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August 8, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 08 August 2025

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sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_M_ild58-U&t=328s
Toni Severin On Standing For ECan To Scrap Iwi Appointees.
Leah Panapa talks to former ACT MP Toni Severin about standing for ECan to scrap iwi appointees, and more. [Just say no to institutional racism.]
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August 8, 2025 8:04am
sungsamning

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australian-state-rolls-out-machete-disposal-bins-ahead-ban
Australian state rolls out machete ‘disposal bins’ ahead of ban.
Australia’s state of Victoria on Thursday announced that more than 40 machete disposal bins will be available at police stations across the state to allow citizens to safely get rid of the weapons without a penalty before the Sept. 1 ban begins.
“Owning, carrying, using, buying, or selling a machete without a valid exemption or approval will be a criminal offense,” the Victorian government said in a statement. [Wow! They’re truly thinking outside the box!]
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August 8, 2025 8:05am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  You would think that there’s no scrub to cut in all of Victoria.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:43am
  - sungsamning
    
    And no adults in charge either.
    
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    August 8, 2025 3:24pm
- sirknz
  
  I bet that the sum total of the bns contents at the end of the exercise will be fast food wrappers.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:50am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Victoria has union dummies in charge. Hence the idiocy.
  
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  August 8, 2025 5:46pm
peterwn

Meanwhile over at ‘The Standard’ the four big power companies are accused of ‘colluding’ over the future use of Huntly. In reality Genesis has the other three and the regulators over a barrel on this, so it is hardly ‘colluding’. Anyway as they recognised the agreement could be seen as anti-competitive, they are seeking a blessing from the regulators who will pretty well have to give their approval through clenched teeth.
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August 8, 2025 8:06am
- kowtow
  
  Very little in the legacy media over our on going de industrialisation due to carbon craziness .
  
  Latest victim being Balance and the Kapuni urea plant.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:23am
- lastmanstanding
  
  If the NZ Government recognises a Palestine State before Hamas are defeated and the hostages returned to Israel it will be recognising and rewarding Hamas an organisation it has declared as terrorist. It will be betraying Israel and all Jewish people. There are no excuses for doing so.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:43am
  - Ehlana
    
    The part I don’t get is, how can anyone recognise a Palestinian state that Hamas has any part in? Quite apart from their actions in and against Israel, these people put military facilities under schools and hospitals and utterly failed in the basic duty of a government to protect their civilian population – no bomb shelters, no stockpiled food and medicine.
    Surely they cannot be considered part of any humane solution?
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:54am
    - waikatosinger
      
      I would like to see what borders the government plans to recognise for its proposed Palestinian state. The activists want from the river to the sea. That would be equivalent to declaring war on Israel.
      
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      August 8, 2025 4:54pm
  - Kevin
    
    This may be casting the net too wide, but could it be that stupid counterproductive and most of all inflammatory actions ( NZ yet to sink to Canadian and UK gov action re Israel) in ANY area are deliberate? Hammer blows elsewhere than their favoured fragile pots full of nothing.
    If so, note it, remember, and save action for where and when the reward is greatest.
    Labour the Greens and TPM have not received the reward they so richly deserve.
    
    This from Souda Bay looking across to where ?400 NZers are buried.
    Hold your fire, people.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:13pm
- CJames
  
  It is a very clever move by the gentailers – one long overdue. Oppose this or even worse, stop it, and you will cause real power cuts. Then watch how everyone will turn against you as the power companies will regularly warn customers who was responsible.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:52am
  - peterwn
    
    And an even smarter move by Genesis. After being shafted by the Electric Authority several years ago, Genesis has become pretty street-wise and will not allow itself to be pushed around. Megan Woods wanted to clobber Genesis a few years ago but could not find any reason to do so.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:02am
    - cmm
      
      Megan Woods wanted to clobber Genesis a few years ago but could not find the ability to do so.
      
      There fixed that for you. She never needed a reason. She couldn’t fight her way out of a used pie packet.
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:23am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Of course, that’s a servo pie packet. 🙂
        
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        August 8, 2025 9:51am
      - AitchW
        
        DB, a lot of servos sell some pretty decent pies.
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:51pm
artemisia

Erica Stanford made several attempts to include Willow-Jean Prime in the NCEA proposals process. TBF her office did respond, though pretty much at the end of the process and only after her boss got involved. She declined. Not interested? Not important enough to attract her attention? Agrees with the proposal? Can’t think of any input to offer?

Mike Hosking this morning suggests this may be a sackable offence.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/ncea-changes-erica-stanford-offered-labour-invitations-to-briefing-willow-jean-prime-didn-t-respond-and-then-declined/
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August 8, 2025 8:06am
- Swifty
  
  Prime has made Hipkins look like a duplicitous fool and herself lazy and sloppy.
  
  What an own goal by Labour.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:14am
  - Dunc
    
    Not very hard to make Hipkins look stupid ….
    
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    August 8, 2025 12:01pm
  - AitchW
    
    Hipkins will spin it as a great tactical victory and most of his voters will swallow the lie.
    
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    August 8, 2025 3:01pm
- peterwn
  
  So she basically failed to do what she was paid for or thought the World would wait for her. She would not be sacked immediately but the Leader at any pre-election re-shuffle of portfolios could well sideline her. This may not affect her future as a Cabinet Minister since the Labour caucus (if in power) elects the Cabinet and the PM has to allocate the portfolios within the talent he is given.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:28am
  - Paulus
    
    Labour will remain desperate so she will be promoted !
    
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    August 8, 2025 8:42am
    - Bobba Fret
      
      As crazy as that sounds, you are probably right!
      
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      August 8, 2025 10:21am
    - pdm
      
      She is at number 8 now.
      
      That seems to be well above her capabilities.
      
      Then again it does not say much about all of those from 9 to 34.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:02am
      - AitchW
        
        Ardern was even more above her capabilities, as is Hipkins now. High school student council members playing politicians…
        
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        August 8, 2025 3:02pm
  - hookerphil
    
    “Labour caucus (if in power) elects the Cabinet and the PM has to allocate the portfolios within the talent he is given”
    wow, that’s a big call – Labour and talent in the same sentence.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:03am
    - sirknz
      
      I would’ve gone with ‘paragraph’ over ‘sentence’ personally.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:53am
  - Boy Geoff
    
    Given this is even in the media, it begs the question: has Prime done something to displease a member of the Labour hierarchy – or the media itself?
    
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    August 8, 2025 10:04am
  - R
    
    “Within the talent”! .who/what is this talent that you refer too??
    
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    August 8, 2025 10:11am
  - rouppe
    
    Possibly thought that if she waited until the last moment she could delay it?
    
    Hoping us unwashed wouldn’t notice she refused approaches?
    
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    August 8, 2025 10:57am
- mandk
  
  This is reason 17,486 not to allow Labour to lead the government after the next election.
  
  Apart from lacking talent, Labour’s leaders are generally lazy. This is why the last government was unable to deliver anything of significance and make it work.
  
  For all his faults, Christopher Luxon is making sure that everyone in his team is focused and working hard.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:29am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Bollocks. Labour achieved far more long lasting and meaningful reform than Luxon will ever deliver. I think you should consider what might be important to Labour MPs and what success might look like to them before you brand them as lazy. The Ardern government was truly transformative. They don’t measure their success by how well the economy is going or by how good a state the government accounts are in when they leave office.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:35am
    - mandk
      
      You forgot the // at the end.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:43am
      - RoboRob
        
        Not really. I think there is a strong arguement that JA’s Labour government did bring massive and meaningful change to NZ. The captains call ended gas in NZ as we know it, closed businesses and pushed energy prices up. Then there is the Maorification of not only government departments but private business.
        
        You can make long lasting, meaningful changes that aren’t good for the country. Labour acheived much of what they wanted to do, it just wasn’t what we would consider good for the country.
        
        Thus far the most meaningful changes from the current government are around education, fuel tax and perhaps military.
        
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        August 8, 2025 12:30pm
      - Philview
        
        Ardern was a radical and I think people have underestimated her ability to deliver that agenda and shut down opposition voices. So much so that they are still loyal to her in the media and other sectors of the country.
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:06pm
    - lifesgood
      
      I simply can’t get my head around the fact that there are still people who believe Jacinda did a good job. On any level it just doesn’t make sense.
      
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      August 8, 2025 3:04pm
- imalwaysright
  
  This sort of behaviour is why NZ will never progress.
  
  There should be common agreement between parties on the areas essential to our infrastructure and well being. These should be outside of political influence.
  
  Instead we get venal, childish, egotists upending entire industries just because it will piss off their opposition and their voters.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:29am
- greybeard
  
  It is very telling that “Stuff” does not have one reference to this incredible item, on the homepage or anywhere else.
  RNZ does.
  One could almost call it censorship.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:39am
Scott

Two tier justice update :
In Great Britain, Lucy Connolly remains in jail for one mean tweet about migrants. Lucy is a white middle class woman with no criminal record. But the judge gave her 31 months.

Bob Vylan has still not been charged for leading a crowd of thousands in a chant of “death, death to the IDF”.

But are these just rogue discrepancies rather than two tier justice?

Well the Daily Mail reports the case of Salman Iftikhar, a millionaire owner of a recruitment company who while drunk on a Virgin Air flight threatened to gang rape a stewardess and made threats to kill:

“Iftikhar called Ms Walsh a ‘f****** white Welsh c***.’

Mr Kapadia added: ‘The defendant also threatened to blow up the floor of the Avari Lahore Hotel, where the cabin crew were due to stay.

‘The defendant knew the specific hotel, but also the hotel room numbers, and threatened the cabin crew with this.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14977665/Luxury-lifestyle-millionaire-recruitment-boss-threatened-Virgin-stewardess.html

This charming fellow, who incidentally is a Pakistani national, with two wives, was sentenced to just 15 months imprisonment.

So let’s sum up. A white woman who threatens immigrants with one mean tweet gets 31 months jail. A black man who threatens Jewish soldiers, on at least two separate occasions, gets nothing so far. And a Pakistani man who threatens to rape and kill a white woman, to her face mind you, gets only 15 months jail.

Does this seem like two tier justice to you?
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August 8, 2025 8:08am
- MCōs
  
  I wondered what the one mean tweet was that got Lucy Connelly into do much trouble.
  Here it is
  “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”
  She had a nominal 31 month sentence although she is only required to serve 40% of that time.
  https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf
  
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  August 8, 2025 2:05pm
  - Scott
    
    McCos – if that’s the standard then that’s the standard. But it should be applied equally. Lucy did a mean tweet in the heat of the moment and deleted it 4 hours later. She has no criminal record.
    
    But the Pakistani guy threatens a woman to her face with rape and death and gets 15 months. How is that consistent?
    
    The answer is the British govt wants to crack down on speech about immigration and Lucy is a warning to others. Do not speak against immigration!
    
    But given the Pakistani guy actually threatened someone to their face isn’t that worse than a general social media post?
    
    Isn’t threatening death to the IDF worse? Especially since it was planned and spoken to thousands of people leading them in a chant?
    
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    August 8, 2025 3:48pm
Maggy Wassilieff

I imagine if the National Government wasted $66 Billion we’d never hear the end of the matter… but it seems the MSM is trying to forget Labour’s mismanagement.

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/08/ryan-bridge-treasurys-told-us-what-we.html
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August 8, 2025 8:10am
- Swifty
  
  I sometimes find myself wondering what situation we’d be in today if Labour won in 2023.
  
  A contentious view I know, but I suspect that unemployment would be lower today under them, but at the cost many downsides.
  
  I suspect they would be spending at (much) higher levels than today, much of it debt-funded, with the civil service headcount skyrocketing into the stratosphere and lollies aplenty for favoured groups including Maori – and all of course leading to a ballooning government fiscal deficit, our public debt blowing out and the accompanying interest bill vastly exceeding the current $9 Billion annually. Think where our inflation numbers would be too – still 5-7% would be my guess as a result of all the borrowing increasing the money in circulation.
  
  Not to mention the new taxes they would have brought in, and with increases to existing ones.
  
  Expecting any fiscal discipline from Hipkins and Robertson (who I’m assuming would still be Finance Minister) would be pie in the sky.
  
  Thank heavens they didn’t win.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:30am
  - Scott
    
    Swiftly mate – if Labour was still in power the People’s Socialist Republic of Aotearoa would be firmly in place. The people would be in utopia, reading Plato in the morning and fishing in the afternoon. Everyone would be equal.
    
    The Maori Health authority would be delivering wonderful healthcare to Maori, the polytech would be delivering wonderful education to Maori and we would all be living under the wonderful realisation of the Treaty of Waitangi.
    
    What joy we would feel as the wonderful and amazing Jacinda Adern became the first President of the People’s Republic of Aotearoa! 😎
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:48am
  - Bridgenag
    
    We should all be thankful the Republicans got in the USA for the same reasons
    
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    August 8, 2025 12:43pm
  - Paulus
    
    Help !
    We are told last week that the Public Service numbers are marginally higher than when the Coalition were elected.
    
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    August 8, 2025 1:58pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I don’t think the whole $66bn was regarded as “wasted”, just that it was “too much”. I didn’t see any estimates of “by how much” and there seemed to be an acknowledgement that some stimulus was a good idea. I haven’t seen any recipients of the wage subsidy saying it was wrong ….
  
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  August 8, 2025 9:01am
  - john1234
    
    I am a recipient of wage subsidies and assure you it was wrong. Not in itself but as part of the whole excessive and untargeted spray of money around COVID and the lockdowns.
    Labour were utterly reckless and incompetent. It now appears negligent as well.
    We are now paying for it, as I predicted back at the first lockdown. We and our children will be paying for this for a long time.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:09am
    - cmm
      
      You’re probably off by a generation.
      Your kids and grandkids will be paying for it
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:39am
      - Paulus
        
        Or as in our case our children and grandchildren, as a result of this money freely into the economy, and used by us carefully, will make them very comfortably off.
        We are well into our 80s, and knocking on God’s door.
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:01pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      wage subsidy … assure you it was wrong
      
      But naturally you took it. You could have declined it or donated it to charity. However it was your money and what you did with it is your business. Some (not including me) would call you hypocritical … 🙂
      
      I also collected it as the income from my business dropped significantly during lockdown. My gummint pension kept coming too 🙂
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:45am
      - zulumonster
        
        “My gummint pension kept coming too” … and you take it. I would call that hypocritical as you could have donated it, because you have stated a number of times you don’t need it, to the point where it seems you really don’t even want it but can’t think of a way out of this awful state of affairs where the “gummint” keeps giving you unwanted money.
        
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        August 8, 2025 10:15am
      - john1234
        
        If the government offers you money you would be an idiot not to take it. No hypocrisy involved.
        Did you read my whole post (“not in itself”) before you commented?
        
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        August 8, 2025 10:54am
      - cmm
        
        If you leave “government money” in the “government’s pocket” then you’re assuming that the government are better at spending money than the people who made the money in the first place.
        
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        August 8, 2025 11:17am
    - Paulus
      
      No No No you have it all wrrong.
      The media tell us National and the elected Coalition are utterly reckless and incompetent. It now appears negligent as well.
      What surprises me is that those who feted and elected Ardern and her spending are the ones complaining more than ever.
      These mainly women would elect her again any time.
      What is not yet realised that there is effectively more than one war going on in New Zealand, one being Maori Surpemcy, and the second Woman against Men, which continues all the time since really Helen Clark started it.
      
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      August 8, 2025 10:49am
      - Bridgenag
        
        Agree My mate at bowls has a daughter who is in a flash city apartment. All rushing off to get vaccinated if someone has a cough. Total TDS and appalling logic for nearly everything else
        
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        August 8, 2025 12:46pm
    - kowtow
      
      We should never have “locked down”.
      
      Said so at the time , among others that the cure would be worse than the disease.
      
      All developed nations had a plan , only Sweden basically stuck to theirs.
      
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      August 8, 2025 10:55am
    - mogg
      
      We are now borrowing money to pay the interest on Labours debt mountain. It’s called a debt spiral.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:37am
  - cmm
    
    Quite, National would “only” have wasted $50bn. But they would have called it an investment.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:25am
    - balanced
      
      Here’s a clue as to whether your money was spont wisely…
      
      We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
      
      If only election winners Joyce and English were in charge. Those two gentlemen would undoubtly have followed the life saving, economically literate, NZ pandemic plan, prepared by the National government.
      
      Sweden followed a similar plan which gave them the lowest covid death rate in Scandanavia whilst preserving the health of their economy.
      
      And Swedens prime minister didn’t resign, flee, then enjoy 2 years of USA luxury, whist working a voluntary job.
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:47am
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      I could cop it if it was actually an investment and after spending however many billion there was a few powerstations, hospitals and schools to show for it.
      
      It’s the “where did it all go” aspect that gets me
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:52am
  - R
    
    Sometimes I B, it is enlightening to read between the lines. Some of the Treasury Officials may still be employed by Treasury, at the time NZ electors have another rush of blood away from their brain, and elect Socialists/Communists again to government
    
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    August 8, 2025 10:19am
    - Ian Boag
      
      So what are you doing to help NZers get away from this wrongful rush of blood to the brain? Oh – that’s right – whinging on KB from behind a handle. That will certainly swing a lot of mistaken lefty voters 🙂
      
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      August 8, 2025 10:52am
      - Don Beckett
        
        How do you know that ?
        What a derogatory idiotic statement.
        
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        August 8, 2025 1:47pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Don
        
        Sorry – I should have put the sarc mark …. although I still don’t think than having a moan on KB will move the dial on any left voters …..
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:12pm
  - rouppe
    
    “Stimulus” was “required” because Arden put us into home detention.
    
    If she had focused on at risk groups only (old and/or sick) then overall we would have been much better off.
    
    And no, 80,000 wouldn’t have died with that strategy.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:00am
- Simon
  
  There was no oppoistion from National to anything Labo did during covid. National were like trained seals.
  
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  August 8, 2025 10:10am
  - septic skeptic
    
    I think Simon Bridges tried.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:42am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Some history.
      
      When Robbo first came out with the wage subsidy it was to be capped at $150k per business. Bridges made a strong moan about how it needed to be unlimited and so it came to pass …
      
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      August 8, 2025 2:35pm
    - The Veteran
      
      Simon is like Pavlov’s dog. Just can’t help himself putting the boot into National at every opportunity. I see he removed his earlier post complete with spelling errors. ACT is welcome to him. Their education policy (Charter Schools) is dog whistle politics playing to the lowest denominator. Yes CS have a place but they are not the answer for 98% of NZL students. Sandford/National at least deserve credit for recognising the NCEA is a flawed experiment and for doing something about it with a back to basics approach.
      
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      August 8, 2025 4:33pm
- R
  
  MSM were the recipients of a large chunk of this wasted ‘productivley employed’ taxpayer provided money.
  
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  August 8, 2025 10:14am
- imalwaysright
  
  A National government led by Luxon may have blown even more than $66,000,000,000.
  
  Look at his reaction to the dream US 10% tariffs; he started ringing around to organise a trade bloc against America.
  
  He’s worse than Ardern. Thank God Seymour and Peters are babysitting the man.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:06am
artemisia

The people working for $10 – and less – an hour

The problem, taxpayer funding being adjusted for income changes, is emotively described by ‘prominent economist’ Ganesh Ahirao, as punitive, gut-punching, brutal, “we’re going to bash you with a whole lot of sanctions”.

He takes the view that people should be encouraged into work, not penalised by income reductions.

Actually, encouragement into work is all well and good, but these days the Jobseeker benefit also comes with an expectation to work. Or at least meet the requirements or face sanctions.

One of his scenarios (solo parent with 2 children), if the person worked 40 hours a week they would receive $352 more than if they did not work at all. That’s a taxpayer subsidy, and not a trivial amount. So rather than some amount like the $10ph headline the household income is 40 hours employment plus the taxpayer subsidy.

MSD has responded in the article, basically government financial assistance generally reduces as other income increases. Seems reasonable, at least to the few net taxpayers that haven’t left the country yet.

PS A universal basic income could be part of the conversation, he said. OK, then.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/569240/the-people-working-for-10-and-less-an-hour
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August 8, 2025 8:13am
- zulumonster
  
  “people should be encouraged into work, not penalised by income reductions.”
  Yeah – except cases like this appear to be further encouraging people to not work.
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360783362/council-staffer-who-turned-work-only-half-time-awarded-7500
  If it wasn’t such a common occurrence you would just assume this was a joke. And people wonder why we have such low productivity in our workplaces.
  The cost to the Rotorua Council was far more than the $7,500 compensation they had to pay … but once you are in the hands of the Employment Relations Authority common sense goes out the window. The lesson is for any future employer is to do your due diligence before hiring this guy.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:24am
- peterwn
  
  This concept that work is voluntary is rather like the ‘sovereign citizen’ concept. You want to do what you like but still expect to be given an ‘income’.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:31am
- mandk
  
  Ganesh has rebranded himself, but he is still the Ganesh Nana who, while leading the Productivity Commission, tweeted: “More and more people are coming to realise that capitalism is a scam.”
  
  He doesn’t have a real job now.
  
  I wonder why.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:34am
  - Swifty
    
    What’s with the name change? Any idea?
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:27am
    - mandk
      
      Not sure. Ahirao was always part of his name.
      
      I can only assume that he realised that Nana had become toxic.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:46am
      - Paulus
        
        I was acquainted with the Company BERL (Business and Economic Research Ltd) which I believe Nana works for and I can assure the founders, with whom I worked closely in some parts, would be horrified as to what it has come.
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:07pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      No idea…
      seems to have happened over the last 6 months or so…
      https://communityresearch.org.nz/webinar/ethnic-communities-sense-of-belonging-and-te-tiriti/
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:54am
    - sirknz
      
      Rebranding would be my guess, plus if you Google him you won’t see any of the BS he was peddling under his other name.
      
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      August 8, 2025 12:23pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Colonialism
      
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      August 8, 2025 3:09pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Economists call this the “poverty trap”.
  A young father got a Saturday job; three hours $100 gross. That on top his $54,000 job. The tax man took $30, ACC got $1.67 Student Loan got $12, Kiwisaver $3, Working For Families abatement got $27.50 and the Accommodation Supplement abatement got $20. ($30 + $1.67 + $12 + $3 + $27.50 + $20 = $94.17). $100 minus $94.17 = $5.83 for the three hours hard graft.
  The employer asked if he would take $60 in cold hard folding. My oath, the worker responded.
  And politicians wonder why the cash economy is exploding.
  
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  August 8, 2025 8:45am
  - cmm
    
    That’s not quite accurate in that:
    * Student loan payment of $12 is paying off his debts, so that is still money in his pocket because he doesn’t have to pay the loan later.
    * Likewise, the $3 of Kiwisaver is still going into his account.
    
    So the total is really $5.83 + $15 = $20.83.
    
    But, yes, he could take his $60, pay $12 of that into the student loan and do a voluntary contribution of $3 into his Kiwisaver and still have $45 in his pocket vs $5.83.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:33am
    - PeterTrentham
      
      Getting to and from work cost possibly more than $5.83 also.
      
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      August 8, 2025 9:35am
    - rouppe
      
      I was going to say the same thing. Along with if he got injured he’d still expect acc and public healthcare.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:03am
    - cmm
      
      It also doesn’t take into account that the $20 of Accommodation Abatement is not really money he lost.
      
      Instead it means $20 that he didn’t beg off the taxpayer.
      
      Now, surely for anyone with any self-pride, being $20 more self sufficient is worth something?
      
      I don’t know about others but taking hand outs like that something I am prepared to work to get out of.
      
      And no, the NZ Super is different. That is not a hand out if you’ve been contributing to it your whole life.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:23am
      - Ian Boag
        
        not a hand out if you’ve been contributing to it your whole life
        
        Yeah yeah. Too bad there’s no account with your name on it that records the money put aside for your pension …. bit of an oversight.
        
        Sigh. Your “contribution” has been spent – not invested – spent – on the pensions of the generation that preceded you.
        
        But we already both know that we disagree on this. We even know the points on which we disagree. It seems relatively unlikely that either of us will change his opinion, but at least it seems we can toss ideas round without getting personal 🙂
        
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        August 8, 2025 11:38am
  - pdm
    
    TN – one thing that definitely needs to be scrapped is the sec tax rate.
    
    It is one good reason not to take a few hours extra work eg bartending a couple of nights a week, picking asparagus, fruit picking at weekends.
    
    All of which I used to do when first married and especially when our children started arriving.
    
    Extra money for Xmas or a family holiday and the tax did not seem so onerous as asparagus and fruit picking were classed at a `casual agriculture’ rate in the early 1970’s.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:16am
    - mandk
      
      I don’t think you understand taxation on secondary income.
      
      There is a wash up at the end of the year and any excess tax paid is rebated.
      
      At worst, it is a form of involuntary short-term saving.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:25am
      - jonno1
        
        Exactly. I have several income sources, some taxed, some untaxed. My year-end IR3 sorts it all out with a refund (rarely), terminal tax (almost always) and provisional tax (varies as there is a $5000 threshold).
        
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        August 8, 2025 3:47pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Umm. The scenario I read was a married couple – not a solo parent – with two children and not trying to rip the system off in any way. Hubby on min wage job, wife on JS and actively looking for work. Aware of her obligations and not trying to duck them.
  
  He just described the rather bizarre way that a collection of haphazard benefits get abated in a strange sort of way. He expressed the opinion that it is all a bit hard for the people navigating it. If she went the whole hog and got a min wage job, it would amount to about $7/hour and in addition there would be childcare costs to pay out of that.
  
  I haven’t thought it through, but I guess we could probably organise that the effective marginal tax rate was capped at -say 50% – even if 39% is a “disincentive to work” 🙂
  
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  August 8, 2025 9:10am
  - RoboRob
    
    This is the problem with all these various benefits. You have to have a cut off point somewhere and the amount you get should drop as your income increases. The result is that it discourages people from increasing their income as the drop in benefits negates a lot of the effort.
    
    I once knew a guy that was offered a big promotion and asked to move to Auckland from Chistchurch. He did the math and by the time he factored in all the reductions in benefits (incl free glasses, cheaper doctors) and the increased cost of living, he would be worse off by moving to Auckland. So he turned the job down.
    
    The more benefits thrown out there (accom suppliment, working for families etc) the more this problem increases. National are equally part of the problem by adding to this with their new childcare support package.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:32am
  - cmm
    
    What do you mean by not “ripping off the system”?
    
    “The system” really does not have any money. The taxpayers do.
    
    Just because it is legal does not mean the taxpayer is not getting exploited.
    
    The disincentive to work very much depends on how much money you need and how much you value time. If you’re in your 30s with a mortgage and a family and little in retirement savings then there is a lot of incentive to work.
    If you’re in your 60s with no mortgage and a reasonable chunk of money in savings then there is far less incentive to work.
    
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    August 8, 2025 9:38am
    - Ian Boag
      
      So you are not blaming these folk for taking what is available?
      
      I think you forgot the PAYE bit in your sums.
      
      PaulL summed it all up quite well in his KB series a while ago. If you abate benefits 100% $ for $ from the first $ then noone in their right mind will look for work. The actual abatement rate would likely be more than 100% because things like community services cards will also go.
      
      If you have a workable solution to the poverty trap dilemma there is a Nobel Prize in Economics waiting with your name on it 🙂
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:04am
      - cmm
        
        I conpletely agree with you that the abatement levels are too high and create too much of an inflection in the earning curve.
        
        The abatement should be halved from what it is now. Perhaps it should be at the income tax rate?
        
        Let’s stop calling it the “poverty trap” because it is disingenuous to do so. It s a hand out trap. Nothing to do with poverty all all. It is all to do with how hand outs are structured.
        
        At the other end of earnings this is also a reason to not income test the NZ Super. If you were to, say, cut off Super at $180k, then there are a whole lot of people inclined to earn $179,999. Instead, just leave it as it is: paid but taxed. Then all the Rich Pricks are still paying far more in income tax than they are getting out of Super.
        
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        August 8, 2025 11:48am
      - Ian Boag
        
        the abatement levels are too high and create too much of an inflection in the earning curve.
        
        And then you will end up paying the benefit for further into the earnings curve. You probably won’t like that either. Again – PaulL went through all this and that Nobel Prize is still there for you.
        
        The only answer that gets rid of the trap is to bin all benefits and go to a UBI … and we all know how likely that isn’t.
        
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        August 8, 2025 12:22pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      If you’re in your 30s with a mortgage and a family and little in retirement savings then there is a lot of incentive to work.
      
      Yep – same is true if you are renting. But the incentive to work gets knocked back a bit when every $ you earn actually adds 10c to the family income …
      
      If you’re in your 60s with no mortgage and a reasonable chunk of money in savings then there is far less incentive to work.
      
      Again – the effective marginal tax rate influences this. From your posts I get the impression that you are in this category and still working …. would you bother if every extra $ you earned left you with 10c in the hand?
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:10am
    - cmm
      
      Ian wants a workable solution from the poverty trap. Perhaps there is none and the actual solution is to not create it in the first place. But I’m a nice guy so I will try:
      
      First, let’s not call it a poverty trap because that is a misnomer. It is actually a hand out trap.
      
      If it really was about poverty, then people would grind very hard for a dollar.
      
      The “hand out trap” only exists because of two factors:
      * There are far too many hand outs making non-working life too easy.
      * There is a disincentive to work because so much of that is just deducted from the hand outs.
      
      The solution is two parts:
      1) Reduce the amount of handouts in the first place. That drives up the value of each $ a person earns.
      2) Reduce the deductions so that there is still a residual reason to work.
      
      To take the TN’s example, the guy earning a gross of $100 really got to keep $24 of that: $6 in his Kiwisaver ($3 from him, $3 from the employer) + $12 of his student loan repaid and $6 of cash. That is a lot different to the $6 he calculated.
      
      The WFF and Accomodation abatements were $46. That is huge. That is the major disincentive to working and keeps people in the hand out trap.
      
      In my opinion, the abatements are too high. They should be halved. That would give far more incentive for people to work and would overcome the main problem of the hand out trap.
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:41am
      - Ian Boag
        
        So you think the benefits should be reduced and the abatements should be tightened up. It might even have been thought of already …..
        
        The term “poverty trap” is pretty widely understood and accepted. If an anonymous KB commentator wants to call it something else that might not get a lot of traction. 🙂
        
        The interesting thing about the example is that the couple cited were in no way grifters. She was not trying to hide from her JS obligations or anything like that. Basically – if I have it right – your issue is that the JS is too generous, particularly when you add in WFF and the AS etc. And the abatement should be steeper.
        
        And of course the whole “get a job” thing is currently clouded by the unemployment level. Stories of people with 100 applications and no interviews etc are not hard to find.
        
        So – just to get one thing straight – do you think that the abatement should be 100% ie the first $ you get comes straight off your benefit? Sounds logical and simple …
        
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        August 8, 2025 11:58am
  - rouppe
    
    Abatements are not tax. That’s socialist thinking.
    
    As you transition into work, I’d expect to pay them less welfare from my taxes.
    
    Once you’re fully off welfare, income really takes off as you take on more work, higher paying job and all that.
    
    If you think poor, you’ll stay poor.
    
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    August 8, 2025 11:07am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Abatements are not tax.
      
      True, but they have much the same effect on the family budget … the money is there … they take it because they meet the rules … is that their fault?
      
      Perhaps you think they shouldn’t take it?
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:30am
      - rouppe
        
        Perhaps you think they shouldn’t take it?
        
        Not what I think at all. Curious that you think that’s the only other option to taking it.
        
        Perhaps if they thought of it as a proper transition from taxpayer dependency into independence. Yes it’s hard, but if you think a bit further than the absolute worst option, it is a transition to a pathway with a much much better future.
        
        Why is the discussion only about minimum wage jobs? Why can’t one or the other train to get a skill for better paying job? Getting a class 2 or track and roller licence. There a job advertised for a council worker with a class 2 licence right now. Some skill to get the living wage rather than minimum wage. My son was a pool lifeguard and the council paid the living wage. A stop/go sign twister even.
        
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        August 8, 2025 11:48am
      - Ian Boag
        
        @rouppe
        
        Some good ideas. A class 2 licence costs about $1500 …..
        
        Also if the news media are anything to go on, living wage jobs are in pretty short supply at present even for experienced people. You could probably make that “any jobs”
        
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        August 8, 2025 2:16pm
      - rouppe
        
        I would be gobsmacked if WINZ wouldn’t come to the party for the licence, if it facilitated or was tied to that job.
        
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        August 8, 2025 3:29pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @rouppe
        
        I know about the cost of a class 2 because I was doing some ESOL (English Language Partners) stuff and we had an Afghan refugee who told us he used to drive a truck at home. Needed a class 2 and I got involved a bit with the trainers. We went to MSD about getting the cost paid and they said they might if he had a job offer conditional on having a class 2. That didn’t really work. Surprise.
        
        As it happened some family paid and he got the ticket – but last I heard he wasn’t having much fun finding a job – the usual “no experience” story …
        
        Make of all that what you will. Slightly gobsmacked maybe? 🙂
        
        Go figure
        
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        August 8, 2025 7:28pm
    - cmm
      
      “Once you’re fully off welfare, income really takes off as you take on more work, higher paying job and all that.”
      
      Yup and that is why high abatement levels lead to the hand out trap.
      
      Below that cut off point, people don’t see sufficient returns from their efforts so they have little incentive to work.
      If you’re earning, say $50k and your take home pay doesn’t budge much until you get to say $ 70k, then it is really hard to get motivated to earn $55k, $60k,…
      
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      August 8, 2025 11:52am
      - rouppe
        
        I’m constantly amazed that people still get welfare when they’re earning $70k
        
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        August 8, 2025 1:13pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @rouppe
        
        amazed that people still get welfare when they’re earning $70k
        
        Even when they aren’t over 65 🙂
        
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        August 8, 2025 7:33pm
Right of way is Way of Right

Willow Jean Prime has managed to do something that I would have thought to be impossible.

She has made Jan Tinetti look competent.
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August 8, 2025 8:20am
Yvette

Covid was the most expensive economic to this country. The government spent $66-billion – which is 20% of our GDP.

$66 billion divided by Team of 5 million is $13,200 each
Or has someone done this division already
Still it could take an ardernity to pay it off
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August 8, 2025 8:31am
Swifty

Banzaiiiii!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360784004/nz-japan-bolster-defence-links-naval-visit
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August 8, 2025 8:39am
G152

Watched a TV program where cameras were present in a number of places when a tornado hit an American town.
The darkness of the dust storm…… unbelievable,,
The winds so strong that buildings weren’t just deroofed but completely collapsed and tractor trailer rigs blown over and off the road…
Five minutes later a calm settled totally destroyed scene in bright sunlight….
Unbelievable
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August 8, 2025 8:48am
Yvette

PM Jacinda Ardern has ruled out implementing a Capital Gains Tax while she is at the helm of Labour

“Under my leadership, we will no longer campaign for, or implement a capital gains tax – not because I don’t believe in it, but because I don’t believe New Zealand does.”
“I have always been clear that we would not be able to proceed unless we were able to form a consensus – that has not happened under this Government.”

Labour has campaigned on implementing a CGT for three elections.
In 2011 and 2014, Labour was rejected by the voters – a GCT was a cornerstone of those election campaigns.

“It’s time to accept that not only has a Government that reflects the majority of New Zealanders not been able to find support for this proposal, feedback suggests there is also a lack of mandate amongst New Zealanders for such a tax.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-jacinda-ardern-has-ruled-out-implementing-a-capital-gains-tax-while-she-is-at-the-helm-of-labour/IQ4FD7CLYKKLU6YAH2H2S4MDSE/

Ardern has been swapped out by Hipkins, but in regard to GCT has anything else changed?

Or, as two consecutive Prime Ministers – Hipkins and Luxon – hold completely opposite views on whether Maori ceded sovereignty under the Treaty, can two consecutive Leaders of Labour hold such opposite views too on CGT?

And – Winston Peters says there is no compelling reason for CGT
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/winston-peters-says-there-is-no-compelling-reason-for-a-capital-gains-tax/DEE537UTU376JHMK4SR6ZXHSLQ/

CGT, RIP: What role did NZ First play in dumped tax?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-kills-off-capital-gains-tax-wont-happen-on-jacinda-arderns-watch/PRAJYZ2BSONYAFTJI4HJ6JUS5A/.
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August 8, 2025 8:57am
- cmm
  
  CGT is a huge envy card to play.
  Whether it gets airtime or not really depends on which audience they are addressing.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:53am
  - Ian Boag
    
    CGT is a huge envy card to play.
    
    Yep. You got me. I seriously envy people who get income they don’t have to pay any tax on.
    
    Paying 15-20% tax – about what other places have – would definitely crash the economy and destroy the incentive for productive investment of any kind. Just like it has in Oz – and Canada – and the US. Even South Africa has one 🙂
    
    One question I guess (to quote cmm) is “would it move the needle”? The answer is “not for a while”
    
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    August 8, 2025 1:03pm
  - Paulus
    
    Media will love it to play the CGT for Labour for the election !
    
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    August 8, 2025 2:10pm
    - slijmbal
      
      I’ve posted before how CGT covers a whole range of different implementations. Saying country X has one really doesn’t describe the situation. The question is what type of CGT does Labour want and what does it include/exclude?
      
      CGTs are generally poor taxes in that they are normally festooned with excemptions to make them palatable to the population, provide very lumpy tax income (very rare to tax unrealised gains for obvious reasons), can frequently be at least partially avoided by wealthy people, tend to hit the middle class the most, if not careful end up being a tax on inflation and reasonably expensive to administer.
      
      There is rather strong evidence that a CGT has no measurable influence on excessive housing prices (they are mostly driven by other local and central government policies).
      
      Having said that some element of fairness pushes one to implementing a CGT. Personally, I am against it not because I am against being fair I am against trusting Labour as they will use it to increase tax revenue and punish those of us who were diligent beause of the green eyed monster that drives much of Labour politics.
      
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      August 8, 2025 7:33pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        CGT is not about “controlling” property prices. It is just about the simple idea that CGs are income and should be taxed like other forms of income. For pragmatic reasons personal residence is exempted (like everywhere else) and to allow for inflation the rate is discounted (like everywhere else).
        
        It just means that CG’s are taxed (not at 100%) like other income.
        
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        August 8, 2025 9:05pm
oldpark

Could not but notice todays Wellington Post the trendy Lefty news outlet which also fronts for “Stuff” once more got their so called Front Page headline” A about face”. They had a headline regarding Wellington City Council deciding not to spend Mega Dollars on a fence along the Waterfront Walkway Rightly so .
That was Page1.Yet on Page 6 there is a well crafted type of headline regarding Ardern and Robertson crucifying NZs Economy to the tune of $66,000,000,000 Billion Dollars regardless of the common sense advice they got from NZs Treasury Department .
What a bloody indictment of News Reporting from that mentioned Newspaper hiding and massaging the financial and economic disaster Labour Legacy to NZ.
Think that type of News and Headline should be worthy of at Least Front Page. Go Figure
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August 8, 2025 9:27am
imalwaysright

We have a government hotline for road cones.

We don’t have a government hotline for child abuse.
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August 8, 2025 9:29am
- rouppe
  
  Isn’t it 111?
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:09am
- pdm
  
  ima – surely the child abuse hotline is 111.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:21am
- imalwaysright
  
  Rouppe and pdm,
  Can you not see my point?
  Get a grip.
  A child being tortured daily before being murdered is not equivalent to a road cone.
  Yeah, just ring 111 ….
  We should be sniffing these scumbags out, and applying suitable remedies.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:53am
Swifty

If NZ reality is so bloody wonderful and so beloved by so many New Zealanders then why is our tax money required for it to be made?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/screens/tv/nz-on-air-fund-reality-tv-did-they-put-their-money-in-the-right-place

As if New Zealanders aren’t doing it hard enough, they have their pockets raided to fund this stuff – which most of us will never watch.
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August 8, 2025 10:02am
kiwikidsnz

UK homelessness minister resigns over claims she evicted tenants to raise rent

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/569371/uk-homelessness-minister-resigns-over-claims-she-evicted-tenants-to-raise-rent
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August 8, 2025 10:04am
- cmm
  
  Someone forgot their compassionate British roots…. Oh, never mind…
  Comes soon after the UK’s anti-corruption minister resigning after corruption…
  
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  August 8, 2025 12:07pm
  - mogg
    
    Plus many Labour ministers and backbenchers pandering to Muslim extremism, because if they don’t they will lose their seats.
    
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    August 8, 2025 1:19pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      ……or their heads.
      
      3 3
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      August 8, 2025 3:21pm
oldpark

Wonder will Wellington’s “Post” do something useful
just for once.Or even “Stuff ”
Is to let us all know and why (9) Wellington City Councillors at end of June 2023 voted for a so called Friendly Relationship with a West Bank City Called Ramallah .The charge was led by Mayor Whanau.
Seems they spent more time on that fiasco rather than helping out distressed fixed term Ratepayers on the massive Rate Increases being enacted on July 01 2023.
Maybe they realised there would be no Friendly relationship with Ratepayers as they continued to gouge money to pay for waste of space bicycle tracks as well as saving old clapped out earthquake buildings .Just creating overall chaos in the time we were unfortunate to have them so called running the council.
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August 8, 2025 10:10am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Sounds like a ratepayer funded trip for two weeks to Ramallah for the 9 councillors would be money well spent.
  
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  August 8, 2025 11:18am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I’d make sure that the return flight was refundable.
    
    4 0
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    August 8, 2025 9:25pm
- kowtow
  
  Capital of the PA who engage in “pay to slay” . And our political classes “recognise” them!
  And isn’t the head man into his twentieth year of a four year term ……..
  
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  August 8, 2025 12:10pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Sounds hugely appropriate for the way Wellington is going.
  
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  August 8, 2025 12:25pm
Tom Hunter

Just in regard to DPF’s post about Southpark’s swipe at Trump, where DPF said that They skewer everyone.

Apparently not.

If you want to know why South Park never took swings at Joe Biden the same way they’ve been doing to President Trump, the show’s lawyer also just so happens to be the guy who funded Hunter Biden’s legal defenses.
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August 8, 2025 10:39am
Prince

Richard Lyons doesn’t turn up, is eventually sacked after several attempts to meet, and 18 months later gets $7,500 of ratepayers money.
Despite all the evidence of Rotorua Council reaching out, the Employment Relations Authority says…
‘However, the council’s decision to sack Lyons without giving him the opportunity to improve did warrant an order for lost wages, she said.’

This is in direct contradiction of the facts.
I hope the Council appeal, but either way this Employment Relations Member needs to be sacked.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360783362/council-staffer-who-turned-work-only-half-time-awarded-7500
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August 8, 2025 10:47am
- greybeard
  
  Hopefully his ( Lyons’ ) name will be on every potential employer’s blacklist for some time.
  
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  August 8, 2025 7:25pm
Chuck Bird

I find it incredible that Tulsi Gabbard, a high-ranking politician in the US, believes in aliens. I believe that it is likely that there is other intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. However, I do not believe that it is possible to travel faster than light. Therefore, there are no aliens here on Earth.
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August 8, 2025 11:11am
- mandk
  
  There are aliens on earth.
  
  Nothing else could explain where Green MPs come from.
  
  25 2
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  August 8, 2025 11:27am
- Gary Benner
  
  Chucky,
  ” I do not believe that it is possible to travel faster than light. Therefore, there are no aliens here on Earth.”
  
  A contradiction there – “you believe ..” is an opinion, not a fact.
  
  The fact is the current science does not currently know of a way to travel faster than light – but maybe it can. Quantum mechanics suggests that virtual particles can disappear and reappear somewhere else, and even be in multiple places simultaneously. Now this is all bleeding edge stuff, but that has been the nature of scientific discovery for centuries, so just maybe there is another way to get around the universe other than traversing the distance between two points?
  
  So maybe we could say, if aliens are here on earth, or nearby, they would need to be from a sufficiently advanced society as to pose no threat, and in fact could help and guide us.
  
  As it says in the Bond movies, “never say never”.
  
  8 1
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  August 8, 2025 11:46am
- cmm
  
  Why conflate the potential for aliens and traveling faster than the speed of light?
  
  The distance to Proxima Century is 4 light years. At half the speed of light that is an 8 year trip. Therefore possible with a sufficiently sophisticated technology without violating any speed of light boundaries.
  
  Now that’s not to say I believe there is intelligent life out there at all. I really don’t care if there is or isn’t. It doesn’t change what I do on a day to day basis and I think it is rather a waste of time to worry about it.
  
  8 3
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  August 8, 2025 12:01pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “Why conflate the potential for aliens and traveling faster than the speed of light?”
    
    Because the distance is so great that if there were intelligent beings, they would not be able to travel here. The Americans spend money sending signals to nearby stars. That makes sense but believing aliens are here or in Area 51 is just stupid. How long would an MP from one of our parties in government of Labour last if they expressed such views.
    
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    August 8, 2025 1:36pm
- rouppe
  
  “Speaking on the New York Post’s “Pod Force One,” Gabbard answered “yes” when pressed about whether she believes in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, according to the outlet.”
  
  Isn’t believing in the possibility of aliens (different to your statement) and asserting there are aliens on earth two completely different things?
  
  And what this boils down to is that you say you believe something, she said she believes something, but somehow she’s not allowed to.
  
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  August 8, 2025 12:06pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Moreover there have been thousands of scientists over many decades who have said that they believe in “the possibility of extraterrestrial life” on the sheer basis of probability that we can’t be the only ones in a universe of billions of galaxies each filled with billions of stars.
    
    Now whether we can even contact such civilisations is doubtful given the distances involved, let alone physically getting there, which is why I doubt we’ve ever been visited by aliens (although the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey had fun with that concept).
    
    But there certainly have been some unusual encounters between the US military and “objects” in recent years that merit further investigation. My fave on that front was the f-15 pilot who tracked an object approaching his plane and whose onboard camera caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a metal ball hurtling past him.
    
    Perhaps Chuck might like to find the link where Gabbard says that she thinks aliens are here on Earth or have visited us – because that would be unusual for a politician not named Jimmy Carter.
    
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    August 8, 2025 2:08pm
Jack5

For those who follow shipping …

China has begun sending modest-size container ships through the Arctic around northern Russia as an alternative to the southern route through the Suez Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope.

Shipping commentator Sal Mercogliano in his latest video news (link below) expects traffic to grow as Russia completes new ice-breakers.

Russia is using the route to export LNG to Asia, with ice-breakers leading big tankers.

The route also carries ships that can move south through Russia’s big rivers deep into the country.

Mercogliano’s 16-minute video at:

https://youtu.be/PZdSAIMoI2w?si=0Er4onFwenoAAePZ
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August 8, 2025 12:02pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360784924/climate-activists-close-down-dunedin-anz-bank-branch-amid-nationwide-protest
Note the facemasks and Palestinian scarves on the rent-a-crowd people in the photo with Chloe Swarbrick. What tossers. Get back to work !
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August 8, 2025 12:28pm
- Swifty
  
  Blocking people going about their lives and conducting their business should be a criminal offence in my view.
  
  Assemble over the road, wave your signs and have your protest no problem, but blockade anyone or anything and it’s handcuffs and a night in the cells and the judge the next day.
  
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  August 8, 2025 1:59pm
- graham
  
  And the same people will be howling loudly when the next bank branch closures are announced, crying how hard this will be on their customers and demanding the bank keep the branches open because the owe it to the community …
  
  9 0
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  August 8, 2025 2:53pm
- mandk
  
  Work?
  
  Don’t you know Comrade? There’s an economy to wreck and a revolution to start.
  
  Work is for the Boxers and Clovers of this world.
  
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  August 8, 2025 3:08pm
- Jack5
  
  Climate fanatics don’t respect democracy. How arrogant of them to try to force the ANZ to de-bank a customer in a legal industry.
  
  Since Greens have stifled NZ from using our tens of billions of tonnes of coal resources, let us dare these fanatics to block imports of Indonesian coal for power generation.
  
  Peak-demand power black-outs that follow will make New Zealanders seethe with anti-Green anger.
  
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  August 8, 2025 4:52pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  In Wellington their equivalents were busy waving Palestinian flags while standing on one of the urban motorway overbridges.
  
  Work shy, the lot of them.
  
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  August 8, 2025 9:30pm
Prince

What is it with Lloyd Burr (the ‘journalist’) and Peters ?
Is there a history there ?
Burr seems to follow Peters around and take exception to everything he says and does.
I know Burr wrote several adulatory articles about Ardern. Did Peters upset him along the way ?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360785299/winston-crl-boss-im-not-wearing-high-viz
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August 8, 2025 1:28pm
Swifty

I’m completely with Winston on this one:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360785299/winston-crl-boss-im-not-wearing-high-viz

If hi-viz is required in case there’s an incident, why don’t KiwiRail require all their passengers to wear it?

I think the requirement of hi-viz has reached ridiculous levels in this country.
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August 8, 2025 1:54pm
- MCōs
  
  The reason visitors are required to wear hiviz gear is outlined in the article.
  There is an embedded poll indicating that only a minority of respondents agree with Winston, but big enough, if they all vote for him to significantly boost his support.
  NZF is the only party whose support is so thin they rely on 5% of the party vote.
  
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  August 8, 2025 5:10pm
  - graham
    
    A poll in Stuff that shows quite a few people who read Stuff don’t agree with Winston Peters. Now there’s a surprise.
    
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    August 8, 2025 5:38pm
    - Swifty
      
      Heh.
      
      Indeed.
      
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      August 8, 2025 8:41pm
  - Swifty
    
    Thanks you for adding absolutely nothing to the debate MCos.
    
    I ask again, if hi-viz is required in case there’s an incident, why don’t KiwiRail require all their passengers to wear it?
    
    Riddle me that Batman.
    
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    August 8, 2025 5:55pm
- greybeard
  
  I agree. However, CRL and Kiwirail were remiss in not offering Winston a 3-piece Hi-Vis outfit. They should surely be aware of his sartorial excellence.
  
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  August 8, 2025 7:50pm
  - Swifty
    
    The hi-viz kept for visitors frequently stink too on my experience. They’re rarely ever washed.
    
    Many a time I’ve had to wear them for a site visit and come away stinking from them.
    
    Can’t rule out that a few new or pristine examples have been kept aside by KiwiRail for VIPs but it’s not my experience.
    
    4 1
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    August 8, 2025 8:44pm
Swifty

Pickpocketing in NZ:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1B1DgtuqyA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Sad if it takes off.
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August 8, 2025 2:18pm
DimChappie

How dumb can some school principals be: RNZ heads its report `Act of racism’: Education Ministry cans children’s school book for too many Māori words.’

`The (Maori Principals Association) president Bruce Jepsen said the decision not to reprint “At the Marae” was racist and white supremacist. The ministry told schools “At the Marae”, did not fit the sequence that young children were now taught to decode words using the structured literacy approach.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/569423/act-of-racism-education-ministry-cans-children-s-school-book-for-too-many-maori-words
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August 8, 2025 2:20pm
- Scooter
  
  Why not have a book all in Maori? Do they have to mix a Maori word here and there so the overall story can be understood? This mish-mashing of words is just going to ruin children’s literacy even more. Just more virtue signalling rubbish.
  
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  August 8, 2025 5:43pm
Swifty

Tamihere and his goon squad strikes again!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zO65RgAKcf0

If death threats have been made I expect the police to investigate thoroughly.

As for Tamihere, at the very least he owes the bloke a grovelling apology.
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August 8, 2025 4:21pm
Swifty

Aussie issuing visas to Hamas-loving Jew haters:

https://x.com/skynewsaust/status/1953599679444529575?s=46

Just what Aussie needs.

//
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August 8, 2025 4:58pm
NZer In Exile

Tom Nelson Climate Realism Podcast #325

Dr Robert Ian Holmes. Australia – Climate Scientist – Astronomer – Mining Engineer – Environmental Engineer.
https://rumble.com/v6x54kc-robert-ian-holmes-climate-truths-tom-nelson-pod-325.html?e9s=src_v1_cmd%2Csrc_v1_ucp_a
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August 8, 2025 5:50pm
NothingLeft

NZ public service was 30k in 2000 and is 63k now. In same time our population went from 3.85 to 5.35, a 1.5million increase. we’ve gone from one public servant per 128 people to 1 per 84. Increasing their headcount per population by 50%.

All while computers and various productivity tools have increased the productivity of other white collar sectors by about 50%.

But not govt, who somehow have gone backwards by a similar margin.

And who would say that our governance is noticeably better as a citizen than it was 25 years ago?

How can this govt let this go on? The public sector as a whole are ideological enemies of the productive sectors that keep the lights on in NZ, They are twice the size they should be to match 2000 year size with productivity gains. With average wages of $100k that is a $3billion a year, with several times that in additional costs imposed by their existence and cost they impose on NZ through busy work trying to justify their existence.

Feeding their bloat is feeding the destructive left wing cult that actively undermines and sabotages the prosperity of NZ promoting maori supremacy and other insanities.

Rightsizing (halving) the public sector would just about wipe out our current deficits – perhaps more as would hopefully also reduce regulatory burdens on productive sector.

https://i.redd.it/1biwygcj67vc1.png
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August 8, 2025 6:01pm
Quail

NL
And the regulation these extra bureaucrats creates takes more and more bureaucrats to enforce!
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August 8, 2025 10:06pm

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