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August 30, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 August 2025

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General Debate

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Nikola Donatello

I was curious to come across a movement in Northland promoting the view that the Northern Tribes declared independence in 1835, and that such sovereignty remains today.

“The Flag of the United Tribes of Nu Tireni (New Zealand), is a deeply significant symbol in New Zealand’s history, representing Māori sovereignty, early interactions with the British Crown, and the assertion of indigenous authority. It represents the enduring He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni 1835 – the Declaration of Independence, inviting all people (tribes) to join the jurisdiction of the Confederation of United tribes.

https://tekara.nz/

https://www.waitangi.org.nz/waitangi-blog/he-whakaputanga-declaration-of-independence-1835

You may think that this is an historical curiosity. However there are many folk in northland who hold the view that this declaration of independence remains valid and should be enacted.

The Human Rights Commission used the Declaration to advocate to the former National Government that New Zealand should sign up to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. You will recall that they were successful, which then led to Jacinda’s “Co governance” agenda.

https://tikatangata.org.nz//news/the-declaration-of-the-independence-of-new-zealand

This issue of Maori sovereignty bubbles away in the background. In my opinion, the Government has a duty to resolve it decisively. Personally, I agree with David Lange who observed in 2000…

“Democratic government can accommodate Maori political aspiration in many ways.

‘It can allocate resources in ways which reflect the particular interests of Maori people. It can delegate authority and allow the exercise of degrees of Maori autonomy.

‘What it cannot do is acknowledge the existence of a separate sovereignty. As soon as it does that, it isn’t a democracy.’

‘We can have a democratic form of government or we can have indigenous sovereignty. They can’t coexist and we can’t have them both.”

https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/254947-you-cant-have-both.html

25 years on, that observation powerfully resonates.

For most New Zealanders, people advocating “Maori sovereignty” are a curiosity. They ask “What does that even mean?” They then shrug, and get back to worrying about the mortgage and their children.

However the rise of the Maori Party, and the defeat of The Treaty Principles Bill are ominous signs. The activists in this space are a bit like the CCP and Taiwan. If it takes 100 years, then it takes 100 years.
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August 30, 2025 8:01am
- Scott
  
  Nikola – that’s a downtick from me. I don’t want govt catering to Maori autonomy. I don’t want Maori people having more rights than non Maori people.
  I want one nation, one people, with equal rights for all. I don’t think that’s too much to ask?
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:04am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    So you agree with my comment?
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:13am
    - Scott
      
      Nikola – yes and no. I get the general thrust of your argument but like many reasonable fair minded people you concede too much.
      
      Remember the Maori radical is not reasonable and fair minded. Remember the saying, “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
      
      So I say no to separate rights for Maori. I say one people, one nation, with equal rights for all.
      
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      August 30, 2025 11:55am
    - Ultima
      
      No
      
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      August 30, 2025 1:03pm
  - cmm
    
    I actually don’t mind the idea of separatism too much – so long as it is done completely. ie. they disentangle themselves completely from dependence on the taxpayer.
    
    What these activists want is not really separatism but just extra “rights”. They want to be able to take and demand anything and the Fithy Pakeha must pay. They are not at all interested in putting in the effort etc to be self supporting.
    
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    August 30, 2025 2:31pm
- Unity
  
  The Declaration of Independence was an utter failure. It gained only 50 signatures and was discarded. The tribes were too involved in killing and eating each other to consider this concept.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:06am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  So, why not let Northland go? Offer the locals a one-time choice: NZ or Northland citizenship. No automatic right of residence for citizens of the one in the country of the other (work permits & investment visas possible). No taxation, and no benefits.
  
  Would be a fun referendum. My bet is that the vote to let Northland go would be higher outside of Northland than within it.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:09am
  - Dave
    
    I look forward to President for Life Harawira (or whoever) signing an agreement with China to build an international airport, harbour and presidential palace financed by a 500 billion dollar loan with some undisclosed sureties.
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:33am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    This is what is so confusing about the call for “sovereignty”. They want sovereignty but they also want to be part of New Zealand to collect welfare, education, health services. So what is the “sovereignty” part mean? Is it just a slogan? Do they even know?
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:34am
    - keepcalmcarryon
      
      Sovereignty means the right to grift reports, extort 100 million dollars so kiwis can have electricity and burn down public huts all while paying less tax.
      
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      August 30, 2025 11:56am
- Philview
  
  Maggy did a series on here about Tamihere’s meetings with the CCP. This relationship was completely ignored by the NZ Media so it is easy to imagine there are things happening behind the scenes that will come to light in due course.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:11am
- Mod88
  
  John Tamihere’s comparison of this Govt and the Nazi Party is telling is it not. He is raising the bar exponentially all while being allowed to break the Law at will with no consequences. No wonder he sees himself as bullet proof along with his Political Party and Trusts.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:33am
  - AitchW
    
    The Maori Party will engage in ever increasingly provocative and offensive behaviour until the election. A photo of their MPs circulating shows one holding a flintlock pistol and Ngarewa Packer dressed like Jihadi Barbie. The cowboy is, of course,poking his tongue out.
    They will disrupt the house and indulge in more and more lies and hyperbole.
    Bring it on, with Labour almost certainly needing them to govern they will most definitely make a significant number of Labour voters reconsider their votes on polling day.
    
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    August 30, 2025 5:53pm
- Yvette
  
  Nikola Donatello, in accepting UNDRIP, John Key’s Government said: [New Zealand] reaffirms the legal and constitutional frameworks that underpin New Zealand’s legal system, noting that those existing frameworks define the bounds of New Zealand’s engagement with the declaration. [1] so UNDRIP had to conform with the Treaty (and its Principles, whatever they are)
  
  The vagueness of the Treaty is not only inconsistencies within it – that Luxon can say sovereignty was ceded, Hipkins say it wasn’t, and Ardern to not know what the First Article was (so three top level consecutive Prime Minister haven’t a bloody clue which of them is right, or none of them) – but the major discrepancy is between the Treaty and the Declaration of Independence five years earlier, that Declaration being “independence of chiefdoms” and the Treaty “national sovereignty”, the latter undefined in its difference to the former.
  
  Then under “3 Waters” when Waikato-Tainui had Tuku Morgan appointed head of the proposed Entity A (Auckland and Northland – outside Morgan’s rohe region) iwi signed a memorandum of understanding, which if still in effect, may have iwi who didn’t sign the Treaty now allied with those who did, with no one agreeing on what the Treaty – conceived, written, translated into Maori, and orally presented by Europeans with no Maori input – actually means.
  
  So for my 10¢ I would advocate we start again and write a proper Constitution.
  ____________
  [1] https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/national-govt-support-un-rights-declaration
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:53am
- Warren Murray
  
  I think “the movement in Northland” are correct. But there is context in terms of what led to the declaration and what happened afterwards that also need to be recognized. The DOI by itself doesn’t mean what they think.
  
  If tribes were ‘sovereign’, why did they need such a thing? As I understand it, it was to develop articles of statehood, such as the flag for interacting and trading with the world outside of NZ. Ships with no flags could be regarded as pirates.
  
  As I understand it, few tribes outside of Northland joined. The institutions that were to be formed (a Parliament and Government) never occurred. In short, after taking the DOI, the initiators did little else.
  
  More importantly, it was superceded by the Treaty of Waitangi a few years later. The British, unlike the organisers of the DOI, went to the effort of ensuring it was accepted by most, if not quite all tribes.
  
  The DOI is also important when the question of ‘sovereignty’ versus ‘governance’ arises.
  
  It could be argued there are parallels with the Kingdom of Hawaii, which was a recognized state until it became part of the USA.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:57am
- cmm
  
  Yesterday I saw three vans full of these people who appear to be camping in a “No Camping” carpark in Sumner. Playing shitty rap music and generally being annoying. They even have a portable flagpole with a United Tribes flag.
  
  People are staying well away from them. No doubt they will not be moved on because that would be racist.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:05am
  - Jigsaw
    
    Here in Taupo we have now several Maori shanty towns with one on the Acacia Bay road and another at Five Mile Bay. They are mostly constructed of old caravans and pallets and have no sewage or running water. The Taupo council looks the other way and tries to ignore them and yet they grow day by day and will likely grow much faster as the weather warms up. The deputy mayor says that to remove them on would cause a huge protest and so it can’t be done. He is ex police!
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:36am
    - Yvette
      
      Jigsaw – “one on the Acacia Bay road”
      
      Is that “Maori shanti town” actually on Maori land – as is some of the land between Acacia Bay Road and the Lake?
      
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      August 30, 2025 10:02am
      - CJames
        
        Yes to both.
        Eastern side of Acacia Bay Rd down to lake is Maori land under a variety of titles. Lots of wildling pines with gates out at road edge.
        Out at Five Mile Bay it is the area that was formally the reserve that got returned in secret to the local tribe about 5 years ago. Still got a Crown Reserve along the lakefront there that people walk cycle on. Gorse and broom hides most of the shanties
        You can see both on Google Earth
        
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        August 30, 2025 10:43am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Anything can be done, where there’s a will.
      
      Where does their plumbing go? Are they hooked up, or does it leach straight into the lake?
      
      I wonder what Te Heu Heu thinks about that.
      
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      August 30, 2025 10:43am
    - Ghost
      
      We’ve got a little gypsy village down here. It’s on their own land. A mess, but no worse than my hoarder neighbour who recently bought another car to add to his collection of crap cars. No one cares about the gypsy village.
      
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      August 30, 2025 10:49am
  - rouppe
    
    They won’t be moved on if no one complains to the council.
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:43am
    - CJames
      
      People have complained but they haven’t been moved on. The council rents it posh offices from the tribe and wanted to sign a cogovernance arrangement with them.
      
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      August 30, 2025 10:45am
- lastmanstanding
  
  No doubt this weak spineless Government will cave in and recognise Palestine and reward Hamas and Iran. If they were principled they would say we will only recognise Palestine when Hamas are no part of the governance of Palestine and all the hostages dead or alive are returned.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:09am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    I don’t think that last condition works. Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza. If a “Palestinian State” is recognised, an election would just produce a government led by “Hamas v 2.0”.
    
    I know this is an unpopular view, but I cannot see a solution involving a Palestinian state. The best solution would be for Gaza and the West Bank to become part of Israel. The UN could then broker a deal where other Arab countries in the region take a quota of Palestinians to be resettlese.
    
    A “Palestinian State” would simply be a terrorist state in Israel’s border, determined to destroy Israel, but now recognised by the UN as a legitimate state.
    
    There was a two state solution on offer in 1948. The original Jewish settlers were happy to accept. However the neighbours instead started shooting. In 1948, 1967, 1973, and on and on until October 7..
    
    .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Fedayeen_insurgency?wprov=sfla1
    
    The only viable solution is a greater Israel incorporating the West Bank and Gaza.
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:51am
    - Wandering Star
      
      “The UN could then broker a deal where other Arab countries in the region take a quota of Palestinians to be resettled.”
      
      There seems to be an unargued assumption that Jews have a right to the land on which Israel sits, therefore everyone else, no matter what intergenerational roots and ties they have, must get out to make the Jews happy. What is the basis for this assumption? Who really knows.
      
      Whether or not you believe that Israel has a “right” to exist based on the fact a small minority of Jews have lived in the region for centuries, then, unlike the Arabs have always been in the area, because Israel is heavily comprised of immigrant Jews from Europe, North America and elsewhere (who are also dual citizens), then surely the most logical resolution along the “resettlement to end the conflict” lines is Jews leaving Israel and resettling in the places where they already have citizenship.
      
      Because so many Israeli Jews are already citizens of these prospective destination nations, they can simply get on a plane and get off at the other end. No “UN deal” would need to be brokered.
      
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      August 30, 2025 11:43am
      - marleybob
        
        Why don’t you tell us, why for centuries there was so few Jews in Israel.
        
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        August 30, 2025 3:44pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        The Jews dispersed throughout the world once more. Across the West would probably be the best, even including Germany, although their Islamic immigrants might have an issue with that.
        
        But people like “Wandering Star” would be up for Jewish neighbours here in NZ, no?
        
        Anything to end the bloodshed in the ME and settle these land issues once and for all in favour of the Palestinians.
        
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        August 30, 2025 6:55pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        “Wandering Star” likely doesn’t realise it but he’s just joined the Far Left with their post-colonial theory, especially the “decolonization” bit that fires Te Pati Maori here as well.
        
        Jews in Israel. Whites across the Anglosphere: “Land back is going to happen” – even to Wandering Star.
        
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        August 30, 2025 7:07pm
    - Philview
      
      I agree with your views. It is also noticeable the people shouting loudest in NZ for a Palestinian State are the same trying to undermine liberal democracy here.
      
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      August 30, 2025 11:54am
    - Paulus
      
      I understand that Hamas “persuaded” people to vote for them actually.
      
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      August 30, 2025 1:38pm
      - AitchW
        
        And declined to entertain a general election since they were elected in 2006.
        
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        August 30, 2025 5:57pm
  - Paulus
    
    If it does we are two who will never vote National again after 50 years of doing so, whether local good MP or Party vote.
    Will just abstain, against out fully held belief against so doing.
    
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    August 30, 2025 1:36pm
- sirknz
  
  Has anybody pointed out to these clowns that this flag has St George’s cross on it.
  
  Twice…
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:18am
- Simon
  
  Can these guys run any form of civil government? Like build roads or schools. They need funding they can levy their own people. All government raise taxes. No one will pay these clowns one red cent.
  
  It’s part of multi billion dollar racket. National pay Maori billions for nothing. These guys just want a cut.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:19am
  - cmm
    
    It is all based on very short sighted hand out thinking – same as Africa.
    
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    August 30, 2025 2:33pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    They did put the hard yards in by digging up water pipes and turning them into crude surface-to-surface missiles
    
    So proud of it that they released that video showing the whole process, just like the videos from October 7 and the more recent ones of the starving Jewish hostages.
    
    You don’t build civilised societies that way.
    
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    August 30, 2025 7:02pm
- DukeOfAngus
  
  Hmm “Nu Tireni “not Aotearoa. Maori had no concept of NI and SI being “one country” until Europeans gave it to them.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:43am
  - Burtland
    
    Ngai Tahu still dont – they want Te Waipounamu on the passport
    
    Aotearoa is a modern pakeha fake
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:38am
  - MCōs
    
    Europeans gave them what?
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:59am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Understanding of nationhood.
      
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      August 30, 2025 12:05pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    I thought the ToW says “Nu Tirani”?
    
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    August 30, 2025 6:07pm
- Jethrod
  
  With the inability of the sub tribes to agree on anything, Ngapuhi have still not settled their long running TOW negotiations.
  Someone with a few gonads should set a date for full and final settlement.
  When the date passes, do a Stuff and offer $1 as settlement.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:49am
  - I remember when
    
    Human rights law blocking Maori authority, researcher Andrew Erueti says: Te Ao Maori.
    “It’s about power, who holds it and who gets to decide what justice looks like in the country.”
    
    That will be Parliament and it is unlikely that anyone will get everything they want.
    
    But that is justice – the same for everybody!
    
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    August 30, 2025 11:52am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Despite liking the 1835 flag, and the declaration. I don’t think the 1835 declaration really matters that much, the same chiefs signed the Treaty in 1840 – which really was once and done. Maori ceded sovereignty to end the warfare and come under the jurisdiction of the British Crown.
  
  The rest, as they say, is history.
  
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  August 30, 2025 5:58pm
Cassandra

Defining indigenous: fallow deer were introduced to the UK’s New Forest by William the Conqueror (1066). They are still defined as “introduced” not native. Worth thinking about. (Thinking? Show me where it says “thinking” in the Holy Niu Bible Quran aka ToW).
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August 30, 2025 8:01am
- Flossie
  
  If introduced means something having been in the country only a thousand years or so, then surely Maori are not native to New Zealand, but are rather an introduced species.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:01am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    The Japanese are not indigenous to Japan.
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:17am
  - MCōs
    
    Deer, rabbits, possums, stoats, gorse, pine have all been introduced into New Zealand
    It’s the terminology generally used for animals and plants brought into a country
    Polynesians, British, Irish, French, Chinese and other humans immigrated here.
    Before the Europeans turned up the indigenous Polynesians had no need to call themselves by a collective noun, but then they did and the word Māori, meaning ordinary or normal was used.
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:58am
  - Michael Sommerville
    
    Speaking to an anthropologist a week ago and he said the Maori arrived after 1200AD. No evidence, based on carbon dating, can be found before then.
    
    They arrived from the Cook Islands which was settled about 1,000 AD. All this is based on carbon dating of artifacts found. He did say that these settlements could have happened earlier BUT there is NO evidence to support this.
    
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    August 30, 2025 10:11am
    - goNZ1
      
      Did he say why they left the Cooks ?
      Maybe they were the forerunners of 501s ?
      
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      August 30, 2025 9:53pm
- Simon
  
  Indigenous people of Otago and Canterbury were British settlers
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:24am
- cmm
  
  At least they are not classified as invasive. Fallow deer seem to fit into the ecosystem reasonably well in Uk.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:44am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    But fallow deer in NZ do plenty of damage unless there’s a lot of hunting pressure on them.
    
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    August 30, 2025 7:41pm
Scott

In yet another episode of Gaza Watch we find that the cover photo on Time magazine showing children starving and begging for food is 100% staged –

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNgPe_-Nz8y/?igsh=MXgybWswNzhvOWkxeQ==

In fact the children themselves can’t keep a straight face. They break out of character and smile.

Three News just the other day had another “starving” child on their bulletin. They are all fake too.

If the starving children are fake and the begging for food is fake what does that tell you?

Why does the media have to stage scenes and show children who are suffering from other medical problems if there really is mass starvation and genocide in Gaza?

And many people in the west, including NZ are persuaded by these images that Israel is deliberately starving the people of Gaza. Even sensible conservatives are turning against Israel because of these images.

I do think Israel needs to get on and win the war. Hamas has to be defeated. Then the war can end and the people of Gaza can get on with their lives.
In the meantime we have to be very sceptical of “the reporting” from Gaza.
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August 30, 2025 8:01am
- Pavel
  
  Whenever I see those pictures and videos of starving children lying on hospital beds I can’t help but notice their overweight mothers sitting next to them crying and wailing etc. The kids starving and malnourished but the mother always looks like she has had more than enough to eat.
  
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  August 30, 2025 10:36am
- Notsofast
  
  Hamas strategy has worked to the finest detail including the deliberate sacrificing of civilians by preventing their use of the mega billion tunnel infrastructure for protection from the war.
  It is amazing western leaders like Chris Luxon are not explaining this to their common citizenry, and preferring extreme appeasement.
  
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  August 30, 2025 11:18am
- cmm
  
  Such use of emotive political propaganda is nothing new.
  
  Over 120 years since the Boer War, Afrikaners will still refer to pictured of Lizzie van Zyl as evidence of Boer women and children being starved to death.
  
  Lizzie van Zyl and her family were on low food rations but they were not starved to death. She died of typhoid.
  
  Back then typhoid was common. In fact more British soldiers died of typhoid than died from Boer bullets. It is not at all surprising that typhoid was also found in the internment camps, especially as the military and Boer internment camps were often close.
  
  Typhoid is a bugger. My grandmother’s first child, who would have grown up to be my uncle, died of typhoid as an infant in the early 1930s. That was living in a farming environment with adequate food and no overcrowding.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_van_Zyl
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:47pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    It’s all becoming clear.
    
    No Boers starved to death in British concentration camps. Only Lizzie van Zyl died and you just know (from 120 years distant) that she died from typhoid. Kitchener’s scorched earth policy is a myth. It is absolutely not true that “approximately 26,000 Boer women and children died in the camps”. After all where would chatGPT get that number from …. ?
    
    Sorry to hear about your uncle.
    
    Also essentially no civilians to speak of have been killed in Gaza and there is plenty of food going into Gaza. The trucks that Helen Clark saw turned back at Rafa were not what they seemed to be or she was making it up. Not sure why she would bother. Probably doing a bit of that gaslighting you so perceptively identified.
    
    The fact that Gaza has gone from being an overcrowded enclave to a large heap of overcrowded rubble is just one of those things. Trumpy has the idea – shift the locals out to someplace – and turn it into another Riviera.
    
    After all, the IDF are quite happy for foreign journalists to enter Gaza at their own risk so they can confirm that it is all a propaganda stunt.
    
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    August 30, 2025 5:44pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      [Mod – there is no need to make this personal, just debate the topic]
      
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      August 30, 2025 7:22pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Personal?
        
        People like him …
        
        [ Mod – which bit of not arguing with the mods do you not understand? Mods don’t get into debates. Feel free to have your rant on another blog ]
        
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        August 30, 2025 7:36pm
artemisia

Elderly renters, women struggling with the cost of living

Ngaire Kerse, an Auckland University research (sic) and chairperson of Ageing Well, said it was well known older people who were renting were really struggling at the moment.

No mention in the article about taxpayer funded Accommodation Supplement or Temporary Additional Support (TAS). Maybe these are mentioned in the research, or maybe the researcher is advancing her own interests in the part of the ‘aging well’ sector funded by taxpayers. Surely not …

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571064/elderly-renters-women-struggling-with-the-cost-of-livin
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August 30, 2025 8:05am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The (female) Retirement Commissioner thinks that retirement income is a women’s problem, because they live longer.
  
  Now that we have voluntary euthanasia, the solution is in their own hands. Me, I’m looking forward to a new activist group emerging, Death Equality.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:14am
  - wsk12345
    
    Sadly we have to be terminally ill (old age is defo terminal) AND withon 6 mth of the end. Rhst is the problematic part.
    
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    August 30, 2025 12:06pm
- MCōs
  
  You have to be on the bones of your arse to get an Accommodation Supplement.
  https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/accommodation-supplement.html
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:49am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    That is not very specific.
    
    If you earn 60,000 dollars per year, have a stay at home wife and 2 children, and pay 500 dollars a week in rent, you get $192 in accommodation supplement per week.
    
    https://check.msd.govt.nz/services/you-likely-qualify
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:04am
  - artemisia
    
    Several factors are involved in the assessment. Nearly 400,000 recipients of the Accomm Supplement currently so a lot of households qualify. Not necessarily for the max amount.
    
    11 1
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    August 30, 2025 9:09am
    - MCōs
      
      So there’s a lot of people with few assets would be my take looking at that criteria
      
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      August 30, 2025 10:11am
- I remember when
  
  ‘it was well known’
  So let us research no further.
  
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  August 30, 2025 10:16am
artemisia

Yesterday, a bit after 4pm, HPDA on NewsTalkZB interviewed one of the 89 principals who signed the open NCEA letter to the Education Minister.

Auckland principal Claire Amos talked a lot of talk, but not much substance. Like the proposed changes reduce success for ‘at risk’ students who are then likely to leave school with no quals. Since many students already head out without quals, are these the same ones, different, fewer, or more.

Ms Amos did refer several times to schools needing more resource to provide increased teaching and learning, support students and provide wraparound support as needed to keep them in the education system. Unclear (to me) if wraparound support is a new thing or, heaven forfend, an opportunity to get more taxpayer funding using NCEA changes as a lever. Rather a lot of students are currently failing, so are they getting this wraparound support and if so is it working?

Suggest teachers at some schools have complained to their principal that it is unreasonable to expect them to change up their teaching practices, at least without a decent pay rise and more support staff, and anyway not their fault that so many students are failing bigly.
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August 30, 2025 8:07am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Where I have sympathy for teachers is that the results of so many societal changes (broken families, the web, FAE, cheap drugs, increasing violence, to name but a few) impact the classroom. In many if not all schools, kids are less attentive, less motivated, less self or family disciplined & more confused than in previous decades.
  
  Educators don’t help themselves, of course – open plan classrooms, the rise of the “guide at the side” instead of the “sage on the stage” (any parent knows that you can’t be your kid’s friend), galloping Leftism in TCol, the vaporisation of male teachers from primary – and let’s not get started on NCEA.
  
  Solutions aren’t easy, but I think smaller teacher-pupil ratios would offer value.
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:25am
  - pdm
    
    I think No Discipline at home is the biggy Bollocks.
    
    It all stems from home.
    
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    August 30, 2025 10:51am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Hey Bollocks. You sound like you think you are making a lot of sense. You must have acquired some education-related qualifications I suppose? Or is this just because you went to the school of hard knocks and just know what is right? 🙂
    
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    August 30, 2025 6:36pm
- Nukuleka
  
  Meanwhile my grandson’s school here in Christchurch, Catholic Cathedral College, has yet another ‘teacher only day’ this coming Monday. Yes, plenty of ‘wrap-around support’ for pupils going on here!
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:27am
  - Handyman
    
    “Teacher only” days are just thinly disguised union meetings.
    
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    August 30, 2025 8:51am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nuku: So, a long weekend- perhaps on the skifield – for those teachers?
    Are teacher only days ever midweek?
    
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    August 30, 2025 8:59am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      I think that the Principal of the Cathedral College might notice if his teachers went skiing rather than turn up to the meeting.
      
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      August 30, 2025 9:06am
      - pdm
        
        ND – can you be sure it will not be the Principal’s idea to have the 5 minute meeting at the skifield?
        
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        August 30, 2025 9:22am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Less likely at a private school like Cathedral charging thousands in fees if they went skiing the parents would find out. So yes I am positive that the teachers at Cathedral school do not go skiing on their meeting days.
        
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        August 30, 2025 11:21am
    - gravedodger
      
      Not sure how far Christchurch teachers would need to travel for a skifield with snow? three days NW and very little snow before that?
      
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      August 30, 2025 9:31am
      - rouppe
        
        Hour and a bit to Mt Hutt
        
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        August 30, 2025 9:47am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        You obviously don’t know Christchurch. Less than two hours drive to one of the best ski fields in the country.
        
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        August 30, 2025 11:22am
  - MCōs
    
    Looking at their website that school appears to have had two staff days this year plus another day of parent/teacher meetings unlit 7pm
    These days don’t count towards the obligation to provide a certain number of half days instruction annually
    One expects the parents/grandparents ensure all the kids turn up to all available lessons before grumbling about staff only days
    
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    August 30, 2025 2:11pm
- gravedodger
  
  Wondering if said Claire Amos is related to Phil who was in Kirks Cabinet when Labour had a whole different philosophy and beliefs before it became the political vehicle for academia’
  Phil was of the party that believed in work and protection for workers, nowadays they are not even acknowledged or supported
  
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  August 30, 2025 8:48am
  - Burtland
    
    the unions got plenty of payback last electoral cycle – they got protection and parity to the point where the economy is all but stuffed – its once again all back on the net tax payer who have to make it work
    
    meanwhile Willis doesn’t look to have the required grip – floundering around with butter while rome burns
    
    when you add maori to the union grifters the place will be shot next electoral cycle
    
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    August 30, 2025 9:46am
- Simon
  
  This education issue is so beyond the National party to solve it means operating with reality. Paper up the cracks and just carry on.
  
  More resources = higher salary and benefits for the legions of govt jobs in administration as well as teaching
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:32am
- imalwaysright
  
  She was interviewed by Michael Laws on the Platform yesterday.
  She declared that “honouring Te Tiriti is paramount in education” !
  
  She should resign for that comment alone.
  
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  August 30, 2025 9:38am
  - Philview
    
    The sector appears to be so dominated by Marxists that it is beyond the capability of government to change it. New Zealand has enormous problems on many different fronts.
    
    7 1
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    August 30, 2025 12:08pm
- R
  
  Ms Amos, she wouldn’t be related to an Amos MP back in the 70’s ( Kirk govt?) would she. He spoke similar drivel
  
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  August 30, 2025 11:09am
Pepe Lopez

So the Reserve Bank (Te Putea is a terrible insult from were I hail from) has resigned, the previous boss gone whats happening? Ah the PM and [dreleted] want interest rates to fall faster, I see, now, as a pensioner with a small amount of savings to supplement my dwindling income, the interest reveived is dwindling fast, and there are 800 thousand plus of us. The PM and [deleted] want interest rates to go down so houses sell more and the GDP increases and makes them look better. Soy viejo pero no estupido. Capice?

[Mod – we use correct names on this blog and don’t refer to people like that]
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August 30, 2025 8:18am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  I don’t follow any of that.
  
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  August 30, 2025 11:42am
- Pepe Lopez
  
  My apologies Mod, just having a bad hair day….
  
  [Mod – 👍]
  
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  August 30, 2025 11:56am
Boy Geoff

Is that gun being prominently shown in a recent TPM promotional photo a relic from the Musket Wars?
9 0
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August 30, 2025 8:42am
Jack5

New Plymouth Boys’ High School looks to have backtracked on its apology to pupil Oliver Jull over excluding him from the speech competition finals.

The Free Speech Union has rejoined the fight after a statement by the school’s headmaster, Sam Moore, to the news media including:

“ …the school stands by the decision it made” to exclude Oliver, claimed it “has not breached the Human Rights Act,” and framed its apology as being only for “distress”…

https://www.fsu.nz/blog/npbhs-backtracks-on-their-apology-and-internetnz-censors-harmful-comments
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August 30, 2025 9:06am
- Wandering Star
  
  Here’s a neat 8 minute summation of what Oliver Jull’s speech was likely driving at. It’s heartening that a 15 year old (and I’m sure his is a popular view among his peers) really gets it and can see the insoluble contradictions the liberal modernity.
  
  “Western Man & The End of the World”
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZX4cKzX4jY
  
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  August 30, 2025 11:32am
- peterwn
  
  Typical schoolteacher behaviour. It was worse in the past when parents and community blindly supported teachers. In the 1960’s a Rororua schoolboy wrote to the local newspaper complaining about the need to wear caps. Not only did the editor not publish the letter, but informed the Principal (probably at a Rotary Club) meeting who suspended the boy involved and placed him with another school (cannot quite remember if this part happened) which became the dumping ground for pupils the other schools did not want. It was not mentioned at the time but that was a serious of journalistic ethics (not revealing sources).
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:30pm
Warren Murray

RBNZ Chairman Neil Quigley resigns day after release of Ombudsman’s report on handling of Adrian Orr departure.

I commented on this in GD a couple of days ago.

Credit to the Ombudsman and Heather du Plessis-Allan for lifting the lid on what happened. I think Quigley should step back from the RBNZ Board altogether.
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August 30, 2025 9:07am
- pdm
  
  Have a read at Croaking Cassandra’s blog. He has a few recent posts on the subject – all lengthy but informative reads.
  
  Just google Croaking Cassandra.
  
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  August 30, 2025 10:02am
  - Warren Murray
    
    Thanks. Aligns with my overall take on things, but backs it up too.
    
    Willis looks weak, and, again, found to be not on top of her portfolio.
    
    Meanwhile Quigley and others remain on the Board; Quigley also holds his position in Waikato; and RBNZ is grossly overfunded. All matters that a tougher MoF could change at the blink of their eyes.
    
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    August 30, 2025 1:34pm
- peterwn
  
  Seems Nicola Willis was not un-connected with the resignation.
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:32pm
  - H. Upmann
    
    Willis got one thing right then.
    
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    August 30, 2025 4:29pm
    - peterwn
      
      She got the ferries thing right.
      
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      August 30, 2025 8:30pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  And from Waikato University too. It’s hard to think of a single VC at any NZ uni who’s done the job properly lately.
  
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  August 30, 2025 7:44pm
cmm

Hasn’t Taylor Swift’s new best friend, and now wedding planner, got better things to do?

Sure, I understand there might be a few tourism benefits etc, but really doesn’t Luxon have better things to be doing than fawning over celebrities?

Worked for Cindy, but that was part of her brand and we didn’t expect much more from her.
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August 30, 2025 9:25am
Simon

NZ police has gang member associations. Not actual gang members as those with average IQ 75 can’t join. But it’s common knowledge that there are police with gang associations.
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August 30, 2025 9:28am
goNZ1

Don’t forget Luxon was best buddies with Cindy earlier when she was PM , and got him on that Big Business Leadership panel as airnz ceo
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August 30, 2025 9:45am
- MCōs
  
  I doubt if they were best buddies just because he carries on in public as if everyone is his bestie.
  When he was CEO of AirNZ Jacinda Ardern was PM for a period of time so it was natural there would be some close interaction as there would have been between Greg Foran and Christopher Luxon and there will be with Nikhil Ravishankar
  
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  August 30, 2025 10:29am
  - peterwn
    
    Air NZ would look after politicians, but not as blatantly as Qantas with its Chairman’s Lounges.
    
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    August 30, 2025 2:21pm
- Prince
  
  Shock, horror. Ardern had Luxon on her ‘Big Business Leadership’ panel, and he was just head of Air NZ.
  Hold the Presses.
  
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  August 30, 2025 1:28pm
goNZ1

From the smh today, an anti-mass migration Rally, March for Australia is happening in Sydney tomorrow. No doubt Antifa and co will be there to cause mayhem…

‘ a Facebook video from New Year’s Eve last year, organizer Bec Freedom uploaded a video of a moving crowd in Melbourne CBD with the caption: “Who wants to play spot the Aussie, there isn’t many …”
NSW Police approved a March for Australia protest in Haymarket on Sunday. Similar marches are planned in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
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August 30, 2025 9:54am
I remember when

Are supermarkets ripping us off and, if so, what can we do about it.
Obviously, the feeling is that we need more competition to drive prices down.
How can we do that, when we lack the scale to attract the type of companies that would increase competition in a meaningful way.
The only answer would seem to be some sort of change to the existing Foodstuffs and Woolworth stores.
Perhaps every store should have to produce their own mailer for specials every week, without being able agree prices with other Foodstuffs/Woolworths stores.
Or, limit the extent to which Foodstuffs/Woolworths distribution hubs can use different pricing schedules.
Force the duopoly to allow competition within its members.
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August 30, 2025 11:23am
- Prince
  
  No, they are not ripping us off.
  They reflect our experiences over the last 6 years.
  Their rates and insurance bills have increased over 100%, like the rest of us.
  Their wages bill will also have increased well in advance of inflation as Labour hiked up the minimum wage.
  Shoplifting is rampant and the Police response is pretty much ‘look after yourself’.
  They now need to employ security as thugs, vandals and nutters are on the increase.
  The Finance Minister and Commerce Commission are antagonistic towards them, adding to the general aggression in their stores.
  
  No wonder their prices have increased.
  
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  August 30, 2025 1:43pm
  - goNZ1
    
    Willis will be getting internal flak in the caucus as the economy remains on its knees. Don’t forget she has no economic quals and nor did GR her predecessor, and it Shows. So what happens, as with many Nats,is the latent Muldoonist tendencies come out i.e. arbitrary govt intervention in the market (wage price freeze,currency controls, nationalise or forced breakup of supermarket chains etc,signing of extremist UN agreements etc)
    
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    August 30, 2025 10:14pm
- SoloView
  
  @ I remember when
  
  It might be a bit hard to tell a company owning a network of stores (Woolworths) that they have to have different pricing at each of their stores.
  
  My observations from shopping at 4 Pak N Sav franchise/owner operator stores in the Christchurch area is that different pricing and different lines of groceries already happens.
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:22pm
- wsk12345
  
  We have a fruit and veg shop opened nearby about 2 years ago in our suburb. Tiny shop but great produce and service (and hours). A year later they expanded onto a shop at least 6-8x the size and also sell local cheeses, decent milk and yogurt and various meats, bakery bread etc in addition to produce and all at competitive prices. All my neighbours go there for at least some of their shop- and the Woolworths that is 100m down the road loses out.
  
  We now do a supermarket shop about every month at PnS (15 min drive) and all the rest at the local. Preciously all our groceries came from Woolworths.
  
  So competition is possible without more of the big supermarkets.
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:49pm
- BeaB
  
  Why do you think making every store do this would lower prices? Surely such fragmentation would drive prices up!
  Or perhaps you think local suppliers should be screwed down to rock bottom prices and then put them out of business too.
  I don’t understand why Nicola Willis is hell-bent on destroying a successful and efficient supermarket sector. Every time she talks about it I think less of her and find it hard to understand why National entertains such anti-business attitudes.
  
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  August 30, 2025 2:52pm
I remember when

Te Ao Maori: New Research shows ‘stealth vaping is everywhere.’
“From designated smoking areas to no smoking zones to indoors to inside the wharenui, e researcher has found the design of vaping devices makes t easy to puff in secret.”
“More than half of the participants aged between 18 and 25 years had never smoked but currently used or have used vapes.”
“Some participants have caught people vaping in sacred places like the urupa, the marae, and inside the wharenui.”

Still we mustn’t allow the use of ‘heated tobacco products,’ because that would be a backward step?
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August 30, 2025 11:45am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Better not do that in Singapore, eh
  
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  August 30, 2025 6:24pm
MCōs

Yesterday the Constitutional Court of the Kingdom of Thailand removed the PM.
She is the fifth PM it has removed since 2008 plus the leader of the party the won the most recent election in 2023, Pita Limjaroenrat who was educated in Hamilton, was thrown out of politics for ten years on spurious grounds.
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August 30, 2025 2:42pm
BeaB

Excellent article by Bruce Cotterill in today’s Herald about how good our supermarkets are. Nicola Willis and Consumer need to read it and understand we have an efficient and effective supermarket sector that provides customers with good service and prices. God help us if bureaucrats start interfering. Prices will rocket.
I certainly don’t want Australia’s messy, grubby stores.
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August 30, 2025 2:48pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360807938/palmerston-north-hospo-institution-wound-owing-over-15m-tax
Someone please tell me: how on earth can the IRD let individuals or a business, any business, run up such a tax debt over such a long time ?
https://www.ird.govt.nz/about-us/tax-statistics/statistics-on-tax-debt
Collecting all of this overdue tax might go a long way to solving some of our national problems.
Nicola – maybe you should leave the supermarkets and petrol stations alone and go after the real baddies….
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August 30, 2025 4:48pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  IRD will tell you that if you have a problem come and talk to us and we can help.
  
  How IRD lets these businesses rack up GST and Tax arrears is beyond me.
  
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  August 30, 2025 4:56pm
- Ian Boag
  
  You missed the decimal point. Businesses getting $1.5M into the red is not be encouraged – should be chased down etc etc – but the sums involved to sort NZ’s financial issues are multiple billions. A billion is $1000M.
  
  Go figure.
  
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  August 30, 2025 6:45pm
- goNZ1
  
  Yes exactly gb. It’s seems to be an ongoing problem partially caused by the previous govt directing IRD to go very soft on already- hopeless businesses during covid time. And once normal compliance gets enforced ,as predicted, the Zombie firms fall over
  
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  August 30, 2025 10:21pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

McCallum Bros have pulled the pin on sand mining at Pakiri. Too much hassle from protesters, injunctions etc. The protester’s focus now switches to the mining operation at Bream Bay.

These would be the same protesters who want decent infrastructure in Northland – an upgraded hospital, better roads over the Brynderwyns etc.

Where do they think the building sand will come from? Someone else’s beach perhaps, with the extra cartage fees pushing up the cost to the taxpayer?

Honestly, there are some hypocrites out there, aligned with low IQ people.
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August 30, 2025 6:31pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360807976/maori-queen-give-first-formal-address-during-koroneihana-year-her-fathers-death

“Thousands are expected at Ngāruawāhia for the annual koroneihana (coronation), as the Kingiitanga marks one year since the passing the Māori King.”

Before we Europeans arrived here, what was the maori name for this ceremony ?

“Coronation” means the passing on of a Crown or similar object of leadership.

“It is a grand, celebratory event in which the monarch is presented with royal ceremonial objects, such as the Crown Jewels, and it is where the crown is physically placed on the sovereign’s head, in front of many thousands of very important guests.” ( Wikipedia )

So, before we Europeans arrived here, what did maori do as their equivalent of a European Coronation ?
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August 30, 2025 6:43pm
goNZ1

This is important, what the Queen may say. I wonder if it will be broadcast on all Networks in Prime Time, otherwise I will have to ask the boss for time off.
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August 30, 2025 10:25pm

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