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June 1, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 01 June 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

The Tariffs: Tom Hunter posted the other day his legal analysis which proved that Trump has the power to impose his tariffs. My legal education ended in 1980 and I do not have a practising certificate. But Prof. Michael McConnell , of the Stanford Law School, is a leading constitutional law scholar (and former Tenth Circuit judge) and he thinks that the two courts have probably got it right.

The US Supreme Court will make the final decision but at least some legal scholars think that the conservatives will endorse the lower court decision. Constitutionally the Congress has the power to tax; the President does not. The “emergency” justification does not hold water, unless of course the Supreme Court says it does.

“Even if affirmed, these decisions leave the executive with substantial delegated authority over tariffs, under trade laws passed specifically for that purpose, and subject to congressionally-imposed limits of various kinds. The most broad-ranging, the Trade Act of 1974, might well support a new version of President Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariff, if adopted through proper procedures. But it would not permit a permanent change to tariff levels or trade policy. Tariffs under the Trade Act are limited to 15% and to a duration of 150 days. If President Trump thinks we should return to a high-tariff policy like that of the 1800s, he will have to persuade the representatives of the People to go along.”

Would Congress endorse the tariffs? I doubt it, although it’ll be a brave Republican who’ll defy Trump. I think there are enough of them to change things. Probably to a case by case basis.

Anyone with a contrary view is welcome to have a go. It’s a stupefying topic and reminds me how pleased I was when 1980 ended.

As an aside, note that Trump has imposed a 50% tax on steel and aluminium which has caused alarm in Canberra. Actually panic might be a better description. It also affects the UK and Canada plus the flow on from China dumping its product formerly destined for the US. I assume Tiwai Point is also affected in some way.
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June 1, 2025 8:05am
- Mike
  
  Yes. The constitution clearly assign power to set tariffs to the Congress, not the President.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:35am
  - Cassandra
    
    It’s not quite as clear cut as that, mike. One lawyer I respect, Manhattan Contrarian, believes that the Supremes will endorse the District Court except for steel and aluminium which has its own statute. All will be revealed.
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:09am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      So all Trump has to do in the meantime is pass a bill which he will win
      
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      June 1, 2025 11:56am
    - Ra Henare
      
      I am often reminded that Lawyers are a little bit like economists.
      
      Get 10 in a room and pose a question, you will get 11 different answers.
      
      Go to any trial and two(or more) lawyers are fighting it out to prove that their version of the law is correct.
      
      Many people think we live in an unprecedented era of remarkably close Supreme Court decisions. Don’t believe it. In the last three years(prior to 2006), the court has decided 51 cases by a 5-to-4 vote. By historical standards, that’s not a large number. From 1998 to 2000, the court decided 61 cases by a 5-to-4 margin. From 1991 to 1993, the court so split in 53 cases. In the 1980s, 5-to-4 splits were even more common.
      
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      June 1, 2025 12:36pm
- Stu2
  
  The 50% steel and aluminium tariff is probably to motivate countries to continue trade talks.
  
  Economically it is madness. Domestic steel prices have already risen, and this gives them room to rise a whole lot more before they become uncompetitive against tariffed imports.
  
  The studies of the steel tariffs under Trump 1 showed more jobs in steel, but fewer jobs in the industries using steel as they were less competitive. Overall a reduction in jobs.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:53am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    If the intention is to motivate other countries to continue trade talks, Trump will fail, again.
    
    He’s shown time and time again that nothing he agrees to, even if he signs it in front of newscameras and says it’s the best deal ever, can be banked by the other party. I very much doubt that Canberra is panicking. They, like everybody else, know that whatever the TACO threatens, he’ll back down soon enough anyway.
    
    No, the best bet for other countries is just to ignore him, salvage what they can and write off the rest of their economic exposure to the US economy, and focus instead on increasing trade with each other instead.
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:42am
  - Colville
    
    Surely aimed at China (Oz will get rooted tho) trying to bring manufacturing back to USA as both steel and Alloy is massively power hungry and USA has more fuel than they can use.
    
    Short term pain for longterm gain?
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:24am
    - Stu2
      
      No they don’t currently have the major amounts of electricity needed to smelt the large volume of aluminium they import.
      
      A lot of the imports are from Canada and made using cheap hydropower. Not a wheel worth reinventing, way cheaper from Canada and if security of supply is a concern then that can be contracted for.
      
      Self sufficiency would come at a considerable price, and US manufacturing would be less competitive yet again.
      
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      June 1, 2025 1:51pm
      - Colville
        
        But that’s the whole point.
        USA needs to build capacity and bring manufacturing home. The have energy abundance but not enough generation capacity? Get building then. And keep fracking.!
        
        Because if they do then China dies.
        
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        June 1, 2025 5:22pm
      - Jack5
        
        The Bluff smelter is one of two smelters in the world producing ultra-high-purity aluminium.
        
        That and the fact that its made with “Green power” might give it some protection.
        
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        June 1, 2025 8:13pm
  - Stu2
    
    One of the obvious victims is auto manufacturing – another raft of extra cost.
    
    But they are trying to incentivise US container ship production. Paying way over the odds for steel doesn’t gel.
    
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    June 1, 2025 3:17pm
- JackRabbit
  
  My legal education ended in 1980 and I do not have a practising certificate.
  
  To be fair to you, you do not need to be an expert in law to read the law, and follow the logic. The law you refer to, is written in English, and made for the common man/woman to read and understand. Otherwise how does a man/woman obey the law if it is written in gibberish?
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:11am
  - Paulus
    
    No, do they not have Tikanga when they want the result.
    
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    June 1, 2025 1:44pm
  - Cassandra
    
    Common law is a bit more complicated, Jack. All those cases and judgments. Your head spins. And constitutional law goes back aeons.
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:32pm
  - CJames
    
    My understanding is the written law is often so modified by subsequent court decisions setting precedents that it can turn the meaning near inside out.
    
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    June 1, 2025 3:04pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      The law is not perfect, nor is it complete, nor does it take every situation into account. Precedents are often a clarification of a law or what was intended. The spirit of the law, as opposed to the letter of the law.
      
      Unfortunately you get tyrants and demons passing all sorts of laws as a result of a majority, or under “emergency provisions” as happened in NZ 2017-2023.
      
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      June 1, 2025 5:34pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        And how many of those draconian laws are still active…
        And lets not forget the abortion laws and sex change laws etc all passed under urgency as Luxon and national bowed deeply to the podium.
        
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        June 1, 2025 9:21pm
- rouppe
  
  The 50% tariff on steel won’t last.
  
  Steel producers sell it at what they currently do, it’s the USA consumer that will have to pay more. And since the USA doesn’t produce enough steel for it’s own use, pay they will have to do.
  
  Steel producers might have to trim production for awhile, and maybe NZ infrastructure can benefit from this in the short term, stockpiling some at attractive prices.
  
  But eventually USA manufacturing will run into trouble and the tariffs will need to go.
  
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  June 1, 2025 2:28pm
  - Jack5
    
    Surely Trump expects to open new steel mills, especially as he plans a resurgence of American ship building. Plywood hulls won’t do.
    
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    June 1, 2025 8:08pm
Chuck Bird

It looks like Winston could go with Labour this time. It that is the case before the election, he might not make the 5%.
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June 1, 2025 8:06am
- igm
  
  He is evidently a good friend of McAnulty, sharing similar interests in racing. So that adds up.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:30am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    McAnulty was in Oz for the election. He watched how Labor got back, lie and bribe.
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:08am
    - Cassandra
      
      Helped by Dutton running an awful campaign.
      
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      June 1, 2025 10:10am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        The Trump effect maybe? His father did die suddenly the day of the debate, I think that may have way laid his campaign, he d as powered to be doing fine before that, funny thing is people still hate Labour over there
        
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        June 1, 2025 11:58am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I believe that Dutton’s father had a heart attack but survived.
        
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        June 1, 2025 3:35pm
    - Graeme Hall
      
      Mr McAnulty needs no lessons in deception. If you doubt that look up the media reports of his divorce.
      
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      June 1, 2025 3:06pm
- Anthony Melchett
  
  The most important thing is for people to declare an allegiance beforehand, or at least rule things out or still possible so you know what you are voting for.
  
  His wording about not going with hipkins was very specific and I suspect he will want to leave his options open
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:33am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    And if Nats are weakened, then he will simply say I ignored the voters once, I am not doing it again.
    
    The more I hear MaKanulty, the more he sounds like another weak wimp like Hipkins
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:01pm
    - Paulus
      
      Understand that we will see more of Phil Goff, now that he is back without a job, busy with friends in Labour High Places.
      
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      June 1, 2025 1:47pm
- Mike
  
  Not necessarily. He has 18 months to campaign, essentially. He’ll use that time to highlight some issues particular to his likely voters and attempt to be in a position where he is needed by both main parties if either wish to form a government.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:39am
- Cassandra
  
  Peters has said that he won’t go with Hipkins. He usually doesn’t say which way he’ll go before an election. Why do you think it’s different now?
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:43am
  - Flossie
    
    But would it be a whole other conversation if Hipkins is rolled?
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:02am
    - Paulus
      
      Suggested that6 Goff is talking to “friends” in Labour to try and get back onside with the Party – but not Hipkins.
      
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      June 1, 2025 9:13am
      - kowtow
        
        Which party?
        
        Hamas .Judging by his rant the other day.
        
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        June 1, 2025 10:23am
      - Jethrod
        
        Goff is too old for Labour….. 71
        
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        June 1, 2025 3:51pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Sausage Rolled?
      
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      June 1, 2025 10:14am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Last election, he stated he would not go with Labour. That is the difference. It would be more of a difference if National was not Labour Lite.
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:03am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      If Nats did not maintain the centre, then Act would simply be a one mp party still
      
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      June 1, 2025 12:04pm
      - Cassandra
        
        If National maintained the centre it’d be a great improvement. Your “If” reminds me of Sparta’s.
        
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        June 1, 2025 2:35pm
  - AitchW
    
    Peters, as always, will do whatever he feels will benefit him most. Make no mistake, he has no regard for the greater good, only his own personal benefit.
    There is a reason that his party is so often referred to as Winston First.
    Remember him standing before the assembled media and proclaiming capitalism a failure before anointing Ardern?
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He ruled Labour out last election, so that’s not true, he copped a pounding from voters after ignoring the voter in 17
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:02pm
  - Mummy
    
    He actually said that he won’t go with Labour as long as Hipkins is leader. Now where have I heard that before?
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:12pm
- pdm
  
  Rest assured Chuck.
  
  Winston will do what is best for Winston.
  
  However, there may be a bit more common sense behind the scenes with Casey Costello, Mark Patterson, Jamie Arbuckle and Tanya Unkovich.
  
  Although Shane Jones is an unknown quantity when it comes to considering Labour and he may well have the final veto vote. He seems to have genuine animosity against most of Labours current Caucus.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:44am
  - Colville
    
    The party name is Winston First for a reason. Its a veichle for his ego and nothing more.
    
    pdm..with respect but utter bullshit if you think they have ANY sway.*
    
    However, there may be a bit more common sense behind the scenes with Casey Costello, Mark Patterson, Jamie Arbuckle and Tanya Unkovich.
    
    *unless Peters dies!
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:10am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  And your evidence for that statement is what exactly?
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:56am
  - pdm
    
    If you are referring to mine above pope – which part?
    
    But, to help you – mostly personal observation and my interpretation of what people say plus Winston has history of playing both sides for his personal baubles collection.
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:43am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Ok so no direct evidence.
      
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      June 1, 2025 11:17am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Listen to him in the house, he often blames the lunacy of greens and TPM on Labour, and calls them to rule them out
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:06pm
- John Loveridge
  
  I wish Winston would retire, or something. I’m sick to death of him choosing our governments for us.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:36am
  - Steve Todd
    
    I, too, wish Winston would retire [not, or something]. (I am a very big fan of all people on this planet being able to live out their natural lives (even though, of course, that has not happened, or ever will happen).)
    
    I say to you, John: hang in there. Once Winston goes (following the 2027 Budget debate?), NZ First goes (at the 2029 General Election). That’s what I’m hanging out for.
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:43pm
- cmm
  
  Winston is good at smelling out a 5% issue.
  There is still a long while for one to come up.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:18pm
- Warren Murray
  
  And while Winston campaigns, our msm will serve up daily propaganda puff pieces on how bad / evil David Seymour is.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:19pm
Scott

Mark Mitchell on Tv1 news last night branded the boy racers as “cowardly” after a 1000 person boy racer event caused mayhem in Levin. I thought Mitchell would be a bit tougher in his words and his actions? Police made only 10 arrests and the boy racers went on to Palmerston North to wreck further mayhem.

Yes there is legislation coming through on boy racers. But to me we need a tougher police response now. Confiscate cars, mass arrests and tougher words and actions.

NZers are quite soft at times. These guys are antisocial criminals who attacked police. There should have been a hundred arrests. Speaking to their better side won’t help. They need arrests and confiscation of vehicles. Watching the footage the police seemed to be losing. This can’t be allowed to go on.
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June 1, 2025 8:06am
- john1234
  
  They need the riot squad parked around the corner. Give the little shits 15 minutes to disperse then send them in. If it’s good enough for the parliament Covid protesters then it’s good enough for boy racers.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:36am
- H. Upmann
  
  Mitchell needs to consult with Crusher Collins.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:45am
  - Steve Todd
    
    If I recall correctly – and I could be wrong – Judith “Crusher” Collins never actually oversaw the crushing of a car. I do, however, recall seeing Anne Tolley (on TV) standing on top of car that was about to be crushed.
    
    I wonder, was that the only car ever to be crushed (by the so-called “tough on crime” Nats)? I somehow suspect it was.
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:11pm
- Dougal10
  
  Yet they turned up in riot gear to a parliamentary sit in.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:50am
- cmm
  
  “Yes there is legislation coming through on boy racers”
  
  There is already all sorts of legislation. Adding more won’t do a damn thing.
  
  What is needed is enforcement.
  
  First enforce the current laws to the maximum before you think we need more laws.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:20pm
- imalwaysright
  
  If any of us had driven like that we would have been in the pokey in 10 minutes flat.
  The cops have plenty of laws available to deal with these scum.
  They should have joint charged the whole lot of them for the serious assaults but it seems they let them ride off into the sunset instead.
  Like with the gangs, this was another police event management excercise.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:24pm
cas

There is an excruciating interview with Jacinda in today’s Guardian – warning her book is out on 3 June. I read it so you don’t have to

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/may/31/jacinda-ardern-kind-leadership-public-rage-life-trump-america

Also an extract from the book

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/may/31/queen-elizabeth-ii-had-raised-children-in-the-public-eye-i-asked-if-she-had-any-advice-for-me-an-exclusive-extract-from-jacinda-arderns-memoir

It doesn’t sound as though she has any regrets.

BTW her clothes are from a luxurious American brand not a NZ designer.
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June 1, 2025 8:06am
- John Loveridge
  
  I didn’t think I could hate that woman any more, but she’s pulled it off.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:41am
- Cassandra
  
  No doubt Willis’ critics will be all over Ardern. If not, why not? PS nobody has to answer my question.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Oh they are alright, probably a pointer to Willis being on the right track
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:08pm
    - Cassandra
      
      G: this about dresses – are you on topic?
      
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      June 1, 2025 2:37pm
- Flossie
  
  Bit of a stretch being Jacinda Ardern raising a kid in the public eye to being The Queen. Not sure anybody was particularly interested in that side of her life.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:47am
  - Mike
    
    Only to the extent people could criticize her parenting.
    
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    June 1, 2025 11:10am
- Scott
  
  cas, thanks for taking one for the team. I too have now read the Guardian article. The point of it appears to be to list Jacinda’s awesome achievements and note how kind and marvellous she is. And isn’t it a shame that some people are ungrateful and don’t appreciate her awesomeness!?
  
  Gosh we kiwis must be ungrateful. How could we, how could I, not see and appreciate what a lovely kind and amazing person she is? 🤔
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:08am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  cas, why would you do this to yourself?
  
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  June 1, 2025 5:51pm
Maggy Wassilieff

What is the attraction in physical violence for young men?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/david-seymour-condemns-charity-fight-challenge-from-eru-kapa-kingi/TC3P5IAELRAAPIPFVYJI4SS3WY/
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June 1, 2025 8:08am
- greybeard
  
  A great advertisement for Auckland University.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:23am
- igm
  
  In the case of challenge entered, it involves an animal, not a young man!
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:31am
- Gravelroad
  
  “Charity fight”? Who would want to be associated with a charity that relies on violence for funding?
  Time for Mr Kapa Kingi to grow up a bit.
  People out here are absolutely over their constant reliance on fighting and hurting kids to solve their problems and draw attention to their warrior status.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:42am
  - pdm
    
    `Time for Mr Kapa Kingi to grow up a bit.’
    
    Mr. Kapa Kingi gravel – that is stretching things more than a bit gravel..
    
    The 15 stone (by the look of him) thug wants to take on 10 stone David Seymour. He sure picks his fights.
    
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    June 1, 2025 8:54am
  - sirknz
    
    “Charity fight”? Who would want to be associated with a charity that relies on violence for funding?
    
    You might want to check out Mates in Construction.
    
    https://mates.net.nz/
    
    Very worthwhile charity but you probably haven’t heard of it because women aren’t the most affected by suicide in construction.
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:52am
    - The Housekeeper
      
      “women aren’t the most affected by suicide in construction”
      
      How about the mothers, the daughters, the granddaughters, the sisters, the grandmothers, the aunts, the nieces, the goddaughters? How about all the wives that are left to bring up their children alone?
      
      When widowed, I needed practical help, like chopping wood, gutter cleaning, car maintenance and financial advice, jobs my husband had always done. I just needed to be shown once and then I could do them myself.
      
      Rather than beating the crap out of eachother for spurious charitable gains, these guys would be better to roll up their sleeves and give practical help in their own communities. Sure, they don’t get to hurt anyone but they can be sure their good deeds are going straight to where it’s most needed rather than a charitable donation that goes nowhere.
      
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      June 1, 2025 1:49pm
  - Ghost
    
    Who would want to be associated with a charity boxing match? The police and fire service?
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4308444/Police-and-firefighters-line-up-for-charity-boxing-match
    
    Mark Mitchell?
    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/03/07/stuart-nash-declines-mark-michells-charity-boxing-callout/
    
    Bill English?
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qqoqs
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:05am
- Flossie
  
  I do not understand condoning “sport” of which the sole purpose is to inflict physical injury to one’s opponent.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:08am
  - MCōs
    
    Like it or not organized martial arts such as boxing or wrestling has been around for at least five thousand years.
    Disorganized even longer!
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:26am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      Violence is in our DNA, particularly in men’s. Violence is a means to an end, though, and the end is dominance or victory over another, and is deeply hierarchical. We go to great lengths to convince ourselves that hierarchies are bad, and that egalitarianism is the ultimate good and the way things should be.
      
      It doesn’t matter what political philosophy is devised that is supposed to ignore or nullify or contract out of the realities intrinsic to the world (yes, I’m looking at you, Liberalism), nothing will change that hierarchies exist and emerge throughout nature.
      
      I’m sure that most men reading this have, on occasion, had intrusive thoughts about beating the shit out of someone else as a consequence of some slight, or offence, or disagreement encountered during the course of their day, perhaps even as a visceral response to a comment encountered on a political blog (perhaps even this one).
      
      Despite the laws, the dictates of etiquette and the agreed social conventions, it’s there under the surface all the time, which is why we have “violent” sports of all kinds (some of which are very popular and profitable).
      
      Moreover, the conduct of modern warfare is one of the most violent and destructive pursuits imaginable, but always done under the pretext of “enlightened values” such as “freedom, and democracy and liberal ideals” and so on, and on the assumption that we have “moved on” from the more primitive pre-Liberal societal forms, where violence was done face-to-face, or close to it, rather than from hundreds or thousands of miles away in an air conditioned office. Somewhat like in the case of pre-packaged meat we purchase at the supermarket, there is a disconnect between the appearance and the reality, but the reality is unavoidable.
      
      In more traditional, “martial”-oriented societies (including in the precursors to our own), violent exploits (which simultaneously involve overcoming oneself as well as one’s opponent) were part and parcel of their virtue and honour systems. The successful men tended to accumulate the spoils (including the best women, and women wanted them too), whereas in a liberal society with all of our pretensions, the “violent” men are those who ruthlessly accumulate resources, always at the expense of their vanquished opponents, and so they too enjoy the same kinds of rewards.
      
      It’s not to say that this was a better societal ethos than our own (which tends to be, for 99.9% of people, highly therapeutic, hedonistic, comfort-oriented, conflict-avoidant and directed at survival as an end in itself), but it is to say that there is more than one such ethos and that which is the superior one is not at all objectively certain.
      
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      June 1, 2025 10:55am
  - David Garrett
    
    Flossie. It’s worse than that: the major aim of all these sports is to inflict brain damage. Every time a person is knocked out, their brain is damaged. Two men in a boxing ring are just gladiators without swords.
    
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    June 1, 2025 9:45am
    - Colville
      
      [deleted]
      A mate of mine who is pushing 70 still fights maybe 3 times week at a K1 gym, he is as nimble as a kitten and a mind as quick as any. Never ever gets a hit in the head.
      DG …. if you dont know what you are talking about you look like a fool.
      
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      June 1, 2025 10:18am
      - rouppe
        
        Fights? Or trains. Or spars.
        
        If he never gets hit in the head then no one is aiming for his head.
        
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        June 1, 2025 3:53pm
      - Colville
        
        rouppe
        DGs stated that martial arts purpose is to cause brain damage.
        It’s a rubbish claim.
        I have a blue belt from a long time ago in judo. I don’t remember ever hitting anyone in the head.
        My mate could kill me with a couple of punches no doubt, but train to cause brain damage? Utter bullshit.
        
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        June 1, 2025 5:28pm
    - cmm
      
      You do not need to be knocked out to incur brain damage from a contact sport.
      
      Even lots of heading a soccer ball can cause brain damage.
      
      That said, being knocked out, by whatever means, has lasting severe consequences. One of my sons got knocked out cold while playing hockey. He had to give up university for 6 months and, years later now, he’s still not 100% recovered.
      
      https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20370921
      
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      June 1, 2025 1:27pm
- Ghost
  
  Charity boxing matches are nothing new. Not that long ago Mark Mitchell challenged Stuart Nash to a match. Stuart turned it down.
  
  Here is Bill English in his match
  
  https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qqoqs
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:02am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Fine for people who take on boxing as a sport and go professional to earn some coin for themselves.
    Politicians sit on soft swivel chairs all day.
    On computers. Looking out the window.
    If they want to support a charity maybe just donate some money and leave the fighting to those who are that way inclined anyway.
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:33am
- JackRabbit
  
  What is the attraction in physical violence for young men?
  
  Yes, we are well beyond that time in history where everything was settled with a war or duelling.
  
  Seymour should respond with “Well, what about a series of challenges which determine enterprise, intelligence, and command of law?”
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:18am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You mean people that can’t use their brains and stoop to I’ll give you da bash, it’s all they know
  
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  June 1, 2025 12:09pm
artemisia

Headline in today’s Herald – Instead of focusing on the lack of jobs, the Government seems intent on giving the boot to people – Shane Te Pou – Jobseeker numbers have risen by 29,000, reaching 211,000 recently.

Paywalled but no doubt Mr Te Pou is reporting accurately, not politically or racially biased, rather than a not-very-subtle kick in the teeth to the coalition government. Happy to be corrected on that.

Perhaps Mr Te Pou mentioned that nearly half of that 209,838 (March 2025) are not identified as ‘work ready’ (health and disability related not including Supported Living) and that just on 3 million people are actually employed in New Zealand.

Certainly we are hearing that big wodges of taxpayer funding are being redirected to different, presumably better, outcomes. And to employing people. Sounds like a plan.
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June 1, 2025 8:10am
- pdm
  
  arty – Shane Te Pou is 150% a Labour man to the core.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:59am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Haha, he was a Labour Party candidate but when his corruption using the state broadcaster tax payers facilities for a Labour campaign event, he got booted, and lost his job eventually
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:11pm
    - Graeme Hall
      
      [Not here without evidence please. mod.]
      
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      June 1, 2025 2:51pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        Here it states Helen Clark vetoed his (Shane Te Pou/Phillips) appointment as executive assistant to Dover Samuels, as not a fit and proper person to work in the Parliamentary Office, because of 1977 allegations about his (mis)use of a Union credit card.
        
        As I stated before our media pick some beauties to represent the Left.
        
        https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20120522/281659662082283
        
        [Well researched – note The Post use of the word “alleged” which you missed originally. mod.]
        
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        June 1, 2025 4:03pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Warning!!!!!!!!!

For KB readers of a sensitive nature….
This is a very long read.. (but it might save you from buying the book)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/may/31/jacinda-ardern-kind-leadership-public-rage-life-trump-america

Ardern wanted to be a different kind of leader, and for six years she was. She feels an almost mystical connection to her country. Covid made it stronger. Then Covid destroyed it. And she still can’t believe it. She plans to move back home soon.
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June 1, 2025 8:52am
- Flossie
  
  Barf.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:57am
- sungsamning
  
  I doubt she’ll stay long. She must be delusional.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:05am
  - Warren Murray
    
    Is delusional- always was
    
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    June 1, 2025 1:31pm
- Gravelroad
  
  I have no regard for Ms Ardern whatsoever – mystical or otherwise.
  A wannabe world leader who ruined her own country in the pursuit of some personal dream of universal socialism.
  Will New Zealand ever recover from that experiment?
  Possibly not.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:05am
  - R
    
    Will NZ recover………it will so long as the sheeple don’t have the numbers to change the government in the next 15 to 20 years. Takes a long time to recover after massive destruction, just ask the recent flood victims of the last15 years
    
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    June 1, 2025 11:38am
  - AitchW
    
    Newstalk ZB had a guy on this morning, no idea who he was but he labelled those who dislike Ardern as “barking misogynists”. Clearly one of the very few who still adore her. Totally dismissed out of hand the torrent of emails and texts expressing various shades of dislike as misogyny.
    His view was that she did an awesome job ,and National wanted to give more money away anyway.
    The idea that National wanted accountability and traceability wasn’t mentioned and neither the host or the other guest challenged him.
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:12pm
    - Chuck Bird
      
      What time was he on?
      
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      June 1, 2025 3:48pm
- CJames
  
  I will wait for the Grok two sentence summary of the book. It will make a lot more sense that what is being foisted on the fanclub readership – but I have no sympathy for that group wasting their money.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:11am
  - JackRabbit
    
    If you have a foul taste [ Mod – not clear what you are debating here ]
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:23am
  - R
    
    Does it really take two sentences to summarize drivel!
    
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    June 1, 2025 11:39am
- Taieri
  
  Being of a centrist disposition, I’m a bit disappointed to read that “(…)the current government, which is the most rightwing ever elected in New Zealand(…)” is, among its other misdemeanors, “trying to undo years of progress on Māori rights”. Still, reading this article made me very emotional and almost weeping with the longing for our most empathetic Prime Minister ever. What a treasure we lost…hehehe.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:39am
- John Loveridge
  
  Please don’t come back, Jacinda.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:43am
- Phronesis
  
  They can’t even be bothered to get how long she was PM for correct.
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:09am
- igm
  
  She had better pay her own security costs, having cost NZ taxpayers too much already, also she must realise she is grossly unpopular.
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:11am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  6Years? She chucked it in after 5 years
  
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  June 1, 2025 12:12pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  She is just gaslighting again, she knows she cannot come back to NZ because the dislike is too widespread. She would have to exist within a very small echo chamber. I think her minders would be counselling her to stay away for oh about another 40 years. Even ignoring Covid she did huge damage to this country and clearly does not regret any of it.
  
  On a lightly different note, once again the media seem determined to rub our noses in Jacinda’s legacy, an upcoming soft, soothing, massaging interview by Hilary Barry to be shared on TVNZ not once but twice. 🤮
  
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  June 1, 2025 12:42pm
- Keith White
  
  I for one am planning a peaceful protest for the launch of her movie. Can anyone refer me to someone talented to do a comic strip of caricature of Ardern with Hipkins and Bloomfield, would need five separate ‘pages.’ And all in the best possible taste (seriously – no obscenity, vulgarity or threats).
  
  I tried some Kiwi cartoonists I found via Google but only a couple replied and those who replied said ‘no.’
  
  Alternatively AI could do this I suppose but I would not know where to start. (The only familiarity I have with grok is from reading Heinlein’s ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ in the late 60’s in Burnham during winter camp as one of the Frozen Chosen…).
  
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  June 1, 2025 2:31pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    AI would be ironic, considering the subject matter…
    
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    June 1, 2025 8:39pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uKJ716xIgc
Seymour steps up as Deputy PM.
David Seymour steps up to the podium at Government House after being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister. [Will he remember that ACT used to be the ‘freedom party’?]
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June 1, 2025 9:00am
- AitchW
  
  And Labour used to be the workers’s party, National used to be the farmer’s party, and the Greens used to be an environmental party. Hell, even TPM used to stand for everyday Maori.
  Parties evolve.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:51am
  - sungsamning
    
    Some evolve, and some alienate their supporters needlessly.
    
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    June 1, 2025 6:14pm
- R
  
  ‘Freedom party’………facilitated into parliament by the generous maturity of the NATIONAL party.
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:42am
  - sungsamning
    
    That was true earlier. Their help was invaluable. Now, they can make it on their own.
    
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    June 1, 2025 6:15pm
sungsamning

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/30/trump-supreme-court-immigrants.html
Supreme Court rules Trump can revoke protected status for 500,000 immigrants pending appeal.
The Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump can terminate the protected status of around 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela pending the outcome of an appeal.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent, said the ruling “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.
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June 1, 2025 9:00am
Yvette

Treaty
The late Maori King said “The Treaty is written. That is it”
A bit like Ardern’s “It is what it is”

The Treaty of Waitangi does not explain the key terms rangatiratanga (chieftainship) and kāwanatanga (governance), nor does it reference the 1835 Declaration, leading to significant misunderstandings. One reason is that the Treaty was drafted quickly under political pressure, with limited time for detailed clarification or consultation. British officials assumed that Māori would accept British governance while retaining authority over their own affairs, but this assumption was never clearly spelled out.

In Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Māori text), kāwanatanga—a transliteration of “governorship”—was used to describe the power ceded to the Crown, while rangatiratanga—meaning chiefly authority—was promised to Māori in Article 2. However, these terms were not explicitly defined, and the relationship between them was not addressed. Crucially, the Declaration had affirmed full Māori sovereignty (rangatiratanga), so the lack of connection or clarification in the Treaty left room for deep disagreement about what had actually been agreed to.

While the Treaty Preamble is one sentence which does amble on for 146 words, it is rather useless without any definition of the key terms rangatiratanga (chieftainship) and kāwanatanga (governance), or reference the 1835 Declaration.
The Treaty was written and translated with urgency by British administrators and translated by British missionaries in one night, both without any Maori input, and failed to reference the only “nationhood” document which preceded it.

But still Maori demand the Treaty be Honoured?
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June 1, 2025 9:14am
- Colville
  
  The major issue as I see it is that Te Reo isnt want it was and we are now reading a document and adding meaning into words that did not have that meaning when written.
  In 1840 it was literally a stone age language with a few new concepts thrown in.
  I recall reading somewhere that is 1800 missionaries estimated that Māori had only 800 words because they lived a pretty simple life.
  Fu*ked if I know how to fix that tho!!
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:22am
  - Keith White
    
    Limit the Maori lexicon to that extant at Treaty time. If there was no word for it then, there’s no taxpayers’ money for it now.
    
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    June 1, 2025 2:24pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Bearing in mind that the missionaries translated maori to english, then surely any ambiguity or misconception in the interpretation of the treaty can be corrected by the same process.
    The english treaty is concise and the meaning is clear.
    Maori cannot then now reinterpret the interpretation of their understanding at the time of signature.
    That would require a full retranslation of the words that the maori used at the time, and of course the nullification of any subsequent words and their translation.
    
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    June 1, 2025 8:51pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Chieftainship and Governance automatically imply an expected code of conduct for those roles. No such code existed, and furthermore, no language of logic and rationality existed to make anyone accountable.
  
  Maori Chieftainship and Governance have all been made up in retrospect to cover up the brutal nature of tribal existence, and to hop aboard the gravy train.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:27am
- Phronesis
  
  Chiefly authority is comparable with the western understanding of personal autonomy. In a tribal system only the chief enjoys that sort of freedom, all those below them are more akin to slaves of differing seniority. They could not own land individually for example. The Treaty largely abolished the power of tribal structures and made everyone their own chief. The Treaty should be celebrated for emancipating maori from the oppression of tribalism.
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:16am
- R
  
  ‘TOW does not explain ‘……….it does to those of us who comprehend English, and don’t have a political agenda nor axe to grind
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:47am
- Skottowe
  
  “….kāwanatanga—a transliteration of “governorship”—was used to describe the power ceded to the Crown, while rangatiratanga—meaning chiefly authority….”
  
  These differing concepts were well-understood by the Maori signatories to the Treaty. This fact emerges from the speeches given by the chiefs at Waitangi, and again at the Kohimarama conference, 20 years later. The current generation doesn’t give the ancestors enough credit for said ancestors’ grasp of the issues.
  
  The concept of rangatiratanga encompassed such chiefly authority – absolute power – as individual chiefs currently held over their lands and possessions. It didn’t mean chiefly authority over the country as a whole.
  
  It doesn’t follow that all of the chiefs agreed with what was being proposed, but many signed nonetheless.
  
  As a young adult, I learned the Maori language to a fair degree of fluency. Thus I was able to read the Treaty in both languages. It’s indisputable that it contains no principles, no mention of partnership. All of that is revisionism, dating from around the time of the 1975 Act. I watched as it developed.
  
  It’s important that people remember this: no 19th century monarch would ever have contemplated entering into a partnership arrangement with her subjects. That simply could not have happened. The Treaty was intended to be purely an instrument of cession, designed to forestall the French.
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:52pm
Yvette

Law less Tikanga?
Parliament has overturned a regulation mandating the inclusion of tikanga Māori in all compulsory law school subjects, a move critics have dubbed the “nuclear option.” The NZ Council of Legal Education had introduced the requirement in response to court rulings recognizing tikanga’s significance in New Zealand law. Despite support from legal professionals, National Party MPs on the regulations review committee upheld a complaint by Gary Judd KC, leading to the regulation’s repeal. This decision has sparked concerns about diminishing Māori legal perspectives in education.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/26/parliament-takes-nuclear-option-to-kill-off-tikanga-regulation/?

While welcoming this move, will it follow on that ‘tikanga’ should not be introduced to either Parliamentary proceeding or law they produce, that the “worldview” of any one ethnicity should be raised above the evaluation of all others (about 160 of them)?

And the Supreme Court – hearing the Peter Ellis case to clear his reputation, and suggested itself (the Court Judges) that the lawyers involved invoke ‘tikanga’, and interrupted proceedings to allow them to consider that (apparently having be waiting for a case to apply it to) – will those same Supreme Court Judges be effectively admonished for their Trojan Horse advocacy or will they still try to introduce one ethnicity’s lore to New Zealand law?
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June 1, 2025 9:57am
Chuck Bird

This morning, we’re hosting a Celebration Brunch to mark David Seymour’s swearing-in as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand.

It’s a proud milestone — not just for David, but for everyone who has supported ACT’s journey from one voice in Parliament in 2014 to 11 MPs and a seat at the Cabinet table. It’s a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come — and to look ahead to the real reform our country needs.

If you can’t be there in person, we’d love for you to join us online, so you can be part of it from wherever you are.

⏰ The livestream starts at 10:30am, with David speaking from 10:45am.

Watch live here:
👉 YouTube
👉 Facebook

Thank you for standing with us on this journey. We hope you’ll tune in for this special occasion.

Warm regards,
The ACT Team
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June 1, 2025 10:13am
- pdm
  
  If you are there Chuck stand up and wave to all of us watching the live stream.
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:39am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Sorry, not there. I am watching like you.
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:43am
    - Gravelroad
      
      How is the lunch food looking Chuck?
      Pdm?
      Packed?
      
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      June 1, 2025 10:51am
    - Culture War Criminal
      
      “I am watching like you”
      
      That’s a bit presumptuous, Chuck.
      
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      June 1, 2025 11:15am
- R
  
  So ACT are turning this act of democracy into an election campaign ‘kickoff’
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:49am
- Paul Marsden
  
  Very statesman-like speech. Gives me some hope for the future of New Zealand if he eventually does become PM of the country. I thinks he’s going to perform brilliantly at the Oxford Union debate.
  
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  June 1, 2025 12:42pm
- MCōs
  
  The Act Party and NZ First were formed within a year of each other about 31yrs ago and finally the former has got someone into the position of Deputy PM after numerous leadership changes over the years
  
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  June 1, 2025 2:00pm
Colville

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360707565/dick-frizzell-painting-shook-nation-and-him

Brownwashing drivel from Stuff. Yeah a face tattoo is soooo confronting.

If Frizzell wanted to push some buttons with the average Kiwi he would have shown 4Sq Man in a turban. Its a lot closer to the truth. Aint no Maori working is grocery, its too much like work!
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June 1, 2025 10:37am
greybeard

What a superb speech by Seymour. PM material right there.
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June 1, 2025 11:20am
- greybeard
  
  It must have been really good, as there is not one reference to it on “Stuff” as of 11:41am.
  
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  June 1, 2025 11:41am
  - SoloView
    
    @ greybeard
    Stuff – 12:10pm
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:14pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Crikey, it’s a holiday weekend… You’re not expecting our intrepid Journos to be at work are you?
    
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    June 1, 2025 12:17pm
    - Colville
      
      Maggy.
      The journos would have wrote the “story” a week ago and will just populate it with a picture and a one line quote they have cherry picked to make Seymour look like Hitler.
      They wont let the truth get in the way of their bias.
      
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      June 1, 2025 12:38pm
    - Paul Marsden
      
      Don’t they have auto-pens?
      
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      June 1, 2025 12:48pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Journos? Stuff? You jest, surely. BTW I watched, great speech. As were the intros.
      
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      June 1, 2025 12:54pm
Harro104

New Zealand’s ban on paid surrogacy is a relic of state overreach that has no place in a modern, liberal democracy. If two consenting adults: one seeking to start a family, the other offering a service, come to a mutually beneficial agreement, the government has no right to interfere. We allow people to rent out their homes, their time, even their bodies in countless industries. Why draw the line at surrogacy? The free market works when it respects autonomy, not when it moralises private choices.

It’s even more absurd when you consider that wealthy Kiwis are already paying women in the U.S. to carry their children. The current law doesn’t stop paid surrogacy—it just pushes it offshore, creating a hypocritical, unregulated grey zone. And Oranga Tamariki’s recent moves to expose and shame these families show a government agency stepping well beyond its brief. Its focus should be protecting at-risk children, not moralising adult decisions. Legalising paid surrogacy is about consistency, freedom, and treating adults like adults. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/babies-for-sale-new-zealanders-commissioning-illegal-surrogacy-in-thailand/PZGRQ7FZGVAHTETS3JXDLRUWP4/
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June 1, 2025 11:26am
- lifesgood
  
  Treating adults like adults and babies like commodities.
  
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  June 1, 2025 3:10pm
Ra Henare

Pondering the Maori Health and Education statistics which are often quoted by the “”poor thing”s”” groups.

It occurred to me, how are Maori(for the stats) defined!!

Seems self identification is the only way.

So having approximately 1.5625% of your DNA from a great-great-great-grandmother (5 generations back). Identifies you statistically as Maori??????

I wonder if all the incentives for being Maori were removed, how would that affect the statistics that the “poor things” supporters keep trotting out.

Maybe at the next census a question should be asked, what link(full blooded ancestor) are you referencing to your claim of being a Maori.
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June 1, 2025 12:10pm
Sparrow

2023 ACT 8.64% of party vote. Since 2014 from 1 electorate seat (gerrymandered) to 2. Both seats very unrepresentative of New Zealand, as is the party and its leader. Will only ever be a fringe party of the disgruntled right who wish to keep the peasants of all colours in their place.
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June 1, 2025 12:16pm
- Dougal10
  
  Pretty sure Act is about no one having a set place in society , as for your beloved greens they are all about dividing people up and putting labels on them.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:26pm
- SmokerGuy
  
  How can we have people with a tough upbringing becoming successful if it wasn’t possible? I know the left love to hate on poor people and convince them that they can’t succeed on their own. It’s ironic but the left are actually the worst influence on their own supporters with all their negative BS.
  
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  June 1, 2025 6:40pm
Cassandra

The Herald tells us that Seymour is hosting a brunch this morning but adds “Seymour drove himself to the venue, Hyundai Marine Sports Centre, on Auckland’s Tāmaki Drive, and pro-Palestine protesters chased his car as he pulled in.”

Pro-Palestine protesters? More likely to be Green or Maori Party members. Palestine is just the vehicle. They can tolerate homophobia as long as it’s 10,000 km away. They should go to Gaza for a flying lesson. Look, Ma, no parachute.
18 5
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June 1, 2025 1:01pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘Just the vehicle’ . Exactly .
  
  See the picture of one Gerry Adams ( who’s just won a defamation case against the BBC)
  
  Wears a keffiyah under his jacket and a ‘pro palestine’ red poppy lapel badge , along with irish motif lapel pin and tie.
  
  It’s all perfomative virtue something or other.
  
  btw if you’re on the same side as guy some serious self reflection is in order.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:18pm
- Dougal10
  
  How did the herald know what the protesters were backing today, my bet is they were informed about it via press release last week and already had article written.
  
  7 2
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  June 1, 2025 1:29pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  Are you arguing that the lefties should support Israel’s destruction and ethnic cleansing of Gaza because the religion of most Gazan’s repudiates homosexuality, and because a lot of lefties are homosexuals, they shouldn’t feel sympathy for Gazans? Besides, to what extent is the “Palestinians throw gays off of rooftops” trope an invention of Zionist propaganda? Even if 100% true, what does it say about someone who thinks they should all be violently wiped out because of it?
  
  The world’s a very complex place and requires complex analysis, which is not amenable to the kind of simplistic “basket of ideas” reasoning that seems far too prevalent, wherein there can be no cross over, and all is perfectly delineated and black and white.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:50pm
Cassandra

Du Plessis-Allan told Willis it was the day Seymour became Deputy PM.

“You can imagine it is not marked as an enormous love heart on my calendar,” Willis said, claiming not much would change.

Why are some Nats so goofy? It’s the same on KB. Nats and Act are natural allies and need each other. Why take a cheap, nasty shot at someone who is your friend? I see Luxon was not so graceless.
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June 1, 2025 1:08pm
- Dougal10
  
  Willis is a beltway driven person , the beltway struggle with libitarians.
  
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  June 1, 2025 1:32pm
- SmokerGuy
  
  For gods sake stop being so sensitive! It was just a joke, join the Greens if you can’t take a joke!
  
  3 1
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  June 1, 2025 6:34pm
Swifty

I always knew this Dem was a closet Nazi…

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1928973283149623539

//
4 5
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June 1, 2025 1:21pm
Sparrow

Assume the Compass Corporation provided the food for the ACT function. As the Deputy PM had given them glowing praise.
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June 1, 2025 2:00pm
Jack5

Children from NZ genetic parents are being carried in the wombs of Thai women, against Thai law, and this threatens the children’s legal status in NZ.

Radio NZ reports New Zealanders are travelling overseas to illegally commission surrogate babies from Thai women, and bringing them back home to adopt them.

It’s a new process for our law system.

RNZ reports:

The concern is if children born of illegal surrogacy arrangements are allowed entry into New Zealand, and their parentage is then endorsed by an adoption order, that could be seen as an endorsement of unlawful actions.

How does this all work?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562779/babies-for-sale-new-zealanders-commissioning-illegal-surrogacy-in-thailand
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June 1, 2025 2:55pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  Besides the legal status, what about the morality of paying some women to carry your child to birth, and then separating the child from its birth mother?
  
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  June 1, 2025 3:36pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    So whose baby is it??
    
    The 100%DNA from the mother and father.
    or the woman whose womb carried its development.
    
    Paying a woman is NOT immoral!
    
    Some women pay to get impregnated by other mens sperm. Is taht Omoral.
    
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    June 1, 2025 10:44pm
Jack5

Earthquake close to Tonga! Just before midnight NZ time (my rough conversion from Tongatapu Time).

Hope Kiwiblog’s resident commissioner in Nuku’alofa, His Excellency D.G., is safe and well.

https://earthquakelist.org/news/2025/05/31/m5-2-earthquake-tonga-1115782/
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June 1, 2025 3:17pm
MCōs

Twitter has become almost unreadable since Elon Musk bought the bloody thing and changed the name to X
I joined in 2010 because it was a reliable English language source of information re the protests occurring on the streets of Bangkok at the time
Now it’s full of wild opinions and exaggerations from all points of the political compass
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June 1, 2025 3:57pm
- Culture War Criminal
  
  “Now it’s full of wild opinions and exaggerations from all points of the political compass.”
  
  Isn’t that excatly what free debate and a genuine contest of ideas looks like?
  
  6 3
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  June 1, 2025 4:30pm
  - MCōs
    
    People can write whatever they like; It’s the ‘wild’ that makes the opinions comments almost unreadable.
    
    2 7
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    June 1, 2025 5:22pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Should there be only tame opinions?
      
      That’s an odd spectrum on which to judge.
      
      3 1
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      June 1, 2025 9:05pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  I’m sorry it’s no longer a heavily censored/”curated” lefty rat’s nest.
  
  Maybe head to Te Guardian or The Daily Bog?
  
  6 3
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  June 1, 2025 4:41pm
  - AitchW
    
    The Standard is very kind to leftists.
    
    3 0
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    June 1, 2025 5:05pm
NZer In Exile

Capitalism is broken? Re Gen Z Falling For Socialism:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/falling-socialism
2 2
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June 1, 2025 4:40pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Tyler Durden repeating what Robert MacCulloch has written about our country.
  
  2 1
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  June 1, 2025 7:43pm
- Ra Henare
  
  I am in a communist country, have been in 2 other communist countries.
  Capitalism exists under the umbrella of socialism/communism.
  
  Its the economic engine which has lead to great growth in China/Vietnam whilst dragging millions out of poverty. There are still millions yet to be dragged out of poverty.
  
  Socialism will not do that.
  
  0 0
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  June 1, 2025 10:48pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    And I doubt the “socialist” leaders are living religiously by the handbooks of Karl Marx & fellow travelers!
    
    So what are they if they are not really socialists? Dictators. Nothing more and nothing less. Dictatorships also tend to be thoroughly corrupt.
    
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    June 2, 2025 8:33pm
surfing

Is this guy the next labour PM?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Taylor_(New_Zealand_businessman)
4 3
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June 1, 2025 6:12pm
- Jack5
  
  And Minister of Education. Taylor might well get schools to indoctrinate kids that Maori “knowledge” is science.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350464314/experts-clash-over-integrating-m-tauranga-m-ori-into-education-in-heated-am-interview
  
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  June 1, 2025 8:06pm
- Ra Henare
  
  No, he is just another successful business guy who thinks his opinion is worthwhile.
  IMHO he is a prat
  
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  June 1, 2025 10:49pm
Jack5

What has happened to the fighting spirit of the British?

Twelve hundred illegals have swarmed across the Channel in a single day, reports the Telegraph.

Not quite a reverse Dunkirk evacuation, but the Coast Guard had to call in fishing boats for normal local rescues because the Border Force was overwhelmed by about 18 boatloads of border-crashers coming in.

The newspaper says about 1200 of the illegal immigrants landed on Saturday.

What would Drake and Nelson and Queen Elizabeth the First thought of Britain’s present helplessness?

Meanwhile, truck drivers across Europe are putting warnings on their vehicles: “We don’t go to Britain”. This is to keep European gate crashers off their vehicles.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/35176702/foreign-lorry-drivers-signs-deter-migrants/
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June 1, 2025 8:27pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Even the illegals have given up on France.
  
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  June 1, 2025 9:07pm

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