the new pope FFS

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360676121/trump-draws-criticism-ai-image-himself-pope-ahead-papal-conclave
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May 4, 2025 1:37pm
- Ghost
  
  It’s alright David, I have faith that these Cardinals won’t elect trump. Uh, well we better try the Nuns then
  
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  May 4, 2025 2:09pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Ghost: Of course not…but should the leader of the world’s largest democracy really be acting like the class clown?
    
    I truly belive the man is deranged and not just a clown
    
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    May 4, 2025 2:31pm
- CJames
  
  No David. He is just doing another one of his trolls and all the TDS people fell for it. At least if he got the job it would provide an answer to “is the Pope a catholic? No different to JD Vance hinting Marco Rubio should get the job in a tweet. Trump’s supporters must be rolling in the aisles laughing at how much indignation he causes. I was going to put the word righteous in there but that would be two much of a pun.
  What wasn’t a troll was the Democrat who suggest a Muslim should get the job.
  
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  May 4, 2025 2:09pm
  - David Garrett
    
    CJ: I believe most thinking Americans- including many republicans – will be cringing at his bizarre behavior
    
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    May 4, 2025 2:34pm
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      It ain’t 2016 anymore, that’s for sure. Trump has become a caricature of his former self, like an aging rock star going through the same old moves, but doing them poorly. Whoever is advising him on this stuff needs to be fired.
      
      I just want him to build a wall, forcibly deport millions of illegals, make legal immigration net zero (or net negative), stop the foreign wars, stop the foreign influence in US politics and so on …. like he promised 9 or 10 years ago, but never did.
      
      Sure, he’s had a rough 8 or 9 years (and it shows), but as I began this comment, it ain’t 2016 anymore, that’s for sure, no matter how much MAGA people pretend it is.
      
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      May 4, 2025 2:48pm
    - Keith White
      
      Is it anywhere near as bizarre and offensive as perverted drag queens in children’s libraries, and trans-men crippling biological females in sports contests?
      
      No, it is not.
      
      So, be quiet in the cheap seats… and silently downtick away 🙂
      
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      May 4, 2025 2:49pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Keith: I never downtick…I see it as childish. The ” perverted drag queens” you refer to are not leaders of the largest democracy in the world…they are just irrelevant weirdos.
        
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        May 4, 2025 3:16pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        “Is it anywhere near as bizarre and offensive as perverted drag queens in children’s libraries, and trans-men crippling biological females in sports contests?”
        
        So, we are now reduced to who is less cringe than the other, all the while both being cringe? We’re so back! Are we tired of winning yet?
        
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        May 4, 2025 3:21pm
      - MCōs
        
        You can compare the most powerful man in the world to a drag queen if you want.
        Personally I’m more inclined to Trump’s actions to Napoleon crowning himself emperor, which in his case marked the start of his decline
        
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        May 4, 2025 4:30pm
      - surfing
        
        So Trump put himself as the pope and imposed 140% tariffs on China because drag queens are in libraries?
        
        You seem to have conflated different issues.
        
        3 6
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        May 4, 2025 4:41pm
    - kowtow
      
      Now we know why the Vatican City is exempted from his tarrifs.
      
      1 1
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      May 4, 2025 5:55pm
    - rouppe
      
      It was a piss take. Poor taste? Probably.
      
      Do you remember our then Prime Minister referring to Trump as “a professional arsehole” and “not as orange as I thought he’d be”?
      
      Don’t remember any outrage then.
      
      Do you not remember Andrew Little being portrayed as some sort of deity by the adoring media?
      
      After the dogged defence by the same media entities of Te Papa displaying the Madonna in a condom, I couldn’t give two shits what the media make of Trump.
      
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      May 4, 2025 9:46pm
  - sungsamning
    
    They are. The trump presidency is my fave reality show.
    
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    May 4, 2025 9:40pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I’m looking forward to Trump’s similar stunt the next time there is a vacancy for Ayatollah. Whether or not he caused it.
  
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  May 4, 2025 2:49pm
  - CJames
    
    Now that would be a massive troll.
    
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    May 4, 2025 3:10pm
Keith White

“Sweden had the loosest COVID-19 restrictions in the developed world.

“California had among the harshest.

“Sweden’s life expectancy continues to increase.

“California’s has not recovered.

“Then and now, we knew that lockdowns kill. We imposed them anyway.

Link to the visual:

https://x.com/kevinnbass/status/1918579973016698978
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May 4, 2025 2:46pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360669080/liam-lawson-plagued-battery-issues-miami-grand-prix-qualifying
Poor Liam: everyone seems determined to take him down, even his own team !
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May 4, 2025 4:18pm
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/orewa-attack-mum-rushing-from-dubai-after-son-seriusly-assaulted-in-orewa-police-hunting-vehicle/53NWM4SIGVGQJOFJASIZZTALBQ/

These types of attacks seem pretty frequent. I wonder when rich foreigners will figure out that New Zealand has far too many malcontents who want other peoples stuff. Things will get worse before they get better, I think.
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May 4, 2025 4:38pm
Keith White

Admiral Josh Painter was entirely correct:

“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”

Because, we don’t sentence murderers to death or
actual, realistic, imprisonment for life – because our judges are weak, spineless, virtue-signalling effeminate idiots.
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May 4, 2025 5:33pm
greybeard

The Highlanders’ lineouts were absolute rubbish, and the mistake by their No.22 at the end when his kick was charged-down by the M.P player was unforgiveable.
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May 4, 2025 6:40pm
pb

All American Presidents whom suffered serious assassinations attempts were proponents of the “American System of Political Economy”.

Trump is dancing on the head of a pin.

Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, JFK, Abraham Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley line up like Jedi Ghosts: Strike me down and we will become even more powerful!

Globalist proxy weenies don’t even understand.
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May 4, 2025 10:59pm

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