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July 16, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 16 July 2025

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Cassandra

Australian PM Anthony Albanese is in China now, about to meet President Xi. Two big issues: Australia is going to cancel the Chinese lease on Darwin’s port and Taiwan. According to international affairs journalist Greg Sheridan “Albanese’s strategic approach seems to be dodge displeasure from Beijing and try to entrap the US into providing for our security in exchange for the minimum possible effort on our part.” Which is similar to the NZ approach. It’s not so much a matter of what China wants – they won’t be fooled – but whether Trump accepts it. We can expect pressure to toe the American line, understandably. And of course the same from China, again understandably (“There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests “).

Note that there’s a big military exercise on at present and reportedly US officials have asked Australia what it’ll do if China invades Taiwan. For example, will Oz agree to the US using Oz ports by its nuclear submarines? I can answer that: yes but don’t tell anyone. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
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July 16, 2025 8:02am
- cmm
  
  It is unclear to me that there is any huge advantage to using Australian Naval bases during a Taiwan-centred conflict, though having more options never hurts.
  
  Darwin is around 4500 km from Taiwan and Australia is a safe, Anglocentric 5-eyes partner. At a cruising speed of around 45km/h that’s 100 hours (4 days).
  
  They have Naval bases in Japan, Korea and Philippines which are much closer and Hawaii which is a bit further (8000km = 7 days) – about the same as Sydney.
  
  Still, options are options – the more the merrier.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:59am
  - Jack5
    
    The US rotates about 2,500 marines and sailors through its Darwin base.
    
    https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/4146046/us-marines-sailors-with-mrf-d-253-arrive-to-northern-territory/
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:21am
  - Terry Dalee
    
    Darwin is about controlling the approaches to China from the Indian Ocean. It’s another airbase with Tindal and Darwin being major bases able to host bombers that can deploy stand off anti ship missiles to the theatre of war.
    It’s location also provides support from another direction in a Taiwan conflict.
    
    That’s why there are 2000 US Marines stationed there as well as large upgrades to Tindal, Darwin and Curtin airbases
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:23am
  - Cassandra
    
    cmm: The base in Western Australia is an important US asset and, importantly, a long way from the combat zone of Taiwan. The other you mention are vulnerable.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:36am
    - cmm
      
      Welcome to the 21st century.
      
      Chinese intermediate range missiles eg. Dongfeng DF-26C and DF-27 hypersonic missiles can easily reach 5000 to 8000km.
      
      And that’s not even long range missiles.
      
      Darwin is only 4100km from Hainan, China, so it is well within any potential combat zone without even using naval resources. Heck even Sydney and, at a push, Christchurch, are in intermediate missile range.
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:07am
      - Cassandra
        
        I’m sure the US Chiefs of Staff will welcome your advice. In the meantime they’d like to use the WA port as a base.
        
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        July 16, 2025 10:27am
      - cmm
        
        Cassandra, unfortunately for the Americans they are finding out that the 1900s methods and thinking they rely on (We’re the biggest and the greatest and the world works the way we want it to) don’t quite work any more.
        
        They can’t even keep the Red Sea open and protected from the Houthis and have pretty much had to admit defeat on the naval front.
        
        Fire a few hypersonic missiles from China and you can wipe out the ships and subs anchored in Darwin without having to put a fleet to sea.
        
        Asymmetric warfare is a bugger. A million $ of missiles can easily wipe a billion $ of assets.
        
        But yes, as I have said all along here, having options is always a good thing and having Ausstralian bases gives more options than not having them – even if they are in missile range.
        
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        July 16, 2025 11:10am
      - Colville
        
        cmm.
        What happens if the USA drop some missiles on the 3 Gorges dam wall?
        
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        July 16, 2025 11:30am
      - cmm
        
        Colville: Certainly in a massive conflict all sorts of things could and would happen.
        
        But smashing the 3 Gorges Dam would not unsink the ships at the bottom of Darwin Harbour.
        
        Either way, a missile attack on a major asset (be that a ship or a dam) is an example of asymmetric warfare.
        
        The value of having large conventional armies and naval battle groups is reducing. With that the value of strategic bases changes too.
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:29pm
  - Taieri
    
    Darwin Naval Base can only cater to small patrol vessels.
    https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/bases-and-locations/hmas-coonawarra
    
    Commercial wharf at East Arm, currently leased to Chinese owned Landbridge can handle ships up to Panamax size (274m 80000 DWT) but it is not geared up for naval use.
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:30am
- Terry Dalee
  
  I hardly call spending billions of dollars on AUKUS in the hopes of getting Virginia class attack submarines doing the minimum.
  Neither is buying LRASMS and setting up a advanced anti ship missile factory doing the minimum either.
  
  https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/media-releases/2025-03-21/mission-success-long-range-anti-ship-missile-testing
  
  https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2024-08-22/local-factory-boost-adf-strike-power
  
  Nor is hosting “Talisman Sabre”, “Pitch Black” and a multitude of military exercises every year is doing the minimum. These exercises happen every 2 years.
  
  Let’s compare what NZ has done?
  
  Right, Fck all. All NZ can do a haka and send out the only submarine that NZ has parked up in Samoa.
  That is the complete minimum… You can’t say anything remotely that the Australian approach is similar to the NZ approach. NZ is the ultimate freeloader when it comes to defence.
  
  At least Australia has the balls to actually be a sovereign country… Maybe a invasion of NZ by a foreign power could be the best thing to happen to NZ…
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:05am
  - Cassandra
    
    The criticism of the Australian approach is by the Australian Greg Sheridan who does not mention NZ in his article. Sheridan believes that Australia, at a little over 2%, is not committing enough.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:40am
- Simon
  
  GAE is finished, it’s on the way out. Wellington Clown Show and all the boomers in denial.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:09am
  - Wandering Star
    
    Exactly. You can generally deduce a KB commenter’s approximate age (and approximate IQ) by how much the buy into the idea that China would ever invade Australia, New Zealand, or anyone else for that matter. Even if they ever invaded neighburing Taiwan, they would only be reunifying China, not really expanding it.
    
    These commenters talk about the existence of US bases in Japan, Korea and elsewhere as if these places were not in fact militarily occupied by the US purely for potential aggression against China, and not for protecting these places from the practically non-existent prospect of Chinese aggression.
    
    The Chinese are smart, and because they are smart, they know to play the long game. They don’t need to enact military aggression any time soon, because why would they? China already has massive structural influence in world economies, so why would they harm that influence by deploying their military against their market? They also know that the US is a once-great nation that is in rapid terminal decline, that is essentialky bankrupt, and whose social structure is coming apart at the seams.
    
    China could wait it out and let the civilisational down-cycle inevitably play out, and in 20, 30 or 50 years, perhaps sooner, become the world’s undisputed power. The only danger is that in the meantime, the hubristic and diehard US will launch an attack on China as a last roll of the dice, which is obviously the real intention behind their calls for increased “defence spending” by Pacific nations.
    
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    July 16, 2025 2:02pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      China is not immutable to change either. They have an aging and declining population, and unlike the West, no one is breaking down fences or launching small boats to migrate there.
      
      A combo of Xi’s grip loosening & China’s coming demographic crisis, plus the random factor that is Donald Trump means that few things can be ruled out as unthinkable.
      
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      July 16, 2025 7:01pm
    - waikatosinger
      
      The bases in Korea are there because of the Korean war which is still ongoing. Yes there is a ceasefire since 1953, but the war there has never officially ended.
      
      The bases in Japan are because the US occupied Japan at the end of WW2. They were not established to keep China in check. They were established to keep Japan in check.
      
      The purposes of these bases may have evolved, but none of them were originally established to protect against China.
      
      What is your purpose in misstating this history?
      
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      July 17, 2025 2:54pm
- Dr John
  
  Australia’s major port that is closest in distance to Indonesia and Asia, must come under the classification of a Strategic Asset. You just don’t allow a Strategic Asset to be owned by agents of another country, friend or foe.
  The Australian government should not have allowed the Chinese purchase in the first place, and has been far too slow in reclaiming the port.
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:31am
Scott

I’m still interested in Joe Biden because I think it’s a huge scandal that the elected president of the United States was cognitively impaired. We know this now because Jake Tapper, nobody’s idea of a right winger, has said so in his new book.

We also know, because of the New York Times, that Biden delegated the pardon powers to his chief of staff, he didn’t go over each pardon individually but approved categories of pardons and left it to his chief of staff to go over individual cases and pardon them using the autopen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/us/politics/biden-pardon-autopen-trump.html

So how legal is it for a cognitively impaired president of the United States to delegate the pardon power, which only he possesses, to subordinates? The only pardon which Biden personally signed during those last days in office was to pardon his son Hunter.

How corrupt is that? What I can say is that if this was a Republican president the press would be all over this.

Questions remain, was Joe Biden ever the president? Did his staff run things? Joe was historically a moderate politician but as president he governed like a progressive. How much did he know about all those executive orders? There’s still a lot to learn and we can only hope people are held accountable so this never happens again.
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July 16, 2025 8:03am
- NothingLeft
  
  Not just pardons, but pre-emptive pardons, for crimes never even investigated pr charged.
  
  Which is clearly rotten as fuck, and absolutely corrosive to rule of law that is supposed to be without fear or favour.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:10am
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Yes it stinks. it’s absolutely as rotten as retrospectively letting the banks off the hook for ripping off kiwis for years, denying fair compensation so bank profits stay fat.
    Rule of law eh, I agree it matters.
    
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    July 16, 2025 3:28pm
  - MCōs
    
    You know as well as I do Trump is a vindictive bastard and he would be likely to go after all manner of people he thinks might have humiliated him even if an attempted prosecution has no merit.
    So Biden has cut him off at the pass.
    I thought that was pretty obvious.
    
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    July 16, 2025 4:49pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      You mean like he didn’t with H Clinton in spite of her well evidenced criminality and manufacturing of Russia collusion hoax, or all the others involved in that ‘deep state’ conspiracy up to and including Obama.
      
      He’s been playing rough-n-tumble with Mafia in New York most of his life, he seems remarkably unaffected by grudges.
      
      But after election in 2016 he turned the other cheek in an effort to build bridges and ended up being severely punished for it by all the post 2020 DNC driven lawfare. Some really egregious bullshit.
      
      So turnabout now is not only fair play, it is necessary to ensure there is a high price placed on that sort of behavior to make it less likely to happen in future.
      
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      July 16, 2025 6:56pm
      - marcw
        
        When interviewed last year, Trump said he decided not to continue with further prosecutions in the interests of the country as a whole. It was a part of history, which for the good of the country, he was prepared to let go.
        
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        July 16, 2025 7:13pm
Cassandra

The only good thing about Maori Party MPs is that they are a very strong argument for the abolition of the Māori seats.” Elle Ludemann.
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July 16, 2025 8:04am
- Yvette
  
  Te Pāti Māori has again failed to file its audited financial statements on time, despite being formally warned by police last year.
  It’s also yet to provide the Electoral Commission with an audit report for last year’s financial statement.
  
  Is Te Pati Maori, and particularly John Tamihere, the Party’s President, incapable of doing this (not a good indication of how they could run the country with Labour) or do they have something to hide.
  Rather inefficient or perhaps just dishonest?
  I’d welcome any other conclusion.
  So how does the Coalition publicly needle them every day until it happens?
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:22am
  - Scooter
    
    If it’s against the law not to file an audit report then why are they not charged or at least prevented from standing a candidate in the elections. It’s almost as if the powers that be are afraid of them least to be called racist.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:09am
    - RoboRob
      
      It’s not the fear of being called a racist, although I am sure that comes into it. The police have an un written policy that they dont enforce electoral law. Thank back, all parties have broken the rules and the police never take action.
      
      The closest was Winston first who were forced to refund money, instead NZF gave it to a charity of their choice.
      
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      July 16, 2025 9:36am
      - imalwaysright
        
        “The police have an un written policy…”
        
        Maybe that should be: The Police Minister and/or the Police Commissioner have an unwritten policy.
        
        I doubt that either man would delegate enforcement policy to subordinates.
        
        Therefore, one or both of them won’t do their job.
        
        …Just heard Mark Mitchell asked by Leah Panepa on the Platform if he was going to do anything about it.
        
        Mitchell said “its an operational matter”
        
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        July 16, 2025 11:11am
      - RoboRob
        
        @imalwaysright
        
        “its an operational matter”
        
        Always the politicians excuse to do nothing. Mr Mitchell, you are responsible for policing in NZ. If the police are not inforcing the law, thats for you to sort. Unless you are happy they are not.
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:37pm
    - R
      
      ‘called racist’ …….which the MSM WOULD GLEEFULLY DO!
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:37am
      - RoboRob
        
        Who cares?
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:43pm
  - RoboRob
    
    All the other parties should stop filing returns until TPM files theirs. Simple.
    
    Although Goldsmith / LeQuence can take action but chose not to (as usual). They could and should de register TPM, make the TPM MPs independants with no TPM funding. The woman standing for TPM in the by election should have to stand as an idependant with no government funding.
    
    Mitchel can also ‘remind’ the police that their job is to enforce all laws, not just the ones they feel are important.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:10am
    - pdm
      
      RR – Goldsmith is a ditherer and will keep this in the `too hard’ basket.
      
      Like PM Luxon confrontation with Maori is not his thing notwithstanding his Treaty Settlement uttering about Maori ceding Sovereignty a few weeks ago.
      
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      July 16, 2025 9:41am
    - R
      
      Goldsmith is an MP, he doesn’t have the authority to enforce the Law, as doesn’t any MP
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:40am
      - pdm
        
        R – he can make the message loud and clear though.
        
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        July 16, 2025 12:25pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Always the MPs have no power excuse.
        
        Goldsmith, can and should have sacked LeQuence for incomptetance. He can still do so.
        
        He can issue a ‘letter of expectations’ to LeQuence around his expectations. He can dismiss LeQuence if his expectations are not met.
        
        He can change the law if required, to compel LeQuence to act. Something along the lines of ‘failure to meet electoral requirements shall result in immediate de registration of a party’.
        
        See, its not that hard. Politicians in NZ have a lot of power but the ones on the right like to pretend they dont. People on the right make too many excuses for politians inaction.
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:42pm
  - Paulus
    
    Will thePolice prosecute for this continual breach ?
    No way Hosey !
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:29am
- Simon
  
  John Key govt could have abolished the Maori seats. But a few professional Maori started to call National cabinet bro and National got all weak in the knees in excitement.
  
  Half of National’s job is to memory hole the wreckage they steadily inflicted on NZ
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:11am
  - RoboRob
    
    I used to think that adding TPM to there coalition was clever politics by Key to weaken Acts power.
    
    With recent events I think it was more likely that National never wanted to remove those seats and going with TPM gave them an excuse not to. It also meant there policy could be more centrist then if they had just gone with Act also more comfortable for many National MPs.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:39am
    - Damocles11
      
      Probably more misplaced rat cunning than clever, and ultimately a betrayal as National had campaigned on removing the Maori seats. Instead we got signed up to UNDRIP.
      But your attitude gives a good insight into the National mindset: too tricky for their own good.
      
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      July 16, 2025 11:55am
      - Steve Todd
        
        @Damocles11 @ 11:55AM
        
        As I most recently tried to explain, here, https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/05/prebble_on_labour_and_tpm.html/comment-page-1#comment-3721785,
        disestablishing the Māori seats will not be easy.
        
        The provisions of sections 3(1) [definition of the term, General electoral population] and 35 [Division of New Zealand into General electoral districts] have been in place since the Electoral Act 1993 became law following the 1993 general election.
        
        Therefore, the year 1993 saw the last chance we had of disestablishing the Māori seats, more or less easily. In my view, that chance is now well and truly lost.
        
        I think you are probably right that National had no intention of going through the political nightmare that would have ensued had they proceeded with their 2008 election campaign promise to abolish the Māori seats once all historical Treaty of Waitangi settlements were resolved (intended to be by 2014).
        
        Sure, the Māori seats could have been “disestablished” by a simple majority vote of MPs following the 2014 general election (regardless of whether all historical settlements were resolved, which they weren’t), but that would have had no practical effect. A referendum (involving complicated wording), say, at the 2017 general election, would still have been needed on the question of amending the reserved provisions mentioned above (there being no 75% majority in the House to amend them).
        
        But, in my view, National would not have had the political resolve to proceed with their (uncompleted) policy by then, particularly once it was clear, during 2017, that Winston Peters was becoming increasingly hostile to the coalition that NZ First was a part of. I guess we’ll never know.
        
        Also, I’m still not convinced that National really wants the seats to be gone, given that it would result in the electoral landscape being totally upended, including an increase in the number of South Island electorates and the loss of current National-held seats with slim majorities.
        
        Today, with the Māori renaissance in full stride, the bicentenary of the Treaty of Waitangi fast approaching, and neither National nor (certainly) Labour, showing any interest in this issue, I again conclude that the Māori seats are not going anywhere anytime soon.
        
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        July 16, 2025 2:37pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Steve
        
        More SI/less SI electorates don’t matter.
        
        You’re showing your age 🙂 – talking as if electorate votes matter in the scheme of things as they did in the days of FPP. In the MMP world, who gets to be gummint is totally determined by the party vote.
        
        TPM would campaign for – and likely get – enough party votes to have some representation and no electorate seats (like NZF). Dropping the 5% threshold to (say) 3.5% would make it a certainty. The ACT party that DG represented didn’t have anything like 5% because the Nats gifted them an electorate seat. That would be for everyone not just TMP so we would have a level playing field with no “special” Maori anything. Personally I would regard that as progress – the current Maori seats are like FPP and TPM is over represented for their vote count. There’s nothing magic about 5%.
        
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        July 16, 2025 4:44pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @Ian Boag @ 4:44PM
        
        Ian, we went over all this back on the evening of 29 May.
        
        Between 20 and 30 years ago, I was a member of the Electoral Reform Coalition. I understand MMP inside out.
        
        In my view, the great majority of MPs want to be electorate MPs, rather than merely be party makeweights. Electorate votes matter to (most) candidates, particularly National and Labour candidates; party votes matter to parties.
        
        I’m trying to look at the question of the disestablishment of the Māori seats from the point of view of the National Party hierarchy. The prospect of an extra two or three Electorate seats in the South Island would be of interest to National, particularly with the sudden insertion of (at least) 35,726 Māori-roll voters into the South Island voting population. (See Table 2, here, https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/the-mathematics-of-electorate-allocation-in-new-zealand-based-on-the-outcome-of-the-2023-census-and-maori-electoral-option/.)
        
        Te Pāti Māori MPs want to be Electorate MPs. They want to be directly voted for by “their People”, and to be directly accountable to them.* As I also said on 29 May, “[s]hould the Māori seats be abolished at some point in the future, then Māori would demand a waiver from the Party Vote threshold ‘for parties primarily representing Maori interests’.” By that I mean a complete waiver, not being included as part of an overall reduction in the Party Vote threshold, and they would get it.
        
        * See, for example, my extract from the academic paper, “THEORISING REPRESENTATION IN THE MĀORI SEATS – The crucial role of accountability”, here, https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/08/general_debate_28_august_2023.html/comment-page-1#comment-3426519.
        
        As you know, I think the best way out of all this is to switch to STV in large multimember electoral areas (with no separate Māori seats). If we had 30 seats in the South Island (3 x 10 seats) and 96 seats in the North Island (3 x 10 seats; 6 x 11 seats), based on current figures, Māori-roll-style voters would have the electoral strength to elect at least one representative in each of the nine North Island electoral areas. (In my view, this is the only way Māori will be persuaded to give up the Māori seats, but that, too, would not, of course, happen anytime soon.)
        
        Non-Māori-roll-style voters could also ensure at least the same number of MPs (whether or not having Māori descendants) could also be elected. And, of course, as now, other Māori MPs would be elected with the help of non-Māori voters.
        
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        July 16, 2025 5:59pm
  - R
    
    You’ve got the wrong party, re Wreckage. The present coalition is working to undo the long term and recent wreckage from the Lange, Ardern/Hipkins eras
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:43am
    - pdm
      
      R – you forgot to add slowly after working.
      
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      July 16, 2025 12:26pm
      - R
        
        Discovering where the damage has been hidden, is a large part of the task. Will take several years to right this sinking ship of state
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:13pm
- Scooter
  
  The whole thing i.e TPM audit etc just shows that no government left or right will make any stand against Maori rule. It’s embedded now and neither party has the will or guts change the trajectory.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:51am
  - Paulus
    
    And of course Maori know they will never be touched on anything they do not want.
    They remain laughing at the so called 85% of the population.
    Simply, they are just Superior in all things they want and get.
    I will never stop or slow down once started, as it is now.
    
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    July 16, 2025 2:22pm
- David Garrett
  
  Cass: Indeed…but that is never going to happen. The Nats had the chance to do it in 2008 with Act’s support. Instead Key got in bed with the Maori party,
  
  That opportunity will never occur again. We are stuck with thse racist anachronisms
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:07am
  - Steve Todd
    
    David, there was never going to be a vote of MPs following the 2008 general election on the question of disestablishing the Māori seats.
    
    National’s campaign promise, going into the 2008 election, was to abolish the Māori seats once all historical Treaty of Waitangi settlements were resolved (intended to be by 2014).
    
    So, there was never going to be a vote of MPs before at least 2015.
    
    (See my response to Damocles11, at 2:37PM, above.)
    
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    July 16, 2025 3:22pm
Positan

After watching Luxon’s reaction to the matter of Seymour’s reply to the UN’s totally unjustifiable presumption of interference in our government, it is obvious that Luxon has developed nothing whatsoever in the way of political skills.

As one who, in the space of 29 months, has gone from supporter to appalled and disillusioned disbeliever in what Luxon has contributed to the worsening of our race relations, I’m completely over his continuing “reign” over the coalition.

The UN letter’s unbelievable arrogance was totally undeserved. On its content, it had to have been occasioned from baseless and ludicrously false input from Maori agitators. There was no justification for it whatsoever.

Seymour’s response to it, as published in today’s Post, was fitting for a missive with such erroneously presumptous content.

I assume Luxon’s problem with the letter arose from Winston’s nasal dis-jointment over Seymour’s “interference” in foreign affairs – although by my measure, the position of acting PM trumps that of Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Regardless, Luxon’s pathetic posturing in front of the media was unforgivable – way over the top, because as a “waste of time” the issue should never have left the Cabinet Room.

And Peters’ disgustingly delighted reaction to his shallow victory over Seymour was sickening.

I don’t think NZFirst’s poll standings are going to continue.
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July 16, 2025 8:05am
- Ghost
  
  The UN’s letter was sent to the foreign minister, it involved more than just one minister. it’s also obvious from the interviews with Luxon, Seymour, and Winston that what the media reported yesterday was a media created story to try and create division in the government that does not exist, division that some on this blog so desperately want to create to bring the government down.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:34am
  - balanced
    
    What BS will the desperate Labour spin doctors come up with next?
    
    Luxon:
    – Selected to lead one of NZs biggest companies.
    – Selected to lead NZs most successful political party
    – Transformed the party from a rabble uner Collins to an election winning machine.
    – Selected by NZ voters to become the prime minister.
    – Successfully managing a 3 party coalition with leaders who have been bitter political rivals for many years.
    – crime down, student marks up, inflation tamed, growth restored (for now), roads repaired and built, infrastructure investment planned and underway, etc. etc.
    
    All clear evidence Luxon does not possess highly tuned and successful political skills.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:03am
    - RoboRob
      
      Not Labour spin doctors, Luxon took to the media to criticise Seymour. That was stupid and not the first stupid thing Luxon has done.
      
      Evidence…
      When Luxon can only just beat the hopeless Hipkins in the preferred PM polls, even though Hipkins presided over health, education and covid failures, there is a major problem with his leadership.
      
      When National lead Labour by 2.5%, there is a major problem with leaderhip.
      
      When peolple on right wing blogs who are normally pro National are complaining, thats a major problem with leadership.
      
      As you say…
      ‘All clear evidence Luxon does not possess highly tuned and successful political skills.
      
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      July 16, 2025 9:17am
      - Ghost
        
        Government is still dealing with a lot of problems they inherited. Issues that matter will take a long time to turn around, voters will blame this govt for what labour did
        
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        July 16, 2025 9:29am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        National always come into power with the books a mess and lots to clean up. Sure it’s (much) worse this time. But to pretend that Luxons weakness is all Labours fault is going to far.
        
        Labour should be scrambling trying to form a new leadhsip team, but aren’t becuase Luxon polls so poorly.
        
        NZF first should be <5% as they historically have been every time they have been in power. They are at all time highs.
        
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        July 16, 2025 9:44am
      - balanced
        
        Never forget, there is a good statistical chance many people on right wing blogs were stupid enough to vote for Cindy and or Winston, although they all deny it now.
        
        Isn’t it interesting that detractors offer opinions but fail to argue the substantive, demonstrable facts like……
        
        An ACT Government’s free market at all costs policies will see a massive transfer of most kbers wealth.. to the wealthy, as they have every time they have been employed.
        
        Citing mid term polls, after the Luxons governments moral and clever decision to engineer a recession to purge the ongoing damage from the self enriching Clark advised labour hierarchy, is an absolute nonsense.
        
        All the polls show is that Luxons expertly managed government has retained mid term majority support after front loading the pain nzers had to endure. The coalitions popularity is currently growing.
        
        The Luxon government results listed above are just the appetizer, the main menu is planned for the election.
        
        Although the depth of the current rescession, caused in no small measure by Trump smashing NZs biggest customer, could be the fly in the ointment.
        
        Once again the clever Luxon has identified the threat so is out canvassing new customers, but the new orders won’t come in over night.
        
        I was surprised the RB didn’t cut interest rates in July.
        
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        July 16, 2025 10:08am
      - Taieri
        
        voters will blame this govt for what labour did
        ———
        
        That’s how it works. Unfortunately.
        
        The current Government is not very good at selling themselves and no matter what and how they do it, they are on the back foot, especially with almost uniformly hostile media.
        
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        July 16, 2025 10:35am
      - RoboRob
        
        @balanced
        
        The ultimate proof of Nationals failure is that Willis is spending and borrowing more then Labour were.
        
        The cost cutting was reserved only for year one and was not targeted. Nothing structural has changed in the government and Willis has increased funding working for families and continues ‘free’ school lunches and 1 years ‘free’ univerity. On top of that she has rolled out a ton of welfare for families with preschool kids. Regardless what you think of these policies they are all unaffordable.
        
        Where is the lauded financial management skills? Seymour found some massive savings, so Willis went out and spent them all. Hows that clever when you are running a massive deficit?
        
        In the election Luxons big policy will be extending the retirement age. Wow, how did he come up with that! I’m sure it will be a massive vote winner.
        
        With regards to National enginerring the recession. Luxon had no choice. It was Orr that did that and Orr always had to do that it as its the only lever he had.
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:52pm
      - balanced
        
        Macro economics and political history 101.
        
        Governments which slash spending in a recession, cause a much greater recession.
        
        John Key and Bill English took 6 years to get back to surplus.
        
        History shows strong and steady changes trump the “fix it in a year” attempts (Lange and Bolger had shortened tenures).
        
        The mess Key inherited was tiny compared to the mess the Clark advised Ardern left behind.
        
        Whilst I’m concerned Nicola Willis can’t answer questions about her budgets and accounts, her gradual return to surplus is the right strategy.
        
        I list just some of Luxons achievements at the mid point of the electoral cycle and you inexplicably opine Luxons big electoral winner is increasing the retirement age.?
        
        And as for your claim Orr was responsible for the drop in inflation. Pls remind us who was the governor of the reserve Bank for the following years:
        2023 5.73%,
        2022 7.17%,
        2021 3.94%
        
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        July 16, 2025 4:22pm
    - Scott
      
      balanced – I agree with you. I’m pleasantly surprised by the way National and the coalition has got stuck in and demolished most of Labour’s agenda. They are working hard to put things right. Here is another example –
      
      In the press release below they announce they are breaking up the disastrous merger of the polytechnics and returning them to the regions. Another terrible Labour policy that had to be reversed.
      
      Was the previous government our worst government ever? Everything they touched got worse. The polytechnics needed to be reformed and this govt has stepped up to the mark.
      
      https://www.national.org.nz/news/20250714-pennysimmondstenpolytechnics?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=Regional%20Governance%20will%20Return%20to%20Ten%20Polytechnics&_kx=eFG2oH7Eyb3dJ8b_0gK0LxB_srcG76UZDYls5Ze41DZQ5mwYBL6occlxaNXuoKTI.VmYELi
      
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      July 16, 2025 11:45am
      - RoboRob
        
        They have done well on reversing a number of Labours stupid policies.
        
        Yes Hipkins government was the worst ever.
        
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        July 16, 2025 1:56pm
      - kiwimike
        
        but creeping Maori Apartheid continues unabated….
        
        so what if we get the economy right if we live in an increased ethnostate with a 2 tier citizenship.
        
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        July 17, 2025 11:29am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Over the last number of months, I have had the impression that GD has been a goldfish bowl with the same 27 commenters rattling on about their favourite (repetitive) topics and insults.
      
      Today I was happy to see some new names joining in the fray. New views and topics are refreshing to say the least.
      
      Shame that some of the repetitive ranters could not take a holiday for a couple of weeks and let the new blood have a fairgo.
      
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      July 16, 2025 2:11pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Chortle. I presume the 7+ downtickers are the ranters self identifying!!!!!!
        
        and not downticking because new fresh speak has arrived.
        
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        July 16, 2025 5:51pm
  - Simon
    
    Don’t worry the boomers are still all voting National regardless. It’s just that they won’t be around watch the final carve out and full on failed state LatAm style.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:17am
    - balanced
      
      Who should Nzers vote for Simon?
      
      Give us your analysis of policies which are superior to the coalitions, and a run down of the management talent and management successes of the party leader you advocate for.
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:12am
      - Ra Henare
        
        I think Simon was talking about Nationals policies/leadership NOT the coalition Governmnet.
        
        Wonder how it would go if National became a junior partner. Winnie will be gone(too old), so maybe mr Seymour, or a Winnie Annointee?
        
        The coalition could do a Canada and annoint a new leader not in Parliament!!!
        
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        July 16, 2025 5:54pm
    - JerJer
      
      You seem to forget, like most lefties also do, that we have an aging population, and people become more conservative as they get older.
      
      So, this means less and less likelihood of Labour governments into the future, as there will be more older people voting right in the future compared to now.
      
      I think it’s hilarious that some people think because the boomers will one day be dead that the left will have some sort of second coming. It’s not going to happen. Learn statistics.
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:40am
      - ISeeRed
        
        I beg to differ. The welfare class is breeding rapidly with each generation eclipsing the previous in numbers. More and more Third World immigrants are also arriving who like all the free stuff, having contributed nothing. They’ll all be voting for whoever bribes them and panders to them the most. By contrast, those more “conservative” types who value hard work, thrift etc. are leaving, not voting, in greater numbers.
        
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        July 16, 2025 6:31pm
    - waikatosinger
      
      Meh. The boomers still think Jacinda was a “nice girl”.
      
      They are also the only generation to still get most of their news from the MSM.
      
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      July 16, 2025 10:52am
      - pdm
        
        WS this Boomer never did.
        
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        July 16, 2025 12:34pm
      - Flossie
        
        Not me.
        
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        July 16, 2025 12:49pm
      - AitchW
        
        I’m a boomer. I, and most of my peers, think Jacinda was a student politician promoted way above her ability and incredibly naive. In private probably quite nice but publicly patronising and deeply insincere.
        
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        July 16, 2025 5:58pm
      - CBR600
        
        Nah…
        You’re talking bollocks.
        
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        July 16, 2025 6:04pm
    - rouppe
      
      Don’t worry the boomers are still all voting National regardless.
      
      This one isn’t. And hasn’t for several cycles.
      
      12 0
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      July 16, 2025 1:08pm
      - OlderChas
        
        And I definitely will not be either.
        
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        July 16, 2025 5:35pm
      - kiwimike
        
        I never have.
        I’ve always considered National to be as big a part of the problem as Labour.
        They are Liars and racists (traitors) against the 85% of us
        
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        July 17, 2025 11:33am
- AitchW
  
  Peters’ smug grandstanding will appeal to rusted on NZF voters. And it may well resonate with voters who can’t bring themselves to vote for TMP but still want to stick it to the government.
  Hipkins will be polishing the baubles as we speak.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:59am
- Paulus
  
  I think sadly that the Prime Miniister was well described as “pathetic posturing”.
  As a one time loyal National Party two votes, for the first time in 50 years what am I going to vote for.
  Luxon had better find an Airline far away.
  Very sad !
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:35am
- David Garrett
  
  Posi: I believe Peters will collapse this coaltion just as he has every other time he’s been in a position of power. Luxon just might be trying to forestall that by slapping Seymour’s hand.
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:10am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Luxon fears Peters, especially now that Peters is off the leash and can basically say and do what he wants.
    
    We should have a mid-term Coalition Leaders Debate and let the three of them go at it for two or three hours. Maybe that would get them to account for what they have done, or not done, so far.
    
    Can’t see Luxon agreeing to that though.
    
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    July 16, 2025 11:00am
  - Philview
    
    Peters and NZ First are riding high in the polls.
    It would be a crazy move if he collapses the Coalition this time.
    
    15 2
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    July 16, 2025 11:08am
  - Colville
    
    DG.
    I disagree.
    I understand the historical context but logic argues against history repeating in this case.
    
    First and foremost question in anything to do with Winston: Whats in it for Winston? and in the case of a collapse he would have to have an upside that was significant and low risk and I just cant see that as the case.
    He has solid popularity and will bolt into Deputy PM again next term if he stays the course..why would he risk that?
    It would have to be for the Top Job…does he think Labour and the Greens would agree to give him the PMs role for half a term?
    
    I cant see it, high risk of electorate giving him a huge spanking.
    
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    July 16, 2025 11:40am
  - AitchW
    
    If he does that he’ll lose a lot of support. He’ll hang in there till Septemberish next year, but will become increasingly critical of his coalition partners until the election date is announced at which time he’ll drop all pretence of collegial behaviour.
    He’s completely untrustworthy.
    
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    July 16, 2025 6:02pm
- R
  
  international DIPLOMACY is vastly different from managing the local school committee Positan.
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:47am
- Paulus
  
  Don’t the media love it all, to kick shit over the elected Government – but not by them.
  No wonder so many intelligent people are leaving.
  
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  July 16, 2025 2:24pm
artemisia

Waiuku residents call for more speed cameras … A resident said drivers often used the road to speed and he had been privy to many serious crashes and a number of close calls near his home.

Not making any assumptions at all about this tragedy reported, but as a general observation, what happened to personal responsibility? Is there any driver in New Zealand that does not know about the possible, even likely, consequences of speeding?

Google suggests 54% of traffic infringement notices by value are not paid within the initial timeframe. Not top priority then for many.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/567010/waiuku-residents-call-for-more-speed-cameras-following-fatal-masters-road-crash
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July 16, 2025 8:07am
- kowtow
  
  Without discussing the incident in question , it would appear that stretch of road is physically challenging .
  
  That being the case I would expect there to be some of those advisory signs , perhaps a lower speed limit in the immediate area , and as should be the case for all drivers everywhere for motorists to “drive to the conditions” .
  
  No amount of speed cameras will make any difference to bad drivers.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:32am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Is there a case for rebuilding that part of the road?
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:37am
    - artemisia
      
      Definitely a case to choose not to speed.
      
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      July 16, 2025 12:40pm
      - MCōs
        
        There is no valid suggestion the driver was speeding in as much as there are no witnesses
        
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        July 16, 2025 12:57pm
  - MCōs
    
    I listened to the rather distraught chap who lived adjacent to the location of triple road fatality at Waiuku and arrived on the scene after running down his driveway.
    He didn’t see the accident. Nobody saw the accident.
    In his opinion the road was too narrow and farm machinery coming the other way could take up the whole road.
    Speed cameras in the vicinity would encourage people to slow down.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018995781/three-killed-in-single-vehicle-crash-in-rural-auckland
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:50am
- lifesgood
  
  Is there any community in NZ that isn’t “tight knit”? Come on news media, don’t you just mean small
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:36am
  - sirknz
    
    You would get ‘slammed’ for a comment like that in some places…
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:48am
  - Taieri
    
    Is there any community in NZ that isn’t “tight knit”?
    ———
    
    Is there still a “community” worth is name in NZ?
    In the radius of two houses off my place I have Filipino, Brazilian, Russian and Indian neighbours. They all seem to be OK individually, but they live separate lives, don’t interact and have virtually nothing in common.
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:39am
- Ghost
  
  There was a thick fog in the area when the crash happened.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:37am
  - artemisia
    
    I specifically excluded this crash, ghost, and was commenting on locals saying speeding is common and someone else should do something.
    
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    July 16, 2025 8:43am
- Observer of Life
  
  I’m not sure how many more speed cameras NZTA could squeeze into the area. There’s 4 covering the only two roads in and out of that town now.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:10am
- sirknz
  
  The fines aren’t paid in the first 28 days because there is no financial incentive to do so. the reminder notice gives you another 28 days to pay with no added penalty. That money is better off for me in my bank account rather than in the government’s general account on time.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:47am
  - pdm
    
    If you challenge the validity of the ticket you can spin payment out for 3 or 4 months.
    
    3 0
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    July 16, 2025 5:05pm
- cmm
  
  Assuming they are local drivers then they know the risks/dangers of the area and should be driving to conditions.
  
  Unfortunately many drivers think they are impervious to dangers in their back yard because they know them and have developed skills/knack to deal with them.
  
  When I lived out of town we had a particularly dangerous corner about 200 metres from our property boundary (deep loose gravel, blind corner, etc). A woman killed herself there in 2003 or so. She had driven this road and corner hundreds of times.
  
  This woman had a particularly heavy boot and was a well known risk on the roads of the area. Quite frankly many were glad to see her off the roads – thankfully before she managed to kill anyone else.
  
  I spoke with a volunteer fireman who had been involved in cleaning up the mess. “No surprise to see her dead. Felt a bit shit for her daughter who was in the car with her. Luckily she just had minor injuries.”
  
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  July 16, 2025 1:16pm
pdm

Compare the difference between David Seymour and Winston Peters.

Seymour replies immediately to a letter criticising New Zealand and says what New Zealanders want him to.

Peters is going to shag around for a month until the last day protocol allows for the reply and apparently is going to say what Seymour said anyway.

Compare the two videos – about 18minutes total.
https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/the-difference-between-david-seymour-and-winston-peters/
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July 16, 2025 8:10am
- Cassandra
  
  It’s Peters’ responsibility but really good politics for Seymour to get off a quick reply. He’s made it absolutely clear just where ACT stands (which is where most NZers stand on this issue).
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:23am
  - rouppe
    
    Yes, despite having to withdraw the letter the message has been sent.
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:14pm
  - Groggy
    
    “where most NZ’ers stand on this issue.” Apart from the record number of submitters against the RSB? Outside of the KB echo chamber most NZ’ers think Seymour is a clown.
    
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    July 16, 2025 5:29pm
    - kiwimike
      
      I disagree, that’s the narrative from the MSM.
      
      Kiwis know the difference, they want rid of a 2 tier citizenship and rid of Govt bloat, incompetence and poor law making.
      and duplicity on race in NZ, they want the productive elevated not squeezed.
      
      Similarly, rural NZ want safe and proper firearms law, something the urban woke chardonay socialistas in National & Labour wouldn’t understand.
      
      all this ACT offers and Seymour has stood for for yonks..
      
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      July 17, 2025 11:42am
- Ghost
  
  Yes huge difference. Winston is going to get the details from all ministers involved in the letter that the UN sent him and give a full government reply on all issues involved in the letter sent to him
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:28am
  - pdm
    
    PM Luxon indicated that he expects Peter’s reply to be very similar to what Seymour said so what is the point?
    
    The UN seat warmer/activist almost certainly will not be able to tell the difference because he obviously knows 7/8ths of stuff all about New Zealand and its Politics.
    
    Finally was Seymour Acting as PM when he wrote and despatched his letter?
    
    If he was and both Luxon and Peters were out of the country then surely he was well within his rights to handle the matter. That is what a good leader does.
    
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    July 16, 2025 8:37am
    - Ghost
      
      Seymour wrote about one issue, Peters will be writing about all the issues. It’s the minister for foreign affairs job to reply to the letter, which was sent to Peters. Seymour can comment about his bill, he can even hold a press conference and reply to the contents of the letter in the press, but replies to UN communications come from the minister for foreign affairs.
      
      The letter wasn’t sent to the Prime Minister, nor was it sent to the individual ministers in the letter. It was sent to Peters, who passed on to the relevant ministers the details. Even if it had been sent to the Prime Minister the ministry for foreign affairs would draft the reply.
      
      Acting PM is a seat warmer, they have to consult with the prime minister or his office.
      
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      July 16, 2025 9:05am
    - R
      
      Seymour is a deputy, standing in for the PM and doesn’t seem to have consulted Cabinet about the matter. He is a bit inclined to knee-jerk responses in his exuberance of the moment; took a political opportunity, which appears to have worked for him.
      
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      July 16, 2025 12:56pm
    - Paulus
      
      Was not the reply written by sombody in MFAT as I would expect irrespective.
      
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      July 16, 2025 2:30pm
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Its an internal political matter that the UN has no jurisdiction over.
    
    Seymour telling them to piss off was the right answer – rapid, succinct with no waste of precious time and resource doing an in-detail rebuttal…
    
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    July 16, 2025 12:54pm
- AitchW
  
  More grandstanding and self aggrandisement from Peters. Make no mistake, he’s in electioneering mode, lining up for the baubles. Vote Peters, run the risk of Labour/Maori and Greens in government with NZF.
  
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  July 16, 2025 8:28am
  - RoboRob
    
    I’m hoping for a NZF & Act coalition government with National providing supply and confidence at this point. Naitionals only true principle is keeping Labour out so they should be fine with that.
    
    If that requires the loathsome Winston Peters to get over 20%, I’m fine with that.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:23am
    - Paulus
      
      I still think NZFirst may not reach 5% when it rolls around.
      Getting tired or more so at Peters.
      
      11 1
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      July 16, 2025 9:40am
      - RoboRob
        
        NZF are only strong becuase of Nationals weakness. If you want to see the back of NZF, then want to talk to National.
        
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        July 16, 2025 9:46am
      - pdm
        
        Maybe not under 5% Paulus but 8% would be a Party Vote maximum for NZFirst.
        
        They are a 4% to 7% Party.
        
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        July 16, 2025 9:49am
    - cmm
      
      Let’s just stop kidding ourselves that National is part of the “right wing” option. The only reason they are in any way “right” at all is when they are dragged kicking and screaming by Act to get their numbers up.
      
      National are ideologically closest to Labour and it makes the most sense for them to make a National/Labour mega-party like the ANC and DA did in South Africa.
      
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      July 16, 2025 11:44am
      - Quail
        
        CMM.
        You make a good point in your last paragraph.
        Bur no one as yet has acknowledged that with the NZ MMP system,no one really has a chance to make the much needed change!
        The bureaucratic choke hold afforded on this country is such that positive change afforded by the likes of ACT is unachievable.
        NZ Governments are run by the bureaucracy.
        
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        July 16, 2025 12:35pm
      - mogg
        
        If you don’t like what’s going on just think of the alternative. Get over it and thank your lucky stars,
        remember what a shambles Labour were on their own in govt, just imagine what a fiasco it would be if they have to depend on the Green racist party and the lunatic fringe in TPM.
        
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        July 16, 2025 4:44pm
  - gravedodger
    
    It is rapidly becoming apparent that the failing leadership of the National party and its leader are heading New Zealand to that end anyway so why bother to exercise oneself.
    We may as well all fiddle while Rome Burns.
    In my eighth decade it will not impact me as I depart but it is immensely saddening for those yet to even vote what the moronic people playing at power are doing.
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:44am
- Terry Dalee
  
  One minister has principles, the other doesn’t.. pretty simple really..
  
  “If you don’t like my principals, I have others ….”
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:12am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    “If you don’t like my principals, I have others …”
    
    If only Erica Stanford would say this.
    
    20 2
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    July 16, 2025 9:39am
    - RoboRob
      
      I think she already proved the “If you don’t like my principles, I have others …” postion vis a vis her position on section 127.
      
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      July 16, 2025 9:48am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Very good, bollocks 😎
      
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      July 16, 2025 12:32pm
sungsamning

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/07/15/is-there-no-cure-for-democrats-derangement/

Is There No Cure For Democrats’ Derangement?
We’ve noted before that today’s Democrats are operating with a mental deficit. A new poll further confirms they are a broken people. While it’s good for a cheap laugh, because they are often smug, condescending and hateful to those who disagree with them, their fragile psychological state poses a threat to the republic. [What’s not to love? Eventually, the US will have a Liberal party thats sane, and classical liberal. The GOP willl be the conservative party.]
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July 16, 2025 8:29am
sungsamning

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-trump-administration-layoffs-education-department-rcna211450
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to implement widespread Education Department layoffs.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with plans to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education that were blocked by a federal judge.
The conservative-majority court, without any explanation, granted an emergency application from the administration that blocks the federal judge’s ruling.
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July 16, 2025 8:29am
- Stephen Russell
  
  This is all about the boundary line between the authority of Congress vs the authority of the Executive.
  Congress passes a law authorising expenditure of x on purpose y. This law is signed into effect by the president.
  The president then decides he does not want that and cancels it – without reference to Congress.
  Whatever the merits of the planned spending in this particular case, the demarcation of authority in such cases needs clarification.
  
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  July 16, 2025 11:28am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Trump is cancelling funding the correct way- which is to get Congress at pass a Rescissions Bill which cancels it.
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/15/jd-vance-breaks-tie-in-key-rescissions-package-vote-in-senate-after-these-three-republicans-betrayed-us-n2660441
    
    The issue with the Dept of Education was about the Executive being able to decide staffing matters etc
    Not funding
    https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/15/scotus-says-trump-admin-can-move-forward-with-mass-layoffs-at-education-department/
    The control of education is going back to each State to decide.
    
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    July 16, 2025 4:50pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360758888/no10-back-girl-punished-school-wearing-union-flag-dress

Wow. The teachers involved here should be asked to explain their actions.
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July 16, 2025 8:54am
- AitchW
  
  It would appear that, like their NZ counterparts, UK teachers have drunk the “brown/black/colour/LGBTQI+ culture good, cis white culture bad” Koolaid.
  On the face of it this is a disgrace. That poor kid.
  And she has to go back and deal with the very teachers who publicly humiliated her.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:07am
  - mandk
    
    She should also demand a proper apology.
    
    All the school did was to issue one of those “sorry you were offended” non-apologies.
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:00am
- kowtow
  
  It is literally incredible that the national flag that incorporates as it does the great diversity and inclusion of the 3 major races , cultures , nations and traditions of those islands cannot be seen to be a celebration of ‘culture’.
  
  Just goes to show how powerful the neo Marxists have become in the “Blob”.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:32am
  - David Garrett
    
    Kowtow: Yes…and this nonsense is coming soon, to a school near you in New Zealand.
    
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    July 16, 2025 12:05pm
    - kowtow
      
      DG
      
      I well know it.
      
      I could never understand , many years ago , why my children’s very small rural primary school ( not Northland btw) was making such a hero out of Hone Heke cutting down the flagpole.
      
      No real context , just “what a hero”.
      No mention of Loyalists like Tamati Waka Nene.
      
      I thought then , this is a recipe for division and damned stupid.
      
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      July 16, 2025 12:59pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
  
  Actually, the Sex Pistols had this covered:
  
  “Is this the UDA? Is this the NPLA? Is this the IRA? Cos I thought it was the UK…”
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:40am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Seems like the trigger for an impromptu Spice Girls reunion concert.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:41am
- Inandout
  
  Looks like the Dad is actually a worker with his vest on. He pays taxes to keep those mushy Marxist teachers on hefty salaries.
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:53am
- MCōs
  
  Why is this even in our newspaper?
  
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  July 16, 2025 9:58am
  - mandk
    
    Because that’s the direction in which NZ could head, unless we are very careful.
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:01am
  - Yabster
    
    lol what a comment- the crap that is our shit papers and you question a story that goes to the state of socialist western thinking- one of your best Mco’s….
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:31am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    As a warning?
    
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    July 16, 2025 10:34am
  - David Garrett
    
    MCos: Because it is both newsworthy, and a warning of where we are also heading as a society.
    
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    July 16, 2025 12:06pm
    - cmm
      
      I doubt very much that Herald or Stuff are interested in giving as any warnings about the threat to natioanlism.
      
      More likely they were offended that some schoolkid turned up in a national flag and was thus offensive to poor little minorities/migrants/alphabets.
      
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      July 16, 2025 1:38pm
    - MCōs
      
      There are around twenty five thousand schools in the UK. There will be something there for everyone to get outraged about.
      I read about a school in the vicinity of Stoke Newington where kids finished without being able to speak English
      
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      July 16, 2025 1:45pm
      - cmm
        
        Yeah, can’t force colonialism on them. That would be racist.
        
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        July 16, 2025 2:01pm
      - MCōs
        
        https://thejewishindependent.com.au/investigation-finds-thousands-of-hasidic-boys-in-london-can-barely-speak-english
        
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        July 16, 2025 2:09pm
      - cmm
        
        MCos: Yes that is certainly a problem at these private, and unregistered, Hasidic schools, but you’re not comparing apples to apples.
        
        What is far more problematic is that even in some UK mainstream government schools – school that are failing to cope with the increasing challenges.
        
        “In over 2,000 schools, English is no longer the first language for the majority of pupils, data obtained by Freedom of Information requests has revealed. ”
        
        “At a school in Tower Hamlets, 92 per cent of the pupils speak Bengali as their mother tongue, with none of the children speaking only English at home.”
        
        https://www.gbnews.com/news/migrant-crisis-schoolchildren-not-speaking-english-first-language
        
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        July 16, 2025 2:24pm
      - MCōs
        
        There are plenty of schools in NZ where a big proportion of the kids don’t speak English as a first language; especially around Auckland
        
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        July 16, 2025 4:14pm
  - Sir Henry Morgan
    
    Why did St. Floyd of the Fentanyl dominate our newspapers for months? Why do our newspapers print endless stories about ‘racism’ occurring on the other side of the world?
    
    I remember years back The Herald’s daily piece on ‘racism’ involved a elderly white man who got into an argument with a black woman about who should get the aisle seat on a flight back to the UK from somewhere in Spain. That was the story.
    
    At least this piece involves a flag that forms part of our national flag and hence deserves respect and celebration. It’s also good to get New Zealanders with British (especially English) heritage thinking about the positives of that heritage.
    
    For what it’s worth the girl’s speech seemed pretty low quality. Instead of “fish and chips” she could have reached for “civilizing the heathens”, “bringing light to dark continents”, “ending the slave trade”, “teaching the cannibals of the South Pacific not to feast on their fellow man”, etc. But at least her heart is in the right place.
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:36pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  As always anti-white racism is respectable, in some circles practically de rigueur.
  
  Similar deal with anti-English bigotry. Let’s face it, had she gone to school wearing the Flag of St. George rather than the Union Flag the police might have nicked her for displaying a “Brexity flag” before she even made it to the school gates.
  
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  July 16, 2025 1:20pm
- rouppe
  
  One month without pay each. But still have to turn up and do their job.
  
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  July 16, 2025 1:22pm
Yvette

A letter from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K. Barume, addressed to New Zealand’s UN mission in Geneva, and forwarded to Foreign Minister Winston Peters and the wider Cabinet.
Barume asked for further explanation concerning allegations about erosion of indigenous rights under the current coalition government – NZ Herald.

What allegations? And who made them?
I guess someone will ask under the official Information act – if we have a media worth having.

This seems to have a bit of a media thrashing without anyone much paying attention to what actually started it – is Albert K. Barume a self-winding clockwork toy, or has a New Zealand activist wound him up?
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July 16, 2025 9:49am
MCōs

Interesting long article in the NYT about Netanyahu
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/magazine/benjamin-netanyahu-gaza-war.html
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July 16, 2025 10:03am
Keith White

The gift that just keeps on giving. Yip, yip, thats what it is.

“A new peer-reviewed study in Ophthalmic Epidemiology titled, Evaluation of the Effects of mRNA-COVID 19 Vaccines on Corneal Endothelium, has uncovered alarming evidence that Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA injection (BNT162b2) causes significant structural damage to the eye’s non-renewable corneal endothelium — the critical layer of cells responsible for maintaining corneal transparency and hydration.”

Read the rest* at
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-covid-19-mrna-shots-destroy-087

*or not. Whatever we think, reality is that thing that when we ignore it, does not go away.
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July 16, 2025 10:07am
David Garrett

Cass: Indeed…but that is never going to happen. The Nats had the chance to do it in 2008 with Act’s support. Instead Key got in bed with the Maori party,

That opportunity will never occur again. We are stuck with thse racist anachronisms
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July 16, 2025 10:21am
- Cassandra
  
  Sadly, David, you’re right. The thought of those racist idiots in parliament forever is nauseating.
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:30am
  - cmm
    
    Get used to it. Their support base is growing and the odds of them being left out of future parliaments is extremely small.
    
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    July 16, 2025 11:26am
    - Groggy
      
      Ironically largely thanks to ACT and the Treaty Standards Bill. A gift for the extremes of both left & Right.
      
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      July 16, 2025 5:40pm
- Yvette
  
  David, you could write to UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K. Barume, and ask he demand of the New Zealand Government, Attention Mr Winston Peters, for an explanation as to “Why is this racist anachronism maintained?”
  
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  July 16, 2025 10:34am
- Keith White
  
  The student band I drummed in, we opened for the Racist Anachronisms at a dance near Puhoi in the early 70s…
  
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  July 16, 2025 11:48am
cmm

“Gaping holes, rusty bolts: Titirangi locals want dodgy footpaths fixed”

Ms Zoe Hawkins seems to struggle with this concept called “learning”.

A few years ago she was running on the walkway and tripped/slipped and skinned her knees.

She is very familiar with the area and aware of the hazards but does not modify her behaviour – even when it is wet/raining.

Last year another Ms, also very familiar with the area, tripped while running, this time breaking her ankle requiring surgery.

She was annoyed. Sure, be annoyed, but please reserve some of that annoyance for yourself and your failure to observe obvious risks and avoid them.

I am sure that in the New Zealand I moved to 33 years ago – the one proud of it’s Number 8 wire self-image – a couple of blokes would have taken a hammer down to the footpath and sorted it out themselves. Heck, even the girls of the day would have done so.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360758226/gaping-holes-rusty-bolts-titirangi-locals-want-dodgy-footpaths-fixed
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July 16, 2025 11:23am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 11.24am, just the three bikes today.

A warm, calm, dry morning in the Capital, lovely for cycling. Mid week, school term time, it’s not going to get better than this.
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July 16, 2025 11:25am
cmm

Earlier this month I had an interesting conversation with a bloke from Afghanistan.

He moved to NZ a few years ago (long enough that he has now applied for NZ citizenship which he is expecting to complete later this year). He is not one of the dominant Pashtu and his uncle was killed during Taliban genocides on non-Pashtun.

I asked him about how things go between these groups in NZ. He said those tensions exist here and he distrusts the Pashtu people here too and is afraid they might even kill him in the right circumstances. He stays well away from them and will not attend their mosques etc.

I live a few hundred metres from the Christhcurch Afghani Centre in Bishopdale. This seems to be mainly the place for non-Pashtun people. I was told that as the Afghani population in Christchurch is growing quite quickly, the centre is getting too small for their needs and they are seeking out a larger venue with offstreet parking etc. They clearly do have some concerns as the centre looks like a walled compound that would make many gangs proud.

Hopefully they do manage to overcome their differences, at least outside Afghanistan. The last thing we really need is our newly minted brothers bringing their conflicts here and acting them out locally. Perhaps as the population grows that will become inevitable.
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July 16, 2025 11:38am
- Swifty
  
  It’s something we don’t talk about in NZ, that we being in sectarian conflicts when we import from certain cultures.
  
  There are big concerns up here in Auckland about the levels of hatred and antagonism within the Indian and Sikh communities about the Khalistan issue, with violence already having happened – and the Khalistan separatists ready to kill those Indians who speak out against them.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/hardeep-sandhu-sentenced-for-aiding-south-auckland-driveway-attack-on-radio-host-harnek-singh/GJOPSLGQ5JHLDA7CHCMYXMCEEI/
  
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  July 16, 2025 11:46am
- kowtow
  
  Same problem happening with tensions between Sikhs and Hindu’s and Chinese factionalism too.
  
  Immigrants need to just get over the old prejudices and become New Zealanders . It’s not too much to ask for an adherence to democratic values , respect for other’s rights and keeping the King’s Peace.
  
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  July 16, 2025 11:58am
  - Sir Henry Morgan
    
    What is “Chinese factionalism”?
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:12pm
    - cmm
      
      Do you think Chinese are a monolithic entity?
      
      China has many ethno-linguistic groups with resentments going back centuries.
      
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      July 16, 2025 1:51pm
      - Sir Henry Morgan
        
        The nature of an empire (like the Qing Empire that was mostly inherited by the modern PRC) is to have many ethno-linguistic groups. That said, New Zealand has few representatives of the non-Sinicized ethnic groups within modern China – e.g. Uighurs, Mongols, Tibetans, Kazaks, etc. In New Zealand we basically just get Han Chinese.
        
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        July 16, 2025 3:49pm
    - kowtow
      
      Arrr , me old ship mate .
      
      There be quite a storm brewin’ between the Chinese living ‘ere , wot supports demahcracy and what supports whatever comes outta Chung Nan Hai.
      
      Sumtimes reaches the ears o’ the poop deck.
      
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      July 16, 2025 2:57pm
      - Sir Henry Morgan
        
        All true Kowtow. Though to be honest if you removed Chinese from New Zealand it might not make much difference to the balance of pro-democracy vs pro-CCP forces.
        
        New Zealand has more than enough home-grown fascists, eager sell-outs, and simpletons who’ve been wined, dined, and polished by nubile masseuses on a slow junket to China and now sleep with a Little Red Book under their pillow as they dream of one day returning to Xanadu.
        
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        July 16, 2025 3:59pm
  - cmm
    
    “Immigrants need to just get over the old prejudices and become New Zealanders”
    
    Big ask considering that NZ is only amplifying its own Pakeha/Maori antagonism.
    
    Yes, adding others values to the mix is problematic.
    
    I think one are this is particularly so is that some industries (eg. taxi industry) are dominated by minorities with multiple different recent-arrivals bringing their own values etc.
    
    Ownership of one of the larger taxi franchising companies in Chch has been taken over by Indians (I think, but am unsure, specifically Sikhs) and others feel that they are getting the raw end of the deal.
    
    Since minority immigrants often end up dealing with other minority immigrants (rather than NZers) there is probably a lot of opportunities for such conflicts to increase.
    
    But, given Samoan vs Tongan argy-bargy over the years we shouldn’t be surprised if the same also comes up in Sikhs vs Hindus or Pashtun vs Hazara.
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:49pm
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: “Samoan vs. Tongan argy bargy”?? Why whatever do you mean Sir? All “pasifika” people get on wonderfully well, especially after they’ve been drinking, and after a rugby match in which one “pasifika” team has thrashed the other.
      
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      July 16, 2025 3:46pm
Swifty

I find myself quite stunned at the longstanding lack of political will to close down the small boat crossings

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14907367/Migrant-hotel-Essex-graffitied-slogans-telling-asylum-seekers-home-violent-protests-broke-Ethiopian-resident-charged-sexually-assaulting-girl.html

The levels of anger and open discontent are reaching fever pitch both in England and in Ireland with widespread protests and unrest. Incidents of confrontation and violence are all over X and on a daily basis.

And today we see the UK government estimating taxpaying families in these tightened times will be up for another £7 Billion for the arrival of thousands of Afghans as a result of a data breach. I see too that England is now the rape capital of Western Europe, up from one of the lowest levels a few decades ago.

I know this is an extreme statement to make, but it’s almost like the UK and Irish political class want to collapse their own societies.

This can’t go on.

The place is about to explode. I’m thinking Ireland will be first but I understand Spain to be a powder keg at the moment too.
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July 16, 2025 11:39am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  I have been saying for YEARS that Europe/UK/Ireland will have civil wars.
  
  Between the Indigenous population along with the immigrants that want to live in peace and do their bit and the Islamic Invaders, not just the recent ones.
  
  It will be a blood bath.
  
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  July 16, 2025 12:57pm
  - cmm
    
    Have you seen the current shitstorm happening in Spain (and to a lesser extent France)?
    
    Immigrant (African) gangs running amok. Ethic Spanish standing up to them (and the Ethnic Spanish being suppressed by their own police).
    
    Follow MSM and you wouldn’t even know this is happening…
    
    Sky news yesterday:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmlI4ICp-OI
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:55pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Completely agree the elite seem intent on destroying the societies they are supposedly ‘governing’.
  
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  July 16, 2025 1:13pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I know this is an extreme statement to make, but it’s almost like the UK and Irish political class want to collapse their own societies.
  
  @Swifty
  You might want to read the transcript I produced of a podcast talk in Britain between Louise Perry and a military analyst, David Betz, whose specialty is counter-terrorism. The podcast is 1.5 hours long and I’ve embedded that in my post but I prefer to read and YT’s auto-transcript sucks!
  
  Basically Betz thinks there will be a civil war in Britain, akin to The Troubles in Ireland or the so-called Dirty Wars in Latin American. He sees all the same factors at work now in Britain.
  
  But to your point he says this:
  
  I can’t explain what government is thinking in doing this but empirically it’s just simply a statement of fact, that they are doing the things that are leading us to civil conflict according to our own well-established ideas about what causes civil conflict.… if you want to create domestic turmoil in a society then what the British government has been doing is almost textbook exactly what you would do, and that’s according to our own written-down doctrinal understanding of things.
  
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  July 16, 2025 1:28pm
  - Philview
    
    Tom, I listened yesterday a podcast by Scottish historian Neil Oliver. He made the point that the Left is suddenly talking about the need for conscription in the UK. He said he doesn’t believe for a minute they want troops to protect the country from Putin but more likely to have the manpower to put down an internal uprising.
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:56pm
  - Swifty
    
    Thanks Tom.
    
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    July 16, 2025 1:58pm
waikatosinger

A month of two back I was driving up the Kamais on SH29 heading east when I saw a tourist on a bike laden with backpacks just starting up the hill. I was so worried about his safety that I actually stopped turned around and went back to offer him a lift to the top, warning him that the road was exceptionally dangerous for cyclists. As it happened he turned me down … the bugger. Maybe he thought I was giving off Geoffrey Dahmer vibes or something. A week later another cyclist was killed doing the same thing.

Some stretches of our open roads are unusually dangerous for cyclists. SH29 going up the Kamais is one of them. It isn’t a fixable problem. The road is steep, narrow and winding; there is no verge (in fact there is a barrier right up to the edge of the left lane), and it is very busy and chock full of trucks. Short of replacing the road with a tunnel or building a completely separate bike path somewhere else, there is little than can be done. Chopping it down to one lane would cause insane delays as logging trucks crawl up the hill at 20kph.

I would like to see a sign at the bottom of the Kamais warning cyclists that the route is exceptionally dangerous and they should think twice before going that way. That wouldn’t make followers of the cycle religion happy. But it might save a few lives.
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July 16, 2025 11:54am
- alex Masterley
  
  The Crown Range Road between Arrow Junction and Cardrona is similar.
  Narrow twisty and nowhere to go either side of the seal.
  
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  July 16, 2025 12:27pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  I did the Gisborne/E Cape road and at Te Araroa met a young Finnish girl who was going to cycle the road around the Cape to Gis. Warned her what it was like and she set off.
  
  Rater her than me.
  
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  July 16, 2025 12:55pm
Bridgenag

Those of you who love Cindy

Schoolmarmocracy
Thoughts on the hall monitors and the discourse police who make progressive Western politics such an unbearable lobotomised shitshow

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/schoolmarmocracy?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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July 16, 2025 12:24pm
Bridgenag

BREAKING: COVID-19 mRNA Shots Destroy 8.4% of Non-Renewable Eye Cells in Just 75 Days
New study finds irreversible structural damage to the eye’s corneal endothelium in healthy young adults following Pfizer mRNA injection.
NICOLAS HULSCHER, MPH
JUL 15

https://open.substack.com/pub/petermcculloughmd/p/breaking-covid-19-mrna-shots-destroy-087?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Some of you are worth saving
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July 16, 2025 12:25pm
- Yvette
  
  Bridgenag, it is indeed hard to know who to believe.
  
  Rare cases of corneal graft rejection—not in healthy eyes, but in transplant recipients (like DMEK, PKP). These rejections have been observed within a few days to weeks after vaccination and are generally treatable with steroids. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40123-021-00415-5?utm_source=chatgpt.com
  Transient, uncommon ocular side effects—such as uveitis, optic neuritis, maculopathy—reported in a few dozen isolated cases among millions vaccinated. Most resolve well with typical treatments .
  
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  July 16, 2025 12:38pm
Notsofast

Richard Prebble points out that the Regulation Standards bill promotes property rights and in particular advantage to Maori.
So more knee jerks than you can shake a stick at because it is the most talented politician of our generation promoting it.

Paywalled unfortunately

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/why-the-regulatory-standards-bill-matters-for-property-rights-richard-prebble/2M6PEQOMJBE5BEJ3YJDT5OK74M/

“Opposing the bill are a who’s who of the political class: Much of the bureaucracy, a coterie of activist academics and Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Their goal? Unfettered state power.”
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July 16, 2025 12:47pm
JJ56

Jonathan Boston is in the Post this morning (currently paywalled) demonstrating why you should avoid employing anyone who is ideologically driven as a policy analyst, not withstanding their qualifications in public policy. https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360756766/regulatory-standards-bill-and-how-not-govern-country [NB its is opinion, not news, despite the URL, but it is the Post]

It consists or a series of imaginary scenarios where a policy advisor is advising Ministers on the consistency of Acts with the regulatory standards in the Regulatory Standards Bill. The first is typical and addresses the Healthy Futures Act.

Boston has the advisor telling their minister it is inconsistent with the Bill because the principles are silent on a goal of protecting citizen’s health, or for that matter endorsing any social goals.

So what leap of logic got Boston from the principles not explicitly giving some specific rights, and legislation seeking to “protect, promote, and improve the health of all NZers” being somehow inconsistent with the Bill, one knows not. To make that judgement one would have to check off the provisions of the Act against the principles one by one.

But this is no doubt reflective of the quality of public policy education obtained at VUW, and perhaps explains a lot about our current problems with the quality of our public service.
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July 16, 2025 1:53pm
Ra Henare

Will New Zealand descend in to the shemozzle in the Middle East.
I am thinking pro Maori verse Anti Maori.
To me the division seems to be widening

I looked at Israel/Palestine before the UN divided the country, it was still then under British Mandate.
1946 608,000 Jews and 1.24 million Arabs.
(NZ 1840 1840 estimated 80,000 Māori and 2,050 non-Māori)

Then after separation(and removal of 750,000 Arabs.) 2023 numbers are
Israel 9.6 Million, Palestine 5.2 Million

Meanwhile, the NZ 2023 Numbers are
Māori 978,246, Non Maori 3,873,726

So what do I take from this?
Mass Immigration can change a country FOREVER.

So no matter what the Pro Maori Movement expects to achieve, it will never go back to anything resembling its future self.

The Same with Palestine!

I recently saw an interesting academics view on a solution to the Palestine/Israel problem.
Acknowledge that the feud is amongst 5-10% radicals on both sides. So remove the radicals from both sides, make one territory side with equal rights for all.
Sorta like what NZ did????

Yep, you are right won’t happen!!!!
So shit fights in both territories(NZ/ME) will continue until the end of time.
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July 16, 2025 2:56pm
- kiwimike
  
  you are wrong.
  the existence of Israel is an affront to Islam.
  
  muhammad said so and he is the perfect Muslim for all times and places.
  
  taking out 5% of the Muslims will change nothing as the other 95% live by the Koran and what their imams tell them.
  
  everything muhammad said and did is acceptable for them.
  including lying to Kafirs like you !!!
  
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  July 17, 2025 12:07pm
vand

Re migrants our youngest lives near a small Wairarapa town. Many local businesses are owned by Indians. They employ usually only Indians. So little mixing.
At least they are working and not taking time to block streets on mass to pray like one particular group flexing its dominance in some European countries.
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July 16, 2025 3:08pm
vand

“Then after separation(and removal of 750,000 Arabs.) 2023 numbers are
Israel 9.6 Million, Palestine 5.2 Million”

Ra =the Arabs were told to leave by the Arab leaders because they thought they would drive out the Jews.
Remember 800,000 Jews were then evicted from Arab states but the key difference were the evicted Jews were welcomed by Israel.
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July 16, 2025 3:33pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Your history and my history books tell different stories.
  
  Try this starting point for size.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight
  
  I read ISraeli accounts and archeologists/independants accounts. Funnily enough. They dont agree as the Israelis are very good at gaslighting history they dont like.
  
  I finish with this quote from Israels first Prime Minister.
  
  I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?
  
  David Ben-Gurion
  
  Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.
  
  David Ben-Gurion
  
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  July 16, 2025 6:05pm
Swifty

The end of PBS and NPR?

https://x.com/dogrightgirl/status/1945294326373765510?s=46
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July 16, 2025 4:45pm
Swifty

Taxation directly to Maori?

https://x.com/taxpayersunion/status/1945305653498568940?s=46
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July 16, 2025 4:48pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360759920/immigration-adviser-banned-migrant-rip-offs
They just can’t help themselves, can they ? Must be in the blood.
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July 16, 2025 6:54pm
- cmm
  
  I am massively opposed to immigration advisors.
  If a person is not capable of navigating the extremely simple immigration system without help (reading the website, filling out forms) then they really are unlikely to have any useful skills to bring to NZ.
  This should be the absolute minimum barrier to any form of immigration into NZ.
  
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  July 16, 2025 7:10pm
  - tavita
    
    I can understand your view cmm, but I have bitter experience with the Immigration Department. My partner was turned down three times before we gave in and paid an immigration advisor to apply for us. I helped prepare the first submission and I think I am reasonably capable at filling forms etc, I was totally god smacked by the arrogance displayed by the letter we received. Basically they said “you haven’t provided the information we need to support your application, so we assume you are lying”. “we are not obliged to tell you what information or supporting documents we were looking for, so we won’t” and “we will not reconsider your application even if you were to supply the information we wanted, and you have no right of appeal”. After the second application was turned down, we phoned the immigration department and a very helpfull lady spent over an hour talking to us. She read through our application and said that to her it looked all in order and she had no idea why it would have been declined. But she had no power to change the decision. She suggested we resubmit it with a covering letter explaining the circumstances. That was also declined. As before with an arrogant dismissive letter. After that it was pay up and use an advisor. He was familiar with the scenario – apparently if you have been turned down by one officer, the next reviewing officer is unwilling to approve the application because that would be seen as a criticism of the first.
    But the fourth time with his assistance we were successful.
    
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    July 16, 2025 9:52pm
    - kiwimike
      
      i concur.
      we had to come in on 2 different working visas and complete the process here.
      our auckland advisor submitted through London even though we came from RSA..
      we were gobsmacked by the incompetence of immigration.
      
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      July 17, 2025 12:12pm
vand

Here’s a bit of the available info to digest Ra

. We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down.” — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, quoted in Sir An-Nakbah (“The Secret Behind the Disaster”) by Nimr el-Hawari, Nazareth, 1952
“The first group of our fifth column consist of those who abandon their homes…At the first sign of trouble they take to their heels to escape sharing the burden of struggle” — Ash-Sha’ab, Jaffa, January 30, 1948
. “(The fleeing villagers)…are bringing down disgrace on us all… by abandoning their villages” — As-Sarih, Jaffa, March 30, 1948

For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs … By spreading rumors of Jewish atroci ties, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy.” – The Jordanian daily newspaper Al Urdun, April 9, 1953. “The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city…. By with drawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa.” — Time Magazine, May 3, 1948, page 25
“The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.” – Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph September 6, 1948.

“The most potent factor [in the flight of Palestinians] was the announcements made over the air by the Arab-Palestinian Higher Executive, urging all Haifa Arabs to quit… It was clearly intimated that Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.” — London Economist October 2, 1948

“It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’ flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem”. — Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station, Cyprus, April 3, 1949.
The military and civil (Israeli) authorities expressed their profound regret at this grave decision (taken by the Arab military delegates of Haifa and the Acting Chair of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee to evacuate Haifa despite the Israeli offer of a truce). The Jewish mayor of Haifa made a passionate appeal to the delegation (of Arab military leaders) to reconsider its decision.” — Memorandum of the Arab National Committee of Haifa, 1950, to the governments of the Arab League, quoted in J. B. Schechtman, The Refugees in the World, NY 1963, pp. 192f.
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July 16, 2025 7:43pm
- kiwimike
  
  time immemorial by Joan Peters is worth a read on this.
  a bit dense in style, more a history book.
  
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  July 17, 2025 12:18pm
Swifty

The racist Maori Party are now completely in the gutter.

https://x.com/actparty/status/1945399367562879125?s=46

Is there any depth to which they will not sink?
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July 16, 2025 9:03pm

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