About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

June 19, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 June 2025

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment188

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (188)

Login to comment or vote

Chuck Bird

I am pleased to see Ruth Richardson is a spokesperson for the Taxpayers’ Union. She did very well when interviewed by Jack Tame.
36 3
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 8:04am
Damocles11

It seems the majority in New Zealand are beyond fatigued with the cost of living. What we have now is the month after month grind of baked-in high prices, with no corresponding meaningful economic recovery that would drive up wages and salaries. The problem is that people expect price deflation to take place. A common comment I see is “what do you mean inflation is falling….prices are still high!”
But it’s worse than that. We have now clearly reached a tipping point where idiots outnumber those with a modicum of common sense. Consider the results of a new poll out today:
‘The latest Ipsos NZ issues monitor survey, conducted immediately after this year’s Budget and obtained exclusively by the Herald, found National had lost New Zealanders’ confidence in managing inflation/the cost of living with voters instead trusting Labour more to handle what was considered the primary issue in the country.’
We are in serious trouble with so many idiots who are able to vote. People working on an escape plan in case the Left appear to be in the box seat to win the next election should see which way the wind is blowing and forge ahead with their endeavours, the situation is dire.
34 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 8:13am
- Gravelroad
  
  The trouble is that many of the people complaining about high prices and inflation (and blaming the coalition government) would believe that if Labour was still in power they would do something about it by way of more handouts and subsidies to individuals.
  People truly believe this.
  They don’t care about the cost of borrowing, GDP or any of that economic stuff.
  They just want more money and will support Labour to get it. It doesn’t matter to them where the money comes from and don’t believe it would ever have to be paid back.
  
  27 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:59am
  - Cassandra
    
    “He who robs Peter to pay Paul will always get the vote of Paul”.
    
    28 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:18am
  - Damocles11
    
    Correct, and nothing can be done about it. They have been indoctrinated to hate ‘rich people’ i.e. any hard working and responsible person with more money and assets than them. There are legions of these types, chock full of hate and envy and yearning for Labour and its allies to tax the beejesus out of the ‘rich pricks’.
    
    19 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:30am
    - ISeeRed
      
      Yep. GTFOOH is the only option. New Zealand is finished.
      
      1 6
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 10:55am
- mogg
  
  According to last night’s TV3 Freshwater poll,
  Jacinda Ardern is our most popular politician at +12
  and Hipkins’ Labour Party is most trusted with the economy and cost of living. Two of the three who caused the inflationary storm are now the most trusted when it comes to the economy.
  It’s about time National started pointing out the facts in parliament, Labour are wreckers not fixers.
  
  34 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:13am
  - MCōs
    
    “It’s about time National started pointing out the facts in parliament”
    The Nats have been doing just that for years now – not very persuasively it seems
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:55am
    - R
      
      The MSM have been doing their damdness to ensure that the general population are never persuaded
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 11:07am
    - mogg
      
      Chris Bishop on 3 News named Green and TPM leaders and called them “left wing crazies”. Name calling is the only way to counter the never ending Media spin, because the repetitive’we are fixing the economy is not working.
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 12:17pm
      - MCōs
        
        Maybe people away from social media get tired of that sort of rhetoric
        
        3 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 1:58pm
    - leoj
      
      Nats are weak and woke.
      
      They have not kept their promises.
      
      The public service employment numbers are 20,000 too high.
      
      The maori wave has not been stopped.
      
      Polled people see it.
      
      Luxon needs to be rolled.
      
      6 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:08pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        And who you gonna replace Luxon with?
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 20, 2025 10:40am
  - Philview
    
    It doesn’t matter what National point out if the media don’t report it.
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:58am
    - R
      
      Don’t report it……..correctly and in context. Two traits that our media are not good at
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 3:19pm
  - bennerg
    
    Mogg, “It’s about time National started pointing out the facts in parliament”
    
    Sorry but Parliament is an echo chamber, as is Wellington as a whole.
    
    It is the people of New Zealand who need it described in clear, visually intuitive means.
    
    eg. Graphs showing the trends, in a campaign that starts now because if they wait until the election, it will get lost in the morass of electioneering (mis-dis-mal) information.
    
    4 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:07am
    - pdm
      
      National do not have much to talk loudly about.
      
      Most of the worthwhile legislation passed in the last 20 months is ACT driven.
      
      Did anyone else notice on Facebook National trying to lay claim for initiating the new 3Strikes Law. I call BULLSHIT on that – all National did was water it down from what ACT proposed.
      
      9 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:17pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Pdm: To be fair, the version of 3S ACT promoted is a pale shadow of the law i shepherded thru parliament back in 2010
        
        7 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:17pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Then why does our “most popular politician” need a security detail ?
    
    Presumably to manage the bouquets and gifts bestowed on her as she walks the New Zealand streets lined with her adoring fans…
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:36am
    - Jake Dee
      
      Oh please !
      Tens of thousands of supporters don’t cancel out a single lunatic with a bomb a gun or even a knife.
      Why did John Lennon get shot 6 times in the back? He was a goofy pacifist musician and millions of people loved him!
      Incidentally I remember a character in Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi classic “Time Enough for Love” (1973) who resigned his presidency because after 20 years no one had ever tried to assassinate him or overthrow the government. he figured that effective government is going to make at least someone hate you.
      “if you’re ever head of state and nobody tries to assassinate you, resign—you’re wasting your time.’”
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 11:28pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Jacinda Ardern is our most popular politician at +12
    
    Clearly a fabricated poll.
    
    Hipkins’ Labour Party is most trusted with the economy and cost of living.
    
    Racked up debt of $200Billion.
    
    I wonder if they had a poll for the most slim Star Wars character, Jabba the Hut would be at the top.
    
    No doubt the polling audience and questions were massaged.
    
    “Labour ran up $200 billion in debt, caused business failures, and job losses, and the coalition is trying to repair the damage. Which party is the best at financial controls?”
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:50am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  All those people who overpaid for houses across the last decade or more should be looking at themselves in the mirror.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:45am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Ipsos is a waste of time, the same pollsters had Nats on 19% the month before the election
  
  5 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 12:48pm
  - Ghost
    
    Perhaps you might want to look at their polling before the election
    
    https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-09-2023/a-new-poll-reveals-new-zealanders-back-national-on-almost-every-important-issue
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 12:54pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I am talking about an Ipsos poll that had Nats at 19% yo win the election, it may not have been the month before, but it was when d as ll other polls had Nats high 30s
      
      0 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 6:33pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, you really aren’t, because there is no such poll.
        
        Here are all the polls for the last election, no idea where you have made up this one from
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2023_New_Zealand_general_election
        
        In case you don’t know, which you don’t, ispos poll on issues, not on which political party will get your vote.
        
        You’re welcome to go through all their releases and find this mythological poll, let us know when you find it…….
        
        https://www.ipsos.com/en-nz/news-and-events/overview?page=0
        
        1 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 6:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Ghost Wikipedia is a steaming pile of excrement run by anonymous far left extremists.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 7:47pm
      - Ghost
        
        You’re welcome to show which of the results in those polls are wrong, hint, they aren’t. You can click on the links to each poll to check for yourself.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 8:04pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Jan 17, 2025 Labour passes National in new poll.
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/539242/labour-passes-national-in-new-poll
        
        Thursday, 12 June 2025 Poll shows Labour ahead of National, but coalition keeping power.
        https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/poll-shows-labour-ahead-national-coalition-keeping-power-rnz
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:43pm
      - Ghost
        
        And polling results from 2025 have what to do with g’s false claim about ispos polling in 2023. You still haven’t shown which poll results on the wiki page are wrong, doubt you will either.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 10:01pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Doing a Grok AI query (infinitely more truth seeking than the lefty propaganda platform masquerading as a one stop source of knowledge), it could not find any polling firm putting the Nats at 19% support in the upcoming 2023 election. G must have got mixed up with something else.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 10:26pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, g makes things up, he does it all the time. Perhaps instead of trying to be the blogs new clown troll you should pay attention.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 20, 2025 12:37am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Gosh. Thurs was a bad hair day?
        
        Honk honk. Happy Friday! 😛
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 20, 2025 11:58am
- NZer In Exile
  
  I am wondering if these mind boggling polls suggesting the sheeple favour the wreckers and haters parties are in fact rigged and therefore BS. With the aim being to make rational and mature people (IE not voters of the haters and wreckers) leave the country. This would leave behind largely compliant sheeple.
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 7:39pm
  - MCōs
    
    Calling people sheeple who favour the wreckers and haters is not a persuasive argument
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 9:10pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I’m sorry you’re not persuaded. Hopefully you’ll see the light at some point.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 9:12pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Kiwiblog June 16, 2025 6:27pm Ghost:
      
      “Wow.Just got polled. I was asked which following attributes do you think apply to Chris Hipkins, not a single negative one there. It then moves on to Luxon, many of the options are negative. Extreme religious views. Out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders. Makes a lot of mistakes. Uncaring, etc. What a rigged poll.”
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 10:10pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Certainly looks like lefty saboteurs rigging things!
        
        1 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 10:28pm
cmm

I personally think we should be cutting Cook Islands off regardless of them flirting with China.

Cook Islands have had self governance (ie. been nominally grown ups) since 1965 – for 60 years. The UN has recognised them as a country since 1992 (33 years).

Having Cooks live in our basement for the next 50+ years can’t be good for them and it isn’t good for us.

They have their own currency. They have their own parliament. They have their own national anthem. Maybe they can find their own way in life?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-zealand-pauses-cook-islands-funding-over-china-deal-stoush/45J2JXR2NBADDNZJO4G2UNL2FY/
41 3
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 8:21am
- mike
  
  That raises an interesting question: does NZ have any enduring obligations to its former Pacific colonies? If the answer to that is no, then does NZ have any interest in supporting their security, stability and prosperity?
  
  11 13
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 8:27am
  - cmm
    
    There is a difference between obligations and interests.
    
    I would not call Cook Islands a “former NZ Colony”. As far as I am aware, NZ never colonised it. The British did, and then when they untangled themselves NZ was given some sort of protector function.
    
    But the main principle is surely that if a country gets independence then, after some period, they are grown ups and should not be relying on hand outs from mummy and daddy.
    
    If Cooks are putting on lipstick for the Chinese (or anyone else for that matter), then I really don’t think they need an allowance and parental supervison from us any more.
    
    31 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 8:53am
    - mike
      
      Annexed 1900, incorporated in Colony of NZ 1901. Same process for Niue; Tokelau a bit later.
      
      6 14
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 9:11am
      - cmm
        
        “Annexed 1900”
        
        Not by NZ.
        
        5 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:51pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      and whats the best way to drive the Cooks further in to Chinas arms.
      Stop sending money/support from NZ!!!
      
      4 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 12:06pm
      - cmm
        
        No I don’t really buy that.
        
        Otherwise we end up in an arms race of trying to give them blankets and beads faster than the Chinese do.
        
        Bullshit. Treat them like grown ups.
        
        11 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:47pm
    - Jack5
      
      NZ citizenship is the ace this country holds over Cook Islands separatists.
      
      With more Cook Islanders in NZ than in the islands, a vote of all with Cook Island citizenship would surely keep the islands part of NZ.
      
      If they still want out, then offer “Cookies” in NZ continued NZ citizenship, but an end to NZ citizenship for the islanders, along with welfare etc entitlements. New Zealander or Cook Islander but not both, is the answer.
      
      On Niue, shut down now its little shipping registry.
      
      When the Ukraine war ends, and Russia no longer needs shonky-flag tankers, the Cooks and Niue flag-of-convenience registries run from Asia will probably die any way.
      
      A puzzle about Cooks separatism is why hasn’t the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs been on the job priming NZ ready for this?
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 2:16pm
      - MCōs
        
        “If they still want out, then offer “Cookies” in NZ continued NZ citizenship, but an end to NZ citizenship for the islanders”
        Impossible, I would suggest.
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:21pm
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: I agree. They will flirt with China regardless of whatever we do, or dont do.
  I also find it galling that they have free right of entry and residence here – but the reverse is not the case. Why should a cashed up retiree not have the right to go and live out his days in the Cooks?
  
  45 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 8:29am
  - Flossie
    
    I have wondered the same myself for many years. Wouldn’t it be a benefit to them to have such people as new residents. They could refuse the right to vote – as most countries other than New Zealand all do. People with money to spend in their local economy has to be a good thing.
    
    29 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 8:39am
    - mike
      
      NZ citizens can get permanent residence (with conditions) there and there are also investment schemes for residence.
      
      5 30
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 8:44am
      - David Garrett
        
        As usual you are very poorly informed. In short, obtaining PR in the Cooks is very difficult; and impossible without significant local support from certain people in the hierarchy.
        
        43 5
        Report
        June 19, 2025 8:47am
      - mike
        
        What part of (with conditions) was difficult to understand?
        
        5 33
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:15am
      - David Garrett
        
        Oh dear…you don’t understand the difference between being able to obtain a residence visa at all, and the conditions attached to said visa- if you able to obtain one?
        
        Second thoughts No, you probably dont understand the difference between two entirely different things
        
        29 5
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:20am
      - Flossie
        
        I know people who had to jump through incredible hoops in order to just accept a job there.
        
        18 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:36am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        mike: “What part of (with conditions) was difficult to understand?”
        
        Disingenuous on four levels.
        First trying to suggest a counter argument (“but but they CAN get residence”).
        Secondly inserting the nebulous “with conditions”.
        Thirdly when caught out, making out your undisclosed (and probably unknown to you) “conditions” are a get out jail card for your failed attempt at a counter argument.
        Fourth, attempting the straw-man fallacy of “why can’t you understand the importance of my undisclosed and unexplained conditions”.
        
        It’s almost as if lefties attend special classes on how to twist things so rational people think “how TF do they come up with these tangled and twisted representations?”
        
        4 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 7:28pm
  - john1234
    
    In practical terms? There’s not much room nor houses and if we could all retire there there would soon be no accommodation for workers or tourists and the place would economically die.
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 8:56am
    - cmm
      
      Naah. Cook Islands have a population density of 55/square km. That’s low.
      
      That is about a quarter the population density of Hawaii (223) or Tahiti(181) or a thirtieth of that of Maldives (1766).
      
      6 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 3:00pm
      - greybeard
        
        Much of the main island is unusable, just mountainous.
        https://www.mapsland.com/oceania/cook-islands/large-scale-topographical-map-of-rarotonga-island-cook-islands
        
        0 0
        Report
        June 20, 2025 8:05am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, if there are going to be special deals then surely they should be symmetric?
    
    By my limited understanding, Cook Islanders have NZ citizenship and are entitled to all the benefits thereof. However the reverse does not apply.
    
    I call BS. Time to end this. Some people say that the Cooks need our passports. I don’t think so. If they can have their own currency they can surely also have their own citizenship/passports. I am sure NZ passport printers (or whomever) could do this. It is not really any different to having bank notes printed overseas etc.
    
    We could still have some special deals in place. For example, an agreement that someone on a Cooks passport could turn up at a NZ High Commission and get help.
    
    19 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 9:59am
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      Indeed. All NZ passports issued to Cook Islanders should be recalled and shredded.
      
      They can reapply for New Zealand passports once they stop dealing with China.
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 2:31pm
- john1234
  
  Currency of the Cook Islands is the NZ Dollar and they have NZ passports despite Mark Brown’s brain fart.
  They would have to put this to the people to vote on but such things always get swayed by the media. The MMP vote in NZ a classic example of that.
  Not sure if I’d prefer them to go their own way or not. Heart says they should but brain suspects they would just end up another failed banana republic vassal of China.
  
  16 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 8:54am
  - cmm
    
    Thanks, yes, the Cooks also had their own currency but it was withdrawn.
    
    “Heart says they should but brain suspects they would just end up another failed banana republic vassal of China.”
    
    And so what? They make grown up decisions, they get grown up consequences. Not our problem. No more so than when Zimbabwe decided they wanted to get rid of the white man.
    
    Should the Colonial powers have done what you’re effectively suggesting: pat the Africans on the head and say “No, you simple minded darkies can’t rule yourselves. We whiteys need to give you adult guidance.”
    
    I say bullshit to pulling the Messiah Complex and being the grown ups for Pacific and African nations etc. There is no thanks when you do – all we end up with is being accused of colonialism. If they want to be grown ups then let them be grown ups. That includes self funding.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:09am
- MCōs
  
  Currently the Cook Islands doesn’t have its own citizenship. For that to occur would need a referendum.
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:36am
  - Flossie
    
    It’s a very lopsided arrangement, and not to NZ’s benefit.
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:44am
  - cmm
    
    How about we hold the referendum and vote them off the island?
    
    Of course if you offer them the choice they will take the status quo. They get the jammy side of everything with no negative consequences.
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 2:49pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Tricky. A failed state dependent on China due to unrepayable loans taken out to build a deep water port that is then made available to the Chinese Navy?
  
  A bit of koha is the price of the status quo.
  
  Or, we could invade the place & colonise it.
  
  Finally, somewhere the NZ military could win!
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:51am
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Hopefully Luxon marches into Zhongnanhai in Beijing tomorrow and starts flipping tables. The Chinese respect a show of force.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 4:49pm
kowtow

Is the Herald , via AFP , promoting Mullah regime propaganda.

Today they report that state news anchor Sahar Emami “who remained on air during the Israeli strike on the broadcaster’s hq’s.”

She’s presented as some sort of symbol of resistance , a heroine.

She didn’t remain on air , she ran ( who wouldn’t} but why is our msm repeating Mullah regime propaganda.

This from a regime that publicly hangs women from construction cranes. And an msm who endlessly bang on and on about mis/disinformation.
30 4
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 8:32am
- RoboRob
  
  Becuase a large part of the world hates jews. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. People like Hamas and Iran becuase they hate the jews.
  
  ‘Gays for Palestine’ anybody?
  
  NZ media are broke and / or useless and take their news feeds from Reuters or Assocaite press who are full of people who dont like Isreal.
  
  14 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:47am
  - Ra Henare
    
    How large is, and where is this large part that you refer to.
    
    China & Indian with a population of over 2 Billion would be hard-pressed to know what a Jew is.
    And I am not even referencing the rest of Asia, Africa and South America.
    
    Living in the Goldfish bowl of NZ, (where you are generally only exposed to Western media) skews your understanding of “”the world””
    
    4 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 12:14pm
    - mogg
      
      With the exception of China,all the country’s that you mention have very strong connection with their religious beliefs. Whether it be Muslim, Hindu, Jew Siekh, Christian etc. Their religious teachings would give them a very clear understanding of what a Jew is.
      
      2 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:16pm
    - RoboRob
      
      So? We are talking about the western media in NZ covering events in the middle east. They are using western news agencies to source material.
      
      My point was, NZ media are getting information from sources that dont like the state of Isreal. You can see this from the way they cover events.
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:19pm
- John Loveridge
  
  Let us never forget the “morality” police.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:50am
  - Philview
    
    Yes the people who beat women to death for not wearing a hijab are the good guys it now seems.
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:02am
- Waipuk
  
  The are not pro Iran but anti Israel.
  
  7 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:46am
- bennerg
  
  On the topic of Mullahs, it hit me the other day that this is where we are heading with maori politicians, maori religion, and the overall change in our New Zealand culture.
  
  The tacit allowance for a change to our country name (Aotearoa) by media and certain government departments, is an indication of a plan by unidentified forces to totally reimage our country in their eye.
  
  In Iran they went from an open and free society, to one dominated by stone age thinking and dogma. And as we know from the Middle East, a very tribal culture.
  
  This is what is being foisted on us here in New Zealand. Maori culture when the Europeans arrived was in the stone age. Despite attempts to rewrite history that it was a precious society, exerting guardianship over flora and fauna, with a vibrant spiritual and commercial environment. That simply is false. It was a fractious situation with tribes continually battling for superiority, embracing slavery and cannibalism. Any spirituality was intensely pagan and tied up with their brutal practices. They had no music as we know it today (they had no tonal scale), and “musical instruments” were sound makers, not musical.
  
  Now that is not to deny they, as a people, had an incredible ability to learn, to become musical, and to succeed in a modern world, in business etc. But only after the European arrived and provided the systems of government, the health systems, the educational system, the justice system, the commerce through trade, and more compassionate religious thinking.
  
  The reality is that where they came from is not where they should, or we should, entertain ever returning to. The tribal structure of their culture is incompatible with a modern society. Where familial connections mean more than merit.
  
  However we see everyday small but significant changes being made to return to the tribal structure, with control of huge resources being held by families. Just think Mahuta, Tamihere, Ngata, Pomare, Ratana, Te Heuheu – just to name a few. All udner corporations (Iwi owned) and often not paying taxes.
  
  So we are creating our own Mullahs, steeped in an ancient culture that ensures their positions of power, all the while their “people” at the bottom rung of the ladder suffer in poverty, drug addiction, unemployment and bad health.
  
  Their “religion” is being insidiously being inserted into everyday life. At schools they start the day with Waiata – all religious of course, but ironically using western music! The health system now has priorities for Maori and Pacific Islanders. Not the condition of the individual. Even Real Estate Agents need to be put through an indoctrination course to keep their certification.
  
  So our Maori Mullahs will soon reach a position of power that cannot be wrested back. Power and control that is being exerted behind the curtain so to speak right now, and soon, overtly I’m sure. And it will take another 40-50 years to reverse, as the country lurches further away from being an innovative and successful country. Already some of my family have now left, never to return. The brain drain of talented and independent thinkers will slowly reduce us to another third world country. Think potholes, literally and figuratively.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:48am
- imalwaysright
  
  NZ media hate Trump, therefore they support Iran.
  
  Their thought processing abilities are limited.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:50am
  - mogg
    
    You are spot on, quite incredibly NZ media are holding two very contradictory positions at the same time. Many provinces in Iran practice FGM, they certainly cut off the clitoris, whether this also extends to sewing up parts of the vagina I am not sure. So in their clamour to be anti Trump they’re also being anti feminist at the same time.
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 1:26pm
    - Taieri
      
      Many provinces in Iran practice FGM
      ———–
      
      Is it really any more barbarian than application of puberty blockers, chopping off healthy body parts and all sorts of similar practices to satisfy “gender diversity” needs in many Western societies?
      
      7 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 2:30pm
    - Jack5
      
      It’s hard to feel sorry for the Government as it’s battered by the bloc of State-owned TV and radio plus subsidised newspapers.
      
      Luxon dumped Melissa Lee, who had a plan to change this.
      
      Her replacement as Media Minister, Paul Goldsmith, seems to be for the status quo.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 2:43pm
    - Taieri
      
      More on FGM in Iran:
      
      http://www.stopfgmmideast.org/countries/iran/
      
      It seems that ayatollahs are not fans of this practice.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 4:54pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      “Many provinces in Iran practice FGM”
      Now this is a rabbit hole worth going down considering the amount of unhinged anti-Iranian rants that have been cropping up over the last few days
      A little searching gives me,
      “This comprehensive study over several years examined, analyses and scrutinizes the practice of female genital mutilation in Iran and shows that FGM is prevalent in the four provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah and Hormozgan.”
      http://www.stopfgmmideast.org/countries/iran/
      All of those are fringe provinces with an ancient tribal custom of FGM opposed by the central Persian government “The Mad Mullahs”.
      This is the sort of lunacy that you fall into when you let yourself be propagandized and tribal prejudice outruns logic.
      The Mullahs who oppose FGM are to be opposed, and the fringe tribals who support FGM are to be supported, in order to stop FGM.
      More madness.
      On a related note, Iran enforcing the death penalty on men who rape boys is reframed as being “anti-gay”.
      Which is an interesting pro LGBTQIA+ position to take.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 20, 2025 12:22am
john1234

I’m not generally a proponent of capital punishment but… there are some cases that warrant it, and it needs to be carried out swiftly. This is such a case.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/auckland-prisoner-donovan-duff-already-in-jail-for-child-murder-sentenced-for-inmate-death/N6GU5GQAFBBCXOXUBMHILPPU2Y/
There is really no reason to keep this creature alive especially as it needs to be kept in a small box for the safety of others.
And another thing: who in the prison management is going to be fired after this thing was allowed near a knife?
26 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:02am
sirknz

Only 10 stories about tomorrow’s legislated Maori day off in Stuff this morning.

A couple are holdovers from yesterday though…
17 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:17am
- RoboRob
  
  Maori guy on the ‘news’ last night talking about how amazing Maori were with their knowledge of the stars. He and his grandfather could use them to navigate out on the water!
  
  Imagine if any other peoples had come up with that idea, we could have had international travel before the 1800s…..
  
  Luckily for him there are more then enough stupid and historically illiterate NZers that most people will think that Maori really did invent navigation by the stars.
  
  24 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:43am
  - mike
    
    You think the Polynesian navigators got their skills from somewhere else?
    
    3 20
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:11am
    - JackRabbit
      
      From the people that were here before the Maori.
      
      4 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 11:57am
    - RoboRob
      
      You need to work on your comprehension Mike.
      
      I am pointing out the irony of Maori pretending that navigating by the stars was some sort of special Maori ability. Most races and ethnicities can and did navigate that way, some for considerably earlier then Maori.
      
      13 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:21pm
      - mike
        
        No one has claimed that. Most human cultures never developed the skills for oceanic navigation. Would you like to provide an example of people doing so more than 1,000 years ago?
        
        2 10
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:06pm
      - Jack5
        
        Mike/Milky:
        
        The Chinese developed the compass, and porbably in the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago (202 BC to 220 AD). A giant leap for navigation.
        
        If early Maori were skilled in “there-and-back” navigation rather than just heading for mythical new islands somewhere out there, they would surely have colonised Australia rather than little NZ.
        
        12 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:30pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        How about the Vikings for starters.
        
        8 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:34pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @Mike
        
        You did… ‘You think the Polynesian navigators got their skills from somewhere else’
        
        How about you provide something that shows that Maori were the first, which seems to be what you are claiming.
        
        4 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:46pm
      - mike
        
        Jacky
        I don’t think the Chinese were crossing the oceans that early. Zheng He’s famous voyage were in the 14th century.
        Don
        Vikings got to Iceland about the 9th century, and later to Greenland and North America by around 1000 CE.
        The Polynesians’ ancestors are thought to have spread across the Pacific from Taiwan, starting over 3,000 years ago and reaching Micronesia by 1500 BCE, Melanesia by 1300 BCE, Tahiti by 700CE, Hawaii by 900 CE and Aotearoa by 1200 CE.
        
        4 5
        Report
        June 19, 2025 3:09pm
      - Jack5
        
        Why did Maori lose any ocean-navigation skills of their ancestors ?
        
        Was their colonisation of New Zealand the result of wind patterns and ocean currents, or was the navigation more intricate, and Maori just forgot how to do use it.
        
        2 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 3:48pm
      - mike
        
        No reason to go further, Jack. NZ was hardest to reach, as against prevailing winds. The Polynesian technique was to sail as much as possible into the wind, knowing they could turn and run for home if supplies were low.
        
        0 4
        Report
        June 19, 2025 5:28pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        Mike: Herodotus (5th century BC) related a story of circumnavigation of Africa by a fleet, with Phoenician assistance, ordered by the Egyptian pharaoh Necho. Not an easy story to verify.
        
        https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/herodotus-on-the-first-circumnavigation-of-africa/
        
        1 0
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:50pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      mike: “You think the Polynesian navigators got their skills from somewhere else?”
      
      Possibly to some degree. We don’t really know as there was no written history. But yes they obviously did indeed navigate by the stars, winds, observing bird behaviour and so on. We also don’t know what percentage of those much longer ocean voyages into the blue yonder (in vessels much more fragile than modern vessels) ended in tragedy.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 9:51pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      “Their first long-distance voyaging was the colonization of Micronesia from the Philippines at around 1500 BC”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_navigation
      
      Map showing the seaborne migration and expansion of the Austronesians beginning at around 3000 BC
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_navigation#/media/File:Chronological_dispersal_of_Austronesian_people_across_the_Pacific.svg
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 20, 2025 12:28am
  - imalwaysright
    
    According to Ian Taylor, Maori had gravity, and therefore science, before the settlers arrived !
    
    (Maybe he thinks we believe Newton invented it…)
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:52am
- John Loveridge
  
  Up in the Far North, where I come from, every day is a Maori day off.
  
  A typical conversation would occur. You’re out fishing in your dinghy and you encounter your cuzzie, also out fishing in his dinghy.
  
  “Cuz! Aren’t you s’posed to be at work?”
  
  “Nah, bro. I’m having a Maori day off.”
  
  That was 30 or more years ago. These days the first question doesn’t actually apply very often.
  
  24 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:54am
Cassandra

Mike Hosking believes that RNZ is featherbedded and that Willie Jackson is an idiot. Anyone who disagrees can downtick, although adding a reason would be appreciated.

Re Morning Report: You’ve never seen such a sheltered workshop of lavish staffing and indulgence. 19 producers. Newstalk has 3 and more awards and listeners.

Willie Jackson handing out tens of millions is irresponsible politics, not a business plan. Willie is an idiot.
57 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:20am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Willie is the worse than an idiot. He is an idiot that thinks he is a genius.
  
  He’s been grifting off the taxpayer and various Iwi for decades.
  
  40 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:28am
  - John Loveridge
    
    To paraphrase Ricky Gervais (I think): when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid.
    
    21 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 9:56am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    He’s been grifting off the taxpayer and various Iwi for decades.
    
    And he’s done it very successfully…
    
    He definitely knows how to work the system…..he probably is a genius.
    
    18 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:31am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Newstalk has 3 and more awards’
  
  To be fair these awards things are nothing but a carefully stage managed circle jerk.
  
  13 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:32am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    To be fair, that’s true of every industry awards that I can think of.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 12:01pm
    - kowtow
      
      Yep .
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:12pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Agree the money from Jackson is idiotic business sense but he’s no idiot, he’s the most dangerously divisive politician we’ve ever had and that money stoked the fires of racial division lit by his public interest journalism fund deliberately.
  Don’t underestimate him, he was clearly running Ardern last term and he’s thick as thieves with Tamahere, TPM and your taxpayer money.
  
  25 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:34am
- mandk
  
  Regardless of field, the public sector will always be miles behind the private sector when it comes to productivity.
  
  It’s in large part because the public sector is run for the benefit of the unions.
  
  Hosking had the Head of Clinical Services (or some such job title) from Health NZ on his show this morning. Said guest confirmed that if there was a danger that a surgical procedure might run beyond 4.00 pm there was a tendency for it to be postponed because of the terms of the collective agreement.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:59am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  RNZ is facing a restructure.
  
  http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/564386/rnz-calls-for-voluntary-redundancies-after-budget-funding-cut
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 12:00pm
I remember when

Overheard a couple of locals in Woodville at the weekend discussing the sale of a local house, it had been sold for $250,000.
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:24am
- Jethrod
  
  At least they have a flash new road through to Palmy North, if you need to be in either place.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:27am
  - cmm
    
    A bit like my favourite place in Auckland being the airport departures lounge.
    
    14 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 10:39am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: That’s brilliant! For me my favorite part of Auckland is 45 ks north of the damn city, at Rancho Garrett 3ks out of Kaukapakapa.
      
      4 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 12:41pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Overvalued.
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:53am
Positan

“Willie is an idiot.”

Res ipse loquitur. (The thing speaks for itself.)
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:32am
Chuck Bird

Not premium. Unfortunately, in a democracy, people can vote for stupid people.

Exclusive: National loses control of cost of living to Labour in new survey

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/exclusive-national-loses-control-of-cost-of-living-to-labour-in-new-survey/FFLJAWWZQ5FNRGYLYPDS7ZXQGI/
9 7
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:33am
- Damocles11
  
  It’s worse than that: stupid people can vote.
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 9:50am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I know of numerous NZers who have utterly no idea of anything to do with politics. Presumably they vote by feels and vague notions swirling amongst themselves.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 9:58pm
- Philview
  
  When Labour was in the media would say it is a global issue and nothing to do with Labour.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:04am
RichardF

Typical government. I know of a ministry of similar size to my employer. They employed 30 project managers, our business had 12. The HR function had 12 people in ‘learning and development’, my employer had 2. Having worked in govt once, I lost count of the number of courses staff attended. One colleague seemed to be on a course every other week, never doing much real work, just endless workshops and training.

20 producers for a govt run radio station v 3 for Newstalk ZB sounds about right. I bet half are on a course this week.
18 3
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:35am
- OlderChas
  
  And not one of those courses came at a reasonable price, let alone cheap!
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 2:32pm
cas

All this talk about getting to 100% renewables is a laugh.

I was in Spain when the power went off for the whole of Spain and most of Portugal. Spain was said to be running on 78% renewables at the time and while they still haven’t announced the result of their investigations as to why( as far as I am aware), I gather it was because the overuse of renewables tripped the grid.

Apparently if you are running on lots of renewables, the grids are vulnerable and more difficult to run because they were not designed for renewables which don’t create inertia on the grid. Therefore any significant fluctuation in frequency can cause disconnection and as we found in Spain a 13 hour power outage.
9 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:36am
- cmm
  
  There are renewables and renewables.
  
  As I write this, 87% of our electricity is coming from renewables. Most of our renewables are very dependable hydro and geothermal.
  
  We could easily install another 1000 MW of geothermal. If we did that then we could be at 100% renewable most of the time regardless of the sun shining or the wind blowing.
  
  Spain is in a very different situation for a multitude of reasons, mainly:
  * Their natural resources are different. eg. they don’t have much hydro and, AFAIK, no geothermal.
  * They are connected up to the rest of Europe so can import electricity.
  * In summer it is hot enough to make airconditioning highly desirable (something that makes solar a reasonably good choice)
  
  But, certainly, driving solar and wind-based renewables too hard and with too much of an activist mindset, can lead to instabilities.
  
  https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/live-system-and-market-data/consolidated-live-data
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:51am
  - Waipuk
    
    But the renewables, hydro and geothermal, you talk about have dirty great big turbines behind them to handle the inertia.
    
    5 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:41am
    - RoboRob
      
      And? Thats generally how electricity is generated. The renewables that cmm refers to relates to the source that drives the turbines (water and steam) vs (Coal and oil asnon renewables).
      
      There is a question as to whether Nuclear counts as renewable (used fuel and be resused to a degree).
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 1:25pm
- mogg
  
  The Telegraph is reporting that there was an oversupply of wind generated electricity, which caused the price to plummet, so they all stopped producing at the same time because it wasn’t worthwhile.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 1:33pm
RoboRob

‘The Government’s Budget is doing little to reassure voters National can manage the cost of living with a new poll showing more people back Labour to bring down prices.’

‘Overall, Labour was considered more capable in handling 11 of the top 20 issues Kiwis were grappling with, including health, housing, education, transport, immigration and unemployment.’

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/exclusive-national-loses-control-of-cost-of-living-to-labour-in-new-survey/

What the absolute fuck is wrong with New Zealanders. I despair that NZ as a country is so economically illiterate and politically uninformed that we think Labour, the party that bought us inflation through money printing and excessive government borrowing, is better at managing pricing.

You can disagree with some of Nationals policy or methods but to think that labour is the party to get inflation under control (which it currently alrady is) is just moronic. I can only blame the education system and legacy media for this situation. The sad thing is that we have 40+ years of these people as part of the voting base even if we do fix the education system.
20 3
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:36am
- Eastlander
  
  Seasonal affective disorder. It won’t last till election day.
  
  3 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:56am
- cmm
  
  Coz feelz…
  Feelz are easier than thinking.
  
  Cindy and Robbo put their arms around people and said that the supermarkets are mean and are pushing up prices. Therefore Labour “gets it” and “understands” so people extrapolate that into them being better.
  
  Why blame the education system? They are doing what they were told to do. Dumb people down into being little socialists.
  
  12 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:57am
- mogg
  
  There has to be something wrong with that poll, not even MMP could make us that stupid.
  
  5 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 1:36pm
Notsofast

Fantastic news from US Supreme Court. It takes 6 conservative judges to bat away 3 pro transing minors judges and confirm the ban in Texas. This should keep rolling.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/us-supreme-court-upholds-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-minors/FRTAWAA3SNBPVNWBZTQYF7YMEQ/
11 4
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:36am
- cmm
  
  The language around this is pretty fucked:
  “gender affirming care”
  
  How can it be called care to chop a confused child’s willy off or chemically attack their bodies with hormone blockers?
  
  I see demonstrators are holding up signs saying “Protect Trans Youth”. Yes, they need protection – from a crazy system which wants to chop their cocks off!
  
  14 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:03am
  - mandk
    
    Calling child mutilation “gender affirming care” similar to calling abortion “healthcare”.
    
    7 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:35am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Gender disorder is a mental illness in the same way that anorexia is, and should be treated through psychiatry and not surgery.
    
    6 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 12:05pm
Flossie

Is anyone surprised ACC costs have doubled since 2004?
The minimum wage was $9 per hour for adults that year – more than double that now. I don’t have actual figures for my power and rates bills from then but my hunch is they were about half what they are currently. I know the house sold I then has doubled in “value” too. And I’m sure the grocery bill has doubled too.
20 0
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:45am
I remember when

The simultaneous emergence of the adult stage of mayflies around the Upper Mississippi River: Nautilus.
“Untold billions of them emerge from their laval stage, so many that they remove them from bridges with bulldozers!
They appear on weather radar as rain clouds.”
5 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:56am
Raphael

With the sick leave debate. I think there is a sensible middle ground approach.

The first 5 days are not prorata, the second 5 are.

My thinking is based on this:
My daughter works between 1-3 days a week (she is trying to get more shifts, that is what is currently available at her workplace) If she gets sick, based on a % prorata, she would only have a couple of hours off. Which isn’t helpful to anyone.
The first 5 days covers people in her situation. The second 5 days being prorata means that the employer is not being taken advantage of by a dodgy staff member.

The whole lot being prorata does also mean if a shift worker gets sick early on in their employment, they actually can’t take any sick leave, again, having the first 5 not being prorata covers this.
10 0
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 9:57am
imalwaysright

Haven’t heard much from Mike King since Luxon approved the multimillion dollar funding for his Gumboot mental illness charity.

There have been plenty of mental illness issues since the funding that would benefit from Mike King’s experience, and being government sponsored must surely make his comments relevant.

Is King blacklisted by the media or muzzled by the government ?
8 3
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 10:36am
Maggy Wassilieff

Is anyone surprised that 8 Chinese Universities are now ranked in the top 10 universities in the World for Science/Engineering?

https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/trump-will-halt-harvards-slip-in-research-rankings-ha-just-like-his-tariffs-will-make-us-great-again-economically/
14 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 10:59am
- cmm
  
  Well it doesn’t surprise me.
  
  Almost all the interesting research in the computer chip design space that I see is coming out of China.
  
  All the high speed train research stuff seems to be happening there too.
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:10am
  - mike
    
    The US is steadily turning against science. Crackpot RFK Jr put in charge of public health, states banning water fluoridation and ‘chemtrails’, pseudo-medical arguments against abortion, etc.
    
    7 25
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 11:22am
    - Keith White
      
      An argument against abortion is an argument against giving women (and only women) the right to kill a growing helpless unborn baby at any time it suits them. Right up to the day of birth as the UK has just emphasised.
      
      There are vanishingly rare cases where a pregnant woman will die if the baby is not aborted.
      
      There are of course legions of people who think women should have the absolute right to decide whether an unborn baby lives or dies.
      
      The same people who champion the right to bodily autonomy means women just have to be able to kill their unborn baby when they want, hugely overlap the people who deny bodily autonomy when it comes to being mandated to get a vaccine ‘or else’.
      
      And when you have just run to start a crash-emergency cesarean section all you hear from the mother is (in various personally-different words) ‘please save my baby don’t worry about me’. Not always possible to do both.
      
      But it’s always possible to kill a helpless unborn child.
      
      5 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 11:56am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I’ve heard through the grapevine also that contraception is ubiquitous and cheap in the west. Even the morning after pill.
        
        1 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 9:21pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      What makes you clarify RFK Jnr a Crackpot?
      
      Are you reading the anti Trump media again(ie anything associated with Trump is bad)
      Or are you believing that RFK Jnr is rabidly anti Vax.
      (Heads-up. He is not). He is anti, untested, unverified, unreliable Vax.
      
      Isn’t online research a beautiful thing when we don’t have to rely on MSM.
      
      Thank goodness, old MSM is dying off where so-called journos interview their keyboards and publish opinions.
      
      5 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 12:25pm
      - mike
        
        As there are no untested and unreliable vaccines, your distinction is immaterial.
        BTW, like most cranks, RFK Jr’s anti-vaxxing is not his only piece of lunacy. He’s right in with ‘wi-fi causes cancer’, HIV/AIDS denial, thinks Bill Gates was putting microchips in vaccines, opposes fluoridation, denies germ theory, and thinks chemicals in the water supply turn frogs gay and anti-depressants cause school shootings. Oh, and he’s a sex pest.
        
        4 11
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:22pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Mike: “As there are no untested and unreliable vaccines.”
        
        Again slippery. There have been plenty of “tested” vaccines that have later been pulled due lack of efficacy and/or harms.
        
        1 1
        Report
        June 19, 2025 7:55pm
    - Spam
      
      You’re right, of course Mike. The US should rub whale oil onto themselves to protect them from chemtrails (or does that only apply to trees?), and as soon as they recognize that the mauri and mana of water protects against cavities, that should settle the fluoride debate.
      
      10 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 12:25pm
      - mike
        
        Choose your own magic. RFK Jr’s fans are expecting him to endorse drinking bleach as a cure all for every health problem.
        
        3 8
        Report
        June 19, 2025 2:25pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “Choose your own magic. ”
        
        So endorsing patently silly BS is OK as long as it’s cool with the woke political tribe. Got it.
        
        0 2
        Report
        June 19, 2025 8:00pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      It’s turning TOWARDS the scientific method and away from group-think and grifting when it comes to climate science.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 10:01pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      When whale song is being played to sick kauri trees, when Landcare Research is studying the “mauri” of soils, and when puberty blockers are being prescribed here at 10x the rate of the UK, do you think NZ might be turning against science?
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 20, 2025 10:51am
- Blog-aholic
  
  It would surprise me if NZ got any of ours in the list at all….maybe the bottom of a list of 8,000……we’d still be 8,001 – 8,007….
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 11:46am
Jack5

We’re surely not going to let the Government and bureaucrats get away lightly with abandoning the census.

The world is awash with hundreds of millions of people keen to move across borders, and our Statistics Department has persuaded its minister, Shane Reti, that we don’t need to have one.

Britain has just rejected plans to drop its next census of England and Wales. This will be held in 2031. The plan seems to be to enhance the traditionally collected census with analysis of other data sources, now computerised. The emphasis is on enhance rather than replace.

After failed efforts to hold the last one, we’re going to rely on bureaucrats following the Scandinavian trend of estimating numbers from other databases. “Admin data” is the term the civil servants are using. Examples of these given by Shane Reti, who is the Minister of Statistics, include:

– ACC injury claims (ACC)
– Student loan and allowances (Inland Revenue, Ministry of Social Development)
– Tax and income (Inland Revenue)
– Births, deaths, and marriages (Department of Internal Affairs)
education data (Ministry of Education).

An intelligent country would use these to enhance and elaborate traditional census information, not replace it.

The bureaucrats seem to have overwhelmed NZ’s Minister with numbers of traditional census costs, which they allege would run to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stand by next for bureaucrats wanting a cheaper version of general elections.

Poor Shane Reti. He’s an intelligent man and a decent bloke. He was sidelined from the Health role because, many of us think, as a professional medic Dr Reti could see the mountainous problem of implementing Government health policies at stated budgets.

And he got lumbered with the Cabinet problem child of Statistics.
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 11:24am
bennerg

The NZ Herald has a headline:

Has Tory Whanau’s experience put women off running for mayor?
“There are no female candidates in Wellington’s mayoral race this year.”
The rest is paywalled ….

I’d suggest that Tori Whanau has put the public off young women, especially young maori women with a drinking problem.

While Wellington’s obsession with left wing candidates (spend, spend, spend) will stay, I just hope they choose someone with some stability in their life, (behind every great man is a great woman … and behind every great woman is a great man) and a decent amount of experience in running a business – which the Council is!!.
10 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 12:00pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Tory put the public off Tory by being Tory.
  
  It doesn’t matter that she is a woman, part Maori, or even an alcoholic. She is incompetent. That’s it.
  
  15 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 1:59pm
- cmm
  
  A last (or hopefully last) gasp attempt at painting all the anti-Tory talk as sexism. If that doesn’t work, then raaaacism.
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 2:45pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Apropos of the biography of St Jacinda of the Plague.

It was recently spotted at the Wellington airport bookstall.

In the horror section.
4 4
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 12:07pm
- pdm
  
  Bollocks – did the `spotter’ do the right thing and
  `turn Ardern’?
  
  4 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 1:27pm
Master Mariner

Thoughts?
Is a Coal to Liquid / Gas (CTL) plant suitable to enhance NZ’s energy security viable?
This process first came to light during WW2 for the German supply of suitable fuels due to lack of their own reserves and also SASOL in SA during sanctions.
It requires a lot of energy and very expensive processing plant.
Why not use Power from Manapouri and Lignite from Southland.
Definitively worth looking at ?
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 12:09pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Would make sense for NZ, and would give us a much larger heavy engineering base, as well as saving us $10billion a year off our appalling (and near worst in world) $30 billion annual current account deficit.
  
  But the ~~Greens~~ children will wail and gnash their teeth so vociferously that it will never happen. No private concern would ever take on the regulatory risk, and National are too weak to do it regardless of the economic merits
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 5:18pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Fischer-Tropsch. The technology was used by the Germans in WWII because they had to. For somewhat similar reasons the Saffas did it in the 70’s or so. Noone much else did – look up “Fischer-Tropsch” on wikipedia.
  
  So there’s probaly noone in the world with any track record or institutional memory about building this stuff. It’s actually a bit ugly CO2 wise too although I accept you don’t see that as a problem.
  
  So it would be another one of those things where we could sort of lead the world technology-wise. We don’t have a great track record doing that ….. think the Motonui gas-gasoline plant 🙂
  
  Sounds good, but …..
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 7:44pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Motunui never got off the ground? I thought it ran for decades.
    
    https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/motunui-synthetic-fuels-plant/
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 9:25pm
cmm

It’s a sad business seeing another kid’s life lost in a boat capsize.

Apparently he was wearing a newly purchased life jacket. I wonder whether it was the right size? Far too many people are reluctant to buy the right life jacket for a growing kid and will prefer to buy something a bit bigger for them to grow into – potentially a killer decision. The wrong size life jacket can. potentially, be worse than no life jacket at all.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360724439/patea-community-reeling-after-adult-and-child-die-bar-crossing-tragedy
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 12:47pm
- RichardF
  
  The article said the kid and step-mum got trapped under the overturned vessel. I don’t know the relevance of life jacket size in that scenario.
  
  Good point in general though, buy the correct size you need for now, not in a a years time. They’re not pyjama’s.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 2:21pm
  - cmm
    
    Yes, they got trapped under the vessel, but there might be more to it than that.
    
    An ill fitting life jacket can actually make it more likely that you can’t move your arms and legs properly – making it more likely that you would not be able to get out from under a flipped vessel.
    
    I expect many people on this blog have been under a flipped vessel a few times. I certainly have when sailing. Sailing is possibly worse in that there are a lot of sheets and lines to get tangled up in. I really struggle to see that would be a cause of death in itself.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 2:39pm
  - OlderChas
    
    Call me cynical but – being “trapped” under an overturned open hull boat is exactly when you DON’T need an inflated life jacket on. Prevents you submerging and swimming out from under. The confined space (and no doubt serious panic?) hinders removal of the lifejacket too. And also if a non-swimmer you would be very reluctant to take your life jacket off and leave it behind.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 3:10pm
G the giant from Dunedin

Good to see GDP up .8% way higher than anticipated
5 4
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 12:58pm
- mogg
  
  Gross GDP at 0.8% will be negative GDP growth per capita.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 1:50pm
  - cmm
    
    According to Stats NZ:
    “GDP per capita rose 0.5 percent during the March 2025 quarter”
    
    So still positive.
    
    It is unclear if this factors in inflation. I suspect not.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 2:43pm
    - mogg
      
      Yes I think Stats do take inflation into account.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 4:37pm
- cmm
  
  Well, I’ll take 0.8% over a kick in the balls, but does that take into account inflation?
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 2:41pm
- Ra Henare
  
  You do know that GDP includes Government spending.
  
  So government throws wads of cash hires more staff, WOW GDP goes up.
  
  Government spending directly increases New Zealand’s GDP in the expenditure approach as part of G, capturing spending on final goods and services. It indirectly boosts GDP in the production approach by stimulating industry output and in the income approach by generating wages, profits, and taxes. Multiplier effects can amplify the impact, though leaks (e.g., imports) and crowding out may limit this. Stats NZ measures government spending at current prices for nominal GDP and adjusts for inflation for real GDP, using government financial data. For more details, refer to Stats NZ’s national accounts (https://www.stats.govt.nz).
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 4:31pm
Jack5

Health Minister Brown announced 180 overseas doctors are interested in an NZ programme to train them up for NZ qualification.

One of the medical folk who follow Kiwiblog might explain, but is this meant for overseas doctors who want to practise here and who aren’t from Australia, the UK, or Canada?

What’s happened to the Coalition’s talk of a new medical college for Hamilton, with graduates tied to rural service or similar in NZ?

Are National, the medical Establishment, and the universities of Otago and Auckland conspiring to keep down the number of home-grown, NZ-educated doctors?
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 1:38pm
- greybeard
  
  How long does it take to grow a NZ doctor from scratch ?
  How long does it take to bring overseas doctors up to speed for NZ practice?
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 2:52pm
  - Jack5
    
    Good point, Greybeard, but the quick fix hasn’t stabilised supply v. demand.
    
    NZ now has overseas doctors of retirement age who had their medical education topped off with NZ assessment decades ago.
    
    The idea is for a third medical school with graduates tied to serve in NZ rural regions for a few (or more) years.
    
    I’ve just tested Google’s AI service, Gemini, with the question: how many medical schools for training doctors does Australia have. Its answer: 21. They take direct entry as well as entry from graduates in allied medical fields.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 3:23pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    An interesting question to throw at AI (I use Grok.com)
    Lots of other detail. BUT.
    Summary
    
    New Zealand-Trained Doctor: 8–10 years for a general practitioner, 12–15+ years for a specialist.
    
    Overseas-Trained Doctor: 6 months to 3 years to adapt, depending on their background, registration pathway, and whether they pursue general or specialist practice.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 4:35pm
- OlderChas
  
  Wonder if they remain keen when they find out the personal cost (I read somewhere around $10K?) of the compulsory “maori wonderfulness” course?
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 3:13pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  We’re too cheap to train enough homegrown doctors, yet to continue to fund the useless demographic ministries.
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 5:23pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360729651/company-director-escapes-jail-term-over-2m-oranga-tamariki-fraud
1. Is this a surprise to anyone ?
2. Is the sentence a surprise to anyone ?
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 2:45pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The wife got a jail sentence of 3 years.
  
  https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/indian-couple-neha-sharma-amandeep-sharma-swindled-crores-in-new-zealand-escape-to-chennai-did-not-help-8459206
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 6:17pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The husband got HomeD because his wife got prison and they have a child.
    
    Unstated was why the three of them were not kicked out of the country. After all, once they were rumbled they were quick to buy business class tickets to India, so clearly there’s no impediment to their return home.
    
    Convictions of this type show that they were never of the right character to become NZ Residents, therefore they should be stripped of any and all rights to residence here.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    June 19, 2025 6:54pm
    - rouppe
      
      Convictions of this type show that they were never of the right character to become NZ Residents, therefore they should be stripped of any and all rights to residence here
      
      The whiney Americans here in Thailand call that Trump being a fascist.
      
      Next time I’m aware of Australians in the vicinity I might ask them to describe S501 to the American
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      June 19, 2025 10:42pm
rouppe

I’m only part way through this podcast, but it is incredibly enlightening.

Kash Patel on the Joe Rogan experience.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0VDV6g5uAyfuS4DBX48jkM?si=vZ5vdEdvRwG1ANEjBDcq_g
3 0
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 2:46pm
Pope Punctilious II

The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) embeds the requirement for schools to “give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi” by achieving “equitable outcomes” for Maori students. https://share.google/lcch8HwUPBPJaBS5V
How are schools supposed to guarantee equality of outcome for different demographic groups? This bill is happening because we have a woke Minister of Education appointed by a woke PM. But where the hell are Seymour and Peters?
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 3:37pm
Mod88

One Term Govt is becoming more and more obvious.
Simon Watts Ute Tax Mk2 makes a bald-faced liar of his Boss last week at Field Days.
Paul Goldsmith sitting on his hands while flapping his gums as the Govt finances nearly 600 new Coastal Claims to the tune of $56 Million of Taxpayers dosh. We might as well have left Labour in and He Pua Pua on Full Steam Aghead.
11 1
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 4:00pm
NothingLeft

SpaceX’s next starship test vehicle just blew up BIG on test stand
https://x.com/i/status/1935552171912655045

Rocket Engineering is hard.
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
June 19, 2025 5:30pm
- rouppe
  
  I wonder how many Tesla EV’s those emissions equate to?
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  June 19, 2025 10:38pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« A clear line

Why I think Trump will bomb the Fordrow nuclear site in Iran »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 40.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Target achieved II
Good progress on attendance
Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments

Links

The hidden power within children: "an intense motivation to perceive reality"
Not PC
Heather du Plessis-Allan: My winner of the week
Breaking Views
Creepy Jealous Ray Chung gets Wang Chunged tonight
The Daily Blog
Expanding the Milei Miracle: Labor Market Deregulation
Utopia
My Dream Is Coming True
No Minister
Word of the day
Hompaddock
Is there a relationship between marriage rates and welfare dependence?
Point of Order
Open Mike 12/07/25
The Standard
Forum 2025 speakers Dr Miriam Grossman / Israel & Maria Folau
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
Gas is still dead
No Right Turn
NRL Predictions for Round 19
Stats Chat
The State of Local Government
NZCPR
Careful what you wish for.
Kiwipolitico
41 questions
Croaking Cassandra
Social media slippery slopes
Offsetting Behaviour
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

[email protected]

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: