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January 27, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 27 January 2026

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

The new parking fees at Mt Cook are a nonsense. As far as I can tell from the RNZ interview, DoC have had to employ people to manage the parking, there’s the cost of electronic signage and the same for CCTV cameras. Not mentioned was the bureaucracy running the whole thing. It’s hard to believe that costs are recovered.

It’s not even clear what the problem to be solved was. Why didn’t they just … do nothing?
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January 27, 2026 8:02am
- KiWombat
  
  Same issue at Punakaiki and Franz Josef parking areas.
  
  Visited Punakaiki last week. Unable to park anywhere in the village area without a credit card. I only had cash. Even the DOC counter in the visitor centre would not accept cash for parking, but they would accept it to visit their fancy display.
  
  Yes parking is managed by an outside contractor, and the infrastructure seems to be very costly as it is all solar powered in places like Franz Josef.
  
  Unfortunately the parking charge ($20-40 per day) does not mean that they have installed a garbage/recycling bin or even a water bubbler, perhaps that is phase 2. Imagine, we may need to swipe our credit card to use their bubblers soon !
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:01am
- Dougal10
  
  They are going to have to charge per person entering the area and allow you to park for free or dump the stupid policy. The cars just park for km down the roadside now and the visitors enter car park on foot.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:29am
- Nick R
  
  The problem is that the Government has cut DOC’s budget and it needs to leverage its assets to try to recoup some of the shortfall. So get used to paying for access to national parks. This is just the start.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:41am
  - Yabster
    
    can’t agree- are you saying DOC are the outlier when it comes to Govt Departments- 100% efficient with it’s money? The other issue as stated above the parking monitoring etc is likely to be costing more than the revenue being brought in.
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:50pm
  - Paulus
    
    To do what they have is to make clear what their consideration of the Government is so they can be blamed for this fiasco.
    LIke all things Luxon’s fault.
    
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    January 27, 2026 2:48pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  The current government cut DOC’s budget, that’s why. Apparently conservation is a nice-to-have, rather than an essential.
  
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  January 27, 2026 12:38pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  And people just park down the road instead.
  A dumb conservation for profit National fantasy.
  
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  January 27, 2026 1:36pm
- MCōs
  
  We’re going to Twizel for a few days shortly and I’m expecting a shuttle bus up to Aoraki-Mt Cook; free with a Goldcard and a complimentary high tea at The Hermitage
  Any hesitation and I’ll point out we’re British and don’t see why a payment is necessary
  
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  January 27, 2026 3:57pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

An RNZ rail activist-interviewee tells the nation that the Waikato – Auckland train is a success because it has a 99% passenger satisfaction rate.

She also said that it has a lower subsidy than any other NZ passenger train.

I’m dubious about both of these statements.
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January 27, 2026 8:03am
- R
  
  How many of the 99% satisfied were traveling on a Gold Card fee; how many were commercial people attending business meetings? CONTEXT!
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:23am
  - Flossie
    
    I was about to comment that if you’re getting it for free, what’s to be dissatisfied about?!
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:47am
- RoboRob
  
  Thats pure bollocks
  
  From CoPilot
  
  Farebox Recovery Explained
  
  Farebox recovery rate = the percentage of operating costs paid for by passenger fares.
  Te Huia’s current rate
  
  Reported as “surpassing the national average” for public transport.
  New Zealand’s typical regional PT farebox recovery is around 20%.
  That places Te Huia’s fare contribution at roughly 20–25% of total cost.
  
  Who pays the rest
  Source Approx. Share
  Waka Kotahi NZTA 60% (subsidy)
  Waikato Regional Council ~15–20%
  Passenger fares ~20–25%
  
  So the train subsidy is 75% – 80% of the cost by government and the Waikato council. Supposedly the 25% paid by users is more then normal. Really?
  
  Well no. It turns out AI is just reporting the same sort of misinformation, probably from people like this activist.
  
  If I ask about the normal subisidies I get
  
  1. Typical Farebox Recovery Rates (National)
  
  These figures reflect how much of the cost is paid by fares vs. subsidies.
  Region / Mode Farebox Recovery Subsidy Share
  Auckland buses ~25% ~75%
  Auckland trains ~20–25% ~75–80%
  Wellington buses ~30% ~70%
  Wellington trains (Metlink) ~25–35% ~65–75%
  Regional buses (e.g., Waikato, Bay of Plenty) ~20% ~80%
  Ferries (Auckland) ~35–40% ~60–65%
  
  Sorry about the tabbing. But the above shows that the fare recover on Te Huia and 20-25% is at the low end of normal. But the level of general subsidy is eye watering !!
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:55am
- Handyman
  
  The farebox ratio only covers the operating costs such as diesel and the drivers’ wages. It doesn’t cover the $95million capital costs to set up Huia.
  Operating costs also do not usually include corporate overheads.
  I haven’t calculated independently but recall someone publishing the passenger fare covering 5% of total cost, ASSUMING there were no gold cards.
  
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  January 27, 2026 2:07pm
slightlyrighty

I see that Chris Madel, one of the higher polling Republican Gubernatorial candidates in Minnesota, has withdrawn from the race.

He stated “Operation Metro Surge has expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threat. United States citizens, particularly those of colour, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.”

Madel is a Lawyer, among the clients he and his firm represents include Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent identified as the shooter of Renee Good.
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January 27, 2026 8:04am
- kowtow
  
  He’s in the wrong party then.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:59am
  - SGA
    
    Or maybe he has his own mind and doesn’t want to be seen as a “useful idiot” reflexively following the “cause” no matter where it leads?
    
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    January 27, 2026 11:09am
- virtualmark
  
  I suspect that Mr Madel has looked at the polling numbers, figured that he has no chance, and is pulling the pin early before he spends a ton of money and puts too big a dent in his reputation. He can always try again in 4 years time.
  
  Trump, Miller etc thought the tough stand on immigration would be a vote winner, but it’s turning out to be a real problem for them. I’m not sure though whether they would be prepared to change course or back down.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:22am
  - Local Miller
    
    Polls out overnight in the USA show that there is significant support for Trump’s actions on immigration and little support for the “protests” happening in Minnesota.
    I agree that Madel has probably decided local polls are against him. I also suspect that he’s concerned that if he supports Trump and the ICE action he and his family will be at risk.
    
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    January 27, 2026 10:46am
    - RichardX
      
      I guess it depends on what polls you’re looking at with regard to Trump’s support.
      
      I believe you can disapprove of the actions taken by both ICE and the protesters.
      
      The stat from the CBS YouGov poll I find most interesting is the even 50/50 split for and against Trump’s deportation goals vs 37 % in favor of the approach taken with 63% against the approach taken.
      
      Even YouGov saying more support than oppose ICE is tempered by their ICE approval ratings.
      
      https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americans-support-than-oppose-abolishing-ice-immigration-minneapolis-shooting-poll
      
      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-trump-greenland-trump-poll/
      
      https://www.visaverge.com/news/yougov-poll-shows-marginal-rise-in-republicans-backing-abolishing-ice/
      
      https://time.com/7357923/abolish-ice-polls-minneapolis-shootings-alex-pretti-renee-good-trump-immigration/
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:05am
    - kowtow
      
      ‘he and his family will be at risk.’
      
      Given the violence of the anti MAGA extreme leftists, that’s a very real possibility.
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:09am
      - Right of way is Way of Right
        
        How many ICE agents have been shot and killed kowtow? The current total is zero.
        
        Two protesters have been killed in circumstances that could at BEST be described as worthy of further investigation.
        
        kowtow
        /ˌkaʊˈtaʊ/
        verb
        1.
        act in an excessively subservient manner.
        
        Seems appropriate!
        
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        January 27, 2026 2:43pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Reuters/IPSOS have Trump at net -14% on immigration (39% approve, 53% disapprove). A month ago he was -5%.
      
      Same sort of trend on his approval/disapproval and on generic Dem/Rep polling too.
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:15am
      - Wandering Star
        
        Trump has no real will to affect the level of mass deportations required. For starters, getting serious on deportations would cause short term economic issues. He’s probably glad that the recent killings give him an excuse to call it off.
        
        The problem is the very low level of ICE operations is being exaggerated and made to look more visible than it actually is, which has the double effect of mobilizing resistance while being nowhere near enough.
        
        Trump’s biggest handicap is that he hates to be unpopular or disliked, so he inevitably backs down. This is why the negative coverage vis a vis “kids in cages” ended his immigration operation in 2018.
        
        He really needs to go full on dictator for the next three years and ignore any protest, whether by his donors, the media or the public. He can ask for forgiveness later.
        
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        January 27, 2026 1:56pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        WS “He really needs to go full on dictator for the next three years”
        
        Pretty sure he didn’t campaign on promising to become a full on dictator. He should pull a fast one on the American people?
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:05pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        “Pretty sure he didn’t campaign on promising to become a full on dictator. He should pull a fast one on the American people?”
        
        It’s actually arguable that Trump did campaign on promising to become a full on dictator in each of his three campaigns, notwithstanding the rhetorical function of my choice of the word – he campaigned on mass deportations (i.e. millions per year), but he has thus far failed to follow through.
        
        By contrast, he certainly didn’t campaign on bombing Iran nor regime change in Venezuela – but he has eagerly done both without first obtaining a mandate to do either, thus “pulling a fast one” on voters.
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        WS: Not sure why I’m bothering as I suspect you are an AI bot or similar for one of the major enemies of the west, or you certainly act like one.
        
        “he campaigned on mass deportations (i.e. millions per year), but he has thus far failed to follow through. ”
        
        Failed to follow through? Then why are the useful idiots and the subversives in the USA going mental over his mass deportations of illegal immigrants?
        
        “By contrast, he certainly didn’t campaign on bombing Iran nor regime change in Venezuela – but he has eagerly done both without first obtaining a mandate to do either, thus “pulling a fast one” on voters.”
        
        Those were responses to arising situations and he would have consulted very widely to be able to have those precision and limited operations pulled off so well. He DID campaign on protecting American interests from a position of strength.
        
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        January 28, 2026 7:23pm
    - slightlyrighty
      
      I would think the polls you are looking at are somewhat skewed to what you already believe.
      
      According to ABC. 61% think ICE has gone too far.
      
      Reuters/Ipsos state that 53% disapprove.
      
      the Times/Siena Poll shows 58% disapprove.
      
      Quinnipiac has 57% disapproval.
      
      I think what polls you may be seeing indicate with support for immigration policing, but not in the manner it is being carried out.
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:16am
    - Philview
      
      I have listened to a couple of podcasts discussing how ICE is not having major problems in other US cities and this issue is 100% caused by the Democrat leadership in Minnesota.
      
      https://www.ice.gov/topics/eow
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:21am
      - virtualmark
        
        ICE currently has about 15% of its manpower (3,000 out of 20,000 agents) in Minnesota.
        
        That surge is largely for political reasons. Trump/Miller/Noem want the imagery of agents aggressively in the streets. And Trump hates Walz. And there’s the “Somali” angle to play to MAGA’s racism.
        
        It’s also partly for practical reasons. Minneapolis is big enough to matter but small enough that 3,000 agents looks impressive. Minneapolis Police Department is only about 1,000 staff, so ICE is able to overwhelm the local law enforcement.
        
        3,000 ICE agents in New York would basically be invisible. and the NYPD has 30,000 uniformed cops so they’d have the manpower to closely watch and control ICE’s actions.
        
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        January 27, 2026 12:26pm
      - Right of way is Way of Right
        
        I’m sorry, it was the DEMOCRAT leadership that called for a surge of 4000 ICE Agents in to Minneapolis??
        
        Apply some logic, will you?
        
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        January 27, 2026 2:45pm
    - Northshoredoc
      
      Looks mixed to me.
      
      https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-immigration-approval-drops-record-low-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2026-01-26/
      
      https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americans-support-than-oppose-abolishing-ice-immigration-minneapolis-shooting-poll
      
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      January 27, 2026 12:08pm
    - rangitoto
      
      I hear Bovino (Gestapo Greg) has been sacked
      
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      January 27, 2026 2:28pm
- AitchW
  
  Hmmm citizens are also having to carry papers to prove that they’re not ICE. Anti-ICE mobs are blocking roads and demanding that anyone who looks, to them, like ICE prove that they’re not. Anyone who refuses is assaulted…
  
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  January 27, 2026 11:39am
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Southpark will have enough material for an entire season.
    
    ICE asaulting people who look like foreigners and mobs assualting people who look like ICE… couldn’t make this stuff up.
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:06pm
    - virtualmark
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrHIrAu84Vw
      
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      January 27, 2026 5:37pm
    - Vory v zakone
      
      I have a legal degree from the Minnesota Learing Centre… lol
      
      https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17b9KzPQ5U/
      
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      January 27, 2026 7:13pm
  - SGA
    
    “Hmmm citizens are also having to carry papers to prove that they’re not ICE.”
    Errr… What would *papers* that prove you are not ICE look like? A PostIt note with “I am not ICE” written on it in crayon. Something in your claim doesn’t stack up.
    
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    January 27, 2026 2:26pm
  - Philview
    
    This Megan Kelly interview highlights how dangerous Minneapolis is because of Far Left agitators.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUOPFfDTuos
    
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    January 27, 2026 3:51pm
    - RichardX
      
      Have you considered using less partisan sources?
      
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      January 27, 2026 5:54pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Have you considered a less controversial approach?
        
        Two can play this game.
        
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        January 27, 2026 7:11pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Masked Government agents demanding to see your papers have never been the good guys. Ever. Anywhere.
    
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    January 27, 2026 5:37pm
Chuck Bird

I heard Hosking on air say how Hipkins was drawing a very long bow linking climate change to the disaster at the Mount. Hipkins is trying to make political capital from the victims. He is saying spending $6 billion trying reduce CO2 may have prevented the disaster.
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January 27, 2026 8:06am
- kowtow
  
  Funny that , as Hosking is the big draw on NZME radio whereas , in my humble opinion , their newspaper , the Herald has today thrown down the gauntlet to Luxon personally re “climate change”.
  
  The main thrust today is the weather , front page , 3rd anniv Auckland floods,two full pages . Bookended by a column on the Mount disaster. With a ‘comment’ piece by Adam Pearse , neatly next to the Mount story on leaders’ legacy re response to crisis,which is their challenge to Luxon.
  
  In summary NZME is stark raving mad if they think Luxon can control weather systems , but of course they know he can’t and are simply trying to box him personally into a corner , in election year .
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:16am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I have made a complaint to the Media Council about the Herald’s lack of balance on climate change. I should get a decision mid Feb.
    
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    January 27, 2026 8:47am
    - R
      
      Chuck, which year are anticipating receiving a reply from the Media Council
      
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      January 27, 2026 8:50am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I was told mid Feb 2026.
        
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        January 27, 2026 3:10pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    So why was it not Hipkins fault of the Auckland and H Bbay floods, people are watching now, this will back fire
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:56am
    - RoboRob
      
      Because the media are out to get Luxon (in particular) and National (In general).
      
      However, Luxon has not helped the situation at all. Instead of saying ‘Nothing we could have done, even emptying the country of people, would have made a jot of difference to climate change and this slip’ he instead talked about Nationals green energy and carbon neutral 2050 plans. Thick. You cant out green Labour / Greens, and its well known that National stepped back from some of Labours (extreme) climate plans / goals.
      
      Then you have the governments continued ownership and support for TVNZ and RNZ who are essentially team Labour. Goldsmith / National has had 2+ years to do something.
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:12am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes I understand that, but the lying headline that Luxon accuses people of being racist was a step to far, I have looked everywhere, and apart from the vulgar slur headline, he never even mention racist or race, and anyone here saying he did is full of it.
        
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        January 27, 2026 12:28pm
      - Ghost
        
        Well, then maybe you should actually look, because he did say it, but I’m beginning to realize you only hear and read what you want to ignore anything that goes against your agenda.
        
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        January 27, 2026 12:36pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @G
        
        I posted a link to that yesterday. Here you go.
        
        ‘Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says those sharing racist rhetoric about the role of iwi in caring for the maunga where six people remain missing after a landslide should keep it to themselves’
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/584983/prime-minister-luxon-decries-racist-rhetoric-over-role-of-iwi-after-mt-maunganui-slip
        
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        January 27, 2026 1:08pm
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  If I were you, I’d be more worried about Kiwiblog racists trying to use the victims as another excuse to bash Maori.
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:35am
  - Warren Murray
    
    Really?
    
    It’s very clear that Maori and the Council decided to give co-governance a run and share responsibility for managing the Mount.
    
    Accountability follows responsibility.
    
    If it’s not wrong to hold the Council to account for what it did / didn’t do, why is it wrong to hold the other (Iwi) partners for the same?
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:57am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Yes, and it led back to an agreement from 2018
      
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      January 27, 2026 12:28pm
    - Paulus
      
      Not Allowed by the Waitangi Tribunal !
      
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      January 27, 2026 2:55pm
    - greybeard
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360930319/tauranga-mayor-supports-government-inquiry-landslip-pushing-ahead-own-review
      
      This will inevitably turn into an arse-covering exercise by the council, the govt, the iwi, the camp owners, the police, anyone concerned.
      No particular people will be named or held responsible.
      
      Unfortunately for all of these above there is wealth of historical records and documents and reports and essays which is available to the public , many of which have already been referenced on this blog.
      
      I suspect that every effort will be made to add this disaster to the likes of Cave Creek, CTV Building, Pike River etc where nobody was found accountable.
      
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      January 27, 2026 7:40pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “Maori bashing” in far left land = not giving race hustlers a free pass.
    
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    January 27, 2026 7:13pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  A large proportion of the population seem to believe that every weather event is evidence that a man-made climate catastrophe is upon us.
  
  This belief is not going to suddenly disappear…and politicians will milk it for as long as they can.
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:42am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “A large proportion of the population seem to believe that every weather event is evidence that a man-made climate catastrophe is upon us.”
    
    Even if true, NZ emissions are 0.17% of the world’s emissions.
    
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    January 27, 2026 8:50am
    - imalwaysright
      
      The 0.17% of global emissions seems extremely high.
      About half of all of our vegetation is carbon.
      I would guess that we are nett consumers of CO2.
      And if so, why aren’t we getting income from the carbon credit scam?
      
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      January 27, 2026 9:26am
      - KKNZ2025
        
        New Zealand is a net carbon sink if everything that is not allowed to be included in the climate emissions calculations is included.
        “Within Australasia, Australia was a net source of 38.2 ± 75.8 TgC yr−1, and New Zealand was a net CO2 sink of −38.6 ± 13.4 TgC yr−1.”
        
        https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GB007845
        
        A UK study showed 57 companies were responsible for 80% of global climate emissions – which had increased since the Paris agreement.
        
        https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-05/small-cohort-of-mega-polluters-produce-most-of-greenhouse-gas/103669772
        
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        January 27, 2026 10:11am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        Because our emissions are calculated by a UN approved method on measuring emissions from land use, land use change and forestry. Which country led the working group for several years to reach agreement on the methodology? Yes New Zealand.
        
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        January 27, 2026 3:25pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        NZ has the unique talent of kicking itself in the balls.
        
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        January 27, 2026 4:53pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Chuck, I’m not sure you really read what Maggy wrote. She didn’t claim that “every weather event is evidence that a man-made climate catastrophe is upon us” but that “A large proportion of the population seem to believe that….”
      And in this she is essentially correct. A lot of people have drunk the cool aid and believe in Man Made Climate Change. This is largely because of weak politicians and the MSM announcing every weather event as being caused by MMCC.
      Is it raining more than average? Must be man made climate change!
      Unusually hot? Must be man made climate change!
      More Hurricanes than normal! Must be man made climate change!
      Fewer Hurricanes than normal! ….
      I think you get the message.
      
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      January 27, 2026 10:55am
      - Graeme Hall
        
        Freezing winters in the Northern Hemisphere – media stops bleeting about climate change i.e., human induced global warming – until next summer.
        
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        January 27, 2026 11:49am
- lastmanstanding
  
  Luxon is going to look pretty stupid if it turns out cutting the non native trees contributed to the land slip.
  Tauranga Council should not be holding any inquiry into the matter. They are not independent. Their only role should be to answer hard questions around their actions or non actions as regards the matter.
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:55am
  - KiWombat
    
    Luxon did not cut down the trees, local iwi did !
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:06am
  - imalwaysright
    
    ‘Inquiries’ in NZ tend to blame a system failure rather than the people who are responsible.
    Confrontation and personal responsibility are to be avoided at all costs.
    
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    January 27, 2026 10:08am
  - mogg
    
    Luxon was on One News suggesting that people talking about those trees and the early reports of small land movements, were putting out “misinformation”, he repeated it several times.
    What’s wrong with him, we can’t see it with our own eyes, he is turning into Jacinda the ‘one source of truth.’
    
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    January 27, 2026 11:18am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He never stated there was a racist comment made, as long as he didn’t say that it was racist then I dont really care what else he said
      
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      January 27, 2026 12:43pm
    - keepcalmcarryon
      
      He’s wet and squishy and in the wrong party.
      See also what’s happened to Australia’s liberal and UKs Tory parties, they aren’t the conservatives they pretended to be.
      More fool the voters who keep supporting them.
      
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      January 27, 2026 1:42pm
    - Chuck Bird
      
      “What’s wrong with him?”
      
      For a start, he is poll driven. He should give Pauline a call and ask how she got to be so popular.
      
      4 2
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      January 27, 2026 3:15pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Yes, he has stood on the same rake Judith Collins stood on over the Manawanui sinking. Sometimes it is better to shut up rather than blathering on about misinformation!
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:33pm
    - MCōs
      
      Sometimes it’s best not to hang your hat on the first vaguely plausible theory you read
      
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      January 27, 2026 4:05pm
      - R
        
        MCos….There are a significant number of bloggers (predominately activists) on KB, who should take your message on board, and think rationally before blogging
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:16pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It possibly did have a small part to it, but it probably is not the major reason. Yesterday I read that there was a slip in 1977 in exactly the same place. When I was there in 1980 the trees were there yet the slip still happened in the same place as in 1977
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:37pm
    - Quail
      
      The deity formerly known as Nigel 6888,
      No date set yet for the Court Martial.
      Perhaps they are not going to bother?
      
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      January 27, 2026 5:44pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Today I have seen a drone pic snout the slip at the Mt. clearly Luxon is correct, the trees did not get cut down and create the slip, the view from above says it all( clearly Luxon had seen them) the whole slip is surrounded y trees, there has not been trees cut down where the slip was, have a look before coming back rubbishing me, the trees are there, and let’s not forget some trees came down with the slip including the huge marcracarpa
    
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    January 27, 2026 7:04pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That’s what I was talking about yesterday, he never visited, he never made a statement, he never sympathised, and in the news tried to blame Luxon again for rain, no way is he fit to be pm ever again, and I well remember him leaving H Bay people to their selves after he called locals liars for saying h that gangs were looting their property
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:54am
  - Ghost
    
    Because you lack the ability to read any links
    
    Chris Hipkins MP
    
    ·
    The news today from Mount Maunganui is heartbreaking.
    My thoughts are with the families and loved ones facing unimaginable loss, the emergency responders who have worked tirelessly over recent days, and the entire community coming to terms with this tragedy.
    No words can capture the weight of this loss, but the thoughts of everyone in New Zealand are with you.
    
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    January 27, 2026 10:28am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Well I did not see that on any website anywhere, you put that link up yesterday, but I still have not seen him say anything productive or helpful, I seen him blame Luxon last night for it raining, which was utterly disgusting I thought. And as I replied to you last night my mate is head coach at TSLSC and will have been helping in activities at the club rooms with swear and rescue and possibly civil defence
      
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      January 27, 2026 12:46pm
- Ian
  
  Didn’t the climate thingy start under Ardern? She had six long years to fix it. Other than money spent/wasted, nothing changed…
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:12am
  - R
    
    This ideological nonsense about climate and weather began back in 1980’s Tomorrow’s Schools; when Real Science was replaced with environmental ideology.
    
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    January 27, 2026 8:22pm
- Raphael
  
  This popped up in my FB feed today,
  42 years ago Invergacgill and Southland had massive devistation from a “stalled rain system” that cause d some impressive flooding, atleast the equal of what we’ve had the last couple of years.
  
  This predates the current climate hysteria (back in the 80’s it was was the “Acid Rain” that everyone was freaking out about)
  
  https://www.facebook.com/share/1ANku5p9G9/
  
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  January 27, 2026 11:29am
  - Raphael
    
    Oh, yes, I forgot, it was not just the acid rain, it was also “global cooling” and fears that we were going to enter a new ice age.
    
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    January 27, 2026 11:44am
- Beach Haven expat
  
  However Hosking said he didn’t want to even get into the whole removal of tree side of it alluding that it was some sort of conspiracy theory, which seems odd.
  HDPA was well on to it in the evening so we may see a pivot from Hosking. She does have a track record of picking up on popular issues before him and then him trailing in her wake.
  
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  January 28, 2026 2:39am
Cassandra

With comments from PM Luxon and Minister Mitchell about how useful Maori tribes have been during natural disasters and that the tree removal at The Mount didn’t necessarily contribute to the landslide, while Tuku Morgan says that the relationship between the Government and his tribe, Tainui, is broken, it looks like National is bending over backwards to appease Maoris.

That might be good politics – I don’t really know. It seems to me that the Maori definition of and perspective on everything is “good if it favours Maori over others and bad if it favours everybody equally”.

I note, for example, that there have been lots of comments blaming NZ’s lack of action on CO2 emissions for the landslide yet no rebuttal from Luxon or Mitchell that that is just plain daft.

Therefore I do not support the National Party approach at all. I think National might just find out the hard way that there are some things that are either right or wrong and Maori privilege is like pregnancy, in that you can’t just have a little bit of it. Sometimes you’ve got to have principles.

And it now seems that the slip was caused by heavy rain landing on an area stripped of trees to counter myrtle rust in 2017.

As for removing trees you don’t like, help yourself – just don’t expect ratepayers to fund it.
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January 27, 2026 8:09am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Well, they have been useful during natural disasters, and it would be better to focus first on the rescue and clean up operation, and then take time to carefully consider all the facts, before determining causes and assigning responsibility.
  
  Please don’t let’s conflate “failure to prioritise finding some way to blame Maori” with “bending over backwards to appease Maori”.
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:27am
  - Cassandra
    
    It’s a pattern, Dudley, not a one off.
    
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    January 27, 2026 8:46am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Yes, it is. Every time somebody fails to bash Maori, they are accused of bending over backwards to appease.
      
      Providing Maori with privileges not accorded to anybody else, simply because they are Maori, is wrong.
      
      Treating Maori fairly, in the same way as you would treat anybody else, is not. Defending people against premature blame is not.
      
      In this case Luxon has acknowledged the marae that have been generous and helpful, and he has declined to join in leaping to a conclusion which may or may not, on careful consideration of all the facts, prove to be correct. Just as he has declined to agree with those who’ve leapt to the conclusion that it’s the Government’s fault for not doing enough on climate change.
      
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      January 27, 2026 9:09am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Agree with your comment, except for the first sentence.
        
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        January 27, 2026 10:32am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Has it occurred to you that it is actually the lefty racism of low expectations (ie assuming those with Maori heritage are intrinsically retarded and need special taxpayer funded help with everything) is one major reason why there is a backlash of sorts? Keep in mind everyone alive today was born into the modern world.
        
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        January 27, 2026 7:19pm
- Quail
  
  Cassandra,
  Agreed ,
  IMHO , sadly Nationals continued support of a NZ divided by race will inevitably cost them the next election.
  One would have thought they would have the intelligence to have done the numbers , let alone having and applying democratic principles.
  But no ,apparently not!
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:32am
  - Cassandra
    
    “There has been no serious action on the bias embedded in state-owned media, despite said bias being patently obvious to all but the most oblivious. The cultural assumptions baked into the public service remain largely untouched. The architecture of progressive policy has been preserved, with only the rhetoric softened in the lame hope that we won’t notice.” Long term National Party member and candidate Ashley Church.
    
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    January 27, 2026 8:43am
    - RoboRob
      
      And yet we and Ashley pray for another 3 years of National led government.
      
      It really is a choice between a douche bag and a shit sandwhich*
      
      * Southpark
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:18am
  - kowtow
    
    The parliamentary National Party have a very strong “partnership” constituency .
    
    As such those people are traitors to the constitution and its democratic principles and to New Zealand’s historic cultural values , the foremost arguably , being egalitarianism.
    
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    January 27, 2026 10:03am
- MCōs
  
  Up north of Gisborne the land used to be covered in native forest, which was cleared for farming. Unfortunately this made the land very prone to erosion so it was replanted with radiata pine. These forests were then sold off by the Lange government and chopped down again and it was back to the erosion problem with the addition of the dreaded slash.
  So, what happened previously on Mt Maunganui?
  By definition the exotic trees that have apparently been removed weren’t there forever. What was there before and has there been a history of erosion on that maunga? Was the slip the other day predictable?
  
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  January 27, 2026 8:55am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The Mangatu Block was planted in pine in the 1960s
    
    https://photonews.org.nz/gisborne/issue/GPN202_19710421/t1-body-d52.html
    
    There’s still pine being planted and felled in the district.
    
    Who knew that one of the biggest forest owners in the region was the Chinese Government?
    https://mangatu.co.nz/kanuka-forest/
    https://www.cfgcnz.co.nz/our-story
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:40am
    - Taieri
      
      Who knew that one of the biggest forest owners in the region was the Chinese Government?
      ———
      
      Just as it used to own a number of Otago forests. For example Wenita Forest used to be majority owned by Sinotrans, which is a government owned company.
      
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      January 27, 2026 4:06pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Again he was talking about after the tragedy, and from what I have heard and seen that is true, how often have you seen disaster with marae handing out cooked food to anyone who wants it, or letting people sleep in the marae
  
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  January 27, 2026 12:48pm
BeaB

RNZ never gives us the margin of error when they report polls. You would think the latest poll said something significant from the excited reporting but the differences are so slight they are probably meaningless.
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January 27, 2026 8:09am
- MCōs
  
  I listened to that report
  About as exciting as the prospect of a leaders debate
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:11am
  - MCōs
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019020539/latest-rnz-reid-research-political-poll-released
    
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    January 27, 2026 9:25am
    - RoboRob
      
      Wow. Labour on 35% National on 31.9%
      
      Not a good result for National and fantastic for Labour.
      
      Yes I know that the right can still ‘win’ but from a pure party v party perspective, thats bad.
      
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      January 27, 2026 11:21am
      - keepcalmcarryon
        
        To put the numbers differently: 66.9% of the population have no imagination.
        
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        January 27, 2026 1:47pm
  - RoboRob
    
    OMG, I’m a political tragic but it hurts just thinking about some ‘Chris v Chris’ unarmed combat.
    
    Viewing that should come with a health warning.
    
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    January 27, 2026 11:23am
- MCōs
  
  +/-3.1%
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-rnz-reid-research-poll-brings-boost-for-nz-first-labour/FHZLJKXJHBDN3BKCC4Y7UQWXQI/
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:32am
- Graeme Hall
  
  Forget the margin of error when the methodology is the problem. Watch out for SLOP it seems many of our polling companies use it because it is cheap and therefore faulty – even AI knows it – see below.
  
  A Self-Selected Listener Opinion Poll (SLOP) is an unscientific polling method where participants voluntarily choose to respond, often leading to biased and unreliable results. This approach is commonly used by media outlets to engage audiences but does not accurately represent the broader population’s opinions.
  
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  January 27, 2026 11:58am
Chuck Bird

“And it now seems that the slip was caused by heavy rain landing on an area stripped of trees to counter myrtle rust in 2017.”

I tend to support Ian Wishart’s view.

Kane’s post discussed a joint Tauranga Council/Iwi decision in 2023 to remove exotic oaks, pine and chestnuts from Mauao for Māori spiritual and anti-colonial reasons, but those trees were further away and not connected to the slip area, which, remember, was cleared in 2017.

https://centrist.nz/ian-wishart-are-climate-activists-ignoring-the-evidence-at-mt-maunganui/
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January 27, 2026 8:23am
- RichardF
  
  An arborist told me that large tress do very little to stablilise the ground, when he was doing a quote to remove several connifers along our driveway. Our drive is steep and runs parallel to the road; removing the trees requires traffic management (don’t get me started!) and I had concerns about the bank if we took the trees out. We didn’t, the costs are prohibitive for now.
  
  I don’t know if he’s correct, I bet it depends on the tree type and many other factors. To me, a large block of trees surely is better than nothing to support a hillside. So the photos look damning…but would the slip have happened anyway? NZ hills are scoured with slips that once supported loads of vegetation.
  
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  January 27, 2026 5:35pm
  - muzled
    
    The root system on a conifer and a pohutakawa are vastly different.
    
    There is a pohutakawa on the road to Opito that has roots that run along the bank (outside obviously) for about 30 metres, it’s quite incredible.
    
    Arborist might be right on your conifers, but it was pohutakawas that were removed.
    
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    January 27, 2026 5:58pm
  - Ghost
    
    Trees would likely not have prevented the fatal Mt Maunganui landslide, says disaster risk specialist Dr Tom Robinson.
    
    Robinson, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury’s School of Earth and Environment told The Post that trees would not have held back a landslide of that depth and scale.
    
    There had been a slip in the same place in 1977, there was a lot of rain, and the slide was a deep one, said the disaster risk and resilience specialist.
    
    article
    
    But did the 2022-23 tree removals trigger last week’s deadly landslide?
    
    “Not really,” said Stolte.
    
    Tree roots may not be deep enough to control a deep, fast-moving slip like this, he said.
    
    “Removing trees could contribute, but can I point my finger and say this caused it? No. It’s not like these trees were removed and the landslide happened immediately. It’s a lot of factors adding up,” he said.
    
    Stolte said the role of extreme weather could be far bigger factor.
    
    “Unprecedented rainfall and susceptible soil conditions are some of the big factors,” he said.
    
    Article
    
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    January 27, 2026 6:30pm
    - CJames
      
      The problem with Stolte’s statement is the rainfall wasn’t unprecedented. And him getting that easily checked statement wrong makes everything else he says suspect.
      With regards Dr Robinson’s statement, there were actually two slips in 1977 (look at the LIDAR images https://theconversation.com/the-mount-maunganui-tragedy-reminds-us-landslides-are-nzs-deadliest-natural-hazard-274201) and the slip started in the area of land between the head of the two slips.
      
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      January 27, 2026 7:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        274 mm in 24 hours, it broke the record of 224mm in 2005. Want to tell us about the landslides during that 2005 event. Probably not. It was that event that lead to the geotechnical warnings to Tauranga City Council about landslide‑prone “runout zones“.
        
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        January 27, 2026 7:46pm
      - R
        
        Remember, Robinson is an academic, no doubt God on theory; but no practical experience, not a man of the land with observational knowledge.
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:28pm
      - CJames
        
        As Ian Wishart reported from the newspaper published at the time “monster rainstorm dumped 347mm of rain in a 24-hour period on Tauranga on 17/18 May 2005, leading NIWA’s Jim Salinger to claim it, justifiably, as a new record:
        “Tauranga Airport recorded a massive 346.8 mm of rainfall in 24-hours. This was well above any other daily rainfall total there in records, which commenced in 1910.””
        Now do we believe old Met Service or new one? Remember Ian proved Met Service wrong on “unprecedented” Hamilton heatwave by using the newspapers of the time. The airport would probably be closest gauge to Mt Maunganui wouldn’t it? They also had 635mm rain in that calendar month so soil was well and truly saturated.
        As the reports Maggy linked to, there were regular significant slips. The ones above the campground were the 1977 ones. Other slips occurred in other big rainstorms. 2011 had big ones while 2005 had none shown.
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:43pm
      - CJames
        
        I suspect that the Met Service got trapped by only looking at daily data, not a 24 hour period like Dr Salinger did. 300mm falling between 8pm and 4am would be seen as 150mm on each day. Lies, damn lies and statistics?
        
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        January 27, 2026 8:59pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Remember, Robinson is an academic, no doubt God on theory;
        
        Dr Robinson’s research specialities seem to be focused on earthquakes and land (slide) hazards.
        
        https://profiles.canterbury.ac.nz/Tom-Robinson.
        
        I’ve not come across him in terms of storm-induced landslides or reforestation for soil stability in erosion-prone landscapes.
        
        I’m not sure if he is familiar with landslips in the Tauranga -Bay of Plenty area.
        
        The framing of a question as to whether tree removal CAUSED/TRIGGERED the landslide is deliberately misleading .
        
        Soil – regolith Landslides result from a combination of various factors (slope angle, soil/rock structure and moisture content, vegetation cover) and some triggering factor(s) (earthquake, intense rainfall,) and may happen suddenly or some hours/days/months after the trigger event.
        
        Tree removal may well be a factor in increasing the soil’s susceptibility to slipping…and that deserves investigation.
        
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        January 27, 2026 9:37pm
      - CJames
        
        There is another issue with academics on the landslides. Many don’t have field experience working with contractors, and they don’t have to get it right. How many of them are qualified as CPEng Engineering Geologists? Those are the people who have to sign off building permits and the like for constructions on slopes. They have criminal liability attached to their signature. What academic has that?
        I know from a close family connection that much of their work is assessing the stability of land prone to slips and the remedial work afterwards. Think of the Skyline slip in Queenstown or the fixing of the Kaikoura roads. No university lecturers’ involvement in the work there.
        
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        January 28, 2026 5:40am
Gravelroad

Yes, the National Party’s apparent ongoing policy and need to appease, protect and fund certain sections of society is getting tiresome.
But if it continues (which it will) it could cost them the election.
On the other hand, a couple of commenters on here have claimed that if National doesn’t do this it would be “political suicide”.
So the National Party (which I have supported in the past) is now neither one thing nor the other.
They seem determined to pander to some in the hopes they will vote for them later this year.
They won’t.
Know your voter base, National. How about some respect for them?
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January 27, 2026 8:33am
- Damocles11
  
  Luxon is a corporate wokester who is there to implement and embed the agenda of corporate NZ. They have already gone so far with implementing and entrenching Maorification that they are ‘not for turning’. Anyone resisting the agenda is a threat so must invariably be branded a ‘racist’. Potaka is there to keep the gravy train from the Treasury to Maori coffers rolling. That’s why a religious sect pockets $10 million of our dollars for a flash do-up of their marae. So much for cutting ‘wasteful’ spending.
  
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  January 27, 2026 11:25am
  - R
    
    Damocles, National inherited the implementation andentrenched agenda from the actions of the last TWO Labour governments.
    The MSM HAVE ENSURED THAT THIS AGENDA CAN NEVER SUCCESFULLY BE FULLY REPEALED.
    Learn to live with consequences of your voting decisìns
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:25pm
    - Damocles11
      
      I can honestly say that I have never voted for Labour, the Greens, or NZ First in my entire life. So the debacle of 2017 – which laid the ground-work for the era of co-governance & Robbo’s massive borrowing and spending – had nothing whatsoever to do with me. I’m living with the consequences of the decisions of those dunderheaded voters in 2017 and 2020.
      
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      January 27, 2026 3:36pm
BeaB

We are told 6 people are still missing at Mt Maunganui but we know there are already bodies at Waikato Hospital being identified by experts. So how many are actually still missing. Why are we fed this bs?
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January 27, 2026 8:33am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  It’s not BS, sadly for the relatives thousands of tonnes of dirt and rocks mixed with building materials travelling at even a low speed does significant damage to all in its path. Not hard to work out.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:38am
- Ghost
  
  There were 6 people known to be buried and 3 missing whose location wasn’t known.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:44am
- MCōs
  
  We’ve been told six people are missing, likely deceased and some remains have been found.
  The six names have been released, but until their bodies are identified and returned to their families they are still missing.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:56am
kowtow

Poignant day in Israel as the body of the last hostage is repatriated .

Ran Gvili , a police officer . Fought the invaders on the first day , made the highest sacrifice.
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January 27, 2026 8:35am
kowtow

I see the ICR rioters have attacked a hotel in Minnesota where they believed Federal officers were staying.

How peaceful is that ?

Makes one wonder just who this tiny minority of trouble makers actually is who the media are beating up into being some sort of nationwide grassroots movement .
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January 27, 2026 8:37am
- Wandering Star
  
  “Makes one wonder just who this tiny minority of trouble makers actually is who the media are beating up into being some sort of nationwide grassroots movement.”
  
  Sounds like reports about events in Iran.
  
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  January 27, 2026 1:41pm
- Damocles11
  
  They are probably incensed by the execution of a disarmed healthcare worker. If nothing untoward has happened then why has Trump removed the bloke who was helming the ICE operations in that city & why has he promised to wind-up ICE operations in that city in the near future?
  
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  January 27, 2026 3:41pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Prof Martin Brook has provided an account of modern landslide research with LiDAR images of old slips on Mt Maunganui.

https://theconversation.com/the-mount-maunganui-tragedy-reminds-us-landslides-are-nzs-deadliest-natural-hazard-274201

(Prof Brook has been involved with research on the slips on Kaiti Hill, Gisborne…. very close (too close????) to where I live).
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January 27, 2026 8:54am
TripeWryter

When I was a boy my convent school started each day with the rosary – all 50-odd Hail Marys, the five Our Fathers, the five Glory Be to the Father, the five Memorare. And then the litany.
Sometimes if Sister felt like it we’d also sing Hail Holy Queen …
Depending on the class, depending on how quickly we could rattle the beads … it was 15 minutes.
We did this for years.
I was reminded of this when I watched a YouTube video last night of Tina Nixon on The Platform interviewing Todd Stephenson.
It seems he’s told the Ministry of Health that setting aside FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY EACH DAY is not a good use of public servants’ time and that they are to stop it.
Well done, Todd!
There is no good reason for organised prayer time in the public service.
There is no place for it just as there would be no place for a recitation of the rosary.
Or a hymn.
I have friends in various public departments.
It seems that a lot of the enthusiasm for karakias comes from managers with a misplaced zeal for pleasing and appeasing thems above them.
One friend says that he and others in their government agency deliberately arrive after the karakia has been mumbled. The late-comers include Maoris, he says.
He is a Christian. He also absolutely refuses to eat food that has been ‘blessed’ or prayed over with a karakia.
I know a young schoolteacher who ran into problems with her school leadership because she refused to start the day with a karakia.
It seems conscientious belief doesn’t hold much sway any more.
You have people in government departments facing coercion to go along with something they don’t believe in – and in something they believe is harmful – the praying to gods that are not their God.
Fifteen minutes a day.
The government should abolish the practice.
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January 27, 2026 9:15am
- MCōs
  
  Don’t American schools have the pledge of allegiance and/or sing the national anthem?
  I know Thai schools do along with strict hair regulations and a dress code that extends through university.
  All part of an attempt to enforce subservience (I don’t think it applies so much to the ultra expensive schools of the uber-rich families who run the country)
  
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  January 27, 2026 11:03am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    I’m not defending any of that but it is not the same as prayer. A school is located in just one country and paid for by the taxpayers of that country. But students may have many different religions. So making students pledge allegiance to the country they are in is quite different from making them say a prayer.
    
    5 2
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    January 27, 2026 2:01pm
- imalwaysright
  
  “You have people in government departments facing coercion to go along with something they don’t believe in.”
  
  Sounds like a job for the Human Rights Commission….Yeah,right.
  
  They would probably censure the complainant.
  
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  January 27, 2026 12:02pm
- Paulus
  
  Those women behind this in the Departments would take no notice of anybody doing against what they want. After all it is Maori so is totally acceptable.
  Anybody missing or objecting would find that they did not get the rise or promotion they expected.
  
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  January 27, 2026 3:07pm
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    I can assure you that the consequences would be far worse. They would be career ending. You would be sidelined. You would have no future.
    
    4 2
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    January 27, 2026 4:20pm
  - RichardX
    
    More misogyny from Paulus.
    
    1 1
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    January 27, 2026 5:51pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      You realise you are living in a giant feminist commune?
      
      1 2
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      January 27, 2026 7:21pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360929565/man-who-brought-down-scott-robertson
An excerpt:
“When he looks back on his two years in charge, Robertson might reconsider that first fateful decision to appoint Scott Barrett as his captain. Robertson needed to reach out. He needed to embrace the diversity of New Zealand. He needed a man like Ardie Savea.
Culpably, Robertson chose to play it safe. He went for his own guy. It looked pale and stale at the time, but it proved way more lethal than that.”
So would Richie McCaw or Kieran Read be suitable to be an All Blacks captain today?
Or would they be lacking in “diversity” and too “pale and stale”?
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January 27, 2026 9:32am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Merit it seems in the new DEI department at the NZRU is like it is at the shill department of journalism known as Stuff.
  Captains are captains but they are also players in the team. Sometimes the right one comes along and sometimes they evolve into the job.
  Barrett and Savea are not the come along nor the evolution as both failed to be both player and captain when needed…..
  Merit, not diversity is the only strength in a game like rugby.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:54am
  - Paulus
    
    Under new DEI consideration replacement must be a women !
    
    3 2
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    January 27, 2026 3:08pm
  - muzled
    
    MEI – Merit. Excellence. Intelligence.
    
    1 1
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    January 27, 2026 6:01pm
- Scott
  
  Gravel – thanks for posting this. Mark Reason appears to be saying that white men are not good at captaining the All Blacks and the coach needs to get with the times and appoint a pacific islander or a Maori to the position. Because of diversity and avoiding a stale pale monoculture? Only with a pacific islander or Maori can we find a natural leader. Indeed anyone called Barrett or Kane just aren’t good enough and can’t be relied upon to make good decisions at critical moments.
  
  I think that is what he’s saying? It sounds like nonsense to me. But maybe I’m not understanding him correctly? 🙄
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:57am
- TripeWryter
  
  Gravelroad:
  I read Mark Reason’s piece before. I thought Stuff had done the decent thing and got rid of him.
  He’s never been backward in making plain his antipathy towards the Barretts particularly Beauden.
  He was also one of the media cheer-leaders barking for Scott Robertson to not just succeed Ian Foster but also displace him.
  I was uncomfortable that Reason seemed to imply that the All Blacks captain should reflect the racial make-up of the team.
  No, he should not.
  We do not need identity politics in our national rugby team.
  If the Island boys want to play – and play better – under an Island captain then let them – back in their own Island teams.
  Of Scott Robertson’s departure: as Paul Lewis wrote in The New Zealand Herald yesterday, Scott Robertson hustled for that job, he manoeuvred and manipulated the NZR, the cheer-leading hacks so that he would build support and bugger Ian Foster – and now, for Robertson, it all turned to ashes.
  
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  January 27, 2026 9:59am
- virtualmark
  
  I suspect that’s right, for a couple of reasons.
  
  Firstly, the Crusaders have their own strong culture, which has clearly worked very well for them. But a lot of the other Super/AB level players in NZ resent that culture. You saw that with Mark Hammett’s time at the Hurricanes, with the famous Tana Usage “We’re not having any of that Crusaders bullshit up here”. It will be interesting to hear over the coming years if that cultural gap was a problem with Robertson at the ABs.
  
  Second, Scott Barrett’s not the best player in the team or the most highly regarded … he’s not even an automatic starting pick at the moment. I wonder whether he has the same mana in the group that Ardie has? I’m not saying the best player has to be the captain, but the captain has to be someone the rest of the team look up to and will follow.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:17am
  - gravedodger
    
    The challenge to Mark Hammett came from Otago hard man Hooker Andrew Hoare at an early training for the Hurricanes?
    
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    January 27, 2026 1:57pm
    - virtualmark
      
      From what I hear it was pretty widespread. Tana was the dominant personality in that team. My understanding is that the Hurricanes higher-ups wanted a big culture change in the team, which is where they saw Hammett coming in.
      
      Didn’t take.
      
      Hurricanes still tend to play helter-skelter rugby. They’re very good at it and when it comes off it’s great to watch. Gets them to the semis most years, and then they hit a team that plays with structure (Crusaders, Chiefs, 2024 Blues) and they get suffocated.
      
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      January 27, 2026 2:20pm
- MCōs
  
  Another appalling article by tabloid journalist Mark Reason who, like his father makes a living winding people up
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:20am
  - Scott
    
    MCos – quite right. His father is John Reason who used to make a living rubbishing the All Blacks and NZ rugby. My dear old dad used to always refer to him as “that dopey John Reason”.
    
    4 2
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    January 27, 2026 10:51am
  - greybeard
    
    Whatever else he was trying to say at least he got the main point 100% correct: Scott Barrett is not AB captaincy material. The wrong man at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.
    
    5 3
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    January 27, 2026 12:17pm
    - Yabster
      
      either is Ardie “I’m staying in Japan if…” Savea- great player not a captain. Reason is a just a moron, he suggested Papali’i- geeze the guy isn’t even the best openside at the Blues.
      
      Long term Cam Roigard.
      
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      January 27, 2026 1:07pm
- Christopher Thomson
  
  Taking the AB coaches job is going to be a poisoned chalice.
  
  The team will get hammered in South Africa.
  
  They will likely be dumped out at the quarter-finals or at best the semi’s in 2027.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:21am
- Philview
  
  I rate Ardie Savea and Jamie Joseph and a shame the media have to make everything about race.
  
  6 5
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  January 27, 2026 10:22am
  - marcw
    
    You mean the Jamie Joseph who’se Hurricans’ team were eliminated in last year’s Super quarter finals. By the Brumbies. Yet the Otago team, under another coach, was in the NPC final against Canterbury in the in the same season.
    
    You mean that Jamie Joseph, really?
    
    5 2
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    January 27, 2026 2:20pm
    - marcw
      
      Sorry, I meant Highlanders team.
      
      2 0
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      January 27, 2026 2:39pm
- pdm
  
  GD if we keep going down the diversity track soon you will need someone with a wooden leg in any All Black test match 23.
  
  I don’t know what the hell went wrong with Robertson but am leaning towards him not being allowed to coach the All Blacks the way he coached the Crusaders.
  
  A man like him does not go from highly successful to dunce virtually overnight.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:32am
  - greybeard
    
    I thing the main problem during Robertson’s short tenure was not the coaching but the player selection: too many past their prime, too many asked to play a hybrid game and excel in multiple positions – “Jack of all trades, master of none”.
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:19pm
  - keepcalmcarryon
    
    Yep not many women in Robertson’s starting 15 either although some will debate that.
    
    4 1
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    January 27, 2026 1:55pm
- Observant Octagenarian
  
  Mark Reason lacks reason. In my opinion, the real reason is parochialism. Between Auckland/Waikato Blues/Chiefs and Canterbury/Crusaders.
  They have been at it for years. Think Ranfurly Shield and Super Rugby.
  You still see it today on Rugby shows.
  I can see the Blues and Chiefs All Blacks, asked if they support Ian Foster, all saying YES!
  So it’s a small joining of dots to see today’s ABs doing the same.
  The tragedy is that David Kirk can’t see it!
  
  9 2
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  January 27, 2026 11:05am
- imalwaysright
  
  Heard Chris Laidlaw being interviewed this morning on the Platform.
  
  He was coached by Fred Alan whose coaching involved running the team around the field to warm up.
  
  Chris said the game tactics were the responsibility of the team!
  
  9 0
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  January 27, 2026 12:06pm
  - Biscuit
    
    Fred was a curiosity.
    
    His playing career was severely impacted by World War II and he retired immediately after captaining the All Blacks on the 1949 tour of South Africa where all four Tests were lost.
    
    He then became a coach and, with the All Blacks, went 14 games unbeaten from 1966-69 before, I have been told, he was shafted in similar fashion to Razor…
    
    8 2
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    January 27, 2026 12:18pm
Christopher Thomson

Here’s one to start the day; Suella Braverman has defected from the Conservatives to Reform.
18 2
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January 27, 2026 9:59am
- Wandering Star
  
  If Reform is going to be a home for useless Tories leaving the sinking ship who are responsible for the mess in the UK against which the rise of Reform is a reaction, then Reform is obviously the Tories in a skin suit.
  
  4 4
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  January 27, 2026 1:36pm
  - mogg
    
    Stella Braverman was the one who outspoken about Tories breaking promises especially on immigration, she was sacked several times for embarrassing the lying Tory leadership. She has been aligned with Reform policy for a long time.
    
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    January 27, 2026 4:46pm
Yvette

Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park landslide
In questioning ChatGPT regarding a technical term for particular hillside movements, AI without prompting offers as an example:

a failing slope left with an unsupported wedge that then gives way — in a New Zealand context comes from a recent, very stark example in the Bay of Plenty.

Mount Maunganui / Mauao slips (Bay of Plenty, 2026)
In late January 2026, heavy rain triggered a series of land movements on the slopes above the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park near Mauao. Local observers have noted that historic slips had already cut into the volcanic ash and scoria slopes, leaving narrow strips of unstable ground between old scarps. As intense rainfall saturated the soil, the remaining wedge of slope — starved of lateral support from the failed neighbours — ultimately collapsed in a larger slip. This is a live illustration of multiple precursor failures leaving an unsupported central zone that eventually fails.

This sort of sequence — old slip scarps, weakened by weathering and then reactivated or completely lost under heavy rain — is exactly how progressive or retrogressive landslide mechanisms operate in nature.

Geomorphologists see these as progressive or retrogressive landslide behaviors, where one failure changes the stresses on neighbouring ground until another gives way.

In a “Conversation” article there are two images –
https://theconversation.com/the-mount-maunganui-tragedy-reminds-us-landslides-are-nzs-deadliest-natural-hazard-274201#
– showing landslides “clustered along the coastal cliffs, but two particularly large ancient landslides can be seen directly above the holiday park”. Marked L1 and L2, –
these older slips left behind prominent head scarps – steep, crescent-shaped breaks in the hillside – indicating where large volumes of material once detached and flowed downslope onto flatter ground below …

The January 22 landslide appears to have initiated in the narrow zone between the two earlier slips. This is a particularly vulnerable position: when neighbouring landslides occur, the remaining wedge of land between them can lose lateral support, becoming unstable

Whether, after a massive slip in 1977, trees were planted within its area and recently as nearly 50 year old specimens were removed, those may have effected the buttressing on the west side of what apparently recently slid.

This may make the removal of those trees relevant, or not, and could shift ownership, if any, for this tragedy
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January 27, 2026 10:03am
- Don Beckett
  
  The removal of the trees is definitely relevant. It has been a practice for probably centuries, to plant trees to allow the root systems to stabilize land that would otherwise be unstable, resulting in landslides.
  
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  January 27, 2026 10:54am
  - Yvette
    
    Don Beckett, further images are this Facebook post
    https://www.facebook.com/reel/1167834315430969
    
    What vegetation did the 1977 slip take out?
    I guess Council records may answer why exotics were planted in the first place, if their removal recently is pertinent.
    
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    January 27, 2026 11:28am
    - Don Beckett
      
      I guess they were planted because of quick growth and substantial root system. Natives are quite slow growing.
      Regarding what vegetation the 1977 slip took out, I can’t recall exactly – I used to spend a lot of time at the Mount in my youth – but I think there was a fair bit of scrub, mainly manuka & other small trees.
      The area used to be used for grazing sheep.
      
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      January 27, 2026 12:19pm
    - artemisia
      
      Official Information requests. Picking there will be a whole lot made in the next little while. If folk make the requests through fyi.org.nz requests and responses are public.
      
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      January 27, 2026 4:28pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    As the remaining roots decay they leave behind a spiderweb of voids which fill with water and soil and form an inherent weakness.
    Rain water can use the rotted root channels to get to slip planes deeper in the ground.
    
    (Paraphrasing Ian Wishart from an interview on the Platform yesterday)
    
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    January 27, 2026 12:14pm
Simon

Nipah virus India. Time to close the border with National’s favourite country
4 8
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January 27, 2026 10:34am
sungsamning

Chatham House is calling America ‘imperial’. The usual suspects want a color revoloution in the US. Minneapolis is ground zero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj7xI3xmIAk

They Brought the War Home: The British Playbook in Minneapolis.
4 5
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January 27, 2026 10:50am
sungsamning

Xi has purged Zhang Youxia. The PLA is paranoid. Even allies are being purged. What are the wider implications?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW-eeWn0i2o

Xi Jinping Has Gone Full Stalin
6 3
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January 27, 2026 10:50am
- Christopher Thomson
  
  It makes the invasion of Taiwan more likely.
  
  Zhang was probably saying it was a bad idea and not to do it.
  
  Has now been replaced by compliant generals.
  
  The invasion window is drawing closer.
  
  1 2
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  January 27, 2026 3:41pm
  - RichardX
    
    I wonder what other events around the globe would embolden him?
    
    I wonder where else there has been a huge turnover in flag officers?
    
    0 2
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    January 27, 2026 5:45pm
Jack5

Unwoke academic dies

A man whose views fitted those of many of us here, the British historian David Abulafia, has died at 76.

Abulafia was a stalwart against Woke revision of the past.

His writing included two much praised books about the role of the sea in history.

An obituary in the Telegraph includes:

‘Abulafia took the unmodish view that individual human beings drove much of the course of history, especially entrepreneurial spirits. “Insofar as this book has heroes,” he wrote in The Boundless Sea, “they are not so often the explorers who opened up routes across the oceans, but the merchants who followed in their wake.” ‘

In retirement, Abulafia fought what the Telegraph calls progressive tendencies in education and the misinterpretation of the past by Left-wing ideologues.

In 2021 he co-founded History Reclaimed, a group of scholars who fought the distortion of history for political ends.
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January 27, 2026 11:34am
Christopher Thomson

Heads up, US assests are in place.

We should expect strikes against the Iran regime soon.
8 5
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January 27, 2026 11:38am
- Philview
  
  I can imagine the media meltdown that will follow any strike.
  
  4 1
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  January 27, 2026 1:05pm
  - AitchW
    
    The media have melted down every 10 minutes since Trump was elected. It’s getting quite predictable.
    
    1 0
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    January 27, 2026 7:58pm
- kowtow
  
  I wonder what the official casus belli will be.
  
  btw I wonder how much, if any ,arm twisting was needed to get the Typhoons sent .
  
  2 2
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  January 27, 2026 1:23pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    I heard they were for defensive purposes only. The UK does have bases in the ME.
    
    1 1
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    January 27, 2026 2:42pm
  - Chris Scott
    
    kowtow
    I wonder what the official casus belli will be.
    
    Epstein distraction?
    
    2 3
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    January 27, 2026 6:01pm
Yvette

RNZ:
‘Absolute disgrace’ to consider joining Trump’s ‘Board of Peace – Hipkins
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/585089/absolute-disgrace-to-consider-joining-trump-s-board-of-peace-hipkins

Would Luxon send Peters, now seemingly in a more power position in the latest poll, and possible coalition partner to Hipkins?

Or is the more disgraceful aspect of the above report that nowhere in it does it define what Trump’s “Board of Peace” actually is, even the shortest sentence – just that Hipkins is against it.
7 5
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January 27, 2026 11:57am
- rouppe
  
  The 2 billion dollar cost puts it out of our reach.
  
  Unless we cancel all climate change funding.
  
  2 0
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  January 27, 2026 4:43pm
- MCōs
  
  “It’s going to have people like [Russian President] Vladimir Putin on it. The idea that New Zealand would even consider being part of that would be an absolute embarrassment and an absolute disgrace on New Zealand.”
  Any Board of Peace with Putin as a member is surely a sham.
  
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  January 27, 2026 4:48pm
  - RichardX
    
    If enough people sign up, and pay the fee, their soon to be announced Peace Prize will have value, at least to someone.
    
    1 2
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    January 27, 2026 5:47pm
David Garrett

So, several days after many other world leaders condemned Trump’s insulting remarks about the Brits in Afghanistan, The Dishcloth finally joins them:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360929764/politics-live-parliament-kicks-2026

Perhaps he needed to consult some focus groups
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January 27, 2026 12:28pm
- David Garrett
  
  Oh dear me….this from Stuff:
  
  “We lost 10 lives on per capita basis. We were the seventh country that contributed most to fatalities, and I thought it was incredibly disrespectful, I thought.
  
  We didn’t lose 10 lives “on a per capita basis”; we lost ten lives. Obviously the 12 year old who wrote the story for Stuff doesn’t understand the term “per capita”…or perhaps Luxon has been reported accurately, which means he doesn’t understand the term.
  
  Either way, two “I thoughts” are a glaring typo. No subbies any more at Stuff
  
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  January 27, 2026 12:43pm
  - Yabster
    
    David- stuff is a left leaning rag but in this case, you have it wrong- That quote was actually what Luxon said but it was said like this:
    
    We lost 10 lives, on per capita basis we were the seventh country that contributed most to fatalities, and I thought it was incredibly disrespectful..
    
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    January 27, 2026 1:13pm
- Ghost
  
  PM has been dealing with what happened in the north island, i doubt what some insane vindicative old git in the USA said has been much of a concern during this.
  
  perhaps you should consult some focus groups, I would doubt they would consider trumps comment anywhere near the top of what the PM should be addressing right now.
  
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  January 27, 2026 1:33pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Ghost: It would take Luxon all of five minutes to: 1) brief one of his press secs to draft a statement condemning Trump’s comments; and 2) approving such a statement.
    
    A Prime Minister – indeed any Minister – needs to be able to deal with several things at once. If they aren’t, they shouldn’t be in the job.
    
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    January 27, 2026 3:08pm
    - Ghost
      
      He is a vindicative old bastard, best until he is killed or doesn’t wake up that we just stay out of it.
      
      2 2
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      January 27, 2026 5:31pm
      - RichardX
        
        The depth and breadth of the conspiracy theories that will eventuate upon his death is going to be fascinating.
        
        Even if it is in 10 or even 20 years time, there are those who will not accept any cause of death other than some nefarious plot by some shady fictional entity.
        
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        January 27, 2026 5:41pm
Sparrow

David, Dishcloth is much to polite. He and all the other politicians including Winston are gutless yes people. I am no supporter of Phil Goff but he at least made a forceful comment ok he is no longer a politician. It’s taken Luxon nearly 5 days to comment and only after being questioned by journalists, and nodoubt pressure from the grass roots. Obviously Winston does not want to upset MAGA I hope those thinking of voting for NZF remember this. Me, I am not voting for any of them, curse on all their houses. Yes a low turnout will suit this government.
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January 27, 2026 1:22pm
- Paulus
  
  Isn’t Goff going for any publicity so he can get back into the Labour Caucus preferably as new Leader ?
  
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  January 27, 2026 3:14pm
Swifty

What is the answer? Is there an answer?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Fitzbv14i

Violence on our streets – this on K Rd.
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January 27, 2026 1:43pm
Swifty

A Tale of Two Contagions:

https://x.com/_crymiariver/status/2015893450093109739?s=46

Trans is a fad.
8 2
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January 27, 2026 1:56pm
- graham
  
  Unfortunately, unlike Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor Has No Clothes”, anyone who dares to point out the obvious truth is villified.
  
  I honestly believe that at some point in the future, people will look back at this horrific social experiment that is called Transgender and shake their heads in disbelief that their ancestors could believe such an idiotic premise AND mutilate their own children in the pursuit. But sadly I fear that future point is some years away, and in the meantime far too many confused children will continue to be fed a bizarre litany of lies.
  
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  January 27, 2026 3:12pm
Swifty

The damage of NZ Labour’s steep and fast minimum wage rises:

https://x.com/lbc/status/2015828327487979933?s=46

The British experience, paralleled here.
4 1
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January 27, 2026 3:36pm
BeaB

Why do people still believe the world knows where NZ is and cares a jot about what we think. Perhaps it makes some feel happy they’ve had their say but unless there’s some point for an official comment, keep quiet. Unless you really think Trump asks, ‘”what does NZ think?”
Mind you, I suspect Goff and Helen Clark really do believe the world is hanging on their every word, they are such important global leaders, the conscience of the world!
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January 27, 2026 4:00pm
Nikola Donatello

“”Wages are stretched because they’re not keeping up with increasing costs. Power bills continue to go up, basic groceries cost more every week. And Kiwis’ hard earned money is evaporating faster than you can say tax-cuts-for-tobacco-companies.””

Is Chris Hipkins actually as stupid as he sounds?

Honestly we deserve better.
9 2
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January 27, 2026 5:08pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Yes when NZ was in much better shape you can imagine (some) people falling for desperate yapping like that. Now many people are really struggling (especially the young). Let’s hope these somewhat harder times instill some deeper thinking in the young about what the far left are really likely to bring to the table for them.
  
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  January 27, 2026 7:49pm

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