About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

August 20, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 20 August 2025

Like this:

Like Loading…

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment196

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (196)

Login to comment or vote

Scott

On Fox News we have a good analysis of the latest meeting at the Oval office of Trump and all the European leaders.

https://youtu.be/NH_ZscJKCEo?si=3EY0bfdqwkOL0qUV

I think we have to give Trump credit. He’s got all the European leaders unified to try and stop the war in the Ukraine. He needs to be given credit for that. He’s trying everything possible to stop the war and bring about a lasting peace agreement.

I’m sure we can all hope these efforts are successful.

The other interesting thing is the images in the video of Trump sitting behind the presidential desk and all the European leaders sitting around the desk. It’s like the headmaster calling in the junior teachers. Or the headmaster having a meeting with the head boy and the head girl and the rest of the prefects.

It’s amazing. Trump does not apologise for being a world leader. He’s not ashamed of his country and its place in the world.

Our NZ politicians can learn from him. We too have a great country and it’s well past time for NZ leaders and politicians to stop apologising for it.
39 7
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:02am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  He’s trying everything possible to stop the war
  
  Can we have a reminder of what Trump / the US under Trump, have actually done to apply actual pressure to Putin, the one who has it in his power to stop the war? Yes, he has said, several times, that there will be severe consequences for Russia if there isn’t a ceasefire. There hasn’t been a ceasefire, and earlier ceasefires were broken by Russia.
  
  So what has been done ? What severe consequences, in practice, has Russia experienced from US action?
  
  14 30
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:30am
  - RoboRob
    
    Sure. Its actually quite simple.
    
    Under Bidens advisors, the US heavily sanctioned Russia and refused to talk to Putin. He insisted that the only outcome was total success for Ukraine and therefore total defeat for Putin.
    
    Trump changed the narrative to, the war needs to end. He continued sanctions and aid but ALSO opened communications with Putin and started negotiating, something that Biden had refused to do. Surprisingly if you want to negotiate peace, you need to talk to both parties.
    
    Does that clear it up?
    
    26 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:44am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      And how would things now look different, if instead of negotiating with Putin, Trump had done nothing but listen to Putin’s demands and then repeat them with a US flag attached?
      
      4 12
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 1:06pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Also simple. There would be no negotiations and the war would continue on to its inevitable conclusion. It is essentially the Biden plan.
        
        7 2
        Report
        August 20, 2025 2:18pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The party is not over DQ. Stand by for further developments.
        
        1 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 8:41pm
  - kowtow
    
    Yeah well the “leaders” making the most noise about ‘standing up to” Putin , the Europeans , are still actively funding Putin’s war by buying his oil and gas.
    
    Hypocrites of the highest order , whom the legacy media are very happy to give a free opass to , while constantly bleating on about Oreange Man Bad.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:28am
    - Conservatarian
      
      One of them, Starmer, is unable to stop young foreign men from invading his country via small boat, and then helping himself to hotel accommodation and welfare. Starmer recently “celebrated” a record 50,000 such men turning up in his first 12 months of premiership.
      
      A good deal of these men help themselves to the goods inside retail stores and the women of England.
      
      13 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 1:02pm
  - Scott
    
    I get it. Some people think Trump should be harder on Putin. Some people still think Trump is a Russian asset.
    But we don’t know that if Trump was harder on Putin that would make a peace deal more likely? We don’t know that.
    
    What we do know is that Trump does have a red line and as he’s shown with Iran he’s prepared to take action, severe action.
    
    But let’s give peace a chance. If a Democrat president was doing this then the press would be fawning in their praise.
    
    Trump is doing a great job. He’s trying to stop war and bring about a peace deal. That’s a good thing. Surely?
    
    18 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:33am
    - Graeme Hall
      
      What happened to the policy of deterrence through strength? Peace in our time does not work when the other side has a completely different mindset. The only thing that will stop Putin now is to act by imposing sanctions and stopping trade, or by taking military action in Ukraine to drive the Russians out. Nuclear weapons cancel each other out. Neither side wants mutual annihilation. Until then Putin will sign any peace pact, and agree to any conditions but if he doesn’t believe Trump or the Europeans will act against him then like Stalin & Hitler, he will carry on with his war. History shows time & again, the longer leaders like Trump dither around, the more people will die and the worse the final resolution will be.
      
      1 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 2:43pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I don’t think Trump is “dithering” at all. He’s said this is a lot harder than he thought it would be (which is plain to see anyway). I think fair enough for just admitting this. Russia is buddies with a lot of other sketchy regimes. Trump does appear to be getting “his people” to tirelessly work through this to end the slaughter on both sides ASAP.
        
        0 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 8:45pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        NZer in Exile: I’m sorry to disagree with you. Trump has been threatening to put sanctions on Russia time & time again, if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. He has done nothing. This latest episode went the same way – Putin simply carried on killing.
        
        The WH episode when Vance & Trump started attacking Zelenskyy on camera for not conceding to Putin’s demands was shameful bullying especially when Putin was the aggressor – as usual.
        
        It is not hard to figure Putin out – it never was. Just read Mien Kampf and substitute Vlad for Adolf. The playbook is almost the same. Sadly for the West Trump is now playing the role of Chamberlain.
        
        I have been a fan of President Trump ever since 2016 after he won the Republican primary and accept he deserved to win in 2024 but that does not mean I have lost my critical faculties.
        
        0 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 9:42pm
  - Interested Party
    
    The conflict is on another continent thousands of miles away, what he has done is get the slack Europeans to pony up with some $, and to take some ownership of the issue in their backyard 1-0 to Trump
    
    21 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 11:29am
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Thousands of miles away for sure, but the US arguably helped bring this situation about (with, incidentally, absolutely no input from Trump).
      
      It’s an extension of what used to be termed ‘The Great Game’, except The Donald doesn’t want to play, and the rest of Europe can’t afford it.
      
      3 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 3:04pm
      - kowtow
        
        GFN
        
        Some commentators are the view that this is all part of the Great Game.
        
        For the US this isn’t about Ukr , it’s all about China.
        
        4 1
        Report
        August 20, 2025 3:56pm
  - Skippytony
    
    Think you are missing the point, Dudley.
    
    OMB is a transactional player. He is focussed on an outcome and is now getting all the parties to articulate what they are willing to trade to get a result.
    He is never going to, say, put US military force on the ground.
    He is, though, Im sure willing to pull any number of financial levers to force people to the table.
    
    10 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 12:03pm
  - KH
    
    No one else is trying to stop the war. But Donald Trump is. The rest are standing on fine points of principle and Russian and Ukrainian men continue to die.
    Congratulations President Trump.
    
    11 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 1:55pm
    - kowtow
      
      ‘standing on fine points of principle’
      
      Indeed and all the while still buying his oil and gas .
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 3:57pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        The USA is still buying Uranium fuel from Russia.
        
        0 0
        Report
        August 21, 2025 1:50am
- Viva Christo Rey
  
  In the same vein I enjoyed tremendously Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign ministers interview with some western little girl reporter. She keeps trying to interupt her and he is having none of it. Refuses to be interupted, talks over the top of her, just steamrolls her. Its a thing of beauty.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:39am
- Northshoredoc
  
  There’s no doubt that the European Heads of State are becoming more adept at playing to Trump’s foibles. I don’t think they’re at Putin’s level yet though.
  
  Regardless I hope there’s a peace settlement and that there is a halt to the killing.
  
  7 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:56am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    More adept? More like summoned to the Oval Office, forced to sit in hard chairs in front of the head master, and told what their next steps are.
    
    Beautiful photograph. We were all impressed by the collective unity of european leaders laying down the law to OMB //s
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 4:42pm
- virtualmark
  
  ?
  
  Europe has long been unified in wanting to stop the war.
  
  European leaders interrupting their summer vacations on 24 hours notice to fly to Washington hints more at alarm at whatever was said in the cut-short Alaska summit with Putin, rather than anything else. This was a polite family intervention.
  
  And the chairs in front of the desk was a very Trumpian piece of stage management designed to give the impression that you clearly got. But that sort of stuff just chips away at America’s standing with those European allies.
  
  Really what needs to happen is that Europe needs to grow some balls and press on with Ukraine on its own, without relying on the US. It’s primarily a European problem (they are naturally concerned that if Putin is not stopped in the Ukraine he will press on to other targets like the Baltics and Romania). Collectively they have a bigger population than the US, the same GDP, and the same size defence industry. If Europe got fully behind equipping Ukraine then Russia wouldn’t last long. To me the big question over the coming year will be will Europe eventually break with the US.
  
  9 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:35am
  - NothingLeft
    
    It would be cheap for Europe to beat Russia – just supply them with ~$10 million a day in parts, <0.1% of their automobile industry turnover to build ~1000 long range drones. Let Ukraine wipe out Russian bridges, powerstations, grid substations, transformers, oil and gas infrastructure, ports, aircraft, airports, factories piece by piece until the Russian populace have had enough and force their govt to stop war. Would only take a few months.
    
    The big problem Europe still has is high reliance on Russian oil and gas,. They are still buying much more than they are spending on support of Ukraine – they need to make a hard choice in that regard.
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 2:53pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Yes, it would be relatively easy for Europe to support Ukraine enough to defeat Russia. They have become accustomed to only doing things in support of the US and it seems they’re finding it hard to break that habit.
      
      But I suspect that Trump’s trade and foreign affairs policies are bringing Europe to the point where they will have to make a decisive break from the US. In the long-term that will benefit Europe but harm US global power and influence (*)
      
      (* All American Presidents since WWII have had an “America First” policy, it’s just that they’ve expressed that in terms of gaining long-term power and influence rather than short-term bullying … which is why the US is the “leader of the free world”. US power on the world stages diminishes if regions like Europe adopt their own independent foreign policy.)
      
      2 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 4:18pm
    - virtualmark
      
      My 2 cents worth on steps Europe could take to support Ukraine, independently of the US:
      * Seize the Russian assets currently frozen in EU banks and hand them over to Ukraine, to be used to buy weapons from the European defence industry,
      * Send Ukraine long-range strike missiles, like Taurus and longer-range missiles to be fired from HIMARS,
      * Blockade the Skagerrak to stop the “phantom fleet” shipping out Russian oil,
      * Stop buying Russian oil & gas (noting, to be fair, that this is mainly a southern Europe issue, not a Northern Europe one)
      
      etc. Those things don’t require US approval or action.
      
      3 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 4:24pm
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      That is not wise advice. I for one was fond of Paris and Moscow. Do you think giving European drones free firing rights into Russia would not be seen as an act of direct war?
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 4:48pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Russia is heavily reliant on Iranian and North Korean supplied long range drones and ballistic missiles, as well as North Korean Artillery (guns and millions of shells), and tens of thousands of front-line troops and workers – slaves of the Kim regime loaned to Putin. And of course there is an enormous quantity of Chinese drone parts, infantry supplies and transport for front line troops – Chinese supplied motorbikes are now nearly entirety of their front line transport.
        
        Russia would have long since lost ability to continue without China providing the majority of what is being used by Russia’s front line fighters.
        
        So other countries supplying Ukraine with similar is already well established in the status quo.
        
        2 1
        Report
        August 20, 2025 6:04pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      They don’t have it and 0.1% or 10% of their automotive industry won’t produce it.
      Look at the problems they’re having with ammunition tanks artillery and almost everything else.
      90% of the essential components, batteries electric motors radio control and semi conductors are produced in China.
      There is no way the EU is going to win a production war with Russia+China
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 21, 2025 1:57am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    and there is your problem
    
    Europe has no balls
    Europe has no military
    Europe has sacrificed its economic muscle for “net zero” pontificating
    Europe has welcomed a huge invasion of people who do not share its values, and are destroying its culture.
    
    The European leaders have the “soft power” of a stiffly worded note. And to misquote a wise, if evil man, “how many Divisions does soft power wield?”
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 4:45pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Europe is re-discovering its balls. Look at the investment in military production, the rising military budgets etc etc.
      
      What Europe lacks is a collective mechanism to unite behind. It has NATO, but that’s hamstrung by being dependent (captive?) to the US. And it has the EU, but that’s hamstrung by including Russia-adjacent countries like Hungary and Slovakia.
      
      But none of these problems are unsolvable.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 9:01pm
- imalwaysright
  
  The EU leadership hypocrites have been, up to this point, desperate to keep the Ukraine gravy train full steam ahead.
  
  Now that the party looks like being over they break their necks to get to the Whitehouse to rebrand their sorry arses as cheerleaders of peace.
  
  11 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:10am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Rubbish, European leaders see Ukraine war only as an extremely costly crisis for their already severely screwed economies. There have been very late and limited in their growth of military industry to support it. That has only really changed with Trumps dropping of support meaning Europeans now understand that US can no longer be relied upon to keep Russia from winning – it has become a more pressing and low-grade existential crisis for Europe so they have begun to stir themselves for their multi-generational military slumber.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:11pm
- Handyman
  
  I will stick to my prediction made on the first anniversary of the war.
  Peace will come when:
  1. Ukraine accepts that occupied land will be ceded to Russia,
  AND
  2. Russia accepts Nato forces on its border.
  
  The success of the meeting with the Europe leaders is that the Europe will commit to troops on the Russian border. Not “peacekeepers” under the UN but NATO combat troops deployed in a defensive posture, ready to fight.
  
  The ball then goes back to Putin. Are the likely military gains going to be enough to offset the drop in oil revenue?
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 2:52pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Russia already has NATO forces on its border … from Finland down through the Baltics, within 100km of Russia’s second largest city. The “Russia doesn’t want NATO forces on its border with Ukraine” is Russian agit-prop.
    
    3 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 4:28pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Not sure this Deity agrees. Russia has already won the Ukraine war. What remains is what terms are acceptable to Russia to stop their advance.
    
    Ukraine is going to be partitioned, if now, then Ukraine might keep Odessa, if next year, probably not.
    
    If Ukraine is obdurate, Russia may deal with Poland and Hungary to share out the rump territories to them – after all they were Polish and Hungarian well before Ukraine existed.
    
    Ukraine will become a demilitarised buffer zone. Russia and the US will guarantee this, and the sanctions will be lifted.
    
    There are no credible alternatives left.
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 4:53pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Probably correct.. Though Europe will never commit troops until long after the drones have stopped flying.
    
    Crimea, Donbas, Kherson and Luhansk are largely wrecked economically for the long term – as water supplies that made them valuable agriculturally are damaged beyond repair – will take decades to fix, and most industry and workers are long gone.
    
    A Pyrrhic victory for Putin at best, particularly with the awful economic and demographic damage done to Russia.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:17pm
Cassandra

Admiral Ami Ayalon is former Commander of the Israeli navy and a former Director of Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet. He’s written an interesting article for the Foreign Affairs Institute of which I’m a member but you might be able to access it as a guest.

The thrust is “Following its unprecedented military successes, Israel now stands at a historic T-junction. One path—the one Israel is now on—will lead the country toward the erosion of its current peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the deepening of internal polarization, and international isolation.

It will encourage further radicalization across the region, more religious-nationalist violence from global jihadist organizations that feed on chaos, a decline in support among U.S. policymakers and American citizens, and an increase in antisemitism worldwide.

To choose the other path—one that enhances security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and fosters stability and prosperity across the Middle East—Israel must head toward a regional agreement that includes a viable two-state solution.”

Israel is heading towards annexation of Judea and Samaria and noting Putin’s moves on Ukraine you might think that they’d get away with it but I agree with the admiral, in the long term it’s just not viable.

Of course there’s got to be a seismic shift in the Arab world too but given the Abraham Accords that seems quite possible.

If the Arab nations can recognise Israel’s right to live in peace and, importantly, take action to ensure that, then a solution to this tragedy is possible.
22 6
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:02am
- mandk
  
  What does he think a viable two-state solution would be, given that the Palestinians are avowed to wipe Israel off the map and kill all the Jews?
  
  30 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:07am
  - Cassandra
    
    One in which the Palestinians doing that. Enforced by Arabs. Pretty obvious really, and also the seismic shift I referred to above.
    
    3 9
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:15am
    - RoboRob
      
      ???
      
      Sorry, interested in your proposed two state solution. What do you mean by ‘One in which the Palestinians doing that’? Do you mean them actually wiping the Jews off the map? Or are you suggesting that the Palestinians would be a hostile heighbour to Isreal and the Arabs would provide security and invade Palestine on Isreals behalf when Palestine lobs rockets into Isreal?
      
      Not being sarcastic, just trying to work out what is being proposed?
      
      10 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 10:32am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        I think Cassandra hit send prematurely – I expect he means that the Arab nations will take control and deliver Gaza from Hamas. Only Arabs can defang jihadis. Also Arabs destroying neighbourhoods and killing Arabs = meh to the world media, it is a normal state of events. So the story vanishes.
        
        Its plausible, because no one likes “palestinians” they were a cold war creation that has served their purpose (and the last time someone tried to accommodate them, we got Black September).
        
        0 2
        Report
        August 20, 2025 4:58pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Mandk, I think I would listen to Admiral Ami Ayalon rather than a keyboard pounder in NZ.
    
    There are a number of proposals for a 2-state solution.
    The one I like is the removal from both Palestine and Israel of the top 5? % of radicals from both sides.
    
    And fresh elections on both sides(ie get rid of Netanyahu)
    
    I also like someone’s idea that a multinational company with a mixed board of Palestinians/Arabs and Zionists and meery cans for a reconstruction company, focused initially on clearing rubble and building replacement residential.
    
    Thinking outside the box is required rather than the repetition of same old, same old slogans/Ideology
    
    2 8
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 2:11pm
    - kiwimike
      
      More wet rubbish.
      The Muslims want to destroy Israel and kill the jews on their way to us !!!!
      Duh !
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 7:04pm
- kowtow
  
  While peace with neighbours is all nice , cuddly and kumbaya and the Abraham Accords are a lovely soundbite ,the facts of that region are Israel , a democracy is surrounded by populations who hate them with , an, to western democratic eyes , unfathomable irrationality and so any deal with dictators who themselves cling to power only by threat , repression and intimidation is barely worth the paper it’s written on.
  
  17 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:34am
  - Cassandra
    
    Egypt, the Druse and Jordan accept Israel. It’s a bit more than kumbaya. It’s worth a try.
    
    7 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:17am
    - kowtow
      
      The Egyptian and Jordanian govts , both very repressive, do.
      
      The Arab “street” is a very very different matter.
      
      6 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 10:29am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        The Arab “street” doesn’t matter. There is a reason why most governments in the region are repressive autocracies. Democracy requires people who value civic institutions. Low trust societies are invariably not democracies. Which suggests that democracy is an unusual experiment in human history and an outlier in political systems, rather than the natural order of things that our society has grown to expect.
        
        1 1
        Report
        August 20, 2025 5:01pm
    - kiwimike
      
      Cassandra HAHAHA
      ask anyone in Egypt on the street ??
      
      why are you such a fool?
      Do you hate Israel so much that you put aside your common sense.
      I really can’t believe this naiveté considering you multitude of other posts…….
      
      0 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 7:23pm
- Master Mariner
  
  That’s the real question,
  
  “If the Arab nations can recognise Israel’s right to live in peace and, importantly, take action to ensure that, then a solution to this tragedy is possible.”
  
  The answer depends on the Real motive of Netanyahu and his supporters,
  Ie A Greater Israel ?
  Netanyahu Stirs “Greater Israel” Row; Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Arab League React |
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-A3i_BiB30
  KSA have already released a Reply condemning his words.
  
  Netanyahu is on the road to a “Scorched earth” policy and the Arabs will turn on him and Israel.
  
  5 19
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:56am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I wonder if the Ukraine negotiations will have any influence on the US military support of Israel ?
    
    6 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:22am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Interesting, I too think they are some how aligned in a sense.
      
      Russia’s Putin is perceived as the expansionist and Israel is not at least by MSM ?
      
      I can not see how US can keep on supporting Israel in the near future for that matter either.
      
      3 9
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 9:32am
  - Inandout
    
    MM, follow the oil money and you will see those Arab nations want a stable market, not continual conflict and unsure markets. Netanyahu is merely doing what Arab nations would dearly love to do but can’t in the name of ‘solidarity’. There is also the Middle East tourist market, especially Saudi Arabia, that depends on stability, not continual wars.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:59am
- MCōs
  
  Having apparent military dominance is no guarantee of victory as America found out in Vietnam, Germany in Russia, the UN in Korea, the UK, USSR & America in Afghanistan
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:38am
- KH
  
  I agree with Ayalon. If Israel continues to behave like this they are doomed.
  If you want Israel to survive tell them to stop killing people.
  
  2 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 1:59pm
  - kiwimike
    
    sadly you’ve drunk the PR Media Koolaid
    
    0 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 7:26pm
- kiwimike
  
  [Best way to get banned here is to continue to abuse your host. No further warnings will be forthcoming. mod.]
  
  The existence of Israel is an affront to Islam and their prophet Muhammad.
  period.
  
  Everything the Muslims do is “nibble nibble” and the iIsraeli street since Oct 7th have taken that on board.
  
  Sadly, you’re begginning to sound like those Euro twits over Ukraine…..
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 7:02pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

In the ultimate two fingers to education and the taxpayer, teachers go on strike for more money while pupil accomplishment rates are in the toilet. No wonder teachers don’t believe in performance pay.

I’ve got an idea for the Minister. String the teacher unions out for a month, then lock them out for a couple of weeks. Not coincidentally, that’s the school holidays.
31 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:03am
- rouppe
  
  I find it astonishing that they say they need more support for the new curriculum.
  
  In effect teachers are saying they incapable of teaching reading, writing or math.
  
  20 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:34am
Bridgenag

The Red Cross Suppressed A Cure For Malaria in 2012, Causing Over Half A Million People To Die Every Year Since
More evidence that international health care organizations (and all governmental health care and regulatory agencies) are fully captured by Big Pharma.

https://open.substack.com/pub/pierrekory/p/the-red-cross-suppressed-a-cure-for?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
18 6
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:09am
- JackRabbit
  
  As any medical professional who has spent time in African nations will tell you, Malaria cannot be treated with a vaccine.
  
  Everyone knows that Malaria is spread by parasites spread through mosquito bites.
  
  You can only treat for the parasites. Ivermectin, Doxycycline, etc.
  
  Visiting Doctors and Military personnel usually have to take anti-malarial / anti-parasitical treatments daily.
  
  War Mongers only make money selling arms when there is war.
  
  We see that with Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
  
  Big Pharma only make money when there is disease.
  
  We saw that with Covid and the vaccines.
  
  “Our cash-flow is dropping. Wind up the fear mongering bullshit dis- information machine boys, so we can sell more “cures”.
  
  17 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:31am
  - Viva Christo Rey
    
    Like how a flu virus can’t be treated with a vaccine?
    
    8 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:41am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Exactly.
      
      6 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 1:13pm
Bridgenag

New Bill Gates-Funded Chimeric Polio Vaccine for Children Sheds 100% in Recipients, Spread Documented: ‘The Lancet’ Journal
Frankenstein pathogen cobbled from multiple viruses gained genetic stability, meaning scientists rewired its genome with an unnatural trait no wild poliovirus has.

“This “safety trial” involved a release of lab-built chimeric polioviruses into humans.
Every participant shed the engineered virus.
Spread occurred between people.
Severe adverse events were recorded.
The vaccines are synthetic hybrids spliced from multiple polioviruses.
They provoke unpredictable immune responses.
And the trial was designed and run by Gates Foundation staff, UNC Chapel Hill, and the CDC.
Is this eradication—or reintroduction?”

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonfleetwood/p/new-bill-gates-funded-chimeric-polio?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
9 5
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:11am
- JackRabbit
  
  “Vaccine-derived polio spreads in Africa after defeat of wild virus”
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/02/vaccine-derived-polio-spreads-in-africa-after-defeat-of-wild-virus
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:22am
- sirknz
  
  Can we just keep Bill Gates away from food and medicines at this point?
  
  He was talking about releasing a tick that makes people allergic to meat which would coincidentally prop up his synthetic meat operation.
  He was also pushing a new coating for fruits and veges called ‘Apeel’ which was certified organic but had some very nasty stuff in it, and pushing to not require any notification to the public that items were coated in it.
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:35am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I honestly think his heart is in the right place. But he’s a way too hubristic for my tastes.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:20pm
Tom Hunter

In the discussions the other day about “TPM’s Abuse Machine” I pointed out that all this has connections with the academic theories of “Post-Colonialism”, which includes terms like “Settler Colonialism” – the whole “Land back is going to happen”.

Well it also includes this academic theory. Watch the 2 minute video:

Medical school lecture by Dante King, UCSF and Mayo Clinic professor, last year.

White people are “psychopaths” and all white people are racist

This still being taught at medical schools around the country

They call it “anti-racism”

Coming to New Zealand soon, if it’s not already here, judging by “journalist” John Campbell’s embrace of “Colonialism” theory.
34 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:17am
- kowtow
  
  “Anti racism” , DEI call it what you will “courses” across the west are nothing less than our equivalent of the Maoist , Red Guard Struggle Sessions . The only thing missing is the overt violence , dreadful fashion and Little Red Book.
  ( See that Red Guard doing very well for himself , thank you very much, off some billionaire endowment or other)
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:47am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Oh much joy in the Kingdom of Wonder,
    Sunny morning again, a balmy 25 overnight.
    AND
    None of this colonialism , racism ranting.!!!!!
    
    Albeit that anti Thailand rhetoric is still strong.
    AND most people more interested in educating their children and carrying on with their family centric lives.
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 2:20pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Ah, we do have the dreadful fashion.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 8:50pm
Scott

Twice now I’ve been able to post here on reporting that shows fake claims of a starving child in Gaza. In both cases the “starving” child was actually suffering from another condition and was not starved for lack of food. And in both cases contrary evidence was ignored, a healthy mother in one case and a cropped out of the photo healthy older brother in another.

But now we have reporting in the New York Post that claims that every single case of a child claimed to be starving was a fake.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/18/opinion/with-every-photo-of-a-starving-gazans-proving-fake-beware-of-claims-of-gaza-famine/?utm_source=chrome&utm_campaign=android_nyp

It’s all fake. It’s all a media lie! Would the media do that to us? Of course they would. Joe Biden behind closed doors is fit as a fiddle. Trump is a Russian agent. Covid came to us from bats in a wet market in Wuhan. If we don’t lock down 80,000 NZers will die! Take the shot, otherwise you’ll kill granny!

So ask yourself this. Is the starvation in Gaza all BS? Maybe it is?
If children are starving in Gaza why does the fake news have to make up examples? Why can’t they find a real starving child? Why do they have to make things up?
31 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:19am
- Ra Henare
  
  Scott, beating the same old same old drum wont change a thing.!!!!!!!!!!!!
  So the media use an inappropriate picture to headline a story. SO what!
  THEY DO IT ALL THE TIME.
  
  Its an International trait.
  
  1 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 2:22pm
  - Scott
    
    Yes for some the facts are hard to swallow. Write this down. Israel are the good guys. Hamas are the bad guys. Children are not starving in Gaza.
    Everything the mainstream media is telling us is fake news.
    Support Israel.
    Don’t support Hamas.
    Don’t support the mainstream media who lie to us every single day.
    
    That’s – SO WHAT!
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 5:49pm
- virtualmark
  
  Interestingly, re the NY Times article that used the photo of the boy with cerebral palsy (among other things) and presented that as evidence of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza …
  
  Of the 4 people bylined in that story it appears that at least 3 of them no longer work at the NY Times. I suspect the NYT has severed links with the Gaza-based reporters who filed the story. And the 4th one, who was New York based, seems to have also left the NYT although that’s not totally clear.
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 4:57pm
penguincouple

Helen Clark on abuse of female politicians – and how losing Jacinda Ardern was ‘devastating’:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/helen-clark-on-abuse-of-female-politicians-and-how-losing-jacinda-ardern-was-devastating/GZMWXSMQBZHB7B3MNQ5N46ETKQ/

The left needs to stop playing the victim card by raising gender as an issue whenever convenient.

I despise Ardern not because of her lack of a penis, but for her lack of a brain.
58 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:22am
- sirknz
  
  “The left needs to stop playing the victim card by raising gender as an issue whenever convenient.”
  
  It is all they really have, they try to hijack the emotional responses to get support for whatever BS they are peddling today.
  
  Why do you think the women in the Greens shop around for mental health issues? It supposedly shields them from blowback for their poor decisions…
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:06am
- Eastlander
  
  So ‘abuse’ is driving the likes of Ardern, Whanau and Marin out of public life. Frankly that’s an argument in favour of it.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:16pm
- NothingLeft
  
  I despise her because of her pre-meditated destruction of civil liberties, long-sacred freedoms and democratic norms during her toxic rein as self-appointed covid queen. A foul period in NZ history. Worst PM ever.
  
  And her minsters were the least competent mob of wastrels in living memory. A complete failure of democracy that any of them have survived the last election without being permanently defenestrated from parliament.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 6:26pm
- kiwimike
  
  I want her in Jail for what she did to NZ and her people.
  Dr Ashley, Hipkins and the rest of the cabinet.
  The Medicine Control Board too.
  bastards the lot of them.
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 7:32pm
Frank the tank

See ya Trev.

Perhaps your old boss is in need of a gopher at Harvard.
16 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  Does Trev have lots of family in Massachusets .
  
  Afterall that was the criteria for the ambassadorship in Ireland.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:32am
  - Paulus
    
    No, but understand he has family by his first wife in Ireland so said to Ardern Gimme a Knighthood, and send me to my daughter, highly paid and for great perks, paid for, as a Ambassador to Ireland.
    Along with all my pensions in Aotearoa.
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 2:24pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Right. That crap needs to stop. These lavishly paid public servants can pay for trips like that themselves.
      
      0 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 8:53pm
Nikola Donatello

I see there is a demonstration planned for tonight in Lower Hutt on “pay equity”.

How many people understand what “pay equity” is about? Who started it? How did it end up with the prospect of bankrupting the government before it was shut down?

To be honest I had never heard of it until the government caused outrage by shutting most of it down.

This is what you get when you establish committees run by the government to set wages.

I am wondering how many outraged people in Lower Hutt tonight know what they are outraged about.
34 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:22am
- pdm
  
  ND – thrill of the week/month/year for Lower Hutt people.
  
  Carmel Sepuloni is the main speaker if Virginia Anderson can be believed.
  
  19 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:35am
  - mandk
    
    “thrill of the week’
    
    Indeed it is.
    
    The most exciting thing that normally happens in Lower Hutt is the little animated green man on the pedestrian light crossing outside Queensgate.
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 8:58am
- Prince
  
  I’d like to know why Labour didn’t include the financial impact in any Budget or Forecast, while they were in office.
  It’s a question not likely to be asked by any of our ‘journalists’.
  
  16 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:35am
- Burtland
  
  another marxist rort of the taxpayer – “the carnival is over” folks
  
  “You have librarians … comparing themselves to transport engineers. We have admin and clerical staff […] comparing themselves to mechanical engineers. We don’t believe we have that setting right” – van Velden
  
  28 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 8:55am
  - Prince
    
    Problem is, all of this is reported by journalists who think they are ministers.
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:43am
- Ra Henare
  
  All I can say about pay equity legislation is PPPP.
  NZ, is now one of the most highly regulated economies in the OECD.
  
  NZ needs a disrupter leader, ergo Trump, Javier Milei , Victor Oban. Someone with balls to call out PPPP.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 2:26pm
Hugh Jarse

Helen Clark has slipped in the twilight zone of some of the elderly where they think imaginings are real and she is now delulu, citing Ardern and Whanau as evidence of her argument. No Helen it’s because they are useless, not that they are women.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/helen-clark-on-abuse-of-female-politicians-and-how-losing-jacinda-ardern-was-devastating/GZMWXSMQBZHB7B3MNQ5N46ETKQ/
40 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:41am
- Scooter
  
  Exactly, Jacinda probably had the easiest ride of any politician, thanks to a compliant media. However when one media did call her out eg Mike Hosking she turned her back and like a petulant child refused to be interviewed. How a politician can get away with that just shows how she got a free pass, only now are people walking up but Helen is still dreaming.
  
  23 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:41am
  - OlderChas
    
    I treat every utterance by that has-been/never was UN “czar” as it truly is – utterly irrelevant.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 12:23pm
peterwn

So the Electricity authority and the deluded Minister think that their rule tweaking is going to do wonders for the electricity market and prices. They forget that there are only so many deck chairs available for rearranging and that their proposals would only serve to limit the supply of new deck chairs.
So presumably the likes of Electric Kiwi will be able to continue buying power at low prices but the generators will be required to sell them power at a regulated price when spot prices are higher.
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:43am
- virtualmark
  
  Requiring generators to offer the same terms to internal and external customers won’t change much.
  
  First, they’ll price for the external customers and then in their own consolidated business any losses made by the retail arm will be cancelled by the profits made by the generating arm.
  
  Second, they’ll still sensibly want to offer volume discounts, payment terms etc that will favour their own internal retail arms.
  
  Sounds to me like a nice announcement that makes people think the Government is doing something when it isn’t doing much.
  
  The electricity sector’s problem is a fuel shortage, not an industry structure problem.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:40am
- nz_aj
  
  Prices will only come down when sufficient baseload and dispatchable lowest price generation is available. There is no mechanism forcing its construction. The government should announce how much of the above generation we want built by which year, and what the maximum average sell price can be. Then auction off subsidies to make it happen, the winner being the constructor who’ll accept the lowest subsidy (with penalties if it’s not built on time).
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 3:57pm
  - peterwn
    
    The last thing Nicola would be wanting to do is have to budget for subsidies. Non-$ incentives would be better.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 5:26pm
- NothingLeft
  
  CATL (china) have announced a sodium based battery “Naxtra” that costs only abut $30/kWh to make and lasts for 10,000 charge cycles , compared to Lithium batteries that are closer to $100/kWh. That is going to have a huge impact on making pv unreliables more economically viable as grid supply over coming decade – and for people looking to go off grid with their home roofs covered in PV, with a weeks worth of battery storage for less than $10k.
  
  Going to make EVs (particularly big SUVs) way way cheaper too. Truly cheaper than IC engined cars
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 6:29pm
rjay

There has been an election in Bolivia. The right wing candidate is ahead. Could South America about to be the economic powerhouse of the world?
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivia-heads-runoff-after-right-turn-presidential-vote-2025-08-18/
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:53am
Ron Jeremy

Can’t tell me the media isn’t still on liebours pay roll . See the Herald trotting out that old Helen to comment on Jacinda [Mod – use correct names] and how hard we have been on her . Cripes it’s boring. No wonder the polls have them neck and neck . I’ve started looking at properties on the Gold Coast as we a stuffed in liebour get back in .
26 2
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:54am
- Ra Henare
  
  I have started to get morning news from Centrist.
  https://centrist.nz/
  
  Refreshing after all the non news from the likes of the Herald and Stuff amongst others.
  
  Am sure some will call it right wing, but I find it interestings.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 2:29pm
Nikola Donatello

This is so annoying.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/helen-clark-on-abuse-of-female-politicians-and-how-losing-jacinda-ardern-was-devastating/GZMWXSMQBZHB7B3MNQ5N46ETKQ/

Jacinda failed because she was an awful leader of the country. It is shocking gaslighting that it is now all because she was a woman.

And honestly, Helen Clark is in the news every week sticking her oar into something. She left her PM role 17 years ago. Nobody cares.
62 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 8:57am
- mandk
  
  Clark didn’t leave her role. She was dumped by the voters.
  
  One thing to credit Ardern for is that she saw the writing on the wall.
  
  40 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:02am
  - imalwaysright
    
    More like someone read to her the writing on the wall.
    
    Watch this (less than 2 minutes) and tell me it was her idea to quit.
    https://youtu.be/TBrmC7-tSVQ?si=jjDvZPI6dQy6Fhq5
    
    She looks like a spoiled brat who has just heard the word “no” for the first time in her life.
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:01am
    - lifesgood
      
      Shoved! Jolly good show.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 12:11pm
  - Inandout
    
    mandk, I vividly remember her loss speech to the gathered Labour voters, a bitter tone in her voice. Then she left the stage and brushed past Peter who was about to embrace her. Some things tend to linger.
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:08am
    - mandk
      
      Ah yes, Peter. Her hubby of convenience.
      
      11 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 1:24pm
      - Paulus
        
        Believe still a highly paid Professor at Auckland University after having been “selected” to leave Canterbury University and his umm friends, so go to Auckland where he remains.
        Can he get a US visa yet ?
        
        5 1
        Report
        August 20, 2025 2:28pm
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        It was actually only a few years ago that I discovered that Helen Clark was married. It had just never registered with me beforehand.
        
        6 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 3:03pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Being married was basically a requirement for her candidate selection in’80’s, so I am sympathetic to marriage of convenience. Wonder if she will ever come out?
        
        1 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 6:39pm
- Flossie
  
  I wish I could give you a whole lot of upticks!
  Couldn’t agree more.
  
  26 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:04am
- Burtland
  
  another week – another leftard with a bullhorn telling us what to think
  – any wonder people have turned it all off
  
  21 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:06am
- imalwaysright
  
  ND,
  Their assertions might stack up if similar accusations didn’t also apply to male politicians, many more of whom have had the same treatment.
  
  That they cite being female as the reason for their being criticised shows a shallowness that any capable woman would never lower herself to.
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:07am
  - NothingLeft
    
    accountability has long since ceased to be part of left wing personal lexicon, especially for ‘I’m a strong empowered victim who may not be criticized’ women
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:46pm
- James Stephenson
  
  Abuse of female politicians is terrible…unless they’re in the National or ACT parties.
  
  34 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:08am
  - Prince
    
    So true. Look at the abuse Ruth Richardson got and still gets (including from Clark and her acolytes).
    But she’s right wing so the wrong sort of woman. Aasl she’s married with two kids so definitely not a real woman by Labour’s standards !
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:53am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  It’s funny that this is coming from Helen Clark. While many on the Right did not like Clark or her politics, most (grudgingly) admitted to her competence.
  
  I would have thought that Helen would regard Jacinda as someone who gives female politicians a bad name.
  
  34 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:15am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The only time we saw Helen cry was because of a woman. T Harawira.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:36am
    - Jethrod
      
      Oh, she admits to a weep on her wedding day.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 3:46pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        They all did…
        
        2 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 4:49pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Yes, so sad she had to marry a man (even if he is homosexual)
        
        4 1
        Report
        August 20, 2025 5:04pm
- G152
  
  The old woman sits
  and from her mouth spits
  The odd bitter word
  though no-one listens
  And now, unheard
  Helen…..
  just shut the hell up
  
  35 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:15am
- Philview
  
  It is a bit much for the media to be continually sticking the boot into the women on the centre right but then run stories complaining about the online treatment of women on the left.
  
  28 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:15am
- peterwn
  
  Helen has her eye on one thing – that place next to Wellington College.
  
  20 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:21am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    NO WAY JOSE!!!
    
    19 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:29am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Correct fighting,
      
      Luxon wants that job for Mallard….
      
      3 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 9:38am
  - RalphT
    
    Aaah! Spare us from her as GG
    
    16 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:30am
  - rouppe
    
    She is an avowed anti monarchist, dumped the privy council and Royal honors.
    
    Why would anyone consider her for GG?
    
    13 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 11:46am
    - peterwn
      
      The UK Government wanted Commonwealth countries still using Privy Council for appeals to cease the arrangement. NZ acted in before Westminster cut the cord. Only current British colonies have access to the Privy Council for appeals.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 5:30pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The hypocrisy is strong in that one
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 9:53pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Next labor govt may consider her if voldemort is unavailable.
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Not the Basin Reserve!
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:52pm
- Souvlaki
  
  ? Are we going to see any improvement for the ‘reputed’ shake up of governance of the Herald since Joyces ascension the Board of NZME?
  They continue to offer strongly left propaganda by my assessment :-(….the share holders have been ‘diddled’….
  
  14 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:26am
- Master Mariner
  
  Wish the reporter would just ask her if she would of attended the Covid Commission if she was in Jacinda’s Jandels.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:58am
- Scooter
  
  Helen has been (get it?) wheeled out as poor old Jacinda and the COVID crew have had a bad rap lately. For a country of 5 million we really have far too many politicians and especially those trying to still have any relevance long after they left politics.
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:01am
- rouppe
  
  The Left didn’t realize that criticizing a woman is not misogyny, and criticizing a Maori is not racism.
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:50am
artemisia

High schools close as teachers hold one-day strike RNZ today

The government needs to “come to the party” on teachers’ pay if it wants a high quality public education system, the PPTA says.

Does that mean pay teachers more and New Zealand will then and only then have a high quality public education system. Seriously? Any proof PPTA?
32 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 9:13am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Teachers advocate for performance pay.
  
  Whodda thunk it.
  
  25 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:16am
- G152
  
  Evidently they only get paid around $100,000 a year
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:17am
  - wsk12345
    
    Only? For about 35 weeks of part time work (4 classes a day seems to be normal).
    
    And they still can’t teach addition, subtraction and basic literacy.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 9:39am
- rjay
  
  First year teacher will get a roughly $5000 a year pay rise for each of the next ten years regardless of any new pay deal. And regardless of capability or responsibility. What other worker gets that?
  
  19 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:26am
  - RoboRob
    
    Most other government employees 🙂 They are mainly on unionised contracts where pay rises are set out in a schedule and based on length of service.
    
    My wife took a significant pay cut to move to work for a government agency (MOE). Part of the rationalisation was that in ~3yrs she would be back to her old wage. What we didn’t account for is the union putting them on strike (work to rule) and the government docking their pay 10%. Sucks, especially when she isn’t actually doing any less work currently.
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:27am
  - peterwn
    
    As far as the unions are concerned, competence increases year by year, no more, no less.
    
    14 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 10:53am
    - I remember when
      
      peterwn:
      And for the whole of their membership!
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 10:58am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      Unions can never admit there are differences in competence between individuals. It would undermine the whole basis for collective bargaining.
      
      12 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 11:37am
  - rockape
    
    Nurses and the military just for starters!
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 1:20pm
- R
  
  The teachers received significant pay rises during the ArdernHipkins years, and are now about 4-5 years ahead of ‘other career employees’ in the country. Paying them more has not been rewarded by improved educational results from the classroom; in fact recent surveys have shown that classroom performance has deteriorated.
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:54am
  - kiwimike
    
    But remember, like nurses, the staffing levels destroys their work environment
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 7:43pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Replace them with AI tutors. Foreign experiments are going great, higher quality teaching at far less cost.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:46am
Philview

I listened on the Platform’s Youtube channel yesterday Michael Laws talking about the main churches in New Zealand will be rolling out an educational programme to “educate” parishioners about how to vote in the Maori wards on councils referendums. Common Grace Aotearoa are behind this and they also mobilised churches against the Treaty Principles Bill. The elevation of Te Tiriti as some kind of sacred ideology is disturbing. How long before churches start teaching less about Jesus and more about Maori pantheism? If a future Marxist Government told Christian schools that they have to prioritise the teaching of Maori Gods over Jesus would the churches complain. We already here that preschools are teaching toddlers Maori mythology as the foundation I assume of this country.
23 2
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 9:27am
- Prince
  
  One of the best things any Govt could do to improve the lot of the p[oor, esp PI families, would be to legislate against the appalling practice of titheing.
  Would be interesting to do some research on how many families reliant of welfare also give money regularly to their church.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 9:58am
  - Ra Henare
    
    A better option in My Humble opinion, is to remove the churches tax free exemption next month, if they get involved in politics. End of story
    
    Do a Trump, propose this option, and watch the churches exit politics at high speed. Then after elections say it’s just a proposal.
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 2:36pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      Fair enough but you need to add any non-profit, NGO to the same treatment:
      
      Greenpeace
      Taxpayers Union
      Unions
      Barnadoes
      SPCA
      Red Cross
      Etc etc
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 6:41pm
- mandk
  
  No wonder the mainstream churches are in decline, if they think this is their role.
  
  The churches that are growing or holding their own are the ones that preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:12am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360796402/inside-taika-waititis-star-studded-50th-birthday-bash-ibiza

Is this bad? (Look at the photos of bulk cigarettes on display).
Will there be any push back from the anti smoking and anti business lobbies here?
Would it be more acceptable if it had been lines of cocaine and/or cannabis cigarettes on the party tables?
All ok as Mr Waititi and his associates are famous in Hollywood?
13 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 9:36am
- john1234
  
  That Waititi (Real name Taika David Cohen) likes to lecture the peons about social justice climate change, but holds his birthday party in Ibiza so all his rich mates can fly in from across the Atlantic in private jets. What a hypocrite.
  
  23 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:42am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Perhaps he is the spokesman for “Smokers for climate change then.”
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 12:17pm
  - muzled
    
    I didn’t know that about his name.
    
    Safe to assume his brother? is Rawiri Cohen then I assume?
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 3:10pm
- cmm
  
  Such an awesome New Zealander. Goes to Ibiza for a 50th birthday.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:54am
- sirknz
  
  “Would it be more acceptable if it had been lines of cocaine”
  
  I have a friend who briefly moved in the circles of the wealthy here in NZ and he has described parties where it wasn’t so much lines, as mounds.
  
  So to answer your question, that sort of thing was very likely there, but not in an area where photography would be allowed.
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:03pm
imalwaysright

The public service will steadily increase their efforts to undermine the government by causing general disruption to us and the country.

If Luxon can’t or won’t do something about it he should move aside and let someone who can and will.

Otherwise Labour will win the election.
11 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:14am
- sirknz
  
  “If Luxon can’t or won’t do something about it he should move aside and let someone who can and will.”
  
  Not Nicola Willis as she will be a definite vote loser for the Nats.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:04pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agree, Willis isn’t PM quality .
    I was thinking of Simeon Brown. He’s the only one in National who could do the job. Maybe have Stansford as deputy.
    
    6 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 12:28pm
    - balanced
      
      Simeon Brown worked as an associate at bnz until he was elected at 25yo.
      
      He’s a bright boy but he certainly doesn’t have the experience required to do the big guys job well!
      
      Amd anyone who thinks Luxons job isn’t one of the most difficult in NZ, hasn’t managed anyone or anything!
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 2:09pm
      - balanced
        
        Brown would make an excellent finance minister.
        
        Why?
        
        He can give speeches without having to read from an a4.
        
        He can remember numbers.
        
        His background is finance.
        
        He sorted out transport and health.
        
        So he could easily sort out the robbing cartels…. banks suermarkets, Insurance companies, plumbers, electricians, councils, electricity companies, civil engineers, etc.
        
        Simeon Browne for finance Minister.
        
        8 0
        Report
        August 20, 2025 4:07pm
  - Philview
    
    I liked Nicola when she was in Opposition . It might be unfavourable editing by the media but she is coming across as a bit too rehearsed in all her comments. She is probably scared of the media whereas other MPs can slap them down. Shane Jones will give a journalist a verbal slapping and in that case we can smell the fear coming from the journalist.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 1:36pm
- Paulus
  
  Labour cannot win the election without the coalition of the willing and what THEY want, to join.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 2:37pm
greybeard

“Stuff” is persisting with the maori language shit and calling our country “Aotearoa” in many articles. I simply do not understand why: what is it they are trying to say, or achieve?
24 2
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:30am
- kowtow
  
  Actively trying to undermine our culture , history and traditions that’s what .Legally there’s no such place. And despite whatBrownlee said , that geographic naming crowd ain’t allowed to either.
  
  From the Act.
  
  ‘(3)
  
  However, the Board does not have jurisdiction to assign a name to, or alter the name of, New Zealand.’
  
  Nor is it just $1uffed and the media .
  
  Here’s ACC. Renaming Dunedin.
  
  ‘The four-storey ACC Ōtepoti building is a joint venture between Ngāi Tahu Property and ACC Investments,’
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dunedin-acc-building-ready-staff
  
  14 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:39am
- NothingLeft
  
  conformity to the activist political agenda of left leaning racist arts graduates that are the pool from which all Stuff staff are drawn from, a solid 20% of the population! I mean who really cares what the other 80% of the population think? (other than potential advertisers)
  
  Worked great during the Cindy years when govt was paying most of the bills of their favorite propagandist organs in legacy media.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:41am
- imalwaysright
  
  Cut and paste one of their articles and email it to the marketing department of their advertisers and tell them you will boycott their product.
  
  Tell them you can’t buy their product because you don’t have a bank that deals in Aotearoan currency.
  
  Cc to the manager.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:32pm
cmm

Just been out for a drive and experienced the special people that are Christchurch drivers.

They have a unique way of interpreting traffic light changes:
* Green->Yellow: Hoof it. Time is running out.
* Yellow->Red: Ok, you need to think about stopping. The last two or three can go through.
* Red->Green: No rush. Finish writing that text message and send it. Update your Facebook profile to “moving”. Then ease forward.

In a 20 minute drive I must have seen at least 15 people going through red. It could be a little money spinner if they put up red light cameras.
11 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:37am
- hookerphil
  
  I moved to Waimate 10 years ago. When walking down the Main Street couldn’t understand why cars were stopping. Took me awhile to work out that as I was near a pedestrian crossing they stopped/slowed down in case I decided to use it.
  That’s what living in Christchurch gives you.
  Use it if you dare.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 11:38am
I remember when

Headline of the week so far?
The Athletic Daily:
New signing aren’t always the solution. Maybe unhappy managers should try coaching:

Although, in this case, it is in relation to Football , it could easily be transferred to other occupations.
3 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:48am
Bridgenag

Test Case for Global Control….Interesting essay Frightening as it creeping in here

“Danish (and Dutch, German, British, Italian, Australian, …) farmers need support, but more than that — people everywhere need to understand what’s being done in their name. The great land grab is coming to your country next, dressed up in the same do-good environmental language and pushed by the same NGO-academic-corporate alliance, making claims of ‘EcoCide’ and ‘environmental justice’ backed by nothing but hot air, deeply flawed ‘black box’ global modelling, Marxists in academia, and outright threats by international organisations claiming to stand up for ‘social justice’, ‘human rights’ and ‘the well-being of all’… though the latter is to be understood through the lens of the human collective — it’s certainly not about the individual.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/escapekey/p/danish-land-grab?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
5 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:49am
I remember when

While travelling to Wellington yesterday morning, a window in the clouds at Otaki suggested it might have been Queenstown.
The snow cover on the visible part of the ranges was impressive.
6 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 10:53am
- Simon Arnold
  
  Much better than Queenstown, better neighbours and that beautiful coast to the west.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:05pm
MCōs

My 8yo granddaughter said to her mother yesterday
Every time I hear Trump’s name I roll my eyes
Is this how you roll your eyes Mum?
2 15
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 11:49am
- sirknz
  
  Did everybody clap after she said that?
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:06pm
- cmm
  
  Is that what she brings home from school?
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:29pm
Swifty

This from the man who wants to rule over us:

https://x.com/suitandtie9999/status/1957932750436221113?s=46

How a man in his position to not know these numbers is shameful.
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 12:19pm
- Ghost
  
  In his defense, this is Chris Hipkins. Hipkins makes Homer Simpson look like genius
  
  19 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:34pm
- cmm
  
  Why would he care about such trivia?
  
  He doesn’t pay it and very few of his voter base pay it.
  
  The only people paying are the few net taxpayers.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 12:57pm
lifesgood

So the teachers are all enjoying another lovely, lazy day in the sun. I worked in education and I can debunk a few of their claims. Yes, they do have exceptionally long holidays, more than anyone else and, no, they do not work through them. I was a high school manager and over the holidays school was a ghost town. The odd teacher might appear for a day or two but that’s all. It’s also outrageous the number of teacher only days and stop work meetings they have during term time. Secondly, they are well paid for the hours they work. My theory is that because they have gone from school to uni and back to school to teach they have no idea what it’s like working out in the world, as I have done. Their other claim is that if it’s such a good well paid job why aren’t people flocking into the profession. The simple answer to that is that all young people hear from the teachers is that it’s hard, underpaid, it’s this, it’s that, moan, moan, moan. That’s not exactly inspirational is it?
18 2
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 12:30pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Anyone from a non Lefty perspective will give teaching the swerve because who wants to work surrounded that that mob of moaners.
  
  That decreases the population of possible teacher candidates considerably.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 10:00pm
OlderChas

Some twerp Sports News reader on one of the TV stations talking about some soccer game coming up between Straya and NewZild. Referred to it as the Ashes match. Does the silly boy even know what The Ashes tests are? Nothing to do with “kick it wiv yer ‘ead” nor Straya vs NewZild.
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 12:34pm
Chuck Bird

Did anyone see the item on Reality Check Radio about the dishonesty of Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson, and Verrall? It is a bit long but worth viewing.

https://rcr.media/episodes/rcr360-unplugged-martin-lally-exposes-flawed-covid-modelling
10 4
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 1:27pm
sirknz

I can already hear the usual low info leftys claiming that this is some the fault of the current government.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/kitchen-things-tipped-into-receivership-12-stores-closed-across-nz/22A5NW74TNC6TKZ6J6VCVQXPM4/

It has nothing to do with their staff turnover due to ‘passionate’ management, their poor inventory practices where they would lose track of $100s of thousands worth of stock in a fairly small warehouse (compared to the ones I have worked in and around) and a whole host of other issues that aren’t really related to the economy. At least that is what a family member who worked there a couple of years back would say.

Their core customers tended to be at the ‘economic downturn resistant’ end of the market.
11 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 2:15pm
Sir Henry Morgan

Yet another Indian in the news, for the usual reasons – scoffing at visa law, treating employees as personal slaves and having them work multiple jobs, ‘forgetting’ to pay, etc. These cases invariably involve more established immigrants predating on the newly arrived, so why are the immigrant perpetrators not stripped of their New Zealand PR and deported?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kebab-shop-cleaning-business-owner-gaurav-batra-fined-for-not-paying-staff/SL724BUPCZELZJK3BCPG45BTNY/
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 2:17pm
Ra Henare

I am not an economist but todays OCR announcement got me thinking.

Do these OCR decisions have any impact on inflation? Economic activity(whatever that is).

When
a) Monetary policy typically takes 12–18 months to have its full effect on the real economy This aligns with decades of economic research showing that monetary policy transmission operates through multiple channels with significant lags.

B) Cutting the exchange rate. NZD-USD already down a full 1 cent USD today compared to yesterday.

c) NZ is a NETT importer of goods from the US, so immediately costs go up at least 1.7% on the ? 9-13 billion USD in trade imbalance and that doesn’t factor in cost of goods from China, often based on USD.

d) Rental costs re on their way down

e) Immigration is down (ie pressure on housing, unemployment costs)

f) since when have RBNZ decisions ever made NZ a better place to live economically speaking?

Any economists out there to explain this cluster ferk.
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 20, 2025 3:04pm
- cmm
  
  Willis is full of this “many families still doing it tough” shit.
  
  Knocking 0.25% off the OCR is going to see little change for the ‘many families still doing it tough’.
  
  It will certainly help more than “buttergate” (about 50 cents per week), but not a hell of a lot.
  
  That 0.25% will not convert into 0.25% of mortgage reduction (maybe 0.15% if people are lucky), but any time lending gets cheaper house prices just go up to compensate.
  
  If you have a mortgage of $800k for 30 years at 6.25%, then a reduction of 0.15% is going to reduce your mortgage by $18 a week.
  
  I significantly doubt that $18 a week is really going to make a massive difference on whether you’re ‘doing it tough’ or not.
  
  If this is what Willis’ idea of a good step up is, then no wonder we have hundreds of people leaving NZ to Australia where the pay is much higher and couple can earn $1000 a week more (so maybe $700 a week more after tax etc).
  
  Even after a dismal NZ schooling, most people are able to work out that $700 is worth more than $18.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 20, 2025 3:57pm
  - Prince
    
    Is this why Labour will return the tax brackets to pre-2023 levels, to soak up few more dollars for their spending plans ?
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 4:36pm
  - Sir Henry Morgan
    
    If Willis was serious about her job she’d have properly culled the public sector – at least bringing it back to pre-Ardern levels. That would start to deal with debt, and would free up workers to fill all the labour shortages we’re currently filling with ‘highly qualified’ immigrants.
    
    But no. . . Instead she just delivers panto, and everyone pretends it’s important. That said, at least traditional panto has a happy ending. The Beehive panto bounces around between pratfall and calamity before clumsily tumbling towards the grand denouement of national ruin. The curtain rises from the ruins. The clowns up on stage join hands, stride forward to deliver their final bows to a stunned audience, and splutter “Well nobody could possibly have predicted any of that!”
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 20, 2025 6:37pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The problem is that Nicola worked for Fonterra, which at the time was not much more than a state enabled monopoly. I don’t believe that she ever worked for a firm at the pointy end of business, where a few wrong decisions calls the future of the firm into question.
      
      I mean, remember those duff investments in Chile dairying and the ingredients businesses? Compare & contrast with Fletchers’ announcements today. It will be squeaky bum time at Fletchers.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 20, 2025 10:05pm
- NothingLeft
  
  drops in mortgage rates just increase length of time it takes people to pay off a house – house prices rise to meet available mortgage paying income.
  
  High interest rates are much better for young people looking to buy houses.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 21, 2025 5:54am

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Potential for sanity on Golden Mile

We must say no to two classes of citizenship »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 13K other subscribers

Highlights

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

Links

Parliament fails to defend transparency
No Right Turn
"The principal view of human laws is, or ought always to be, to explain, protect, and enforce such rights as are absolute, which in themselves are few and simple."
Not PC
To be fair – nothing manages to celebrate the sham 250 year democracy of a neofascist regime quite like Vanilla Ice
The Daily Blog
Daily review 04/06/2026
The Standard
Word of the day
Hompaddock
The response to Budget 2026 has been unusually muted
Point of Order
We Are a Country That Decided Housing Was The Economy
No Minister
My Opening Statement for the UATX Caplan-Jones Immigration Rematch
Utopia
Playing with numbers.
Kiwipolitico
Another non-tariff barrier
Offsetting Behaviour
Rugby Premiership Predictions for Round 18
Stats Chat
Budget 2026
NZCPR
UK Conversion Therapy Ban, Digital ID, Rallies, Elections
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
A central banker’s fiction
Croaking Cassandra
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Get Vaccinated Tomorrow Or Shut Your Pie Hole
Cactus Kate
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker

[email protected]

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: