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October 15, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 October 2025

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General Debate

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Yvette

Eru Kapa-Kingi seems to have moved from staff member to external contractor, billing through “Tautoru.”
Parliamentary Services correspondence asked: “Are we still engaging with Eru via Tautoru? If so, why?” which implies Parliamentary Service had identified a continuity of payment or service under that name, possibly seen as a way of maintaining his involvement despite the earlier termination for misbehaviour.

■ Under that second period of appointment, “Were Parliamentary funds used to support MP Kapa-Kingi’s son Eru Kapa-Kingi’s organisation and lead part in the November 2024 Toitū te Tiriti Hīkoi?”
____________

An aside: Chris Hipkins says it is unclear how many Māori Parties there are.

There are three, Chris Hipkins, for you to choose from –
• Te Pati Maori – under John Tamihere
• Te Pati Maori – under Eru Kapa-Kingi, and
• the Labour Maori Caucus – under Willie Jackson
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October 15, 2025 8:00am
- AitchW
  
  Hipkins is walking an increasingly wobbly tightrope.
  The so called “Maori Caucus” in Labour seems to be closely aligned with the leadership of TPM.
  He can’t criticise TPM to harshly for fear of offending Little Willy Jackson and his clique.
  On the other hand he can’t commit to coalescing with TPM for fear of frightening off conservative Labour party voters.
  Now, to add a further wobble to his tightrope there appears likely to be more than one race based party at the next election.
  By the next election Hipkins is likely to be curled up in the fetal position sucking his thumb…
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:12am
- Prince
  
  Also The Waitangi Tribunal under Dr Caren Fox.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:48am
- Christopher Thomson
  
  Corruption, in New Zealand, apparently not.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:00am
  - muzled
    
    Koharuption…
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:13pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Muzzled: Comment of the day Sir/Madam !!
      
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      October 15, 2025 1:13pm
- Surely Knott
  
  NZ’s Media seems to be extremely misleading by downplaying what actually occured.
  
  NZ Herald “Te Pāti Māori late on Monday night released a batch of documents making several serious allegations against Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and her high-profile son and activist, Eru Kapa-Kingi. They included allegations of overspending by the MP’s office and her son threatening violence at Parliament.”
  
  But on twitter, someone else who has seen the internal email, said it wasn’t simply “overspending.”. That the $120k was to hire Eru Kapa Kingi as his mothers security guard?!
  
  Media need to be very explicit about what the overspending was and when that was questioned they resubmitted the role as a contractor via his privately owned company. This sounds like nepotism and corruption?!?
  
  Twitter person with inside story, worth a watch.
  https://x.com/DameKateePie/status/1977929650954477868
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:58pm
Cassandra

Turkey’s president and other Moslem leaders threatened to boycott the Sharm el-Sheikh summit with Trump if Netanyahu was present.

There’s been much ado that the Israel/Hamas deal heralds spring in the Middle East. I’m not so sure about that. Perhaps it’s just Bibi and they’d attend with a different Israeli PM. I hope so, because if they can’t bear to be in the same room as an Israeli then any hope of long term peace is fantasy.

Note that the minute the IDF withdrew Hamas fighters were back. I wonder how much food they’ve stolen from the UN convoys already? They’re at war with the Israel-supported clans.

To my old soldier eyes this was entirely predictable. The only way to have stopped it was to deploy a Marine division into the IDF-vacated area. There’s no other military component in the world that can be deployed at such short notice.

If the ceasefire collapses today I will not be surprised. Disappointed but not surprised. As Netanyahu said “We can do this the easy way or the hard way”.
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October 15, 2025 8:02am
- cmm
  
  “if they can’t bear to be in the same room as an Israeli then any hope of long term peace is fantasy.”
  
  It is a fantasy anyway.
  
  Yup, IDF pulls out and all the stability is gone, but I suppose that will be replaced by a terror-based stability of sorts.
  
  Hamas have reasserted themselves and want to make it very clear to the Gazans that they are not weakened in any way and are still in control. (Whether they are actually weakened is immaterial – it is perceptions that matter in this game).
  
  There is huge resistance in USA against going boots on the ground. USA is well tired of playing the world’s peacekeeper. It loved that role in the past, but the shine has worn off. The last thing USA wants is another Afghanistan or Iraq.
  
  Chloe will perhaps be rejoicing. Her beloved Hamas have their control back.
  Or is she going to turn inside out and demand that IDF return to Gaza to save the kiddies.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/public-executions-after-trump-leaves-hamas-in-control-of-gaza/MCAUHNVK2VHTPMTEMLOUYYRXWE/
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:10am
  - Foxfour
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Trump approved Hamas reasserting control:
    Donald Trump said he gave Hamas “approval” to assert control over Gaza after the IDF pulled out to an agreed line.
    ““Well, they [Hamas] are standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” the US president said on Monday.
    
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    October 15, 2025 8:29am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Perhaps add the rest of the quote
      “You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be — we want it to be safe. I think it’s going to be fine. Who knows for sure,” he said.
      
      However, Trump vowed Tuesday that “we will disarm” Hamas if the group did not lay down its weapons pursuant to his 20-point peace plan.
      
      “Well, they’re going to disarm because they said they were going to disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump told journalists while hosting visiting Argentine President Javier Milei.
      
      “I don’t have to explain that to you, but if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games. Okay?”
      
      Not sure Hamas will survive. And remember the IDF hasnt pulled completely out. They have just pulled back to agreed lines which are still well within Gaza.
      They still control the Rafah crossing.
      
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      October 15, 2025 8:35am
      - G152
        
        Trump is unable to do anything and he knows it
        
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        October 15, 2025 9:14am
      - Foxfour
        
        Remember Trumps Taliban deal?
        They were supposed to negotiate with the Kabul government …. lovey dovey like
        
        Just who is the special people Trump will put in actual control of Gaza. A de Gaulle like figure ?
        
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        October 15, 2025 10:23am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        We don’t know how Trump’s withdrawal from Afghanistan would have worked.
        
        If I remember correctly the US withdrew under Biden’s administration.
        
        But hey, never let a chance for a bullshit smear go by eh.
        
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        October 15, 2025 11:03am
      - Foxfour
        
        90% of US troops were withdrawn under Trump as agreed with Taliban.
        After losing the election Trump blasted Biden for being too slow.
        You have forgotten Trumps pre election boast of ‘Troops home by Xmas’
        Trumps Talban ‘surrender’ some called it was signed Feb 29 2020
        
        All your claims Chris dont match the facts
        
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        October 16, 2025 12:13pm
  - MCōs
    
    Point #9 of the peace plan says in part
    
    Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
    
    Well
    Good luck with that.
    
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    October 15, 2025 8:45am
    - Foxfour
      
      Tony Blair is a zionist
      https://electronicintifada.net/content/tony-blair-true-friend-israel/7038
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:25am
      - Wandering Star
        
        Blair’s Institute is hand in glove with Oracle, whose owner Larry Ellison is a vervent Jewish Zionist, close personal friend of Netantahu, one of the largest private contributors to the IDF, and who has just acquired a controlling stake in running Tik Tok so he can clamp down on teenagers expressing anti-Israeli sentiments.
        
        Being a “true friend of Israel” like Tony Blair is is not really a matter of left or right, its a matter of being a member of the elite or not.
        
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        October 15, 2025 1:46pm
  - alphabeatrium
    
    How bizarre is that headline? “Public executions after Trump leaves Hamas in control of Gaza”.
    
    As if Trump picked Hamas out of a series of candidates, and not simply that Hamas did and still does control Gaza in the absence of the IDF)?
    
    If the Palestinian protesters want my sympathy, they need to come out clearly against Hamas, and propose a realistic alternative. Until then I’m firmly camp Israel.
    
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    October 15, 2025 9:23am
    - David Garrett
      
      Alpha: Yes, I saw that headline – sadly now typical of the lack of analysis in the MSM these days.
      
      I am no fan of Trump, but holding him responsible for Hamas killing its rivals is just absurd.
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:59am
  - Prince
    
    Could I suggest the United Nations may have a role ?
    OK, it was a joke, but really shouldn’t be.
    
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    October 15, 2025 9:49am
    - R
      
      UN have a role!…it should have, but the UN is incompetent.
      
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      October 15, 2025 11:58am
      - Don Beckett
        
        …..and corrupt.
        
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        October 15, 2025 12:14pm
- kowtow
  
  Secular Turkey , yeah right.
  
  Middle East spring , yeah right .
  
  There are of course much larger power struggles going on across the region ,which te media barely touch upon…….and of course all that to the background of deep divides in islam and other ethnic tensions , as well as a total dearth of civil or democratic society .
  
  Other than Israel the whole place is far from normal.
  
  Witness the appalling public slaughter by Hamas of alleged “collaborators”.Will that be covered extensively by te media.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:12am
  - Spam
    
    Witness the appalling public slaughter by Hamas of alleged “collaborators”.Will that be covered extensively by te media.Of course. As an excuse to blame Trump.
    
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    October 15, 2025 9:08am
    - Prince
      
      Yeah I find it incredible that Stuff now blames Trump for Hamas’ atrocities. The atrocities they largely ignored for two years, but now they lay at the feet of the bad man.
      An great example of what we used to call ‘Group Think’.
      
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      October 15, 2025 9:56am
    - Foxfour
      
      leading story on Stuff.
      
      Commercial considerations not politics are reasons for top placements of stories, that means clicks.
      Most readers click elsewhere as tiny number are political geeks
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:27am
  - MCōs
    
    I heard it reported on the radio, if that’s what you mean
    I don’t think any of our media or the Greens support Hamas if that’s what you’re implying
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:14am
    - cmm
      
      “I don’t think any of our media or the Greens support Hamas”
      
      Of course they do. They repeat Hamas propaganda as fact.
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:50am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And these are the people all those protesters wanted NZ to recognise as the government of Palestine.
    
    Shame on them!
    
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    October 15, 2025 7:22pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Returned hostage Tal Shoham has spoken about the food Hamas stole. And his and other hostages experiences with regard to torture and systematic starvation. It’s not pleasant.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:17am
  - Inandout
    
    VV, compare that to the hundreds of Hamas men that Israel have fed and clothed during their captivity. They look healthy and ready to fight again.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:09am
    - Foxfour
      
      They tell the same story, beaten starved etc. Held without trial…. thats the lucky ones as many more are shot and killed in the streets of West Bank by settlers and IDF
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:29am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        I am sure the family of the woman and her children who were savagely beaten then strangled to death are appalled at the alleged Israeli atrocity.
        
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        October 15, 2025 11:12am
  - kowtow
    
    Those bound and blind folded men alleged to be “collaborators” shot in a public square in Gaza to the cheers of the “street” were also reported to have been badly beaten .
    
    I wonder what the screeching ‘river to sea” terror towel wearers ( Maori and Green party and senior lawyer type Duncan Webb ) have to say about that “due process” or their human rights in what would have been a horrendous run up to their executions.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:27am
- cmm
  
  Nothing beats the logic in a well-reasoned downtick.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:28am
- imalwaysright
  
  “To my old soldier eyes this was entirely predictable.”
  
  Predictable ? Did you predict it or are you saying that, with hindsight, the current situation was foreseeable ?
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:45am
  - cmm
    
    It was predictable. This happens again and again.
    
    It happened in France, Russia, Holland etc after the Germans were kicked out towards the end of WW2.
    It happened in Manchuria when the Japs got kicked out.
    It happened in Africa as colonial forces were replaced by rebels and “freedom fighters”.
    It happened in Rhodesia.
    It happened in Angola.
    It happened frequently in Afghanistan and Iraq etc.
    It has happened before in Gaza.
    It is happening in Congo, Sudan, Mozambique etc today.
    
    So why expect it to not happen this time around, with a terrorist organisation that is known to be brutal and vindictive in asserting their power over the populace.
    
    But I am sure UNRWA will still give Hamas the thumbs-up, blaming colonial oppression etc etc.
    
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    October 15, 2025 9:22am
    - imalwaysright
      
      My point is there is a difference between predictable and predicted.
      
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      October 15, 2025 9:38am
      - cmm
        
        Many predicted this – including myself.
        
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        October 15, 2025 10:51am
      - Cassandra
        
        Ima: this event/situation is both. Predictable to anyone with a modicum of knowledge and predicted by many. I addressed my table to that effect at the village Happy Hour just last Friday and the Friday before that.
        
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        October 15, 2025 12:05pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Let’s be honest about this. It was happening during the war itself. Hamas was stealing all the aid they could get their hands on. That wasn’t done peacefully.
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:15am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: I’m not sure I understand what you are saying…what “happened” in Holland and France when the Germans were kicked out. Do you mean collaborators got what was coming to them?
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:25am
      - cmm
        
        Yes.
        And from Hamas’ point of view that is all that is happening here. They are dealing with collaborators.
        
        When we try to understand their actions, we need to see it from their point of view – not whether it is right or wrong or whatever.
        
        I do not personally think this is justified, but clearly they did.
        
        Of course, as is the Muslim way, this is a bit more severe than shaving French whores’ heads.
        
        One might recall what happened in Afghanistan where Taliban went into hospitals/schools set up by the West and shot patients in their beds (including children) for “collaboration”.
        
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        October 15, 2025 10:59am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: Indeed…somewhat more severe than “shaving French whores heads”. I believe there were some instances of said whores being summarily executed, but that was very rare.
        
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        October 15, 2025 1:41pm
      - cmm
        
        DG: Don’t waste a good one.
        
        But yes, there were certainly many executions etc and in some areas it was. rife, but nowhere near the wholesale brutality one saw, and sees, in Africa and Middle East in particular.
        
        At least one ex-policeman I know still cannot face smelling a pork chop on a barbecue even 30 years after the necklacing stopped in South Africa.
        
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        October 15, 2025 1:57pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        I wonder if our Tea Towel wearing Greens and their sidekicks are going to start protesting Hamas for Genocide against their own Palestinian People ?
        Thought not.
        
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        October 15, 2025 4:08pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        CMM yes Winnie M was one evil POS.
        
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        October 15, 2025 6:47pm
    - kowtow
      
      It happened in Ireland in 1922 .
      
      Ex policemen were shot while in hospital beds , protestant farmers shot in the dark of night in their own homes.
      
      Excused by the new power as “retribution” or ‘collaborators’ getting what was coming.
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:40am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Get a grip
        
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        October 15, 2025 2:12pm
      - kowtow
        
        iar
        
        “get a grip”
        
        wtf?
        
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        October 15, 2025 5:26pm
  - Cassandra
    
    Ima: I’m saying that my many years of military experience taught me that nature abhors a vacuum and that you’ve got to seize and hold ground, even in this modern day of firepower and technology.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:13am
    - MCōs
      
      Also there’s some evil bastards out there
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:30am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Thanks for the clarification Cassandra, I have become wary of some who become experts after the fact, but clearly you aren’t one of them.
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:41pm
- Southern Raider
  
  The Turkish President who like most middle eastern dictators is into his 20th year of his 4 year term.
  
  I used to admire Turkey as a country but that Islamist has taken the country back 700 years.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:25am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Screaming about Israel committing genocide alongside the South Africans.
    Meanwhile at home.
    
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    October 15, 2025 11:03am
- rouppe
  
  The usa would be mad to send in us troops.
  
  It would end up like Iraq. While trying to reconstruct the place, fighters merge in with the population and pick them off.
  
  Troops have to come from the Muslim countries. If it’s Qatar I’m not sure how different it will be to Hamas. If it’s Saudi will they suffer the same as western troops? Dunno but Western troops will immediately be “crusader invaders”
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:22am
- Handyman
  
  I think Hamas reemerging was inevitable and part of the plan.
  The IDF has been hamstrung for fear of killing Israeli hostages and lost 1,00 soldiers being too careful. Now the gloves are off.
  The IDF line is roughly half of Gaza and will create two Gazas. One controlled by Israel and fed by the existing US based food distribution system; the other controlled by Hamas. Think Berlin after WW2.
  The IDF will take time to destroy all the tunnels and set up new hospitals etc. in its sector while the UN/Hamas run sector will suffer occasional demolition.
  
  I think it is a classic Trump troll to contrast the peace sector (with a Trump tower) with the war sector. Eventually Hamas will lose its human shields and the IDF can get to work.
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:47am
NeverMindTheBollocks

As an AA member, I don’t pay for these turkeys to advocate against my interests.

I’ll support indexing of traffic penalties the day that income tax thresholds are indexed.

In the meantime, Dylan Thompson and his ilk can butt out.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575926/aa-calls-for-traffic-offence-fines-to-be-adjusted-for-inflation
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October 15, 2025 8:03am
- slightlyrighty
  
  I think Fines should be proportional to income.
  
  A $400 speeding fine is huge if you’re on the minimum wage, as it represents nearly half a weeks after tax pay.
  
  if you earn 4 times that, it’s about 15% of your weekly pay after tax.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:09am
  - cmm
    
    Well, yes, and they should not be forgiven by activist judges. Nor should they end up on $5 per week payment plans.
    
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    October 15, 2025 11:01am
  - Quail
    
    If you trust NZ bureaucracy to be “ fair” fining those outside of the said bureaucracy, sorry I don’t.
    One bitter example is the Government’s new fines for breaches of the RMA. ( includes the natural environment)
    Todays recently adjusted top limit is $ TEN MILLION !.
    Most other environmental fine limits have doubled as a minimum.
    Land managers are also no longer able to insure against inadvertently breaching regulations.
    In the context of Mr Bishops promises of returning property rights to the owners (which has yet to happen ) this Government action is totally contrary to that and even insulting.
    Land managers will need real courage to continue to develop , and produce.
    The risks are too high!
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:21pm
  - wilderbeast
    
    Are you joking?
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:47pm
    - Quail
      
      Wilderbeast,
      Not a joke, far from it!
      Look it up on Google!
      
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      October 15, 2025 6:54pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    Let’s introduce proportionate pricing at supermarkets! Think of all the money (some) shoppers will save!
    
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    October 15, 2025 2:21pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  The AA seen to have gone a bit woke these last few years, yeah we might unsubscribe at some point if it continues.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:14am
  - Paulus
    
    New Boss remember !
    Best for the job too.
    
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    October 15, 2025 1:39pm
- MCōs
  
  The other day there was some discussion about a truck driver who was constantly on their phone and ploughed into the back of someone and killed them.
  The fine for texting while driving is a paltry $150. In Queensland it’s $1000.
  People constantly use this forum to grizzle about light sentences, but not if they’ll get caught apparently
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:41am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Speed limits are too low. If it is politically difficult to increase them and the alternative is to just let inflation erode away the effect of fines, I’m ok with that.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:06am
  - Jethrod
    
    Can you name 5 benefits from being an AA member?
    Serious question.
    Unless AA stands for that other organization.
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:34pm
- rjay
  
  Incomes are indexed if you are on superannuation, belong to the teachers or health unions, or can raise prices for an inelastic service you offer.
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:28am
- xasperated
  
  When did the aa become the advocate of control and suppression of the driving classes? In their early days they would warn drivers of enforcement and were driver advocates.
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:57am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agree xas, they seem to have become the headmaster of motorists who pay their wages.
    With friends like them, who needs enemies.
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:54pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      Absolutely, they need a Bud Lite moment.
      
      If you are against this then please write and politely state you are not happy with them advocating for higher traffic fines. So they don’t just come back with we are doing this to save lives, we need to ask some questions, such as:
      
      Can they provide evidence of how many lives will be saved if fines are increased by $100?
      
      Are they next going to advocate for more speed cameras?
      
      Also, if they are going to justify it on their survey results, please provide the survey questions and data for review.
      
      We are in a recession and NZers need support with the cost of living. If the AA isn’t going to work in the best interests of members then leaving them will help to reduce costs.
      
      Can they please reply to confirm if they will continue this activism against their members?
      
      Here is the online form to raise a complaint:
      
      https://nzaa.my.site.com/internal/s/customer-complaint-lodgement
      
      Happy to hear better ideas from other contributors!
      
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      October 15, 2025 5:49pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Maybe the AA are drunk on perceived power?
        
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        October 15, 2025 6:04pm
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/judge-spares-17-year-old-kava-peihopa-jail-over-violent-whangarei-kidnapping/Z2B5GJGNRJFYFBG7YGBDXOVN7Y/

You know right and wrong at that age. No mention of the victims rights, what a shit judge.

Even acknowledges he is being openly defiant of the will of the people of nz.
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October 15, 2025 8:07am
- KKNZ2025
  
  It’s over a decade since income tax thresholds were reset to wage salary inflation.
  
  Successive national and labour govts now raking in an additional billion+ pa
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:05am
- pdm
  
  How many of these stupid decisions get appealed by the Police and/or Crown Law?
  
  Does anyone know?
  
  18 0
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  October 15, 2025 9:09am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    The Court of Appeal is where the real problem lies. If there was a good chance of them overturning low sentences, judges would start to sentence higher in the first place.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:08am
- Flossie
  
  When a judge can thumb their nose like that it is no wonder the criminals do too!
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:49am
- David Garrett
  
  Surfing: That sentence is a disgrace. And note the Nats’ law change supposedly preventing judges giving huge discounts is subject to a “manifestly unjust” escape clause which Judges used with alacrity in the 3S legislation.
  
  In other words the Nats have learned absolutely nothing about judicial activism. On law and order they are a bad joke.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:56am
  - RoboRob
    
    Witness the Gang patch law, where despite the law saying the patches must be confiscated, the judges decided they could also then return them after confiscation. That ‘loop hole’ (it’s not really, its judges working around the law) started being used at least 6 weeks ago. What has National / Goldsmith actually done about it?
    
    Precisely nothing. They could have easily amended the law and added ‘and be destroyed’ after the word ‘confiscated’. How difficult would that have been?
    
    If the outcome for bad behaviour is no penalty, you will just keep doing it. Witness TPM / Greens in parliament. The judges now know they can actively and blatently work around laws they dont like without so much as a peep from the justice minister.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:51am
  - cmm
    
    “In other words the Nats have learned absolutely nothing”
    
    T’was always tub thumping.
    
    7 1
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    October 15, 2025 11:03am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: Indeed….as soon as I saw talk of making three strikes 2.0 “more workable” i knew that meant “watered down”. But what we now have is worse than useless.
      
      The original law was perfectly “workable” – simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. So easy a semi-literate gang member explained how it worked to me better than some lawyers.
      
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      October 15, 2025 11:47am
      - imalwaysright
        
        ‘Workability’ is Orwell speak for something that will result in little to no effort for the judiciary and the bureacracy.
        
        4 1
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        October 15, 2025 12:58pm
imalwaysright

The Broadcasting Standards Authority sent a lawyers letter to Sean Plunket on the Platform saying they’ve had a complaint about what he said on his online site.

BSA don’t have jurisdiction over internet and so they seem to want Plunket to agree to them having exactly that ability.

This smacks of a Left friendly organisation trying to set a precedent outside of their mandate and thereby extend their power.

It may be a test case for the implementation of the internet “hate speech” laws that Ardern is so fond of.

Goldsmith has to sort this out.
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October 15, 2025 8:10am
- Notsofast
  
  Most of the cases get mopped up by the FSU it seems.
  Compared with Britain we seem to be running at 1000th the rate of arrests by a rough calculation.
  The FSU might be the most effective deterrent to the labour/green plan.
  But watch the Law Commission and their promotion of rights for autogynephiles to invade women’s and children’s changing rooms.
  They are dead serious.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:12am
- sungsamning
  
  Hopefully, Sean will tell them where to get off.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:16am
- RoboRob
  
  Lol, if Goldsmith even wanted to sort this out it would take him a year and a half to select and advisory team which report to him 9 mths later and he would then start working on a plan. But oops, its election time.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:25am
- David Garrett
  
  Imalways: Goldsmith won’t sort anything out. He is an appalling choice as Justice minister.
  
  20 2
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  October 15, 2025 9:58am
- imalwaysright
  
  DG
  I agree, but its still his responsibility to sort out an outfit that deems itself to be the maker of legislation rather than the administrator.
  There is always the possibility that the Platform isn’t popular with some members of the Government.
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:49am
- NoFax
  
  The plain reading of the definition of “broadcasting” under the Act cannot include the internet – that’s rather obvious. It is just a power grab by unelected bureaucrats. It is time for the whole Act to go and no attempt to “modernize” it which means my freedom of speech is restricted.
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:29pm
- westernScientist
  
  so do i have this correct: A government regulator just decided they can regulate something that isnt in their remit, and effectively just started trying to do it? What’s next Medsafe will start regulating what wallboard is suitable for your house?
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:44pm
- Ghost
  
  From the Ardern years
  
  https://www.bsa.govt.nz/assets/Proactive-disclosures/e869e50476/20191119-Letter-to-Broadcasters-Defintion-of-Broadcasting-Proactive-Release.pdf
  
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  October 15, 2025 2:20pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  If The Platform falls under the jurisdiction of the BSA, which Internet services _don’t _?
  E.g.
  – is sending an email to a group of people considered a broadcast?
  – a blog
  – a Wattsapp group?
  – a YouTube channel?
  
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  October 15, 2025 2:42pm
rouppe

The Greens support Hamas.

The Hamas that is now going around executing Palestinians that they believe threatens their hold.

Public executions. The Greens are a complete disgrace.
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October 15, 2025 8:11am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Age old dictatorial and Marxist tactic, the Greens will be looking on admiringly, there are times when Chloe looks like she would love to have an AK47 under her desk in parliament.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:14am
- Libertarians are right
  
  And they believe it when Hamas say “Israel murdered these innocent people!!!!”
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:24am
- NothingLeft
  
  Greens are childish revolutionaries (ie wannabe aristocrat Narcissists) who secretly crave that sort of autocrat power.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:25am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    NothingLeft I agree. I’d add naive and brainwashed to that also.
    
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    October 15, 2025 6:26pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  A deal that leaves Hamas in charge is not a solution and Trump should have known that.
  
  4 0
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  October 15, 2025 10:11am
  - Ghost
    
    The deal doesn’t leave them in charge. We are at the very beginning of the peace plan.
    
    4 1
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    October 15, 2025 10:24am
    - MCōs
      
      It’s hard for us to know how strong the remnants of Hamas are because everyone reporting on the situation has their own agenda
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:52am
  - rouppe
    
    Perfect is the enemy of good. What was the alternative?
    
    Negotiate the details of all 20 points? That would take at least months, all while fighting continues and at any time either side says they’re pulling out of negotiations. End result? Nothing.
    
    Get all the live hostages back, the cost of which is a partial withdrawl. That’s a huge win.
    
    The dead hostages are a problem. I predict that at least once, a dead hostage returned will turn out to be not a hostage but a random body. I’ll be a little bit surprised if they get them all back.
    
    If Hamas now say “oh we won’t disarm and won’t accept a foreign security force” then Israel no longer has to be careful about where they shoot. A win for Israel.
    
    Hamas will show themselves (again) to not be about saving Palestine, but about power, control and wealth. For a lasting peace they have to disarm and allow a foreign, preferably Muslim, security force while rebuilding starts. They won’t, is my prediction.
    
    Hamas is already going back on the very first part, the part they did agree to. They really are scum.
    
    Which could bring me back to my original point about the Greens. But I’ll leave that unsaid.
    
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    October 15, 2025 10:38am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.15am, just the one bike today.

A cool, calm, dry morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.
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October 15, 2025 8:15am
- AitchW
  
  That bike rack was a huge waste of money.
  To remove it would probably cost 100k.
  (A private company would remove it for $100, but we all know that councils never do anything for a reasonable price).
  Yet another middle finger from Tory Whanau to the people of Wellington.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:16am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    The beltway bozos imagine they are incredible sophisticates living in a south pacific Netherlands or Denmark. Stuff like the largely unused bike racks are all good to them as it’s a sign that they really are living in a south pacific Scandi-style utopia.
    
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    October 15, 2025 6:45pm
- trout
  
  Build it and they will come! The catch cry of those who believe they know better.
  
  8 0
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  October 15, 2025 10:05am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    The catch cry of people spending OPM!
    
    (Other People’s Money)
    
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    October 15, 2025 5:51pm
- Jethrod
  
  Perhaps someone friendly should drive over it.
  
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  October 15, 2025 12:40pm
artemisia

Tory Whanau looks ahead. I am looking at all the opportunities where I can assist in things like leadership training, empowering others to lead, and advocating for safer politics.”

Good luck with that Tory. Not sure many will look to leadership training from someone with that personal and public history. Even if it is free.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360854329/shock-some-regrets-mostly-relief-says-tory-whanau-she-looks-ahead-life-outside-council
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October 15, 2025 8:16am
- cmm
  
  Don’t be fooled. There are many public service organisations with taxpayer-funded training budgets that would be willing to get Tory in at $250/hr. She has the required qualifications: leftie, Maori.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:19am
  - JerJer
    
    That are not qualifications.
    
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    October 15, 2025 8:29am
    - R
      
      ‘not qualifications ‘……?.THEY are to the public service
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:41am
    - sirknz
      
      You haven’t talked to anyone involved with the public sector, clearly…
      
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      October 15, 2025 10:49am
  - Foxfour
    
    Its all types
    https://www.celebrityspeakers.co.nz/speakers
    
    mental health resilience is big these days. None of them offer the partisan politics that you and I espouse
    
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    October 15, 2025 8:33am
    - cmm
      
      I can’t see why anyone would really want mental health advice from Tory.
      Sure, she has experience as a “victim”, but that does not mean she has anything useful to say about how to address mental health issues.
      
      If your house burns down that does not make you an expert in firefighting.
      
      As I understand it she has been rather a bully in the workplace – so not exactly a role model in how to build a low-stress culture.
      
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      October 15, 2025 9:34am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Isn’t it odd that the word ‘victim’, which used to describe a target of intentional harm, is now used to describe people who are mentally ill or worse, have managed to get a doctor to certify them as mentally ill.
        
        The ones who intentionally seek out a diagnosis while being mentally healthy are a particularly odious breed who by their actions insult, and take health resources away from, the truly sick people.
        
        4 1
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        October 15, 2025 11:27am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I sometimes wonder what will happen to all those on ADHD/anxiety/depression meds if we have a (non nuclear) WW3 and meds are rationed. I guess big bedlam type institutions will be required.
        
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        October 15, 2025 6:51pm
  - Boy Geoff
    
    Excellent subject material for another taxpayer funded leadership masterclass ‘documentary’ I would think…
    
    16 0
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    October 15, 2025 8:34am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: And dont forget female.
    
    4 1
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    October 15, 2025 10:28am
    - cmm
      
      Trans for the win. Straight female doesn’t move the needle any more.
      
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      October 15, 2025 11:07am
- imalwaysright
  
  The Lefties will listen to paint drying to get the tick on their CV and the pay rise.
  
  Look at Ardern.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:01am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  She only has to speak of the impacts of colonisation and cultural genocide she and her people have suffered to be accepted by trainers/indoctrinators in government departments.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:20am
- kowtow
  
  Ha !
  
  Otago university took on Metiria Turei .
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:34am
In Vino Veritas

BBC and Reuters report that Hamas have publicly executed seven Gazans for apparently working with Israel.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvg02zp7j2rt?post=asset%3A6951fa1b-1a5f-41f8-86a7-354681367720#post
I haven’t put the Reuters link as it has graphic video of the execution (which I will not watch).
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October 15, 2025 8:22am
- NothingLeft
  
  peoples front of judea vs judean peoples front. The greatest threat to violent revolutionaries is other revolutionary groups, as you are competing for exactly the same resources. Ever was it thus.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:22am
- All_on_Red
  
  They have killed more than that.
  Hamas raided one of the Clans areas and killed 52
  They surprised them by arriving hidden in Ambulances…
  How ‘Hamas’ of them to do that.
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:42pm
BeaB

Israel still controls a large area of Gaza. They should make it secure, peaceful and free from Hamas. Then let’s see where the Gazans want to live. If they choose to stay in a Hamas hellhole, let them. And if the rest of the Middle East wants to keep on funding Hamas through aid and cash so be it. I think that’s the best two state solution. Hamas Gaza and Israeli Gaza.
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October 15, 2025 8:34am
- David Garrett
  
  Bea: That is an excellent suggestion- two Gazas, and let the people choose which one they want to live in
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:02am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  BeaB, there are roughly 2 million Arabs (read “Palestinians”) living in Israel already. They get to vote and funnily enough are not dead in the “genocide”.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:33am
- imalwaysright
  
  The main problem with a population that is being dominated by armed terrorists is that the population aren’t armed.
  
  The best thing Israel could do would be to give every Palestinian an ak47 with a couple of rounds in it and let them have an internal ‘election’.
  
  What’s left after that will be hopefully a population free of internal oppression.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:55am
- Jethrod
  
  Just the one big question……FUNDING!!!!
  
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  October 15, 2025 12:52pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Will Takuta Ferris or Mariameno Kapa-Kingi be the first to defect from Te Pati Maori?

According to reports, following the release of the email to members, a motion was made by Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris – himself recently at odds with party leadership – for a vote of no confidence in the party’s president and national council.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/15-10-2025/far-from-kotahitanga-the-unravelling-of-te-pati-maori

It’s reported that Tākuta Ferris called for a vote of no confidence in party president John Tamihere and the party’s national board following the email being sent.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-10-2025/an-incomplete-timleine-of-the-kapa-kingi-te-pati-maori-allegations
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October 15, 2025 8:36am
- pdm
  
  Maggy a new Parliamentary party may form under the joint leadership of Kapa-Kingi and Ferris. It could have 4 seats if Maipi-Clark and Kaipara jump ship as well.
  
  The Maori Party would be left – all Chiefs and no Indians – or more precisely two leaders and no Caucus.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:47am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Maipi-Clark won’t jump… She’s Tainui/Kingiitanga…and they’re hand-in-glove with the Tamihere fiefdom.
    
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    October 15, 2025 9:23am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  If they split, does that mean we wind up with two racist parties instead of just one?
  
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  October 15, 2025 2:45pm
lastmanstanding

Its concerning that a recent poll has shown elements of the Maori Party and ACT see violence as necessary. This is a result of over 40 years of Governments and Elites pandering to Maori telling them how wonderful and special they are. Well they arent. Like any race they comprise the good the bad and the ugly and looking at the facts they feature highly in all the bad stats.
This has emboldened some of them (looking at you Tamihere and your mates) to see nothing less than total domination as the goal. A return to tribal warfare where the Chiefs rule and the rest of Maori WMFs and other races are slaves. Make no mistake this is their goal.
Alas the genie is out of the bottle never to be put back. Governments continue to divide rather than unite. They show no vision of a united New Zealand where all are equal. Instead they stoke the fires of rebellion. Those in ACT have and are reacting to the Maori behaviour and seeking to protect themselves and their families. I predict civil war at some point in the future as younger Maori get more militant and more emboldened.
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October 15, 2025 8:51am
- Notsofast
  
  “I predict civil war at some point in the future as younger Maori get more militant and more emboldened”
  
  And less maori ironically.
  They are the most dna diluted “indigenous” category in the world.
  Ok I made that up but it is a guess.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:21am
  - R
    
    Hasn’t been a Maori in NZ, or anywhere else since mid 1950-60 ‘s
    
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    October 15, 2025 12:28pm
  - Paulus
    
    In addition it is the younger Maori (sort of University educated) women who are now the most militant and they show that with their new Moko !
    
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    October 15, 2025 1:46pm
- RoboRob
  
  Heard about this poll yesterday. I wonder what the thinking between the Act and TPM respondants is?
  
  I suspect its the following.
  
  TPM : ‘The only way to chaneg the system is to break it entirely and that may / will require force’
  
  ACT : ‘There is growing unease in this country (witness TPM and the Greens) and that is likely to lead to violence’
  
  I know thats my rose coloured glasses but I don’t see how the average Act voter is actually wanting to instigate violence.
  
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  October 15, 2025 9:30am
  - cmm
    
    Quite, there is a massive difference between predicting something is needed and wanting it to happen.
    
    Unfortunetely have “I believe in fairies” thinking – if you acknowledge that the All Blacks have some weekend you’re letting the side down and want them to lose.
    
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    October 15, 2025 11:10am
- R
  
  Labour, Greens and TPM are all adherents of the Marxist cult. They have no desire for equality of opportunity, nor standard of living. One chief, several privileged elite; and a tribe of slaves
  
  5 1
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  October 15, 2025 12:26pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Labour kidults and the Greens kiddies envisage a harmonious utopia emerging from co-governance. Think stupidity before malice.
    
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    October 15, 2025 6:57pm
oldpark

Wonder will someone inform the person who was once employed by Englands “News of the World” Newspaper .
Yes the one that was shut down for nefarious activities.
When that person goes into print mostly denigrating the Coalition and their MPs .
Long before that person arrived in New Zealand
after the closure of the English Newspaper. In the
Late nineties a woman known as Mrs 2% Helen Clark. Was so unpopular with her Labour Party yet in 1999-2008 she became Prime Minister and ruled for Three terms .
That Newspaper and their employee for the sake of common sense should stop making mischief about people like our Prime Minister and Nicola Willis .
Maybe that Newspaper employee with her fake news should do something useful instead of being useless .Go Figure .
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October 15, 2025 8:56am
- Paulus
  
  They do not know anything else !
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:47pm
JJ56

For something to distract from politicians strutting their stuff, a nice little post at Point of Order on Joel Mokyr’s Nobel Prize https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/ideas-having-sex-and-other-miracles-the-state-didnt-plan/. Despite its title it is save for young people to read.
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October 15, 2025 9:01am
Pope Punctilious II

It sounds like Massey University is being hoist by its own ~~retard~~ petard.
Complaints lodged against lecturer Paule Ruwhiu for ‘exclusionary’ practices | Massive Magazine https://share.google/yTWqRKeonWaBRw3Jv
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October 15, 2025 9:06am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Wow!!!!
  
  Talk about incompetency.
  
  If a course can’t cater for its students because of their disability or inability to pronounce “Received Te Reo”, then DON’T accept their course fees.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:13am
- Notsofast
  
  What an abominable human being!
  If the article is taken as correct, she is totally “unsafe” and should be sacked as nothing but a crazed fanatic who can wreck lives.
  
  4 0
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  October 15, 2025 3:12pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Ain’t it amazing how many neuro divergent disabled people there are studying social work
  
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  October 15, 2025 7:35pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4l__aLQ024
Pritzker and Johnson Panic as Illinois State Troopers Rebel!
Finally we are hearing about cops who stand up for what’s right instead of listening to evil incompetent leadership.
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October 15, 2025 9:10am
- Paulus
  
  Know the name
  B Pritzker is the 43rd governor of Illinois and a member of the wealthy Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. He is a businessman, attorney, and Democrat.
  Sort of Illinois Mafia like Obama, but very rich.
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:52pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, that is correct. He has been gifted a Native American name. Chief Broken Scales.
    
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    October 15, 2025 3:14pm
sungsamning

https://townhall.com/columnists/struanstevenson/2025/10/14/irans-imperial-delusion-is-dyingtrumps-peace-deal-proves-it-n2664871
Iran’s Imperial Delusion Is Dying—Trump’s Peace Deal Proves It.
The Iranian regime’s imperial delusion is crumbling. After decades spent fueling proxy wars and exporting revolution, Tehran now finds itself more isolated and impotent than ever. The linchpin of its regional empire, Syria, has collapsed into disarray. Its prized proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, are battered, demoralized, or disarmed. And now, with Donald Trump’s bold Gaza peace initiative gaining traction, the Islamic Republic’s game is up.
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October 15, 2025 9:11am
- Wandering Star
  
  “After decades spent fueling proxy wars and exporting revolution,”
  
  What are you talking about? To the extent this assertion is even true, this is exactly what the US does throughout the world (particularly in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America – aka almost the entire planet) but on much large scale. Including, ironically, deposing governments in Iran itself.
  
  Where exactly has Iran ever exported a revolution, and for what ends?
  
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  October 15, 2025 1:58pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Under Trump 47, the US is getting out of the endless war business. Could take a while though.
    
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    October 15, 2025 3:15pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Surprise, surprise…

Start teaching basic maths systematically and regularly and the little kiddies get it!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575927/unusual-improvement-in-primary-students-maths-and-english-teachers-say
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October 15, 2025 9:36am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Of course Maggy. Teachers haven’t yet figured that THEY are the problem, not the solution.
  
  17 1
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  October 15, 2025 10:08am
  - Paulus
    
    They are the products of their Mothers, who in turn theirs, as they are/were Teachers who will not take responsibility for the desecration of Education in New Zealand.
    The Mother’s continual attacks and verbal support of the system is now the most important sector of future Education.
    Strikes not only upset those Mothers with jobs, but also upsets the social lives of Teachers.
    
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    October 15, 2025 1:59pm
- David Garrett
  
  How sad that the “educators” can’t acknowledge the obvious- that old fashioned teaching methods work…
  
  18 0
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  October 15, 2025 10:12am
  - Colville
    
    Doing away with those massive open plan classrooms was a good start.
    
    11 0
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    October 15, 2025 11:54am
- Handyman
  
  “Some primary school teachers are not confident teaching the more complex maths”.
  What complex maths? It is PRIMARY school.
  Teachers who cannot pass a competency exam should not be in the classroom.
  
  16 0
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  October 15, 2025 11:00am
  - Jethrod
    
    But but but…. don’t they have calculators on their phones?
    
    4 0
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    October 15, 2025 1:03pm
  - mandk
    
    Complex maths is understanding that 6×7 is the same as 7×6.
    
    Who knew?
    
    5 0
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    October 15, 2025 1:16pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      But, but…. somehow it is too difficult to teach
      B x A = A x B, let alone = AB, or even BA.
      
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      October 15, 2025 5:17pm
- RoboRob
  
  Changes the teachers and the unions activly fought against. Changes they tried to cancel or delay as long as possible.
  
  Changes that the ministry knew could improve results 15+ years ago.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:05am
- zulumonster
  
  And it appears they could have even better results – except for the fact the teachers themselves aren’t competent enough to teach the more advanced concepts such as algebra.
  It would make a great Monty Python sketch if it wasn’t so sad.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:13am
- R
  
  I wonder if the reported improvement perhaps refers to the teachers improved knowledge; since I recall the union claiming that the teachers required time and extra salary to learn the new pedagogy
  
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  October 15, 2025 12:37pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I suspect at this stage it is just that all primary children are now exposed to 1hr of maths each school day.
    
    Previous reports on maths teaching in primary schools had revealed that some pupils were receiving less than 3 hours of maths /week.
    Many students were not being taught the full curriculum.
    
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    October 15, 2025 5:27pm
Maggy Wassilieff

A rival for the Correspondence school (Te Kura) will set up next year

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/saira-boyle-aotearoa-infinite-academy-founding-principle-on-nzs-first-fully-online-charter-school/
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October 15, 2025 10:12am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Excellent!
  
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  October 15, 2025 7:37pm
Foxfour

“Labour, NZ First rise in new poll, while National’s support slides”
It shows Labour is up seven points to 34% since the 2023 election, while National has dropped the same amount to 31%.

New Zealand First has also gained support and hit 11%, while ACT is on 9%, the Greens 9%, and Te Pāti Māori 3%, according to The Post.
3 4
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October 15, 2025 10:30am
- greybeard
  
  But these results are totally different to last week’s poll. And that one was totally different to the one before that……
  
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  October 15, 2025 10:40am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Maybe because they were totally different pollsters ?
    
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    October 15, 2025 11:23am
  - Foxfour
    
    Not ‘totally’ different at all. Slightly, which is how polling stats work
    The numbers bounce around the mean because of the margin of error is 3% for parties around 30% – so it could line between 33-27%.
    and yesterday
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360854904/labour-nz-first-rise-new-poll-while-nationals-support-slides
    
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    October 16, 2025 2:29pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Yep Fox, it will be nip and tuck. I guess that a few Labour voters will have to decide if they want Napkins to cosy up to those paragons of intellectual discourse, TPM.
  
  4 0
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  October 15, 2025 11:36am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Careful IVV someone here gets very upset when politicians get called silly names. 😆
    
    1 1
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    October 15, 2025 7:01pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360854659/excessive-exec-pay-mike-kings-charity-soars-after-24m-public-funding-boost
This is sounding a bit like that “Trust” of Tamihere’s.
Bloody dodgy use of taxpayer money.
12 0
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October 15, 2025 10:35am
- Colville
  
  Waipareira’s annual report records 13.3 fulltime-equivalent senior management personnel – the most senior of whom is chief executive John Tamihere – were paid an average of $510,679 per annum.
  
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  October 15, 2025 11:56am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Mike King is an amateur compared to John Tamahere and his chums.
    
    2 0
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    October 15, 2025 7:38pm
  - Foxfour
    
    Isnt Tamahere’s wife the Waipareira Chief ‘operating’ officer ?
    
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    October 16, 2025 2:32pm
Rusty

Can we trust polls?

Last year’s US elections virtually all polls had Trump and Harris 50-50 with the experts declaring it too hard to call. This year’s Aust elections polls had the coalition way ahead just months before the elections.
3 1
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October 15, 2025 11:01am
Yvette

Above (8:00 am) I suggested Chris Hipkins, “unclear how many Māori Parties there are,” could choose from three – Te Pati Maori – under John Tamihere, Te Pati Maori – under Eru Kapa-Kingi, and his own Labour Maori Caucus – under Willie Jackson, with the last being perhaps seen as a jest.

But the vast bulk of the recent “Maorification” (for want of a better word, and “Maori Aryanism isn’t quite it) did happen under Ardern and carried on with Hipkins himself, so he should know the pressure his own Maori Caucus can exercise, and if he, as Labour Leader, were to be able to form a coalition with a Maori Party or Parties, what extra allegiance or opposition would his own Maori Caucus have with a further Maori contingent?

Is it a question of Chris Hipkins ruling te Pati Maori in or out, or will Willie Jackson decide that. One lever Jackson has (and may of course already pressed Ardern and Hipkins with it), to get as far as He Puapua, is to threaten secession from Labour, and perhaps play Kingmaker.
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October 15, 2025 11:13am
imalwaysright

The Greens seem to be in mourning that the Palestinian people are NOT being killed.
13 0
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October 15, 2025 11:14am
- mandk
  
  They are still being killed, but it’s by other Palestinians, so that’s OK according to the tea towel wearers//
  
  6 1
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  October 15, 2025 1:13pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  They are being killed though. Just not by the right people.
  
  6 0
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  October 15, 2025 1:13pm
- herb1
  
  The Greens and others like them are t pro Palestinian, theyre just anti Israel.
  
  6 1
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  October 15, 2025 3:54pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    They don’t want to know that they might actually be supporting evil savagery. Best to listen to the other “cool kids” lest they have to suffer the indignity of revising their erroneous beliefs.
    
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    October 15, 2025 7:06pm
imalwaysright

Gerry Brownlee has come down on Parliamentary behaviour like a ton of bricks!!!
He has declared that he will be ‘looking at’ dress codes etc.

Those poor members…
https://youtu.be/uJCTWRIK7mM?si=0_m-U6xf62oNmh3f
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October 15, 2025 11:35am
Colville

Does anyone know where there is a new Mayor elected is there a transitional period? Or is the new guy straight in?
4 0
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October 15, 2025 11:36am
- rjay
  
  Once the official final results are posted, the former mayor ceases to have office as from midnight that day. The new councillors and mayor are paid from that time but only take office once sworn in, which may be a week or two later.
  
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  October 15, 2025 8:56pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360852957/chris-bishop-emerges-successor-waiting-half-voters-want-christopher-luxon-gone
I see that Stuff has called on its favourite pitbull to try and convince readers that a change of leader for National is necessary.
More dirty tricks by the MSM, and pathetically obvious.
13 2
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October 15, 2025 1:40pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  Just Andrea Vance trolling, she gave up being a proper journalist years ago.
  
  12 1
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  October 15, 2025 1:49pm
lifesgood

I hope the teachers are enjoying another lazy week of part time teaching. The cunning buggers! By only refusing to teach certain year levels on different days they still get paid. And BTW from today teachers who only teach senior year levels are now effectively working part time since their pupils are now on study leave. What a cushy number…they don’t go back to full time teaching until the end of January/early February and they have the gall to ask for more money!
14 1
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October 15, 2025 1:53pm
Swifty

I don’t know why RNZ limit their piece to just women and just local politics – the levels of hate, abuse, racism and personal attacks on X, for example, aimed at the Coalition are monstrously high.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/575982/polls-and-trolls-is-violent-online-abuse-turning-women-off-local-politics

And there’s been a fresh wave in the last 24 hours over Luxon commenting on his position on awarding Maori non-citizens getting citizenship automatically just because they’re Maori – that he doesn’t agree with a special carve out for Maori and which is not available to anyone else.

The racist, sexist abuse that has been directed at him, mostly from accounts with Maori names, is extraordinary. Some talk with such hostility you would expect that should they get their hands on Luxon they’d tear him limb from limb.

It really is quite dispiriting.
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October 15, 2025 1:58pm
Ghost

Wearers of tea towels are annoyed

The Green Party is warning Gerry Brownlee he should take care to avoid becoming Parliament’s fashion police, while National and Labour are welcoming his attempt to address slipping standards in the House.

The Speaker – who acts as Parliament’s referee – on Tuesday announced plans to be stricter with standards including around leave, attendance and dress.

Article
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October 15, 2025 2:12pm
- Albie
  
  Those who play dress up as cowboys and Steampunk enthusiasts will also be annoyed!
  
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  October 15, 2025 2:18pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  I agree there should be dress standards. Does anyone disagree, and if so, why?
  
  11 1
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  October 15, 2025 2:27pm
- kowtow
  
  Broken windows .
  
  If you don’t enforce rules /standards then the message is sent that no one cares .
  
  And then it gets worse and worse.
  
  13 1
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  October 15, 2025 2:30pm
- AitchW
  
  I’m hopeful that Brownlee will come down hard on
  dress standards. Sadly I don’t believe we’ll ever see all the male MPS in suits with ties and the females in business attire as well.
  We need to see a ban on hats, berets, feather head dresses and top hats.
  We need to see a ban on any text on clothing as well as keffiyehs.
  Once the MPs are all dressed like grown ups with shoes and no hats then he can start on behaviour of MPs, no waiata, haka, morris dancing or other cultural shows without explicit permission.
  Am I confident? Not especially, but hope springs eternal.
  
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  October 15, 2025 3:39pm
  - Ghost
    
    Hats are nothing new, even before Dover they were a part of our parliament. Perhaps a return to the old dress code is in order, lol
    
    Among the Speaker’s many duties was ensuring that MPs came into the House dressed appropriately. This was more complex than it sounds as Parliament had rules about jackets, ties and hats and when they could and could not be worn.
    
    An old British House of Commons custom forbade MPs from wearing hats when entering or leaving the chamber or when addressing the House (although they were generally worn in the chamber at other times). The rule that MPs had to rise and take their hats off as messages from the governor were read had them bobbing up and down like jack-in-the-box toys in the early days. The standing orders of 1865 specified that if a member wanted to speak (usually to a point of order) after the doors had been locked for a division, he had to do so from a seated position and with his hat on. Some MPs had to scramble desperately for a hat, anyone’s, whether it fitted or not. The custom persisted into the 1960s.
    
    Article
    
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    October 15, 2025 4:00pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  I just hope that Gerry follows through on this.
  
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  October 15, 2025 3:49pm
Jack5

A sad setback for Mental Health Minister Doocey, but perhaps time for him to rethink strategy on mental health.

Mike King’s charity behind the Gumboot Friday counselling programme is under scrutiny after two executives between them received a total of more than half a million dollars. This was after Doocey last year announced a $24 million government commitment over four years.

Doocey, who has a background in mental health work, including at Britain’s controversial Tavistock Clinic, seems to emphasise counselling level support, while the country’s psychiatric hospital face severe shortages of staff including “pscyh” nurses, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

Last Friday, Doocey took one step further. He jointly announced Ask Groov, an artificial-intelligence computer “tool”, which he described as a “well being programme for adults”.

It was jointly announced with Sir John Kirwan, who with Adam Clark developed the tool. Doocey said it “helps people with mild to moderate needs manage everyday challenges such as stress, sleep issues, or relationship pressures before they escalate.”

As a layman, I wonder: could an AI response be as soothing to a troubled person as a sympathetic voice on Helpline?

Links:

The Gumboot Friday charity organisation — Mike King’s I am Hope Foundation and the half a million to executives:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360854659/excessive-exec-pay-mike-kings-charity-soars-after-24m-public-funding-boost?cx_testId=48&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

Government’s $24m commitment to Gumboot Friday announced by Doocey last year:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/gumboot-friday-supporting-young-people-faster

Doocey on the Kirwan-Clark AI tool:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/ai-powered-mental-health-support-tool-launched
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October 15, 2025 3:08pm
mogg

New Mega Poll in UK showing Tories would win only seven seats if an election were to be held tomorrow.
Labour would win 75 seats, new party Jezbollah would win 13 seats, Reform 445 seats.
7 0
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October 15, 2025 3:19pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  The Tories don’t even deserve 7 seats. Not after David Cameron declaring himself “the heir to Blair”. Not after Teresa May introducing a gender self-ID bill and congwatulating Bwitish Muslims for celebwating Wamadin. Not after Boris Johnson’s two-faced charlatanry. Not after the Tories’ continuation of Labour’s unsustainable levels of immigration, and their failure to extricate the UK from the clutches of the European Human Rights Commission.
  
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  October 15, 2025 6:20pm
  - Swifty
    
    Quite right.
    
    They’ve dug their own grave.
    
    2 0
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    October 15, 2025 6:42pm
Ghost

What an incredible waste of money this will cause

A Central Otago councillor-elect accused of financial misconduct has quit saying “destructive misinformation and hatred” have become too much for his family.

Mayor Tamah Alley said she received an email from Dave McKenzie on Wednesday afternoon advising of his decision to withdraw from the election process.

Article
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October 15, 2025 5:28pm
- AitchW
  
  There’s a good argument for a system where if the winning candidate resigns within, say, a month of the election then the second placed candidate steps up.
  It would be useful in general elections too, think of Helen Clarke resigning on election night triggering a by election.
  
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  October 15, 2025 5:57pm

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