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October 30, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 October 2025

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Yvette

UN-bound report
‘Absolutely breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi’: UN-bound report warns racial discrimination is worsening in NZ
The report – in tandem with Te Hunga Roia Māori (the New Zealand Law Society) and the People’s Action Plan Against Racism in Aotearoa reports – will be presented at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its 23rd and 24th periodic UN reviews in November..
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/577223/absolutely-breaches-of-te-tiriti-o-waitangi-un-bound-report-warns-racial-discrimination-is-worsening-in-nz.

Claire Charters chaired or co-chaired the working group which produced He Puapua.
• For the law: Her focus on tikanga signals that Māori legal norms and values should have a role in New Zealand’s legal fabric — not replacing but informing.
• For education and engagement: Her leadership role at the Human Rights Commission means she is shaping how the public sector and society conceive of co-governance, partnership and Indigenous rights.
• For the future: If one accepts the view that Aotearoa is evolving constitutionally, her work is at the forefront of that evolution — carrying forward tradition, but adapting it for future generations.

• “… the whole constitution was fundamentally opposed to, or in contradiction to, Te Tiriti o Waitangi because it keeps all power in one place”

• “In Aotearoa, we’ve got one people being regulated by another people’s imposed legal system. That’s inequality.”

• “We’re part of a country whose founding compact, the Treaty of Waitangi, envisaged plurality of governance — yet what we’ve ended up with is one people governed by another. That mismatch is the locus of much of our work.” Justice Matters, Mathias Risse talks with Claire Charters – audio, Harvard Kennedy School
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/our-work/justice-matters-podcast/human-rights-and-indigenous-rights-new-zealand?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

<blockquote

Who commissioned Claire Charters to write a report for the UN?
Was it Claire Charters?

What does Hon Winston Peters say about this affair –
he of course is Minister for Foreign Affairs
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October 30, 2025 8:00am
- peterwn
  
  No trouble finding support with UN for this sort of thing. Helps take the pressure off UN members with far worse human rights records. Just pick an easy target like NZ
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:24pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “…racial discrimination is worsening in NZ.”
  
  What the UN means by that is whitey isn’t playing the game the way the marxist activists want them to and are asking awkward questions.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:51pm
- ISeeRed
  
  I pushed past “Aotearoa” but had to stop at “Maori legal norms”. I was LMAO so much I couldn’t read the screen after that.
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:24pm
  - Quail
    
    FYI .
    Googling the author reveals the depth of her self interest and the primary and pecuniary reasons for her missive.
    Why it was published at all is surprising !
    
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    October 30, 2025 6:14pm
- PurplePen
  
  “yet what we’ve ended up with is one people governed by another”.
  
  Isn’t it currently one people governing one people. Ironically, nearly 20 percent of the one people governing (MPs) are actually Maori.
  
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  October 30, 2025 5:28pm
- M.Solvent
  
  Every year the definitions of “racism” and “discrimination” used in these UN reports gets further away from a recognisable dictionary definition – to the extent that a finding of racism and discrimination can only be a good thing.
  
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  October 30, 2025 6:00pm
Cassandra

In the Atlantic off the coast of Venezuela 13 boats have been destroyed and 57 suspected drug smugglers killed by the American navy. I’m confident that the sailors and airmen doing the targeting have done a thorough job.

It appears that President Maduro has a Plan B which is to go to Cuba. I suggest he goes by bike.

This quite a stern approach to America’s drug problem // but you can understand it. Maduro has used drug smuggling as his way of attacking America. Don’t be surprised if a drone is sent to Caracas. Perhaps a trial of facial recognition munitions?
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October 30, 2025 8:01am
- Wandering Star
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  “…13 boats have been destroyed and 57 suspected drug smugglers killed by the American navy.”
  
  What evidence has been presented that they were drug smugglers?
  
  The predominance of drugs coming into America from the south come from Mexico and from Colombia – which is consistent with most previous assessments from this and previous administrations.
  
  So why aren’t they attacking or signaling intervention in Mexico or Colombia? Why are they now attacking Venezuelans on the pretext that drugs are coming into America from Venezuela (even implausibly calling drugs deaths “acts of terrorism,” so the US has few restraints in how they are deal with the “terrorists” providing drugs). Why not go after McDonalds or Wendy’s as “terrorists” if they are so concerned about early and avoidable deaths in the US?
  
  Is it because Mexico and Colombia don’t have recalcitrant governments but have administrations more willing to do the US’s bidding, whereas Venezuela does not? Quite clearly this is the case.
  
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  October 30, 2025 8:10am
  - I remember when
    
    “57 suspected drug smugglers killed”
    So less have died to date than in the Brazil police drug raids, 121 killed.
    At least some were apparently in submersibles, but why would it be presumed that they were drug runners?
    No there shouldn’t be killing without evidence, or even with evidence if capture is possible, but it seems that drugs and death are constant bed fellows.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:50am
    - Don Beckett
      
      You can be sure that the appropriate law enforcement agency has indisputable information that these are drug runners. Claiming that they are fishermen in these types of boats is ludicrous.
      
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      October 30, 2025 10:59am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Trolling for marlin?
        
        No marlin in those waters. Minor detail.
        
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        October 30, 2025 7:25pm
    - kowtow
      
      Capture . And then what ?
      
      Recall how the once great Royal Navy were “dealing” with Somali pirates . Legal advice was capture and then they’d be transferred to the UK for legal processing , where the legal opinion was that they could then apply for asylum in the UK.
      
      No shit.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:27am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        The late great Royal Navy, with 40 admirals and 16 warships.
        
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        October 30, 2025 5:39pm
      - Mike
        
        I think C Northcote Parkinson had some amusing tables showing the growth of admiralty staff vs declining ship numbers over time.
        
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        October 30, 2025 6:15pm
  - Jethrod
    
    The fact they are small fast boats (50 to 60 knots) with suspicious covered items on display…. I reckon a good chance that something illegal is going on.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:56am
    - Wandering Star
      
      Jethrod “reckons there’s a good chance” of illegality. Hardly grounds to do drone strikes. If there’s something illegal going on, why don’t the US forces interdict these craft? It seens to me this is a wanton demonstration of force designed to send a message and/or provoke a response as a pretext to perform regime change.
      
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      October 30, 2025 1:32pm
      - Jethrod
        
        Oh…. is that what your masters told you to say??
        
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        October 30, 2025 2:07pm
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        If you want to interdict a terrorist, a hellfire missile is going to interdict them real good.
        
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        October 30, 2025 5:41pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    Quite clearly this is not the case.
    
    Big hint, the drugs floating in the water after the hit is a YUGE giveaway, yes?
    
    Do you really think they haven’t got intelligence showing the boats being full of drugs? In your alternate reality they are just randomly blowing up pleasure cruisers?
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:20am
    - Wandering Star
      
      “Do you really think they haven’t got intelligence showing the boats being full of drugs?”
      
      Yes. I haven’t seen evidence, so why would I believe they have any? And why would you?
      
      I’m thinking about why they are really doing this, whereas you’re just taking them at their word.
      
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      October 30, 2025 1:34pm
      - AitchW
        
        Orange man bad, right?
        
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        October 30, 2025 2:18pm
  - [email protected]
    
    https://sofrep.com/news/us-special-forces-arrive-in-mexico-to-help-combat-drug-cartels/
    
    They have *already* been doing direct intervcntion in Mexico against the cartels there. So not sure your point is as sound as you try to present here.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:27am
  - leoj
    
    At long last the USA has declared war on drugs and the great Donald Trump deserves credit for carrying it out.
    Bravo Donald! You have achieved the double – a successful war plus making lefitist heads explode.
    
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    October 30, 2025 1:46pm
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Ignoring the rule of law to allow extra-judicial killing offshore is a good way to test the public appetite for murderous action domestically.
  
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  October 30, 2025 8:21am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    So when Obama’s team took out Osama in his Pakistani lair, what sort of murderous domestic action do you think Obama had in mind?
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:29am
    - Swifty
      
      Heh.
      
      Nice.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:31am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      I was thinking more of Anwar al-Awlaki, who Obama ordered a drone strike on, which also killed his 16 year old son – who was an American citizen.
      
      I recall feeling very fearful that this meant Obama was going to start drone-striking in Texas and ….
      
      Well actually no. We Righties just shrugged our shoulders instead of making a victimology-fest of the whole thing, while the Obama supporters got on with implementing stuff they really cared about – like Obamacare.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:37am
    - Jethrod
      
      Oh the silence from Mike and Wandering Star is deafening.
      
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      October 30, 2025 2:10pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        What do you expect me to say? Bin Laden was murdered extrajudicially too. I can’t recall any evidence being put to the test in that case either. Unless you can recall the due process he went through, this is just an undeniable fact.
        
        I agree: Obama went around killing people as he saw fit without any requirement to prove any crime, just like Trump is doing in this case.
        
        How does the “rules based order” fare when it routinely ignores the “rules” it demands other adhere to?
        
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        October 30, 2025 7:16pm
    - AitchW
      
      Oh dear Your Holiness, you know it’s different when the left does it.
      
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      October 30, 2025 2:19pm
      - Mike
        
        Sorry for the delay in replying. I hope the Kiwiblog intelligentsia will continue the discussion.
        
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        October 30, 2025 4:58pm
    - Mike
      
      AFAIK the 2001 AUMF has not been revoked. This was the US basis for the ‘war on terror’ and has been cited for over 20 years. The present administration has purported to present the Caribbean boat sinkings as legal use of force by alleging the drug smugglers are ‘terrorists’. To date, no alleged terrorist has made it to US territory where they might be able to seek challenge this in court.
      It’s frog-boiling stuff. Next might be shoot-to-kill at the border. Riskier, as some of the terrorist might end up, only wounded, in a US hospital and exercise dangerous rights.
      
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      October 30, 2025 4:55pm
  - cmm
    
    I suspect it goes down a treat – just like the way many Americans think that invading Iraq was “because of 9/11”.
    
    Meanwhile Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan – over 2000 km away. Attacking Iraq made as much sense as bombing London if you’re pissed off with Putin (2500km) or bombing Auckland because you hate kangaroos (2200km).
    
    But nope, it fed the American need to lash out and counter the humiliation and powerlessness they felt. Just attack somebody… any rag head will do (btw: lots of turban-wearing Sikhs got beaten up on the streets too ),
    
    I think that is pretty much the feeling happening here – it appeals to the desire to lash out when feeling powerless. Those lashing out are not too fussy about their targets.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:50am
  - Conservatarian
    
    Yes, will the US ever stoop so low as to allow extra judicial killing? For example, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-Yemeni Islamic cleric and lecturer assassinated in Yemen in 2011 by a US drone strike ordered by President Barack Hussein Obama.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:57am
  - vand
    
    Ignoring the rule of law to allow extra-judicial killing offshore is a good way to test the public appetite for murderous action domestically.
    
    Mike – you forget Hamas are leading the way on extra judicial executions
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:17am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Millions of Americans have died from narcotics overdoses – products that have been bought up from south and central American sources. Everyone knows someone affected. So overall this is undoubtably a vote winner, even if it is repugnant.
    
    Seems most likely that they are mostly baddies being hit – high speed boats, fitting a certain profile of operation have little other reason to exist – and those operating them will know that US military is targeting them. They must have a pretty powerful motivation to go out doing what they do given that risk – pointing strongly towards some highly profitable activity.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:38am
    - Mike
      
      Most of those US drugs deaths are attributed to legal prescriptions for fentanyl, which killed as many people as coke, heroin, and methamphetamine combined, at least up until 2020. Some of the manufacturers have been forced by lawsuits to give up some of their profits, notably the Sackler family. Now that there are stricter controls on prescribing synthetic opioids, an illicit trade has flourished mainly direct from China and Mexico.
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:09pm
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    They’re not extra-judicial.
    
    These drug runners are designated terrorist organisations.
    
    Ergo can be destroyed on sight.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:44pm
- cmm
  
  I am no fan of drug smugglers, but this is murder on the high seas.
  
  Best effort should be made to capture them and bring them to trial – and operate legally. If they flee, then pursuit and use of force is warranted (as is warranted for all sorts of vessel boarding etc). However reaching for the 30mm autocannon should not be Plan A.
  
  If they are then found guilty in a court of law, and are even sentenced to death, then at least some sort of judicial process has been followed.
  
  Replacing one crime with another is not an acceptable way of doing business – especially for a country that portrays itself as the world’s peacekeeper.
  
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  October 30, 2025 8:42am
  - Cassandra
    
    Sailing on the high seas isn’t a crime. Drugs are not illegal unless they are located somewhere under the law. I suspect that a plea of kidnapping might be successful. But you are right, it is murder.
    
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    October 30, 2025 8:54am
    - Paulus
      
      I assume you do not consider what the drugs will do is not Murder ?
      
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      October 30, 2025 8:59am
      - cmm
        
        No it is not murder to supply drugs unless the “victim” is administered the drugs unwittingly or against their will.
        
        If someone willing shoots up drugs then dies, then that is all on them.
        
        Even if you want to argue it is murder, then at least let that be determined by a court of law. The police/military should not just perform summary executions on drug suppliers.
        
        It would be nice to believe that drugs can be cleaned up on the supply side. That is not reality.
        
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        October 30, 2025 9:15am
      - Graeme Hall
        
        CMM: No it is not murder to supply drugs unless the “victim” is administered the drugs unwittingly or against their will.
        
        Wilfully mislabelling fentanyl as a common drug including mis-stamping the pills is murder. I always thought people knew they when were taking fentanyl until I saw a deliberately mislabelled bottle. Hard then to sympathise with the fate of the manufacturers and the suppliers.
        
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        October 30, 2025 11:32am
      - cmm
        
        Graeme Hall: Did you fail to read what I wrote?
        
        “No it is not murder to supply drugs unless the “victim” is administered the drugs unwittingly or against their will.”
        
        Yes, I would consider supplying Fentanyl as a different drug murder as that would mean the druggy consumed the drug unwittingly and the supplier of the fake drug is at fault.
        
        However if the druggie was sold Fentanyl as Fentanyl, then it is far more on the druggie.
        
        I am not at all saying that drug suppliers are absolved of any wrongdoing. They are doing wrong. But not murder unless:
        * they are forcing the people to take drugs.
        * they are supplying deadly fake drugs as relatively benign drugs thus misleading their customers.
        
        Regardless, those drug dealers, even if you want to label them murderers, should be dealt with by the courts and not just executed from afar with no attempt to bring them to justice.
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:59pm
      - Fender
        
        The irony is more die and are consumed by prescription drugs
        But the drug companies fund senators don’t they
        Perhaps they should be targeting closer to home
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:59pm
  - mandk
    
    I find it difficult to agree with you.
    
    The drug smugglers operate outside the law, and they kill, without compunction, anyone who stands in their way. Their trade also results in endless misery and death when their products hit the market.
    
    Sometimes you just have to be ruthless in dealing with evil.
    
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    October 30, 2025 8:57am
    - Taieri
      
      Sometimes you just have to be ruthless in dealing with evil
      ———–
      
      Does supply create demand? Or demand creates supply?
      
      Perhaps a bit of a tough love would help…Singaporean way…
      
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      October 30, 2025 9:27am
      - David George
        
        With highly addictive substances demand and supply are mutually reinforcing.
        
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        October 30, 2025 9:47am
      - Graeme Hall
        
        If you think you are taking an aspirin and it turns out to be fentanyl where does your supply & demand equation fit then?
        
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        October 30, 2025 11:34am
      - Taieri
        
        If you think you are taking an aspirin and it turns out to be fentanyl
        ————-
        
        They don’t sell fenatyl at Pak’n’Slave just yet…
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:42pm
      - Colville
        
        People know they are buying fentanyl , they buy it because they are addicted to painkillers and have lost insurance cover so buy knockoffs to for their addiction.
        The problem for the users is the quality control isnt up to spec so some pills are 10 or 100 times stronger than they should be (bad grinding/mixing) and people die in droves. Around 70,000/yr at peak in USA.
        
        Something like five million in USA have opioid use disorder. ie addicted to painkillers.
        
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        October 30, 2025 2:12pm
    - Scott
      
      mandk – totally agree with you. Drug smuggling by boat will cease pretty quickly once smugglers realise they’re likely to get a missile heading their way. It’s called deterrence. It’s called dealing with the real world.
      
      Venezuela is a special case. They opened their prisons and sent their worst criminals to the United States during the Biden open border years. I suspect it’s govt policy to send drugs to the USA, to subvert the USA and to earn money.
      
      So Trump is protecting his nation. He is looking after his people. It’s America first. Which is what he was elected on.
      
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      October 30, 2025 10:30am
      - Taieri
        
        Drug smuggling by boat will cease pretty quickly once smugglers realise they’re likely to get a missile heading their way. It’s called deterrence. It’s called dealing with the real world.
        ————-
        
        “The War on Drugs is a U.S. government campaign that began in 1971 aimed at reducing illegal drug use and trade through strict law enforcement and prohibition policies.”
        
        1971 was 54 years ago…
        
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        October 30, 2025 11:32am
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        Good to see they are finally using the military to fight in this war.
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:27pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Would be nice to see our military killing the gangs.
        
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        October 30, 2025 2:18pm
      - Colville
        
        The War On Drugs started after Vets coming back from ‘Nam created demand and it got wayyyyy out of control.
        
        All the War On Drugs did was put prices up.
        
        ** Read the book “Reefer Men” by Tony Thompson if you can find it. Its a jaw dropping account of the money involved (using vac packing get to put cash in bales) and rather sobering. Pretty much everyone in that trade died a bloody death.
        
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        October 30, 2025 3:28pm
      - Northshoredoc
        
        An alternative view on the situation.
        
        https://theconversation.com/trumps-anti-venezuela-actions-lack-strategy-justifiable-targets-and-legal-authorization-268363
        
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        October 30, 2025 3:53pm
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    I agree extrajudicial killing isnt good.
    Wait until Chinas coastguard starts blowing rival fishing boats out of the water in the South Pacific – as they are already probably doing off Korea-because “piracy” or “smuggling”.
    Trump might be 100% correct about the drug smuggling scourge but there are reasons to do things by the rules.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:37am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      Designated terrorist organisations.
      
      Not extra-judicial and all done within the rules.
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:47pm
  - rouppe
    
    I think back to 150-200 years ago. Slavery was common. Slave ships would cross the Atlantic. The slave trade was completely legal. It was virtually worldwide, including here.
    
    Until Great Britain moved to stop the slave trade, pretty much unilaterally.
    
    How did they do that? They sent the Navy, they intercepted ships in international waters, and either killed them if they fought back or imprisoned them. I’ve actually no idea what happened to the slaves involved.
    
    Now, you’re going to say “see, they imprisoned them”. But back then there was no legal industry to wade through. It was a case of a fine upstanding British captain saying “I stopped the ship, it was full of slaves” and that was pretty much the end of the matter. Prison was a dark, wet, cold, hole in the ground. What happened in there never saw the light of day.
    
    Try that now. It’ll be “kidnapped in international waters”, “no proof the drugs were going to the usa”, “targeted the boat by racial profiling”, and in the meantime they’re in an air conditioned, dry facility with good food and exercise available and more “rights” than they’ve ever had in their lives.
    
    Yes I also have concerns, but I’m also pragmatic. These aren’t good guys in their open fast boats with three or four motors doing 30 knots. As an aside how do you expect a Navy boat to stop one of those to effect the arrest? Ask nicely?
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:49am
    - Mike
      
      I’m not sure you want international law reset to 1830 and to rely on the Treaty of Westphalia and the Congress of Vienna to govern the conduct of nation states. Or just renegotiate the Hague and Geneva conventions, UN Charter, etc?
      //
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:37pm
  - Handyman
    
    The distinction is the word “war”. The US has decided to treat the war on drugs as actual war rather than making bland statements like beauty pageant winners who “want world peace”.
    So given that a declaration of war has been made to the other side (cartels in this case including those in Columbia and Mexico), the rules of war apply.
    
    If the cartel submarine recently blown up by the US had been carrying a small dirty nuclear bomb instead of drugs (let’s assume potential deaths are the same) the response would have been the same.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:03am
    - Fender
      
      Was there a war on poppies?, Didn’t the cia actually control and profit from drugs in other lands, turn a blind eye so to speak
      
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      October 30, 2025 4:05pm
    - Mike
      
      No declaration of war has been made.
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:13pm
  - Local Miller
    
    I think you are assuming the navy didn’t hail the vessels and try bring them to book. Unfortunately the MSM will only show you the truth they want the public to see. “Look at the nasty Trump Administration blowing up possibly innocent people on the high sea without a trial.”
    I tend to think the navy did everything they could to capture these smuggles, but the fled, at which point decisive action was required.
    FAFO
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:45am
  - leoj
    
    Soft doesn’t work.
    Justice through courts only benefits lawyers.
    Shoot now, explain later.
    Meanwhile, fewer drugs to ruin lives.
    Win win!
    
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    October 30, 2025 1:51pm
  - Paulus
    
    I would expect that the Judges conducting these prosecuted fast boat people would favour them for a price. Or as they have been known to do create or change the laws that suit.
    But that’s the USA Money only counts.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:14pm
- cmm
  
  If you think that shooting up the suppliers around Venezuela is going to cure USA’s drug problems you are incredibly naive.
  
  Drugs are not a supply side issue – they are a consumption side issue.
  Increasing supply drives down prices (eg. a dose of Fentanyl costs less than $1 in USA).
  
  Blaming Venezuela or China or Mexico does not really help because the real problem is in the USA – on the consumption side.
  
  Fentanyl is currently king of chook house and there are other drugs such as carfentanil and nitazenes which are up to 100x more powerful and are more addictive than Fentanyl.
  
  2 milligrams of fentanyl is enough to kill many people and 10 mg is pretty much a given. That’s tiny. Basically a few grains of table salt. A kilo of the stuff can kill over 100,000 people.
  
  Now imagine a drug 100x more powerful than that. What looks like a cup of table salt could kill the whole of Auckland.
  
  Cutting off some of the supply routes might drive up the local cost of drugs slightly, but it is not going to straighten up the druggies.
  
  As much as it would be nice to believe that the drug problem can be tackled offshore, that is just feel-good. It will not stop the drug taking.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:10am
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    Do nothing is your solution?
    
    19 4
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    October 30, 2025 10:23am
    - Stu2
      
      Imposing tariffs on Canada?
      
      7 1
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      October 30, 2025 11:59am
    - Wandering Star
      
      Get smart: even assuming they are actually drug smugglers, this isn’t about drug smuggling. It is about Venezuela, and the fact that the Venezuelan regime acts counter to US interests and is aligned with other countries who also act counter to US interests. “Drug smuggling” is not the pertinent point here, it’s basically irrelevant.
      
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      October 30, 2025 1:47pm
      - MCōs
        
        There’s a ton of countries that ‘act counter to US interests’, but generally they aren’t chokka with oil.
        
        2 0
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        October 30, 2025 4:29pm
      - Christopher Thomson
        
        “… but generally they aren’t chokka with oil”
        
        You missed the news where Maduro offered The US a stake in their oil and a number of other deals.
        
        Trump turned them down.
        
        For old, failed leftards the ‘oil war’ slur is always a favourite to trot out.
        
        2 3
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        October 30, 2025 5:50pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      There are some problems in the world that are not fixable by any reasonable means. The US population would not be willing to accommodate the brutal policing and punishment necessary to significantly reduce current drug trade.
      
      The fundamental problem is the people buying the drugs.
      
      2 1
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      October 30, 2025 1:56pm
    - cmm
      
      No, it is not a matter of “do nothing” being the only other option.
      
      The biggest issue is really that this is a response that appeals much to American chest beating (like kicking over Iraq after 9/11), but does very little to actually fix the real issues.
      
      I don’t for a second believe that shooting up Venezuelans is going to materially impact on Fentanyl overdoses in USA because this is not a supply-side issue.
      
      And no, I am not pro drugs or pro drug dealers or any of that. Just practical. The only place where this can potentially be fixed is on the consumption end.
      
      Part of (not all of) the reason we see the the movement to Fentanyl is that it is more powerful and thus more doses can be carried in a smaller package thus improving the cost/benefit for smugglers. That is part of what has also driven down the price of Fentanyl. The going rate for a dose is well under $1 because the risk per dose is extremely low – far cheaper than ever before in history.
      
      If the industry switches whole scale to nitazenes (100x as powerful as Fentanyl) where a single fleck the size of a table salt granule is a lethal dose, then the industry will change yet again. At that level, 1 kg is 50 million lethal doses (about 2 or 3 doses per USA Fentanyl user). You would only need to smuggle in suitcase full per month (say 10kg) to feed all the druggies in USA a daily hit.
      
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      October 30, 2025 2:17pm
  - MCōs
    
    I watched a four part documentary on Apple TV the other day about how the FBI took down a Mexican drug cartel.
    They didn’t go across the border with guns blazing, put in the grunt work for about three years to build up a watertight case and then simultaneously arrested about thirty of these characters operating in Texas. Mexican law enforcement followed up on their side.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:07pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  I haven’t looked at the data on overdose deaths in the USA for a while.
  
  The trends are interesting (and depressing)
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_drug_overdose_death_rates_and_totals_over_time
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:55pm
artemisia

ACC stops payments to record numbers of long-term clients This matters because we are all paying for ACC one way or another.

However, many said they can’t work and believed they were being dumped as a way for ACC to save money.

ACC said – “In mid-2024 we changed the way we managed some long-term claims to ensure these clients were getting the dedicated, interdisciplinary support they needed to get back to independence, including the establishment of new teams of one-to-one case managers.

That sounds like code for identifying folk who would prefer ACC to Jobseeker. Not a surprise of course. Most of the article is a single case that is now under review.

ACC does report independent review outcomes. Few are determined in favour of clients, the vast majority were settled / withdrawn. The second link below has details up to mid 2024. Numbers may have changed since the process changed last year.

But one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/577071/acc-stops-payments-to-record-numbers-of-long-term-clients

https://www.acc.co.nz/assets/oia-responses/Data-for-annual-review-cost-to-acc-oia-response-gov-031881.pdf
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October 30, 2025 8:22am
- Inandout
  
  art, will never forget about 10yrs ago an ACC neighbour did a massive amount of work on his house, including underfloor plumbing. He apparently had a bad back.
  
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  October 30, 2025 8:41am
  - MCōs
    
    Did you do your civic duty and warn him you would notify ACC if he continued to rort the system?
    
    2 10
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    October 30, 2025 10:01am
  - artemisia
    
    Credit to the coalition government though. Election in 2023. June 2024 a different process in place, a lot more scrutiny, many more long term ACC payments ending. Not that anyone would know it from media reporting.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:32am
- cmm
  
  The classic has always been a “bad back” as that is almost impossible to contradict unless there are surveillance photos of the “victim” walking out of Bunnings carrying sacks of concrete.
  
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  October 30, 2025 8:44am
  - Cassandra
    
    I once played golf midweek with a young man. I asked him what his work was – “I’m on ACC, I was gored by a bull, hurt my back”. Didn’t affect his swing – I was soundly beaten.
    
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    October 30, 2025 8:49am
    - rouppe
      
      I really hate that. What a bludger. Doesn’t answer what his job was though. Was he gored on a farm or riding rodeo, and he’s actually an accountant.
      
      I had a motorbike accident in 2016. Collapsed lung, 14 rib breaks on the left side, fractured shoulder.
      
      First week was in ICU. 2 more weeks on the ward, then home. At first I couldn’t even make it to the letterbox.
      
      I was back at work 3 months later. Trekked Everest Base Camp 15 months after that, against my gp’s advice I might add. Because I refused to be a victim, or a bludger.
      
      People like that are part of the problem.
      
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      October 30, 2025 9:12am
      - Cassandra
        
        He was a farmhand but he was rorting the game. 18 holes of competitive golf means you’re fit enough to work.
        
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        October 30, 2025 10:13am
    - lifesgood
      
      Cassandra, yes, same thing has happened to me in two cases. Both men I played with, on different occasions,on ACC and spending several days a week playing golf. What a life.
      
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      October 30, 2025 12:54pm
  - Flossie
    
    That is so true. A few years ago brother in law and his mate, both malingerers – and liars? – laid a patio while on ACC and “unable to work”. As a tax paying worker at the time it made my blood boil. And no, I didn’t pot them as I had no proof.
    
    23 2
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    October 30, 2025 8:53am
    - pdm
      
      A couple of guys I knew 30 odd years ago in Waipawa.
      1. One painted his two story house, including the roof.
      2 The other got in and chopped his winter firewood as well as enough for his parents.
      
      Both on ACC with bad backs.
      
      20 2
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      October 30, 2025 8:57am
  - Taieri
    
    The classic has always been a “bad back” as that is almost impossible to contradict unless
    —————-
    
    Had it a few times, and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy…
    
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    October 30, 2025 8:56am
  - Ghost
    
    I don’t think anyone cares. I tried reporting my hoarder neighbour. Both him and his girlfriend were moved off the jobseekers and put on supported living couples benefit. The only thing wrong with her is she shacked up with him. Benefit goes to buying more crap every week, which means food parcels ever couple of weeks. WINZ don’t care, despite that he has committed benefit fraud before.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:13am
    - rouppe
      
      If your attempt was more than several years ago, perhaps winz attitudes have changed now..
      
      But yes, it usually seems futile.
      
      11 0
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      October 30, 2025 9:18am
      - Ghost
        
        This year.
        
        5 1
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        October 30, 2025 9:25am
    - cmm
      
      Look at this from the WINZ-worker’s point of view.
      
      What makes for an easier day at the office:
      a) hunt down benefit frauds and go through all the drama of getting them off the benefit (likely involving lots of threats and abuse etc).
      b) just turn a blind eye and ignore it. Easy day at the office.
      
      It’s just taxpayer’s money. The WINZ-employee gets paid the same either way. Why should they care?
      
      15 2
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      October 30, 2025 9:19am
      - Ghost
        
        Here’s the thing though, they have already prosecuted him successfully for nearly $160,000 of benefit fraud.
        
        8 2
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        October 30, 2025 9:25am
      - Spam
        
        @Ghost – and let me guess: No jail time, but has to pay it back at $10 / week?
        
        10 0
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        October 30, 2025 10:07am
      - Ghost
        
        He got home detention. $10 a week off his benefit that was canceled when he got a prostitute pregnant. The house is not liveable. Last time I went into it, I came home, vomited and had a hot shower. Full of mould, rat and mice shit, and he has his kid living there.
        
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        October 30, 2025 10:28am
      - NothingLeft
        
        That makes me so fucking angry. No matter how poor you are you can keep a house tidy and provide a decent environment for your kids. Especially if you’re not working.
        
        7 0
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        October 30, 2025 1:59pm
    - sirknz
      
      Bet it is a Housing NZ property too. I live near a bunch of them and 3 out of 5 seem to like storing rubbish in their backyards…
      
      6 0
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      October 30, 2025 11:20am
      - Ghost
        
        Private rental. The owner only cares about getting the rent.
        
        3 0
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        October 30, 2025 11:35am
      - AitchW
        
        Ghost you are so very wrong. The owner cares about his house being kept in good order so at to protect his investment.
        Yes, there probably a handful who don’t give a hoot, but the majority does.
        
        3 2
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        October 30, 2025 2:31pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, im not wrong. The owner does not care about his house. Actually his exact words to another neighbour who complained to him was “you can’t tell tenants how to live”. He doesn’t care about the rotting weather boards because they remain unrepaired. He doesn’t care about the mould on the outside of the house. He doesn’t care that the tenant has installed wire ctv cameras all outside the house, or about all the aerials over the house, he doesn’t care about the tenant hoarding inside and out, 10 cars around the property, driveway blocked with cars, 20 lawn mowers around the property. Several trailers all full of junk. Wooden pellets all over the property. The house is a complete mess, the mould, the the rotting carpet. He also doesn’t care that another neighbour couldn’t sell their house because of the complete mess his house is in. All he cares about is that he gets his weekly payment from winz for the tenants rent. I think it is pretty obvious my comment isn’t about the majority, it’s about a neighbour
        
        4 1
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        October 30, 2025 2:44pm
      - AitchW
        
        Ghost, I apologise unreservedly. I thought you were making a generalisation about private landlords.
        
        1 0
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        October 30, 2025 5:23pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  When NZ had a decent sized merchant fleet I knew of several seamen who were off on ACC on a regular basis.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:09am
- Dougal10
  
  If someone is injured outside of work , I think a max of 2 years on acc is warranted , after all it is workers paying in that the money comes from .
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:55am
  - Ghost
    
    No, it needs to be done case by case
    
    BTW
    
    The acc levy on fuel is 6 cents per litre
    Private car rego is $49
    Electric car $109
    Motorcycle $574
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:08am
    - Dougal10
      
      I am very aware how much extra acc I pay in my 10 vehicle registrations a year .
      I don’t accept your no . The system is broke the man in the article wasn’t doing anything to pay into the system when he sustained the injury so 2 years would be more than enough .
      
      4 2
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      October 30, 2025 12:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        It should only be case by case, and medically reviewed. A person with serious injuries from a car accident, or work accident can be on acc for a long time. Just because some play the system doesn’t mean genuine cases should be cut off. A person 3rd degree burns from a house fire will need substantial support, not a time limited support. Every case is different, every case should be judged differently.
        
        3 1
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        October 30, 2025 1:20pm
- Taieri
  
  And where are the doctors in all this?
  Can you go on ACC without a medical certificate?
  Is anyone verifying these certificates and their issuers?
  
  5 0
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  October 30, 2025 11:37am
  - Ghost
    
    I have a neighbour who was on ACC for just over a year. Because of the injury only needed a yearly certificate. Non long term its 14 days, after that t think 6 months and yearly
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:46am
Simon

Bill Gates has thrown man made climate fraud under the bus. How long before the Wellington clown show acknowledges reality ?

Climate emergency nut job hold outs will likely be National, apart from the greens, National most scared of admitting utter failure.
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October 30, 2025 8:31am
- Conservatarian
  
  Simon Watts is right now furiously preparing another press release (authorised by Luxon) to defend climate change alarmism and guarantee our funds disappear into the ether.
  
  He will be completely oblivious to the whole premise falling down around him. Luxon will give him another solid performance appraisal for this quarter.
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:07am
- Local Miller
  
  Do you have a link?
  
  4 0
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  October 30, 2025 12:00pm
  - Ghost
    
    Just Bill pushing his vaccine desires
    
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15234623/bill-gates-climate-change-vaccines.html
    
    7 0
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    October 30, 2025 12:02pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    It is in the Herald Premium.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:46pm
- Southern Raider
  
  Australia hasn’t got the memo
  
  Sydney Council has just mandated from 2027 it will be illegal to use a gas BBQ
  
  They are hell bent on being carbon neutral and claim it’s the guys having the traditional Aussie BBQ who are to blame
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:57pm
  - AitchW
    
    We’re not alone in having mental activist lefty woke councils.
    
    2 0
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    October 30, 2025 10:26pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  Sky News suggested Bill Gates knows AI needs more power than renewables can deliver, and knows how much the future of Microsoft is tied to the success of AI. Hence Bill, who retains a not insubstantial financial interest in Microsoft, has had a change of mind about renewable energy and the so-called perils of climate change.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:34pm
Pope Punctilious II

Labour’s latest big idea is … Labour seeks to force large employers to report gender, ethnic pay gaps https://share.google/Agcxqwfikky669fly
So Labour is promising more gender and race ideology – as if we needed another reason to not vote for them.
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October 30, 2025 8:42am
- Ghost
  
  It’s a good idea if labour have to do the same. Poor hipkins will be struggling when it asks how many women are employed in the Labour Party and what their pay is. He may even have to form a committee to answer finally what a woman is.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:18am
  - spryte
    
    Why stop there? Reporting should include age (to prevent ageism), sexual orientation (LGPTQ+ are often discriminated against), disabilities (ableism), religion (religionism?), parental status, nationality, pregnancy status. It could literally never end, feel free to add your own -ism to the list. FFS.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:45am
    - Phronesis
      
      IQ tests? That would be very interesting.
      
      6 0
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      October 30, 2025 11:52am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        We should have an IQ test for all MPs, as we pay them.
        
        4 2
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        October 30, 2025 12:44pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    It’s not a good idea in any circumstance. You know how the playbook goes:
    1. Require companies to report “pay gaps”
    2. Shame companies with persistent “pay gaps”.
    3. If that doesn’t work, fine companies with persistent “pay gaps”.
    The whole thing is underlain by blank slate ideology and the assumption that any underrepresentation of women or ethnic groups at high levels can ONLY reflect discrimination.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:04pm
    - Ghost
      
      Ummm, you do realize my post is just a pisstake at hipkins inability to know what a woman is….
      
      2 1
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      October 30, 2025 12:12pm
- artemisia
  
  There are a lot more voters with an eye to a pay increase than there are employers.
  
  However, employers hold plenty of other cards and options. Including taking their ball and going home.
  
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  October 30, 2025 11:13am
- Spam
  
  Meanwhile, in the real world, I used to train graduate engineers. We gave them annual performance evaluations. I had more woman engineers working for me than men, and as a generalization, the women were better employees. As a result, they got paid better than the men. Shock horror!
  
  Of course, if you wanted to look at this through a certain lens, I was paid more than these women (because I was their manager, and because I had 3 times the experience that they had). But I am also a male, so….
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:19pm
- Christopher Thomson
  
  The only way to close any gender pay gap is to pay women more for the less they do.
  
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  October 30, 2025 6:00pm
Southern Raider

Just heard on the news some women from “Aotearoa education facilitation” or something weird like that going off about the changes to the education curriculum

Apparently some Aotearoa history has been dumped for what she described as “random” subjects

Those “random” subjects included the Stone Age and the Romans. These seem pretty foundational subjects to me
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October 30, 2025 8:47am
- rouppe
  
  Isn’t the former still relevant from a nz history perspective? 😶
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:20am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, in NZ, the stone age extended well into the 1800s.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:09am
    - Cassandra
      
      2025?
      
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      October 30, 2025 10:15am
- kowtow
  
  If they really cared about children , their education and future , they’d have ‘gone off” years ago about the appalling situation in homes and classrooms that have created the education/social emergency we now have.
  
  But they don’t care , they are simply far left activists.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:26pm
Southern Raider

Is Britain heading back to the dark ages

Budget about to come out with forecast massive tax increases across a wide range of areas including income, inheritance and “mansions”

The Labour Party’s inability to balance the books is driven primarily by the compounding growth of the welfare state

At the same time an illegal immigrant stabbed to death a dog walker

But Keir can’t see how these things are all joined up
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October 30, 2025 8:53am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Niether can his voters, like this woman in tears describing what’s happening around her in London (Southall I think, which I’m familiar with)
  
  My local shop has had 3 stabbings. 1 Murder.
  – My friend was murdered last year
  – A girl I know was murdered in the park
  – I’m begging my son to leave the country
  
  The real kicker is near the end when she says…
  
  Keir Starmer, if you’re listening to this, please do something.
  
  If only Starmer knew.
  
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  October 30, 2025 11:55am
- Local Miller
  
  Before you know it they will reintroduce a windows tax. That one didn’t age well.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:22pm
- kowtow
  
  If you follow the UK media , yes , it is . It is literally moving towards failed state status .
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:00pm
Scooter

I wonder how many more stabbings by illegal immigrants the UK will put up with? The latest this week a 49 year old stabbed to death walking his dog. This after the suspect stabbed 2 others. There’s video on X and as much as it is horrific maybe people need to see it to wake up to how bad things have become.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15235865/amp/Afghan-national-arrested-triple-stabbing-left-man-dead-arrived-UK-lorry-2020-granted-asylum.html
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October 30, 2025 8:53am
- cmm
  
  The stabber has been in the country for 5 years (now aged 22 – arrived at 17).
  
  Was he a good upstanding contributor to society for 5 years, before he snapped? Or was he “known to police”?
  
  Oh well Poms, you unfortunately get what you vote for.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:24am
  - Scooter
    
    CMM more to the point is what was his history before he came to the UK. No doubt his evilness was well entrenched in his home country and the UK welcomed him in with all the benefits and no checking. This is the problem with immigration from dysfunctional countries, they are importing people, mainly men from cultures not compatible with western values.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:33am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Poms have been voting against immigration for decades. The Blob; civil servants and judiciary doesn’t care – sure as they are of the righteousness of what they are doing, and full of contempt for the dirty hoi polloi that they look down on they keep on ramming it down the publics throat regardless.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:43am
- MCōs
  
  How many stabbings by illegal immigrants in the UK?
  https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/crimesintheukbyraceandimmigrationstatus
  So the answer – is who knows?
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:45am
  - RichardF
    
    Just read the UK papers via press reader, you won’t take too long to find near daily reports of these crimes.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:00am
- RichardF
  
  The 11 year old Australian girl stabbed in the head 10 times in Leicester Square by a ‘homeless Romanian’ is another shocking crime. The UK is not safe.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:59am
  - kowtow
    
    Aisling Murphy murder in Ireland 2022 , by Romani Slovak.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:57pm
- mogg
  
  It all goes back to Blair’s Equalities Act, which was a licence for anti-White Racism. There is also membership EHRC which allows refugee claimants to be untouchable despite possible background of murder and mayhem in their own countries.
  Then there is the problem of lying politicians who like Boris Johnson have promised to reduce immigration, only to do exactly the opposite when in power. Their Public Service is full of White Middle Class Liberals with a guilt complex who continually accuse everyone right of centre of Racsim.
  A Sudanese Refugee claimant is now in court for stabbing a young white woman hotel worker in the head 20 times for not serving him the right food.
  She died in hospital, her children could not stop screaming when they heard their mum was dead
  
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  October 30, 2025 11:27am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, as I’ve said before, Blair and Brown did more damage to Britain than the Luftwaffe. Mind you, the Tories had 14 years to undo the damage, but did sweet FA – apart from implementing the sort of positive curriculum changes that Erica Stanford is now pushing through.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:28pm
  - Scooter
    
    And this one, a lady who worked at a hotel for asylum seekers, stabbed to death.
    
    https://news.sky.com/story/asylum-seeker-found-guilty-over-hotel-workers-murder-13454957
    
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    October 30, 2025 1:25pm
- Spam
  
  When we worked in the UK, my wife got a job at the local council. She told me a story of “immigrants” turning up wanting a council house. Now: grifters gonna grift, but the amusing thing was that the council apparently had some obligation to provide council houses to immigrants from the EU: something to do with Britain being part of the EU and shared responsibility etc.
  
  However, because “privacy”, they apparently weren’t allowed to ask for proof of EU citizenship. The specific example was a family from Brazil who turned up, claiming that they were from Portugal.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:25pm
lastmanstanding

Bill Gates has joined Tony Blair Boris Johnson and others walking back on climate change. All have realised it is a scam the targets cant be met because the big emitters are ignoring the problem. In addition the US has just committed over US$200B to nuke energy.
If NZ pollies were smart instead of dumb and wedded to 1980s nuke policy they would be going to Rolls Royce and placing orders for SNRs to ensure NZ has reliable base load power for the future. IMHO we need to double base load capacity by 2040 to cope with AI data centres if we are to keep up with the rest of the Western world.
Tell the Greens and the others to FOXTROT OSCAR. This is too important for their dumbarse nonsense.
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October 30, 2025 8:56am
- imalwaysright
  
  Data centres should provide their own generators.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:08am
  - NothingLeft
    
    You can’t source combined cycle power stations for love nor money at the moment. New data centers are being forced to install large IC generators as the only available option for the power needed. Not that it makes much difference to them when the power bills are probably <10% of the hardware cost over the useful life of the GPUS
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:07pm
- RoboRob
  
  My uranium and Brookfield renewables (part owners of Westinghouse Nuclear) shares have had a tidy boost, thank you mr Trump.
  
  Sadly by the time (if ever) we come around to realising we too might consider nuclear, we will be at the tail end of a long order list.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:13am
  - mogg
    
    Nvidia is now valued at $US 5tn more than the entire output of the German economy. Much of this will depend on Trmp/Xia Jing Ping talks tomorrow.
    The Dow and S&P are at record levels, Time to place stop-loss or short-long.
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:09am
- rouppe
  
  The nz nuclear free legislation does not preclude nuclear energy, only nuclear weapons.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:14am
  - Cassandra
    
    Good luck with that. Protesters would go berserk!
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:17am
    - rouppe
      
      100%, but many people say “we can’t because of the nuclear free legislation” and that’s just not true.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:06am
    - sirknz
      
      They would be the same group that were turning up to the weekly Palestine marches.
      
      It would get them all out of the house again…
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:25am
- AitchW
  
  No NZ government is ordering SNRs any time soon.
  They’d have to spend tens of millions of dollars and several years convincing the usual suspect that they are safe and, in fact “green”.
  It may well be different in a few decades, just not now.
  FWIW I’d welcome nuclear.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:19am
  - imalwaysright
    
    We should be investing in Laser/Maser deep drilling technology and developing our geothermal resource.
    There won’t be nuclear reactors or new dams in NZ.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:02am
    - RoboRob
      
      I have no problem with us investing in geothermal tech. Thats great.
      
      We can do two things at the same time. We will never get nuclear reactors or new dams if we never start the conversation. It may take years to convince the public, as Aitch says, but we should start the conversation. Many people are very uninformed with regards to nuclear energy.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:20am
    - Spam
      
      MBIE released some modelling of energy supply and demand. They had shown a decline or flat geothermal. Apparently this was because perfect is the enemy of good, and because geothermal has some associated emissions, use of it was to be discouraged.
      
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      October 30, 2025 12:38pm
    - R
      
      Nor is there likely to be a reliable electric power supply either, for our grandchildren and great grandchildren
      
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      October 30, 2025 12:38pm
  - Cantabrian
    
    Besides the effort needed to convince the ‘natives’ that this colonist magic is actually safe and beneficial!
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:36am
- Southern Raider
  
  Now makes sense why Greta jumped the climate change waka into the anti Israel waka
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:19am
- cmm
  
  NZ has different options and requirements to elsewhere and thus solutions that make sense elsewhere do not necessarily make sense here.
  
  Nukes are extremely expensive to build, run and then decommission at end of life. Still they are the right thing for some situations.
  
  We still have around 1500MW of geothermal that should be developed before looking at nukes etc. Geothermal is cheaper to develop, cheap to operate and cheap to decommission.
  
  On top of that, it is politically far more achievable.
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:13am
  - imalwaysright
    
    People tend to ignore that nuclear reactors require a specific fuel.
    
    The price of the fuel will be based on the kWh potential of the fuel and also the degree of our reliance on the fuel.
    
    Fuel producers will rightly extract the highest price possible from us. We will no longer decide our electricity prices, they will.
    
    Geothermal is a far better option for cost and energy independence.
    
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    October 30, 2025 10:39am
    - Taieri
      
      We will no longer decide our electricity prices
      ———–
      
      And now we do? How so?
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:39am
    - RoboRob
      
      Which is why I bought shares in uranium producers. However, the fuel is a tiny, cheap component relative to Gas and coal generation. The major cost of nuclear is the permittin, planning and construction.
      
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      October 30, 2025 11:52am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Good info, thanks.
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:34pm
    - Paulus
      
      But before we go further into Geothermals we have to ask re Special peoople can we drill into your holy land ?
      And how much for the Taniwhas permission and rent ?
      
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      October 30, 2025 2:28pm
Sparrow

What I find interesting about Luxon and Ardern they appear to be more comfortable being overseas than in New Zealand. Yes we had Jacinda Mania but after the gloss wore off we saw the real person more at home on the talk circuit. Luxon has never clicked with the NZ public but seems to be at ease smooching overseas. Are there no real politicians with their feet on the ground in NZ who understand the basics of life here and at the supermarket queue?
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October 30, 2025 8:58am
- rouppe
  
  The big difference is that Luxon is going to trade conferences, leader meetings and the like in order to try and boost nz.
  
  Ardern went to the UN, COP meetings and the like and hamstrung nz.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:30am
  - AitchW
    
    And when she was in the country restricted her public appearances to kindys and primary schools.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:35pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Ardern was only boosting herself for after leaving Labour party.
    
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    October 30, 2025 4:24pm
- imalwaysright
  
  There are too many in this country who blame their situation on the Government.
  
  Granted that a Government can do a lot of damage very rapidly, as we saw under the Ardern regime, but personal recovery, progress, and wealth are all really up to the individual.
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:13am
  - R
    
    ‘Up to the individual ‘…….Only if there is factually accurate reporting of government announcements
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:58pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Not sure of the relevance, but if someone is curious of Government announcements they can visit the Government website and read them first hand.
      
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      October 30, 2025 1:37pm
- cmm
  
  Maybe Luxon should start going to schools and offering hugz.
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:16am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Are there no real politicians with their feet on the ground in NZ who understand the basics of life here and at the supermarket queue?’
  
  Could this perception , for that’s all it is , be te media paahti generated.
  
  If you’re enough of a political wonk you’ll see that plenty of pollies are very available to the public via meet and greets etc . Esp during parliament recess .
  
  Seymour for one has always been very hard working in that regard , for years .
  
  But you can’t expect the Reds in the media and editorial staff to give him ( and his other MP’s) any credit , can you.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:24pm
- R
  
  ‘never clicked……never been allowed to click with NZ public by activity of NZ misinformation MSM. Accuracy ìn commenting makes for a more credible comment.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:56pm
Pope Punctilious II

Erica Stanford and her advisors continue their efforts to rescue NZ’s education system from the ideologues. Draft curricula are now available here:
https://newzealandcurriculum.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/
Solid, knowledge-rich stuff. There are a few minor concessions to “maatauranga” but nothing really damaging. I searched the social sciences curriculum for the for the dreaded word “equity” … no results found. But “freedom of speech” occurs twice, and “freedom of expression” once. I’m calling that a win.

Teachers unions and libby media are going ballistic, and on The Daily Blog one Allan Allach is publishing attack articles every couple of days, accusing Stanford and her advisors of everything short of crimes against humanity. Thank goodness we have at least one minister who listens to good advice, and who isn’t easily intimidated.
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October 30, 2025 9:15am
- AitchW
  
  I like her. She’s passionate, smart and tough enough to face the teachers unions without flinching.
  I don’t t know if she’s PM material, maybe best to leave her where she’s doing God’s work.
  The fact that the unions and their servants in Labour hate what she’s doing is pretty solid proof that she is on the right track.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:21am
  - RoboRob
    
    Easily one of Nationals best MPs. A very difficult portfolio with a strong anti unions, yet she has done more in two years then any other MP.
    
    Pushing into PM too soon might end a bright career, in the way that rushing star players into top sports teams is often a mistake. Not PM for this election but could be for the one after.
    
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    October 30, 2025 9:49am
    - AitchW
      
      I disagree. She’s better to be given a portfolio that is broken and left to fix it.
      Let her play to her strengths.
      An outstanding minister doesn’t necessarily make a good PM.
      Having said that, she’s herding the cats of the education system, perhaps that is good training for running a coalition…
      
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      October 30, 2025 10:53am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Leave her in education – she’s still got a lot of work to do there.
      
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      October 30, 2025 10:59am
      - R
        
        Yes, years of work remaining. Her next task is to educate the teachers to understand factual information, not myths.
        
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        October 30, 2025 1:10pm
  - Conservatarian
    
    I’m on the board of trustees at my son’s primary school including being on the educational achievement committee. Note it is a Catholic school (state integrated) and so the teachers and board are naturally conservative. The school’s senior leaders unanimously support Stanford, much less so the Min of Education. As a rule, we ignore the Ministry guidelines where we can and essentially operate as a branch of a regional network of like-minded schools. For example, we’ve always taught reading to the little kids by phonics, not by the context-based guess work favoured by progressive academics.
    
    She’s doing a superb job. Enacting generational reform in the right direction. One of those who wisely used her time in opposition and came into the position ready to roll. She has judiciously picked winners from academia who understand the science of teaching and has actively screened out the educational product pushed by ideological and progressive academics which has conclusively failed. She’s the exact opposite of Simon Watts and Paul Goldsmith.
    
    The fact that the race communists are screeching in protest at the effects of her reign says that she’s annoying all the right people. There’s no critical mass of support for lazy and entitled teachers who complain about having to do their jobs properly. Remember, the Ministry of Education has very few people at the top who’ve ever been in a classroom.
    
    Further, she’s photogenic and seems quite tough. Remember our not too recent history when a fresh face (instead of an uncharismatic, personally unlikeable leader) in the 7-8 weeks preceding the election gave a 15 point bump.
    
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    October 30, 2025 11:43am
- RoboRob
  
  The current attack path seems to be an endless stream of stories from the MSM where unions & principals want the implementation slowed down. They are claiming it’s too rushed and not enough time for teachers to get to grips with the changes.
  
  This ‘may’ actually be true. However, if it is, its of their own making. If at any point in the last 20 years the Ministry, unions, principals or teachers had said ‘hey there is a problem with the curriculm, here’s what we could do better’, this wouln’t need to be rushed in so quickly. I also suspect there is some hope that if they can delay the changes long enough a Labour government could just ‘end them’ and save some work.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:45am
  - R
    
    The teachers and principals had two years warning that they were going to be required to teach facts. Plenty of time to get themselves up to sped. Most of the subject content is not that difficult to selfeducate in.
    
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    October 30, 2025 1:17pm
- RoboRob
  
  Was at school prize giving and was surprised from comments from parents around me. As the teachers were due to parade out, there was a long pause adn people commented ‘perhaps they are back on strike’. Then as they came out people asked ‘where are their picket signs?’.
  
  I dont think the teachers have the level of support for their current strikes as they might think.
  
  btw Mrs Rob is working for the ministry and has been striking. So far all we have is a loss of wages, some union fees paid and a longer queue of kids waiting to see her.
  
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  October 30, 2025 9:54am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Our local high school sent the teachers home at 12.30 to get ready for prize giving at 6.30pm.
    Seems that any excuse not to teach is good enough.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:21pm
- Handyman
  
  I scanned the science. Good stuff. For example, “the Bohr atomic model which replaced the Rutherford model shows how science knowledge builds and replaces previous models”. It will be some students’ first introduction to the concept of all science not being settled.
  
  However, the science documents were on the Ministry of Education website in a Maori world sandwich. Some was translated to English (albeit leaving some unfamiliar Maori word untranslated). For example “Warning: this website may contain images and names of deceased persons”. Assuming they mean photos of Rutherford when he was alive and not of his dead body, this is the same Rutherford whose image is on our $100 note.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:08pm
  - Taieri
    
    For example “Warning: this website may contain images and names of deceased persons”
    ————-
    
    Is that for real? Unbelievable…
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:06pm
    - Handyman
      
      Yes. On the official Ministry site following the link in the Pope’s post.
      https://newzealandcurriculum.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/
      
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      October 30, 2025 8:52pm
- R
  
  Most of the coalition cabinet are listening, with the exception of a couple of egos, that is why the country is showing signs of recovery. At least a 20 year project from this point on.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:08pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Yes in my humble opinion, Erica Stanford and Simeon Brown are the two best performing National MP’s. (I was disappointed Shane Reti didn’t work out in health as seemed like ideally qualified).
  
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  October 30, 2025 4:23pm
Inandout

I am sure Woodhouse didn’t envisage the scams that would result after no fault compensation was introduced. The old Workers Compensation must have cost pennies in comparison.
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October 30, 2025 9:39am
Flossie

I am trying to figure out the proposed changes to w.o.f. regulations with little success. That’s no doubt down to me and my lack of comprehension. However I do wonder if there is any relief in sight for owners of trailers. Currently the one we have for taking the tinny the one kilometre to the boat ramp is required to have a new wof every six months, and the cost of the one last week was $45. It makes me wonder why we bother to be legal! No doubt there are lots of other trailers that get used once or twice a year in the same situation.
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October 30, 2025 9:41am
rouppe

Good old Hipkins.

Goes at Luxon for making $600,000 when he sold some of his properties. Something he did only because Hipkins went on about him having a property portfolio.

What’s worse is he calls it “flipping” the properties. That he has held for at least 4 years. Bollocks.

Flipping is what Wellington Maori did, owning Dixon St Flats for 25 minutes – if that – in the lawyers office.

Hipkins is either stupid or a political hack.

Maybe both.
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October 30, 2025 10:19am
- Philview
  
  He is a continuation of the populist Government of Ardern. Free stuff for all!
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:50am
- Colville
  
  rouppe.
  
  The word you are looking for is liar.
  
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  October 30, 2025 4:02pm
greybeard

NZ is supposed to be one of the least-corrupt countries in the world.
Stuff today has several relevant articles which seem to contradict this statement.

This one is about people all trying to screw each other financially. The names are familiar.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/home-property/360869010/house-couldnt-be-sold-it-was-listed-anyway-and-now-theres-complaint

This one is about a man who dedicates his life to ripping-off anyone who crosses his path.
He should be behind bars.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360868741/they-need-be-stopped-fizzy-drink-business-still-selling-dream-and-leaving-more-angry-people-behind

This one is about a man whose entitlement knows no boundaries ( literally ! ).

https://www.stuff.co.nz/home-property/360868815/he-built-home-roadside-queenstown-875-days-later-it-was-declared-illegal
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October 30, 2025 10:26am
- imalwaysright
  
  Bureaucratic corruption in NZ isn’t policed, that’s why the rate is so low.
  
  That its not policed is seen as tacit approval and therefore acceptable behaviour.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:26pm
- sirknz
  
  It is the ‘Perception of Corruption Index’.
  
  I keep saying that ‘scoring so well’ is not the big win that all the smooth brains on social media and in the MSM crow about whenever the results are updated.
  
  Just because most people here in NZ refuse to acknowledge or do not perceive it, does not mean it isn’t happening.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:46pm
Skippytony

I know this is a litmus test for being a grumpy old man, but can people please stop referring to Labours current plan as FREE visits to the doctor?

They are most certainly not free. They are to be paid for by the long suffering taxpayers.
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October 30, 2025 10:29am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Nothing wrong with with being a grumpy old man Tony.
  
  You are 100% correct about the casual use of the word ‘free’.
  
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  October 30, 2025 10:39am
  - Paulus
    
    A bit like School Children’s Free lunches, gone quiet so please ramp up the fly in the lunch, media.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:35pm
- Swifty
  
  That’s what many New Zealanders just don’t get.
  
  When Labour or the Greens announce more ‘free’ things, New Zealanders will pay.
  
  Either we’ll pay at the counter or we’ll pay through our taxes – either way we’ll pay.
  
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  October 30, 2025 11:37am
  - sirknz
    
    Need to constantly tell people that when ever a political part says the word ‘free’, they really mean “You are paying for it out of your pay packet”.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:47pm
- imalwaysright
  
  And lets not forget that when a Government inserts itself into a transaction the costs double and the benefit halves.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:22pm
I remember when

So the spectators in Christchurch were treated to a top evening of netball, with excitement until the final whistles.
So what did we learn for the series?
That there are alternatives to Noeline for the Silver Ferns coaching position.
Would we have won the series with Noeline as coach?
Possibly yes.
Would there have been as many exciting younger players, Heffernan, Salmon, Hall, and perhaps Walmsley, given cameo opportunities to advance their cause?
Probably no.
It is a long time since we had a full squad where everyone felt they were part of the action.
From the depths of despair to confidence in the future in four games.
How much has the time Liana Leota spent in the English system contributed to the team’s performance?
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October 30, 2025 10:35am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Meh.
  
  Netball is a dying sport, pandering to the team because they feel the coach was mean to them is a recipe for perpetual failure.
  
  On the other hand, Noelene should have told them to FO. The administrators have destroyed their sport, dropped out of the trans tasman league, then dropped out of sponsorships, and now beaten by a second rate australian team.
  
  It all went wrong between Yvonne Willering leaving, and getting rid of the pleated skirts!
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:59pm
- MCōs
  
  “Would we have won the series with Noeline as coach?”
  
  Well ‘we’ did last year; rather convincingly.
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:30pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Is Raelene Castle involved in this?
  She’s like the Grim Reaper of the sports world.
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:57pm
Crafty

Hipkins really is a pathetic individual. Why would you make it personal by bagging the PM for making money on the sale of his properties? I guess it shows Labour are planning on running a dirty campaign under Hipkins. I for one would rather we have a wealthy PM who knows how to make money and that’s what this country needs to make money. Not some has been lifetime politician who has never lived in the real world.
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October 30, 2025 10:52am
- Swifty
  
  I recall Clark had/has multiple houses – a good half a dozen or slightly more, from memory.
  
  Don’t hear a peep from Labour about her or them.
  
  (I think Cullen had a few too).
  
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  October 30, 2025 11:35am
  - Paulus
    
    No reason to believe that Clark does not still have many houses.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:37pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Having multiple houses helps if your marriage is not genuine but is there for appearances. Avoids awkward morning conversations with “guests” as you stumble into the bathroom.
    Allegedly.
    
    But if she’s got so many houses, why can’t she just go to one of those when people want to enjoy themselves at Eden Park (first used in 1900).
    
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    October 31, 2025 1:47am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Labour don’t like successful people who have worked hard, scrimped and saved to be able to look after themselves in their dotage. They much prefer people to be poor and reliant on the largesse of the state. Much more compliant and easily managed that way. Just look at the public service during Jacinda’s reign.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:45pm
  - Paulus
    
    That what is known as socialism I understand.
    State Control of everything.
    Failed eventually for the Soviet Union although Putin is trying to recreate.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:39pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Hipkins’/Labour’s Envy serves as a useful lesson for aspiring politicians…
  
  1. Follow Chris Luxon’s route…. Work part-time at School and Uni…. Get a useful degree (s)… Work hard and successfully as a businessman for 23+ years….. Enter Parliament at age 50.
  
  or
  2. Follow Chris Hipkins’ route.. Be a student poli/rabble-rouser in school and at Uni; Take a soft (useless) degree…
  Do minimum work… Enter Parliament at age 29.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:57pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    I don’t think Luxon has been a businessman, he and Hipkins have always been employees.
    
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    October 30, 2025 3:01pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It’s how he is described in his Wikipedia entry:
      
      Christopher Mark Luxon (born 19 July 1970) is a New Zealand politician and businessman who has served as the 42nd prime minister of New Zealand since 2023.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Luxon
      
      He worked in Business; He was a business executive;
      he transacted business.
      
      He seems to satisfy the definition of a businessman.
      
      https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/businessman
      
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      October 30, 2025 6:54pm
Yvette

The family home will be exempt, as will farms, business assets, shares, collectibles, Kiwisaver accounts, and basically all other asset types. In other words, this is a Property Tax – not a Capital Gains Tax.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/christine-de-lee-labour-announces-a-new-tax

If Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport Hotel or the Novotel Auckland Airport Tainui Hotel are sold will Labour Capital Gains [Property] Tax apply?
Hipkins will not tax that – or Willie?
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October 30, 2025 11:22am
- mogg
  
  Chloe has followed up by saying Labour’s CGT is just a starting point, she wants 2.4% wealth tax on the top 3% of people with assets worth over 2M or 4M for a couple. She does not say excluding the family home so this is not just the top 3%, for ordinary people who have provided for their own retirement by investing successfully it will cripple them if they stay in NZ. Massey University puts the ‘comfortable retirement’ figure at $1.8 M, plus owning a home and you’re well into Chloe’s wealth tax.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:03pm
  - Spam
    
    Yeah exactly. My ideal retirement is to have a mortgage-free home to live in, and investments that can return me about $1,000 / week (real terms). I threw some numbers into ChatGPT: portfolio return of 5%, PIE tax rate 28%, and sensitivities on inflation at 1% and 3%. It told me I need a portfolio value of $2 Million at 1% inflation, and $8.6 Million at 3%.
    
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    October 30, 2025 12:49pm
  - rouppe
    
    Is assets over $2 million really the top 3%?
    
    I thought the tax working group looked at the top few percent, and that was assets over $100 million
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:38pm
  - Taieri
    
    she wants 2.4% wealth tax on the top 3% of people with assets worth over 2M or 4M for a couple.
    ————-
    
    Too high. Anyone with spare cash should be taxed on it. Any amount. In fact when the “Green” Party finally takes over there will be no need for money. There will be nothing to buy with it anyway, as in “you will own nothing and you will be happy”.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:10pm
    - Quail
      
      Taieri
      Anyone with spare cash has usually paid tax on the cash in many ways.
      Government induced inflation as well —$ value theft.
      There is no place for Greens theory anywhere in NZ!
      It is simply theft.
      
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      October 30, 2025 6:33pm
- rouppe
  
  It’s not even a property tax. It’s a landlord tax.
  
  If Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport Hotel or the Novotel Auckland Airport Tainui Hotel are sold will Labour Capital Gains [Property] Tax apply?
  
  The real question is whether the wellington iwi would pay the tax on the 2 million profit they made on the dixon st flats.
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:35pm
- Paulus
  
  Surely Maori will not be subject to CGT as their many organisations are Charities and therefor exempt.
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:41pm
  - rouppe
    
    And that is part of the tax problem. Those iwi organisations behave more like Family Trusts than charities because their benefit is limited to those with familial ties to the iwi.
    
    And several are billion dollar organisations.
    
    Also it’s not clear to me what percentage of the charities profits are ploughed into whatever activities they claim are charitable. A charity really ought to be putting over 80% into charitable activities, and not $500,000pa as a salary into eg John Tamihere’s pocket.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:54pm
  - Taieri
    
    There’re over 26000 registered charities in NZ. No need to pick on Maori, as most of them are non-Maori.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:12pm
    - Mike
      
      I’d like to see some analysis/rankings of major charities by percentage of admin promotional expenses, etc., vs operational delivery/grants, etc.
      
      The snapshot is a start, but I don’t know of any comprehensive analysis.
      https://www.charities.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/92570/Quarterly-registration-snapshot-1-April-to-30-June-2025.pdf
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:44pm
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      How many of them get billions of taxpayer dollars to become wealthy enterprises and be lauded as performing econmic miracles?
      
      When other charities get the same tax-payer largesse they will be criticsed too.
      
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      October 30, 2025 6:05pm
Jack5

Is a bubble emerging on the US sharemarket, or is it going to be an economic supernova explosion?

Nvidia, originally a maker of video cards for personal computers, has reached a company sharemarket value as big as the economy of Germany. Nvidia shares rose 5.3 per cent yesterday , taking the company’s sharemarket value over $US5 trillion (about 8.67 trillion NZ dollars, where a trillion is one thousand billions, or a million millions).

Nvidia’s boom began when cryptocurrency makers began using, racks at a time, NVidia’s personal-computer add-in video cards.

The rocket ride for Nvidia shares has come from artificial intelligence and “deep learning”. The company invested heavily in this area. By 2023, for example, most of the world’s supercomputers were using NVidia chips.

Last month, Nvidia formed a partnership with OpenAI to build artificial intelligence infrastructure on a large scale.

The man behind Nvidia, Jensen Huang, is a Taiwanese-American electrical engineer. In 1993, with two friends Huang left Sun Microsystems to set up a company to make graphic chips to enhance PC computers for gaming.

The Wall Street Journal reports Huang is downplaying claims of an AI share bubble, saying the technology is widely used and companies are paying for it.

“I don’t believe we’re in an AI bubble. All of these different AI models we’re using – we’re using plenty of services and paying happily to do it.”

You can see the take-off in Nvidia’s share price here:

https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/nvda/history/
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October 30, 2025 11:29am
- RoboRob
  
  Most of the S&P 500 is at eye watering prices, especially Nvidia as you say. On average there is a 20% drop in the sharemarket every 5 years. It is likely such is on its way, however the AI boom is distorting things. It will be some time before we see who the real winners of the AI race are.
  
  In the dot com boom people surged into companies believing they would be big winners, companies like
  
  360networks
  3Com
  Pets.com
  
  It was later that the real winners emerged.
  
  Nvidia, in my opinion, is well overpriced. It is more then likely that other, cheaper, ways of training AI will emerge and Nvidias market for expensive / power hungry boards may falter. This may the the straw that triggers a (short term) market collapse.
  
  Thats said, over time the market always rises. We may have a 20+ % drop in shareprices but eventually they will recover and be more in line with the profits associated with the companies.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:07pm
- mogg
  
  Nvidia is making a product which everyone wants, it is being sold to customers who are prepared to pay for it, Nvidia are making big profits and paying dividends, their forward PE in 35x how is this a bubble. Jut look at the listed Power Companies on the NZX some have a trailing ratio of 150x
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:16pm
JeffW

National is posting a lot of things on Facebook. Every time there seems to be many, maybe hundreds of anti-National comments. So I’m wondering whether the commenters are bots or underemployed bureaucrats. Probably the latter. We need a Milei style clean out, at the very least. Fifty percent, I reckon.
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October 30, 2025 11:45am
- sirknz
  
  The majority of people commenting on a politician’s or party’s social media posts tend to be opposed to them ideologically.
  
  It really is quite funny once you are aware of this.
  
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  October 30, 2025 12:54pm
- Dougal10
  
  Facebook could tell you who the bots are but won’t .
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:08pm
- Philview
  
  I am surprised we don’t see it here. There is reasonable criticism but not the sort of trolling I see in other forums. David must filter it somehow.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:20pm
  - Mike
    
    DPF introduced moderation some years ago. Moderation got notably stricter 2 or 3 years ago. There are very few offensive or utterly deranged comments such as in the heyday of Philu or Ugly Truth, for example. In recent years, one or two have stopped (or been stopped from) commenting after their overt racism or persistent abuse was no longer tolerated.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:51pm
- alloytoo
  
  National should have done that in the first 100 days.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:26pm
- MCōs
  
  People who take the time to comment on facebook usually have predetermined strong points of view
  You’re never going to get comments along the lines of
  Well, that’s fairly interesting
  
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  October 30, 2025 2:41pm
- AitchW
  
  It would be fun if the Public Service Commissioner ordered a service wide audit of all devices, laptops and computers issued to public servants including their visits to the various social media sites.
  (And, of course, other even less savoury sites.)
  Then extend that to MPs and their staff.
  TMP especially I suspect would be, shall we say, spicy….
  
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  October 30, 2025 3:30pm
  - Mike
    
    That’s expecting quite a lot from the PSC (fundamentally useless sine 1988). You are more likely to see the commissioner issuing new public service value statements or codes of conduct than anything of operational use.
    
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    October 30, 2025 5:55pm
Inandout

Massacres are ignored unless it involves Israel.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166210
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October 30, 2025 1:00pm
- mandk
  
  Massacres are ignored if they are perpetrated by members of the “religion of peace”.
  
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  October 30, 2025 1:44pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Yes, haven’t heard Ardern banging on about the Muslim Easter bombings of Christian churches in Indonesia in retaliation for the Christchurch murders.
    About 200 killed I think.
    
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    October 30, 2025 2:54pm
    - Ghost
      
      she said she doubted it was in retaliation to Christchurch
      
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      October 30, 2025 5:44pm
rouppe

Hot on the heels of Labor calling for transparency on gender and pay, it seems the Auckland University Students CEO doesn’t like people knowing he pulls in $156,000 pa.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/craccum-magazine-editors-locked-out-of-website-after-story-on-auckland-university-students-association-boss/2O4COC7QINEVJPTOYYY7ZAEAX4/

Is paywalled but the video is informative.
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October 30, 2025 1:01pm
- kowtow
  
  Perfect opportunidy for some enterprising journalist to do a survey and ‘investigative” piece on how much these professional students /Green Labour interns are on up and down the country ……..
  
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  October 30, 2025 3:04pm
Swifty

Maori-wonderfulness fatigue:

https://x.com/kiwistreamnz/status/1983747460259574164?s=46

Even overseas guys are starting to see through it.
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October 30, 2025 6:09pm

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