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January 14, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 January 2026

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

I drove past Pukaha the other day.

Don’t know where that is? Once upon a time it was known as Mt Bruce. Nowadays, the name ‘Mt Bruce’ figures nowhere on the signage outside the place and barely in its website.

I’m fed up with the renaming our country and its history – because you just know that some dweeb in DoC thought this was a great idea. What precisely was wrong with ‘Mt Bruce’? After all, wildlife preservation centres are not a Maori invention. Multiple species of moa, the adzebill and others will testify to that.

https://pukaha.org.nz
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January 14, 2026 8:02am
- Mike
  
  It’s been called Pūkaha for many years. The land was given back to Rangitāne, who in return gifted it back to the nation.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:41am
  - pdm
    
    It will always be Mt Bruce to me.
    
    Mt Bruce has significance and meaning.
    
    Pukaha does not and never will.
    
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    January 14, 2026 11:06am
- Inandout
  
  NM, the Bugman on his Sunday morning slot for months was pushing this kiwi farm and of course Mt Bruce as a name was never uttered. Then I heard the site was in financial trouble and was asking for donations. Anyway my wife and I visited the ‘Mt Bruce’ site a few months ago and noticed the Maori flag was flying out front. On entering a bored looking Maori chap sat behind a large counter and the place was ablaze with Maori/English signs. I guess any overseas visitor would think the site was run by the local iwi. If the outfit is still in begging mode then I can’t see it has any future.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:52am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    There’s never been, and probably never will be, a conservation project that was able to deliver a financial profit.
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:07pm
- Simon
  
  Erasing NZ history- core National party.
  
  European New Zealanders built NZ, no one else. This burns white guilt neoliberal National up so the past has to erased.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:54am
- Colville
  
  That is the place where the trustees had a heap of work done and then couldnt pay the bills so the engineers came and took it all out? big hoo haa ensued and govt stepped in with funding?
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:56am
- I remember when
  
  Do DOC still run it or is it now a ‘rescued by Maori’ operation?
  
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  January 14, 2026 10:13am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    There seems to be some type of co-Governance operating
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582744/pukaha-national-wildlife-centre-back-from-brink-of-closure
    
    https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360709592/red-how-pukaha-ended-brink
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:43am
    - Yabster
      
      aka – the taxpayer pays for it, but IWI run it….
      
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      January 14, 2026 10:45am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I think they breed a lot of albino kiwis.
    
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    January 14, 2026 11:20am
- Ra Henare
  
  In the early 1970s
  Our Receptionist got married.
  Before the event, the dear girl was congratulated and asked where they were going for the Honeymoon?
  
  Mt Bruce replied the innocent young lovely.
  
  Raucous hilarity from the hairy faced young guys.
  
  Yep, Fiancé was called Bruce.
  Who worked for DOC.
  
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  January 14, 2026 12:38pm
- leoj
  
  If you think the woke Nats will keep their promise to roll the maori takeover back, you’re dreaming.
  
  The Nats don’t think it’s a problem but hopefully the silent majority will make it clear later this year.
  
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  January 14, 2026 1:19pm
imalwaysright

Breaking news from the Herald…

Seven Sharp host Hilary Barry finds mould growing in coffee cup after return to work – NZ Herald https://share.google/dDhzNYtoNVKUuutzk
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January 14, 2026 8:11am
- Flossie
  
  No wonder people are cancelling subscriptions in droves!
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:39am
  - Don Beckett
    
    So she didn’t rinse the cup after using it a couple of weeks ago – nature taking its course.
    Why on earth is this a news story? Words fail me.
    
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    January 14, 2026 11:18am
    - rouppe
      
      It’s being blamed on the Co host, Jeremy Wells
      
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      January 14, 2026 3:24pm
- PeterTrentham
  
  Did she expect someone to clean up after her? Shows part of her character.
  Being a rep, if a customer gives me a drink I always ask what to do with the cup after the meeting.
  
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  January 14, 2026 11:14am
- Duncan Brown
  
  I clicked on it because I thought it was satire, in the style of Babylon Bee. Oh. Funny enough for a two-bit FB post, but a news story?? Words fail me. Must be because she is a celebrity.
  
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  January 14, 2026 11:34am
peterwn

More Government posturing on the Electricity industry, the only useful effect being to appease the populous. Not sure how it is going to bring prices down on its own. It probably means that the gentailers will be forced to subsidise the independent retailers. Nicola Willis is between a rock and hard place on this. She relies on the gentailer dividends to help balance the books. She also would not want to expose the Government to financial risks by subsidising electricity for industry, or by underwriting marginal generation projects. In particular if the gentailers find the market is too hostile they and their shareholders will not want to invest in new generation meaning that the governmnt will have to get into the generation business which Nicola would not want.
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January 14, 2026 8:17am
- Waipuk
  
  It’s easy. Be seen to be doing something when in reality doing nothing constructive. No special interest group and then the media will get upset.
  
  Like in Aussie. We will be crack down on gun ownership.
  
  Or here, wasting millions on NGOs and special interest groups so if someone ie the media complains (we need to do something) the government can say they are spending money on it to help. A lot of these thousands of groups are no more than Make Work Schemes.
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:26am
  - R
    
    Make unnecessary, expensive, useless work schemes…….fixed it for you
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:21am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Nicola should quietly point out that one reason why electricity prices are so high is that Meridian Energy forks out millions every year to a motley coalition of Ngai Tahu, Forest & Bird and others for the privilege of these grifters not challenging the renewal of resource consents for the dams & other water infrastructure in the South Island. The underlying cause is the rules of the RMA, which are being changed by the current government. Nicola should tell the media to address their questions on this point to Chris Hipkins.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:03am
  - RoboRob
    
    True. However would not paying the $100m (or whatever it is), result in more generation? That is the core issue. Not enough generation to meet demand.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:36am
    - Taieri
      
      would not paying the $100m (or whatever it is), result in more generation?
      ———–
      
      Would not paying the $100M result in the lower consumer power prices? I very much doubt it.
      
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      January 14, 2026 12:25pm
    - KKNZ2025
      
      Call Rio Tintos bluff on Bluff. Install lines to the NI (this signalled several years ago & might already be underway). Raise Manapouri.
      
      Problem solved.
      
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      January 14, 2026 12:33pm
  - wsk12345
    
    It’s not just meridian. I believe that others do also such as Genesis and transmission company Transpower. Heres an example where the latter lists costs ofi consents/stakeholder and then later “mana whenua”. It’s not pocket change either esp not as a standard item on their projects.
    
    https://static.transpower.co.nz/public/uncontrolled_docs/USI%20MCP%20-%20Attachment%205%20-%20Costing.pdf?VersionId=_WLqcuwvnrWH4v5nA6s25DGUALXDFSne&utm_source=chatgpt.com
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:26am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Some facts are always handy.
    NZ generates about 43 BILLION kwhs annually.
    Meridian supplies about 33% or 14.9 BILLION kwhs.
    So simmer down. That equates to 0.7 cents per kilowatt.
    
    And how much do you pay your retailer today for 1 kwh?
    How much of that is tax?
    
    So let’s ease up on the racism.
    Meridian pays fees to ALL landowners it uses.
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:47pm
- RoboRob
  
  Agreed, the proposed ‘open generation’ changes (or whatever they are called) are window dressing at best. Prices are a factor of supply and demand, making it easier to switch suppliers or view data doesn’t change either overall supply or demand.
  
  The generaters (and government) have been talking up additional supply coming on line for some years now, either it hasn’t come on line or hasn’t kept up with demand. We have even seen demand drop as some major users shut up shop.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:07am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    making it easier to switch suppliers or view data doesn’t change either overall supply or demand
    
    No. But it may alter the way in which the opportunity to meet the demand is shared among different suppliers. That’s a strong incentive for them to look for ways to improve their offering to the demand side. That’s not nothing.
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:12pm
  - marcw
    
    The last geothermal opened near Taupo supplied around 105Mw to the grid. None went to domestic supply – it was all contracted to the new Microsoft data center in Auckland.
    
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    January 14, 2026 3:50pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  The real robber barons are the monopoly lines companies. The variety of fixed charges and variable daily charges add up to twice the amount we pay monthly.
  
  I cannot understand why the Govt doesn’t see this and clamp down on the basic utility companies who are making out like bandits for performing a very basic service.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:13am
- PeterTrentham
  
  Another brain fart from Simon (less energy than a 20W bulb) Watts.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:21am
- David Garrett
  
  To appease the populace old boy…Populous means a densely populated area, which I am pretty sure is not what you meant.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:42am
  - R
    
    There are some area where the populous are very dense. This election year will highlight most of them
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:30am
    - PeterTrentham
      
      Denser than a kg of uranium!
      
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      January 14, 2026 12:21pm
- Simon
  
  Asset stripping of the energy companies via dividends at the cost of re investment in actual energy production. Core neoliberal National party.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:56am
  - peterwn
    
    The gentailers are not Mother Teresa. The Rogernomics government in the 1980’s was fed up with the State capitalising and underwriting electricity generation and considered private enterprise could do it better and more economically. That means paying dividends.
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:36pm
    - Mike
      
      Didn’t work, did it?
      
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      January 14, 2026 3:38pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        If Labour had to sell the family silver, things MUST have been dire.
        
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        January 15, 2026 3:27pm
- Cassandra
  
  peter: populace?
  
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  January 14, 2026 12:18pm
- nz_aj
  
  Indeed, the only way prices will come down is if a lot more generation capacity is built, and that what is built can provide cheaper electricty during winter evening peak in a dry year.
  There is no incentive for the industry to do this, quite the opposite as high prices benefit their shareholders.
  LNG is very expensive.
  Coal can be cheap.
  Geothermal is reliable, uncertain if additional fields can be developed to provide cheaper rlectricty.
  Wind doesn’t blow in a dry year, and along with solar is expensive when energy storage cost is included.
  Project aqua is the last large scale ~500MW hydro project left that could be developed but building it would make the dry year problem worse.
  Nuclear will need to be considered some time in the future.
  
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  January 14, 2026 1:45pm
- slijmbal
  
  @peterwn
  
  The government is already in the generation business and owns (on our behalf) the majority of generation. Ditto Transpower is government owned.
  
  Back under Clark’s regime charges went through the roof and the generators paid large, rapidly increasing dividends as a sneaky tax. I don’t believe this was ever addressed.
  
  There are several additional issues why power prices are high and will probably remain so and they are predominantly under the government’s control.
  
  – systemic issues with the poorly structured pricing mechanism. These make it less economic to build new capacity as existing less efficient existing generation is not only profitable it causes greater profits for more efficient generation. Effectively building more capacity leads to less profit. The generators can also create increased profit out of thin air by revalueng their assets and under the scheme this means they get to increase profits without actually doing anything. The mechanism is stuffed.
  
  – Focus on intermittent renewables (wind and solar). Not only are these expensive but because of their unreliability necessitate the existence of reliable backbone. So, when they do build generation it’s of the wrong sort.
  
  – regulation and what I call the Maori tax eg iwi koha, blackmail etc. We are not allowed to build new dams and adding to geothermal is difficult because of the many blocks. Dams and geothermal are why NZ still has strong renewable generation stats. Reliable renewables.
  
  Let’s not pretend the Government could not make a significant difference. It is most of the problem.
  
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  January 14, 2026 3:19pm
Kevin

New Zealand does not have to follow whatever the U.K., Canada, and Australia do ( such as proposed restrictions on social media). Esp not for bad ill thought out reason that we are somehow alike.

The Left here happy enough to ban US Navy back in the day and garner some TV talking head time. What about this?
There is evidence that the so called Anglosphere ( not incl NZ) are ruled by increasingly brittle fragile incoherent regimes. ( it is at this point that those who cannot debate do the Whataboutism about that other land that sucks up all the attention)

But really, what about these non OMB governments. Who better than your nearest and dearest to tell one that one has halitosis and a dirty shirt. NZ should not consort with these, as they are now.
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January 14, 2026 8:25am
- 3-coil
  
  OMB ?
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:25am
  - Kevin
    
    OrangeManBad land
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:57am
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    Online Media Ban?
    
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    January 14, 2026 3:20pm
pdm

Today is pissing me off already.

For some unknown reason Gmail has logged me out and when I go through the log back in process I get sent round in circles.

Then I have an email from Manage My Health saying 1% of Hastings Health Center MMH members have their details hacked and I should check to see if I am one. I start the log in process and it implores me to change my password because I have only ever had the one since joining. So I do, get all green ticks and click update only to get an error notice.

Does that mean some hacker has my most intimate medical details – will give the thieving sod a laugh I suppose.

I have only been out of bed for an hour and a half and already I have a major guts ache.
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January 14, 2026 8:31am
- Jimbo666
  
  With that pain you need to see a doctor!!
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:36am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Go back to bed and cancel the rest of the day.
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:53am
  - pdm
    
    Sounds like good advice Maggy but, then I will:
    1. Have to fight off mrspdm who will have several reasons why I should not be in bed.
    2. Still have to resolve these issues tomorrow.
    
    Think I will put in an hour in the garden instead and then return to the fray..
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:00am
    - R
      
      Garden! Very good therapy activity. The plants make no frustrating demands.
      
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      January 14, 2026 9:06am
    - pdm
      
      GMail solved.
      
      I overrode a senior moment of blankness to sign in correctly on about the 5th go.
      
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      January 14, 2026 9:20am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Pdm. Maybe this is a good lesson in not getting wound up by trivia on Computers/phone.
        
        ie. Try 2 times, then if not solved go for a walk or a cuppa. Stay calm.
        
        Have been using this technique since was Senior IT/Computer consultant(fixer) in 1976!!
        
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        January 14, 2026 12:56pm
- Yvette
  
  Persevere Pdm, if you can log in it may say “Account Security Status: Impacted” and a Check Now button leading to a listing of what was taken, in my case one file, and if those contain incomprehensible references like ‘PMS’ or ’SPR’, ChatGPT can decipher those, and an origin date may give you context to recognise what the item is.
  
  Also media report –
  Further investigations have identified that one module within the Manage My Health app, referred to as Health Documents, was compromised by a third party. This allowed a third party to access and download the documents within that module. The third party did not gain access to the whole app.
  
  ChatGPT –
  “Health Documents” is not the engine room of Manage My Health; it’s the filing cabinet. Useful, sometimes deeply personal, but not the switchboard that runs the practice. Here’s what that module typically holds, and just as importantly, what it usually does not.
  
  Apart from a potential ransom for the whole cache, the hackers do likely need contextual information, that they do not have, to do anything at an individual level: like information that a patient had suffered domestic violence requires names, present status and other details not accompanying the files that were taken. This is the sort of conjecture (what it is) that Manage My Health should have already explained publicly.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:03am
- MCōs
  
  I listened to a Spinoff podcast on the first year of the Bolger government — 1991. The mother of all budgets, Winston was booted out of cabinet and was far more popular than Bolger, Muldoon left parliament, Ruth Richardson tried to pressure the Governor of Reserve Bank, Don Brash, a real no no.
  And so the year went on!
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:06am
  - RoboRob
    
    I’m not sure the Spinoff is the go to site for unbiased historical events.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:10am
    - MCōs
      
      They have the receipts for all of the above.
      They talked to everyone except Winston. I get the impression Ruth wouldn’t have stopped talking given the chance.
      Fascinating recent interviews with Don Brash, Bill Birch (now in his nineties and still working), Jim Bolger not long before he died, Jenny Shipley
      You might refuse to listen because it’s the Spinoff
      Up to you
      
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      January 14, 2026 9:51am
      - Paulus
        
        Winston recovering from Surgery
        – possbly he has a brain fart removed !
        
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        January 14, 2026 2:15pm
    - Mike
      
      There are no such things as ‘unbiased’ descriptions of historical events.
      
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      January 14, 2026 10:12am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        There’s ridiculously biased (Guardian, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, NZ Herald, Stuff etc etc) and similar extremely jaundiced lefty crap, then there’s pretty solid reporting which “may have traces of bias”, sort of like a bag of potato chips has a “may have traces of peanuts” on the packet.
        
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        January 15, 2026 3:32pm
- wisteria
  
  Why do you have to take it out on other Kiwibloggrs? Do Maggy suggests but this time get out of bed on the other side.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:09am
  - pdm
    
    I was trying to inspire you wisty by showing how lucky you are to not have to confront such issues today.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:24am
- Ghost
  
  Last year I was sitting waiting for my gp, reception came over and asked me to fill out my details. They were telling everyone they have to update people’s details in their system, she leaned in and quietly told me, the system was hacked and all the patients details were gone. So I don’t think this is the first time that for manage my health, just that one never made the news.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:18am
  - pdm
    
    Could have just been your GP’s practice Ghosty.
    
    Not every patient is on Manage My Health – eg I am but mrspdm is not.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:25am
  - Gary Benner
    
    It’s a been a few years since I was directly involved with that area, but as I understand it, ManageMyHealth is a Portal System so you can access your records online.
    
    Medical Centers and Doctors Surgery’s generally have their own systems, such as MedTech32 and Indici. (there are others as well) Depending on the specific version, some are in-house and some are online systems running on a central server. The in-house systems would have to communicate with the Portal, whereas the online systems will be more integrated.
    
    ManageMyHealth I understand is tied to the MedTech systems, whereas Indici has it’s own portal. My Medical centre changed over from Medtech to Indici last year, and the portal changed. I can still login to ManageMyHealth but there is little data available.
    
    The problem of hacking is that the underlying data is not encrypted, and if the security is compromised, the hacker will have access to that data. I have written before that the current system design needs to change, encrypting at the document level, and providing the control of one’s data to the patient. That limit’s the extent of any compromise.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:15am
Nikola Donatello

I noticed that the Ministry of Education is looking for a senior person to lead the development of the curriculum improvements that the Minister is looking for. We know how important this is for her. So for the right person, what a great opportunity.

This is an extract from the job advertisement. You decide if this will attract the right person.

They have named the business unit doing this work “Te Poutāhū”.

Here we go. 🙂

“The purpose of Te Poutāhū is to lead the national curricula for Aotearoa New Zealand and associated systems and processes of assessment and aromatawai.

We design, develop and provide curriculum services for teachers, kaiako, leaders, ākonga, their whānau and communities that reflect their identities, languages and cultures. We bring together curriculum, teaching expertise and evidence for the development, support and review of inclusive curricula, assessment and NCEA. Our strengths are across te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori, disability, inclusive learning support and culturally relevant content so that Te Mahau supports learning that is inclusive for all ākonga. ”

You will lead collaborative working relationships within Te Poutāhū, across the Ministry and with key Internal and external stakeholders
Lead the translation of policy advice into strategic operational policy and implementation……..”

And on and on 🙄😕😕
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January 14, 2026 8:37am
- Paulus
  
  No wonder I have to think hard whether I renew my National 2 votes this year or for the first time in over 50 years decide not to vote as I have done in Tauranga Council elections.
  Typical of the Education Department and they wonder why ou standards are so low but do not really care less as far as they get what they want all the time and sod any Minister or Government matter .
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:42am
  - pdm
    
    Party Vote ACT Paulus.
    
    Electorate vote ACT too if they have a solid candidate in your electorate. Most likely to be Cam Luxton if you are in Tauranga so would not be a wasted vote.
    
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    January 14, 2026 8:46am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    Yes it is easy to laugh at this crap, but it makes me angry when I see stuff like this. I am reminded of what this Government should have done in its first year in office.
    
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    January 14, 2026 8:57am
    - kowtow
      
      You’re witnessing Luxon’s “embrace” of “partnership”. Something he personally promotes very strongly .
      
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      January 14, 2026 8:58am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        The thing is that job ad would be terrible even if it were entirely in English. The mixed language makes it worse.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:25am
      - pdm
        
        Aided and abetted by Ministers Potaka and Goldsmith.
        
        I call them `his little helpers’.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:26am
    - AitchW
      
      While I have some sympathy for your anger, I think it’s also worth remembering that the government inherited a deeply woke, hostile , and left leaning public service.
      How many times were Ministerial instructions ignored, sabotaged or sidelined by senior public servants?
      
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      January 14, 2026 10:32am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Disclosure. I am a public servant. Hence the need for anonymity. I don’t need to explain why.
        
        You may scoff at my claim. But on this…
        
        “How many times were Ministerial instructions ignored, sabotaged or sidelined by senior public servants?”
        
        I am not aware of such cases. I’m not saying there have been none. But I have not witnessed any.
        
        To be honest, I think that you are under estimating the power of Ministers in their potential to instruct government agencies.
        
        For example the Government could have told the Ministry to ensure that “mātauranga Māori” is taught as myths and legends. I agree that it should be taught to children. But not equating its status with that of the laws of thermodynamics.
        
        The Minister cannot tell the Chief Executive how to run the Ministry. However she can express an opinion. “I would like the Ministry to communicate in English where it is clear that the primary audience does not understand te reo. I would prefer that you not mix English and Maori but rather have two versions. Think of Canada with French and English. Please stop mixing the languages “.
        
        In those circumstances, I think that the Chief Executive would need to do what the Minister asks. Perhaps there would be a discussion about what to do. But there would not be inaction.
        
        So to reiterate, Ministers have formidable powers. They have not used those powers as you and I would have preferred. But they made those choices. The reason things are as they are is because of those choices. It is not because of sabotage of Ministerial wishes by public servants.
        
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        January 14, 2026 12:04pm
      - Paulus
        
        I hear from within the Public Service, via close factors, that they are not intetrested in what the Government wants – they did not vote for them, and they will continue to do what they want without fear of favour, as they cannot be fired, in the hope to get another shambles Government next time.
        
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        January 14, 2026 2:21pm
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Paulus that is not my experience. I have never heard any public service colleague say that or infer it. Ever.
        
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        January 14, 2026 2:28pm
  - kowtow
    
    I’ve often been tempted not to vote , given the poor quality of candidates / policies.
    
    However our rights were dearly won ( look at Iranians today in their literal life and death struggle for the very basic freedoms wed take for granted) .
    
    Anyway failing to vote only opens the door wider to parties that will abridge your rights and lower your standard of living.
    
    Hold your nose and cast a ballot for any party of the “right” closest to your leaning.
    
    Failing to dishonours the long struggles of our forefathers and opens the way for the Lefty Loons.
    
    24 3
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    January 14, 2026 8:57am
    - R
      
      The Loony Left control the education in this country; to the future detriment of the students and our country. Vote to give PM Luxon a real mandate, don’t tinker around the edges like the last three elections
      
      10 5
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      January 14, 2026 9:09am
      - RoboRob
        
        Vote to give Deputy PM Seymour a real mandate. PM Luxon couldn’t care less about this stuff and has publicly stated so, ‘it is not important’ and ‘I believe in a partnership’.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:31am
      - NothingLeft
        
        The kids (boys) are all right. Girls are more prone to being propagandized and believing whatever the dominant narrative that they are surrounded by is, but boys tend to be more naturally transgressive and rebellious, and mostly think they are being fed lies by the Feminized far left educational system.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:51am
      - septic skeptic
        
        To suggest Luxon would do anything on maorification, ever, regardless of what sort of majority he has is gaslighting of the highest order.
        Seymour is there to reverse it.
        Peters is there to jawbone and win votes from it.
        Luxon is there to increase it.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:55am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Paulus by negatively citing the family member of a politician, you are behaving poorly. Not my blog. Just my opinion.
        
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        January 14, 2026 2:31pm
    - Debsta
      
      Please all take note of this very sound advice from Kowtow!
      
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      January 14, 2026 9:19am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Interesting perspective Kowtow…
      
      However, our rights were dearly won ( look at Iranians today in their literal life and death struggle for the very basic freedoms wed take for granted) .
      
      Please explain how Iranians will get basic freedoms we take for granted in their life & death struggle??
      
      Also, would love to know how our rights were deraly won?
      
      Most rights today were established by NZ Governments post WW2?
      
      Bill of Rights?
      Rights of 18 year olds to drink & Vote
      Rights to go to the pub after 6pm.
      Right to be male & gay.
      etc etc
      
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      January 14, 2026 1:06pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    The problem is that a Centre Right Government has to fight against a legacy of civil servants who spout this sort of claptrap while we have a minister in Stanford who is quietly and effectively leading the way in correcting the foundational elements of our education system.
    
    Given how organised the Public Service Unions are, and how aligned they are with Labour, the task is rather Herculean in it’s scope, and the best we can do is vote to show these pseudo academics that they need to pull their collective heads in.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:40am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      See my comment up the thread. I agree with your sentiment about public servants. But you are exaggerating their ability to sabotage Ministers. And to be honest, very few public servants would set out to do so.
      
      I am not naive but I stand by my claim. Of course I can understand why you are sceptical.
      
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      January 14, 2026 12:10pm
    - Paulus
      
      Educatio0n in Aotearoa is controlled and run by women for the last 40 years, hence no changes.
      
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      January 14, 2026 2:25pm
      - RichardX
        
        Is there any problem in NZ where you believe the blame does not lie with women?
        
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        January 14, 2026 3:32pm
      - Mike
        
        Those wimmin, huh?
        
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        January 14, 2026 3:43pm
  - R
    
    Paulus,….Don’t bite off your nose to spite your face. The Min Ed is a govt department, which at present choices to ignore the Ministers directives. Help PM Luxon to a commanding mandate if you sincerely seek competent non ideological management at dept level.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:41am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      “The Min Ed is a govt department, which at present choices to ignore the Ministers directives.”
      
      Can you cite any evidence? I would astonished if the Ministry of Education did so.
      
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      January 14, 2026 2:32pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I imagine there’ll be queues of folks from Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato who could ace this job.
  
  https://www.waikato.ac.nz/study/upskilling/corporate-training-programmes/ipl/assessment-aromatawai/
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:51am
- imalwaysright
  
  A friend working at a local college has been forewarned to expect a group of the new intake of Year 8 who will need remedial instruction on multiplication tables from 3X and up.
  
  Maybe the Ministry should be investigating the teachers and Principals of the previous seven years of these childrens’ education.
  
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  January 14, 2026 8:54am
  - rouppe
    
    13 year olds who don’t know basic multiplication.
    
    That’s failure right there.
    
    24 1
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    January 14, 2026 9:23am
    - R
      
      Children who suffered the consequences of 6 years of Ardern Hipkins mismanagement of education, amongst other mismanagement
      
      10 1
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      January 14, 2026 10:44am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      Last week I had the experience of paying for some shopping with cash.
      
      The item was $4.50, I proffered two $2 coins and a 20c and three 10c pieces.
      
      The cashier, a teenager, took the silver coins in her hand and asked me if they added up to 50 cents.
      
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      January 14, 2026 3:31pm
      - Mike
        
        High time we abolished cash.
        
        2 4
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        January 14, 2026 3:46pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “Mike: “High time we abolished cash”
        
        Install govt cameras in every room of everyone’s house as well?
        
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        January 15, 2026 3:34pm
  - AitchW
    
    When I first experienced the NZ education system in the early 70s at a small rural 2 teacher school we would stand at the start over every day and recite the times tables from 2 to 12. Mental arithmetic sorted!
    In those days kids learnt to read using phonics too.
    Ah, the good ol days!
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:35am
    - leoj
      
      The left want dumbing down of students to make them more compliant later on.
      
      3 2
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      January 14, 2026 1:37pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    simple.
    
    we do an induction test of all year 9’s when they arrive at school.
    
    We correlate their tests results with the schools they came from. If any patterns emerge, and certain schools are over-represented in either negative or positive stats, we will know what schools are doing the job well, and what schools are failing their kids.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:43am
    - rouppe
      
      If any patterns emerge, and certain schools are over-represented in either negative or positive stats, we will know what schools are doing the job well, and what schools are failing their kids.
      
      And what do you do with that information once a pattern has been established?
      
      Stream kids from those schools into a class with intensive remedial resources attached?
      
      Go to the Ministry and complain about the poor outcomes delivered from those schools?
      
      Refuse enrollment from any of those schools?
      
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      January 14, 2026 3:39pm
- wisteria
  
  I wonder where all this second language comes from. Most of the population who pay taxes will not get past the first half a dozen words .
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:11am
  - rouppe
    
    Might be the objective…
    
    10 2
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    January 14, 2026 9:24am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    It could all have been stopped.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:26am
    - RoboRob
      
      If only someone cared to do so
      
      12 3
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      January 14, 2026 9:30am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Caring could get you fired, this seems to be Government policy.
        
        8 3
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        January 14, 2026 9:47am
    - kowtow
      
      Seymour would have .
      
      Hands tied by the wokism of Luxon’s National .
      
      7 3
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      January 14, 2026 9:35am
  - RoboRob
    
    If you are in the education game this all makes perfect sense and is the norm. My wife would read this and not see anything out of the ordinary or ‘wrong’. It’s what they see day to day and it becomes the norm. It’s indoctrination.
    
    As an example in some meetings the men are positioned at the front and woman at the back. I asked why, and my wife said, oh that’s standard marae protocol. I said…. but your not at a marae!
    
    I followed it up asking if the women were allowed to speak 🙂
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:29am
    - David Garrett
      
      Robo: No offence to your good wife, but if people actually stood up to this shit just maybe it would decrease.
      
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      January 14, 2026 9:47am
      - imalwaysright
        
        That’s right DG, but Kiwis have a poor record of backing each other up.
        
        If someone spat the dummy at the morning waiata the rest of the staff would leave them hanging even though they fully agree.
        
        Was it MLK who said ‘I may forget the words of my enemies, but I will never forget the silence of my friends’.
        
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        January 14, 2026 9:54am
      - rouppe
        
        Yes but it’s a no win situation.
        
        You can’t do that as an individual. To do so is to be labelled a racist, intolerant, and if you’re white, well then you’re truly ruined. Nikola has said this several times, and I believe them.
        
        So the only option is to organise. If it becomes known that you’re organising a wider resistance to this stuff, then the organised (but approved) company take down by the “other” staff will be brutal.
        
        The only real option you have is to organise a group prepared to resign if their concerns aren’t taken seriously. But everybody’s got to eat…
        
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        January 14, 2026 10:24am
      - RoboRob
        
        Once you are indoctronated (generally from uni), you just dont see it. My attempts to convince her that this stuff is stupid fall on deaf ears. She is focused on helping kids and happy to ignore all the other guff.
        
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        January 14, 2026 10:36am
      - Skippytony
        
        David, I was in the sector when Te Pukenga was being stood up. Vast amounts of what was being done there defied belief. A single, small example. The polytechs offered a Registered Nursing degree. Have done for many years. TeP decided they needed three nursing degrees, RN Maori, RN Pasifica and RN NZ. Meanwhile the Nursing Council were issuing new competencies for nursing, surprise surprise all the changes were about nursing in culturally appropriate and sensitive ways, manu whenua etc etc. So TeP spent millions developing three new degrees that had to be developed in a way that met the new competencies but were sufficiently different to get past NZQA and TEC. I tried for two years to get my hands on the business case and to get someone to explain to me how the RN Maori would be received in Australia for example. Eventually, this seems to have got bogged down in the dissolution of TeP.
        To question the logic, let alone the sanity of this approach would see you restructured out of the organisation in no time flat. It’s almost impossible as an underling to meaningfully push back on this kind of magic thinking.
        
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        January 14, 2026 4:07pm
    - kowtow
      
      One should ask ,in the interests of purity of indigenous practise ; what’s on the menu , long pig?
      
      8 2
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      January 14, 2026 9:58am
    - R
      
      Have you recovered from your injuries?
      
      3 1
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      January 14, 2026 1:16pm
  - MCōs
    
    When I went to school we were expecting to learn French and Latin, which I did for five years
    I went to Paris five years later and nobody understood a word I said, although I could read a bit.
    We’re way out here in the South Pacific and us pakeha think all you need to know to get by is English because that’s the way we have fashioned the country and that’s the way it is in dear old blighty, but there’s a lot of people here for whom some other language is paramount.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:14am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Maybe it was your colonial accent, Cossie. Me, I found that four years of French was good enough to get me around ok, although I avoided discussions of existentialism.
      
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      January 14, 2026 12:29pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Its interesting as I do my evening walk in the Tourist hub in Siem Reap. To people watch & listen.
      The common language is English.
      Chinese talk to Indians. English.
      Russians talking to anyone…English.
      Heard a conversation between an Italian and a Spaniard…English.
      
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      January 14, 2026 1:13pm
    - Paulus
      
      Not a lot of peoole here for whom some other language is paramount.
      More bullshit than facts.
      
      3 2
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      January 14, 2026 2:29pm
      - MCōs
        
        Tyranny of the majority, then
        
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        January 14, 2026 7:08pm
  - R
    
    Drivel is still drivel, no matter at what level of departmental mismanagement it is promulgated
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:46am
  - I remember when
    
    Is it a small group of State Servants who, having achieved senior managerial status, want to use their knowledge of more than ‘half a dozen words’ as a barrier to competition?
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:56am
- Dave
  
  I’d feel a bit more confident if these zealots for inclusion noticed that there are more than two ethnicities in NZ and, much more importantly, the curriculum’s job is to develop thorough knowledge, skills and values which transcend personal identity.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:21am
  - RoboRob
    
    Te Whariki, the overarching teaching ‘guide’ (or whatever it is called) for ECE, is very clear. NZ education is based on two ethnicities not multi ethnicity.
    
    The online stuff only has a summary of the document (which I have read much of) but if you are keen to see an example check this out..
    
    https://tewhariki.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/the-wh-riki/5637165868.p
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:44am
- Flossie
  
  What a load of @&%*!!
  I thought this government was going to remove much of the Maorification of New Zealand.
  
  22 2
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  January 14, 2026 9:45am
  - RoboRob
    
    Thats what they wanted you to think. National ‘have bigger issues to deal with’.
    
    6 1
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    January 14, 2026 10:45am
  - R
    
    If this coalition government did remove the maorification element from govt, most department ministries would be staffless! Come to think about it, such removal may not be a bad idea.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:51am
  - Paulus
    
    They dare not !
    
    1 2
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    January 14, 2026 2:29pm
- Simon
  
  Third World. It’s becoming increasingly part of core NZ culture.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:58am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Places like the MOE cannot be fixed. It’s better to start again from scratch.
  
  11 1
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  January 14, 2026 10:01am
- Kaiser Wilhelm
  
  What absolute, 100%, grade-A, drivel.
  
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  January 14, 2026 3:16pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Ring 13 April 2029 in your calendars.

On that day Apophis, a 340m asteroid will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth. For context, the Moon is 239,000 miles away, while even some satellites are 22,000+ miles above the Earth. It’s big and it’ll be close.

It promises to be truly spectacular, but less so than the Lefty handwringing as the date gets closer. Move over, climate change – there’s a new kid on the block!

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis/
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January 14, 2026 8:58am
- NothingLeft
  
  The new Vera Rubin telescope will increase number of identified asteroids from current 1 million to an estimated 5 million. We’ll get a much better idea of just how many dangerous near misses are happening.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:59am
- imalwaysright
  
  There are some important satellites at that distance.
  
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  January 14, 2026 10:33am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Will it actually be spectacular? IIRC it is about 400 metres in diameter. At 20,000 km away, it will be a moving dot.
  
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  January 14, 2026 11:03am
  - rangitoto
    
    It will be about vmag 3. Most people wont notice it. It’s about the same brightness as a typical ISS transit. Easy to see from a rural or suburban sky but not at all spectacular.
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:26pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Stands to reason Apophis in Greek is the Egyptian god of chaos……..
  
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  January 14, 2026 11:10am
Yvette

When the Crown bought the disputed Ihumātao land from Fletcher Building, the agreement wasn’t simply a land sale — it created a multi-party oversight process to decide its future. Under the He Pūmautanga memorandum of understanding, a steering committee (te Rōpu Whakahaere) was established to guide decisions on land use and long-term outcomes.
As of the latest reports, the steering committee has been meeting to work toward a shared vision for the whenua. Progress at times has been described as slow and complex, with differing views among mana whenua groups and Crown representatives about pace and priorities — especially regarding housing vs cultural and heritage outcomes. Government ministers, including the Minister for Māori Development, have acknowledged this and spoken of giving the process space, while also critiquing the pace.

• I have sometimes wondered (but usually not for long) what would be the outcome for New Zealand if we were subject to some governance by tribal Maori.
And wondered if Ihumātao would be a standard for the pace of getting anything done, let alone who owned what in the process.
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January 14, 2026 9:07am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The main area of disagreement is whether Ngati Whatua or Tainui get control (and the associated dollars). As I understand it, both have had periods of ownership in pre colonial days.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:21am
  - R
    
    Not only Maori who have owned the land in the past. Maori sold their interest years ago, now want another cash deposit. Wonder if the same policy could be applied to Anglo-Saxon business transactions
    
    10 1
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    January 14, 2026 10:55am
- RoboRob
  
  It would be a disaster. Nothing would ever be decided.
  
  Re Ihumātao, the govt should NEVER have gotten involved. This is yet another JA mess to clean up.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:25am
  - kowtow
    
    Papua New Guinea ,just a bit colder.
    
    8 2
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    January 14, 2026 9:38am
  - David Garrett
    
    Robo: They should never have GOT involved either…”gotten” is an Americanism.
    
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    January 14, 2026 9:58am
    - Mike
      
      Perhaps ‘they should never have become involved’ would read a little better…
      
      11 1
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      January 14, 2026 10:18am
      - RoboRob
        
        True, but I am happy with ‘gotten’. Languages, especially English, evolve. Gotten is well understood and used. I am (obviously) not posting an academic / formal work here 🙂
        
        But all power to the grammar Nazis, I do pick up useful titbits from time to time.
        
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        January 14, 2026 10:49am
      - Mike
        
        I agree completely.
        
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        January 14, 2026 3:52pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        AI will probably sooner or latter tidy English up so it is a lot more rational and straight forward. It will be a sad day for the grammar pedants.
        
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        January 15, 2026 3:38pm
    - Ghost
      
      gotten was British,
      
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      January 14, 2026 10:24am
      - Ghost
        
        Perhaps the down voters would like some Shakespeare
        
        Henry VI, Part 2
        
        “England was gotten by conquest, and not by inheritance.” — (Act 4, Scene 7)
        
        Henry VI, Part 3
        
        The want of both these hath made thee infamous, / And gotten thee the hate of all the world.” — (Act 1, Scene 4)
        
        Or if they prefer they could read the original King James Bible.
        
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        January 14, 2026 12:24pm
      - Jack5
        
        The English colonists to America used gotten.
        
        Then the English in England changed.
        
        Raises the question of who sets the standard in English. Is it America, with its number of English speakers and domination of entertainment and business?
        
        About 1.3 billion people are said to be able to speak English, and there are about 370 million “native speakers” of English, according to the source below.
        
        That seems light to me, given there are about 342 million people in the US, 68 million in the UK, 40 million in Canada (some of them French speakers), and 27 million in Australia.
        
        https://www.kylian.ai/blog/en/english-language-statistics
        
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        January 14, 2026 12:41pm
      - david
        
        And it is “tidbits”
        
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        January 14, 2026 8:38pm
  - AitchW
    
    I suspect that we will be cleaning up the mess left by Ardern, Robertson, Hipkins, and Orr for generations to come.
    And I suspect that the left will blame this government for the mess for generations to come as well.
    
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    January 14, 2026 11:04am
- artemisia
  
  That sale was only 6 years ago Yvette. A blink in time.
  
  (When I worked in the Maori sector in Auckland it was known as Isha.)
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:28am
- Simon
  
  Third world. Typical of a resources being undeveloped because of tribal infighting and Mumbo jumbo. Core NZ under the National party.
  
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  January 14, 2026 10:00am
- I remember when
  
  ‘slow and complex’.
  With ‘complex’ meaning neither side intends to change their priorities.
  
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  January 14, 2026 11:03am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Yep. No point getting Housing NZ to build houses there unless said houses are going to house OUR whanau.
    
    Eat your heart out, Grok
    
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    January 14, 2026 12:34pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Come on. Be fair. It hasn’t taken long.
  
  Its only 5 years since the agreement. /sarc
  
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  January 14, 2026 1:16pm
RoboRob

Heard a bit of an interview with Winston on the radio this morning.

I have never voted for him and have been a pretty strong opponent however he is one of three options I am considering this election. The question is ‘would I rule out NZF if he refuses to rule out going with Labour’?

I am of two minds on this. On one hand, that makes sense, Winston has gone with Labour when some people* never thought he would, so getting a promise seems a good idea. On the other hand I know Winston to be very ‘slippery’ with his promises. Even if he does promise to not go with labour, do I trust him? It’s not like this is the first rodeo with Winston.

So is a promise worth the effort and does one rule NZF out if you can’t get or don’t trust, the promise. What do others think?

Personally I am leaning towards just ruling out NZF. Just around the trust issue, not even considering policy. I guess if Labour polled strongly I might vote NZF as a ‘block’ to a Labour government.

*I argued on this site that NZF would go with labour / JA. I felt at the time his party was mostly comprised of leftists. Melaine Mark-Shadbolt, of Ron Mark and singing to trees fame, was a candidate for NZF at the time.
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January 14, 2026 9:21am
- kowtow
  
  Winston talks a good game as they say .
  
  The problem is he never really delivers .
  
  I put NZF voters in the “Fool Me Once” category , but they seem to be happy to be fooled over and over for the last 30 or so years.
  
  btw National aren’t much better.
  Key campaigned on abolishing the race seats , then did a deal with them.
  Luxon campaigned on “one man one vote” , but in power made a big play of “partnership”.
  
  Very tricky .
  
  That just leaves Act , who are also far from perfect .But the only real choice when it comes to liberal democracy , individual and property rights , law and order .Or what’s left of it.
  
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  January 14, 2026 9:55am
  - R
    
    ACT is a one trick pony. Key included Maori because it is much easier to control recalcitrants when they are in the tent with you
    
    3 5
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    January 14, 2026 11:01am
  - AitchW
    
    Peters is an absolute charlatan.
    He is interested only in the baubles.
    Anyone silly enough to vote for him has only themselves to blame if he goes with Hipkins after the election.
    
    10 2
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    January 14, 2026 11:06am
- Simon
  
  Geez so long as you don’t vote for that utter garbage National. Surely you must see what rotten dead enders National are.
  
  3 11
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  January 14, 2026 10:01am
  - R
    
    Simon go back to bed and sleep of your parnoia
    
    3 3
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    January 14, 2026 10:58am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Simon who do you recommend people vote for instead of National?
    
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    January 15, 2026 3:39pm
- David Garrett
  
  Robo:…getting a promise seems a good idea.
  
  Getting a promise from The Great Charlatan? Are you serious man?
  
  Promises from him are about as valid and binding as those made by a certain Austrian gentleman more than 80 years ago.
  
  15 2
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  January 14, 2026 10:02am
  - RoboRob
    
    My point indeed. I recall the sign he held up with regards to Owen Glenns funding…. ‘NO’. Which it turned out should have been ‘YES’.
    
    9 0
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    January 14, 2026 10:53am
  - PeterTrentham
    
    At least AH only signed his OWN paintings!
    
    7 0
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    January 14, 2026 11:17am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      Well remembered, spot on.
      
      2 0
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      January 14, 2026 3:48pm
- Colville
  
  A couple of problems I see in putting Winston in as a “hand brake” to Labour is firstly that nothing will happen to the country for minimum three years other than it will slip backwards into the shit and secondly it might give Labour the time to find a capable leader who could carry them to a second term without Winston. Then NZ is screwed!! (again)
  
  So just rule him out.
  
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  January 14, 2026 10:04am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  You cannot trust anything he says. There will either be a government led by National and supported by ACT or a government led by Labour and supported by the Greens. You should pick one. A vote for NZF is essentially letting Winston pick for you.
  
  29 0
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  January 14, 2026 10:07am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nigel: Couldn’t have said it better myself Sir.
    
    15 0
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    January 14, 2026 10:10am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      David, have you read the book ‘Kokoda’ by Peter Fitzsimons?
      
      It’s 550 pages of gripping reading. I was reading my sons foxed paperback edition.
      
      Very shortly I am heading off to a bookshop to get a copy in hardback for him. I may well get the ‘Long Tan’ book for it should be a good read.
      
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      January 14, 2026 3:53pm
  - Mike
    
    The thing about Peters is that he has an attractive personality, no matter what he says or does. He has reliable buttons to push (attacking the media, to choose one which resonates with many). He’ll be a political player until his death, at which time Shane Jones will try, but fail, to hold the cult together.
    NZF might not get over 5%, but they’ll be factor in the election race at least.
    
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    January 14, 2026 10:25am
    - RoboRob
      
      Not often I agree Mike but your right on everything except perhaps that he ‘might not get 5%’. I think that would be highly unlikely.
      
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      January 14, 2026 10:55am
      - AitchW
        
        RR, I’m not so sure. There is a substantial number of people who will never forgive him for anointing Ardern in 2017. And I think many who voted for him last time are more aware of his slipperiness than they were then. His “keep the big parties honest” schtick is wearing very thin.
        
        3 1
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        January 14, 2026 11:55am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Shane Jones is part Maori, sane, articulate and overwhelmingly advocates good sense policy. He doesn’t have the Winston baggage of repeatedly somewhat jerking the country around. Anything is possible. If Jones is the NZF front man and they run a good campaign, then we shall see!
      
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      January 15, 2026 3:44pm
- penguincouple
  
  Peters crowned Ardern.
  
  Personally I find it very hard to ever forgive him (and ever give him my vote) for that reason alone.
  
  26 1
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  January 14, 2026 10:15am
  - Ghost
    
    The voters crowned ardern, twice. Winston first would never go with english or Bennett
    
    5 10
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    January 14, 2026 10:27am
    - RoboRob
      
      Not 100% true, the first time the voters crowned National with the expectation the NZF would go with the party that polled strongest out of Labour and National. Many were surprised and disappointed when he didn’t.
      
      I certainly expected him to go with Labour but many who voted for him did not. Just to be clear I voted National that election.
      
      9 1
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      January 14, 2026 10:58am
      - Ghost
        
        Winston was never going to go with English, he blamed Paula for his pension leaking, there was never a chance in hell that he would form a government with those two in control.
        
        8 2
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        January 14, 2026 11:14am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        I dont disagree with you BUT he fooled a lot of National voters into thinking he would go with National.
        
        4 0
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        January 14, 2026 11:56am
      - MCōs
        
        The voters haven’t ‘crowned’ anyone since MMP kicked in except Labour in 2020
        National at the previous election received less than a majority as have everyone else. They’ve all needed coalition partners
        The public voted for this system in the nineties and confirmed their choice in 2011
        
        1 0
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        January 14, 2026 7:47pm
    - kowtow
      
      Peters crowned her first , then she was crowned by a corona …….virus .
      
      11 1
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      January 14, 2026 11:04am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      In 2020, yes.
      
      In 2017 National won 56 seats. Labour won 46 seats.
      
      7 2
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      January 14, 2026 11:13am
      - Ghost
        
        Doesn’t matter how many seats a party wins, welcome to mmp
        
        8 1
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        January 14, 2026 11:19am
      - AitchW
        
        Ghost those numbers were based on the party vote.
        
        4 1
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        January 14, 2026 11:52am
      - Ghost
        
        And under mmp, they do not mean anything, the party with the most votes is not the winner. The party that can form a government is. Ardern formed the government because people didn’t listen to Winston who was angry about his details leaking and believing it was Paula, and who had blamed English for his removal from national and the problems in the Bolger/shipley govt
        
        5 0
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        January 14, 2026 12:12pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Thus demonstrating that he does not actually put New Zealand first
      
      10 2
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      January 14, 2026 12:17pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Hence the sobriquet “Winston First”
        
        3 0
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        January 14, 2026 12:37pm
      - Quail
        
        MMP is a political disaster, that makes decisive voting nearly impossible.
        It is destroying the social fabric and economy of NZ!
        And this has been said many time before!
        
        4 3
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        January 14, 2026 1:16pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Quail
        
        You want to go back to the days when 40% of the vote got 60% of the seats and where a party could win with fewer votes than the “losers” …..
        
        The UK numbers pretty say it – a “landslide” victory with 35% of the vote (out of the 70% or so that actually voted).
        
        The youngest people who have voted in an NZ FPP election are now pushing 50 ….
        
        3 1
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        January 14, 2026 8:10pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Also I think more importantly National couldn’t win a deal with Peters. So he pulled an FU on them and went with Labour (possibly not realising what extremists they’d become).
    
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    January 15, 2026 3:47pm
- Ipanema69
  
  I agree totally with the sentiment that Winston cant be trusted in any circumstances.
  
  A factor that people overlook is his age. The guy will be 81 at the election. If he holds the balance of power and Labour offers a great deal (prime minister for 18months followed by knighthood and ambassador to washington) why would he not take it? At his age this may well be his last shot.
  
  I guess what I am saying is he may not care what the repercussions of any decision are in 2027.
  
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  January 14, 2026 10:43am
- Yvette
  
  Will Winston demand as a ‘bottom line’ a total abandonment of everything relating to He Puapua, despite he and Shane Jones being listed as attending the Cabinet Meeting which originated action to accommodate the signing of UNDRIP, and by-passing National’s caveat that engagement with UNDRIP would be defined by the (undefined) Treaty of Waitangi?
  
  6 0
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  January 14, 2026 10:48am
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Of course not, Winston’s bottom line is to ban fireworks.
    Actually fixing the racial division would lose him reasons for voters to keep voting for his party.
    He’s the biggest liar in parliament in a building full of them.
    
    6 0
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    January 14, 2026 12:19pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Cast your mind back as to why Winston went to labour.
  1. he hated Bill English, who refused to negotiate.
  2. Thought he could control that young Girl Jacinda.
  
  This time round. Neither of the arguments apply.
  Winston is happily living the good life.
  Labour can’t offer him anything he doesn’t already have.
  He would have to deal with the loons in Labour PLUS teh Greens Plus teh Maori Party.
  
  Like all pre-election posturing, Winston is making sure he gets more than 5% of the vote and enough votes to remain a Minister. Remember this will probably be his last Rodeo. Does he really want the lefts agro?
  
  I do wish commenters would apply some rational thinking instead of trotting out emotional irrelevancies.
  
  3 7
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  January 14, 2026 1:20pm
- Paulus
  
  Could you say that you could trust Winston ?
  
  3 0
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  January 14, 2026 2:32pm
- rouppe
  
  For me:
  1. Winston Peters went into coalition with Jacinda Ardern simply out of spite. That’s a very poor reason to make that important of a decision.
  2. That decision led to the outright majority Labour got in 2020, and all the authoritarianism that flowed from that.
  3. The PGF was outright abused. It was used to renovate Maori private property. It was used for artistic endeavours. It was used to prop up new businesses that didn’t have a hope of succeeding. I may have been blinded, but I can’t think of a single PGF enterprise that succeeded and turned into a profit making, tax paying concern. There may have been a few roads repaired, and bridges built, but that’s about it. Don’t forget the millions of radiata pine seedlings that had to be destroyed because all of the dead beat unemployed “neph’s” refused to ~~get off the couch~~ plant them.
  4. NZF had at least one candidate who thought people who had taken the covid shot were going to emit 5G, or Bluetooth signals.
  
  He talks a good game, and has been a good foreign minister. But he is unreliable when it comes to the macro-level, country, direction.
  
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  January 14, 2026 4:05pm
I remember when

Weather: Nautilus.
Recent storms mean California is drought-free for the first time in quarter of a century.

Some good ‘climate change’ news!
9 1
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January 14, 2026 10:08am
Notsofast

It seems that Jacinda Ardern may have missed the successful exclusion of a Jewish writer from the 2024 Adelaide writers festival, which of course presumably went ahead. The exclusion was orchestrated by the pro Hamas woman who the festival aimed to exclude this year.
Jacinda Ardern is a paid up hypocrite.
Note this was just a few months after the successful genocide by Hamas.

“South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas confirmed that in February 2024, Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah wrote to the Adelaide Festival board campaigning -successfully- for the removal of a Jewish writer named Thomas Friedman because his pro-Israel views upset the Palestinian community.”

https://x.com/i/status/2009724947984462093
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January 14, 2026 10:29am
- kowtow
  
  These are the attitudes the “writers” support when they boycott the festival.
  
  ” She has advocated for making spaces “culturally unsafe” for Zionists and appeared to laud Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023. In interviews, she has refused to acknowledge the murder of Israelis, and one day after the devastating attack, she changed her Facebook profile picture to a Hamas terrorist in a hang-glider, depicting one of the methods the terror group used to infiltrate Israel.
  She also wrote a post on X in October 2024 saying: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.” ‘
  
  From The Times of Israel.
  
  https://www.timesofisrael.com/australian-writers-festival-canceled-after-booting-anti-israel-palestinian-author/
  
  Given the numbers of women , specifically targetted by the terrorists and Gazan public , and the undoubted sexual assaults ( used as a form of war ) one wonders how these writers , so many of whom appear to be women themselves can find it in themselves to support such murderous misogyny, so much of it directed by the extremist , murderous Mullahs of Iran.
  
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  January 14, 2026 1:30pm
Ghost

I’m starting to think health could cost this government the election

Gp’s here have been given 100 pages on what they can and can’t refer for an xray, scan or mri. The referrals here now go to Christchurch where someone either approves it and sends it to the xray department etc to book, or denies it.
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January 14, 2026 10:48am
- R
  
  Competent GP’s already know what should be xrayed, scanned or MRI’d. They donned a supervisor, another PSA make work scheme
  
  5 2
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  January 14, 2026 11:05am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  How do you think it should work? Public health care is free to the user. It can only be rationed by some form of waiting list with cut offs. Some people miss out.
  
  In private healthcare you can receive any treatment that a doctor thinks beneficial, with no or little wait. If you have the money.
  
  I can’t comment on the system that you are describing. Maybe it can be approved, but there will always be a list of folk who need treatment and some will miss out.
  
  This situation will become much, much worse as the population ages, AND as New Zealand continues to become poorer relative to other OECD nations.
  
  Not a happy outlook.
  
  10 1
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  January 14, 2026 11:10am
  - Ghost
    
    It should work how it has always worked, the doctor sends the request to the department and they ring up with a booking. Why, because the doctor actually knows why they are making the referral and why they want it done. Now the result is doctors are sending patients who are refused to the ED to get it done through the ED department.
    
    5 4
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    January 14, 2026 11:17am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      So it’s “always” been the case that expensive equipment and qualified staff are available in unlimited quantities at all times?
      
      Well, in today’s world, where scarcity of resources is apparently a completely new and unprecedented phenomenon, a mechanism is needed for distribution.
      
      Your doctor can’t manage that. She doesn’t know how many other people need the same treatment, or whether their need for it is more or less urgent than yours. In the absence of a price mechanism, decisions are better made by somebody who has a better overview of total demand and supply.
      
      4 2
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      January 14, 2026 1:00pm
      - Ghost
        
        Interesting you automatically think the dr is a she, strange. He os actually a very qualified former specaliast. Two months ago you could get an xray within the week here. The problem isn’t resources, it is lack of funding. I actually don’t need an xray, you should stop assuming so much.
        
        3 5
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        January 14, 2026 1:21pm
      - Taieri
        
        decisions are better made by somebody who has a better overview of total demand and supply.
        ————-
        
        And how can that “somebody” determine the merits of a particular referral from the desk in another city?
        
        2 1
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        January 14, 2026 2:19pm
      - Ghost
        
        Oh and I can give two examples. 81 year old woman who has had pain in her hip for 2 months, dr wants an X-ray of the hip to see what is causing it. Denied. 86 year old male had a fall, still substantial pain in the knee a month after the fall, X-ray denied. X-ray department has said it is out of their control and it is all financial based that they have been cut back in their services. Decisions are better made by the dr who is requesting it, and not a pen pusher sitting 2 hours away. Drs are now openly telling their patients what is going on and the problems they are having requesting tests to do their damn job and diagnose their patients
        
        2 1
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        January 14, 2026 3:53pm
      - wsk12345
        
        It can work. I had a referral for a diagnostic procedure that is under huge demand. In response the DHB sent me out a sample kit and made their decision that I should get the procedure based on that ( with other info provided by doc such as familial history) and I was put on the waiting list. It was only when i changed my ethnicity on my health tecord that I actually got a (priority) appt though.
        
        This is similar to rationing scans. I would have gone private if not accepted.
        
        1 2
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        January 14, 2026 4:03pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Ghost: Why would you expect me to assume your doctor, or any doctor, is male?
        
        On the other two comments. THERE. ISN’T. ENOUGH. FOR. EVERYBODY. WHO. NEEDS, let alone everybody who wants. Never was. Never will be.
        
        Taieri: On the basis of information provided by the candidate patients’ respective doctors. How else could it be done? You’d prefer first come first served? Or maybe a random ballot?
        
        Ghost: What exactly do you know about the patients who did get the treatment requested ahead of the candidates you describe?
        
        1 1
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        January 14, 2026 4:17pm
      - Ghost
        
        Maybe you should educate yourself on what a doctors job is, they don’t work on wants, they work on needing tests done to actually help their patients. They don’t book X-rays or scans for the fun of it. If you are happy denying people treatment, cool, I’m not. As I said, we went fro getting appointments within the week to people now being denied, this is not about there not being enough resources for these patients, it’s about cutting funding, and these people now taking up valuable ED time to get the X-rays their doctors need.
        
        You are obviously a pen pusher
        
        1 2
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        January 14, 2026 4:27pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Another example. It is normal when someone has an incident causing back pain to refuse scans until 6 weeks post incident as statistically most resolve in that time. (ED presentations aside obvs). I’m sure there are many examples of this kind of rationing.
        
        3 1
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        January 14, 2026 4:19pm
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Ghost your two examples of the man and woman in their 80s being denied x rays are not surprising.
        
        You again miss the point. ALL doctors want treatment for THEIR patients. That is impossible. It always has been impossible. It is getting worse because of a shortage of health professionals and a rapidly aging population. This is just the beginning.
        
        New Zealanders keep voting for politicians who simply manage New Zealand’s decline. First world health care requires first world GDP per capita growth. Instead we got Jacinda feels. Followed by Luxon steady as she goes.
        
        5 1
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        January 14, 2026 6:01pm
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        Some years ago my youngest brother thought he had broken his ankle. The local medical practitioner told him that he could book in an X-Ray for the end of next week. So he went to the veterinarian. The X-Ray was taken within minutes and the vet said it was clearly broken.
        “Well, what do I do now?”
        The vet says;
        Take this X-Ray to your doctor. I’m a vet, not a doctor.”
        My youngest brother has more faith in the veterinary profession than he has in the medical profession.
        
        3 0
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        January 14, 2026 8:34pm
      - Ghost
        
        Nikola, do you know how to read, probably not, you do this often. The X-rays, scans are not being denied here because of a lack of workforce, the workforce is there. It is being denied to try save money, which is costing more money as the patients are then being told to go to the ED to get them. Tell me, do you think costs more or less having the staff who want to do the work not being able to do it until the person goes through ED? How do you think it then rolls on to ED having their workload increased to take people who should be getting the X-ray through normal procedures.
        
        Just to recap for you
        
        There is no staff shortage in the X-ray department, they are not only fully staffed but they also have the students there training them. There is no lack of resources. This is solely a government puke deciding to deny people treatment. Oh and btw, talking to an X-ray technician a few weeks ago, they are just as pissed off as the gp’s with this.
        
        0 0
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        January 14, 2026 10:36pm
    - MCōs
      
      In Bangkok, which has no free healthcare for most people I used to get the impression at our nearby hospital they had this expensive kit they needed to get a return on so they might suggest expensive scans or whatever that weren’t entirely necessary.
      They had to pay the pianist on the baby grand in the atrium. Usually he played lively kids tunes for the wee ones from the nearby kids wing who had cancer or missing limbs or whatever, but one day I saw him playing old Thai country favourites to a lady with her family who looked not long for this life. They were probably getting emotional, her thinking about days gone by and the family thinking about the inheritance flying out the window as the medical bills kept coming
      
      1 1
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      January 14, 2026 3:35pm
    - rouppe
      
      Welcome to Capital & Coast DHB for decades.
      
      1 1
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      January 14, 2026 4:12pm
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Sorry you are being utterly unrealistic. The demand for health services is practically unlimited. We can ration using prices. That is the private health sector here. Or we can ration with need criteria.
      
      3 0
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      January 14, 2026 5:51pm
  - artemisia
    
    Exactly. Health is always a black hole. But how about an alternative approach.- first come first served. No need for decisions about severity or urgency. You take your ticket and wait for your number to be called. 100% fair.
    
    Of course if folk want to bring decisions into the mix with no independent assessment every request submitted will be Priority 1. OK maybe a few Priority 2, scheduled once all Priority 1s are sorted. Like never.
    
    5 1
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    January 14, 2026 12:41pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Are we seriously upticking “first come first served” as a methodology for allocating medical resources?
      
      So my mildly annoying sore throat gets seen ahead of your kid’s compound fracture?
      
      3 1
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      January 14, 2026 4:21pm
      - artemisia
        
        Hey, it’s equaliity. Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?
        
        2 2
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        January 14, 2026 7:09pm
I remember when

Update on Australian NetZero efforts: Climate etc.

People have queried what is happening in Australia with their push for a decarbonised all renewables/Net Zero grid since the last update in 2023.
The answer is not much progress but massive amounts of money spent.

Includes –
Probably best summed up by a quote from Nick Cater
“Sadly, our climate and energy policy remains in the grip of an intelligentsia that lacks the wisdom to recognise the boundaries of its own ignorance.”
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January 14, 2026 11:32am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  You could swap out the words “climate and energy” and replace with the functions of the 40 government ministries and agencies and be spot on with how their CE’s operate.
  
  5 1
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  January 14, 2026 3:57pm
voltaire

Headline on Stuff today https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360924369/watch-skier-rescues-avalanche-victim-switzerland-after-spotting-buried-foot
I am not sure how you spot a foot that was buried?????????
4 1
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January 14, 2026 3:36pm
- Christopher Thomson
  
  Bloody lucky buried skier with an exposed foot.
  
  4 0
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  January 14, 2026 4:02pm
Swifty

Remember men, Hai Karate drives women right out of their minds….

https://x.com/doctorlemma/status/2011204359544324560?s=46
3 0
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January 14, 2026 4:00pm
Swifty

Recent Bloomberg piece on US farming subsidies, NZ mentioned and Lockwood interviewed:

https://youtu.be/4NwuUONOAu8
4 0
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January 14, 2026 5:04pm
Crafty

Looks like Razors position as All Blacks coach is becoming untenable. What a complete train wreck!
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January 14, 2026 6:47pm
Swifty

When sheep were king.

https://www.facebook.com/share/17mWoTLuah/?mibextid=wwXIfr

(Mods, I hope I’ve linked this correctly and anonymously.)
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January 14, 2026 7:07pm

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The response to Budget 2026 has been unusually muted
Point of Order
You know what “does not pass the sniff test”? Labour’s incremental response to blatant corruption – this is why they plunged 7.5%
The Daily Blog
When is a Free Speech Union not a Free Speech Union?
The Standard
We Are a Country That Decided Housing Was The Economy
No Minister
My Opening Statement for the UATX Caplan-Jones Immigration Rematch
Utopia
Playing with numbers.
Kiwipolitico
Another non-tariff barrier
Offsetting Behaviour
Rugby Premiership Predictions for Round 18
Stats Chat
Budget 2026
NZCPR
UK Conversion Therapy Ban, Digital ID, Rallies, Elections
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
A central banker’s fiction
Croaking Cassandra
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Get Vaccinated Tomorrow Or Shut Your Pie Hole
Cactus Kate
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker

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