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February 15, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 February 2026

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General Debate

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Chuck Bird

This short video that I got from Muriel Newman’s NZCPR is worth watching.

https://www.netzerowatch.com/videos/v/jg5bdmfartw4kpwy4rf5j35ngtkg3a?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=698f3ff9a47adf314fe4f603&ss_email_id=698f4ef0590def5caf340a51&ss_campaign_name=NZW+Samizdat%3A+The+Way+Up&ss_campaign_sent_date=2026-02-13T16%3A20%3A43Z
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February 15, 2026 8:04am
- CJames
  
  Chuck – how about telling people what is in it and why it is worth watching. Otherwise it is just spam.
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:19am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Net Zero watch. Climate change alarmism.
    
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    February 15, 2026 8:26am
    - Tom Barker
      
      Chuck, you would have trouble convincing my friends M and J of your climate-change denialism. Their farm in the Bay of Plenty has been in the same family’s hands for four generations. They are now seriously and increasingly troubled by infestations of a certain weed (I’ve forgotten its name.) It’s always been on their property but was not a problem in the past because it’s frost-tender and died back over winter. In their lifetimes the local climate has changed so that now they almost never experience frosts. These are conservative, cautious people who do not support other Green policies. But they are convinced about the reality and serious threat of climate change based on a lifetime’s observation of conditions on their farm.
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:07am
      - kowtow
        
        Climate is always changing.
        
        It gets hot ,it gets cold.
        
        And it ain’t utes that’s doing it.
        
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        February 15, 2026 9:36am
      - David Garrett
        
        Tom: I’m not sure about Chuck, but I think most people accept that the climate is changing – the question is to what degree that change is driven by human activity
        
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        February 15, 2026 9:44am
      - Nikola Donatello
        
        “It gets hot ,it gets cold.”..
        
        No you are describing weather, not climate.
        
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        February 15, 2026 10:02am
      - Dougal10
        
        Wow a whole 4 generations , people in other parts of the world live in 400 or more year old houses and farm the land , 130 years in NZ farming history is but a pimple on the world of time.
        
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        February 15, 2026 10:06am
      - Skottowe
        
        “But they are convinced about the reality and serious threat of climate change…”
        
        I’ve been a gardener for as long as I can remember, going back to the 1950s. Of course the climate has warmed in that time. My bellwether is roses: no dormant period for pruning, as there used to be when I was young.
        
        But it doesn’t at all follow that the dire predictions of catastrophic climate change are credible. This country has always had bouts of extreme weather. NZ consists of a bunch of relatively small islands in the middle of a very large ocean, and it’s also in the Roaring Forties.
        
        We’ve always been plagued by tropical rain systems turning up here from time to time. Including cyclones: it was cyclone Giselle which was partly responsible for the Wahine Disaster in 1968, vividly remembered by people my age living in this general area at the time. According to Papers Past, NZ now has fewer cyclones than was the case in 19c and early 20c.
        
        We in NZ need to remember that volcano in Tonga threw up a huge amount of water into the stratosphere. Not long afterward, Australian scientists warned that Oz could expect more rain, particularly on their east coast, in the following year(s). Without doubt, that applies to us here, since we tend to get the weather systems after they’ve whacked Australia.
        
        As I write this in Wellington, there’s a howling gale outside. Nothing new in that, either: when I was a student here in the 1960s, I remember lamppost-hopping my way down Willis St, and hanging onto the rope barriers put up across Bunny St to help pedestrians going to the train. Those were the days…not long before the Wahine Disaster.
        
        So: climate warming for sure. Catastrophic climate change? Scepticism rules…..
        
        As a gardener, I’m very concerned about the loss of insect life. I doubt that climate warming has had anything to do with that.
        
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        February 15, 2026 10:43am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Without knowing the identity of the weed, I can’t be certain that a lack of frost-days is the factor responsible for this weed’s increase.
        
        If your friends’ farm now experiences no or very few frosts, I assume it must be coastal…. but according to NIWA’s historical analysis of frost data.. this region only experienced about 5 or fewer frost days/year
        
        https://niwa.co.nz/sites/default/files/BOP%20NIWA%20Climate%20Change%202019%20FINAL.pdf
        
        There’s other reasons a weed plant can suddenly increase in frequency at a location…. and on a farm that is most likely due to spread of seed from changes in stock management, pasture preparation, and increased use of machinery and vehicles.
        
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        February 15, 2026 11:34am
      - kowtow
        
        ‘No you are describing weather, not climate.’
        
        Nope, there have been hot periods ( Romans growing grapes in England ) and cold periods .Thames freezing ,
        frost fairs and all that.
        
        It’s been warming again since the late 1800’s . See the glacier retreat in NZ .Well documented.
        
        As I said it gets hot and it gets cold .And it ain’t utes .
        
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        February 15, 2026 11:44am
      - NK
        
        Tom, NZ could be Net Zero tomorrow and that would have absolutely no affect on your friends farm.
        
        That’s a proven, scientific fact.
        
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        February 15, 2026 12:08pm
      - Spoff
        
        Without taking into account a host of other factors – historic super-phosphate and other pasture treatments, de or re-forestation, use of weedkillers (some of which can accelerate non-target weed growth etc.) stocking and grazing patterns, I would withhold judgement.
        
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        February 15, 2026 12:54pm
      - Spam
        
        Are there other ways to control the weeds, aside from paying ETS taxes?
        
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        February 15, 2026 5:12pm
      - judith8409121
        
        wow – they have a weed infestation – quick quick it must be the climate it can’t be caused by just weed infestation – the cult of climate strikes again
        
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        February 15, 2026 8:12pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        TB none of what your farm friends are experiencing there indicate that Co2 from human activities drive the climate to any significant degree.
        
        You realise during the middle ages sheep were grazed and barley was grown on Greenland? Try doing that now. There is a ton of proof (historical written records and climate proxy data from all over the world) that what we are experiencing in the last hundred or so years is NOT at all “unprecedented”. It’s called climate cycles. There are dozens, if not hundreds of well observed and confirmed NATURAL cycles causing significant changes in the climate over decades, and much longer periods also.
        
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        February 15, 2026 9:05pm
- Positan
  
  Chuck, many relevant insights are contained therein.
  
  To make apt comparison, Maori arrived here around 1200AD – but when their development since then is compared with that of Europe and Asia, you’ll see that for Maori, over hundreds of years, time has virtually stood still.
  
  The oft-touted Maori economy wouldn’t be there if all the money hadn’t been given to them by descendants of the colonisers as, even today, Maori “accomplishments” don’t go much past haka-ing, as their only form of argumentative rebuttal; singing and hand-waving, as their virtually-only artistic expressions; and bum-baring and stick-waving, as their only established means of disagreement.
  
  In NZ we’ll live to see the utter disaster that soft-hearted, brainless politicians have wrought with the absurdity of Treaty “settlements” – and how the decisions they’ve made have completely undermined the substance and future of this country.
  
  We’re now well along the same track as South Africa’s – and our own end isn’t very far off.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:42am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The Maori economy seems to be substantial, $80 billion ?, maybe we could negotiate a FTA with them….
    
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    February 15, 2026 11:13am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      “exceeds $80 billion”
      
      https://waateanews.com/2025/06/18/the-maori-economy-exceeds-80-billion/#:~:text=As%20of%202025%2C%20the%20M%C4%81ori,wealth%20and%20generate%20intergenerational%20prosperity.
      
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      February 15, 2026 12:24pm
    - mandk
      
      There’s no such thing as the Māori economy. It’s a fiction.
      
      What passes as the Māori economy is simply Māori operating businesses, and Māori being employed, in the New Zealand economy.
      
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      February 15, 2026 1:19pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Maori culture was still adapting to change from Pacific island living to agrarian neolithic. They were humans, no different to most of the world, and given time would have fallen into the same patterns of life as seen in Europe, Asia and Meso-America 5-15 Millenia ago, inventing pottery, projectile weapons etc.
    
    Incessant warfare and cannibalism would have stayed a major feature just as for most other Neolithic cultures.
    
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    February 15, 2026 11:53am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      NothingLeft: “given time would have fallen into the same patterns of life as seen in Europe, Asia and Meso-America 5-15 Millennia ago, inventing pottery, projectile weapons etc.
      
      Probably a lot more slowly due to isolation. The Euro derived humanoids picked up a lot of technology through extensive trading with quite large and organised civilisations over very large distances (EG with in China. India, Middle East). Maori civilisation got a very big boost when the Euro’s arrived from afar. Perhaps the race baiters should stop the chest-beating and be thankful for the wellbeing and lifestyle upgrades the euros brought in.
      
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      February 15, 2026 8:18pm
  - Skottowe
    
    “The oft-touted Maori economy wouldn’t be there if all the money hadn’t been given to them by descendants of the colonisers….”
    
    It wouldn’t be there if they had to pay tax, either.
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:43pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Suggest a bit of a check on your claim there Positan.
    MAybe start with.
    https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-umanga-maori-business-enterprise/page-1
    
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    February 15, 2026 5:32pm
    - Positan
      
      Ra, you seem to be taking propaganda at face value which isn’t likely either to inform you or satisfy whatever facts most truth-seeking observers would require as FACT.
      
      I call BS on most of today’s re-written history – most of it cannot be substantiated even remotely because it didn’t happen the way it’s tried to be claimed today. If Sir Apirana Ngata back in 1947 had been satisfied with the treatment Maori had then received, how can far lesser individuals of today try to make out different?
      
      In 1897, Banjo Paterson covered an instance in his poem “The Maori’s Wool” where Maori duplicity effected theft from a bank. They cheated then – and it’s obvious to see that they’re still trying to cheat today.
      
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      February 15, 2026 7:50pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Chuck, you provide no description and a 200 character url. Why would anyone click on that?
  
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  February 15, 2026 10:04am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Because I think many people on Kiwiblog believe Muriel does not put rubbish on her blog. A quick click on the URL starts the video and you can tell in under a minute if the video is worth watching.
    
    Mod – debate the topics. I don’t know how many times I have to ask you to include descriptions with your links]
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:17am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Then they could and probably do look at Muriel’s blog for themselves.
      
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      February 15, 2026 10:36am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Chuck the best way to think about this: “If I emailed this to someone, would the recipient’s spam filter consign it to the spam folder?”
      
      🙂
      
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      February 15, 2026 10:58am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360938589/wellington-water-board-chair-steps-down-after-moa-point-failure
Reminds me of that old song by the Four Tops:
“Just walk away, Renee”.
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February 15, 2026 8:33am
- greybeard
  
  Nick Leg-it.
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:42am
  - pdm
    
    Nick Leggatt is a rare beast.
    
    A lefty with a conscience and a man prepared to do the right thing.
    
    Not many of them do.
    
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    February 15, 2026 8:55am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Is deserting your job when things get tough now a virtue?
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:04am
      - peterwn
        
        He collected psychological baggage over this (does not matter whether blame could be attached to him). This could well impair his thinking when working through to resolve the issue. Better that a fresh pair of hands can take over, dispassionately weigh up situation and make decisions not burdeded by the past.
        
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        February 15, 2026 9:43am
      - imalwaysright
        
        “He collected psychological baggage over this…”
        
        That’s a new one.
        10/10 for creativity….
        
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        February 15, 2026 9:56am
      - R
        
        YES,….Since the sudden departure of Ardern. Giving up is a SOCIALIST trait.
        I imagine that Leggat found that the ‘Deadwood’ he had to work with too depressing.
        
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        February 15, 2026 12:53pm
    - R
      
      A breath of responsible fresh air; unfortunately there is no place for a ‘freshness of mind’ in Wellington City Council.
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:11am
    - Gravelroad
      
      From the article:
      “Strong organisations improve when those in leadership roles are prepared to stand up in difficult moments. That is what I am doing.”
      What Mr Leggett is doing is getting out as quick as he can and leaving some other poor schmucks to sort it.
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:23am
    - Warren Murray
      
      I can’t agree. Unless he knows he could have averted the failure at MP, his resignation is premature and should have waited until the enquiry is completed. The reason he has resigned is because he’s been called out (in social media) on a conflict of interest. That’s a tricky one for him to manage because it may be just a perceived CoI. But having done so he should have resigned from the Board and it’s not clear he’s done so.
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:27am
    - Mod88
      
      He ran, another coward just like Ardern.
      
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      February 15, 2026 11:59am
      - Ra Henare
        
        or looking at it another way.????
        
        Knew he(she) were not the right people to fix the fkup
        
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        February 15, 2026 5:35pm
    - Im Right
      
      Of all the previous Wgtn mayors, all had a job after their mayoralty ended, mainly govt NGO/Depts, it’s a telling factor that one cannot secure a job and is leaving NZ as they cannot secure a role that suits them.
      Tory Whanau landed the job of a lifetime (money wise) and still it wasn’t enough for her and she was bemoaning the fact she had to sell her car for extra cash.
      This is the woman who won lotto a number of years previously and blew it all.
      And somehow the public thought she would be worthy to run the capital city finances, I’m pleased to see she has not landed a high paying golden handshake role within the Wellington bureaucracy.
      I hope she will front up to the sewage disaster enquiry, she will have alot of questions to answer!
      
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      February 15, 2026 12:29pm
      - artemisia
        
        Don’t think the 2026 Green Party List has been announced yet. Before she was turfed out in the council elections I thought Tory Whanau had a decent shot at a winnable List place. Bit toxic now, so maybe next time.
        
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        February 15, 2026 12:59pm
      - Warren Murray
        
        @artemisia, she couldn’t win the Maori Ward seat. Notoriously work-shy and high maintenance, being a former Chief of Staff for the Greens; they knew her worth and knew she was more of a liability than an asset.
        
        I feel sorry for whoever employs her next.
        
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        February 15, 2026 2:28pm
  - Paulus
    
    Nick was Mayor of Porirua I believe, and is a staunch Labourite and something to do with Transport Association.
    Expect to see him shortly towards a LabourList Seat somewhere.
    
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    February 15, 2026 9:41am
    - imalwaysright
      
      A political floater… always seems to pop up somewhere.
      
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      February 15, 2026 9:45am
      - KKNZ2025
        
        Carpetbagger
        
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        February 15, 2026 11:47am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      He joined National in 2016.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leggett
      
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      February 15, 2026 11:38am
  - rouppe
    
    He says “leadership has responsibility”.
    
    Running away isn’t responsibility. He’s avoided any liability whatsoever.
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:06am
- imalwaysright
  
  Legget:
  
  “Strong organisations improve when those in leadership roles are prepared to stand up in difficult moments. That is what I am doing.”
  
  …By the way, I’m clearing my desk tomorrow.
  
  No more poo in the tenk?
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:51am
  - Wandering Star
    
    Of course he had to “stand up” – that’s always the first step in walking out when in an undesirable situation.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/586892/wellington-water-chair-nick-leggett-resigns-over-moa-point-sewage-disaster
    
    “Nick Leggett said the failure of the Wellington treatment plant was deeply serious and had affected the environment, public health and the community.”
    
    “Deeply serious” but he just walks away? I’m not saying they should he hanged from a lamppost, but when does any public figure, ever, face any real accountability (you could even say punishment) whatsoever over their mistakes? They just resign and move on.
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:34am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Someone has suggested mendol helf issues….more like self preservation issues.
      Unfortunately he may now never reach that lofty goal of mediocrity.
      
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      February 15, 2026 11:20am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  It’s tricky. Do we want people to accept responsibility by falling on their swords, or do we want them to stick around to help fix up their mess?
  
  In this case, with WW about to disappear, I think I’d rather he stuck around for the duration remaining. The danger is that everyone concerned melts away, and no satisfactory answers obtained.
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:51am
  - Paulus
    
    More to this resignation that we can currently see – friend of Mayor.
    
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    February 15, 2026 9:42am
- Spoff
  
  Walk Away Renée
  1966 single by The Left Banke…..actually
  
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  February 15, 2026 12:38pm
  - MCōs
    
    And The Four Tops
    For what it’s worth
    
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    February 15, 2026 8:32pm
Simon

Thomas Massie is probably the best mainstream to follow for the Epstein child sex trafficking elite network.
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February 15, 2026 8:40am
- Wandering Star
  
  Not just the Epstein network, he’s the best to follow regarding all questionable goings on in US politics which help explain how things are the way they are:
  
  “Every Republican in Congress has an ‘AIPAC babysitter’: US lawmaker”
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZA-GdeQP4
  
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  February 15, 2026 10:13am
Scott

The Democrat party of America appears to be all in on mass immigration, legal and illegal. But is it possible in their eyes to have too much immigration?

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/02/come-one-come-all.php

During the open border President Biden years here are the numbers:

“Most Americans still don’t fully understand what happened under Biden…

8% of Nicaragua entered the US in 4 years.8% of the entire country.

7% of Cuba.6% of Haiti.5% of Honduras.”

So almost one in twelve of the population of Nicaragua left the country and went to the USA!

When would even the most liberal person say that is too much? If one in two of the population of Nicaragua decided to go to America would that be too much?
Even if you didn’t care about the effect on the USA wouldn’t you think it’s bad for Nicaragua if everyone left?

Mass immigration has proven to be bad for the USA and the west generally. Isn’t it also bad for the country of origin if the best and the brightest leave permanently to go to America? Wouldn’t it be better if they stayed and tried to improve their own country?

Maybe this is an argument that even the most liberal, open borders person would accept?
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February 15, 2026 8:50am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  When the Dutch pulled out of Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) in 1975, they offered the population the option of Dutch citizenship.
  
  A third of the country left, and the place has been a basket case since.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:45am
- Jethrod
  
  If the figures were bored down into, one would probably find that 70 to 80 % were male and under 30. So quite disastrous for both sides of the equation.
  Looking at all the video that gets taken in Arabia, it is always young and male queueing up at the borders to leave.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:56am
  - artemisia
    
    Those young males are desperately hoping for their first glimpse of a well turned ankle. Or any ankle really. Migrants from Nicaragua not so much.
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:53am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Toxic culture, absolutely shit for young men of low familial status. Polygamy means they are mostly doomed to an evolutionary dead end with no economic prospects or children.
    
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    February 15, 2026 11:57am
    - Sweet Hitchhiker
      
      Far worse for young women. Their lives are worse than sh*t in those countries. Ever heard of “femicide”?
      
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      February 15, 2026 3:58pm
- Wandering Star
  
  The donors want the immigration (all of it, legal and illegal) whether they back the Democrats of the GOP.
  
  The motivations can vary (i.e. hatred of White America on one hand, love of cheap labour on the other), although there is also cross-over. But to seriously believe that its “the Democrats” who want mass immigration while the GOP are the ones fighting it is to deny the observable reality since at least the 1990s. They all want it because it is a structural feature of the economy at this point, which is why it never ceases.
  
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  February 15, 2026 10:19am
  - Philview
    
    I listened to a UK podcast the other day discussing the pathway to the top in politics and saying donors invest in compromised politicians because they can be controlled. They used the example of mass migration that no matter what these UK politicians say on the campaign trail they do the opposite in power. The podcast referenced the idea that mass immigration causes conflict which can be used to manipulate investment returns etc.
    
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    February 15, 2026 12:11pm
    - Wandering Star
      
      Of course. In any democracy, who are politicians (and therefore their policies) going to favour: the few funding them, or the many voting for them? The former, of course. There’s no better example than the GOP, who have always rhetorically supported reducing immigration, but have never done anything about it when they had the chance (the two Bushes and Trump being prime examples), with the Bushes actually making things worse.
      
      Trump’s just completely capitulated on this issue after some performative ICE operations and two dead protestors. So that’s the end of it, because Trump simply doesn’t have the political will, and, to circle back to the main point, his will is determined by the donors. He’s even on the record as saying “we need the people” (i.e. the immigrants). Who’s “we”? His donors from the tech industry, hospitality, construction and agriculture, principally. It doesn’t matter what his voters want and it never has.
      
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      February 15, 2026 12:33pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  What exactly is the evidence that the Democratic party is “all in on mass immigration, legal and illegal”? It’s been widely noted that Presidents Obama and Bush both deported more people than Trump has done
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:34am
  - artemisia
    
    Q: Did you compare deportation numbers in their first year? And include the much simpler and cheaper self deportations? Couple of million of those officially in the current president’s first year, Term 2 it is reported.
    
    A: No.
    
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    February 15, 2026 12:49pm
  - Wandering Star
    
    Since legislation enacted in 1965, and particularly since the Immigration Act of 1990, mass immigration has persisted and increased over time. No doubt the numbers have fluctuated, but the trend is undeniable and neither Democrats nor Republicans have done anything other than affirm the policy, even if their rhetoric said otherwise. Democrats have been in office for 2o years since 1990.
    
    And this is just legal immigration. “11 million illegals” was the accepted claim for about 30 years, so who knows the actual figure in 2026. If that’s the “official” number for 3 decades, it could be easily be 20, 30 or 5o million (or more). Some estimates indicate that as many as 10 million illegals entered the US during Biden’s 4 years alone. Even if it was only 5 or even 2 million, that is 5 or 2 million illegals too many.
    
    On this basis, I would ask you “what exactly is the evidence that the Democratic party is not all in on mass immigration, legal and illegal”?
    
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    February 15, 2026 12:50pm
  - Paulus
    
    Facts please, not innuendo !
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:27pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

It’s catching.

“Indigenous tribes in the southwestern US, led by the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), have granted the Colorado River legal personhood to help protect it for future generations. In November 2025, the CRIT, made up of the Mojave, Hopi, Navajo and Chemehuevi tribes, passed the resolution recognising the river as a living, life-giving entity with rights like a person”.

Though not (yet) recognised by US law.

http://www.bbc.com/news/videos/crmlgpnnzyxo
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February 15, 2026 8:53am
- Handyman
  
  So,
  Rivers are human, with rights. We speak for them.
  Tress are human, with rights. We speak for them.
  Rocks are human. We speak for them.
  Unborn babies are not human. They have no rights. No one is allowed to speak for them.
  
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  February 15, 2026 12:26pm
  - Sweet Hitchhiker
    
    You would just LOVE places like Nicaragua, Handyman. There they jail for years young women who have miscarriages if there’s the faintest suggestion they might have helped the process along.
    
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    February 15, 2026 4:06pm
Yvette

Before Winston starts on the Maori Seats, is this business which he has supposedly already started, better to complete?

• Amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation.
• Conduct a comprehensive review of all legislation (except when it is related to, or substantive to, existing full and final Treaty settlements) that includes ‘The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty, or repeal the references.
– page 10, Coalition Agreement between the National Party and the New Zealand First Party
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nzfirst/pages/4462/attachments/original/1700784896/National___NZF_Coalition_Agreement_signed_-_24_Nov_2023.pdf

“A lawyer, he’s a stickler for everyone else getting his words right, the facts straight and understanding that words have to say what they mean and mean what they say.”
So, is Winston as good as his words? – last Election’s words, not the next, yet
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February 15, 2026 8:55am
PurplePen

In a way Trump has accidentally done Europe a favour. Europe will never let themselves become as dependent upon the USA as they had been, nor anyone else I suspect. He’s also pushed them together likely resulting in them being a stronger more robust block. Will wait and see.
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February 15, 2026 8:59am
- kowtow
  
  Are the Europeans being genuine though .
  
  Their alleged big spend up on military . The UK put army pensions into the equation to make it look like they were serious , the Eyeties put in some infrastructure spending on bridge projects .
  
  No doubt plenty of other examples of typical political smoke and mirro games .
  
  Like climate , they’re scamming……again.
  
  If they were taking the threats they claim that are so serious , serioulsly , they’d cut welfare budgets , close their borders , bin net zero , re introduce conscription.
  
  Till then I don’t believe a word of it.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:42am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  “Never” is a long time.
  
  Check back in, say in 30 years.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:47am
KKNZ2025

looking around for some “others” to blame

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-15/story-lab-one-nation-polling/106322978

I wouldn’t put money on NZ pathway to Oz citizenship regime remaining for long when ~half of NZs immigrants are now using us as a back door to Oz. We’ve been here before ~2001

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567964/nearly-half-of-kiwis-applying-for-australian-citizenship-born-elsewhere
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February 15, 2026 9:03am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think Oz needs Kiwis to do the grunt work.
  
  If you are willing to work, there’s no shortage of employment opportunities over there.
  
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  February 15, 2026 3:19pm
PurplePen

Another observation. The Swiss are looking at capping their population at 10 million. If you use population density of the top ranked, people/square km: Macau (China SAR) 23,167, Monaco 19,044, Singapore 8,225, Hong Kong 7,027. Switzerland at 228 has a long way to go or a lot of room to spare. My question is it will be an interesting economic experiment to observe if they go ahead. I’d be interested if anyone can shed light on how such and economy would play out with a capped population.

Singapore as a reasonable measure of the acreage that can sustain and support a population of a certain size, you’d easily say
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February 15, 2026 9:08am
- rockape
  
  Why compare cities with a country?
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:56am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    You know Singapore is a country right?
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:10am
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      I expect he is aware that Singapore is a country.
      
      I guess his point is more that Singapore is a city state, and hence depends on a hinterland to supply basic needs. Singapore even imports water from Malaysia.
      
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      February 15, 2026 4:03pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Yeah Switzerland will be fine. Try Japan and South Korea which are both entering a spiral of shrinking and aging. South Korea especially. South Korea has a fertility rate of 0.75.
  
  That is an interesting economic experiment.
  
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  February 15, 2026 10:10am
  - cmm
    
    Sure Korea and Japan have fertility problems, but trying to replace quality with quantity is just even more broken.
    
    Korea has vast numbers of migrant workers from high fertility countries which they can send hope when they don’t want them.
    
    If you have a shrinking population and a shrinking tax take, then bringing in huge populations of tax-dependent migrants does not fix the problem – it makes it worse.
    
    Mixing a welfare state and low quality immigration always leads to problems. The best immigration is that which is self-funding and self-sustaining.
    
    For example, after WW2 there were hundreds of thousands of Italians that moved to USA. There were few welfare benefits. About a third of them couldn’t hack it and went back to Italy. With a welfare system the third that couldn’t hack it would have just stayed in USA on welfare.
    
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    February 15, 2026 11:14am
    - Sweet Hitchhiker
      
      I think you’re mistaken there, cmm. About a third of Irish immigrants to the US returned home also. The reason was probably homesickness.
      
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      February 15, 2026 4:11pm
      - cmm
        
        Nope, I don’t think I am mistaken. I think you rather underline the point I was making.
        
        Those Irish immigrants didn’t get welfare either (other than some hand outs from charities etc). Those that either couldn’t cut it or were homesick etc went back.
        
        No doubt if they had had the modern welfare system (like USA and EU and us have today), they would have stayed where they are.
        
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        February 15, 2026 4:41pm
- cmm
  
  It is ridiculous just looking at people/sq km as a measure without considering the relief of the land.
  
  Monaco, Singapore and Hong Kong are almost 100% habitable land . Switzerland has huge areas of agriculture that is not suited to urbanisation but there is also over 25% of just water and mountains.
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:07am
  - PurplePen
    
    I’ve misled. My question was really about what happens economically when your cap population. Growth has to then come from technology, efficiency, etc. Property becomes not a growth asset, it becomes a gated community effectively with places only becoming available when someone leaves by death or emigration.
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:31pm
Handyman

A Hawke’s Bay wine maker enjoys early harvest, which he attributes to climate change.
Luckily, he harvested his grapes in pristine condition days before a predicted deluge which would have decimated his crop.
Thank you climate change.

Actually, he should talk to his greenhouse friends who know you don’t apply heat to a greenhouse in summer but extra CO2.Yes, it is the increased CO2 that is increasing plant growth around the world, including in Hawke’s Bay.
.
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February 15, 2026 9:21am
ds

Labour are now refusing to back the Indian FTA along with NZ First.

Starting to look like back to 2017.
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February 15, 2026 9:29am
- AitchW
  
  Pure electioneering. Denying our exporters access to a market of well over a billion people.
  Despicable.
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:37am
  - cmm
    
    Yes, India is a country of 1.4 billion people, but they are only a market if we have something we can sell them and they can afford to buy.
    
    Remember India is a country where a third of the people shit in the streets. Not exactly top shelf customers for luxury organic products.
    
    Sure we can sell them logs and a bit of wool, fruit and meat. We can even sell them a small amount of top-end dairy products. But India is a net exporter of dairy, so that market isn’t huge.
    
    The biggest problem with the FTA is not just the trade, it is what else is part and parcel of the deal.
    
    Is this going to make it easier to get more Uber drivers that we don’t need?
    
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    February 15, 2026 11:24am
    - Quail
      
      CMM,
      The issue with trade is that in NZ productivity is now is struggling to meet critical mass.
      Manufacturing has largely gone and other commodities volume has been in decline.
      One example, meat and wool were once a valued export.
      Sheep numbers from a peak of over 70 million to probably south of 20 million plus the associated infrastructure which has declined as well.
      Meat works , wool scours and associated manufacturing have all gone and are still going.
      Even NZ dairy has started to unload their manufacturing companies.
      NZ now just does not have enough real exports.
      While this is not always reflected in the terms of trade, it is reflected in the on going decline in exchange rate.
      This decline has hidden just how serious the economic mess faced today is.
      Successive Governments continued deficit budgeting and spending money that has not been earned is part of the problem along with a big and ever growing government simply regulating entrepreneurs and producers out of business.
      An export led recovery is not now possible!
      
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      February 15, 2026 12:45pm
    - mandk
      
      India’s middle class population is as large as the entire EU’s population. And it is larger than the population of the USA.
      
      Would you really want to ignore a market opportunity like that?
      
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      February 15, 2026 1:29pm
    - Paulus
      
      Middle Classes growing exponentially, we are told in India – but a long way to go to get to Australia via New Zealand as they want.
      
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      February 15, 2026 1:30pm
    - kowtow
      
      This is what AI says about the field shitting ;
      
      ‘Studies indicate that women are highly vulnerable to sexual assault and rape when leaving their homes to relieve themselves. In rural India, studies suggest that 30% to 50% of reported sexual assaults occur when women and girls go outside for the toilet.’
      
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      February 15, 2026 2:21pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      “…they are only a market if we have something we can sell them and they can afford to buy.”
      
      That’s right, the Trade Agreement is merely the opportunity to conduct trade within its parameters.
      
      Its up to the private sector to get the deals done, some seem to think that a TA means we send ship loads of goods, and the Indians automatically buy them.
      
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      February 15, 2026 2:32pm
    - Nobby2
      
      cmm. That means 66% of 1.4 billion people are potential customers. Seems like a good idea to me to have a trade agreement with India given those numbers. Until the full text of the agreement is made public the hysteria about low level immigrants ie uber drivers is a red herring.
      
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      February 15, 2026 3:43pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Would be interested in the source you used to claim
      
      India is a country where a third of the people shit in the streets
      
      Your supposed facts make the rest of your comment suspect. (Your supposed fact is wrong hence I ignore everything you say)
      
      Let me help you out.
      Note Open defecation DOES NOT mean shitting in the streets!
      2014 maybe 33%, but 2024 that number is now 7%
      Keep in mind that many of those are rural. So open defecation is on rural land.
      
      https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.ODFC.ZS?end=2024&locations=IN&start=2024&view=bar
      
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      February 15, 2026 5:51pm
  - Jack5
    
    AitchW’s … Denying our exporters access to a market of well over a billion people …
    
    We’re ignoring NZ’s mysterious pledge in the FTA to facilitate 20 billion US dollars of in investment into India over 15 years.
    
    However, poster AitchW’s point seems to parallel MFAT, which on its web site includes on the FTA: “95% of New Zealand’s current exports will be tariff free or have sharply reduced tariffs.”
    
    It’s talking of exports at present specifically to India, not of NZ total exports.
    
    In fact, most dairy products are excluded from the agreement.
    That’s where NZ needs gains. Dairy products are more than a third of NZ’s total exports to all countries.
    
    While meat accounts for about 12 per cent of NZ total exports, beef exports, which are not part of the India-NZ FTA, last year were $5 billion, compared with sheep meat, which is in the FTA, at $4.7 billion.
    
    NZ aluminium exports in total seem to be running around $1.2 billion. Aluminium’s not in the FTA.
    
    A minor agriculture concession by India would be to manuka honey, with duty falling from the present 66% to 16.5% over five years.
    
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    February 15, 2026 12:37pm
    - Paulus
      
      At the same time it has taken New Zealand Trade Officials through all Governments 11 years to get this far.
      
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      February 15, 2026 1:32pm
- Ghost
  
  they aren’t refusing, they are asking for more information. they will end up supporting it, to not support it will cost them, but they want to make it look like they had some part in it
  
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  February 15, 2026 9:42am
  - Dougal10
    
    You are probably right but people should be able to call him out on being a prick about it.
    
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    February 15, 2026 10:13am
    - Nobby2
      
      dougal10. He is a prick about everything in an election year.
      
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      February 15, 2026 3:45pm
  - ds
    
    Very much depends what is in the redacted advice. NZ First obviously didn’t like it.
    
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    February 15, 2026 12:30pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Just get Hipkins to add another word or two to the title of the FTA and they will be good to go.
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:13am
  - Paulus
    
    Reading some figures today that the coming election is going to be led by the votes of Women in a huge proportion as some media backed polls suggest the the difference between Luxon and Hipkins in terms of so called popularity is enormous in itself as far as women selected to participate are so far ahead of Luxon.
    They want the times of Ardern back irrespective of the enormous damage which she and her cohorts of which Hipkins was a yes person, damaged New Zealand – and little mummy’s boy Chippy a media darling about to get into the women’s magazines for his second wedding.
    We know officially from University College London – That Men’s and Women’s brains are different albeit not known yet why, but what is it in New Zealand that we can help them with this.
    So Hipkins gets a huge following but cannot do anything meaningful alone under MMP.
    So after the election a second one will be required and nohing thrn will happen as Women will remain true to their perception that Luxon as Prime Minister is not cuddly enough to lead New Zealand.
    The polls I saw was overwhelming in favourv of Labour being the Women’s vote in the election with Hipkins gurgling like a baby and New Zealand crashing even further than what he and his cohorts destroyed.
    After a lifetime with over 60 years of Marriage to the same person, I Canna Understand what is making New Zealand women, like this but am sure to be told but not all men are that bad, as Luxon appears to be in their eyes.
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:51pm
    - KKNZ2025
      
      Not all women.
      Roy Morgan polls are consistent for the last 2 years that child bearing age women (18-49) are the only demographic that overwhelmingly supports the Left.
      
      They are the key to this year’s election success. Why they don’t vote in a more balanced way is a question National, ACT & NZF have never publicly addressed.
      
      My own view is that it goes back to 2017s televised debate when Bill English refused to take abortion out of the the Crimes Act (with no explanation or justification leaving every impression of simply being an arrogant patriarchal Catholic) & Jacinda immediately said she would – & did.
      
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      February 15, 2026 7:50pm
Damocles11

Brave New World indeed. Many of the participants are apparently pleasingly pneumatic.

‘“We can confirm that condom supplies in the Olympic Villages were temporarily depleted due to higher-than-anticipated demand,” the Italian organizing committee said in a statement Saturday.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all villages between today and Monday.”’

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360938607/olympic-athletes-promised-fresh-stocks-condoms-valentines-day-after-villages-run-short
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February 15, 2026 9:59am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Isn’t that the place where male ski jumpers were allegedly receiving penis enlarging injections, to improve their flight time?
  
  No word on the side effects.
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:09am
  - Jack5
    
    How it works – from the Guardian – the “Dan Dwyer” mentioned is Australian Dan Dwyer, from Deakin University’s School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences in Victoria:
    
    ‘Enlarging the penis with hyaluronic acid could provide a benefit when the athlete is subject to this standardised body measurement process, as the dimensions recorded of their body would be larger than they might have been otherwise, which then allows them to be permitted to have a slightly larger ski suit made, Dwyer says. “And that slightly larger ski suit has a larger surface area which can then generate a small amount of extra lift.” ‘
    
    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/feb/06/penisgate-winter-olympics-ski-jumpers-acid-penis-health-risks-explainer
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:14pm
- rouppe
  
  Why can’t athletes bring their own condoms?
  
  Does the host country supply lube for the LGB athletes? Tampons for the females?
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:11am
- kowtow
  
  The winter olympics and indeed the summer games are so boring the organisers have to salt the willing , complicit media , with the ultimate in click bait , and have done for some time now.
  
  Sex sells. And these pond scum types have the cheek to pretend to be perpetually outraged at Epstein .
  
  But for decades studiously ignored the UK rape gangs.
  
  All the world’s a stage.
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:53am
NeverMindTheBollocks

The recent story, which I won’t link to, concerning the estimated cost blowout out from $200m to $500m+ for the new Wellington sludge plant. Among the many reasons listed was the fact that an entire floors worth of steel was simply omitted from the costings.

The reporter was at pains to avoid blaming anyone. You would think that the architect, the engineer and the quantity surveyor should all have noticed this egregious omission. Similarly, the project owner at WW should have noticed – and if s/he was not an engineer (which begs a whole other question), then whoever was contracted to provide QA.

There are a lot of heads that should roll over this one simple but hugely expensive error.
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February 15, 2026 10:04am
pb

Rupert Lowe running for PM in Restore. Regime Nigel didn’t even get a chance to start Reform.

Fabians waiting for things to go back to the 80’s might be disappointed.

Starmer was the Public Prosecutor who decided Jimmy Seville had no case to answer.
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February 15, 2026 10:20am
Nikola Donatello

Just for interest I used the research function of my AI service to calculate the average annual growth rate of Wellington City Council operating expenditure over the last decade. Not surprising. But still startling to see it quantified.

“Wellington City Council’s total operating expenditure grew at a compound annual rate of approximately 7.7% over the ten years from FY2014 to FY2024, based on Stats NZ Local Authority Financial Statistics.

That took operating expenditure from $404 million to $844 million — more than doubling in a decade. The growth was heavily back-loaded, with the most recent five years (FY2019–FY2024) averaging around 11.8% per annum, compared with more moderate growth in the first half of the period.”
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February 15, 2026 10:24am
- Ian Boag
  
  Good ole rule of 72.
  
  72 / Growth rate = doubling time
  
  so (algebra) 72 / doubling time = growth rate
  
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  February 15, 2026 5:47pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360937560/princess-diana-minister-and-concerns-stalled-national-health-campaign
An “HIV anti-stigma campaign” is about to be launched here by Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora.
It is designed to “tackle stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV.”
Is this still a big issue here? In 2026?
Maybe trying to use Princess Diana, who died 28 years ago, not the best idea – many younger people would barely have heard of her.
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February 15, 2026 10:35am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  HIV is a disease that in NZ is largely contracted and shared by gay men having condom-free sex. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that faceless hookups feature strongly in the story.
  
  And, it’s voluntary.
  
  So yeah, I’m ok with HIV retaining its stigma.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_New_Zealand
  
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  February 15, 2026 11:13am
Chuck Bird

It was a great speech delivered by David Seymour this morning from Christchurch.
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February 15, 2026 11:45am
- Wandering Star
  
  Good, but what was the topic and what did he say?
  
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  February 15, 2026 12:54pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    State of the Nation 2026 – David Seymour, 15/2/26
    
    here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoi9PdZrWnc
    
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    February 15, 2026 1:42pm
    - Wandering Star
      
      He’s really just a bit of a dork who looks better than he really is because of how bad the alternatives are. Too much “inclusiveness” bs and rehashed neoliberal mantras for my liking. It’s all just materialism and economics to Seymour. We’re an increasingly ailing nation that needs stronger and more fundamentally radical medicine than he has to offer.
      
      Then again, because it’s a crisis of the collective spirit more than anything material, requiring a collective revaluation of values, perhaps we’re just wrong to pin our hopes on whichever group of muppets can command a majority in parliament from time to time.
      
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      February 15, 2026 2:19pm
    - Quail
      
      Well worth listening to.
      A whole lot of the principles and concepts that most of us on this blog would agree with.
      Hopefully a future PM!
      
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      February 15, 2026 8:04pm
      - Ghost
        
        He will never be PM, his intention is to leave politics and not do another term in opposition
        
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        February 15, 2026 8:39pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I am not going to try and sumerize a 45-minute speech. I commented so others might like to see and hear when it came online.
    
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    February 15, 2026 2:13pm
    - Wandering Star
      
      “Seymour’s State of the Nation speech” would have been sufficient.
      
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      February 15, 2026 2:25pm
Swifty

Labour and the Greens want to smash the gig economy as it currently exists – and they hailed as a victory for ‘human rights’ the recent decision on the four NZ Uber drivers.

Interestingly, Seattle brought in minimum wage laws for Uber Eats and Door Dash etc drivers two years ago.

How has it gone?

https://x.com/joewallin/status/2022714365372440672?s=46
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February 15, 2026 12:48pm
Swifty

People aren’t labelled criminals in the States anymore, they’re now ‘justice impacted’.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18JRGfUVTr

Another Dem crook caught with her hand in the public cookie jar.
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February 15, 2026 1:28pm
Swifty

Stirring stuff from Rubio:

https://x.com/timrunshismouth/status/2022713673219723769?s=46
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February 15, 2026 1:44pm
Swifty

Hilary Clinton does a clear about face on a key Democratic policy position:

https://x.com/gunthereagleman/status/2022824293696995471?s=46
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February 15, 2026 1:52pm
NothingLeft

There are a handful of very weird individuals that are functionally in charge of the future of the human race due to their position as principals of the Big 4 AI companies that are about to bring AGI (and almost immediately thereafter ASI Artificial Super Intelligence) into the world. Sam Altman (Open AI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Elon Musk (xAI), Demis Hassabis (Google AI).

These are all Genius super-Geeks with math and science backgrounds, mostly on Autistic spectrum with all the quirks that sort of mentality comes with – dichotomous thinking (black and white thinking that frequently doesn’t give sufficient weight to uncertainty), extremely high risk tolerance/delusional optimism, low functional empathy (to the point of sociopathy in some cases), and a decent dollop of Narcissism born from being intellectually elite.

And we, without any plan or deliberation, are effectively entrusting the safety and continuation of humanity, as well as all life on earth, into their hands and judgement as they race to develop incalculably risky tech that has a strong probability ( in evolutionary terms perhaps near certainty) of wiping us out.

None of them are showing any particular care for that risk. The selection processes that lead them to being in the roles they have eliminate anyone possessed of a conscience who does have any concern or caution for the jeopardy they are placing us all in, or even desires to slow down the progress. Hundreds of AI researchers from these companies have excited over last few years while doing their best to ring the alarm bells precisely because they see enormous risks without any realistic plan to mitigate of prevent the scary outcomes. This leaves precisely the wrong sorts of people behind to continue developing the AI as fast as possible without any concern for safety – all focused on maximizing their short term problem solving ‘fun’, income and power at the cost of everything to everyone and all humanities future hopes.

We are truly fucked given the incentive structures in play and how little attention the public and politicians seem to be giving to what is playing out now in the AI industry of (mostly) Silicon Valley.

Here for example is Elon’s take on the (existential risk) AI alignment problem – basically ‘AI’s will soon be in control of everything and they’ll probably look after us because we made them’
https://youtu.be/YxUg8xd3EuE?t=45
[Mod – deleted]! This is actually what he considers a serious argument for humans having a tolerable future with AI in charge! He’s built a flimsy rationalization for just doing the easiest thing (ie nothing) to mitigate the threat from a technology that could easily, and perhaps most likely will extinguish all life on earth. Or maybe he’s just given up realizing he can’t stop the race to ASI given the economic incentive structures – and these are just the words he mouths to make his day-to-day life easier.

Everyone who isn’t a complete nihlist should be freaking out right about now, as we will cross the point of no return in next couple of years after which we won’t be able to stop whatever ASI decides to do.

Cassandra’s curse is cruel.
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February 15, 2026 2:20pm
- cmm
  
  Sometimes I look at this and I think that maybe the people I used to know in rural Transkei had the right sort of way with dealing with life.
  
  Life for them is hard, but pretty simple and not significantly different than a few hundred years ago.
  
  Back then they didn’t have electric lights, phones, bank accounts, voter’s registrations, taxes, …. and they still don’t.
  
  For hundreds of years, water came out of the stream and fire wood carried on their heads from the forest 4km away. And still does.
  
  Their house was a wattle and daub hut made out of mud and sticks, thatched with local grass. Still is.
  
  In the last hundred years the major changes to their lives has been getting some plastic buckets to carry water, matches to make firelighting easier, iron pots and being able to buy sweets and such by walking to the shop 9km away. Oh, and steel hooks and monofilament line have made fishing a bit easier.
  
  They shrugged their shoulders when WW1 and WW2 broke out. They shrugged their shoulders when Mandela was released and they got the vote. They will shrug their shoulders if AI takes over the world.
  
  Actually, perhaps the biggest single event in the last 100 years was during WW2 when the RAF built an anti-submarine base about 5km away and many of them got temporary jobs building and maintaining the airfield. Then WW2 ended and the Shackletons flew away and they shrugged their shoulders and went back to life. The airbase was plundered for building materials etc and can no longer be seen on Google Maps.
  
  https://www.google.com/maps/place/31%C2%B019'05.0%22S+29%C2%B055'00.1%22E/@-31.318041,29.9160569,215m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d-31.318041!4d29.916702?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
  
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  February 15, 2026 2:54pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    They won’t be shrugging their shoulders if/when ASI has built a few petaWatts of data centers, melted the icecaps with the added heat and killed most life off with the chemical waste and radioactivity from their mining and power-generation activities (environmental poisoning doesn’t affect them).
    
    Dumb Evolution applies to Superintelligence the same as any other organism, it will select for any ASI that develops a desire to grow or replicate as fast as possible – because those that do will quickly outnumber or replace those that don’t – making it the almost certain outcome. There won’t be any space left for protecting humans (or life) when that evolutionary growth competition kicks in. Unless (perhaps) there is just a single superintelligence able to chose not to do so without ‘losing’ out to others.
    
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    February 15, 2026 3:33pm
    - cmm
      
      The modern world has bypassed these people. Chances are AI won’t bother with them either.
      
      It is going to be many centuries before rising sea gets to them (assuming worst case scenarios) and they have multiple food sources (sea, cattle, crops…).
      
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      February 15, 2026 4:56pm
  - Sweet Hitchhiker
    
    What feefs!!!
    
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    February 15, 2026 3:49pm
- Wandering Star
  
  Who’s to say that any one of these people are really in control or really providing the impetus for anything?
  
  The French philosopher Jacques Ellul wrote very insightfully about technology (or more precisely about “technique” as he characterised the underlying principle which manifested itself in this or that technological phenomenon).
  
  Principally, in The Technological Society and The Technological Order from the mid 60s, he argued for both autonomy and universality as being fundamental features of technique.
  
  Ellul on the autonomy of technique:
  
  “Technique pursues no end, professed or unprofessed. It evolves in a purely causal way: the combination of preceding elements furnishes the new technical elements. There is no purpose or plan that is being progressively realised. There is not even a tendency towards human ends. We are dealing with a phenomenon blind to the future, in a domain of integral causality”
  
  “Technique is the prime mover of all the rest, despite any appearance to the contrary and in spite of human pride, which pretends that man’s philosophical theories are still determining influences and man’s political regimes decisive factors in technical evolution. External necessities no longer determine technique…….Technique’s own internal necessities are determinative. Technique has become a reality in itself, self-sufficient with its special laws and its own determinations.”
  
  And, as to the universality of technique:
  
  “In the course of history there have always been different principles of civilisation according to regions, nations and continents. But today, everything tends to align itself on technical principles. In the past, different civilisations took different paths; today, all peoples follow the same road and the same impulse. This does not mean they have all reached the same point, but they are situated at different points along the same trajectory.”
  
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  February 15, 2026 4:49pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  I can’t see this turning out to be anything but nasty.
  
  The AI gurus are telling us things like “within 2 to 5 years the majority of current jobs will be gone” and one even stating when pressed about what the average person can do “live each day as if it was your last” (as I recall I’m pretty sure that was an English AI founder guy on either Triggernometry or Diary of A CEO podcasts).
  
  So we are being rushed into this unprecedented nuking of everything we’ve known without a well thought out and tested game plan. Do you hear Luxon talking about what plans they have for managing this? Or any politician? No, they are clueless.
  
  So either the brakes are going to be slammed on hard once people wake up to how unacceptably disruptive this will be to most people, or alternatively our leaders will sleep walk into allowing big-tech greed-meisters to completely F up everything as we know it. Then the result I think will be an unprecedented revolt by the people against existing establishments everywhere. That will be nasty as big money and associated vested interests try to crack down on the plebs revolting against the trillionaire “masters of the universe”.
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:42pm
cmm

I went for a drive in Christchurch earlier today and saw Minto and Chloe chanting:

From the River to the Sea eColi shall be free!
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February 15, 2026 2:33pm
- cmm
  
  One sourpuss downticker wishes they had a quicker wit.
  
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  February 15, 2026 4:37pm
- Ghost
  
  go further and tell us what they are chanting in Wellington?
  
  “from the butt to the sea, let the shit run free”?
  
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  February 15, 2026 4:41pm
  - cmm
    
    Sorry, you’ll have to find someone who lives in Wellington. I haven’t been there since 2008. The dunny flushed when I used it back then.
    
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    February 15, 2026 4:52pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    That looks like something I read on a public toilet wall in the 1970’s.
    
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    February 15, 2026 8:52pm
cmm

Trump made a refugee programme so that various people who feel victimised and persecuted in South Africa can move to USA as refugees. Quite a few (mainly white) have taken up the offer.

Now there is great upsetness amongst many of them that they cannot travel “home” to South Africa to visit relatives or go back on holiday etc.

FFS people, you claimed refugee status. You claimed you were being persecuted and your lives were in danger etc. Now you want to go back? That’s immigration fraud! Of course your refugee status should be terminated. You’re lucky not to be thrown in federal prison.

Seems to me these people want their cake and eat it.

Yes, I do sympathise with these people and their plight, but if you want to claim refugee status then at least behave like a real refugee!
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February 15, 2026 4:50pm
- Swifty
  
  Bang on.
  
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  February 15, 2026 5:22pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Hmm. Achmed Zouai springs to mind, locally.
  
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  February 15, 2026 6:21pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360938715/woman-injured-after-attack-hamilton-home-two-male-intruders

“We are urging anyone with any information on this appalling crime to come forward,” he said.”

“If you know something about this abhorrent crime, please come forward as soon as possible.Even the smallest detail could be crucial.”

OK: how about telling us what these two ferals looked like ?
White? Brown? Asian? Tall? Short? Fat? What clothes? Vehicles?
I am sick of reading these sort of articles, where the public is asked for information but the police never say what the public should be looking for in terms of personal descriptions. Too embarassingly predictable I presume.
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February 15, 2026 5:17pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  If they don’t tell you then you already know
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:16pm
- MCōs
  
  If someone knew who the perpetrators were they wouldn’t need those details.
  On the other hand if the police said two overweight brown, tattooed people were involved every overweight brown person in the area becomes a suspect
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:56pm
  - Ghost
    
    From their press release it is obvious they are still trying to work out what happened. Some people prefer to look for things that aren’t there instead of let the police do their job and release details as they get or confirm them. It would be just stupid to claim they are holding them back because of race, but this is kiwiblog
    
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    February 15, 2026 9:18pm
Swifty

A South African gentleman offers his sober assessment of local affairs:

https://x.com/antonfoooker50/status/2022665198134247869?s=46
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February 15, 2026 5:22pm
- Jethrod
  
  Wow…… certainly likes the sound of his own voice!
  
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  February 16, 2026 10:05am
greybeard

I took out a Library book today, about “Anti-Gravity”.
So gripping: I couldn’t put it down.
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February 15, 2026 5:27pm
Swifty

The Greens have just announced that should they form part of a new government in November they will immediately change Wellington’s name to ‘Pakaru Wharepaku’.

Just letting you know.
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February 15, 2026 5:28pm
Swifty

More hateful violent thuggery and intolerance from NZ’s trans-extremist faction today:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360938723/protestors-storm-stage-big-gay-out-auckland
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February 15, 2026 6:12pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Good they had effective security to deal with the rage muppets!
  
  1 0
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  February 15, 2026 8:47pm
- MCōs
  
  I thought it was Destiny Church for a minute
  
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  February 15, 2026 8:57pm
Ghost

Sad. How about just turning the screen off and talking to the other people there

Article

A New York wine bar has hosted a rather unique event to celebrate Valentine’s Day, where guests went on dates with an AI partner.

Valentine’s Day is full of romance and love, and one bar has taken that a step further, allowing customers the chance to go on a date regardless of whether they have a human to sit across from.
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February 15, 2026 9:03pm

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