About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

July 3, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 03 July 2025

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment216

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (216)

Login to comment or vote

Cassandra

Matua Kahurangi is a commentator (favoured by our host) who writes:

“The state is pouring millions into building a parallel system where access to basic services is determined not by need, but by race. This isn’t “culturally responsive care”. This is institutionalised racism. Whānau Ora is no longer about helping families. It’s a political tool to carve out power and privilege for iwi elites while the rest of the country drowns in a broken, underfunded health system.

The worst part? You’re paying for it. Every taxpayer in this country is helping fund a race-exclusive model that their children may never be allowed to use.”

I thought the Coalition was opposed to this sort of thing. When Whanau Ora was introduced many years ago I thought that it was morally reprehensible but, if it works, why not give it a try? It hasn’t worked. Scrap it. Need, not race. But scrap it mid-winter – a hikoi in the rain will be a test of resolve.

The column ends: “While all this money is being handed out to race-based agencies and iwi bureaucracies, Māori children are still being murdered, neglected, and abused in their own homes. That’s the brutal truth none of the iwi wants to talk about. I hardly believe this funding pipeline will reach the kids who actually need saving. Where is Tama Potaka when it comes to that? When is he going to front up and talk about the Māori children being buried instead of being helped?”.

I’ve got an idea which might help. Allow this racist project but make it pure. Only Maori health workers allowed. Then see how “By Maori, for Maori” works. The number of, for example, Maori surgeons is not quite enough (like it’s about zero). Endocrinologists to treat diabetes? One Maori I think, so he’ll be busy. Or nurses? No Filipinos permitted – see how that goes. I’d give it a week.
56 5
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:02am
- artemisia
  
  Whanau Ora is officially for anyone, regardless of heritage.
  
  I know one young family, not Maori, that approached them, as their situation was complex and they would have been well served by just one car in the driveway. Left empty handed. Maybe they misinterpreted but they definitely did not feel welcome.
  
  34 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:17am
  - Cassandra
    
    “Whānau Ora is a culturally-based, and whānau-centred approach to wellbeing focused on whānau (family group) as a whole, as the decision-makers who determine their goals and aspirations.”
    
    Doesn’t sound like “officially for anyone” to me.
    
    35 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 8:45am
    - artemisia
      
      Officially yes. Actually not so much.
      
      29 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 8:50am
      - Yabster
        
        google “Whanau Ora grant eligibility”.. “free money” to qualify you have to be an iwi member- so discriminates against myself and the bulk of NZers..
        
        23 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 9:52am
    - RoboRob
      
      When asked by Hosking about this Luxon said that it was for all people and as prood the example he gave was that Whanau Ora had done work on vaccinations across races. I suspect what he was referring to was the many Maori adds encouraging vaccination and that some non Maori might get vaccinated as a result. Thats a pretty long bow to draw for an agency that spends nearly 100% of their funding exclusively on Maori health.
      
      Where are the studies to show whether this works or not? If the model does work what don’t we have similar agencies for Asians, and Europeans?
      
      20 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 9:25am
      - pdm
        
        RR – life expectancy for Maori still lags behind most other races.
        
        So maybe not as effective as claimed.
        
        9 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 11:01am
      - backster
        
        Were all people eligible for KFC if they got the jab though.
        
        12 2
        Report
        July 3, 2025 11:08am
      - NothingLeft
        
        pdm, lifespan is strongly determined by genetics, though of course non-science spouting wokesters like to pretend it’s not.
        
        People who’s ancestry is predominantly from regions where r-selection type breeding strategies dominate – low investment in more children to rapidly fill available space in response to calamities like violent conflict, famine, disease often sweeping through and wiping out many, typical of warmer climates – don’t tend to live as long as those whose ancestors lived in more stable colder climates with highly seasonal food availability where k-type high investment in fewer kids breeding strategies dominated, and having living grandparents significantly improved survival chances.
        
        3 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:44pm
      - pdm
        
        Nothing left.
        
        Life expectancy for males in 1900 was 48 if my memory is correct.
        
        Now it is about 80.
        
        How does that gel with your theory?
        
        6 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 4:51pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        The average was 48 primarily due to high childhood mortality, that doesn’t alter the evolutionary pressures.
        
        In fact obviously for almost all of human history prior to 20th Century women could only have ~2 kids survive to have kids of their own due to food limitations preventing population growth, meaning if they birthed 8 then 6 needed to die without kids, or preferably someone else’s kids needed to die to make room for hers. Starvation, disease, natural disaster or violence would inevitably conspire to ensure this, and only way to have less child mortality was birthing less kids. This is why average age the world over in all cultures was only 30-40 prior to industrial revolution.
        
        R=type had more kids K type fewer, but still high child mortality dominated everywhere, just manner of typical deaths would be different, typically less violence, more starving for K-type. K-type societies typically had far stricter controls on fertility – delayed marriages, restrictions on who could have sex etc (nuns, strict rules surrounding sex outside of marriage etc). Fewer such controls in R-type cultures.
        
        0 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 7:03pm
    - AitchW
      
      20 years ago I attended a training session run by Playcentre.
      The facilitator, a blonde European lady with a maori surname and a bone carving told us that Pakeha are incapable of understanding the concept of whanau.
      Kinda went downhill from there.
      
      15 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 2:25pm
- Simon
  
  “National is pouring millions into building a parallel system where access to basic services is determined not by need, but by race. ”
  
  Fixed it. This weirdness that National isnt responsible for the absolute decline of NZ.
  
  Excuses for National are not the ones wrecking NZ – its MMP, its Labo, its the voters, its 3 year term needs to 4 yrs, its identity politics etc
  
  15 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:19am
  - Quail
    
    National are supporting the corporations that are growing throughout NZ .Most may have indigenous names but are managed with a mix of ethnic races.
    The managers are only partially indigenous.
    There is more non indigenous races running these corporations, and benefiting from taxpayers largesse than there are Maori. For example the Irish are particularly well represented .
    The concept of “helping Maori “is being cynically abused by clever corporations.
    There should be only one criteria for Government assistance— need. Not colour ,ethnicity or race.
    One country one people!
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 12:04pm
- balanced
  
  Tama Potaka agrees with you.
  
  ““We also need to see a bit of a step change in how we consider evidence around the delivery of Whānau Ora services and ensuring that there’s a real critical alignment between the investment of taxpayers’ funds, doing it in a very transparent and improved audited way, and the achievement of outcomes.”
  
  9 9
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:20am
  - Simon
    
    “Tama Potaka agrees with you.”
    
    lol – a bit of a step change. No he doesnt.
    
    9 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:06am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Most people don’t agree with you
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 5, 2025 7:42pm
  - AitchW
    
    Did Sir Humphrey write that for him?
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:26pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I get the impression that, when these organisations get a supply of money from the public, their only priority becomes themselves.
  
  Actual contact with people in need becomes anathema to them for two reasons:
  1 Actually helping someone involves actual work.
  2 Helping people usually costs money, and they see that money as being theirs.
  
  Its posh dole for the employees, and god knows what grift for the bosses.
  
  27 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:55am
  - Cassandra
    
    It’s the USAID syndrome. Starts off with laudable intentions and rapidly morphs into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. There’s a school of thought that all organisations should be folded every 10 years or so . Close down and start again from scratch. Certainly new leadership.
    
    26 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:02am
    - NothingLeft
      
      O’Sullivan’s Law, states that “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing”
      
      Left wingers are ‘mean girls’ that practice exclusion and selectively hire similarly minded people.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 3:49pm
- Taieri
  
  This outfit, owned by Ngai Tahu will accept and treat all, regardless of their ethnic background:
  
  https://www.tekaika.nz
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:22am
  - RoboRob
    
    ‘Te Kāika operates under a set of core values reflecting Ngāi Tahu culture. Committed to a Tiriti o Waitangi approach, we prioritise engagement with whānau and tamariki, fostering wellness, cultural identity, mana, and lasting community relationships.’
    
    it may be true that these guys and others will treat Non Maori, however how many non Maori will actually chose to use such a service?
    
    When I was a school we had two senior common rooms, one general room and a Maori common room. All students were allowed in either, guess how many non Maori used the Maori common room. If you guessed zero you would be correct.
    
    11 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:45am
    - Taieri
      
      how many non Maori will actually chose to use such a service?
      ———–
      
      Quite a few. There’re no restrictions, they take new patients on all the time. Of all races and ethnicities. And the services they provide are very moderately priced.
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:55pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Sounds great.
        
        2 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 1:49pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Untermensch just need to queue up behind part-Maori to receive the incredible generosity?
        
        5 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 4:01pm
  - kiwimike
    
    owned by Nga Tahu
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 3:30pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  And get iwi to pay for it, they don’t pay the same amount of tax in the first place.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:46am
- Phronesis
  
  I have a friend who got into medical school by playing the maori card. He then got maori money to do research into diabetes in maori and specialise in endocrinology. It must have seemed like a lost cause because he’s been practising in private in Australia for at least a decade.
  
  26 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 10:14am
  - pdm
    
    Maybe he has a few Maori patients over there Phronesis.
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:06am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not in the last 18 months you dont
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 5, 2025 7:43pm
- Keith White
  
  Meanwhile…
  
  “…It (Hutt Valley 3 moth old girl with multiple fractures) is the third case this week where police have announced investigations about injured or dead babies, with a newborn baby’s body found in Auckland yesterday and another baby suffering critical injuries in Foxton Beach….”
  
  In these types of cases the 15% are very definitely doing more than their 50% usual share.
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 12:46pm
  - leoj
    
    This is the culture they want us to embrace and if we don’t we are racist.
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:23pm
  - muzled
    
    Don’t worry, they’ll be along to put a rahui on the affected area soon.
    
    /s
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 5:14pm
- Philview
  
  I recently wondered who Matua Kahurangi is and googled his name. It was interesting to see that he is getting under the skin of some in the left wing media who want to out him but can’t trace him. Good work Matua!
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 1:40pm
Scott

Here’s a feel good story to start your day. Jaguar went through a rebrand. No more timeless elegance, no more British craftmenship, no more attainable luxury. No more petrol engines and understated elegance.

https://paul-anthony.medium.com/from-roar-to-whimper-how-jaguars-woke-rebrand-drove-away-its-legacy-customers-8de9d3696166

No sirree. In a Bud Light move, the once iconic British brand went woke with an advertisement featuring brightly coloured dancers of indeterminate sexuality. Jaguar removed the jaguar badge, stopped production of all of their existing models, would build no more cars with petrol engines and instead produce only electric cars that look nothing like a Jaguar.

In other words they went full woke. They embraced inclusion and diversity and climate change and electric cars are the only future.

And what was the result? Would they succeed having told their existing customers we hate you and we want new customers that are inclusive and diverse and not British and not elegant and not refined? We want social justice warriors that are bright and edgy and diverse.

How did it all go?

Well the results are in. Jaguars are going to become extinct.

Back in April 2024 Jaguar sold 1,961 cars across Europe. This year in April 2025 they sold just 49 cars! 49 cars across all of Europe! That ladies and gentlemen is a decline of 98%.

Reality still wins. Go woke and go broke is real. 😎
28 3
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:05am
- Ghost
  
  No, mote likely because they halted production
  
  Jaguar intentionally stopped producing cars at the end of 2024, a move that stretched into early 2025 in some regions, as part of a planned transition to becoming an EV-only brand
  
  Article
  
  There are more bright spots to consider. During Jaguar’s investor day this year, it offered several bits of insight. For example, it saw website traffic increase 110 percent in November and December.
  
  Consumer research also showed progress. Focus group testing indicates that 20 percent more people see Jaguar as a brand “worth paying more for,” and a further 23 percent said they were more aware of its existence. Sure, some of that came from the sheer audacity of Jaguar’s branding campaign, but the adage is that any press is good press.
  
  4 17
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 10:24am
  - kowtow
    
    “Transitioning” to all EV is probably even dumber than the other woke stuff.
    
    Markets simply don’t want the damn things .
    
    Talk about being on the wrong side of history on all counts.
    
    14 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:15am
- Paulus
  
  JLR – Jaguar Land Rover are Indian owned so why not sell them in India ?
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:13am
  - kowtow
    
    Because they haven’t invented a car that can run on shit , yet.
    
    12 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:16am
    - Keith White
      
      Err…
      
      ’24 May 2021 — A “poo-powered” SUV has hit the road in Australia in an attempt to encourage sustainable driving. Aptly named the ‘Number 2,’ the Hyundai…’
      
      Also, wasn’t taxi-driver Ernest Borgnine’s vehicle in ‘Escape from New York’ powered by, ah, Scheisse?
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:49pm
      - kowtow
        
        In that case I look forward to India becoming a supoopower.
        
        7 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:26pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Well people burn dried poo to cook on in many impoverished areas around the world. I guess you could have a steam engine car powered by poo (or maybe a combustion engine powered by gassified poo).
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 4:07pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        In China, they used to put pigs poop in a container, collect the gas, and use it for their cooking. They probably still do in some outer peasant regions.
        In the Sahara the Bedouin used to used dried camel dung for fuel for cooking.
        
        3 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 4:54pm
Tomtoddy

Ian Taylor has had an epiphany, another one. About Jacinda. The penny has dropped for him. Jacinda was never about good effective governing.

It was about building her own selfish brand. She came, she stirred emotions and she left. The waves subsided quickly. Nothing gained except a self-focused brand created.

If only all those starry-eyed adulating lefties would read Taylor and understand.
56 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:06am
- Philview
  
  I read the letter and agree with your comments. Per my reading of the Nationbuilder website the brand was being developed prior to her coming to power so she was never an accidental leader.
  
  https://nationbuilder.com/jacinda_ardern
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:15am
- Simon
  
  Ardern was appalling but everything she was able to do was bridge head by National.
  
  Lets say Labo win the next election, what have National rolled back to prevent Labo just picking up from where National left things to further wreck the country. Nothing, its all in place. Across any measure.
  
  24 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:23am
  - RoboRob
    
    A great example is ‘working for families’ . Introduced by labour and strongly opposed by National (under Key). Key gets into government and instead of removing it, and copping flack, he does the softly softly approach of just never upping the thresholds and allowing infation to reduce it. At the time I thought this was clever.
    
    Then comes JA and, since working for families still exists and is all setup she just does a massive jump in to thresholds.
    
    Now we have our new government, focused on cutting spending, and they too increase working for families and are proud of it.
    
    Contrast this with Labours approach. 3 Strikes bill implemented and disliked by Labour. Labour come in and immediately scrap it. National come back and introduce a watered down version they hope Labour will keep.
    
    18 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 9:32am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “National come back and introduce a watered down version they hope Labour will keep.”
      
      Nationals excuse for not passing legislation because Labour will reverse it is truly bizarre.
      
      Does Luxon go to Hipkins with all of their legislation for him to give it the nod?
      Actually, seeing how Luxon operates, I wouldn’t put it past him.
      
      14 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 10:54am
      - RoboRob
        
        I too thought the concept of watering it down and hoping Labour would keep it was weird and foolish.
        
        However my eyes have been opened after Nationals recent actions and now see it in a different light.
        
        I think they promised three strikes but their heart isn’t in it and so they have released something that wont really change anything, yet they can claim… ‘we are tough on crime : 3 strikes, shopligting laws, first offenders, suckey punch etc’. That should feed the base and make them feel happy without really changing anything.
        
        9 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:01pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They rolled everything Labour put in place, stop talking rubbish
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 5, 2025 7:46pm
- David Garrett
  
  Tom: Yes…he’s certainly no longer feeling the lurve is he?
  For all his success he is obviously a bit of a slow learner; the rest of us woke up to “Brand Jacinda” a long time ago.
  
  51 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:27am
  - pdm
    
    DG – about day 2 of the Podium Of Truth lectures in our case.
    
    27 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 8:32am
    - David Garrett
      
      pdm: I often find myself wryly reflecting on the capriciousness of fate. Cindy and I were both newbies in 2008. Now, 17 years later, I am a broken arse barrister practicting law in Tonga, while she can command USD200,00 – or so it is rumoured – per lecture to an adoring northern hemisphere public.
      
      30 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 9:11am
      - pdm
        
        GD doubt she will undertake a speaking tour of the Pacific Islands.
        
        Whereas you could – hop over to Tubou in the Lau group for a test run. It is/was a great place to visit too – I had a weekend there in 1976.
        
        8 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 9:17am
      - stewmar
        
        I bet your conscience is clearer than hers
        
        16 3
        Report
        July 3, 2025 9:50am
      - David Garrett
        
        Has anyone noticed old Mikey isn’t here today? Strangely neither is the sole downticker of almost every comment…just a coincidence, I’m sure.
        
        15 3
        Report
        July 3, 2025 10:03am
      - Taieri
        
        Now, 17 years later, I am a broken arse barrister practicting law in Tonga
        ———-
        
        May be you are not sufficiently Kind?
        
        15 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 10:19am
      - John Loveridge
        
        I know who I’d rather be lectured by, David.
        
        13 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 10:26am
      - Philview
        
        Don’t forget the recent US$20 million from Melinda Gates to set up I assume the Jacinda Ardern Foundation. No David Garrett Foundation but there will at least be some New Zealanders spared the fate of being bashed to death by a recidivist criminal.
        
        11 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 11:46am
      - R
        
        ‘adoring northern hemisphere’……just goes to show how many empty heads there are in the Nor. Hem waiting for something to fill them. The recent performance by the UK government seems to confirm such an observation
        
        5 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:02pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        [Mod – just debate the topics]
        
        1 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:43pm
    - Keith White
      
      “Yip, yip.”
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:50pm
  - AitchW
    
    DG, Taylor strikes me as a genuinely nice guy. Perhaps he’s a little naive too…
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 8:51am
    - Clyde
      
      An interesting guy I’d say that isn’t too slow in playing the race card when it suits, and also not slow in using others to further his own agenda. But hey, that’s how a lot of people get on isn’t it?
      
      11 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:03pm
  - Yvette
    
    After clearly telling Little that as Labour Leader he should drink the poisoned chalice, Jacinda was rung in a taxi on its way from Wellington Airport to Parliament and told she was it – Little had stood down. There was a panic because lounging in Opposition for so many years, she had no policies prepared – so sure was she Labour would loose again – so workgroups, seminars and other groups were suddenly co-opted on every issue under the sun – so many that our host and National lost count. Then March 15 was perpetrated and the brand began.
    Ian Taylor should have had his epiphany back about, then if not earlier.
    
    21 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 9:37am
    - leoj
      
      They DID lose.
      
      Winston saved them but people still forget that he and he alone caused the country to go into complete chaos.
      
      MMP destroyed the country.
      
      13 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 2:29pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, they won. National didn’t have the numbers to form a government, Labour did, which means they won. The people responsible for this outcome are those who voted for a man who wasn’t going to side with National, as he blamed Paula for leaking his pension details. A man who didn’t like Bill. It was always obvious he would go with Labour
        
        7 8
        Report
        July 3, 2025 2:38pm
  - Phronesis
    
    Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Taylor has woken up. His problem with Jacinda is that she wasn’t enough of a fascist dictator, he wanted more:
    “The Christchurch Call has failed to limit on-line violence and hate, and Brian Tamaki and his Destiny Church still feel free to march in Aotearoa spewing their anti-immigrant vitriol.”
    
    13 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:55am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I think Aitch might be right, he’s a bit naïve, he’s also a bit light when it comes to background information and context.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 11:29am
- imalwaysright
  
  Her pronunciation hasn’t improved.
  When she started her book tour I heard her say “somethink”.
  
  I wonder what people overseas thought of her speech given that poor pronunciation is a reliable indicator of weak intellect.
  
  22 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:02am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    It’s fussdraiding to have to listen to it.
    
    26 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 9:43am
    - stewmar
      
      Todadly
      
      18 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 9:51am
    - Humai
      
      She’s bought it all on herself, jeopradising her credibilidy.
      
      20 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 9:59am
      - NothingLeft
        
        I totally refude that.
        
        5 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:54pm
- cmm
  
  Geez, it takes some people a long time to figure it out.
  
  As some of us wrote at the time, being Prime Minister was just a necessary stepping stone on her quest for international fame and glory. All about personal brand building.
  
  No doubt PM was harder work than she wanted and was unpleasant in some ways but it was great for brand building.
  
  She was extremely lucky to be handed a few perfect opportunities to build her brand – especially the Christchurch Massacre.
  
  19 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:17am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “She was extremely lucky…”
    
    Sometimes you make your own luck…
    
    I don’t think there was any aspect of Ardern and her regime that wasn’t planned.
    
    13 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 9:28am
    - cmm
      
      Certainly you do mostly make your own luck, but I think it is a hell of a stretch to suggest that the Christchurch Massacre was constructed to assist Ardern’s career.
      
      Instead it is rather a matter of constantly being in the mode of picking up lemons and making lemonade – twisting everything that comes along to her advantage.
      
      9 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:29pm
      - Keith White
        
        The NZ Immigration Service let the foreign mass-murderer into our country – even though he had a travel record to some seriously strange places, especially but not only North Korea.
        
        The NZ Police let the foreigner acquire weapons and ammunition with zero face-to-face vetting – in line with the Ardern-chaired Cabinet Committee’s rule-changes.
        
        It is not a hell of a stretch to suggest the Christchurch mass butchery arose solely because Government employees failed in their fundamental duties of border control and policing.
        
        10 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:54pm
      - cmm
        
        Keith, there were certainly balls dropped, but still that’s different to saying it was intentional and planned.
        
        Negligent, maybe. Deliberate no. Once it happened it was milked dry.
        
        5 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 4:37pm
- greybeard
  
  I have just read Taylor’s article:
  It is almost as though maybe he expects something major to happen in the near future and is preparing the ground so that he is now seen to be on the side of the majority.
  
  14 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:57am
- kowtow
  
  Epiphany ,or just another attempt to stay in the headlines?
  
  15 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:17am
- rouppe
  
  I see the Herald in an uncharacteristic fit of “balanced reporting” had publishes a curated set of letters in response, all but one of which were critical of Taylor and fawning of Ardern.
  
  Wish I’d been aware of the option to write in, I’d have had a few things to say
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 6:18pm
Tomtoddy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwYexI6V5HE

This is the 95 year old Thomas Sowell at his best. I encourage you to watch it thru. Especially if you have kids or grandies.

The ideology is happening here just as quickly and we don’t have a Supreme Court willing or able to slow it down.

It is very sobering.
16 3
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:09am
- cmm
  
  Just a warning that many, if not most, of the Sowell videos on Youtube are AI generated. This seems to be one of them.
  
  If you actually see him being interviewed then that is far more likely to be real.
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:20am
- kiwimike
  
  It is brilliant.
  Has someone got it as plain text to send onto people ?
  Thanks
  Mike
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 3:46pm
  - cmm
    
    Sowell has written many books – very much worth reading.
    Your library probably has some in Kindle/electronic format.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:38pm
    - cmm
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell#Books
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 5:00pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Who evaluates ERO?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/565790/flood-damaged-school-furious-and-frustrated-with-crazy-timing-of-ero-report

What was the point of doing this review?
18 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:10am
- pdm
  
  `A primary school in Wairoa…………………………..’
  
  Above is from RNZ Article.
  
  Nuhaka is actually a bit over 30ks from Wairoa township – a 20/25 minute drive.
  
  If RNZ can get that bit wrong how much credence should we give to the whole article?
  
  15 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 8:27am
- Eastlander
  
  As if anybody in that hellhole goes to school.
  
  12 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:06am
  - pdm
    
    Why wouldn’t most of them?
    
    I should think the school still serves a large farming community whose kids would be regular attendees and like all communities there will be some good Maori parents there who want the best for their children.
    
    Sometimes it is good to see the best in people, not the worst.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:16am
    - Eastlander
      
      It’s not a farming community, it’s a scum community with some farms around it. I’ve driven through the place and unless we have a different definition of school the children were most certainly not in it.
      
      Good in Nuhaka? I can’t see what isn’t there.
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 12:35pm
      - pdm
        
        Ever stopped?
        
        We have over the years when we lived in Gisborne – there used to be a couple of stores and a garage.
        
        Mind you not so much there but the school buildings looked well looked after in the photo – ignoring the floodwaters of course.
        
        3 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 5:03pm
      - Eastlander
        
        No way in hell would I stop in any of those east coast bandit towns – even driving through them may become a gamble in the near future. Wairoa is risky enough during the day, but Nuhaka? Some ill-advised German tourist overnighted there not long ago and had his bike stolen and stripped. The police ended up giving him an escort out of town.
        
        1 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 5:18pm
- cmm
  
  Here’s where the whole ERO process falls over:
  “”It’s just crazy. I’ve been on school boards and the ERO report is the biggest thing that can disrupt your school ever.”
  
  An ERO review should not be in anyway disruptive. An ERO review should be conducted to review business as usual.
  
  If an ERO review is disruptive then it means only one thing – people are faking what they are doing and putting on a special show for the ERO.
  
  Who would do that? Well I’ll leave that open to your interpretation.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:29am
  - RoboRob
    
    When ERO came into my kids primary school (~15 yrs ago) they used to pop up all the Maori word charts, calenders etc on the walls. When they left most of it came down. So yeah, faking it.
    
    Ironically now they same school has renamed itself to a Maori name, despite being one of the older primary schools in Christchurch and having an interesting history associated with the old name. Amazing he changes in education in the last 15 years.
    
    16 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 9:46am
Simon

All these fake clown show crime updates. They waited until Luxon got back to announce them. Its purely for the cattle.

National cant fix crime – that is putting away criminals for a long time until the prison population is 25,000 – because a disproportionate number of those in prison will be Maori. National believe with all their might Maori are victims of colonisation. National don’t want to be called racist for putting in prison Maori – who are victims themselves & who are not really responsible for their own actions. Its core National to believe this.
13 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:10am
- ISeeRed
  
  One of the reasons why I dislike Labour but despise National. They are professional posers and pretenders.
  
  11 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:10am
- cmm
  
  “National cant fix crime”
  They could, but they lack the stomach to do what is required.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 5:02pm
artemisia

Couple of catastrophe media reports this week that don’t pass the sniff test. Surely this is not a pattern. Could these examples be from those who Michael Bassett recently referred to as farming poverty?

School lunches – Minister Seymour “said since the beginning of Term 1 this year, more than 13.8 million nutritious meals had been delivered to 242,000 students in 1011 schools.

While the article does give him airtime, it also refers to one meal that contained melted plastic and another that left a student with burns. (13.8 million lunches?)

And the journalist of course managed to find a principal complaining that the children don’t like the lunches and “a lot of food is wasted. It’s not filling their tummies, it’s not doing – it’s not hitting the spot.” Apparently they are not fussy kids so presumably they would rather be hungry. Or how about a marmite sammie and an apple instead.

Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Greta Bond is reported saying “Some people were even eating tinned food cold because of electricity costs. Others were paying 80 percent of their superannuation on rent “and there’s really not almost anything left in the remaining 20 percent to warm your home or even eat”, let alone go to the doctor or – in some cases – even leave the house.”

Well Age Concern did mention organisations that want to help, but no mention by Greta or the journalist of significant government subsidies like the Accommodation Supplement or TAS (Temporary Additional Support). Though there was a passing mention of the Winter Energy Payment but no mention of how many of Greta Bond’s clients are eating cold baked beans. One, ten, hundy? Is she pointing those folk at the help already actually available, or just looking for a headline because reasons?

Overseas uni students due to visa levy – not quite so catastrophic and only a proposal but still “give us more money” because.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/565671/how-good-have-school-lunches-been-in-term-two

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/565774/pensioners-pinching-pennies-to-pay-for-power

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/565797/immigration-levy-could-hit-international-student-numbers-say-universities
22 3
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:11am
- cmm
  
  I call bullshit on the cold food.
  
  Baked beans has approximately the same specific heat capacity as water of around 4.2J/degree/g.
  
  To warm a can of beans (400g) from, say, 10 degrees to 60 degrees (ie 50 degree increase) needs around 84000 J of energy.
  
  Let’s double, that for wasted efficiency etc. 168000J.
  
  Convert that into kWh (the unit we use to measure electricity) by dividing by 3600000. We get 0.047kWh.
  
  Cost of electricity is around 30cents/kWh.
  So 1.4 cents of electricity to warm a can of beans.
  
  I suspect there are far better ways to save money.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 2:31pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Perhaps the surplus cooked lunches turned away by fussy pupils could be redirected to the aged poor.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 7:38pm
Yabster

Maori court case lodged -going after all fresh water bodies in NZ- “It’s not ownership” line was again used – but this guy Kingi Smiler (made a lot of money in diary/forestry ironically) did mention they are after control of allocation etc and it includes geo thermal- more bullshit – its about money -just like Ngai Mafias claim (look at how much Merdian paid them to not contest the resource consent renewal of the central Otago dams)

https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/kingi-smiler-on-iwi-legal-action-on-water
26 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:19am
- Phronesis
  
  The corruption is so entrenched in NZ that it’s just business as usual. If we tried to reduce corruption the media would side with the poor criminals losing their graft.
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:18am
- pdm
  
  I watched/heard Smiler interviewed by Michael Laws last evening.
  
  He is a well educated, articulate man who is well aware of what he wants and the implications of that. A force to be reckoned with and a few notches above the activists who usually get air time.
  
  More than a match for Luxon and Goldsmith if they ever wake up to what the agenda is.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:22am
- Clyde
  
  $168m to just not put in an objection to continuing to use water to power the country. Can you think of anyone else that gets paid that much to do nothing?
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 12:06pm
Sparrow

Would highly recommend an article by Bryce Edwards in The Integrity Institute. The article is based on an report by the researcher Edward Miller from the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (bit of a mouthful) into Uber. It lays bare Ubers taxation avoidance by misclassification. What I find even more concerning is the connivance of a present Minister of the Crown in assisting Uber to circumvent a ruling of the Court of Appeal. Frankly this whole episode is disgusting and shows the power of these immoral multi nationals who some MPs wish to encourage to come to New Zealand.
13 6
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:26am
- Libertarians are right
  
  I honestly feel dumber after reading that worthless diatribe.
  
  Firstly, the employee vs contractor argument doesn’t really affect tax, just who pays it. Uber still declares the income but have contractor expenses against it instead of wages. They don’t pay PAYE but the contractor pays the tax themselves.
  
  Secondly, contractors are using personal assets and have complete control over whether they provide the service. It should not be captured under employment law at all. A law change to correct this is entirely reasonable. The idea that drivers could log into the app and be paid regardless of whether they’re taking jobs or not is crazy.
  
  Thirdly, the income for the ride service is taxed in NZ (on the Contractor). Most of Uber’s income relates to their app and IP which are based overseas and under international tax law (and fairness), that’s where it should be taxed. Note that when he talks about how much income goes through Uber and the tax they pay, he ignores the payments to the Contractors, their expenses and the tax they pay.
  
  Fourthly, Delaware is a low tax State – they aren’t paying State taxes. The whole point of their “no taxes on IP” policy is to pull in companies to headquarter themselves there. US Federal taxes still apply. How could he miss this? It’s really embarrassing.
  
  Fifthly, again, shifting the income via dividends after paying tax here is unreasonable as they would get taxed twice as NZ imputation credits aren’t deductible in the US.
  
  It’s envy, they see income and want to tax it. Tax is complex and people like Edwards act like they’re experts when in fact he’s only got a Politics doctorate. He might as well be a plumber for the value his insights have on tax (actually, that’s unfair on the plumber as they could be self employed and have a reasonable understanding of how tax affects them).
  
  19 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:34am
  - cmm
    
    “It’s envy”
    It almost always comes back to envy.
    Envy is one of the seven deadly sins and rightfully so.
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 12:23pm
  - Sparrow
    
    Firstly Bryce Edwards was reporting on the research it was not his report. Secondly its not envy its fairness. If you are unable to see that so be it. New Zealand use to be a fair society sadly it is no longer.
    
    2 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:12pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Bryce writes about tax all the time (badly) and if he’s going to parrot that Uber pays no tax because it’s based in Delaware that’s on him.
      
      As for fairness, a US company has an app that we use. The income relating to the use of that app is theirs and should be taxed there. The drivers here should receive their income for their work and be taxed here. That’s fair. You see income that’s received in NZ and think it should be taxed in NZ. I get that but you mistake “received in NZ” with “earned in NZ”. The app income is earned where the app is, not here. It would be unfair to tax the income, earned in the US here.
      
      Also, talking about fairness, to tax the income here, and again in the US when it’s sent back there, without NZ imputation tax credits is profoundly unfair.
      
      There is nothing unfair about this at all. Envy is often disguised as “fairness”.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 3:05pm
      - Libertarians are right
        
        Note that the guy who actually wrote it doesn’t have any tax or business knowledge or experience either. That organisation is just a bunch of Unionists. He believes they should pay NZ tax because “imagine what we could do with that money”. So, envy.
        
        2 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 5:00pm
- kiwimike
  
  I thought you meant him having a look at Smiler and the Water woes….
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 3:52pm
Yvette

Stanford’s sly Treaty move backfires

Précis: Watching Luxon at Monday’s post-Cabinet press conference, it was clear he’s out of touch with National voters frustrated by what they see as backtracking on promises to reject co-governance and “Maorification.” Like Stanford, he downplayed removing Treaty clauses from the Education and Training Amendment Bill, prioritising literacy and numeracy instead — showing himself just as tone-deaf.

Although submissions have closed, the Education and Workforce Committee won’t report back until 16 September. That gives plenty of time for government supporters to pressure the minister and for National to weigh the electoral fallout if those clauses stay.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/graham-adams-stanford-s-sly-treaty-move-backfires.

“To pressure the minister and for National to weigh the electoral fallout if those clauses stay” – is the real action to relate this to the next Election and National’s chances?

Or is it more simple and correct to tell Luxon whatever is left of Christianity, as a religion passing from any part of Parliaments proceedings, should be sacrificed, as Christ was given to sacrifice (irony intended) to re-iterate New Zealand Government is secular, to stop the raising of te Ao o Maori (the religious Maori world view) in Aryan* exceptionalism above all other ethnicity ideals.

Sometimes politicians are required to do things that are not related to getting re-elected.
____________
* Aryan. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party adapted, manipulated, and radicalized the unfounded belief in the existence of an “Aryan” race, as an epithet of “noble” – distinct progenitors of a superior specimen of humankind.
22 2
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:42am
- RoboRob
  
  Are you saying that Luxon should do what he promised, not through threat of vote loss but out of the principle that it is the right thing to do?
  
  I suspect that that actually is the issue at hand, some (most?) of National, including Luxon, think that clause 127 (and the like) is the right thing to do.
  
  Thats fine with me, if that is their position, the issue I have is they campaigned on the opposite. I’m not a fan of being mislead and suspect other voters aren’t either. At least labour are honest about their crazy policy.
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:53am
  - Yvette
    
    RoboRob – “At least labour are honest about their crazy policy.”
    
    No, I don’t believe they were. In the 2017 throes of Jacinda-mania, did she outline the exceptionalism Maori would be accorded while so many were, and still are, at the bottom of most social statistics, and that push to pre-emminance is yet to be explained.
    Labour has still not been at all honest about that.
    And I understand reading Jacinda’s book will make you none the wiser.
    
    13 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:41am
    - pdm
      
      RR I think what RR meant was that now Labour have been found out they are honest about their crazy policy/policies.
      
      They show that craziness every day by locking in tighter and tighter with The Greens and The Maori Party.
      
      11 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 11:26am
      - pdm
        
        Oooops – first RR should read Yvette.
        
        Apologies.
        
        6 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:31pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No, he is saying he should be hoodwinked by the lies from Act and Hobsons pledge over this issue, it will be out of law by the justice changes, not much support for these lies by tin foil hat wearers
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 5, 2025 8:00pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Until people stop lying about this, then they have no credit. It has been grantees that yes she was right she did not put this article in place it’s been there’s for years, telling act supporters and idiotic Hobson Pledge they are lying. Now Hobsons pledge is saying she is right this was there for years, that’s not what the crocked Act littered saying a few days ago. This will be dealt with by taking all treaty issues out of law, this is policy by Nats and NZF.
  
  Do sick of Act lies
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 5, 2025 7:57pm
Paul Marsden

Very sad news that Des Gorman has died. RIP
22 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:50am
- imalwaysright
  
  An impressive man.
  Makes Bloomfield look like a cartoon character.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:43am
- Jethrod
  
  Met him a few times.
  Quiet and unassuming, but a real edge to him. Suffered fools not very much.
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:31am
- Philview
  
  That is sad news. He was an impressive voice during the Covid years. I was always amazed that he wasn’t cancelled by the media but he seemed to have a sense of humour that enabled him to talk with honesty and get away with it.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:53am
pdm

I saw this on facebook last evening and thought it good advice for current and wannabe Mayors and Councillors.

We as ratepayers also want certainty….
Certainty that rates will be used for improving infrastructure
Certainty that you won’t do undemocratic deals behind our backs
Certainty that there will be open disclosure on all transactions where ratepayers monies are spent
Certainty that if you have a pet project it’s fully costed, capped and the benefits for the community are clearly identified.
Certainty that unelected officials can’t impose their own ideological dreams and wishes on ratepayers.
24 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 8:55am
- Colville
  
  pdm.
  As a Hastings resident…whats your views on councils obsession with saving “highly productive soils” at the expense of all else (especially housing) ?
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:59am
  - newview
    
    I see pdm hasn’t answered Colville. What’s your opinion.
    
    1 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 10:34am
    - newview
      
      Down ticking me for asking a genuine question. Sharp, whoever that is 🤪
      
      3 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 11:22am
    - pdm
      
      Newview sometimes other things get in the way of hanging around here – even on wet Hawkes Bay days.
      
      ps downtick was not from me.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 11:35am
  - pdm
    
    Colville over the years so much prime Hawkes Bay soil has been sucked into residential housing that it is virtually impossible to stop. Remember Peter Sues’ productive market garden on Pakowhai Road that is now part of Northward.
    
    I guess some of Flaxmere as it expands these days although I believe a lot of it is old riverbed and is/was very stoney so initially anyway not much harm done.
    
    Then I look at those bloody awful Kainga Ora newbuilds scattered around town and wonder which will do the most harm long term.
    
    What do you think – there is that development out your way at Te Awang for example.
    
    Not in favour but hard if not impossible to stop it.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:34am
    - newview
      
      Just replying because I’m interested pdm. Am amazed at the new subdivisions next to Mitre10 park and off pakowhai road. Councils certainly don’t give a toss about market gardens, orchards and grapes. Frightening to me. Next thing this produce will be coming from somewhere else and we’ll pay the extra transport. Insane.
      
      8 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 11:53am
      - pdm
        
        Its happening throughout CHB too newview.
        
        All those lifestyle blocks scattered through the district. How many of them produce anything?
        
        5 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:35pm
      - newview
        
        Very true pdm, big developments here in CHB. I guess it’s that flat productive river silt that I don’t like losing. Once gone it’s gone. Councils are just interested in growing the Rate pie not the produce pie. Small minded.
        
        5 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:51pm
      - Fender
        
        There were market gardens all the way out to haumoana along the straight when we were kids and they were pummeled into being rubbish soil in the end by years of constant crops and no fertiliser etc
        Mostly asian owned and lived on they just all gave up
        Potatoes were grown all through Pakowhai until recently and the blight got in
        Now find a potato field
        No turners and growers sale yard
        There are many reasons why things have changed
        
        6 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 12:55pm
    - Colville
      
      pdm.
      Hastings housing is a basket case and they need lots of greenfields to resolve it.
      Last 10 years Hastings house prices have gone up at twice the rate of Auckland.
      Lots of apples grown and exported from the region, its not about food for locals or even jobs for locals as they wont work on the trees, orchardists import labour for that.
      To my mind council needs to get its head out of its arse and diversify the local economy and that wont happen until business can get staff to live here and that means we need affordable houses.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 1:07pm
      - Jethrod
        
        At least the mushroom farm has gone from Brookvale/Arataki ; condition of sale to us was that we were aware of the SMELL which came from it occasionally. Farm got moved out of town before we found out how bad the smell was fortunately. Went to CHB I think.
        
        3 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 2:36pm
      - pdm
        
        Agree re Apples Colville.
        
        Son manages two orchards for a large grower and grandson works on two different orchards for the same outfit.
        
        All the `hard yards’ are done by Samoans, Vanuatans and Tongans.
        
        Hastings DC is as woke as any in the country. Thank goodness we will start afresh with a new Mayor – but who?
        
        A prediction – Anna Lorck will be looking to weasel her way on to Council or Regional Council.
        
        3 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 5:11pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Flaxmere as it expands these days although I believe a lot of it is old riverbed and is/was very stoney
      
      Isn’t it built on some of Gimblett Gravels … ?
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 2:23pm
      - Fender
        
        Yes but it was built before they realised growing grapes on gravel was a thing
        New sections had boulders the size of softballs when trying to lay lawns
        
        6 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 3:00pm
    - Fender
      
      Racecourse could be moved and the showgrounds
      Akina park could be moved
      All not used much really
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 3:06pm
      - pdm
        
        Played a lot of secondary school boy Rugby on Akina Park – it was a prime facility in the 60’s.
        
        The racecourse will be – well should be back – in 12 months or so. Racing has become so risk averse these days compared to some of the days I was on course in the 70’s when horses were sliding every where.
        
        Some great days there though watching some great gallopers and jockeys.
        
        1 0
        Report
        July 3, 2025 5:16pm
  - Fender
    
    Its very tricky
    Alot of brookvale arataki was orchard land when I grew up there but to be fair they never made any money, hard pan with a bit of topsoil
    I knew an orchardist on the now frimley block before it was built on and he was the same
    You do need to honestly access everything before stating its all good farming land although being flat is a great start
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 12:49pm
- cmm
  
  I am struggling to understand why Hastings is growing at such a rate.
  I don’t have anything against the place, but where is the influx of people coming from? And why?
  
  Is it a retirement destination or something?
  
  Christchurch too has lost a lot of its market garden surrounds. Where I am sitting now was market gardens just 40 years ago and the main market garden zone has moved out about 10km from the city. Makes sense since transport is simpler and cheaper than ever before so there is no need to live next door to your next salad.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 5:09pm
  - pdm
    
    Always has been a retirement destination. We moved from CHB in 2002 (aged mid 50’s) with retirement in mind having lived in Hastings in 1968 to 1974.
    
    Four large retirement places, a couple of medium sized and a dozen smaller. Bupa to build another large place on the fringe of Havelock North so they say.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 5:22pm
MCōs

You may/may not find this amusing
I did
https://x.com/docatcdi/status/1940340152523473220?s=61
9 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:31am
- cmm
  
  An oldie, but a goodie.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 9:40am
- MCōs
  
  Illegal immigrants are not a new phenomenon in America. https://www.facebook.com/alan.bershaw/videos/1465091664169725/?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&fs=e
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 3:54pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5MwQXA2Dyo
Parents Can Opt Kids Out Of Public School LGBT Indoctrination.
Trump is the 21st century version of Andrew Jackson, new & improved.
8 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:31am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfALi5qJfVw
This Is the End of New York.
Zohran Mamdani didn’t win because he inspired the people—he won because the system is broken. Victor Davis Hanson tears off the mask: a fringe candidate with anti-Semitic baggage, incoherent Marxist policies, and a history of radical statements just captured a major New York primary. Not through a wave—but through a rigged, ranked-choice maze where 400,000 votes from an unrepresentative elite overrode a city of 5 million.
13 7
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:31am
- Cassandra
  
  Mike described him yesterday as a centrist, to which I replied “Nonsense”. NYC is getting its just desserts. Great pity – I really enjoyed my time there – but you reap what you sow. Perhaps the several million Jews there will wake up and elect Adams? For all his faults.
  
  11 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:28am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Perhaps the several million Jews there will wake up and elect Adams?”
    
    NY is about 10% Jewish, about 1 million.
    Also, according to an article on KB several days ago, Jewish people are not politically homogeneous and are made up of as many opinions as the general population.
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 11:40am
  - cmm
    
    Where does anyone get the idea that Jews are anti-communist?
    
    All the effective people behind communism in South Africa etc were Jews – mainly from Eastern Europe.
    
    The kibbutzim are some of the strongest and most successful communist organisations.
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 12:09pm
    - Lance
      
      Yes, that is what the members at the Kibbutz told me when I volunteered my labour.. a few moons ago — ah.. hemm. Communism in action.
      It was a lot of fun (nod nod wink wink) but ultimately frustrating. Decisions were so convoluted it made Monty Pythons constitutional peasants appear to be people of few words.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 3:14pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Trotsky was Jewish, as indeed was Karl Marx.
      
      Not Chairman Mao, though.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 7:46pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Or, maybe NY will turn red in the mid-terms, or in 28?
    
    3 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:38pm
    - MCōs
      
      New York City had a republican mayor at the time of 9/11 viz. Rudy Giuliani, followed by Michael Bloomberg, who later switched to the democrats in 2007.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 4:23pm
- Mike
  
  400,000 votes from an unrepresentative elite overrode a city of 5 million
  
  What nonsense. It was a primary election for the Democratic nominee, with nearly 1 million voting. In addition, Mamdani received nearly 100,000 votes more than the selected candidate in 2021.
  Mamdani wasn’t foisted on anyone, he represents a genuine wave of popular support.
  
  7 11
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:40am
  - Swifty
    
    “Mamdani wasn’t foisted on anyone, he represents a genuine wave of popular support.”
    
    Does that make him a POPULIST?
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 1:01pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    If only Mamdani had fallen into lockstep with all the other Democrat mayoral primary candidates and pledged to visit Israel to kiss the ring and the Wailing Wall once elected, it wouldn’t matter how much of a “communist” he suppodedly is. As long as you’re friendly to Israel as demanded, the nature of your other policies comes a distant second.
    
    5 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 1:43pm
- greybeard
  
  For some reason that phrase “This Is the End of New York” suddenly made me think of that final Statue of Liberty scene in “Planet of the Apes” !
  
  10 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:48am
Keith White

Prediction: Oct 25, 2021: “Jacinda Ardern agrees Covid plan will lead to two-tier society – ‘That is what it is’ – when asked if New Zealand’s Covid policies will create a two-tiered society.”

Consequences: Jun 27, 2025: “The rate of successful conception – a pregnancy leading to live birth nine months later – for women who received the covid vaccine was ‘substantially lower’ than for unvaccinated women, according to a new peer-reviewed study.

“Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), called the study’s conclusions alarming. He said: ‘This preliminary analysis shows that much more information is needed to understand both short- and long-term implications of the different types of covid shots on fertility and pregnancy parameters. This information should have been obtained prior to any public use of the covid vaccine.’

“The results showed that by June 2021, approximately six months after covid vaccines became available to the public, successful conceptions per 1,000 women were considerably lower for vaccinated women.

“The researchers observed an increase in the rate of successful conceptions for unvaccinated women beginning in June 2021, which ‘was maintained over the subsequent six-month period’.

“In 2022, the rate of successful conceptions ‘stabilised’ among both vaccinated and unvaccinated women but remained ‘about 1.5 times higher’ for the latter group.

“The preliminary analysis, by five researchers from the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden, was published last week in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. The study examined data obtained from the Czech Republic, one of the few countries where nationwide birth data for women who were vaccinated or unvaccinated for covid are available.
“The researchers analysed data on 1.3million women aged 18-39 between January 2021 and December 2023.

[Mod – changed 2121 to 2021]
15 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:40am
- cmm
  
  “Consequences: Jun 27, 2025: “The rate of successful conception – a pregnancy leading to live birth nine months later – for women who received the covid vaccine was ‘substantially lower’ than for unvaccinated women, according to a new peer-reviewed study.”
  
  I am in no way a pro-vaccine shill (I was not vaccinated), but I think statistics like these are extremely problematic.
  
  Why? Because there is a self-selection bias.
  
  Cause and effect can only be properly evaluated if proper statistical methods are used and the most important of those is random selection.
  
  Quite possibly those that chose to be unvaccinated are younger and more fertile and more likely to conceive.
  
  As an indicator that this could be true, Maori were less likely to have been vaccinated and are also younger and breed more (and are possibly more likely to conceive). Possibly what we’re just seeing is a difference in demographics.
  
  I know this is an international study but still self selection biases can lead these conclusions astray.
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 12:02pm
  - Keith White
    
    The people in the studies were not self-selected. They were in the studies based on the records of their vaccination or lack of vaccination.
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:10pm
    - cmm
      
      It is self selection because they selected themselves into the two groups by being vaccinated or not.
      
      As an example of how this works, in NZ Maori are less likely to be vaccinated and therefore if the study was done here (it was not, I am just using this as an example), then the unvaccinated group is more likely to to be Maori.
      
      That would mean that the vaccinated group would be more likely to display traits associated with Maori:
      * The median age of Maori is about 11 years younger than NZ Europeans. Therefore the unvaccinated group is likely to be younger.
      * Maori are more likely to breed younger (when fertility rates are higher and conception is easier), therefore in NZ unvaccinated people are more likely to be fertile too.
      * Maori are more likely to eat KFC, therefore unvaccinated people are more likely to eat KFC.
      
      If you want a statistically valid test then you assign people to be randomly vaccinated or not and then observed the outcomes.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 4:59pm
      - Keith White
        
        While acknowledging I am beating the poor equine postmortem… “If you want a statistically valid test then you assign people to be randomly vaccinated or not and then observed the outcomes” is impossible to carry out. Unless you drive a truck through informed consent and bodily autonomy… again.
        
        1 1
        Report
        July 3, 2025 6:04pm
- Keith White
  
  (Thanks Mod, I am a poor typist).
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 2:11pm
- kiwimike
  
  Keith
  I’ve been following 2 groups on FN NZDSOS and “True stories from the Health Forum NZ” and Kurstin Murfitt a Lawyer from Tauranga on this.
  All good info on this and more on Vaccine Injuries in NZ.
  I’m going to the WHO meeting in Te Aro on 12 July to listen to them.
  they are doing a tour around NZ right now.
  WHOKNOWS2025
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 4:12pm
imalwaysright

NZ is becoming a country where the law is enforced only when it suits.

However, ideologies are embedded, defended, and enforced with no exceptions.

The law is enforced by the police and the courts, but ideology is enforced by the weak and frightened among us, of which there are many many more.
18 3
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:59am
Swifty

It’s now perfectly legal to be a violent Proud Boy according to Amanda Gillies:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedetail/565785/it-s-no-longer-illegal-to-be-a-proudly-violent-proud-boy

Who knew? I thought we had laws around violence in New Zealand.
12 5
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 11:11am
- MCōs
  
  Three years ago the proud boys were designated as a terrorist organization in NZ.
  That has now lapsed.
  That is what that podcast is about.
  
  7 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 12:23pm
  - Swifty
    
    The article’s author states that it is now not illegal to be a violent Proud Boy. Violence in NZ is illegal. That is what my piece is about.
    
    Sometimes you make absolutely no sense MCos.
    
    8 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 12:59pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Good to see they’re no longer designated “terrorists”. Always seemed an absurd decision. I always thought the Proud Boys were just a reaction to Antifa’s violent antics.
  
  So much obsessing in that article over a few guys making a ‘white power’ symbol with their fingers. Meanwhile, for decades we’ve had a gang called Black Power and nobody gets too bothered about the name.
  
  16 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 1:30pm
- rouppe
  
  The article uses the phrases “violent rhetoric” and references overseas violent street clashes. That’s the only reference to “violent”in the meat of the article.
  
  The also go large on “far right”, “extremism” to the point that it is clear the author has their pre determined position and by heck they’re going to stick with it.
  
  Let’s play a game of “spot the difference”.
  
  In 1930’s Germany, as the National Socialist Party was rising, they started out by having gangs of mainly youth going around and identifying Jews. They would harass, intimidate, threaten and sometimes assault them.
  That escalated to painting slogans on shop fronts to discourage people from shopping in Jewish stores. Encouraged by National Socialist Party organisers.
  That culminated in the infamous Krystallnacht where shops were smashed, looted and burned. All encouraged, and escalated by Party members.
  
  Fast forward to 2024/2025
  Mobs of university students, organised by Democrats went around campus looking for Jews. They would harass, intimidate, threaten and sometimes assault them to the point they couldn’t go to class anymore.
  That escalated to spray painting slogans on Tesla dealerships, and private cars, not to mention fire bombing them. Celebrated and encouraged by Democrats who called for people to stop shopping at Tesla.
  That culminated in the ICE riots, organised, funded, and managed by paid Democrats, where shops were smashed, looted and burned.
  
  Further, the only people who brought lethal weapons to these protests were Democrat “peacekeepers”. And that’s leaving aside the Molotov cocktails and rocks hurled as missiles. The dead person, was shot by Democrats.
  
  The behaviours are nearly identical. Nazi’s and Democrats. If you can’t see that the actual fascists of today are the Left, Democrats, you really don’t want to.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 7:58pm
Chuck Bird

What I find appalling is that no Muslim organisation criticised that Muslim hate preacher.

Muslim preacher Wissam Haddad breached racial discrimination act in series of speeches, court finds

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/muslim-preacher-wissam-haddad-breached-racial-discrimination-act-in-series-of-speeches-court-finds/news-story/dcd47886826039840cfd78e09c16010c
16 3
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 11:18am
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Would be unfortunate if our precious local Mohammedans turned out to be share similar views.
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 1:35pm
  - Keith White
    
    They do. And they are not hiding it.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:09pm
  - kiwimike
    
    They do !
    they just keep quiet because they are small at present.
    if they were 8% it would be different..
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:16pm
cmm

NZDF staff deployed to assist with the evacuation of “New Zealanders” are withdrawing from the Middle East.

Good. There is no longer a reason to have them there.

“Although the Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft will remain in the region for now”

Umm… why?

Anyone who wants to get out can get out on commercial flights. Anyone who wants to leave should have left by now.

Anyone staying there should be on their own account and should not be expecting the NZ taxpayers to come rescue then if things go pear shaped.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360605837/live-nz-politics-blog
18 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 11:48am
- Don Beckett
  
  Maybe the Herc has broken down ? 😆
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 2:13pm
  - kiwimike
    
    The Israelis could certainly upgrade it for us…..
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:17pm
  - Ghost
    
    Those planes now belong to an American company to be used for fighting fires
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:23pm
    - cmm
      
      We still have Hercs and likely still will for the next 20 years. An Airforce without Hercs is like an Army without rifles.
      
      The C130(H) fleet was sold off and we are acquiring/have partially acquired a smaller fleet of more up to date C130(J).
      
      From the NZDF website (in need of an update): “Our Royal New Zealand Air Force will be operating five C-130J Hercules aircraft by the end of the year. We took delivery of the first aircraft, NZ7011, on September 4, 2024. The fleet will be replacing the C-130(H) NZ existing fleet, which will retire by the end of January 2025.”
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 5:15pm
Ghost

Alwyn plans to open a new school

A new private school is set to open in central Auckland, teaching pupils from new entrants through to secondary school level, with classes possibly starting by Term 4.

The new school, City 0-10, aims to provide competitive fees, a “world-leading curriculum” and maximum class sizes of 25 students for central Auckland families.

Article
13 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 12:04pm
Ra Henare

I like flipping thru Ground news from time to time.

This item from AP caught my eye.

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza
American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

Now remind me. Who hired these contractors?
It certainly wasn’t the UN as Israel took over food distribution.

Surely it wasn’t the IDF??

Can’t find anywhere an item saying that those contractors had been charged or dismissed???

https://ground.news/article/us-contractors-say-their-colleagues-are-firing-live-ammo-as-palestinians-seek-food-in-gaza_e05d1d
6 5
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 12:16pm
- cmm
  
  What does “using live ammunition” mean?
  
  That needs a lot more detail before it becomes something worth commenting on.
  
  9 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 1:07pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    Bullets?
    
    4 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 1:45pm
  - Keith White
    
    Having worked in medicine after both natural and manmade disasters, I can personally attest that there are some times and some places around the world where you have to have people ready to shoot to protect your own people (especially but not only female nursing staff, quartermaster-equivalents, frontline medics, triage staff, etc.) from death and injury by some of the people wanting your help and / or your equipment. Not a surprise, and the media do not usually show it; they tend to showcase all victims as superworthies, other than when the most newsworthy Leftist themes come calling, as in this ‘classic’ of media cynicism —
    https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Here-Raped-Speaks-English/dp/0450053601
    (link is to the book of the same name, by a journolista)
    
    7 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 2:05pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Yep
      – force projection first for local security.
      plus overhead action on call.
      though with Drones nowadays you can have top cover F/T.
      – then supply and resupply.
      – funnelling movement into collection points and out again is paramount for efficiency and security.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 4:21pm
  - cmm
    
    The point I was trying to make is that “using live ammunition” can mean many things, more or less ranked in order of increasing severity:
    
    * Deploying with live ammunition – ie rifles are loaded, but not fired. This is purely a readiness measure if things go pear shaped.
    * Warning off people using loaded rifles: ie. threatening people into compliance with a loaded weapon, without firing it.
    * Firing live ammunition in warning. Real bullets flying – but not aimed at people.
    * Firing on selected targets. Real bullets being deliberately fired at targets identified to be threats.
    *…
    *Firing indiscriminately into crowds of people with little or no justification.
    
    There’s a hell of a big range, some are routine and some would be alarming. Some of these I have done, others not.
    
    I’d need a lot more detail than “using live ammunition” to start getting worked up about it.
    
    3 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 5:27pm
    - rouppe
      
      If tend to agree.
      
      There are thousands of people assembling for food delivered by maybe a couple hundred aid workers and security.
      
      It would take nothing for a mob to pillage that.
      
      How many of those people are Hamas looking to grab the lot for themselves and agitating the mob. Much like the Democrats at anti ICE protests.
      
      If there is an unmanaged surge, what should they do? To maintain order you need to be willing to weild your threat.
      
      If a thousand people are running at your position, armed or not, any push back is going to look indiscriminate
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 3, 2025 7:33pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Maybe just step back a week or two.
      To Palestinians being shot and killed during supplies delivery.
      At the time they said IDF soldiers, but IDF said not soldiers.
      Hence quickly moving to your vague attempt to discredit this report
      It was live ammunition.
      Ie a bullet fired from a Gun.!!!!
      causing injury and death.
      
      I am getting used to Zionist supporters deflecting anything on here.
      
      But it would be nice if they addressed some facts instead of throwing up smoke screens.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      July 4, 2025 12:08am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360745167/queenstown-landlord-fined-113723-operating-unlawful-boarding-house

No surprises here. Lots of history.

https://crux.org.nz/crux-news/truong-slumlord-case-who-is-shai-hung-tan
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112574979/landlord-ignorant-of-requirements-of-residential-tenancies
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 12:25pm
Ghost

Yawn, why am I not surprised

Dear Sir Ian Taylor, We read your open letter to Jacinda Ardern. Here’s what we think

One person claims he wouldn’t have said that if the PM was a male. Gender card played
One claimed she saved the country from covid. Bullshit card played
Try walking in her shoes card played
15 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 1:20pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Taylor is a slow learner, and some of those commenting in Stuff on his letter are even slower.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 5:52pm
Notsofast

Posie Parker, the woman loathed by Erica Stanford, and all the Labour and Green party is running a series on X in support of women and girls in the cult of Islam.

“Hello, I’m a 22 years old girl from Saudi Arabia, I really don’t know where to start.. me and my little sister live in a very strict family, they only allowed us to go outside with my father only and we can never be alone, and we can it’s only for necessary reasons (sometimes even the hospital seen as a privilege, I’m dead serious), they only sees us as something that shouldn’t have opinions, shouldn’t think, shouldn’t even argue about anything.. and that deeply affected our mental health, we have no personality at all, we don’t have any skills to communicate with other people, and I believe that I have several mental illnesses as depression, anxiety, BPD, and OFC suicidal thoughts every day of my life since I was in primary school.. and you’re really talking about something really important which is abayas and niqab cause honestly since that these fucking black fabrics prevent us from life I feel like I don’t want to go out anymore cause I have to wear this shit everywhere it’s so depressing. and I’m so thankful for your efforts to share our voices, our struggles, that no one seems to care about at all, I’m really watching the life from the sidelines, and I don’t know how to get through this madness like seriously I’m so close to lose my mind and my family always wondering “why are so depressed? why you can’t be happy?” oh really?.. it’s all too much pain for us Saudi females it’s something horrible that we can’t even describe it by words cause they seem meaningless atp. And please never stop talking about us, I know the same men who’s abusing us will try to shut you down and try to make us seem crazy (like they always do) so don’t listen to them. Thank you so much, I appreciate your efforts more than anything ❤️.”

https://x.com/ThePosieParker/status/1940361195908685900?t=ZdI9K0K21CKtdH6kFRunNA&s=19
12 2
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 1:50pm
- NothingLeft
  
  They have a shit situation. But mental health, happiness, anxiety etc are mostly an intrinsic result of genetic lottery brain chemistry, not something created by extrinsic circumstance, and women suffer from these far more than men as evolution has found it beneficial to children’s survival to have mothers who worry about stuff all the time. Women are truly cursed by evolution to be unhappy/discontent and anxious.
  
  4 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 4:05pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Feminists and wokesters hate evolutionary psychology!
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:23pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    I’ve noticed 😆
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:50pm
Pope Punctilious II

If you doubt the extent of institutional capture in NZ, take a look at NZ’s biodiversity strategy: https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/biodiversity/anzbs-2020-summary.pdf
A masterpiece of woke gobbledy-gook on page 4 outlines “what we are aiming to achieve by 2050”, including some gems as “The mauri of ecosystems is thriving” and “Restored nature uplifts mana”. How exactly are we going to measure “mauri” and “mana”?
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 3:06pm
- Ghost
  
  Why link to the 2020 document?
  
  Here is the current document, submissions closed a few days ago
  
  https://www.doc.govt.nz/action-for-nature
  
  The current discussion document. https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/biodiversity/implementing-nz-biodiversity-strategy-2025-to-2030-discussion-document.pdf
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 3:19pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Because the DOC permissions form I’m filling out sent me there, what’s why. Thanks for the correction!
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 3:37pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  “How exactly are we going to measure “mauri” and “mana”?”
  
  Cultural high priests appointed by tribal elders shall advise you on that (for a fee of course).
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 3:49pm
  - mandk
    
    You’ve got it.
    
    The unit of measurement for mauri and mana is koha.
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    July 3, 2025 4:06pm
- Don Beckett
  
  This is the future of NZ if we don’t stop all the race based rubbish. South Africa about to become a failed state because of racist laws. (3 mins)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZG5zqz3h4E
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 4:47pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Tonnes per hectare of 1080 is DOCs current measure of Mauri, natural wonderfulness.
  Best we don’t look at kea mortality. Or morepork. Or fern birds, weka etc etc
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 11:52pm
Jack5

Old games Atari kicks arse of AI — artificial intelligence — twice

Copilot, Microsoft’s AI helper, has been trounced in a chess challenge by an emulated version of the Atari 2600 gaming console, a popular product half a century ago.

This comes soon after the Atari emulator beat OpenAI’s product, ChatGPT, in a similar chess challenge.

The PC enthusiasts’ web site, Tom’s Hardware, reports that Robert Caruso, an engineer at cloud computing company Citrix, arranged the tests against an Atari 2600 emulator.

The Atari a few weeks ago wrecked the ChatGPT at beginner chess level.

Tom’s Hardware reports of the subsequent match against Copilot:

The late 70s console tech easily triumphed over Copilot, despite the latter’s pre-match bravado. In a chat with the AI before the game, Copilot even trash-talked the Atari’s “suboptimal” and “bizarre moves.” However, it ended up surrendering graciously, saying it would “honor the vintage silicon mastermind that bested me fair and square.”

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/not-to-be-outdone-by-chatgpt-microsoft-copilot-humiliates-itself-in-atari-2600-chess-showdown-another-ai-humbled-by-1970s-tech-despite-trash-talk
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 4:16pm
Ghost

Government plan for the next quarter

Article
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 5:08pm
- rouppe
  
  I note:
  
  Item 2. Only NOW? Repealing the oil and gas ban should have been a first 100 days thing.
  
  Nothing, absolutely nothing on removing treaty references in legislation. Not “introduce”, not “progress”, not “start”, certainly not “pass legislation”.
  
  That was an election pillar. No action.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 7:19pm
pdm

I am in debate over on Facebook where I commented that National had missed the bus on what people had voted for.

One loyal National Lady responded somewhat riled that I would challenge them.
4 4
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 5:31pm
- Colville
  
  There are plenty on here that would vote for an old sow with a blue rosette pinned to its arse.
  
  2 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  July 3, 2025 6:23pm
Swifty

The German government has been forced to respond to the serious outbreak of white German women molesting migrant men in public swimming pools:

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1940509045590577331?s=46

//
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 5:36pm
Swifty

If Palmer, Kelsey and Salmond are all united against it then it must be a good thing:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/regulatory-standards-bill-group-of-prominent-kiwis-including-former-prime-minister-issue-open-letter-against-david-seymour-legislation/WGL7ACLHPFADJHOUIMDU4POPV4/

My opinion of these three people and where they have argued they want to take us is now rock bottom. I have no goodwill left for their ideas.

From their plush, taxpayer funded offices they have spent their taxpayer funded lives continuously wrenching us further and further left – towards the very hellscape we spent the majority of the 20th century fighting and defeating.

These people and their ideas are a menace and a clear threat to our continued freedom and prosperity.
6 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 6:02pm
Swifty

“ Flashback: Hamas leader says the war will not end until all Jews are slaughtered by Muslims and Islam becomes the only religion in the holy land: “We Will Cleanse the Filth of the Jews, Heal the Nation of the Jewish Cancer; We Are Coming to Chop Off Your Heads!”

https://x.com/lizarosen0000/status/1940330102513897667?s=46
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 7:06pm
pb

Rupert Lowe started a party platform in Britain yesterday with some knarley talking points: death penalty, mass deportations, legal lethal home defense laws, defund bbc, rape gang inquiries. Cool. The Uniparty will be outraged. And the Labour Chancellor broke down and cried in Parliament.
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
July 3, 2025 9:31pm
rouppe

Youth Parliament.

We deserve to be present where power is held not just for appearances, but because our lived experiences and insights matter,”

Lived experience, bullshit.

You can claim lived experience when you have either
* Bought a house and held down a job to pay for it
* Had a family and support it yourself, no grants, supplements or dpb.

Bloody Marxists
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
July 4, 2025 12:06am

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Hysterical Hipkins

Resource consent needed for a third dog! »

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
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
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: