General Debate 16 May 2025

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artemisia

The country’s highest watchdog has issued a scathing assessment of Oranga Tamariki’s procurement and contracting practices last year.

While the review mainly focused on the 2024/2025 year, the OT issues were not new as inadequate procurement and contract management practices were already known.

Thing is, it is not just OT. The government spends about $7b a year on social services from non-government agencies. Other taxpayer funded contracts to providers, some huge, have been reallocated to others by this government, causing a fair amount of angst and anger in the provider community.

Even if other contracts were poorly managed there has to be suspicion that cancelling funding had plenty to do with providers not meeting their side of contracts. In fact, this morning Ryan Bridge, interviewing Belinda Himiona, Chief Executive of Te Pai Ora SSPA, observed that some providers continued to be funded (by taxpayers) even if their contracted performance indicators were not met, plus they could keep any underspend. So guess what.

The just announced social investment fund will, the Minister says, have robust evaluation built in from the beginning, so the government could track the fund’s impact. Good.
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May 16, 2025 8:11am
- Mike
  
  The social investment fund is what, $275 million? Compared to your $7 billion, it can’t be much comfort to imagine the social investment agency will have magically better procurement practices.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:57am
  - artemisia
    
    The Minister said the initiative will be scaled up over time. Meanwhile contracts are actually being disestablished, I surmised due to inadequate management and performance.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:17am
- lastmanstanding
  
  To those who support MMP I hope you have considered the impact of the Greens alternative Budget on you and your family. And before you say it will never happen I say there are those in Labour that support some or all of the Greens policy and would blame the Greens for implementing it if they were in Coalition. We have seen this before.
  I voted against MMP because I wanted to see a continuance of one Party Government so I knew what I getting.
  Of course some will raise the 1984 Labour Government. Governance was very different in those times. There wasnt the level of disclosure and transparency we have now. The incoming Government only discovered how bad the situation was when Treasury gave them the books and briefed them. Thats why Labour had to take the steps it did.
  I hope the Coalition keep telling citizens that a vote for Labour will see the Greens Budget implemented and keep on telling this until Election 26.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:06am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Well, yesterday Hipkins said it himself, after being too weak and gutless to rule their crazy out, after he had time to go and formulate an answer, and having time to be bullied by green nutters and TPM, he said yesterday afternoon that most of greens tax ideas are valid. That’s all we need to know
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:40am
    - imalwaysright
      
      NZ politicians have to dodge, deflect, or defer a couple of times before the simpletons purporting to be the media drift off in a zombie like trance.
      
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      May 16, 2025 12:11pm
David Garrett

Good morning from the Kingdom…very pleasant cool morning here…23C…Tongans going about in woolen hats and puffer jackets!
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May 16, 2025 8:14am
- pdm
  
  Hastings to hit 22 today (so they say) which is better than the 17 a couple of days ago.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:35am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    21 leaving work here at Mosgiel yesterday, where sending it up Hughie
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:41am
- John Loveridge
  
  6°C in Christchurch this morning. But pleasantly sunny and crisp.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:46am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Crisp is for lettuces…
    
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    May 16, 2025 12:17pm
- Raphael
  
  When I was a student I used to commute to Technikon each day, about 100km or so. The town I lived in would often have nice frosty -5C mornings, but the city I was studying in (Durban) would be sitting at at least around 20C.
  
  I would get to Durban and be in t-shirt and shorts while the Durbanites were all in their puffer jackets and complaining about the cold.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:32am
  - cmm
    
    A sidebar to that is noting how far people sometimes travel and how much effort people put in to getting education in some places.
    
    A 100km commute from inland Natal to Durban is quite a mission.
    
    My wife had a friend in West Rand who commuted by train to the trade school in Germiston every day to learn to be a sparky. First a 15 minute bike ride to catch the train at 6am in West Rand, then catch a second train in Jhb central to Germiston – getting there just before 8. Return trip got him home at 7pm.
    
    And here in NZ we have people complaining that 1km is too far to walk to school…
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:23am
  - alloytoo
    
    My Uncle from Joburg would arrive on a miserable rainy day and demand to be taken to the beach for his swim in the sea.
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:12pm
- alloytoo
  
  That’s what my car’s climate control is set at.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:43am
- Ra Henare
  
  Over night a cool to balmy 26c In Siem Reap with another bright and sunny day ahead.
  The road washing cycle hit yesterday at 5pm for an hour.
  
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  May 16, 2025 1:16pm
- rouppe
  
  28 in Hua Hin, feels like 37 due to humidity. Went for a walk to the beach, along the beach and back, total of maybe an hour, came back dripping.
  
  I may get used to it.
  
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  May 16, 2025 2:05pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Does a fan alleviate that kind of humidity/temps at all?
    
    Trouble is with that kind of humidity/heat combo is if you have fair skin it’s very hard to protect from UV (covering clothing is too hot and sunscreen dilutes very quickly with sweat). At least with baking desert style dry heat sunscreen stays on because you don’t have sweat dripping off you [it evaporates away]).
    
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    May 18, 2025 4:21pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Melbourne set to dip to 1C at approx 7am tomorrow morning. That’s pretty cold for early winter.
  
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  May 18, 2025 4:20pm
pdm

Is Speaker Brownlee undermining the Priveleges Committee?

I think he is.
https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/05/15/is-speaker-gerry-brownlee-undermining-the-privileges-committee/
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May 16, 2025 8:15am
- Cassandra
  
  At the very least he seems to be indicating his disagreement, probably with the 21 day duration of the suspensions. No doubt there’ll be much scheming and plotting among National MPs. ACT and NZF will vote for the 21.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:19am
  - john1234
    
    I would be very surprised if any Nat MP votes against. None of them would want that target on their back,
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:26am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Collin’s said yesterday that all parties in government will vote for it, but I see some here already saying Nats will vote against, what bullshit they speak
      
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      May 16, 2025 9:50am
    - pdm
      
      Agreed john.
      
      I was aiming more at – why is he doing this?
      
      It seems all out of kilter with the prestige of the Privileges Committee. I thought their decisions were final and beyond question or challenge. Yet Speaker Brownlee obviously does not think that way.
      
      This is more a Mallard type action I would have thought.
      
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      May 16, 2025 9:54am
      - Jethrod
        
        Imagine what Judith is thinking this morning.
        
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        May 16, 2025 10:12am
      - PurplePen
        
        For some reason, Brownlee seems to have a very very soft unbalanced spot for the folk in TPM.
        
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        May 16, 2025 10:47am
      - Ghost
        
        For some reason people here make things up because they don’t understand the job and rules set out he has to follow
        
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        May 16, 2025 10:58am
      - Nobby2
        
        If every MP is going to be allowed to speak and maybe move amendments to the Privileges Committee report and recommendations, what was the point of sending the matter to the Privileges Committee in the first place. Does anyone know if the Speaker has the authority to rule the way he has. Do Speakers Rulings, Standing Orders and Sessional Orders allow the Speaker make the decision has.
        
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        May 16, 2025 3:33pm
  - RoboRob
    
    There is more of a question around Labour and the Greens. Do they just partisan vote for their mates or do they vote based on fact and reality. Labour voting against punishing TPM should politically hurt them. In reality the MSM wont give it the coverage it deserves and only political tragics will care.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:45am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Labour complained to the speaker over their behaviour. A vote against their punishment will show just what a fool he is.
      
      They will say it’s too harsh, as Broenlie has suggested, and it probably is for the haka, but the not turning up to the committee twice and breaking confidence created the hasher sentence
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:16am
    - pdm
      
      RR – McAnulty asked for a conscience vote yesterday. Quite rightly turned down by Brownlee.
      
      It looks like Labour might vote against or at least try and water down the suspension.
      
      Will McAnulty cross the floor if he supports the Privileges Committee?
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:20am
      - R
        
        NO, he is vying for leadership of the Labour party later this year
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:43am
    - MCōs
      
      I don’t think the censure is the issue with Labour, but the heavy handed punishment.
      
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      May 16, 2025 5:21pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He can’t say no, he has to let the parliament do their debate and deliver a vote, he can not change the vote. Instead of pointing to Brownlie who will not be able to over rule the parliamentary vote, but watch all opposition parties vote against it, even though they would have been close to unanimous in their vote in the committee
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:48am
    - pdm
      
      G the Committee was not unanimous as I understand it – it was a split decision.
      
      Hence he open debate with amendments allowed.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:22am
      - Cassandra
        
        5-4.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:46am
      - AitchW
        
        All votes on party lines. Even when faced with arguably the worst contempt of parliament in our history the left cannot vote to do the right thing if it means agreeing with the government.
        For the left ideology trumps everything.
        
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        May 16, 2025 1:37pm
      - rouppe
        
        Well there’s your answer on how the vote will go in parliament.
        
        Here are the privileges committee members
        https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/scl/privileges/tab/mp#filterformsearchtarget
        
        5 are national, act, nz first
        4 are Labour, Green, Mazi Party.
        
        Even @Mike could join those dots.
        
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        May 16, 2025 2:12pm
      - MCōs
        
        The what party?
        
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        May 16, 2025 5:22pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I think he means the racial privilege party MCōs. You know the one. 😉
        
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        May 18, 2025 4:29pm
  - artemisia
    
    The Speaker needs to be seen to be even handed. His words support non partisan. The actual vote will be very interesting ….
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:21am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The vote will not be interesting. Collin’s was talking to Hosking yesterday and seemed to know how the vote would fall.
      
      Let’s not forget Labour were one who complained
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:10am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Brownlie forgets twice not turning up cause they knew better, and the leaked diatribe created the harsher sentence
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:17am
  - JackRabbit
    
    @Cassandra
    
    At the very least he seems to be indicating his disagreement, probably with the 21 day duration of the suspensions.
    
    I disagree with the 21 days too. Way too short. 90 days without pay would be better. Think what could be passed into law while they are gone.
    
    And if they complain or utter nasty words about 90 days, tack on another 10 days for each outburst.
    
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    May 16, 2025 2:16pm
- Scooter
  
  Yes, and listening to Winston on Hosking this morning sounds like he has something planned but didn’t want to say what. Brownlee must be one of the worst Speakers and to come out and disagree with the TPM punishment just shows you he is unfit for the role. He might as well have said he condones their behaviour.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:23am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He css as n disagree as much as he likes, but he does not serve punishment,
    
    You call him the worst speaker, have you forgotten the rotten Mallard
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:09am
    - AitchW
      
      There’s an old cliche that the privileges committee is the highest court in the land. For a speaker to criticise the decision of the committee is, in my opinion, to show contempt for the committee.
      Brownlee needs to take a long, long, hard look at himself and decide if he’s the best man for the job.
      
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      May 16, 2025 1:40pm
  - Ghost
    
    Have a read of what gerry said, tell me where he has disagreed with this
    
    https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/privileges-committee-report-on-te-p%C4%81ti-m%C4%81oris-haka-to-be-debated-voted-on-next-tuesday/ar-AA1ENWMQ?ocid=BingNewsVerp
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:23am
  - AitchW
    
    Meh. Peters blusters and bluffs then disappears back to his bach up north.
    All mouth, no trousers.
    
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    May 16, 2025 3:38pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Is Brownlee trying to set up a “retrial”, and if so what will he do after it?
  What’s his endgame?
  Is he trying to turn the punishment into martyrdom and perhaps inflame racial/political trouble?
  Is Brownlee an activist?
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:30am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He can’t interfere with what the committee finds, it is going to be debated on Tuesday and a vote will be final, parties will vote on party lines, Labour will vote against even though they made one of the complaints. Stop trying to knit pick over what you think Nats may do, I seem to remember some of you lot saying the committee won’t give them a 21 day suspension, now you say Nats will vote against, Ghez done people are getting petty
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:08am
    - pdm
      
      G I have not seen anyone say he Nats will vote against.
      
      Show us where – or are you making it up?
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:24am
      - Ghost
        
        Bit like you and the no minister blog huh, always making up stuff. For a political blog you seem to know Jack shit about politics, maybe that’s why it gets such low readership.
        
        You know damnwell the speaker is doing his job, you were also told a few times Tama wasn’t a member of the maori party previously. You just make shit up constantly. You are no better than the leftie blogs pushing their constant lies.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:29am
      - rouppe
        
        At least he takes the time and effort to write one, and the chutzpah for it to be public.
        
        Where yours Ghost? Your contribution here is largely to call people stupid, liars and dumb, or cut and paste articles with no opinion attached to them.
        
        You do not have the high ground.
        
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        May 16, 2025 2:20pm
      - Ghost
        
        Actually every article I post typically has my comment at the top.
        
        And no, if someone is going to make the claim g is making something up when they themself do that, then yeah I’m going to call that out. You might prefer that people constantly mislead but I don’t. I actually prefer people are honest. But hey what ever floats your boat. And no, nominister still has not corrected the outright lie that Tama was a member of the Māori party before joining national, no surprise there.
        
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        May 16, 2025 2:50pm
  - Ghost
    
    He’s following procedure.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:24am
- kowtow
  
  Brown ,if anything, epitomises how wet the current National Party has become.
  Any wonder the chamber has become such a clown show circus , I reckon Brownlie should join his hatted mates and don the Ring Master’s Top Hat .
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:37am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Brownlie has no say over what the committee dishes out, he is supposed to be neutral
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:09am
    - kowtow
      
      Did I say he did?
      
      Nope , listen to his pearl clutching , whining and it’s clear he is making it very clear he doesn’t agree with the committee.
      
      He is acting and talking very far from neutral , more like advocating for the rewarding of bad , shocking , unprededented behaviour from the new Contemptibles , who hate the institution, traditions and conventions he pretends to preside over.
      
      A typical “wet” Nat , and a very good example of how and why the country has sunk to these new lows.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:23am
      - Ghost
        
        Here is what was said. Don’t boieve what nominister posts, that blog is so full of shit it could be a sewage plant
        
        https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20250515_050640000/brownlee-gerry-peters-winston-bishop-chris-jones
        
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        May 16, 2025 12:01pm
      - kowtow
        
        Faark
        
        Got nothing to do with nominister.
        
        Listened to him on the radio .Dripping with pity .
        
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        May 16, 2025 12:53pm
- G152
  
  About time he put his foot down.
  All members in the House should stick by the rules if they cant they should resign
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:43am
- cmm
  
  So more cafe chats. This time not with GG but with the TPM three.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:43am
  - Scooter
    
    [ Mod – knock it off ]
    
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    May 16, 2025 8:49am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He has to speak to them over their well being, it’s his job
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:10am
    - cmm
      
      Really?
      Is the speaker really every MP’s therapist now?
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:28am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Checking on their state of mind is part of his job, he had to go to Auckland in the GG case as she was no longer in Wellington
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:04am
      - cmm
        
        Checking on their state of mind is not his job.
        I’ll place my standard bet of 50 cents and a servo pie that the speaker is not required to travel around the country doing welfare checks on MPs.
        
        If that was the case, he’d have a full time job just sorting out the Green party.
        
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        May 16, 2025 1:50pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      No its not. That’s a ridiculous statement. If they aren’t enjoying “well being”, whatever that is, then its probably their own fault.
      Is Gerry a psychiatrist ? No. He’s a functionary who seems to not know his own function, let alone anyone else’s.
      
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      May 16, 2025 12:29pm
- Nukuleka
  
  Under Gerry’s weak Speakership the general demeanour of Parliament has descended into farce. This latest intervention on behalf of the miscreants in the Maori Party- and that is what it is- is indicative of a weak man who is out of his depth as Speaker.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:47am
  - imalwaysright
    
    When they are eligible to return to Parliament, will they be required to restate the Oath of Allegiance ?
    
    “I, [name], swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles the Third, His heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.”
    
    It is essential that all MPs take, and practice, the Oath otherwise Parliament would be fraudulent.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:05am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They will be suspended, not sacked
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:13am
    - PurplePen
      
      Matthew Hooten piece in the Herald this morning essentially said TPM should take a leaf put of Sinn Fein’s book. Sinn Fein since 1917 have won seats in their parliament. However, they won’t swear allegiance to the crown so don’t participate in the chamber and don’t take the pay and perks that go with being in parliament. Hooten suggests TPM do the same as they don’t accept that they ceded sovereignty. Ah ha ha ha .. hell will freeze over before that happens as the only sovereign TPM have ceded to is the coin. Not the crown.
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:57am
      - kowtow
        
        I wouldn’t take that as an example of anything.
        
        The history and evolution of SF is extremely convoluted .
        
        The current SF , as Hoots refers to has no “integrity”.
        
        btw the original SF , at its outset , advocated for the English monarch to be the King of Ireland in a dual monarchy arrangement as per Austria Hungary . A far cry from what SF quickly morphed into once the secret , violent extremists hijacked the movement.
        
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        May 16, 2025 12:11pm
- kiwimike
  
  his behaviour this week cutting off Brooke sees him as not fit for purpose in my book.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:39am
- RoboRob
  
  Brownlee should retire next year. He is a relic of the past and lives in a world where MPs are ethical, sensible people working for the betterment of the country. They might have different ways to go about it but they are all good people. TPM, Greens and some Labour MPs just don’t live in that world. They are focused on keeping their cushy jobs by getting social media hits.
  
  When the Ilam electorate kicked Jerry out and replaced him with a green (both in experience and beliefs) Labour candidate that was his sign to leave. I like Brownlee as a person and he knows parliament inside out but I think his time is over.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:42am
  - Keith White
    
    When I need life- or career-saving actions I could care less whether the person carrying such actions is likable or not, whether I personally like him or not, whether he/she likes me or not.
    
    Are they fit for purpose or not. If not, go elsewhere. Brownlee is not fit for purpose and his feeble softness has been proven repeatedly.
    
    Get thee gone, ‘nice guy’.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:31am
  - Lenice
    
    Very well put RoboRob. Am in total agreement and think it would be most unfortunate for Gerry to hang on until he is remembered solely for his less-than-stellar term as Speaker.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:42am
  - AitchW
    
    I should think he will. Retiring speakers often get a knighthood, I’m sure Sir Gerry sounds pretty good to him. Who knows, he may even be encouraged to leave with the promise of a K.
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:43pm
  - goNZ1
    
    NZ needs more woodwork teachers too
    
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    May 16, 2025 3:40pm
- cmm
  
  Can Gerry overrule the rulings of the privileges committee? Can he demand they get paid?
  
  I will swim against the tide here. This is apparently the longest suspension handed down by the committee. By having a debate over it, they get an opportunity to discuss this and move it away from the current “colonial mofo” framing.
  
  Of course, for that to happen, Gerry is going to need to keep a tight hold on some leashes to prevent it turning into a farce. Can he do that?
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:44am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Gerry is going to need to keep a tight hold on some leashes to prevent it turning into a farce. Can he do that?”
    
    No.
    He enables the farce.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:51am
    - Ghost
      
      No, he follows the standing orders, they are the issue and people who think the speaker has more power than he does
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:23am
      - Keith White
        
        If the orders were resolutely clear in all circumstances and could not be interpreted to more than one very specific outcome, we wouldn’t need a mouthpiece to apply them.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:32am
    - Nobby2
      
      During the Privilege Committee debate on the Committee’s report and recommendations, I hope every National, Act and NZ First MP gets to speak and has the balls to give the maori party, labour and the greens as good a spray as Brooke van Velden gave to Jan Tinneti. They need go for the jugular and fully back the Privileges Committee report and recommendations and vote for the report to be unchanged.
      
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      May 16, 2025 4:03pm
  - pdm
    
    cmm.
    
    This debate could be dragged out for hours if not days and even be used to sabotage the delivery/presentation of the budget due on Thursday 22 May at 2pm.
    
    All it would take would be for Labour, Green and Maori Party MP’s to keep taking calls, waffle on and add multiple Amendments which would be decided by Party Votes and it would become a free for all.
    
    Longer than that South African cricket test way back that only stopped because the visiting team had to catch a boat.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:02am
    - cmm
      
      Quite. That is why Gerry better keep a tight leash on it.
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:04am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      No it won’t be dragged out, they will be told how long each person speaks for, and the amount speakers each party has, if Labour slow the process down TPM leaders are there to speak on the budget then that should be shouted rom the roof tops
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:15am
      - pdm
        
        No G – he has already said Members can speak multiple times without time limits and that hey may make amendments which will have to be voted on.
        
        It loks like a recipe for disaster.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:29am
      - Ghost
        
        Here is the ruling that was made, where in that does it say there are no time limits……
        
        https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20250515_050640000/brownlee-gerry-peters-winston-bishop-chris-jones
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:42am
    - goNZ1
      
      yes it is guaranteed to be an absolute shit show, no doubt there will be Special People reps in the public gallery to add to the mayhem…
      
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      May 16, 2025 3:42pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No he can’t, the parliament will vote on this on Tuesday
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:13am
    - pdm
      
      Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday or maybe even Friday if it gets out of control.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:30am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Apparently they are docked 75% of their salary and all other benefits, travel, car hire etc remain in place.
    
    I would say they will load up their expense accounts and have a very pleasant holiday somewhere sunny and warm.
    
    That’ll teach them…!
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:14am
    - cmm
      
      This will be grievance fuel for decades. Mark my words.
      
      2025: The year when colonialist mofos stole Maori money and censored the haka.
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:26am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Correct, but the spend up and the grievances aren’t mutually exclusive.
        Opportunists.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:10am
    - PurplePen
      
      They could turn it into a protest and try and storm the chambers, near the end of their 3 weeks though, after at least a 19 day holiday. They’d then risk being jailed adding further to their martydom.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:03am
      - Keith White
        
        I hope they do overreach. We need a clear and present demonstration for the waffling voters of just exactly how TPM disregard the rule of law in the seat of all laws.
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:33am
      - Ghost
        
        Yeah. He has. But some here seem to think he has more power than he does
        
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        May 16, 2025 12:11pm
  - Ghost
    
    No he can’t. They’ve made their decision, it is now up to the house to vote on that decision.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:26am
  - PurplePen
    
    Apparently such lengthy suspensions are not uncommon in our parent Westminster system in the UK. A lot of fuss about nothing here and lengthy suspensions should be more common as a real deterrent, especially with modern MPs lacking the self-control and respect for others that MPs used to have.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:01am
- Ghost
  
  The house decide if the punishment should be adopted. I also agree a punishment this long should be well and truly debate
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:58am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I have no confidence in the speaker. I have been extremely disappointed with his performance as speaker and how badly he has let standards slip further in parliament. I believe NZ First are not too pleased with Gerry either after Winston’s ZB interview this morning.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:17am
  - Ghost
    
    The speaker follows the ruless set out by the standing orders committie. I know people think the speaker has the ability to do more than that, but the issue has been the standing orders and the need for the committie to bring them back to some higher standards.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:41am
    - Keith White
      
      This Speaker has not previously applied standing orders rigorously, so you’ll excuse some of us who think that this will be another example of him going Full Wobbly.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:34am
Cassandra

The Government has agreed to pay $136 million to help maraes move because of the risk of flooding. Maraes are private facilities, family social and recreation centres. Does this mean that any building at risk of flooding damage will get government funding to relocate?
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May 16, 2025 8:15am
- Inandout
  
  Cass, during the covid drama Jacinda gave maraes about $90 million to modernise and have new signage. As usual, zilch accounting.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:28am
- kowtow
  
  Didn’t Robertson chuck tens of mils at them too .
  
  Uniparty stuff .
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:39am
- CJames
  
  Generally buildings at risk of flooding are that way because they were either built where they should not have been (calling places a flood plain is a big clue) or the local council has been remiss in the maintenance of the waterway, either by ensuring they aren’t silting up or removing riverbank vegetation and other barriers. This also includes opening river bars. The work Drainage Boards used to do. Now it isn’t done and them calling it climate change covers their bad decision-making
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:40am
- Ruahine
  
  NO.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:45am
- Ghost
  
  Is this any different than houses in the Auckland floods being red zoned and being paid out by council and the crown
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:52am
  - rangitoto
    
    Maybe. Did the council give planning permission for the marae?
    
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    May 16, 2025 2:55pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Why is the budget not $135million?
  
  Facetious question, but how do they come up with these costings?
  
  How many maraes, where are they, where are the quotes, what is their risk, are they on piles or pads, what is the estimated climate upcoming, what is the cost of doing nothing and reinstating affected structures, why is this a problem to be mitigated by public money,…
  
  Or is it “How much do you feel would make you happy to bury your latest scam and go away?”
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:21am
- Keith White
  
  Good joke Cassandra, really. Everyone knows the pale patriarchy isn’t subject to patriarchy-controlled floods and tornadoes, they swerve around our dens of racism and bigotry…
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:35am
cmm

I see there’s ,ummmm, quite a buzz forming around kava with many promoting that this is a potential way to wean NZ off its “booze culture”.

As I understand it, kava is supposed to be a ceremonial drink – not a recreational way to get wasted. I am sure there will be a whole lot of problems with cultural appropriation etc.

Just substituting alcohol with kava does not overcome impairment problems. Driving on kava is problematic. We have easy ways to test for alcohol. How does that work for kava?

Is there really a significant booze problem in NZ? NZ doesn’t even make the top 30 countries for per capita alcohol consumption.
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May 16, 2025 8:17am
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: I can only comment on Tonga, but up here kava is drunk BOTH as part of some ceremony, but also as a way to get wasted.
  
  I know Tongans who literally drink it all night, starting after work. Heavy use of it also has some side effects, on the liver or kidneys…perhaps both, I can’t now recall
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:24am
  - pdm
    
    Same in Fiji DG.
    
    I idled away some very pleasant hours around the `grog’ (Kava) bowl when we lived in Suva in the mid 70’s. Perhaps the best was on a weekend visit to Beqa, the afternoon just drifted away.
    
    I also had a trip to Tubou in the Lau group to support the Suva Cricket team and that too was a great Kava experience.
    
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    May 16, 2025 8:40am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Liver damage…
    
    Exact mechanism still unknown.
    (possibly due to moulds infecting kava product)
    
    https://acquaintpublications.com/article/kava-induced-hepatotoxicity-in-sacramento-county
    
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9315573/#:~:text=Along%20with%20its%20putative%20beneficial,the%20metabolism%20of%20other%20xenobiotics.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:05am
  - Keith White
    
    From my postgraduate days in Middlemore, I can attest that heavy kava is worse than heavy whiskey and vodka use. The latter two don’t tend to attack the kidneys to anywhere near the same extent.
    
    Kava composition is sufficiently different to injure kidneys as well as the liver, and kava can cause both acute kidney injury but more insidiously, chronic renal failure which goes mostly unnoticed until it’s almost already too late.
    
    The mechanism of that action appears to be that compared to other alcohols, kava tends to disproportionately reduce renal blood flow — and in an unpredictable minority, actively induce tubular-interstitial nephritis.
    
    Not that excessive amounts of any other alcohol are beneficent, but kava can be worse.
    
    There are good studies by the Cleveland Clinic, also publications in the National Institute of Health.
    
    To my knowledge but by no means certain, there’s not been a study published on the effects on the demographic make-up of South Auckland – relevant as the chemical make-up of kava in South Auckland is anecdotally considered by many American Samoans to be quite different to what they’re used to (called “ava” where they come from).
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:41am
- slijmbal
  
  @ cmm
  
  ” NZ doesn’t even make the top 30 countries for per capita alcohol consumption.” – just outside the top 30 on the figures I saw. This is at the problem end of the scale but somewhat simplistic in terms of translating into issues with alcohol. The figures I saw had Cook Islands at the top, which is probably related to the large number of tourists on the turps, for instance.
  
  However, the figures on alcohol dependency paint a different picture with NZ at the low end of the scale and quite a lot lower than many of what we would see as comparable countries. The problem with these dependency figures, however, are complicated by reporting, tracking and definitional issues varying substantially between countries.
  
  In a totally unscientific manner my personal view from having lived or worked in several countries is that NZ has a serious drinking problem in specific areas but nowehere as broad as other countries eg the UK. In general, the majority of people drink to excess here less than I have seen elsewhere.
  
  Having been to A&E on a Friday evening and spoken to nurses it’s clear that a massive proportion of their patients are there because of alcohol related decisions. Do I think that Kava would stop those? No, because by this point it’s probably an addiction issue. Addiction is notoriously difficult to address.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:49am
  - cmm
    
    “Addiction is notoriously difficult to address.”
    As the son of an alcoholic who would never admit to having a problem, I 100% agree with that.
    
    I think kava would just add another string to the bow. I don’t think that any serious alcohol abuser would switch to kava.
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:53pm
- imalwaysright
  
  My first Kava was at the Thorndon Fijian embassy when Sitiveni Rabuka assumed control.
  I was treated like one of the lads.
  A great day.
  
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  May 16, 2025 1:22pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    I used to go to his place half way up the hill.
    Another time I had too borrow his trousers to get into the night club at the top.
    Towering figure of a man.
    A few moons ago.
    
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    May 16, 2025 5:06pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Wasn’t he a NZ SAS soldier ?
      
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      May 16, 2025 6:18pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        Brigadier. I believe.
        Mainly peace missions with UN forces.
        Big guy and big heart.
        Loves kiwis.
        
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        May 16, 2025 6:44pm
pdm

`Does this mean that any building at risk of flooding damage will get government funding to relocate?’

The precedent is now set – but,………………………………
other than Marae it will not happen.
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May 16, 2025 8:18am
- cmm
  
  So all the magical Maori knowledge didn’t stop them building in a flood plain?
  
  Bugger. All our universities and scientific organisations are going quids in on mātauranga Māori.
  
  I really don’t know why NIWA are wasting money on super computers when they can just ask the taniwha.
  
  Here’s NIWA:
  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/386110789_Integrating_matauranga_Maori_into_science-based_flood_risk_models
  
  U Canterbury:
  
  https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/content/dam/uoc-main-site/documents/pdfs/reports/ntrc-contemporary-research-division/A%20M%C4%81ori%20Framework%20for%20Disaster%20Risk%20Reduction.pdf
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:38am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The stories about Matauranga Maori guiding Maori as to where to build their Marae seemed to dry up after Cyclone Gabrielle hit…
    
    Some earlier articles:
    https://eos.org/features/the-rivers-lizard-tail-braiding-indigenous-knowledges-with-geomorphology
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/71971522/traditional-maori-myths-may-hold-clues-to-natural-hazards
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:10am
  - I remember when
    
    Maori science:
    Hemi tells me they had a flood here twenty years ago.
    Tane says his grandfather told him his grandfather said the same thing happened one hundred years ago.
    So that means the marae will get flooded every eighty years.
    We will just move up the hill until it dries out.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:27am
  - Raphael
    
    You may or may not have heard this story, but considering you were from the same area, there is a good chance you have.
    In the Sweetwaters/Edendale area, post 1994, they were going to build a new library, the local chief said you build it on that spot over there. The engineers said, “that’s in the floodline” the chief responded that they need to move the floodline.
    
    Afterall what the chief says goes.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:05am
  - Master Mariner
    
    NIWA have gobbled up Metservice.
    Aus BOM are now the only data they accept for NOAA to suit the agenda the World is on fire.
    BOM is modeling data on stations that don’t exist and or “enhancing’ the data to suit the narrative.
    It will be sad day for Meteorology in NZ once the takeover is complete.
    Hard to link as at sea assisting Gas exploration , Drilling etc.
    
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    May 16, 2025 5:27pm
- pdm
  
  Has the Government asked why these Marae did not have their buildings and other assets insured?
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:05am
  - cmm
    
    Why insure when the taxpayers’ wallets will koha?
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:27am
  - waikatosinger
    
    I have heard anecdotally that the rates charged by insurance companies to insure marae buildings are exorbitant. I dont know why that is, but it does seem to be the case.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:44am
    - PurplePen
      
      Might have something to do with the building code not applying.
      
      I’m making that up, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were exempt from the code.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:06am
      - GJM
        
        They get exemptions for wall and ceiling flammability. The tukutuku panels go up like a torch. They are a fire risk.
        
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        May 16, 2025 3:23pm
    - pdm
      
      WS – same with public halls etc.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:33am
sungsamning

https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/05/14/trump-shocks-the-world-again-n4939759
Trump Shocks the World — Again.
On Wednesday morning, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who from 2017 until January of this year, was known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “Syrian Liberation Group,” a Sunni jihad group that had been linked to al-Qaeda and was working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. [Kamala Harris would be right on the case if she’d won. Well, a case of scotch anyhow.]
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May 16, 2025 8:25am
sungsamning

https://time.com/7285418/trump-boeing-qatar-jet-deal/
Trump Brokers $96 Billion Boeing Deal in Qatar, Signaling a New Era of Aviation Diplomacy.
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a $96 billion deal between Qatar Airways and Boeing, a symbol of the diplomatic maneuvering defining his presidency.

The agreement, signed in Doha during Trump’s Middle East tour, includes the purchase of 210 Boeing jets by the state-owned Qatari carrier.

Speaking in Qatar, Trump said the deal was for 160 airplanes and worth over $200 billion—though the White House later issued a fact sheet stating it was for up to 210 jets and worth $96 billion. [Now all they have to do is make planes that don’t have issues and forget DEI.]
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May 16, 2025 8:26am
- Raphael
  
  let’s hope Boeing actually remember to put all the bolts in place this time.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:06am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yeah, that’d definetly help. And 86 the purple haired cat ladies.
    
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    May 16, 2025 5:15pm
reason links 2 3 4

“Funny, isn’t it, how Trump continues to bewail the purported “5,000 weekly dead” in the Ukrainian war as his chief impetus for peace, without batting a swollen spray-tanned eye at the Palestinian dead”,

However “Even Israel’s most diehard devotees now see the apartheid state with no legs to stand on.,,,”

according to Trumps Homeland Security Advisory Council appointee Mark Levi,, in advice he wrote to Trump ,,he warns –”that this Israeli government is behaving in ways that threaten hard-core U.S. interests in the region. Netanyahu is not our friend.”,,

,,,,, and “this ultranationalist, messianic Israeli government is not America’s ally. Because this is the first government in Israel’s history whose priority is not peace…Its priority is the annexation of the West Bank, the expulsion of the Palestinians of Gaza and the re-establishment there of Israeli settlements.”

“Friedman concludes with this bizarrely desperate appeal to Trump:
On the Middle East, you have some good independent instincts, Mr. President. Follow them. Otherwise you need to prepare yourself for this looming reality: Your Jewish grandchildren will be the first generation of Jewish children who will grow up in a world where the Jewish state is a pariah state.”

“one thing Friedman did achieve, however, was the normalization and acceptance of concepts like ‘messianicism’ and ‘Jewish supremacism’ as central to the problem in Israel’s fatal trajectory”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-establishment-slowly-wearies

*****************************************************
Multiple Western Press Outlets Have Suddenly Pivoted Hard Against Israel

“The only people who benefit from continuing the war ( ghetto liquidation / genocide), are Mr Netanyahu, who keeps his coalition intact, and his far-right allies, who dream of emptying Gaza and rebuilding Jewish settlements there.”,,,

“What is this, if not genocidal?” The Guardian asks. “When will the US and its allies act to stop the horror, if not now?”

“These people have not suddenly evolved a conscience, they’re just smelling what’s in the wind. Once the consensus shifts past a certain point there’s naturally going to be a mad rush to avoid being among the last to stand against it, because you know you’ll be wearing that mark for the rest of your life in public after history has had a clear look at what you did.” https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/05/12/multiple-western-press-outlets-have-suddenly-pivoted-hard-against-israel/

…. The recently released Usa IDF prisoner/ hostage spurned a meeting with Bibi war criminal Mileikowsky/Netanyahu …

He must be ‘Hannibal Mileikowsky’ to him ……
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May 16, 2025 8:27am
- Taieri
  
  Even Israel’s most diehard devotees now see the apartheid state
  ————-
  
  Approx. 20% of Israel population are Arabs holding Israeli citizenship.
  There’re 3 Arab mainstream political parties.
  13 members of Knesset are Arabs (10.8%), in the past this number was higher (17 in 2015). Arabs have been elected to every Knesset.
  Since 2001 Arabs have been serving as ministers or deputy ministers in every Israeli government.
  In 2006 30% of Arab vote went to Zionist parties.
  6% of Israel’s public servants are Arabs.
  One of Israel’s Supreme Court judges is a Palestinian Arab.
  There’re at least 2 Arab generals in the IDF.
  
  The apartheid state indeed…
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:19am
  - reason links 2 3 4
    
    Well then Taieri ,,, please explain why all these native non Jewish Palestinians are unable to stop the theft of homes by white western foreigners who are no more native to the area than I am to Mongolia
    
    If I Don’t Steal [Your Home] Someone Else Will’ Israeli Settler Justifies Forcible Takeover https://youtu.be/KNqozQ8uaV8
    
    The ginger home stealer in this video would have a burn time of about 3 minutes in that Palestinian sun.
    
    Palestine… Fully Furnished https://youtu.be/UX8oChavStk
    
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    May 16, 2025 12:43pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    Many Jews also served in the Wehrmacht – will this stop Jews denouncing the Nazis for their antisemitism? I doubt it.
    
    Similarly, some Arab involvement in Israeli society doesn’t mean that Israel is not a Jewish project, by Jews, and established for the explicit benefit of Jews.
    
    Will people stop referring explicitly or implicitly to Israel being a Jewish state characterized by favouritism given to ethnic Jews? I doubt that, too.
    
    Zionism is, by definition, a project to establish a country for Jews. The fact Israel is not 100% Jewish yet does not change the intent one iota.
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:39pm
- GJM
  
  When has The Guardian supported Israel in anything, ever? The fact they are against isrel is hardly news and doesn’t mean whatever Israel is doing is wrong.
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:15am
  - MCōs
    
    Israel was created on 14-May 1948 and the (Manchester) Guardian had a bloke there shortly afterwards. That’s almost eighty years ago and a lot has happened in the interim.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/09/stubbornly-fighting-for-life-how-arthur-koestler-reported-the-birth-of-israel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:14pm
  - Culture War Criminal
    
    “The fact they are against Israel is hardly news and doesn’t mean whatever Israel is doing is wrong.”
    
    Equally, supporting Israel doesn’t mean whatever Israel is doing is right, either.
    
    It’s one thing to support or not support a state of affairs, it’s the nature and the quality of your justification for your belief that matters.
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:48pm
cmm

Last week a few people found the discussion of genetic trade offs interesting. For example sickle cell anemia kills people in their 30s and 40s, but provides the same gene provides some protection against malaria. This means that people who get sickle cell anemia are more likely to get to breeding age – a biological advantage in malaria prone areas (eg. Africa).

There is a general term for this: Antagonistic pleiotropy.

While the sickle cell issue has been known for a long time, more and more is being discovered and many, if not most, genes seem to play this trade-off game to some extent.

After all, genes are just packets of information that instruct the cells to express certain traits. They live or die depending on whether the trait is beneficial or not.

This can explain a lot about why different population groups age differently or have different longevity.

It can also explain some of the problems some populations have when moving from one environment to another. If your body is tuned to survival off fruit and fish, then those same traits might be problematic when you add mutton flaps.

Perhaps we should never expect Maori to have the same longevity as whites. Perhaps Maori genetics are tuned to reaching breeding age early in a tropical setting rather than living a long time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antagonistic_pleiotropy_hypothesis
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May 16, 2025 8:30am
- pdm
  
  `Perhaps we should never expect Maori to have the same longevity as whites.’
  
  Many will though cmm.
  
  A number of Maori kids that I started school with at Porangahau in the early 50’s, so they are nudging 80, are still with us. This includes some older than me by 4 or 5 years.
  
  Some younger ones have gone though – as have many of non Maori descent.
  
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  May 16, 2025 8:46am
  - bennerg
    
    pdm, but remember most “maori” these days have only a small part of the original DNA that came with them when they arrived by boat a while back.
    
    The european DNA will now dominate.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:06am
    - cmm
      
      Well, maybe, but some genes are more dominant than others. It isn’t just down to being 75% European vs 25% Maori genetics.
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:03am
  - Colville
    
    Its quite a distance from Porangahau to the closest KFC… I wonder if that has any relevance?
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:20am
    - pdm
      
      It was over 20 years before the first KFC opened in Hastings (1972 or 73) and it remains the most accessible to Porangahau as you would know Colville.
      
      Not sure when KFC opened in Dannevirke.
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:08am
  - cmm
    
    People often fall in the trap of confusing individuals with population statistics.
    
    Of course there are some individuals that live longer or shorter than life expectancy. It’s that Bell curve thing.
    
    Maori life expectancy is 7 years less than non-Maori life expectancy in NZ. 73 vs 80 years for men and 77 vs 84 for women. (2021 numbers).
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:35am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: Shame on you!
      
      “…some individuals WHO live longer or shorter…”
      
      That is for inanimate objects and sometimes animals, e.g “the car that left the road was going far too fast”
      
      Serious question: was your first language English or Afrikaans? If it was the latter, you are excused!
      
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      May 16, 2025 10:32am
      - MCōs
        
        That’s interesting
        
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        May 16, 2025 11:23am
      - cmm
        
        Thank you for the correction DG. Soon your job will be replaced by AI so get them in while you can.
        
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        May 16, 2025 1:55pm
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: Please don’t be offended by my gentle corrections…I just can’t help myself – particularly “that” one…it is literally like hearing fingernails down a blackboard for me (Do schools still have blackboards? Probably not)
        
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        May 16, 2025 3:27pm
- Yvette
  
  As of the most recent data from 2017–2019, the average life expectancies are as follows:
  Māori: Males: 73.4 years Females: 77.1 years
  European (Pākehā): Males: 80.9 years Females: 84.4 years
  Asian: Males: 85.1 years Females: 87.9 years
  
  Has anyone ever explained why Maori, in this exercise, are always compared to ‘Pakeha’, not Asians?
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:29am
  - cmm
    
    Asians don’t suffer white guilt.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:37am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: Indeed…it’s going to get really interesting when the hard working well educated Asian population is greater than the Maori. In my experience Asians have a very low opinion of useless bludgers…Not that I am suggesting for a moment that that label fits all Maori.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:24am
  - Quail
    
    The NZ population has such a mix of genetic material now that it must be pretty impossible to select / study one race over another.
    
    This is a great reason why the ACT treaty bill should have gone to a referendum
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:45am
  - Yvette
    
    “Genetically”
    The Māori people are part of the larger group known as Polynesians, who are themselves a branch of the Austronesian peoples. Linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of the Māori originally came from Taiwan or the coastal regions of southern China, before gradually migrating southward and eastward through Southeast Asia and into the Pacific.
    
    Taiwan (as of early 2020s):
    • National average life expectancy:
    ◦ ~81–83 years (men: ~78, women: ~84)
    • Lower socioeconomic groups (e.g. rural, less educated, low-income, indigenous communities):
    ◦ ~65–75 years
    • Higher socioeconomic groups (urban, well-educated, high-income, strong healthcare access):
    ◦ ~85–88 years
    Estimated gap: ➤ 10–20 years
    
    Notably, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have consistently lower life expectancy — sometimes by 8–12 years compared to the Han majority population.
    
    Across Taiwan and Southeast Asia, life expectancy disparities between low and high socioeconomic groups range from 10 to 20 years, depending on factors like:
    • Education level
    • Urban vs. rural residence
    • Healthcare access
    • Occupation type
    • Lifestyle (nutrition, pollution exposure, stress)
    These gaps reflect the significant impact of social determinants of health, and underscore how inequality translates directly into life years gained or lost.
    
    In Ardernian philosophy is it not just “It is what it is”?
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:17am
    - cmm
      
      There are certainly many factors at play. For example obesity is relatively low in Taiwan compared with Polynesians.
      
      Genetics do change with time (the whole basis of natural selection). Polynesians split from Taiwan around 5000 to 3000 years ago so that has been around 200 generations. That is plenty of time for genetic profiles to change significantly.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:06am
    - MCōs
      
      I’m a 76yo pakeha Kiwi
      Statistically I should live to about 90-1/2
      I have a 78yo Maori friend who is struggling with cancer and the prognosis is maybe five more years, which would make him 83.
      I suppose if you go back through the years there would be a time when 83yo would statistically have been his life expectancy.
      Just goes to show how much bullshit predicting the future is.
      Any of us could be hit by a bus tomorrow
      Btw
      If I live to 90 I should live to 94
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:46am
      - cmm
        
        Life expectancy is nothing about predicting the outcomes for any particular individual. It is about averages in a population.
        
        Just because someone’s grandpappy smoked 3 packs a day and died on his 105th birthday only because he went skydiving and his parachute didn’t open does not mean smoking has no effect on life expectancy.
        
        The stats of life expectancy for a population are pretty simple.
        
        For individuals it is far more complex because risk is reduced as you dodge it.
        
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        May 16, 2025 2:01pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Polynesians such as Maori have a mixture of East Asian and Melanesian ancestry. Polynesian men in particular have a lot of Melanesian DNA.
      https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(08)00352-2
      
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      May 16, 2025 2:18pm
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      It makes little sense to use demographic data from 21st Century Taiwan as any kind of yardstick for Maori.
      
      Modern Taiwan is dominated by Han Chinese (something like 95-97% of the population). However, the ancestors of Maori left Taiwan thousands of years before any Chinese arrived in Taiwan.
      
      Putting the timeframe into a New Zealand context, Chinese settlement of Taiwan only dates to a decade or two before Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand. There is even a connection, in that the Dutch colonizers setting up in Taiwan were the first to encourage Chinese settlement.
      
      So basically the history of Chinese in Taiwan is only a couple of centuries longer than that of Europeans in New Zealand. Interestingly, there is far less ‘settler’ guilt among Taiwanese, though a couple of days ago the President did apologize to aboriginals for various historical wrongs.
      
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      May 16, 2025 3:29pm
  - PurplePen
    
    If I remember rightly, the data is also shown by region in NZ. Have a look at the differences by region. I did this with data from 2012 (It was the most recent dataset pre-covid). There are regions in which the difference between Maori and whitey are almost nil.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:11am
- I remember when
  
  Another one of the advantages the British gave them?
  Better longer life genes.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:36am
  - cmm
    
    Improvements in medicine and nutrition have done more to improve longevity than anything else but we should still expect there to be some differences.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:07am
    - rangitoto
      
      I have seen it argued that civil engineering has provided the greatest benefit to longevity. Water and sewerage reticulation and treatment.
      
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      May 16, 2025 3:02pm
- rangitoto
  
  Longevity is likely a benefit to the survival of grand children and even great grand children. No doubt there are always opposing factors at play.
  
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  May 16, 2025 2:58pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Oh you silly. Everyone knows that while evolution clearly governs all species on earth and their phenotypical variations in this age of woke it has learned to take a wide berth around an exclusion zone that encompasses ethnic variation in humans whose ancestors lived in different environments for hundreds of generations, and takes extra special care to stay far away from their brains.
  
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  May 16, 2025 3:05pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

At 8.34am, just the one bike today.

A cool, calm, dry morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.
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May 16, 2025 8:34am
- alex Masterley
  
  This is the most important post of the day!
  
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  May 16, 2025 12:38pm
kowtow

Talking of te media .

The last two days in the Herald ( print) you wouldn’t know Trump was in the ME doing huge deals both business and geopolitical .

Normally they suffer from TDS , bigly, and obsess about him and all his doings.
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May 16, 2025 8:51am
- MCōs
  
  According to Roy Morgan the print edition of the Herald has less than 30% of the circulation of the online edition
  From my observation of a paper copy I saw in the coffee shop the other day the emphasis is on NZ news, ads, racing, ads, property ads and sport
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:35am
Tauhei Notts

This morning’s Herald cartoon is a bit unusual. It is a piss take on, and I couldn’t believe it at first, the Labour Party.
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May 16, 2025 8:52am
- PurplePen
  
  I nearly choked on my muesli.
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:11am
Maggy Wassilieff

The CTU is miffed it doesn’t have regular meetings with this Government’s Ministers

Previous governments – not just the last government, but in fact, with John Key’s government – we had a regular meeting with the prime minister, a regular meeting with the minister of finance, a regular meeting with the minister of workplace relations and safety, and other meetings with other government ministers. This government is quite different.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/561076/brooke-van-velden-meets-with-council-of-trade-unions-after-pay-equity-changes

Strange how all the Journos and Dr Bryce Edwards who have recently been railing about the influence of lobbyists on this Government turned a blind eye to the omnipresent influence of unions on Ardern’s & Hipkins’ ministers.
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May 16, 2025 8:55am
- Mike
  
  it’s simply that different governments have different ideas on who gets preferential access to ministers.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:00am
  - RoboRob
    
    Yes different governments will listen to different groups. The difference here is that the MSM are claiming that not having regular meetings with the CTU is a breach of tradition and that by not doing so this government doesn’t care about workers. Biased media.
    
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    May 16, 2025 9:34am
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    Read Maggy’s post.
    it’s simply that MSM have an open bias on who gets preferential coverage.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:09am
- RoboRob
  
  Great point. People always think of the evil lobbyists as big business but in reality it is any organisation pushing for its goals. In NZ the Unions would be by far the biggest and most well funded lobby group.
  
  I remember as a kid in a hard Labour area hearing about the evil ‘business round table’ using its huge money to buy influence and hurt the workers but even then I am sure the unions had much more power.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:24am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Go look where most the lobbyists come from ffs, hypocrisy staggers me really
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:48am
  - slijmbal
    
    @RoboRob
    
    it’s not that long ago when Labour received more contributions than National predominantly down to large Union contributions. Not a peep on undue influence then from the MSM.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:57am
  - AitchW
    
    I suspect that amongst the general population the unions have much less power now than they did in the 70s and early 80s.
    Far fewer people belong to a union now than back then.
    Having said that the influence unions have over the Labour Party is at least as much now as back then. My strong suspicion is that a much greater proportion of Labour MPs now have a union background.
    
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    May 16, 2025 3:45pm
Yvette

The Hui – Exclusive interview with Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on their three week suspension from Parliament, after they performed the haka ‘Ka Mate’ in Parliament in protest during the first reading of the controversial Treaty Principles Bill in November 2024.

Summary of the interview –
It was incredibly hard to get into Parliament and bring our kaupapa to life with truth and authenticity. Being suspended feels like a personal attack. This isn’t just political — it’s triggering and deeply hurtful, rooted in a long history of silencing Māori voices. We’ve been labelled “uncivil” for responding honestly to harmful legislation, especially the Regulatory Standards Bill, which will severely undermine Treaty obligations.

We’ve been punished not for breaking rules, but for asserting our identity and tikanga in a system built for one way of being. They love our haka and reo but not us — the people. This is about control, putting Māori “back in line.”

Our communities — a quarter of a million people — have lost their voice in Parliament at a critical time. But we’re not sorry. We acted with dignity and respect. Our people have responded with love and support, and we will continue to stand with them, enrolling more voters, submitting against harmful laws, and showing up outside the House.

We’ve amplified our voices, not silenced them. We’re here. We’re not going anywhere. And we’ll keep fighting — with aroha and determination — for a future where all our mokopuna can stand tall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMkww8qWorc&t=7s

• Both co-leaders spoke with considerable emotion, both in tears or “choked-up” at certain points.
Almost all comments below the video are negative with many suggesting false display of emotions or Oscar-quality acting.
It actually seems to me that they are not acting, and do believe their own narrative – to an extent that is daunting. While ‘these people’ bemoan colonisation in a sense they believe it was once physical, how many have now colonised themselves a second time – mentally?

When unpleasant things happen in our lives, we can become either wise or wounded.
I believe these people may be already so self-wounded, any consequence will become a prophecy self-fulfilled, and they are beyond comprehending that you should not perform an intimidating haka in the middle of Parliamentary voting, but after it – particularly as then you know the result of the vote, and the haka has a totally different context.

Or, since it has been said to be a planned event, had President John Tamihere indeed thought it that far through?
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May 16, 2025 9:01am
- I remember when
  
  “Both co-leaders spoke with considerable emotion, both in tears or “choked-up” at certain points.”
  
  Realising there is a financial cost can do that to you.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:51am
  - Jinky
    
    Have they been getting acting lessons from Mark Lundy?
    
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    May 17, 2025 7:32am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Marae have protocols to respect, so does government.
  Even if they think, incorrectly that sovereignty wasn’t ceded and they are in a partnership, the protocol of whatever meeting house is still there.
  
  Or these clown could show some principles and refuse to take the colonial money for their salary permanently.
  Tamahere has got enough money stuffed in mattresses to pay them.
  
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  May 16, 2025 9:55am
- hookerphil
  
  “They love our haka and reo but not us ‘
  
  I don’t.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:04am
  - John Loveridge
    
    Quite right. Nor do I.
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:46am
- cmm
  
  I don’t think anyone is really wounded. They’re hamming it up for their disaffected voter base.
  
  It does not matter how it seems to the rest of NZ or to reasonable people. All that matters is how it looks to the radical Maori activist types that go on the Maori roll and vote for TPM.
  
  And I think this is going to work for them. Losing pay for a few weeks is going to pay off long term.
  
  Maori grievance culture is growing. This can only give TPM more support.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:47am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It catches the eye of swing voters. A vote for Labour is a vote for these racists, and a vote for huge borrowing and taxes thanks to Greens
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:53am
    - cmm
      
      Sure, but do you really think TPM care about what happens to Labour or Greens?
      
      All they care about is getting their snouts back in the trough in 2026. In or out of power probably doesn’t matter much.
      
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      May 16, 2025 2:22pm
- PurplePen
  
  They made a gun hand gesture and fired it pointing at the Rt Hon David Seymour for goodness sake. They were also laughing most of the time they were doing whatever they were doing. There is such a thing as Pakeha tikanga which you would think anyone in partnership would respect.
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:17am
- OlderChas
  
  “We acted with dignity and respect.”
  
  That short sentence from them says all that needs to be said about their honesty and integrity. //
  
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  May 16, 2025 12:06pm
  - AitchW
    
    Yeah, because contempt is a synonym for respect.
    God, is there a less self aware group than the Maori Party and its followers?
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:59pm
Jethrod

Behavior in the Parliamentary Chamber I believe, is down to the ineffective way the Speaker controls proceedings. I listen to
the house often and cringe at the way Mr Speaker attempts to control by the way of admonishment, then threats and dark stares and it ends up with nearly begging to the mass who are out of control. The Speaker at the start of the last labour schmooze would send someone from the Chamber for a sideways glance or a muttered aside.
The current Speaker has lost the house and needs to adopt more stringent measures to bring the house to order.
The recent departure of Willie Jackson , sent from the house by Greg O’Connor was highly warranted and should have resulted in a visit to the “powerful privileges committee “…………. oh but wait hasn’t Gerry just overruled it?
God give me strength!!!!
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May 16, 2025 9:01am
- pdm
  
  Greg O’Connor shows all the attributes of being an excellent Speaker.
  
  Right up there with Dr Lockwood-Smith I think had he been given the opportunity.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:12am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I almost think National should say they have no confidence in Brownlee and appoint Greg O’Connor//
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:22am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, because he hates most of his labour colleagues.
    
    It was a pretty weak punishment, because by 3.40 yesterday Jackson was back in the house waffling in another speech
    
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    May 16, 2025 10:57am
    - pdm
      
      Jackson could ye be referred to the Privileges Committee for Un-Parliamentary behaviour yesterday morning.
      
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      May 16, 2025 11:39am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  No Gerry has not over ruled anything, ffs I was agreeing with everything you said until your last sentence.
  
  Brownlie has no sway over what the committee delivered, he has to place the punishment on them after Tuesdays debate and vote
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:55am
  - pdm
    
    Yes but he has control of the debate.
    
    How he handles it it is a big concern.
    
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    May 16, 2025 11:40am
  - Jethrod
    
    We will just have to wait an see what happens in the coming week.
    I still think Judith will be doing massive eyerolls!
    
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    May 16, 2025 4:31pm
- PurplePen
  
  It’s time the House debated whether they still have faith in the Speaker and whether he should be replaced. As one of Parliament’s constituents I don’t.
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:20am
- Ghost
  
  Greg has done exactly what Gerry has done a number of times in removing someone from the house. And no, what Willie did doesn’t even come close to being sent to the privileges committee. It’s becoming very obvious someone of you have very little idea of the procedures in the house
  
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  May 16, 2025 12:07pm
- lifesgood
  
  Brownlee is a huge disappointment. Utterly useless and he’s letting the whole country down.
  
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  May 16, 2025 12:42pm
  - MCōs
    
    Except that only a fraction of the whole country is the slightest bit interested
    How many people saw van Velden say c*** [Mod – changed] the other day live on tv?
    Gerry Brownlee is only a bit player in a predominantly lacklustre melodrama
    
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    May 16, 2025 6:00pm
HalfFull

I did not know what girl math was, then read the green party’s alternative budget.
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May 16, 2025 9:38am
- John Loveridge
  
  I don’t think maths was involved at all. It’s like they think there’s a magic genie in the finance bottle.
  
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  May 16, 2025 10:47am
I remember when

So Willie Jackson thinks that TPM has gained an advantage over the Labour Party in the Maori electorates.
If it’s defiance their voters want then Willie will ‘follow the leader.’
Another demonstration that shows nothing is too childish.
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May 16, 2025 9:43am
- Jethrod
  
  I still believe Willie is a de-facto TPM member. He certainly has the interlect to be one.
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:34pm
vand

Has the Government asked why these Marae did not have their buildings and other assets insured?

pdm- remember they got $100 million during covid to upgrade maraes- but Maori have no special privileges don’t you know!
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May 16, 2025 10:33am
cmm

Why, oh why, should successful industries be given $577M of hand outs?

Bullshit. These darling industries have been given hand outs for decades. If they can’t stand on their own two feet yet then let them die a natural death.

Peter Jackson flies around in a private jet. Does he really need everyone to dip into their wallets and give him a hand out?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nicola-willis-announces-577m-film-investment-at-peter-jacksons-film-studio/JFXITC4UQRBMLJF7S5T33RGQUY/
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May 16, 2025 10:54am
- mandk
  
  They probably could stand on their own two feet without support, if the same industries elsewhere didn’t receive higher levels of support than is provided in NZ.
  
  The same applies to R&D Tax Credits.
  
  Australia would love to provide a home for NZ film and high-tech businesses.
  
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  May 16, 2025 12:08pm
  - Jack5
    
    NZ’s small economy and isolation sadly mean many of our technology companies will move overseas or end up overseas owned.
    
    – Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab, now Rocket Lab USA.
    
    – Xero, now homed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
    
    – Robotics and automation company Scott Technology, still NZ based but majority owned by the world’s biggest meat company, which is Brazilian owned..
    
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    May 16, 2025 1:33pm
  - cmm
    
    If it is going to cost us $577M to subsidise then Aussie are welcome to the industry as far as I am concerned.
    
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    May 16, 2025 2:02pm
    - mandk
      
      So, you’d be happy to sacrifice the income tax and GST paid by the 24,000 people who work in the industry?
      
      Genius.
      
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      May 16, 2025 3:57pm
- Quail
  
  CMM.
  Totally agree with you!
  A cunning plan to bail out Wellingtons problems perhaps?
  The Evans bay/ Port Howard development proposals springs to mind!
  
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  May 16, 2025 7:04pm
MCōs

The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.

I read the other day about an English guy on holiday in Thailand who got too close to the edge of a waterfall, slipped and fell about 8m onto some rocks busting all sorts of body parts
So far the hospital bill had come to four million baht ($NZ200k), which had to be paid before they would discharge him. He would then be evacuated back to the UK for further treatment
He has travel insurance, but the small print says he can’t go into areas designated as dangerous so they refused to pay . . . ..

In NZ the benevolent taxpayer would pick up the bill by way of ACC, l suppose
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May 16, 2025 11:16am
- rouppe
  
  Yes they would. But we know that about travel insurance, or any other insurance.
  
  Did he walk past signs saying “not past this point”? If yes then it’s on him.
  
  And don’t tell me about not understanding the signs. I use Google translate off my camera daily.
  
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  May 16, 2025 2:55pm
- Keith White
  
  “In NZ the benevolent taxpayer would pick up the bill by way of ACC, l suppose.”
  
  You suppose correctly.
  
  The hospital bills for the White Island casualties from overseas added up to more than $18,000,000 that the taxpayer had to pay – not to mention all the delayed and deferred treatment of NZers unable to access care due to bed occupancy.
  
  Before someone jumps in and accuses me of being nasty and wanting furrin tourists to die, I don’t; but I do not see why New Zealand has to fund everything for non-taxpayers injured while visiting our country. If I get injured overseas then exactly as you point out for this guy in Thailand; the local (Thai) taxpayer doesn’t pay, I have to – and if not insured, it’s on me or I don’t get the care.
  
  And by the way, rhetorical question: what do you think happens when visiting sportsmen and sportswomen get seriously or even mindfully injured competing in New Zealand?
  
  We could afford a lot of what we can’t afford if we just stop throwing money into singing kauri trees and freeloading non-taxpayers.
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:22pm
Chuck Bird

Leighton Smith Podcast #284 – May 14th 2025 – Dr Pierre Kory May 14, 2025 • 104 mins

Prior to Covid-19, Dr Pierre Kory was an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of critical care ultra-sonography; equally so in other areas of medicine.

In 2023 he published “The War on Ivermectin: The medicine that saved millions and could have ended the pandemic.”

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-leighton-smith-podcas-30246213/episode/leighton-smith-podcast-284-may-275461736/
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May 16, 2025 11:29am
Generic Name

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/561165/judith-collins-defiant-over-survey-involvement-the-greens-are-frankly-bonkers

Fantastic line in this RNZ article, quoting Fleur Fitzsimons from the PSA:

“This is the only information collected directly from public servants by takawa Mata whole and the minister should let them do their job.”

So the Maori name for the Public Service Commission is “Te Kawa Mataaho”. Fitzsimons used the Maori name, of course, to show how enlightened and culturally sensitive she is. But the reporter had no idea what she was saying, and completely messed it up.

Great example of why these names are unhelpful.
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May 16, 2025 11:45am
- Conservatarian
  
  Excellent backfire, thanks for this story. It makes a nice change from seeing “Pink Shirt day” propaganda
  
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  May 16, 2025 1:12pm
sirknz

Isn’t diversity supposed to be a strength?
A woman and her husband managed to defraud OT out of $2m.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360691271/divine-connection-secret-marriage-helped-couple-defraud-oranga-tamariki-out-2m

Will we be revoking their residency and deporting them for this?

Doubtful.
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May 16, 2025 12:13pm
- Keith White
  
  Three years’ jail.
  
  Out in 14 months, maybe less.
  
  So her jailtime salary-equivalent works out at a hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — and she gets free room and board and babysitting.
  
  Bah.
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:17pm
Jack5

How’s she gonna get round Trump?

Finance Minister Willis is topping up the State subsidy of the film industry by more than half a billion dollars to more than a billion over four years.

Meanwhile, President Trump hat threatened a 100 per cent tariff on films made outside the United States.

The Herald reports Willis made the announcement while touring Peter Jackson’s studio in Wellington.

In the imminent Budget, Willis will top up the screen production subsidy by $557 million.

This comes a few days after Willis announced $100 million will be allocated in the budget to the State ‘Elevate’ venture capital fund, with $61 million tapped from the NZ Superannuation Fund.

Willis thus affirms that the National Party is soft Left. It’s not the party of decades ago. It was also dirigist, but at least its export focus was on more tangible products.

I blame MMP. From it has come a career path into Parliament of party internships — inward looking, too much “made in the silo”. Before MMP, local body politics provided a more diverse route into Parliament.

Willis’s golden-lolly scramble for the film industry:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nicola-willis-announces-577m-film-investment-at-peter-jacksons-film-studio/JFXITC4UQRBMLJF7S5T33RGQUY/

Tax and savings money for venture capital investment, which is risky:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/budget-2025/560803/100m-boost-to-government-s-venture-capital-fund-announced
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May 16, 2025 12:21pm
Bridgenag

Behind the scenes: How Freedom of Information works
A case study of the TGA’s transparency problem

https://news.rebekahbarnett.com.au/p/behind-the-scenes-how-freedom-of?r=5aqwv0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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May 16, 2025 1:27pm
Conservatarian

HDPA regularly presents a UK politics contributor named Enda O’Brien, a TV personality based in London.

Last night O’Brien reported that, only minutes before the interview, he had been threatened with a knife by a young male thug demanding 3 or 4 quid from him to rent an e-bike/scooter to take a quick trip. O’Brien gave no other description of the thug.

An important fact to interject here is that O’Brien is a frothing leftist who regularly reports on “far right” protests which notice the UK’s 25 years of mass uncontrolled immigration from the third world. Note he is not James O’Brien, another frothing leftist on LBC Radio.

It is absolutely clear to me that O’Brien’s omission of certain basic facts about this incident meant that the thug was not an Englishman and rather the thug was simply enriching England with his diversity.

O’Brien then began to discuss how horrible London is nowadays due to the crime, and attributed the blame to the lack of police. You never see a policeman these days he says, as if this explains why a young man pulled a knife on him.

HDPA prompted him for a better answer on London’s crime problem. O’Brien stammered his same diagnosis about a lack of police presence despite all the government spending.

Incredibly, O’Brien then contrasted London with Poland, where he had been spending time reporting on upcoming presidential elections, noting its streets were clean and safe.

Further important context: O’Brien regularly criticises eastern European nations for defying EU orders to bring in hordes of third worlders.

2 + 2 = 5.

Perhaps (and justifiably) he was a little shaken and not thinking clearly. Or perhaps not.
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May 16, 2025 1:39pm
- All_on_Red
  
  I cant remember who said it but; ” Progressives think Conservatives are evil and Conservatives think Progressives are stupid”
  Sounds like Mr O’Brien is a Progressive
  
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  May 16, 2025 3:24pm
Surely Knott

A man has cancer because his colonoscopy was delayed.

What part of the delay was due to his ethnicity? European was classed as the lowest ethnicity in Ardern’s medical equity adjustor.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/car-dealer-loses-his-business-after-bowel-cancer-spreads-during-year-long-colonoscopy-delay/PTYWPYTWBNDKHOVMHM5YEOXESA/
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May 16, 2025 1:59pm
- Keith White
  
  These evil episodes will continue for (a) as long as all MPs and their families can all rapidly access private health care and (b) as long as doctors and managers can’t be sued for negligence because of ACC’s ‘no-fault compensation.’
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:08pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    AI systems are now superior to Humans in finding cancer via scans etc, a Professor of Radiology at Stanford University: ‘An AI model by itself outperforms physicians [even when they’re] using these tools.’
    https://youtu.be/W8z2o0zV2SA
    
    Lack of radiologists has long been the limiting and primary cost factor for things like MRIs, CTs and PET scans for diagnosis, but with that now fully automatable the cost of MRIs should drop down to $1-200 making them something that we could or should perhaps be getting every 6-12 months depending on risk profile as we enter our 50’s to check for incipient cancers and cardiovascular issues.
    
    Ai driven robotic systems are going to get good at doing other diagnosis work like ultrasounds, colonoscopies, basic dental work etc in quite short order too.
    
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    May 16, 2025 5:19pm
- MCōs
  
  Two points.
  The delayed colonoscopy wouldn’t have caused the cancer. It would have been detected earlier.
  I know three people who paid to have a colonoscopy privately rather than wait. I’m not saying this chap should have, but the option is there if you can afford the $3-4k
  
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  May 16, 2025 5:00pm
cmm

I see that POS called Stuff is referring to the TPM suspension as “exile”.

Quality factual reporting eh?
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May 16, 2025 2:15pm
- Conservatarian
  
  Just like the lovely chap V.I. Lenin was in exile?
  
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  May 16, 2025 3:47pm
sirknz

From the “It’s only a problem when it affects us department”, Tame Iti has had his ride on lawnower stolen.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360691787/we-are-dealing-rats-tame-iti-calls-out-thieves-who-stole-his-lawn-mower

Apparently theft is only bad when it affects him.
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May 16, 2025 2:50pm
- AitchW
  
  If I were feeling mischievous I’d wonder out loud how Iti came to have said ride on mower. But I’m not feeling mischievous.
  
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  May 16, 2025 3:48pm
  - Keith White
    
    His ancestors found the blueprints when they sailed to the South Pole.
    
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    May 16, 2025 4:10pm
- Keith White
  
  15% do 50% of the crime. Own it, Tame.
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:09pm
Ghost

Five deputy principals? What is it, one for each day? This school has more deputies than I had my entire school life.

A deputy principal from Onslow College in Wellington is on leave, while the police have confirmed they have received a complaint about a school staff member and are making inquiries.

The school told parents it was “undertaking a process” concerning Connor Baird, one of five deputy principals at the college, who is currently on leave.

Article
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May 16, 2025 3:20pm
- MCōs
  
  There’s about 1400 students at that school. My son was a DP at a similar sized school with a similar number of DPs a few years ago
  A lot of his day was filled up with disgruntled parents who thought their kids were hard done by their teachers until they found out they weren’t
  From memory when I was a school no matter how useless the teacher was their word was rarely questioned by parents
  
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  May 16, 2025 4:45pm
NothingLeft

For those so enamored of the lovely Russians invading Ukraine, here is an account from a Russian conscript now managed to escape to the west of his experiences in occupied Zaphorezhia in Summer ’23 where apart from their typical military dysfunction the occupiers were raping kids, torturing locals and abducting children to Russia:
https://youtu.be/jkJQGEAjsYc?t=730

Rinse and repeat for hundreds of thousands of others….
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May 16, 2025 4:42pm
Ghost

Kanye West has a new song out, Heil Hitler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DxkJXaI2uQ

I don’t think I’ve heard the n word so much in a song before…. Think I’ll stick with Jelly Roll
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May 16, 2025 5:25pm
- Parnell Gun Club
  
  It’s kind of catchy
  
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  May 16, 2025 11:38pm