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May 10, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 10 May 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

Breathless reporting from that scurrilous rag The Herald: “The Government spent more than $20,000 flying one of US President Donald Trump’s former aides, Chris Liddell, to Auckland to speak at its investment summit.”

Liddell is one of NZ’s best business leaders. He had a successful career here and in America and then was a key member of the Trump administration team, holding the place together amidst turmoil. Why do our newspapers persist in this gotcha reporting? and of course Labour’s Kieran McAnulty also got into the act, with a snide comment. McAnulty told the Herald: “Spending $20k on flights for Trump’s former (deputy) Chief of Staff to speak at a dinner more than raises eyebrows.” He said Luxon calling Liddell “mate” would be “salt in the wounds” to Kiwi exporters and workers hit by tariffs implemented by Trump.

We should be celebrating Liddell and delighted that he’d give his time gratis in the interests of this country. NZ paid his airfare; he paid all of his his other expenses.

Sometimes aspects of this country are embarrassing.
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May 10, 2025 8:02am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Air NZ is an SOE. You’d think that McAnulty would be happy to have the extra revenue.
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:07am
- kowtow
  
  Ah but that’s the Herald for you.
  
  Today’s front page screaming headline offering is a petty dispute in a school . A non event . Peppered with poor English such as “staffers” ( I thought we were meant to hate the Yanks and all things mimmicking them) and ‘student’ , instead of ‘pupil’.
  
  The Herald is embarrasing.
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:28am
  - artemisia
    
    Those unhappy at the EGGS prison will be working with their parent/s to move to a different school. Right?
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:01am
    - Paulus
      
      There is huge competition in getting girls to EGGS anyway.
      After all didn’t Helen Clark go there ?
      
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      May 10, 2025 4:01pm
  - R
    
    Since the disaffected ‘staffer’ (teacher? ) will now have resigned from the ideological school, the problem will be resolved.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:45am
- Albie
  
  This country has a lot of growing up to do Cassandra, that’s for sure. Our continued childish ban on nuclear powered vessels in 2025 is just another example.
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:32am
  - kowtow
    
    As an aside , I think we were once “grown up”.
    
    But have been infantilised .
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:48am
- Positan
  
  McAnulty only lowers rational opinion of himself almost every time he makes an utterance.
  An archetypical, unimpressive candidate for Labour leadership …
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:06am
  - AitchW
    
    Typical Labour dolt, barking at every passing car.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:31am
- Tom Hunter
  
  It’s called battle-space preparation – our MSM can now tie the NZ business community to Trump via the figure of Liddell and of course already have the perception that the business community is tied to National (which National naturally enough encourages, and good on them).
  
  So in 2026 we’ll see a steady drumbeat of MSM accusations/snide implications, fully supported by Labour-Green gargoyles, that National is Trump-like and “you’re voting for Trump”. They’ll likely even try and smear Luxon as such, which will be hilarious, and bad, if they can pull it off.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:28am
  - Mike
    
    Interesting. Tom doesn’t think National should be ‘Trump-like’. Is this an inadvertent repudiation of his hero?
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:45am
  - Paulus
    
    Today I see that the Herald is making it quite clear that the new US born Pope will lead the attack on Trump primarily.
    Are we expect the new Pope will forgo all the other members of some 1.5 billion Catholics to attack Trump, which he has done so earlier before rising to what appears to have been a foregone conclusion if the election may appear likely.
    The late Pope, I understand, brought him in to be a Cardinal, and worked very closely together, hence the conclusion.
    Please God the Herald and such pages should be ashamed of themselves, again again and again.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:46am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Must have missed something -I thought Trump was the new Pope.
      
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      May 10, 2025 9:49am
    - kowtow
      
      Funny innit , all year round it’s a media Bash the Papist Fest .
      
      Then when it suits they’re all onside with the Popish pedos.( as they’d have us believe).
      
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      May 10, 2025 9:54am
  - R
    
    Tom, you are crediting the Opposition with too much intelligence. You only have to look at yesterday’s ‘rent a crowd’ protest slogans to get a measure of the collective intelligence to organize a convincing campaign.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:50am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Exactly, full of red clothes and union placards
      
      The same idiots we’re at the health protests the week before, the same sour faces, reports not a sign of one person 5 mins before the protest, not a sign of one person after the video was taken, and the very same red and placards
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:26pm
- R
  
  McAnulty is a likable sounding chapm but hardly one who would be called bright. No real world management nor entrepreneurship experience.
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:41am
  - Debsta
    
    R your definition of likeable is obviously very different to mine. McAnulty sounds like an odious [deleted] every time he opens his mouth.
    
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    May 10, 2025 12:00pm
- bennerg
  
  From Wikipedia …
  
  Christopher Liddell CNZM is a New Zealand-American businessperson who served as chief financial officer of Microsoft, the vice chairman of General Motors, senior vice president and CFO of International Paper, director and chairman of Xero and the White House deputy chief of staff in the first Trump administration.
  
  Plus a whole lot more, that makes anything McAnulty has done pale into complete insignificance.
  
  Considering Ardern charges US$200,000 appearance fee, NZ$20,000 is a pretty good deal.
  
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  May 10, 2025 2:06pm
Yvette

Treaty-free – NZF/National legislation purge, existing and future law?

Will the NZF/National Coalition-agreed purge action of Treaty/‘Principles’ in legislation, apply to Parliament foisting adoption of “tikanga” on all the nation’s legislators as a matter of Treaty Principles, and on all law they may attempt to pass?
________________
As a woman visiting the Kremlin asked “Was communism first constructed by scientists or politicians” when told “Politicians, of course” she responded “Yes, I thought so. If it was scientists, they would have tried it on rats first!” so I think if “tikanga” is to be introduced to Parliament, they should test it on te Pati Maori and the Labour Maori Caucus first. and the rest can watch.
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May 10, 2025 8:05am
- Mike
  
  Which aspects of tikanga do you imagine TMP and the Maori caucus don’t already use?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:47am
  - pdm
    
    They will only use the parts convenient to them and their current agenda.
    
    Everything else will be discarded until some future time when it may suit their then activist crusade.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:06am
  - rouppe
    
    Women sitting at the back, and not allowed to speak
    
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    May 10, 2025 12:18pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Mike, the bits that are obviously based on superstition or pseudo-science (especially when it comes to looking after their own health and well being when they need safe and effective medical treatment)?
    
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    May 12, 2025 1:24am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Winter sport is blamed for heavy traffic in Wellington, and roadworks.

“Team members / parents could think about doing more car sharing to reduce the overall traffic volumes and the fight for parking at the sports venues.”

Sound advice, but when the problem is caused by the removal of lanes and parking by the imposition of cycleways, it rings hollow.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/560531/wellingtonians-warned-of-heavy-weekend-traffic
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May 10, 2025 8:05am
- Mike
  
  Do you think traffic volumes are increasing? And are any venues for community sport actually reducing parking?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:48am
  - R
    
    No, but the usable capacity of the streets has been very much reduced, and littered with obstacles to free traffic flow
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:57am
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Indeed. Blind Freddy – and drivers using the ever-constricted infrastructure – know this. I suspect Mike does too.
      
      Add the continued removal of on-street parking, and the net result is increasingly pissed-off drivers, with added time and cost to everyday activities.
      
      It’s not kind, it does not improve the wider environment nor local productivity, and it’s negatively affecting local economies.
      
      As ever, cui bono? A handful of cyclists with a messiah complex, who don’t get about much in the wind and the rain.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:33pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Yes, Mike, parking at sports venues is certainly decreasing.
    
    Case in point: Wakefield Park in Berhampore / Island Bay has two turf fields with floodlights on which a lot of ratepayer funds has been spent. There are two grass fields also. There’s a small carpark, which is ok for mid week. On Saturdays there can be up to 16 teams on site. It was always the case that there was on-street parking, until the advent of the dreaded cycleways.
    
    Anderson Park (next to the Botanical Gardens) is a similar example, where the Bowen St / Glenmore St cycleways have removed on street parking. There are others.
    
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    May 10, 2025 1:44pm
- R
  
  The AUCKLAND Council transport policy disease is obviously alive and well in Wellington too
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:53am
Philview

I agree but your final word embarrassing could be changed to subversive. Essentially we have a ideological subversive undercurrent that manifests here particularly in the media.
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May 10, 2025 8:09am
Scott

Joe Biden is back in the media spotlight having just done an exceedingly polite and deferential interview with the hosts of The View.
Joe still believes he would have won the 2024 election and he blames sexism for the Harris loss.

Biden attempted to lay out his case for why he would have won in 2024, but did not succeed.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/biden-blames-harris-loss-on-sexist-gop-in-barely-comprehensible-appearance-on-the-view/

“Look, I, you know, every time I’ve been on the show, which you’ve been, I’ve been fortunate to be on more than once, you, thanks for having me, is that we talk [indecipherable] you guys don’t focus on as much, and I think it’s good, um, polling numbers,” he said. “But, uh, let me put it this way. [Trump] has had the worst hundred days any president’s ever had.”

Two things from me. First of all the former president is unmistakably suffering cognitive decline and now after the fact there are many books coming out documenting the decline. I still want to know, who was in charge during the Biden administration? When did his staffers decide to shield him from the press and the public and who made the decisions and fired up the autopen? No one has actually answered the question of who was calling the shots?

Secondly you might ask yourself why is Biden doing this? He’s a very old man who should be relaxing quietly at home.

According to reporter Mark Halperin, the entity known as Biden Inc has run out of money. The Biden grandchildren are used to a very good standard of living and the money has dried up. So Biden is back out there, showing us all “The big guy” still has the ability to rake in the dollars and provide for the lavish lifestyle of the Biden clan.
Personally I would prefer never to hear from Joe Biden again.
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May 10, 2025 8:13am
- lifesgood
  
  I think it’s fairly obvious Obama was running the show. It had his dirty finger prints all over it and he was often by Biden’s side guiding him. Is that a normal thing for a past president to do?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:30am
  - Don Beckett
    
    @Scott. Thanks for taking one for the team – even looking at the faces on The View makes me near vomit.
    
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    May 10, 2025 12:01pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  I’m largely disinterested in what Biden has to say, but it’s hardly unusual for past presidents to pop up on talk shows.
  
  Also of note that for a ‘very old man’ he is only four years older than the current president.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:47am
  - David Garrett
    
    You are uninterested mate…disinterested means being impartial…totally different meaning.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:24am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      [Mod – cut out your usual personal abuse or this account will go the way of your last]
      
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      May 10, 2025 10:28am
    - Northshoredoc
      
      Yes good point David.
      
      I appreciate your pedantry.
      
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      May 10, 2025 11:06am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I thought disinterest could also mean lack of interest or indifference. IE the “politics doesn’t interest me, duh!” state.
      
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      May 12, 2025 1:30am
  - Scott
    
    Northshoredoc, if you are going to convince me that you are a right leaning person you’re going to have to start saying some sensible right leaning things?
    
    Trump at 78 is moving at great speed to reform America including:
    – major peace talks with Ukraine and Israel
    – tariff deals with dozens of countries
    – repeal of DEI
    – setting up DOGE to cut govt waste
    – cutting federal funding to anti semetic institutions like Harvard
    – closing the southern border
    – mass deportations
    
    He has signed more executive orders in 100 days than any president in history.
    
    Biden took more days off than any other president and was only available for meetings between 10am and 3pm.
    
    You just can’t compare the two when it comes to energy and productivity or by any other measure.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:58am
    - Northshoredoc
      
      I don’t need to convince you of anything Scott.
      
      In your world right-leaning = must say Trump is brilliant and post obsequious nonsense ad nauseam.
      
      Frankly, I find your behaviour somewhat cringeworthy.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:38pm
  - bennerg
    
    “Also of note that for a ‘very old man’ he is only four years older than the current president.”
    
    Age is not just measured in years. One of my grandmathers died at 96, and up until the last day was sharp as a tack (in the real, not Biden sense). I’ve had other relatives who lost it in their 60’s.
    
    Trump is out there, conversing with reporters, giving replies I feel totally comfortable with. Biden on the other hand made me squirm, knowing the guy was a “sandwich short of a cut lunch”, or as the Aussies say “a kangaroo loose in the top paddock”.
    
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    May 10, 2025 2:13pm
- Mike
  
  Seeing Biden must trigger you with memories of Biden beating your idol like a drum in 2020.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:50am
  - Scott
    
    Mikey mate – you’ve hit a nerve there! As every good and righteous person knows the 2016 election was totally fixed by Donald Trump who colluded with Russia and was in the pocket of Vladimir Putin and deprived the wonderful Hillary Clinton of her rightful turn as president. That was the official narrative for 3 years from CNN and all the mainstream media outlets.
    They were of course wrong and there was no collusion.
    
    However unabashed by their failure in 2016 the very same outlets have insisted the 2020 election was totally secure and Biden really did get 81 million votes, the highest of any presidential candidate in history, even though he barely campaigned, never left his basement and when he did could barely fill a high school gymnasium and even then was showing unmistakable signs of cognitive decline.
    
    So yes the memory of Biden winning the election in 2020 is still painful but hey let’s look on the bright side. Biden paved the way for Trump to win the presidency, the house, the Senate and the supreme Court. Trump is winning bigly. So much winning. 😎
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:49am
    - Mike
      
      Only morons think either election was fixed.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:36pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        What’s your explanation for the large increase in the voter count in 2020, followed by the fall back to the curve in 2024, Mike? Genuine question.
        
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        May 10, 2025 1:50pm
      - Ghost
        
        In 2020 154.6 million people Voted
        
        In 2024. 154 million people Voted
        
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        May 10, 2025 2:00pm
      - Scott
        
        Ghost – Just went to Wikipedia. They show that in the 2024 election the votes for Trump added to votes for Harris equalled 152,320,193.
        
        In 2020 the votes for Trump added to the votes for Biden equalled 155,507,476.
        
        So the difference is 3,187,283. What that means is that over 3 million less people voted in 2024 as compared to 2020. That seems strange to me?
        
        Having read extensively on the 2020 election there were many problems. Huge amounts of mail in ballots sent indiscriminately, the use of voting machines, ballot harvesting, Dinesh Dsouza’s 2000 mules, counting votes at the dead of night when everyone else had gone and the decision to stop counting in 6 swing states and then in morning the lead that Trump had disappeared and suddenly Biden was in front. In all 6 swing states that had for some reason stopped counting?
        
        I think the 2020 election was shonky as heck.
        
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        May 10, 2025 3:11pm
      - Ghost
        
        Pass, I’ll stick with the US Census Bureau over wiki.
        
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        May 10, 2025 3:18pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Hillary is a moron then Mike, according to you.
        
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        May 12, 2025 1:33am
  - Manu-Rau
    
    (Cough)
    
    Biden and 15 million first-time voters, who all disappeared without a trace in November 2024.
    
    Fixed it for you.
    
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    May 10, 2025 11:42am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360676481/our-kids-deserve-better-reality-raising-children-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder
Seems that getting drunk frequently is still acceptable for pregnant women?
Even though fetal alcohol syndrome has been a recognised risk for years and years?
From the article:
“A Ministry of Health report released last year estimated over half of the total societal cost of alcohol harms in 2023 was due to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder – $4.8 billion.”
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May 10, 2025 8:21am
- artemisia
  
  Apparently it’s not the mother’s fault because, according to the caregiver interviewed – “But the reality is, in our country, a lot of people don’t know they have fallen pregnant..”.
  
  A lot? More to the point very very few know that unprotected sex may result in pregnancy but go ahead anyway. Do they know they shouldn’t drink if expecting? Of course they do. But go ahead anyway.
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:33am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I feel desperately sorry for the kids concerned. A lack of self control seems to be characteristic of FAS people. Their lives are limited, and they often end up in jail for doing dumb things that hurt other people. And, FAS cascades down through the generations, because dumb people do dumb things.
  
  Would it be fascist of me to advocate that both mothers of FAS children and the FAS children themselves are sterilised, in the interest of the greater community?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:01am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is preventable.
    But is a condition that doesn’t make many headlines and the people who cause it are seldom held to account.
    And as reported in the article, it is Grandma who is left to try to make the best of bringing up a damaged child.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:55am
    - Dougal10
      
      Currently grandmas busy are bringing up meth affected children which is the next surge of the welfare state of no personal responsibility.
      
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      May 10, 2025 10:03am
Yvette

Treaty-free – NZF/National legislation purge, existing law but and future law as well?

New Zealand’s future may be that of a prosperous first-world liberal democratic nation or a third-world, retribalised state. A first world tribal nation is a contradiction in terms. It is not possible. There can be no prosperity without individual equality and freedom. There can be no social equality without prosperity.

We are at a crossroads. The value of the [Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi] Bill is that it not only forces us to confront this fact but allows us to do so within the parliamentary select committee process rather than through cultural posturing, intimidation, perhaps even violence. The very existence of the Bill is liberal democracy in action
– Prof Elizabeth Rata, a curriculum expert at the University of Auckland
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/elizabeth-rata-oral-presentation-to-the-parliamentary-justice-committee-on-the-principles-of-the-tr

Now that the Treaty Principles Bill itself has helped augment existing argument about the Treaty, it is time for the NZF/National Coalition Agreement, of removing Treaty and Principles from legislation where it is not essential, to apply to a rewrite of ACT’s introduced and rejected Principles bill, so it emerges Treaty-free to be a simple but enforceable reference to the Human Rights Bill – respecting the right of Government to Govern [1], protection of private legally-held property, and equal voting rights , and civic responsibilities for all New Zealanders.

___________________
[1] sovereignty: Christopher Luxon says Maori did cede sovereignty, Hipkins says they did not, and Ardern appears to have not known what they signed unless Willie told her –
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/07-02-2019/if-jacinda-doesnt-know-the-treaty-what-hope-is-there-for-the-rest-of-us
“Hold us to account. Because one day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here. Only you can tell me when I have done that” – Dame Ardern, before she tanked out
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-jacinda-ardern-hold-me-to-account-when-i-return-to-waitangi/WFKF4IMFHEFL6L5AD3NQ6GY4OU/
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May 10, 2025 8:22am
- Mike
  
  A first world tribal nation is a contradiction in terms.
  
  Israel has entered the chat.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:52am
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Oftentimes, we can deduce more about politics by observing the exceptions rather than the rule.
    
    We indeed may well ask: why is Israel the only “first world” nation specifically and explicitly designed along tribal ethnic lines? This seems to be taken as a given, whereas any other “first world” nation trying the same thing and not being as liberal, cosmopolitan and open as possible would be denounced as fascistic.
    
    And why do so many on the “conservative” side of things mock and deride “the left” for their identity politics, while being staunch supporters of Zionism, an archetypical expression of identity politics?
    
    Since it’s a Saturday morning, I suggest we try to reconcile and get to the root of these clear inconsistencies by the end of the day.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:25am
    - Mike
      
      Maybe there are ‘good’ ehtnostates and ‘bad’ ethnostates.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:37pm
      - Culture War Criminal
        
        Yes, this must be the case. But who gets to distinguish the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’ ethnostates and expressions of identity politics?
        
        “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception” – Carl Schmitt.
        
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        May 10, 2025 2:47pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Approx 50% of the population are not Jews Mike.
        So the ethnostate thing is a clearly a big fat stinking lie.
        
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        May 12, 2025 1:37am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Mahia Tamiefuna’s conviction for aggravated robbery was quashed because a photo of him taken in an unrelated event (he was a passenger in a car driven by an unlicensed driver; his photo was uploaded to a police database where, from his clothing, he was matched to the recent robbery). The argument is that the photo shouldn’t have been taken or stored because the police officer was not investigating a specific crime.

On that basis, how can CCTV footage be used as evidence?

Though walking free on this occasion, the good news is that Mr Tamiefuna will undoubtedly appear before the courts in future, because people who commit aggregated robbery, hang around with unsavoury people and don’t regularly/ frequently change their clothes always do. We and the judge in this case can only hope that no innocent is harmed before that happens.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/09/the-traffic-stop-and-the-unlawful-police-photo-that-wrongly-sent-a-man-to-prison/
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May 10, 2025 8:27am
- Dougal10
  
  If the police had body cams that recorded everything would that have been more acceptable to the lefty judge.
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:05am
- R
  
  Wonder how well the judge sleeps at night after such a irresponsible decision. Seems to me that there maybe quite a few judges in this situation
  
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  May 10, 2025 11:04am
- Colville
  
  Its the same argument as why the cameras in (traffic) police cars were disabled.
  
  They were able to photo everyone they passed and if it was the fourth car from them that was speeding they would have a pic of the numberplate before they started chasing.
  
  Its presuming everyone will be guilty so gathering evidence before anyone does the crime. The problem is they are gathering personal details of 99.99% of people who are doing nothing wrong and the cops are not entitled to do that.
  
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  May 10, 2025 11:22am
  - kowtow
    
    I look forward to the judges striking down every single drink driving case based on the state’s any time any where stops w/o reasonable cause …….
    
    ( yeah I know)
    
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    May 10, 2025 11:55am
NK

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/tauranga-flood-map-update-a-win-for-landowners-developers-after-court-case/I6WCTCPWXBASDMHOSHRKKNHULA/

This is very pleasing. More groups need to challenge this climate change flooding nonsense.
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May 10, 2025 8:31am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Hmm. The devil is in the detail. Undoubtedly, Papamoa is susceptible to flooding following heavy rain – 4 such events in the last 20 years. It’s a nice enough place on a sunny day, if you like that sandy kind of thing. Developers have been quick to cover the place in houses. But the Council is right to be concerned about warning newcomers to the area of the risk of flooding. The last things anyone wants are claims on the public purse following a red sticker event.
  
  Rising sea level warnings are something else, of course.
  
  However, the bigger concern for life & limb is from tsunamis. The whole BoP beachside is open to the north and east. Scientists think that six massive waves have hit the area in the last 5,000 years. It’s thought that the reason why there is limited oral history of the arrival of the Maori in this area is tied to their beachside communities being wiped out in a 15th century event. Low risk but massive impact.
  
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/six-tsunamis-have-rolled-into-bop-say-scientists/GT3LOGCRRS47RJAKEZCW2EUJIM/
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:53am
  - Paulus
    
    Papamoa is on a moving sand flood plane known as Liquifaction, as we saw in Christchurch which is no longer habitable.
    No further comment of risks involved and long term possibilities.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:53am
    - Don Beckett
      
      In the 2005 flood, I was developing several sites in Papamoa – 2 were badly flooded, but the rest, and the completed projects were okay.
      I grew up in Te Puke, a couple of miles inland. When I was a kid, these areas were farms & flood plains – the farms were often inundated, but the houses & farm buildings were built on slightly higher ground. Much draining has been done with pumping stations for excess water. However, there is evidence of tsunamis in the past washing right up to the foothills of the Papamoa hills between Te Puke & Tauranga, most recently I understand, around the 14th.century. There will be one again for sure, but who knows when.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:18pm
      - bennerg
        
        Also grew up in Te Puke, and as a kid remember every year travelling to the “big smoke” (Tauranga), when after a storm Papamoa was a lake.
        
        With tsunamis, even if alerted, the ways out are limited. People will hop in their cars and that will cause a massive traffic jam.
        
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        May 10, 2025 2:20pm
  - Mike
    
    Some of the despised matauranga apparently influenced the subsequent site of Maori habitations.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:54am
  - Colville
    
    Yip.
    I live on the beach in Hawkes Bay we figure we have a 50/50 chance if, at 2am, we are woken by a big quake (enough to break the house) and immediately chuck dog in the ute and drive. Probably get wet but not dead.
    
    A geotech engineer told me that there has been a seismic event at the Kermadecs that caused a wave large enough to push marine sediment 5kms inland in New Plymouth and the wave overtopped the Mahia peninsula. All of Auckland would have been gone.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:03am
NeverMindTheBollocks

The local iwi wants a piece of seaside land from the Council, presumably at no cost (no fee is mentioned in the story). It’s landlocked and is grazed by a neighbour. There’s a claim that there might be a cemetery there; no evidence was offered. Predictably, the unelected Council reps voted in favour of handing it over to their iwi; no one else did.

Breaking it down, two unelected people voted in favour of giving public assets to their extended family on the basis of unsubstantiated stories.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/07/council-rejects-wish-of-runanga-to-obtain-land/
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May 10, 2025 8:36am
- Cassandra
  
  Precisely. A very good example of why race-based appointments are objectionable. By any definition these Maoris should have been recused because of their conflict of interest.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:58am
- MCōs
  
  There are twelve elected Invercargill City Councillors who make the decisions
  The two manu whenua appointees don’t have voting rights at council meetings. They are there for advice and consultation and have speaking rights only.
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:04am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    There shouldn’t be rights given to speak and influence council decisions on the basis of race or because your ancestors were in NZ earlier than someone else’s. Being the first arrival or an earlier arrival doesn’t equate to superior decision making on the future of our society.
    
    If councils need advice they should request it as and when required. These race based influencers priority is the good of their racial group not the community at large. This is leading to a divided and weaker NZ.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:37am
    - pdm
      
      `There shouldn’t be rights given to speak and influence council decisions on the basis of race or because your ancestors were in NZ earlier than someone else’s.’
      
      I think it is worse than that PL.
      
      They have voting rights.
      
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      May 10, 2025 11:07am
    - MCōs
      
      In your opinion the the mana whenua representatives shouldn’t have been given speaking rights at council meetings, but the council disagreed and they have.
      In fact anyone can be given speaking rights when the council decides it’s appropriate
      Unelected people don’t have voting rights at council meetings, only at committee meetings
      https://www.icc.govt.nz/mana-whenua-representatives-announced/
      
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      May 10, 2025 3:10pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Yes Mcos, in my opinion I am as much a person of this land as any other kiwi. None of us mana whenua should have more influence than other kiwis. As such I disagree with all Councils, Government departments, institutions, organisations, schools, businesses who put part ancestors of people who arrived in NZ circa 1200ad in positions of authority or influence for that reason.
        
        Pick people for skills and talents when advice is needed. Elect our Council and Government representatives on the basis of democratic process but keep the divisive race crap and entitlement out of everything.
        
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        May 10, 2025 3:51pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The problem is the sheeple not getting off their arses come local election time to make sure lunatics are not elected into councils.
        
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        May 12, 2025 1:41am
  - Paulus
    
    Lucky Invercargill, to still have control.
    
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    May 10, 2025 4:09pm
Nukuleka

Yesterday I commented that my grandson has been taught at his Catholic high school that Maori practised cannibalism as a means of gaining the knowledge of those who were consumed. He has also been taught that enslavement was ok because the slaves were the bounty of victory in war, totally different, noble and more legitimate than the way whitey bought slaves to work in the cottonfields.

My grandson has not been taken in…
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May 10, 2025 8:48am
- David Garrett
  
  Nuku: Your grandson should taken OUT mate…out of the school that peddles such utter nonsense
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:56am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Good morning David – on this occasion your superior knowledge of the English language is not on display!
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:03am
    - David Garrett
      
      Pineapple: Ah yes.. missing the word “be”…but that’s just a typo mate…I don’t criticize others for them
      
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      May 10, 2025 9:36am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Sorry for the cheap shot.
        
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        May 10, 2025 9:45am
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        By reading this blog David has taught me more about the intricacies of English grammar than any card carrying member of the PPTA could ever teach me.
        
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        May 10, 2025 10:16am
      - David Garrett
        
        Tauhei: Assuming you are serious, I thank you.
        
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        May 10, 2025 10:26am
- Cassandra
  
  In the absence of much edible protein I think cannabilism’s knowledge properties might be recent rationalisation. But it’s well documented that it was also a sort of victory parade too.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:01am
  - Jigsaw
    
    Paul Moon in his book ‘This Horrid Practice’ states that he could find no evidence that cannabalism was in any way related to nutrition but simply because having beaten an oponent -eating him became the ultimate manner of degrading him.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:22am
    - Cassandra
      
      Yet there are reports of slaves being taken on war expeditions as livestock.
      
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      May 10, 2025 10:00am
    - Colville
      
      Jigsaw.
      A Chieftain here was captured, killed and evidently the worst insult possible was after eating him they made his bones into fish hooks! 🙂
      
      Talk about recycling!
      
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      May 10, 2025 10:07am
      - Jack5
        
        If there was a pre-Treaty colonial trader’s ship about you might have been able to swap the head for muskets.
        
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        May 10, 2025 12:19pm
- kowtow
  
  Funny innit, how some people will try to justify their particular peccadillo.
  
  Mary Beard , BBC Roman favouratti and multiculturalist , went to great lengths to educate us that the slaves held by her Romans were practically members of the family , so that’s OK then.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:01am
- Waipuk
  
  If it was all about “means of gaining the knowledge” why did they eat slaves and women?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:13am
- John Loveridge
  
  Did anybody eat Einstein? Serious missed opportunity for mankind there.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:20am
- Dave
  
  Did the teacher/written handout say,
  
  ‘Slavery was considered ok by pre-modern Maoris because…’
  
  Or
  
  ‘Slavery was ok because pre-modern Maoris…’
  
  The first is a conclusion about historical Maori society but the second a present and dodgy moral judgement.
  
  Of course, I have no idea what happened in the classroom, but it takes just a moment’s sloppy expression by the teacher or a moment’s inattention by the pupil to confuse the two. Given the originally proposalsed (no tribal wars!) for the NZ history curriculum and the widespread promotion of Maori wonderfulness, I have my suspicions, but that’s all they are.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:49am
  - Dave
    
    Oh dear. “Given the originally proposalsed (no tribal wars!) for …”
    
    I like to edit my comments for correcting typos and ambiguities but on my iPad, where I do 95% of my blog reading, the stamp-sized edit box does the editor no favours. That’s my excuse for today’s grammar destruction. Posts correctly written by others on mobile phone screens are heroic achievements.
    
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    May 10, 2025 11:29am
- Mike
  
  Context is all:
  “Slavery is okay because….”
  “Slavery was thought to be okay because…”
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:43am
- rouppe
  
  So are they saying that the Africans who gathered slaves within their own area, and brought them to the city were all OK. Even selling them, that was OK.
  
  But the whitey who subsequently bought those slaves are evil?
  
  I’d say:
  1. The whole world practiced slavery at that time. Africans in Africa, Muslims in Arabia, Romans all over the place, Egyptians, Spanish in south America…
  2. It was whitey who broke the slave trade. No one else.
  
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  May 10, 2025 12:36pm
- judith8409121
  
  you should get your grandson to ask – ‘is that also why they ate children that were infanticided or slaved, and fed the body parts of their slaves to their dogs.’ Also – ask ‘why they the chief of ngai tahu was stolen by members of ngati toa then tied to a tree and had parts of his body cut off and his eyes plucked out while still alive. Was that to ‘gain knowledge’?’ And, since these teachers are so informed he could also ask ‘ why did the girls of tribes get forced onto ships to be prostituted to gain items from them?’ I would like to know the answers of some of these questions from such a knowledgeable teacher.
  
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  May 10, 2025 1:25pm
- MCōs
  
  I don’t know what is currently taught at Catholic schools regarding cannibalism and slavery, but you would probably be aghast at the slant put on the activities of the various combatants in Ireland prior to independence back in my days at Marist Intermediate . . . . .
  
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  May 10, 2025 3:24pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Well by the time this story gets to me it’s your report of your grandson’s report of what a teacher said about what an illiterate society believed from about 200 years ago, so that’s about 4th hand. But if it’s about Maori beliefs at that stage of history then it’s perfectly accurate.
  
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  May 10, 2025 5:35pm
Yvette

New Zealand First – completing The First 100 Days Plan
Stopped all work on He Puapua

He Puapua

Purpose:  He Puapua is a report designed to outline a plan for realizing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in New Zealand.   

Development:  It was developed by a government working group in 2019 and was initially kept confidential.   

Controversy:  The report’s release in 2021 sparked significant controversy, with some arguing it could lead to a “two systems by stealth” and potentially create a Maori sphere of governance.   

Key Recommendations:  The report recommends incorporating and applying tikanga Māori in various areas, including law, courts, and governance.   

Tikanga:
• Definition: Tikanga refers to Māori customary values and practices.

• Significance: It plays a vital role in Māori culture, providing a framework for social behavior, decision-making, and governance.

• Application: The He Puapua report emphasizes the need to incorporate tikanga Māori into various aspects of New Zealand society, including law and governance.

Now that ‘tikanga’ is being inserted into New Zealand law (via, unfortunately, the Peter Ellis case – diminishing his mana, which the exceptional introduction of ‘tikanga’ was to protect) and Parliamentary procedures (again unfortunately, via te Pati Maori outrage of threatening sitting members while a vote was in progress, the Chairman having put the vote, no more debate – either oratory or, one assumes, ‘blood-curdling’ haka) are we to consider ‘tikanga’ as ‘Maori tikanga’ or as reconstituted ‘He Puapua tikanga’, or is there no difference?

He Puapua (‘A Break’) is a 2019 report commissioned by the New Zealand Government to inquire into and report on appropriate measures to achieve the goals set out by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Puapua

What does “Stopped all work on He Puapua” actually mean. And when is integrating ‘tikanga’ a part of UNDRIP and when is it not?

The only mention of ‘tikanga’ in the Treaty is “… nga tikanga katoa rite tahi ki ana mea ki nga tangata o Ingarani”being “… all the same rights and duties as the people of England”
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May 10, 2025 8:50am
- pdm
  
  I think PM Luxon rather likes He Puapua.
  
  That is why the enquiry into the Waitangi Tribunal investigation overseen by his staunch Lieutenants Potaka and Goldsmith will be a fizzer. It will not go anywhere near what voters in October 23 wanted.
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:15am
  - Colville
    
    I think the PM likes being the PM and will do what he needs to !
    
    Personally, anything that keeps the Greens out is fine with me , it may not be perfect but it could be an awful lot worse.
    
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    May 10, 2025 11:26am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      And don’t forget TPM. They want Māori to get the pension at 55 and you to pay for it, and a treaty commissioner to over rule parliament, what could possibly go wrong
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:38pm
    - Notsofast
      
      Replying to PDM
      
      What you are suggesting for the PM leans into the concept of treason.
      
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      May 10, 2025 2:36pm
Pineapple Lumps

If Maori knowledge is equivalent to western science and academia, why did Maori technologically regress?

Here are two examples of technological regression:
1. The inability to make clay pottery. A skill their ancestors the Lapita people had.
2. The inability to make ocean going sailing ships. A skill they had a few hundred years earlier used to migrate to NZ.
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May 10, 2025 9:00am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  1. A lack of suitable clay in the areas where the first immigrants settled, leaving the knowledge to die out due to lack of relevance.
  2. Nothing to go back to the old country for (particularly if they had been cast out as losers in a local war, as some traditions have it).
  
  Speculation on my part.
  
  As posted up thread, massive tsunamis in the 15th century are thought to have wiped out beachside communities in the BoP. Along with the inevitable results of regular war, loss of specialised knowledge must be common in oral cultures.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:07am
  - John Loveridge
    
    Very much in line with other material I’ve read on the subject of technological regression.
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:44am
  - CJames
    
    I would have thought Northland would be full of clay that could hold its shape when fired. Isn’t that what keeps falling on the road every time it rains
    
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    May 10, 2025 9:56am
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      CJames – Crown Lynn proves plenty of clay in Auckland where some of the 1st arrivals occurred. However, Lapita people migrated to pacific islands and from what I can tell the knowledge of pottery was lost there. This was prior to the Polynesian migration to NZ.
      
      Western civilisation has been very effective at retaining historical knowledge, building on this and spreading it around the globe. This is a treasure that the colonised activist people enjoy but fail to acknowledge.
      
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      May 10, 2025 10:26am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      One thing I noticed when going right up to Cape Reianga was, the last step up from Kaitiaia to the top the sides of the road the soil was red like in Aussie, I just wonder what types of ore is in that ground
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:41pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I just wonder what types of ore is in that ground
        
        Iron compounds
        
        That is an example of red-weathering… a temperature-dependent process in semi-tropical/tropical soils.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_soil#:~:text=Red%20soils%20are%20generally%20derived,on%20an%20alluvium%20red%20layer.
        
        Extraordinarily enuf… There’s red-weathered subsoils on the Wellington Peninsula (visible on road cuttings around Karori)… dating from times when Wellington had a subtropical climate!!!!
        
        https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12272/coloured-soils
        
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        May 10, 2025 5:19pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Nah, Maggy. No one’s gonna believe that!
        
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        May 10, 2025 6:20pm
  - Colville
    
    I was wandering around a seaside park in Auckland recently, I noticed all the volcanic rock. Reasonably even layers and rough so it would bind together. Māori didnt even stack that into walls for buildings. Really weird, but maybe its because they were semi nomadic either chasing food sources or being chased as they didnt want to be a food source?
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:11am
    - artemisia
      
      Skara Brae, the Scottish neolithic village, was way in advance of any early settlement here. Obviously not nomadic, but Maori lived in fortified settlements for extended periods.
      
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      May 10, 2025 11:17am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    NMTB – you are probably right about pottery – is there any clay in the pacific islands? But surely sailing ships would have enhanced fishing, trading and transportation in NZ? No lack of materials to craft ships.
    
    The Maori activist enjoys the privilege of thousands of years of western civilisation. Whenever they denigrate and belittle this it is a cynical power grab. We need to point this out at every opportunity. Westerners generously shared their taonga with Maori. This doesn’t make one race superior to another but it certainly rubbishes the lie that Maori have been held back by colonisation.
    
    The inability to hold onto historical knowledge also outs the lie that maori knowledge and ways of knowing are equivalent or superior to Western knowledge. That does not mean we should be arrogant and dismiss historic sources of knowledge or empirical ways. Humility is fundamental to learning, exploring and discovering knowledge.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:21am
    - rockape
      
      Lapita is still made but only on one island in Vanuatu. I traded for a few bits when I last sailed up there. No clay as you go east so the. Skill died out. Also there were plenty of gourds available that did the job with less work as did coconut shells and carved wooden bowls.
      
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      May 10, 2025 11:47am
      - Mike
        
        That’s more like it. Technological progress depends upon particular mixes of geographic and social factors. See, for example, Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel.
        
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        May 10, 2025 12:43pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Yes technological development depends on many factors and equally technological regression is dependent on many factors, one of the most important being the lack of development of writing so that information can be retained and passed on consistently and efficiently. Social factors include philosophy, world view and religion. These things that clearly held maori development back are now being touted as equivalent to the things that led to the advancement of Western Civilization. So I call BS on the concept that the Te Ao Mairi worldview, Maori religion, Maori knowledge and the ways of knowing are equivalent to Wedtern worldview, religion, knowledge and the ways of knowing. Only morons can’t see this as the activist power grab that it is!
        
        None of this is to say that I believe Western people are superior – but the civilisation and the factors for it clearly were superior. Forcing inferior concepts on NZ today is a regressive move for all but the activist elite.
        
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        May 10, 2025 4:02pm
    - Jack5
      
      Pottery in Polynesia – from Wallis and Futuna to Easter Island:
      
      https://farandawayadventures.com/wallis-and-futuna-the-art-of-polynesian-pottery/
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:24pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Skills have to be constantly practiced which means they have to be constantly needed or they’re lost, it really is as simple as that.
    And don’t think it only happens in simple illiterate societies either, it’s happening right now at the highest levels of modern societies.
    2 high-tech examples,
    (1) A crucial element for nuclear warheads codenamed FOGBANK. By the 2000s, nearly all personnel involved in its original production had retired or died. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spent $69 million and over a decade to recreate the technique.
    The Rocketdyne F-1 engine that powered the Saturn-V moon rocket, NASA had the blueprints but had to recreate the F-1 using recovered artifacts from the ocean floor and examples in storage. Again the old engineers from the 60s were long gone and had taken their institutional implicit knowledge with them.
    This is a real problem, in many ways we are going backwards.
    “On and On it seems to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.
    (Joni Mitchell)
    
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    May 10, 2025 6:23pm
- bennerg
  
  Pineapple Lumps says: “The inability to make ocean going sailing ships. A skill they had a few hundred years earlier used to migrate to NZ.”
  
  Well maybe the story told to us is incomplete, or altered to suit a narrative. Especially as there appear to be no remnants of such ocean going ships, only canoes. So maybe, just maybe they were “dropped off”, with the ocean going ships returning to their point of departure.
  
  Australia was a penal colony, and a convenient way to get rid of undesirables from the UK. So maybe New Zealand was the same for Polynesia?
  
  That would explain a lot of unanswered questions.
  
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  May 10, 2025 2:28pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    That’s a ludicrous suggestion.
    New Zealand is massive, the largest islands in Polynesian, full of valuable resources. An ocean going expedition is a huge undertaking.
    Why do all that work to give huge resources to undesirables who could just be killed, but not to yourself. Why transport women?
    Ludicrous.
    
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    May 10, 2025 6:29pm
Swifty

For those interested, an interview this week with Amy Ross, one of the leading brains behind NZ’s pay equity regime:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018986437/pay-equity-expert-on-government-changes

A few points:

1. I notice that at no stage of her fairly detailed explanation of the analysis behind pay equity claims is any mention of an employer’s ability to pay.

2. At no stage is there any mention of any downsides of pay equity regimes – and of which there are many.

3. I argue it is insanity, regardless of altruistic motives, to effectively wrest away from employers and business owners the ability to set pay levels and hand it to unaccountable, unelectable, virtuous do-gooders in Central Planning who have no skin in the game and suffer no consequences for their actions.

4. Just imagine the howls of outrage if a future government came along and legislated a cap to Amy Ross’ business’ hourly charge out rate for her time in an effort to achieve some sort of social good – rather than leaving it to market forces and her individual decision.

5. Over time this pay equity regime has the great potential to be an absolute nightmare of workers and their unions constantly chasing to close perceived gaps. Chasing their tails. Once they gain parity with some other group of workers, if that other group inches ahead through some reason (an unplanned increase in demand for that group) then suddenly the original group will lodge claims to be brought equal again.

It will be a never-ending, continual arms race of wages and salaries – an absolute nightmare for NZ businesses and organisations as well as consuming much of our time, dough and energies and huge numbers of bureaucrats which could be more productively used.

I read that towards the end the Soviet empire their economic ministry were managing the prices and the relativity between prices of over 28,000,000 individual goods and services. An absolutely unachievable nightmare and one which they failed miserably in doing.

This is where the left in NZ wish to take us – and I damn the politicians in NZ who have opened the door to this stuff.

Oh, and I’d bet my house that there are influential lefties in New Zealand who are looking ahead to a the next thing. Why stop at wages, let’s have the central planning of the pricing of goods and services.

We’ll call it ‘price equity’ and use it as a means to deliver economic justice to poor New Zealanders.
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May 10, 2025 9:05am
- artemisia
  
  Did the interview mention NEETs, automation or AI?
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:56am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The one thing the shills can not get through their heads is, comparing aged care workers with mechanics, it’s absolutely nuts, that issue is a wage negotiation, and that has nothing to do with this bill, until they get they through their heads then they are losing
  
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  May 10, 2025 12:45pm
- Jack5
  
  At Red Radio, a new front for Labour.
  
  School lunches, blah, blah, and now pay “equity”.
  
  It’s equity rather than equality, says the interviewer, and says there is inequitable pay for traditionally female jobs.
  
  The Woke are trying to push their meaning “of equity”. One Woke source says it’s ” the distribution of resources based on need.”
  
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  May 10, 2025 12:48pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    I’m still waiting for them to produce the woman who is paid less than a man…
    
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    May 10, 2025 3:25pm
Damocles11

Scandal after scandal in Tauranga, the city which has fallen into the clutches of wealthy and influential property developers and construction industry kingpins, and the avaricious local politicians that are eager to do their bidding. First and foremost has been the sale of the Marine Precinct to Christchurch based developer Sam Rofe for a comparative pittance compared to its actual value, an astonishingly bad deal that looks to have displaced the local fishing industry while at the same time committing the Council (local ratepayers) to fund the cost of the development of an alongside wharf and a replacement of the existing Bridge Wharf.
Then there are the new Council offices, built on land the Council sold for $8.5 million and now being leased back to the Council for $91.9 million over a 15 year term. Developer Willis Bond and construction company LT McGuinness are laughing all the way to the bank. The palatial all-timber building features stunning views of the Mauao and Kamai Ranges from the Mayors office, while the architect said level two was her favourite floor because it felt like you were in the pōhutukawa tree growing on the harbour side of the building. The tree inspired the interior colour palette, earth tones mirroring the trunk on lower floors, then blue to represent the harbour, green like the leaves, with the top floors red like pōhutukawa in bloom. The pōhutukawa was also a sacred symbol of the past, present and future for mana whenua, she said. Council CEO Marty Grenfell said the $33.5m interior fit-out was a “very modest spend and complete value for money”.
Next up is the $300+ million ‘Te Manawataki o Te Papa’ Civic Precinct which will feature an expensive collection of white elephant buildings including a ‘civic whare’, exhibition centre, and museum, and with annual running costs estimated at over $30 million dollars. All of this before the inevitable cost overruns.
Local property development honcho Scott Adams is the MD of Carrus Corporation and is Chairperson of the property developer lobby group Urban Task Force. He recently fessed up to ‘shoulder tapping’ Mahe Drysdale into running for Mayor. Many of the same people sit on the boards of both Urban Task force and the local economic development vehicle Priority One. Marty Grenfell is also on the board of Priorty One.
In other news, Tauranga City Council is facing a debt crisis, with total debt reaching $1.1 billion and gross tax-supported debt expected to be 309% of operating revenues by 2027. This has led to a proposed 12% increase in rates for the 2025/26 financial year.
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May 10, 2025 9:12am
- Colville
  
  Personally I like Council leasing buildings rather than owning them. Councils are the worst developers on the face of the earth, massive cost overruns and buildings that fail quickly and need to be torn down.
  A developer who is leasing the building to council will be a lot more careful with cost overruns and a lease is within councils ability to negotiate as an outside agency will do it for them.
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:15am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes – I had recently returned from Australia in 1990, & worked as a carpenter for Hawkins Construction on the building & car park of the council buildings in Willow St. & the corner of Wharf St.(I think) The buildings were finished in 1992 from memory. 25 years later they were demolished. Bloody crazy.
    
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    May 10, 2025 12:37pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      A building just 25 years old is demolished?
      
      Practically brand new!
      
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      May 10, 2025 2:00pm
  - Paulus
    
    But the new Council Offices is not the only new Council buildings going up at ratepayers costs.
    Not sure of the actual costs (but neither is anybody else) of all the other new buildings,Whare, Library, Museum (Maori of course), New Art Gallery on the quiet, and another I cannot remember – only another say half billion plus at least, to Ratepayers.
    
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    May 10, 2025 4:17pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

The government is starting to hit its stride. Along with the limitation applied to the Equity Pay Claim business, the review of the Waitangi Tribunal will set the cat among the Leftie pigeons.

It’s almost as if Mr Luxon & co are learning from Mr Trump, ie overwhelm the small number of activists with blow after blow.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/05/09/waitangi-tribunal-review-to-begin-mid-year-govt/
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May 10, 2025 9:13am
- kowtow
  
  Not from Luxon ,remember he’s Mr Partnership, it’s part of NZF coalition agreement .
  
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  May 10, 2025 12:12pm
Gravelroad

From a social media group called Oamaru Today:
“THE INVASION OF THE PINES.
The sale of two Hawkes Bay farms to overseas investors to be converted to carbon farming (pine trees) made the national news this week— but it’s happening everywhere, including in our back yard here in the south and the result is going to change the shape of NZ rural life.
Several large farms in our greater Otago region have been converted or are in the process of being converted and it’s terrible. These farms are locking out conventional beef and sheep farming and the ripple effect is going to be devastating on small towns and industries that rely on “farmers”.

As a farmer, I would be interested to hear what urban people really think about this.
In the area I live (not Otago) the Paris Accord pine trees have been on the march for several years. Only two sheep and beef farms remain in what was once a large productive area.
Is it a shame that the beautiful hills of Otago are being polluted with ugly pine trees because the government says so?
Or is it just the way things are today in order to appease the climate change activists?
24 3
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May 10, 2025 9:13am
- Cassandra
  
  Not only is it visually and ecologically awful but it also degrades the rural community. Fewer staff, schools close, shops close, communities die. A classic and disastrous failure to think things through.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:25am
- kowtow
  
  Very big farms in Southland going over too.
  
  As an urbanite , I for one am very much on the side of farmers , who from a selfish point of view ensure we can eat good food and survive !
  
  From a societal , cultural and economic pov, farmers are the backbone of our society . The salt of the earth.
  
  Any wonder why they are almost always one of the primary targets of leftists.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:26am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Are you going to put up a sign that Groundswell is promoting?
  
  Pine trees do not permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Some of the CO2 is returned early with branch timing. Some take longer, like in housing, where it might be one or two hundred years until the house is demolished.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:27am
- lifesgood
  
  I’m a city dweller and am appalled by the march of the pines. Foolishness in the extreme. I am right on your side, Gravelroad.
  
  18 1
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  May 10, 2025 9:39am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Have you seen any explanation as to how this fits in with the NPS-HPL – The National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land?
  
  Because increasingly it looks like that’s just a specific anti-lifestyle-block measure cloaked underneath bullshit about protecting our farms.
  
  12 2
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  May 10, 2025 9:45am
  - Colville
    
    NPS-HPL affects land that is LUC 1 and 2 only. Unlikely that a boondocks farm which is circa $10K/Ha is going to be anything higher than LUC 4.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:19am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No it is not, they had the Act minister on radio last week, he said he is worried about land change as well, and the bill is going through parliament, he said the first reading is coming mid year, and will be finished this year
    
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    May 10, 2025 12:50pm
  - Ghost
    
    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/protecting-nz-food-production-and-ets-credibility
    
    0 1
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    May 10, 2025 1:01pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  In some cultures, opposition to unpopular policies is expressed through fire. Or chain saws – see Mike Smith and Zero Tree Hill.
  
  To be clear, I’m not advocating burning the forests down, merely pointing out the irony should such an event take place.
  
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  May 10, 2025 9:46am
  - gravedodger
    
    The chance of fire reducing the carbon plantings to CO2 remains as in a forestry development there is roading for harvesting in the planning and fire breaks along with open water for helicopter fire extinguishing whereas the carbon farming no attention to such expense.One lightning strike and there will be CO2 release to make one cry.
    
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    May 10, 2025 10:47am
    - AitchW
      
      Almost as much as pumped into the atmosphere by the fleet of private jets flying into Davos every year for the annual climate change wallow.
      
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      May 10, 2025 12:11pm
    - Jack5
      
      Did the forestry waste washed down rivers on the North Island east coast come from carbon forests?
      
      This ripped out bridges and caused flooding.
      
      3 0
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      May 10, 2025 12:56pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Perhaps. The carbon forests themselves would be too young. Much of what was washed down river would have been slash from forests being harvested.
        
        But IIRC, existing forests were not eligible for carbon credits; these were restricted to new forests only. Thus, there was an incentive for forest owners to cut down existing trees and replant. Indirectly therefore, such slash may have arisen due to the implementation of the carbon credit scheme.
        
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        May 10, 2025 2:06pm
  - Dougal10
    
    One of these farms got 50% burned up 5 years ago , insurance had it replanted , they do now have some fire breaks but no good helicopter access to water yet on the replant.
    
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    May 10, 2025 5:51pm
sungsamning

President Donald Trump announced a new trade deal with the U.K., calling Thursday “an incredible day for America.”

Trump told reporters at the White House that “today’s agreement with the U.K. is the first in a series of agreements on trade that my administration has been negotiating over the past four weeks.”
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May 10, 2025 9:48am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  Another trade deal announced? How’re the border wall and mass deportations coming along?
  
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  May 10, 2025 10:14am
- Culture War Criminal
  
  Relatedly, one of the best Trump impressions out there at the moment, captures a lot of more of the subtle nuance others miss. A good Starmer as well.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgZ5Bk9YZMs
  
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  May 10, 2025 11:28am
- mogg
  
  Free trade is a myth, prior to Trump free trade with EU or China was a one way street always in their favour. Trump has put an end to this, just as he has with Trans and DEI. Look how quickly the EU has changed to spending on its own defence. Germany alone has immediately established a €100 billion defence fund.
  
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  May 10, 2025 2:18pm
  - sungsamning
    
    And look how much the usual suspects are squealing about loss of money, power, and influence.
    
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    May 10, 2025 5:17pm
- Stu2
  
  One reason for tariffs was supposedly to reshore manufacturing to the US .
  
  Well now that 100,00o UK cars and UK steel are at 10% reshoring looks dubious.
  
  If you were considering a new US blast furnace but needed tariff protection to make it viable then are you likely to go ahead?
  
  Ditto moving parts of the north american vehicle industry back to the US. Wait and see.
  
  The big three auto makers pointed out that a UK vehicle with 10% on it is hit less than a vehicle undergoing final assmebly in Mexico, with 50% US content. Change is coming to the auto sector rates I imagine.
  
  As usual tariffs don’t seem focussed on anything in particular besides tax revenue.
  
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  May 10, 2025 3:06pm
  - mogg
    
    Under the new agreement there is no tariff on UK steel into the US.
    
    1 0
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    May 10, 2025 5:20pm
    - Stu2
      
      Thanks
      
      Wonder if Japan will get that steel deal – good ally but it produces a lot more steel than the UK
      
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      May 10, 2025 8:18pm
sungsamning

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/05/08/meet-the-new-pope-of-the-catholic-church-n4939593
Meet the New American Pope of the Catholic Church.
Habemus papam — we have a pope, and progressive Catholics will likely be pleased. And for the first time ever, the pope is an American.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, is an American who also has Peruvian citizenship. He was a favorite of the late Pope Francis but has often kept a fairly low public profile, meaning that while his tendencies indicate a less traditional and strictly doctrinal perspective, his likely actions as pope have yet to be clearly predicted. But his first speech ominously seemed much in line with progressive rhetoric. [Well, well. A Catholic pope. And he won’t be getting fan mail from the Lettuce Bacon, Gherkin, and Tomato crowd.]
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May 10, 2025 9:48am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  A small point: Francis I, being Argentinian, was the first American Pope (and also the first Latin American and South American Pope).
  
  Leo XIV, being from Chicago, is the first North American Pope.
  
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  May 10, 2025 2:11pm
vand

Which aspects of tikanga do you imagine TMP and the Maori caucus don’t already use?

Mike- i suspect cowboy hats and rejection of authority are not aspects of kitanga but then the Maori caucus are all part pakeka!
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May 10, 2025 9:52am
- mandk
  
  I get the impressuon that tikanga is anything Maori find it convenient to label as such.
  
  It’s flexible.
  
  18 2
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  May 10, 2025 10:42am
  - greybeard
    
    Correct. Every day a new “cultural” item is found to have existed. Every day a new way to pronounce and spell some maori word. Utter fantasy.
    
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    May 11, 2025 7:04am
NeverMindTheBollocks

The way Stuff presents this story, the good guys are the young family and the bad guy is the neighbour over whose land their driveway runs. Hmm.

It turns out that the couple in question bought the land but they and their lawyer failed to notice that part of their driveway runs over neighbouring land. They have a paper access road but the cost of developing it is very high. The neighbour has offered an access deal at $100 per month plus opening & closing multiple gates. Not ideal for the couple, but hey, not your land.

The couple’s intransigence, including continuing to use the driveway despite clear notification not to do so, cutting off padlocks etc has led to noisy “discussions” in front of their small children and the Police being called.

The more I read the story, the less sympathy I felt for the couple; and the more I questioned the judgement of the journalist and editor.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360678266/prisoners-their-own-property-police-charge-couple-using-driveway

NB, may be paywalled. Stuff is all over the place about this sort of thing.
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May 10, 2025 3:04pm
- MCōs
  
  Reminds me of a time I did some drawings, got a permit & built a carport for a woman who had a unit plus a car park in a small block of dwellings in Haitatai.
  She swapped that car park that was included in her title for a different one more suited for the carport.
  However the title wasn’t changed and when the owner of the other unit sold it the new owner couldn’t believe his luck. A free carport!
  
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  May 10, 2025 4:03pm
jonno1

What struck me as most odd was no suggestion of the recalcitrant lawyer having any liability, nor of practical solutions such as purchasing an easement. I suppose driveway disputes are quite common; I recall one in Remuera and another on Waiheke. I once owned the middle one of three sausage flats. The two owner-occupiers gave my tenant a hard time as he parked with two wheels just encroaching on the concrete driveway. I resolved it by widening the driveway half a metre on the other side at my expense. No big deal!
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May 10, 2025 3:48pm
Quail

From GOOGLE
McCaw passed away ,with an All Blacks flag as background.
The rest of the story paywalled..
Technically correct ( Bill McCaw All Black @97 in the small print but certainly not Richie.
How low can NZ media go??
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May 10, 2025 7:11pm
- Ghost
  
  Not sure what you are looking at, nz herald, 1news, stuff, actually everyone says Bill McCaw. The only one that has the title “McCaw passes away” is rugby365, an Irish website.
  
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  May 10, 2025 7:32pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Media from day one stated that the oldest All Black living died age 97, pretty sure you have to be a nut bar to suggest anything else
  
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  May 10, 2025 8:18pm
rouppe

I wonder what surgery he is getting.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/olympics/olympic-triathlete-hayden-wilde-set-for-surgery-after-serious-bike-crash-in-japan/IEDPVZOSFNFNNBUJPQ4V4WLD5Q/

I mentioned I had a similar accident in 2016. 14 rib breaks all on the left side, several ribs with 2 breaks leading to a “flail chest”. There was an offset fracture at the back of one rib leading to a large lump protruding from my back. I said to the doctor if this doesn’t change then there’s problems scuba diving and hiking, rubbing on that point. He flat out refused to consider anything because he said he’d have to separate all the muscles in the back to get at the rib and that would cause worse damage. My collarbone is lobsided because it’s not longer attached to my left shoulder properly. But no surgery.

Sounds like his lung damage is a nick rather than a puncture which is good for him.

But I am curious what the surgery is for.
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May 10, 2025 8:03pm

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