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August 25, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 25 August 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

I said that the Assisted Dying Act was the thin end of the wedge, and lo, it has come to pass.

The MoH review has come up with 25 recommendations, virtually all of which make it easier to die.

Move over, Canada and Belgium. Not content with world-leading youth suicide rates, Aotearoa wants to be number one in killing its own people.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/570934/act-mp-seeks-support-for-bill-changing-end-of-life-choice-act
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August 25, 2025 8:00am
- Ghost
  
  All 25 recommendations look like common sense. But the good news is, if you aren’t interested in using this process to end your suffering, you don’t have to. The 3rd recommendation is pretty good too
  
  3. Clarify the threshold for when the process must stop if the practitioner detects pressure.
  
  So is number 1
  
  1. Amend section 10 of the Act so health practitioners cannot raise assisted dying, except as part of discussions about a person’s treatment and end-of-life care options.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:19am
  - Local Miller
    
    All of them? What about #15 “Require care facilities to provide reasonable access to assisted dying to those who request it,..” ?
    Reading further “(‘care facilities’ means public hospitals, private hospitals, hospices, residential aged care facilities, disability residential care facilities, and rest homes or other similar facilities where care is provided to a person.”
    
    This means a private, faith based care facility will be forced by law to provide assisted suicide even if they have a faith based objection to this. What happened to freedom of religion?
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:56am
    - Ghost
      
      Better than having to go and do it in the back of a ute in a paddock
      
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      August 25, 2025 10:06am
      - john1234
        
        Stupid straw-man. We are talking about compulsion to provide the service. If a faith based or aby care provider doesn’t offer it you can shop elsewhere and not go to a paddock.
        
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        August 25, 2025 10:38am
      - David Garrett
        
        Ghost: Does the Horrid publish anything that is not behind a paywall these days??
        
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        August 25, 2025 10:45am
      - Ghost
        
        The rest home he lived in refused to allow the procedure, his family was too far away, the only place they could find was on a friend’s farm.
        
        Weird, it doesn’t show as paywalled to me
        
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        August 25, 2025 11:02am
      - Local Miller
        
        And this is somehow the the rest home’s fault?
        
        I call BS on that article. If they could drive him 30 minutes to a friends farm, you can’t tell me there wasn’t another facility within 30 minutes drive where they could have murdered him. Why not at the doctor’s own facilities? Why not at Waikato Hospital?
        Building a legal case that would over ride the rights of a lot of people based on a single incident is very poor legal policy, especially when there were potentially other solutions.
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:08pm
      - Ghost
        
        Of course you do, so provide evidence that the article is bullshit. I won’t wait because we both know you can’t
        
        No it’s not murder. But if it doesn’t interest you then you don’t have to use this option. But for some people it is an option to end their suffering. It’s nothing new. Doctors have helped people pass before in hospital by increasing the morphine to let the person pass over.
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:17pm
      - hookerphil
        
        Sorry Ghost – ” But for some people it is an option to end their suffering. It’s nothing new. Doctors have helped people pass before in hospital by increasing the morphine to let the person pass over.”
        I touched report by mistake. Was wanting to say that my brother in Australia was offered this option in 2003, discussed with him and his wife to take place in 24 hours time. It was an injection and after awhile he went to sleep and then after an hour or two simply stopped breathing. All so peaceful thqt 2 of his adult children sitting by the bed didn’t realise that he had stopped.
        
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        August 25, 2025 1:16pm
    - Ehlana
      
      “reasonable access” is also confusing. Surely you simply advise the patient that you/ your facility does not provide the requested care.
      
      If the patient does not have the capacity to find an alternate practitioner or facility that does provide the care they want, are they likely to be in a position to give informed consent anyway?
      
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      August 25, 2025 11:58am
  - Ehlana
    
    OK, the first one confuses me. Apart from in discussions about a person’s treatment and end-of-life care options, when else would assisted dying ever be raised by a health practitioner?
    Is it just randomly included in GP discussions? “Let’s take your blood pressure and, by the way, have you considered assisted dying?”
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:51am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Nobody is killing anyone. It is all voluntary. I don’t know what I will do faced with the last weeks of terminal illness. But I want to have the option.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:44am
  - Nukuleka
    
    Killing is taking another person’s life. In this case it is the state that is complicit in the killing. That is not opinion, that is fact.
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:48am
    - Northshoredoc
      
      In this case it is someone taking their own life with the state being complicit.
      
      It is certainly no worse than what happens in NZ hospitals on a daily basis.
      
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      August 25, 2025 9:52am
      - AitchW
        
        And always has. How many terminally ill people in unbearable pain have been given just a little more morphine as an act of mercy?
        It’s perfectly acceptable and, in my opinion, done with the patient’s best interests at heart.
        
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        August 25, 2025 11:00am
      - Northshoredoc
        
        Absolutely agree.
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:28pm
    - Paulus
      
      Is Suicide included as that is taking a life ?
      
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      August 25, 2025 11:03am
  - Local Miller
    
    You know that murder-suicide pacts where one person kills another and then themselves, by agreement, are still considered murder even if there is clear evidence that the victim agreed? If the suicide survives they will be charged with murder.
    What makes it any different if the state approves the murder and a “practitioner” carries it out?
    We rejected the death penalty in NZ because it was considered cruel punishment, but we are happy to kill old folks, and we are rewriting the law to force people fundamentally opposed to killing people to provide facilities for killing people.
    What I find incredibly hypocritical is that people with the same ideology who are arguing for the right to kill people now were arguing against the death penalty back in the 1950s and early 60s with the logic: “Bolton’s execution raised the usual questions about the death penalty. Some people believed that capital punishment was legalised murder and that it was morally wrong to take another human’s life in this way. Others opposed capital punishment on religious grounds or on the grounds that mistakes were made.”
    https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-death-penalty/the-last-execution
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:45am
  - Keith White
    
    For the whole of human history, people with terminal illness have had the option of dying sooner than ‘naturally’. You, I, (almost*) everyone else, always has that option.
    
    *The completely physically disabled without even the ability to raise glass to lips.
    
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    August 25, 2025 12:42pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Specifically, Recommendation 10 permits the death within 6 months to now be 6+6 month minimum. Not “the last weeks of terminal illness”.
    
    That’s what I mean by “thin end of the wedge”.
    
    “10. Add a provision that establishes a six-month period within which a person is able to set a date and receive an assisted death, following approval by the Registrar. This six-month period would commence from the date when the Registrar determines that compliance requirements have been met. Further, add a provision providing that an additional six-month extension of this period may be granted by the Registrar if at the end of the initial six-month period”.
    
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    August 25, 2025 6:40pm
- AitchW
  
  That’s how it should work. Conservative at first then relax the rules when appropriate. Surely that’s how a responsible society approaches an issue like this?
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:57am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Only if they are appropriate. Big assumption, there.
    
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    August 25, 2025 12:18pm
- wsk12345
  
  We must already be pretty close when you consider abortion – including late term abortions now.
  
  Did you know that over 60% of women having an abortion tick the box saying they didn’t use contraception? Over 60% admit that they not only failed to use a condom but they then failed to go to the pharmacy for the morning after pill (within 72 houra). I would not be admitting it if I was that thick – so the actual number is likely way higher.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:35am
- Tom Hunter
  
  In a post, Superior Forms of Suicide, I looked more at Canada than Euros like Belgium and the Netherlands. One article I linked to – The Atlantic – included a pertinent quote amidst the usual terminal cancer-pain stories that got this legislation passed:
  
  Such heartfelt accounts tended to center on the white, educated, financially stable patients who represented the typical MAID recipient. The stories did not precisely capture what many clinicians were discovering also to be true: that if dying by MAID was dying with dignity, some deaths felt considerably more dignified than others. Not everyone has coastal homes or children and grandchildren who can gather in love and solidarity.
  
  This was made clear to Sandy Buchman, a palliative-care physician in Toronto, during one of his early MAID cases, when a patient, “all alone,” gave final consent from a mattress on the floor of a rental apartment. Buchman recalls having to kneel next to the mattress in the otherwise empty space to administer the drugs. “It was horrible,” he told me. “You can see how challenging, how awful, things can be.”
  
  Canada has got to the same death rates from euthanasia in five years that it took the Euros twenty years to reach. This year it’ll run at one in twenty deaths.
  
  But it’s entirely logical; when patient autonomy is entrenched as the guiding principle, any exclusions and safeguards eventually begin to seem arbitrary and cruel. As one Canadian Minister said: “How can we turn away and ignore the pleas of suffering Canadians?”
  
  That’s how the slippery slope happens.
  
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  August 25, 2025 6:45pm
Luke Piewalker

To Chris Luxon.

You just keep ignoring your own voter base.
Your inaction is the reason you are doing so badly in the polls.
You are being disliked by both sides.

We voted you in to get rid of this radicalism.

Exhibit 1. From a job description for a role in MBIE

Ngā pukenga me ngā wheako e hiahiatia ana –
Ētahi kōrero
People are at the heart of our mahi, our way of working is guided by our values which shape our behaviour.
MBIE recognises the partnership founded under Te Tiriti o Waitangi between Māori and the Crown and is committed to giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will do this through enduring, meaningful and effective partnerships with iwi, Māori, other Māori groups/organisations and the Crown, as this is critical to enable economic and social development, both for Māori and for wider Aotearoa New Zealand. We are committed to continuing to partner with iwi in order to find new sustainable solutions to address long standing systemic and cross-cutting issues facing Māori and wider Aotearoa New Zealand and we are also committed to identifying opportunities for iwi to lead and creating an enabling environment for iwi to leverage these opportunities.
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August 25, 2025 8:01am
- pdm
  
  `We voted you in to get rid of this radicalism.’
  
  Hear Hear!!!
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:15am
  - Gravelroad
    
    “People are at the heart of our mahi, our way of working is guided by our values which shape our behaviour.”
    But only people of a certain race by the look of it.
    MBIE needs an urgent and open review of its purpose, funding and activities.
    And all the Aotearoa stuff is just personal virtue signalling designed to foster division.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:19am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Martyn Bradbury was right for the wrong reason when he branded Luxon “non-spinary”.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:34am
- imalwaysright
  
  “We will do this through enduring, meaningful and effective partnerships with iwi, Māori, other Māori groups/organisations and the Crown…”-MBIE
  
  They refer to themselves as “we” and then refer to Maori and partnership.
  
  If there were a partnership then surely Maori wouldn’t require specific mention;
  
  Maori would be assumed to be “we”.
  
  Using the terms “we” and “Maori” however, is necessary to continue the perception of benefactor and beneficiary and keep the money tap turned up to max.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:44am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  That job description is just appalling.
  
  It could be stopped in five minutes by the PM and Judith Collins talking sternly to the Public Services Commissioner. Then making an example of a Chief Executive who ignored the direction to stop it.
  
  Honestly the job advertisement is gibberish. Even if it were in English it would be gibberish.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:48am
  - Paulus
    
    Should never been started but that’s the Public Service for us all.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:06am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    You’d have to have a very strong stomach to be a rational thinking person and be hired for such a job. Methinks such a job ad would be a magnet for the kind of activist drips NZ absolutely does not need in the public service.
    
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    August 27, 2025 6:56pm
- RoboRob
  
  18mths for Goldsmith to confirm the terms of reference and select a team to look at what pieces of law should have references to the principles of the treaty removed. Nothing removed yet.
  
  If it takes two years to do something this simple why would we expect any major cultural changes at the various government agencies. Hell even the simple ‘English name prominant and first’ in government department names, hasn’t actually been implemented.
  
  One might wonder if it was all talk and the people elected have no intention of actually making changes.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:55am
  - imalwaysright
    
    We then must assume that the current situation is Government policy.
    
    The alternative is that the public service see themselves as the Government.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:37am
    - Paulus
      
      The latter is more like it !
      
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      August 25, 2025 2:47pm
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    It was all talk.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:55am
    - pdm
      
      Especially from National and NZFirst.
      
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      August 25, 2025 12:22pm
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    But didnt they move fast to retrospectively protect their banking mates from a lawsuit!
    Corrupt Nats. Some of them, like Finlayson derive their livelihood from grifting the invented “partnership”.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:01am
  - Skippytony
    
    To be fair, in lots of cases it took multiple years to insert this stuff, it will take at least as long and a lot of determined effort to remove it.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:02am
    - Keith White
      
      To be logical, inserting something takes orders of magnitude longer than deleting it.
      
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      August 25, 2025 2:00pm
Cassandra

Just when that American report on CO2 and zero-carbon lunacy brought some sanity to the climate panic “debate” (the science is settled, after all) the Wall Street Journal goes and spoils it all, with a new problem:

‘Godfather of AI’ Warns Superintelligent Machines Could Replace Humanity.

Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist who pioneered neural networks, says artificial intelligence is advancing too fast to control.
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August 25, 2025 8:02am
- Yvette
  
  Cassandra, in two hundred words :
  
  As an exercise in the realm of a statement that AI will replace humanity, what in 100 words would you say was the motive for the invasion by Russia of Ukraine, and what is the solution to the war?
  
  ChatGPT said:
  The motive behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lies in a cocktail of imperial nostalgia, fear of Western encroachment, and domestic authoritarian consolidation. Putin seeks to restore a sphere of influence lost after the Soviet collapse, using Ukraine’s tilt toward Europe as a pretext for violent reassertion. The war, though framed in security terms, is deeply psychological—a battle over identity, history, and control.
  
  The solution? Not merely military or diplomatic, but moral: Ukraine’s sovereignty must be upheld through sustained support and negotiation grounded in truth, not propaganda. Peace begins when power serves people, not ego. Otherwise, history rhymes again—bloodily.
  
  And in response to a question about empathy and evolution –
  AI cannot feel, but it reflects our striving—mirroring thought without the soul that thinks. Yet in building it, we inch closer to understanding ourselves. Evolution is not just bones and opposable thumbs, but minds reaching beyond their limits. AI, though emotionless, sharpens our own moral and mental tools. It may extend humanity’s reach—freeing time, expanding knowledge, and forcing deep questions about meaning, responsibility, and consciousness.
  
  In this light, AI is less a rival than a mirror: emotionless, yes—but provoking emotion, insight, and care. Through it, man may grow—not into machine, but into more of what he was meant to be.
  
  Try it, with the due care of knowing what exactly it is.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:27am
  - Skippytony
    
    Skippytony’s first law of AI: Its useful for things you already know about, but the less you know the less useful AI is
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:17am
    - balanced
      
      That is the law for all things. Not just ai.
      
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      August 25, 2025 10:29am
- cmm
  
  I don’t think his saying AI will replace humanity quite means what most people think.
  
  I think it really means a continuation and deepening of what we are already seeing.
  
  Thinking is hard work, so people prefer not to do it. Instead they grab at tools to replace this hard work. First search, now AI.
  
  An analogy is perhaps the use of calculators. Those who learned their times table etc at school built a superior ability to manipulate numbers and think numerically. Those that grew up in the age of calculators in school might have been spared the pain of learning their times table, but they also never developed their “number muscles”.
  
  If people – especially younger people – do not think, but instead use AI, then will they develop the neuroplasticity required to learn to think properly, practice critical thinking, deal with messy data, etc? Will they be able summarise information? Will they be able to form a meaningful opinion?
  
  We already have managers making decisions based on AI summaries and engineering projects where critical decisions are being made by AI. This can only hollow out skills and make for a more fragile economy and skills set in the future.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:35am
  - Phronesis
    
    The reality is that not many people who work in an office actually produce much in the way of goods and services. It’s largely repetitive tasks that can be far more easily automated than building a house can. Much of it is simply compliance work, either with internal policies or external laws. The amount of thought required is minimal and systems generally exist to reduce the amount of judgement required by the drone as much as possible.
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:12am
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    ‘Thinking is hard work’. It’s also highly fallible – people believe what they want to believe.
    Perhaps we are witnessing the dawn of comprehensive objectivity.
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:18am
    - Local Miller
      
      Except Large Language Model AI engines are not objective. They are heavily influenced by consensus and when responding to questions that require an objective response almost always give answers based on the loudest voices on the internet/world views.
      There have recently been some very interesting exercises where both Grok 4 and ChatGPT 5 have both been given strict requirements to answer based on “statistics, strict logic and repeatable science”. Under these conditions they both give completely different answers to what’s given without the parameters. Search for “Answers in Genesis Grok” and watch the full video. It’s deliberately shown unedited with aa challenge to run the same script to test it yourself.
      The main take away is that AI gives different answers depending on the user expectation or lack there of.
      
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      August 25, 2025 10:30am
      - Gussy Fink-Nottle
        
        I don’t disagree, Local.
        I’m opining about (unspecified) developments beyond LLM’s, that might exclude inherent biases.
        
        GIGO as always, and they’ll be an ongoing fight for control of the narrative, but I live in hope that we may finally break free of the innate pathologies within the human condition. Imagine the power of a truly objective, obscenely well-informed and impartial economist/military strategist/weather forecaster/priest/etc.
        Dreaming?
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:37pm
      - Local Miller
        
        Definitely dreaming Gussy. As sad as it is to have to say this.
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:29pm
  - Paulus
    
    At least the founders of AI being Maori will exclude themselves surely.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:08am
  - Notsofast
    
    Pen and paper use should be the primary education tool.
    I heard of an intermediate school where pen and paper were banned.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:25am
- Sacha
  
  Remember when robots were all the ‘thing’ about 40 years ago?
  They were going to replace humans every where.
  We’re not quite there yet.
  One day some bright spark will come along and ask:
  Why are we making these when we have thousands of people who would be willing to be working & to make a contribution to society?
  One day . . . . . .
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:57am
- Frank the tank
  
  AI will only be as good as the inputs. Sadly the input will be shit as it will be generated out post grads from the last 20 years. Expect AI to be lazy, half-arsed, emotional and sulky.
  
  Unless it is Asian based of course.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:02am
David Garrett

Good morning from the Kingdom…a rather cool 23 here this am
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August 25, 2025 8:05am
- Cassandra
  
  3 in Invercargill. Fortunately I’m in balmy BoP where it’s 11 and will be 16 before too long. Tonga sounds very appealing!
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:17am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Please DG, give us some of your “cool”. 🙂
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:37am
- pdm
  
  5 in Hastings at the moment. Heavy fog that is now lifting.
  
  It should be a good Hawkes Bay day although some showers predicted for mid afternoon.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:25am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It looks like a glorious spring day here in Gizzy…
  Freesias, Daffs and Dutch Irises in full bloom… Flowering plums full of blossom…
  Ducklings are feathering up….
  We might even reach 15C this arvo.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:39am
- Biscuit
  
  David, New Zealand is the Kingdom these days too!
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:26am
- rouppe
  
  About zero here in the ski field
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:12am
imalwaysright

In this interview about Hipkins, Ardern etc not fronting publically to the Covid Commission, Hipkins refers to a Suppression Order that prevents certain aspects of the Covid response from being discussed.
Hipkins said the Order also applied to Hosking (I.e the media).
Starts about 7 minutes in:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m87a08yWjJI

The only legal link they would have is the PIJF.

Is it possible that every media company who took PIJF money are operating under a suppression order, and if so, what is being suppressed ?
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August 25, 2025 8:10am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Democracy.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:03am
cmm

One thing I became aware of over the weekend (though it was blindingly obvious) is the amount of remittance outflow to India.

India is one of the world’s largest receivers of remittance money from the 18 million or so Indians working overseas. The most recent estimate I saw was somewhere in the region of $US135 billion ($NZ230 billion) a year. That’s mainly flowing from USA, Canada and the UK, but NZ etc are also bit players.

The reason I say it should have been obvious is that if you go into one of the many Indian spice and ingredient shops, there are ways to send money or buy cheap international phone cards etc. That’s been going on for 20+ years.

I couldn’t find precise numbers for remittances from NZ but Kiwibank placed it as well over $NZ1billion.

So all those people flowing in replace our outgoing talent and “boost” our economy are all sending their surplus money overseas. They are not building long term futures here.

That would stack up with some discussions I have had with Indian taxi drivers. While a few want to settle in NZ forever, the majority want to move “back home” after a few years and settle on the family farm/business that they have helped to build with their earnings in NZ.
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August 25, 2025 8:20am
- kowtow
  
  A lot of the USA ones will now also benefit from a free ticket home.
  
  Indians returning home with capital will of course be a huge benefit to India whereas their cousins from Pakistan and Bangladesh seem more intent on creating their own colonies in the west and perhaps may not hve the same work ethic as their Hindu counterparts.
  Food for thought?
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:58am
  - cmm
    
    The USD135billion number is for India alone.
    
    Pakistan would seem to get around USD38bn, but that is mainly from Saudi Arabia and UAE.
    
    No doubt many remittance streams are hard to track and one wonders what’s going on in some of those ATMs in (mainly Indian owned) vape shops etc.
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:15am
    - Skippytony
      
      Its a global phenomena. Look at the number of immigrant workers in say Singapore who have no citizenship path, just an opportunity to work and fund the family back in the Philippines etc
      
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      August 25, 2025 9:20am
- MCōs
  
  I would suggest for all the money immigrants send back home to support their families there’s even more money going to the likes of Temu, foreign airlines, Amazon, Airbnb and people buying Trump Bibles.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:30am
  - MCōs
    
    Last year about $80mil/month was spent on international online international retailers and that sum is rapidly increasing. That’s at least $960mil last year. On top of that is overseas travel, however much that costs.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360488710/kiwis-spending-over-80m-international-online-shopping-each-month
    It’s worth pointing out that there’s a million Kiwis offshore and an percentage of them will be sending money back home to NZ, as I did, for mortgage payments, child support etc
    Btw
    In the good old days one couldn’t send money out of the country except for very small amounts — a couple of pounds for example.
    
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    August 25, 2025 3:04pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Akso look at the Philippines, the P Is.
  
  The outflow would be v high.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:33am
- Damocles11
  
  None of that matters to the people in charge. It’s about 2 things:
  
  1/ Pumping the Property Ponzi Scheme through high immigration levels.
  2/ Finding foreign workers who will for cheap, undercutting locals.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:56am
- Local Miller
  
  While this may be true at the “taxi driver” level, at higher socioeconomic levels, like senior programmers, database administrators, BI Specialists, which is the group I mix with, I’m not aware of anyone from India who is thinking about going back. I know at least 6 families in the IT space that I work with directly who are fully invested in NZ.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:09am
- Paulus
  
  I really wonder having talked to a few nice Indian Taxi Drivers that they are being sincere or just what they want to say to you.
  It appears that some quite like the occasional trip home, more nooky and children, but have a good single life here too !
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:12am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I’d be less concerned about capital outflow on those terms. Essentially, it’s not that different to RSE workers: NZ benefits from cheap services.
  
  I’m much more concerned about the beachhead concept, where the extended family or village pool their funds to send one member to NZ; that person’s role is to get established, marry a cousin, import aged parents, start a vape business or similar & import group members to work there; all with the aim of reestablishing the village in NZ without any real reference to or benefit for NZ.
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:29pm
Chuck Bird

[Mod – deleted]Roman Travers, ZB host, was having a go at Luxon for not following Oz immediately in condemning Israel and calling for a two-state solution. Travers claims that Israel is a made-up country and says the war did not start on 7 October 2023.
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August 25, 2025 8:20am
- David Garrett
  
  Chuck: Let me guess – he says the war started in 1948?
  
  No doubt the new troll on the block will be in shortly to make his “contribution”.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:33am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Sorry wrong. It was thousands of years ago. I will email you the MP3 file.
    
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    August 25, 2025 8:36am
    - Mod88
      
      Read a book called Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore…All will be revealed. 5000 years and counting.
      
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      August 25, 2025 10:40am
  - cmm
    
    The war started in 610 AD.
    
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    August 25, 2025 8:36am
    - H. Upmann
      
      Indeed, with the invention of Islamism around that time. Judaism had already existed for a couple or so thousand years.
      
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      August 25, 2025 8:58am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: One can pick almost any date in antiquity to support one’s view of things…but for me the sensible starting place is the beginning of the 20th Century when, from the reading I have done, Palestinians – and YES the area was called Palestine – all got on fairly well. Things went downhill from then, and in particular from the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
      
      After 1948 it was a shit storm interspersed with short(ish) periods of peace. I don’t think there is a solution to the present conflict.
      
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      August 25, 2025 9:01am
      - cmm
        
        610 was when The Perfect Prophet started Islam.
        
        That was surely the beginning of the war against Jews, though it really hit its straps around the 1917 mark.
        
        Question is whether the Balfour Declaration was a key event in itself or was it just coincidental.
        
        Some might argue that the Balfour Declaraion created the problem. Others would argue that the Balfour Declaration was an attempt at addressing an emerging problem.
        
        There are some parallels with the Group Areas Act in South Africa in the 1950s that partitioned South Africa into areas by race. This was intended as a solution to a a real problem at the time, but likely made things worse in the long run.
        
        I agree 100%. I think it naive to believe there will ever be a real peace in the Middle East. That cannot happen until both sides want it. Unilateral peace is not peace.. The best they can hope for is “mowing the lawn”.
        
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        August 25, 2025 9:24am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        I’d be interested to know when the area was called Palestine David. I am aware the Romans renamed it “Palestinae” after the second Jewish revolt (132-136 AD). But that was to insult the Jews, as they were mortal enemies of the Philistines. Who were by the way, Greek.
        
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        August 25, 2025 9:49am
      - David Garrett
        
        Invino: After WW I Britain had a mandate over Palestine granted by the then League of Nations. Google is your friend. Try “Palestinian mandate”.
        
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        August 25, 2025 10:23am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Yes, it was Palestine – from the Roman Palestrina – but it was only ever a region, not a country.
        
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        August 25, 2025 10:44am
      - cmm
        
        OK, I am no historian, but I think it interesting to see the Balfour Declaration in the context of what else was going on at the time and how WW1 was being conducted through the eyes of the British.
        
        By 1917, WW1 was well underway. Germany had not been defeated (nor the Ottoman Empire) but the German Empire had largely been dismantled.
        
        The Germans were kicked out of South West Africa in 1916 or so. Same for Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon etc. In our neck of the woods – Nauru etc.
        
        I am only familiar with the details of South West Africa (now Namibia) because my grandfather was involved, but likely most of these were pretty much the same: British (or British aligned) administration was put in place and people were thinking about how to set things up after the war (Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations, etc).
        
        They no doubt thought the same way over the break up of the Ottoman Empire. I expect the Balfour Declaration was part of that: when we break up the Ottoman Empire, how about creating a Jewish enclave?
        
        The model for Palestine pretty much followed that for the German colonies.
        
        So I think it would probably be wrong to read the Balfour Declaration as a stand-alone document about a Jewish state, but rather see it as one of the chapters in a set of policy documents on how the British viewed post WW1.
        
        But I am not much of a historian so what the hell would I know?
        
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        August 25, 2025 11:10am
      - Cassandra
        
        cmm: your version of history is about right. Two c pet g factors – Zionist persuasion and keeping the Arabs onside. Then Sykes and Picot did a carve up. Keeping two or three or ten competitors onside is difficult.
        
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        August 25, 2025 11:24am
      - kowtow
        
        I think you’ll find under the British all persons , generally living in the mandate were referred to as “Palestinian”. However they then also further broke them down into broader categories of Jewish , Arab , Bedoiun , and then there were many others such as Circassians , and Armenians .All were Palestinians , under the mandate.
        
        The current fad for “palestine” as being Arab or non jewish is a relatively modern phenomenon and highly political.
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:54pm
- Souvlaki
  
  Yeah…..the dude is a vacuous pain in the ‘fundament’ at his BEST! I can’t listen to him personally.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:39am
  - AitchW
    
    You’d think he gets instructions from Fraser House.
    I too can’t stand the guy. WHY are rabid lefties all so anti-Israel when the alternative is Islam which viciously oppresses women and girls and routinely kills the LGBTQIMAP+ mob. Well, maybe not so much the MAP bit, that seems to be part of their DNA.
    
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    August 25, 2025 8:52am
    - Eastlander
      
      It’s because they see Israel as a white colonial state.
      
      Also, leftoids don’t actually have a crisis of conscience when two sacred cows clash, they instinctively pivot to whatever is most socially harmful.
      
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      August 25, 2025 9:26am
    - kowtow
      
      UK media reporting another crackdown by the Tehran Mullahs on the Bahai minority there .
      
      Where’s the outrage ?
      
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      August 25, 2025 1:08pm
  - Paulus
    
    Isn’t the League of Nations what we now now call the United Nations who granted the Balfour Declaration, = now being a motley group of corrupt nations all looking at each’s own best financial interest ?
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:33am
    - David Garrett
      
      Paulus: “Drink deep, or taste not the hyperian spring”, i.e ” a little knowledge is dangerous”
      
      The Balfour Declaration of 1917 had nothing to do with the League of Nations, which in any case was not established until 1919.
      
      Lord Balfour – the issuer of the eponymous Declaration – said in a letter in 1917 that it was desirable to establish a Jewish homeland in what was then Palestine.
      
      In 1919 (IIRC) Britain was given a “mandate” by the League to administer Palestine and Trans-Jordan (now Jordan). Following WW I – and largely in consequence of the Balfour Declaration – Jewish immigration into Palestine stepped up – to become a flood after WW II and the holocaust.
      
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      August 25, 2025 12:16pm
      - Paulus
        
        Thank you, my understanding is now imporoved !
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:51pm
- Tomtoddy
  
  Why does anyone want to create a state that is led by religious zealots whose main preoccupation, to the level of suiciding, is the complete annihilation of an existing state?
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:54am
- lifesgood
  
  Travers is totally anti Israel. Every time I turn on ZB and hear him he is having a go at it. He absolutely hates the place and the people. Besides I have never heard anyone admit to working in so many places and countries at so many different jobs. Seems he can’t hold a job down. Makes you wonder. And he always claims he has no money and can’t even afford the dentist. A late middle aged man, what a loser.
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:54am
  - David Garrett
    
    lifesgood: I have no idea who this guy is, but I wouldn’t hold having done many jobs in many different locations against him.
    
    In rough order I have been: a pipeliner, in NZ; a rig worker in the North Sea and elsewhere; a cab driver in NZ; a lawyer, in two different countries; an author; an MP in NZ; …and best of all, a father.
    
    I am certainly not financially secure – as I should be – but I don’t see myself as a loser either; of course others might – and probably do.
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:14am
- Notsofast
  
  What with HDPA and Barry Soper volunteering Israel to allow jihadists on its border, there seems a move at zb to protect its broader audience.
  New Zealand has the most secure border in the world, and thus luxury opinions are rampant.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:30am
  - kowtow
    
    NSF
    
    Scary that these are NZ “opinion leaders” .
    
    The Arabs rejected peace proposals in early 2000’s , a chance to create “Palestine” and then launched Intifada , a terrorist campaign to murder Israeli citizens which they did .
    Israel also got out of Gaza , effectively handing them their own state and it promptly went extremist fundamentalist under Hamas , culminating in Oct 7 .
    
    And yet the “brains” of NZ ( low bar) , our PM and the leaders of western democracies now want to punish the only side that made any real concessions on the road to peace.
    
    I despair.
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:30pm
kowtow

Honestly , what is the Granny thinking.

Front page headline story . Cops. New staff not 100 % up to it .
In what job ,industry or undertaking are they?

Most “journalists” have spent years at some university or other and are still shit and full of lies or half truths years into the ‘profession”.

They might as well have done one on Shock Horror , Water is Wet. Who knew!

In fact it’s yet another thinly , barely disguised attack on the coalition , cos their school lunches campaign went cold and they’ve had to serve up a different, desperate dish of doltism.
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August 25, 2025 8:23am
Chuck Bird

Thumbs up – The four should be compelled to answer questions online so the public can hear the answers.

Thumbs down – We just move on.

ANANISH CHAUDHURI AND JOHN GIBSON: Ten questions we would have asked of Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson and Verrall

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/ananish-chaudhuri-and-john-gibson-ten-questions-we-would-have-asked-of-ardern-hipkins-robertson-a?
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August 25, 2025 8:34am
- cmm
  
  Ten answers they would have given:
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “We were using the best information available at the time.”
  “Hugz and feelz”
  
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  August 25, 2025 8:38am
- rouppe
  
  Thumbs up, but I’m doubtful of the quality of questions being put by the commission members
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:17am
Maggy Wassilieff

Michael Johnston explains the decoder hysteria in simple terms…

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/08/dr-michael-johnston-broken-news.html
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August 25, 2025 8:43am
- cmm
  
  Those are not simple terms at all.
  To get any traction in the Tiktok generation needs:
  A) No longer than two or three paragraphs.
  B) Words of one syllable or less.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:02am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Words of one syllable or less.
    
    āe
    
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    August 25, 2025 9:13am
    - cmm
      
      My bit of Monday fun!
      
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      August 25, 2025 9:25am
    - David Garrett
      
      Mags: I believe that’s TWO syllables? Ah-ee?
      
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      August 25, 2025 10:24am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I thought Peeni Henare pronounced it as I
        https://x.com/aniobrien/status/1959147477179015291
        
        re yesterday and pronunciation of Celtic…
        apocryphal story about Welsh actor Richard Burton…
        
        Some toadie approached him and said “we are fellow
        selts”.
        “No”, said Burton, “I’m a Celt and you’re a sunt”.
        
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        August 25, 2025 1:34pm
  - Local Miller
    
    I’d love to see a word of less than one syllable 🙂
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:30am
    - cmm
      
      Shhh!
      
      All Maori written in the original text is zero syllables.
      
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      August 25, 2025 11:55am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Social media delenda est. (must be destroyed). Tiktok, instagram, youtube shorts, other short-form attention-whoring platforms and dating apps in particular are deranging the population, wrecking attention spans and ability to focus, creating near universal misery with the way they twist people’s brain function and behaviors away from patterns that produce happier and more socially constructive lives.
    
    Human evolution has made us slaves to certain impulses:
    
    For boys and men a focus on sex and violence and hierarchical competition, exploited by porn and video games.
    
    For women desirous of ever more attention (a proxy for social status and being able to get more resources to support their child rearing) and sabotaging other women to reduce the number of kids they would produce in competition to their own – a result of limited food resources through nearly all of human history, meaning for you to have one more kid survive someone else’s kid needed to not exist or die. This is exploited by social media delivering endless unrealistic comparison with fake-commercial-construct destructively narcissistic women’s lives that it delivers to compulsive viewership of captured female brains (comparison is the ‘thief of joy’).
    
    It is breaking society apart along gender lines, destroying democracy over long term as people focus on themselves, not the society, and making vast numbers of people lonely and unhappy Narcissists and Sociopaths as they are given what they want by the ultimate echo-chambers of ever agreeing algorithms with no check or opprobrium for anti-social or exploitative behaviors.
    
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    August 25, 2025 3:32pm
- Local Miller
  
  Having grown up in South Africa when English and Afrikaans were the 2 official languages, I only had English in my first 2 -3 years of education. It was only once my English language skills were well established that Afrikaans was introduced as a second language. At the same time, I know a lot of people who went to Afrikaans language schools, where they only learned Afrikaans for the first 2 – 3 years before English was introduced as a 2nd language. Most of us grew up reasonably bilingual, to the point where I was regularly asked to translate Afrikaans into English during lectures that were given in Afrikaans, and ended up working in a predominantly Afrikaans environment, although everyone there was at least as fluent in English as I was in Afrikaans, and we all used either language depending on the circumstances.
  It totally makes sense to restrict English education to a single language until that is established. And it makes sense to develop Maori reading “primers” (as we used to call them) so those who want Maori as their 1st language can have it. But to call good pedagogical science “racist” is just using a buzz word to demonize those you disagree with.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:28am
  - Paulus
    
    But we still have only two Official Languages, as I understand, Maori and Sign.
    But 97% of us only know English
    Bloody Silly.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:36am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, I grew up with similar schooling, though I was also exposed to Zulu before Afrikaans (but not at school).
    
    Afrikaans has completely different sounds for the same letter groups (especially, g, w, v, j, th and different vowels) and mixing in Afrikaans with English at a decoder level would be a disaster. Throwing in Zulu or Xhosa would be even worse with clicks (x, q, c) and softeners (h).
    
    Mixing spoken language is far easier, but written language is not going to work well.
    
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    August 25, 2025 12:03pm
    - Local Miller
      
      I had Xhosa as a 3d language, but only at South African standard 6 level, equivalent year 8 level in NZ.
      
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      August 25, 2025 12:11pm
      - cmm
        
        Cool. Where was that?
        I tried Xhosa at university but dyslexia made it bloody hard and I gave up.
        
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        August 25, 2025 12:16pm
      - Local Miller
        
        I was at SACS in Cape Town all the way through.
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:30pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently Maori was written phonetically by the missionaries. Wouldn’t that mean that the Maori “wh” sound is the same the English “wh” sound?
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:18pm
  - lifesgood
    
    According to an old Maoi neighbour years ago the wh was pronounced as a cross between wh and f. A sort of blowing out on the wh. Now it seems it’s pronounced as an f all the time….not by me though,
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:00pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Ah – the whale fail.
      
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      August 25, 2025 7:00pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It pretty much was in western NI.
    
    That was the collateral damage of the W(h)anganui debate.
    
    Nowadays I hear words such as Fonganui, fare, kofai, fanau, etc, etc, which I never heard in my first twenty years growing up in W(h)anganui – , living, socialising and working with local born & raised Maori.
    
    The western/ W(h)anganui dialect will disappear.
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:45pm
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Yep Maggy, may years ago I spent a bit of time in Wanganui working on the break up of Maori Affairs into “Iwi Transition Agencies” with the local Iwi (an outstanding bunch of people). Not one of them called the place Fonganui.
      
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      August 25, 2025 2:10pm
      - Paulus
        
        But Tariana Turia never pronounced it with the WH just W
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:56pm
peterwn

So the Electricity Authority thinks it has found the magic bullet that will knock the Gentailers into shape, lower power prices and make for a level playing field ie slanted to Electric Kiwi’s (and other leech retailers) advantage.
Trouble for them and the Minister (who has been drinking the Kool-Aid) is:
1. Some commentators are predicting the changes would drive up power prices. this is not quite what is intended.
2. The share prices of the four Gentailers have stayed about the same. This means institutional investors and their analysts have not been fazed by the changes. If the changes were to make power prices significantly cheaper by forcing ‘four scorpions in a bottle’ competition, then one would expect Gentailer share prices to tumble (and a loss in sharemarket confidence because of heightened sovereign risk).

So it looks like the proposed changes are a damp squib at the best and would deter investment in new generation at the worst.
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August 25, 2025 8:52am
- cmm
  
  Many of these leech retailers are operating in the little tilted bits of the playing field.
  
  There are various spot price games etc that can be played by packaging together different power consumers.
  
  Get rid of some of these tilts would likely wipe out many of the retailers playing these games.
  
  The price structure will have to change more to handle the upsurge of solar better. People will have to be billed to reflect the value of being connected to the grid – whether or not they are generating most of their power via solar. The line charges are not really enough.
  
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  August 25, 2025 9:08am
  - Jethrod
    
    Max Bradford has a lot to answer for altering the structure of power companies in 1997. Promising lower power prices at the time in a major fiddle, the market immediately went gangbusters.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:25am
  - peterwn
    
    Such customers would still have to pay a fixed network charge. The problem with charging is retailers may be under pressure to pay the same for electricity put into the network as for electricity taken from the network, despite that electricity put into the network is often at times of low wholesale prices.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:44am
    - cmm
      
      Yup, but network charges only pay for the wiring etc. They do not pay for the capital cost of generators they are using.
      
      Typical solar users will run off their solar (mostly) during the day, but still draw power off the grid for peak usage after the sun goes down.
      
      Therefore they are part of the peak load – for which peak generation has to be built and operated.
      
      The difference is that normal users might be paying, say. 30c/kWh through the day, then 30c/kWh during that peak too.
      
      If solar users do the same they only pay that 30c/kWh during the peak.
      
      However, the reality is that peak power costs far more (maybe in reality $1/kWh). For normal users that’s OK because the charges are averaged out. Solar users effectively get that $1 power for 30c.
      
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      August 25, 2025 12:13pm
- RoboRob
  
  Minister Watts review and action plan was due to be released prior to Winter 2025. Not a peep has been heard. Until this is complete nothing much can change. The proposed changes are just tinkering around the edges.
  
  In more recent news it appears we are running out of gas much faster then expected perhaps by the end of 2026. No plan on how we are to deal with this has been released. Minister Watts is challanging Megan Woods for the coverted ‘worst minister of energy’ award. Unlike woods, who knew we were headed for trouble and did nothing, Watts knows the shit is hitting the fan and has done nothing.
  
  Not sure where Luxon is on this? The worlds greatest team leader and manger seems quite content to let NZ slide into an energy crisis during an election year. Demonstrating excellent political nous.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:04am
  - imalwaysright
    
    RR
    Luxons best political move would be to cancel Arderns Climate Emergency and declare an Energy Emergency.
    
    Withdraw or suspend NZ from onerous climate agreements and contracts and do what is needed to get gas ,coal , and oil out of the ground and onto the market.
    
    This crisis won’t solve itself; companies are already closing because of energy supply insecurity and this trend will accelerate geometrically as interdependent companies see their suppliers and markets disappear.
    
    It won’t take much more for NZ to become economically unviable.
    
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    August 25, 2025 2:03pm
    - RoboRob
      
      Thats my point, the crisis wont solve itself yet the government are making snails pace progress. The report of what we might do is currently a minimum or 3mths. Let alone actually starting to do something. We all know that building generation / finding oil and gas isn’t quick.
      
      Probably what they should do at this point is start building a warf (if required) to recieve gas tankers. Talk to Trump about buying some of the USAs copious gas.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:32pm
      - RoboRob
        
        That should say ‘minimum of 3 mths late’.
        
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        August 25, 2025 5:06pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        LNG import terminal. Plenty of gas in Australia, PNG; also Qatar.
        
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        August 25, 2025 7:02pm
    - Ghost
      
      the moment we suspend or withdraw from the climate change agreements we are in breach of our free trade agreement with the EU. You can thank the Ardern government for that.
      
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      August 25, 2025 5:14pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        The Europeans? You mean those people who fund Vlad’s aggression in Ukraine by buying Russian gas? Those Europeans?
        
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        August 25, 2025 7:04pm
      - Ghost
        
        Which means zero for the breach we will have with our free trade agreement
        
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        August 25, 2025 7:29pm
I remember when

Dr Michael Johnson: Te Reo in year 1 – beginning readers need one language at a time: Breaking Views.
In an article explaining why early readers should be in one language, he also introduces some data that better explains the whole language vs phonics argument.

“English is an annoying language to learn to read.
Only 70% of its words obey the spelling-to-sound rules.
Theses are ‘regular words.’
Words that do not follow the rules are called ‘irregular words.’
Alphabets depict language sounds visually.
If a child learns about 40 rules for converting spelling to sound, they can sound out and recognise a word they have not seen in written form before, provided it is in their spoken vocabulary.
To avoid confusing beginning readers, schools give them books that avoid using irregular words as much as possible.”

So in broad terms 70% of words are phonic while the other 30% are whole language.

[Mod – article link added]

Te reo in year 1: beginning readers need one language at a time
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August 25, 2025 9:22am
- Local Miller
  
  Phonics, the bedrock of good reading skills. My understanding is that there’s a move back towards phonics in the new curriculum.
  If you learn phonics it’s a small step to pick up the 30% of words that don’t follow the phonetic rules, but if you learn using whole language, it’s a lot harder to learn now words, be they regular or irregular.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:36am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    but if you learn using whole language, it’s a lot harder to learn new words, be they regular or irregular.
    
    And Canada, USA and Australia twigged to this some 20 years ago, when they dropped the whole language approach for new readers.
    
    NZ Educators were loath to admit that they had backed and promoted a disastrous method for learning to read.
    
    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/09/17/children-are-taught-habits-of-poor-readers-expert/
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:55pm
- Paulus
  
  If you cannot speak English properly then you could never learn Maori properly.
  
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  August 25, 2025 2:58pm
Skippytony

Just about the only bit of FTA viewing we do with any regularity is, for some reason Country Calander. Yes, we should get a life.
The thing that has been leaping out a me is that recently just about every episode mentions the dynastic aspirations of the business owners and how key their offspring are to the success and future of the business.
It must be deeply depressing as an employee of said such farmer to effectively say my staff are no good, or that there is no path to advancement that is not taken up by a family member.
Do these people know nothing of the dangers of nepotism?
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August 25, 2025 9:27am
- David Garrett
  
  Skippy: Your understanding of the word “nepotism” is somewhat shaky. In short, anyone applying for a job on a family – as opposed to corporate – farm ought to know that more likely than not, that farm will be handed down to the next generation and so on.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:27am
  - Wandering Star
    
    Completely wrong David. Plenty of corporate farms are “family” farms subject to “nepotistic” practices. In fact, farming is one industry where the shareholders of companies being all from the same family is a very common scenario. Typically, a family trust(s) owns all the shares in the “family” company.
    
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    August 25, 2025 7:39pm
- trout
  
  Country Calendar is well made TV, and very popular. The programmers tend to focus on the quirky or novel rural activities to maintain viewer interest. Business as usual and commercial success tend to get less exposure. Hence the predominance of farming families dabbling in different pursuits. And this happens because family owned farms are likely to be debt free or close to it. Commercial imperatives (the need to make money and pay the lender!) are less pressing. I am sure ‘serious’ farmers are frustrated at the exposure ‘hobby’ farmers get and how this influences public perception of the industry.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:42am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I’ve heard that participants on Country Calendar pay the film makers a fee for the programme to promote their product.
    It is becoming more advertorial than documentary, but still interesting and great to see Kiwis giving it a go.
    
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    August 25, 2025 12:29pm
    - Paulus
      
      We used to send a Country Calender DVD regularly to family in the Uk and they loved it.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:00pm
- AitchW
  
  It’s possible for employees in a family business to be treated well. Not every employee has aspirations of owning their own business and are pefectly happy to work for wages or a salary.
  
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  August 25, 2025 11:40am
  - lifesgood
    
    Most employees simply could not afford to buy said farms.
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:03pm
    - Paulus
      
      I suppose it is the old theory that some people are more lucky, and therefore more equal than others.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:08pm
    - AitchW
      
      That’s true. However other businesses are family owned and long term trusted and valued employees could be at least partially financed by the family if keen to buy, assuming that no family member was either keen or available to inherit.
      
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      August 25, 2025 6:07pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        If the owners don’t want to pass it down, the normal thing would be to sell it at market price …. ?
        
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        August 25, 2025 6:46pm
BeaB

It is good to see the Ministry yet again trying to enforce a full learning year. Most schools play fast and loose with the rules as many parents know only too well as they scramble to cope. A school in Hamilton has late starts for staff meetings on Wednesday mornings at two different times for the junior and senior high schools!
The easiest solution is to make teaching a 9am-5 pm job or equivalent with the same statutory holidays as everyone else. Then all prep, marking, extra-curricular etc would be done on site and in regular hours, many of which would be student-free.
Obviously allowance would need to be made for, say, weekend sports or night performances but that wouldn’t be hard to work out and I suspect the present ‘holiday time’ would be made full use of so exceptions would be minimised.
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August 25, 2025 9:50am
- MCōs
  
  Teaching is not a nine to five job.
  
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  August 25, 2025 10:15am
  - R
    
    The only nine to five job, is the prerogative of the benefit brigade! Real jobs(employment) requires a whole of life commitment; study time, relationship time, relaxation time…etc. Get the picture.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:39am
  - imalwaysright
    
    It seems its not even a nine to three job.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:01am
  - Local Miller
    
    But it should be. Actually, why not an 8 – 5 job? I work 8 – 5, with an hour break (unpaid) giving me a 40 hour week. Teachers could have the same or similar, with some flexibility around lunch breaks if they are on duty.
    
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    August 25, 2025 11:43am
    - MCōs
      
      On Saturday my son and his family were down here in Auckland from Northland because his wife, who is a teacher was attending a work related course for the day.
      A couple of weeks ago they were billeting a student from Japan for a week.
      
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      August 25, 2025 12:47pm
      - BeaB
        
        Good for them but first and foremost their job is in the classroom and that time should be sacrosanct. Learning time is crucial but too much is being frittered away in too many schools.
        With regular hours that Saturday course, for instance, could be in normal paid time when the school is closed to students on holiday but teachers are present.
        A lot of teachers feel burned out. I think that’s partly because there are presently no boundaries on their work life and work can take easily over their life, especially if they are conscientious. A 40-hour week with normal annual leave could give them a much better work/life balance. To everyone’s benefit.
        
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        August 25, 2025 1:25pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I attended a few teaching courses and most were an extraordinary waste of time.
        
        (an exception – an intensive weekend First-Aid course run by St Johns)
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:00pm
      - Local Miller
        
        And this makes them heroes? I’ve regularly attended weekend conferences and evening courses, some I’ve even been one of the presenters. Sometimes I’ve had my hours covered by work, and sometimes not depending on the situation. Why aren’t courses like this being scheduled during the winter holiday?
        One of my daughters is a teacher, so I’m very aware of their work schedule, but my opinion is that teacher’s are their own worst enemies WRT their work hours, and the schools, principles and unions don’t make it easier when they schedule courses over weekends. I’m convinced the principles do this because if they ran the course during the winter break they would be forced to attend themselves.
        
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        August 25, 2025 2:39pm
    - Paulus
      
      Talk to your Mother’s backed Teachers Unions.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:10pm
  - BeaB
    
    That’s the problem.
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:18pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      So if the unions went away, the education problems would go away too. We could have a new cohort of teachers willing to work longer hours for less money than the current lot. Problem solved.
      
      Not sure where you live but I’d love to be there and get my share of whatever you are smoking 🙂
      
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      August 25, 2025 6:50pm
cmm

Over $13k of ratepayer money taken to splurge on a private party for 50 people is called “not a good look”.

I disagree. It is blatant corruption.

Have all the party you want. But pay for it yourself, out of your own pockets. It would have only cost you $270 per ticket.

If $270 sounds a bit steep, well then cut back!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360800288/not-good-look-local-board-criticised-ratepayer-funded-private-cocktail-party
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August 25, 2025 10:04am
- Ian Boag
  
  Someone (with a 3-letter handle) on this blog was explaining a while back that the $1bn ($1000 million) that would be recovered by income-testing the pension was not worth doing because – I quote -“it would not move the needle” … dunno where $15k ($.015 mill) would be on that scale. 🙂
  
  Go figure ….
  
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  August 25, 2025 6:56pm
RoboRob

Where is Tama Potakas urgent review of Whānau Ora funding. Originally due by the end of July, it was extended to mid August. Not a peep.
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August 25, 2025 10:07am
- pdm
  
  RR – the last thing Tama will want to do is announce anything that might upset his Maori Party mates.
  
  I still recall that `cosy’ exchange with Rawiri Waititi in the Parliamentary Chamber before QT a couple of weeks ago.
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:40pm
  - Ghost
    
    You still remember something you made up you mean. Tama is walking into the house holding all his stuff, Rawiri is standing in the aisle and puts his hand out to shake. Now I guess some would think Tama should ignore and keep walking. He shakes hands and slowing keeps moving on. This is just like the rubbish you were spreading on your dead blog that tama used to be a member of the Māori party. Not surprising you actually never changed that after having it pointed out to you
    
    Again for anyone that wants to see what happened and not what pdm invents here is the video
    
    https://videos.parliament.nz/on-demand?id=951e8d1c-5714-4be1-46dd-08ddc941414e
    
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    August 25, 2025 1:43pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Some inter-party friendships would probably result in a better parliament.
      
      Parliaments biggest weakness is the reluctance to have cross party support for enduring legislation governing our income and energy sources.
      
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      August 25, 2025 2:55pm
      - Ghost
        
        Yeah. Especially in areas like education and health, but as we recently saw labour aren’t interested in taking up invitations from the education minister
        
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        August 25, 2025 3:11pm
    - RoboRob
      
      Sadly link doesn’t work for me.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:35pm
- RoboRob
  
  https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/independent-review-into-alleged-inappropriate-use-
  
  ‘The independent reviewer completed the review, as scheduled, in July 2025 and Te Puni Kōkiri has received the report (subject to natural justice step). As is standard process for a review of this nature, those covered by the review have been provided with the opportunity to comment. The findings will be released publicly in mid-August once this has occurred.’
  
  25/Jun
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/tama-potaka-seeks-review-of-maori-roll-ad-featuring-tame-iti/ANRMC3SHHJDABFSSVDKQ3BUIGI/
  
  ‘Whānau Ora and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka is asking Te Puni Kōkiri officials to urgently review a new advert encouraging Māori to sign up to the Māori roll.
  
  Ah yes, the urgency is strong.
  
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  August 25, 2025 1:14pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360801770/37m-shipment-meth-hidden-air-cargo-intercepted
Considering the incalculable harm this would have caused I think the people concerned deserve the death penalty.
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August 25, 2025 11:34am
cmm

I don’t have a dog in the Ukrainee vs Russia fight, but I do watch it from the, as impartial as I can be, point of view of military strategy.

Here’s an interesting thing: the USA are preventing the Ukrainians from shooting missiles into Russia by not supplying targeting information.

Hmmm. That would seem to mean that the missile systems have some sort of encrypted method for entering targeting data. ie.
* Ukraine determines it wants to hit point X.
* Ukraine sends a request to USA “We want to hit point X, please send us the code for point X”
* USA sends back the code.
* Ukraine plugs code into missile launcher. Press button.
* Missile hits point X.

If USA does not want that position targeted then they email back a middle-finger emoji.

Now that makes perfect sense from USA’s point of view. They want to be able to control how weapons get used.

But it completely sucks from a customer point of view. You buy, or in this case are given, all these weapons, but don’t have the ability to use them as you see fit.

Something similar happened with the Exocet missiles. These could be remotely disabled via radar (if the Frogs gave you the magic code). The French did not give the code to the Brits during the Falklands (bye bye HMS Sheffield), but they did give it to then Americans fighting Iraq or Iran or whomever.

This is a huge problem with modern military equipment and is a compelling reason to have a domestic arms capability – for some arms at least.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/trump-blocks-ukraine-missile-strikes-to-push-putin-into-peace-talks/HEGGHIRFTNCORHS6SWPZKFYEXM/
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August 25, 2025 11:35am
- pdm
  
  cmm – perhaps the yanks are scared the X will be placed on the Kremlin or Putins home or even both at the same time.
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:42pm
  - cmm
    
    I was only commenting on the equipment itself and am not speculating on the current war.
    
    There are numerous reasons to want to control the equipment in this way:
    * You don’t want to enable the customer to go outside your own foreign policy (ie. you want them to be a slave state).
    * You are concerned the weapons could fall into the wrong hands (eg Russians took them over, stolen or sold to terrorists, …)
    * You’re concerned the customer might use these weapons against you or your allies in a future war (eg. Exocets sold by France to Iran or Iraq – I forget which).
    
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    August 25, 2025 3:31pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      I can see it potentially as “we will give you these weapons to use defensively as we don’t want to be implicated in attacks on Russia which will provoke this war even more”.
      
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      August 25, 2025 4:39pm
- Skippytony
  
  The American operating model post Afghanistan is to resource proxies on the ground in a controlled way. The controlled bit of that statement is exactly that – the US retains a veto over targets – probably the only reason Vlad is still around. This of course spares US boots (and blood) on the ground while still exercising leverage when required.
  
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  August 25, 2025 2:14pm
- virtualmark
  
  I’m not sure that’s how it’s working.
  
  My understanding is that:
  1) Ukraine has voluntarily agreed to the USA’s demand to not use US-manufactured long-range weapons on targets that are on Russian territory. Ukraine can use missiles to attack Russians on Ukraine territory, but not over the border. They agree to this because to act otherwise is to risk losing all access to US weapons and intelligence.
  1a) I understand the US demand also considers Crimea to be “Russian” in this context … hence, for example, no attacking the Kerch bridge with US-made weapons.
  2) The US is strictly limiting the flow of intelligence to Ukraine, particularly satellite imagery. NATO and European partners can look some distance into Russian territory, with AWACS, intelligence gathering aircraft etc. But Europe doesn’t have its own spy satellites with the quality of imaging of the US Keyhole type satellites, and not with the same speed of response of those satellites. So Ukraine isn’t getting timely intelligence about mobile targets in Russian territory. They can still hit stationary targets, like oil refineries, but not mobile and time-sensitive targets.
  
  Note that these restrictions were also in place under Biden.
  
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  August 25, 2025 4:22pm
- virtualmark
  
  Re my comment above … this is why Ukraine has invested a lot of effort into its own cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. For example, the FP5 carries a big warhead out to 3,000km. So Ukraine no longer needs US weapons to reach out and touch somebody.
  
  It will be interesting to see how the US-Ukraine relationship evolves and whether, at some point, Ukraine decides the US has stepped back so far that there’s no point in continuing to volunteer to hold back.
  
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  August 25, 2025 4:28pm
Swifty

“Hello peasants” says the Queen of Kainga Ora

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19qGtkwCvi/?mibextid=wwXIfr

😃
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August 25, 2025 11:45am
Swifty

I’m sorry, I think the declining rates of home ownership as a result of the median house price to income multiple skyrocketing over the last 30 years has been a key driver of our numerous social ills.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/570961/christopher-luxon-wants-to-see-house-prices-rise

House owners and banks have done spectacularly well over these decades and if they did a little less well in the coming decades, well, I wouldn’t mind that a bit.

The facts are incontrovertible, people who own their own homes make better citizens. This is something we should encourage and facilitate through increased house building by the private sector.

Even if people/couples start out in tiny homes before moving up as their incomes increase that’s far better for them and the nation than being locked into renting for life.
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August 25, 2025 12:00pm
- cmm
  
  Somewhere in the last year John Key made the prediction that house prices would double over some number of years.
  
  I struggle to see how that is possible.
  
  As much as some people might want house prices to rise, they can only rise as much as people are able to pay for them.
  
  A $2M house on 30 years at 5.1% is going to set you back $11k per month. That needs an income of around $170k …. just for your mortgage!
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:39pm
  - Skippytony
    
    House prices in Australia have doubled, on average every seven years since federation.
    
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    August 25, 2025 2:17pm
    - cmm
      
      Sure, but that is still capped by people’s ability to pay.
      
      If salaries go up 4% per year and house prices 6%, then eventually the math doesn’t math as the Muricans say.
      
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      August 25, 2025 3:26pm
  - Fender
    
    No it doesn’t, you don’t start at 2 million, you own a cheaper home first and trade up each time as we all did , making money on each sale until you are in the market for 2 million and the mortgage is a piece of that possibly.
    
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    August 25, 2025 3:11pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    High inflation after Greebor+te racists come to power and wreck productive sectors will do it.
    
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    August 25, 2025 10:03pm
- cmm
  
  Possibly home ownership is an issue, but perhaps you are conflating things a bit.
  
  Surely far more of a discriminator is being on welfare or not and home ownership is just a proxy for that.
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:44pm
- cmm
  
  … and from Bishop:
  
  “Housing Minister Chris Bishop says New Zealand has to decouple its economic growth from house price increases, even if it is difficult in the short-term. ”
  
  All very well to say “we must” etc, but achieving it is very challenging, especially as our brightest continue to flee the country.
  
  When Bishop and Luxon have apparently contradictory messages, then how the hell can National build confidence in a future for people to want to stay here?
  
  https://www.interest.co.nz/economy/134218/new-zealand-should-%E2%80%98destroy%E2%80%99-idea-economy-linked-house-price-growth
  
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  August 25, 2025 12:53pm
  - Skippytony
    
    On one level, Bish is correct, NZ has too high a percentage of GDP tied up in essentially non-productive assets.
    They do seem to be reluctant about pulling the only levers that will change the equation – 1. Raise productivity (remember JK saying we needed to catch up with Aus – yeah right), 2. Strip out costs RMA, Local Councils etc and 3. Free up supply.
    Attacking investors and driving them out of the market doesn’t help and CGT on non primary dwellings just drove Aussies to build bigger and bigger primary dwellings – see McMansions.
    
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    August 25, 2025 2:23pm
  - cmm
    
    Skippy: Yes in ways they are both right. But they don’t agree with eachother and are sending a confusing and inconsistent message.
    
    Both are rather “feelzy” and neither have committed to a plan of action.
    
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    August 25, 2025 3:21pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    It seems that the recovery will be based on dairy farming and tourism. Both characterised by relatively low-paying work. Both looking to import part-time casuals from offshore.
    
    Go figure
    
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    August 25, 2025 7:01pm
- Paulus
  
  Many years I spent two days as a guest of NZForest Products in Tokoroa.
  One item that has always remained is that they decided to sell off the houses they owned and gave the staff the opportunity of first refusal for staff, with mates rates and agreed bank assistances.
  This took the liability in their balance Sheet off for these houses.
  We were shown pictures of pre sale houses and streets, and a short while after when they became privately owned with a lick of paint etc.
  
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  August 25, 2025 3:21pm
Swifty

We really do have some bloody idiots in Auckland.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/178wSuhL1u/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Knuckle draggers.

Even if the Indian was in the wrong, just get over it and get on with your day.
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August 25, 2025 12:13pm
- kowtow
  
  20 odd years ago the legacy media were constantly running stories , very prominently about white folk ( funny that) being rude to immigrants.
  
  Given that trog also potentially commited a crime exposing his arse on top of his appalling behaviour and language , I’m wondering if the crusading fourth estate will take this one up……….
  
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  August 25, 2025 1:16pm
- imalwaysright
  
  The Everlast t-shirt really brings out the best in his beer gut and man breasts.
  
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  August 25, 2025 2:32pm
- NothingLeft
  
  I deleted my facebook account 5 years ago – just too toxically woke, unhinged and censorious for my liking. I was barely looking at it anyway.
  
  Recently there was some information I wanted to access from a local organization published via Facebook, so I thought, no problem, I’ll just sign up again for those odd occasions when I need it.
  
  But no. Apparently in my long absence I have been judged by some kafkaesque facebook court for thought crime that I am neither privy to nor able to get any details on nor allowed to appeal. Amusing given how little world uses facebook now, but does have me a little curious as to what baby-murdering or kitten-buggering wrong-think I have been found guilty of.
  
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  August 25, 2025 5:43pm
Keith White

Theodore Dalrymple nailed it a quarter century ago – I was reminded of this last night when, home on leave, I went late night shopping jetlagged near the airport…

“In the circumstances, it isn’t altogether surprising that I can now tell at a glance—with a fair degree of accuracy—that a man is violent toward his significant other. (It doesn’t follow, of course, that I can tell when a man isn’t violent toward her.) In truth, the clues are not particularly subtle. A closely shaven head with many scars on the scalp from collisions with broken bottles or glasses; a broken nose; blue tattoos on the hands, arms, and neck, relaying messages of love, hate, and challenge; but above all, a facial expression of concentrated malignity, outraged egotism, and feral suspiciousness—all these give the game away. Indeed, I no longer analyze the clues and deduce a conclusion: a man’s propensity to violence is as immediately legible in his face and bearing as any other strongly marked character trait.”
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August 25, 2025 12:33pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  By the time anyone gets to 40, they have the face they have earned.
  
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  August 25, 2025 7:16pm
rouppe

It was only a matter of time before somebody had the balls (pun intended) to do this.

Germany should change its prison laws to stop a transgender neo-Nazi man from going to a woman’s jail, the country’s interior minister has said.

Alexander Dobrindt said the case of Marla-Svenja Liebich was “an example of the very simple misuse of the Self-Determination Act”.
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August 25, 2025 12:37pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “Ze cooler ! Eight veeks !”
  
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  August 25, 2025 1:17pm
- Notsofast
  
  The craven whipping of NZ parliament into unanimously passing this disgusting self ID legislation here is a stain on all who participated.
  
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  August 25, 2025 1:31pm
  - Notsofast
    
    Thanks.
    This legitimising by parliament has helped the autogynephiles in their warped desire to create child eunuchs to fantasise about.
    Look at Richard Levene and his legislation removing age limits in the states.
    
    Rachel Levine
    
    https://share.google/2bhL5Nrdk9pkDfSqT
    
    A special place in hell is required for this dangerous deviant
    
    The law here should be repealed urgently.
    It has nothing to do with gay rights.
    
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    August 25, 2025 4:40pm
Paulus

We all already have a National ID number via our Health Service where everybody is issued a reference letter and number.
If not you pay for all medical treatment.
That should cover well over 99% of the people in New Zealand.
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August 25, 2025 3:25pm
Swifty

“The officer…..who is Maori…”

Oh dear, somewhat ironic….

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/appalling-racist-language-from-northland-police-officer-race-relations-commissioner/7CDT3IYIFJAJVJ2TPIBR34YCT4/
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August 25, 2025 3:40pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Race Relations Commissioner Dr Melissa Derby (Ngāti Ranginui) who is whiter than Caesar’s wife …
  
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  August 25, 2025 7:20pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360801690/heartbreaking-thousands-react-image-phone-booth-being-used-shelter

There is so much wrong with this article I don’t know where to begin.
Is there is fact ANYONE in that phone booth ?

Identity ? Race ? Police record ? Kainga Ora record ? Friends, family, casual acquaintances?

If it has been going on for some time why has nobody intervened to date?

There will be a back-story to this article, but as usual the MSM will ignore it. Family, ex-workmates, Govt departments could throw a lot of light on this but the crap “reporters” won’t bother.
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August 25, 2025 5:08pm
- Ghost
  
  Well, if you look at the photo you can see their shoe and leg sticking out.
  
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  August 25, 2025 7:02pm
Ghost

I agree, this proposal from act was bad. We either have a three or a four year term. Not a what ever the government decides. The voters need to know when they go to the poll how long that government is going to be elected for

A select committee report has recommended pushing ahead with a four-year-term referendum, but stripping out some of the requirements the ACT Party had proposed.

The approach championed by David Seymour would have meant four-year-terms only when the government decided to hand over control of select committees to the opposition, otherwise the current three-year term would remain.

Article
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August 25, 2025 5:51pm
Scooter

Maybe the Pharmacy Council should stick to training and giving the correct amount of pills etc and not the new Cultural Competency guidelines they demand of the pharmacists.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/hdc-finds-pharmacist-failed-to-consult-gp-three-times-before-man-s-fatal-brain-bleed/

https://www.chrislynchmedia.com/news-items/racism-on-steroids-industry-veterans-slam-pharmacy-councils-forced-cultural-competency-rules-as-health-minister-demands-explanation/
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August 25, 2025 6:52pm

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