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June 1, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 01 June 2026

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General Debate

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Scott

On Saturday DPF posted this:

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2026/05/what_do_muslim_immigrants_think.html

Many on the thread tried to warn of the dangers of Muslim immigration but there were two people on the thread who can only be described as Muslim apologists. The defence was – I’ve lived in Muslim countries for years and I know Muslims and they are fine people.

So to counter the apologists I set myself the task of looking for Muslim violence on the Daily Mail only and only this morning.

I found two newsworthy examples of Muslim violence. Firstly this:

https://www.dailymail.com/crime-desk/article-15849683/I-jailed-entire-family-stabbing-daughter-death-claimed-restore-honour-organised-crime.html

So a young Muslim woman went out with a Muslim man from Afghanistan. When she revealed the relationship to the family hoping they would approve they did not. They said he was a low caste person who probably only wanted her for her money. Her brother and father and other male members of the family killed her with knives while the mother stood aside and two young female members of the family were forced to watch. Honour killings are part of Islamic culture and are not at all uncommon.

The second example was a leading story where PSG, the leading French football team, beat Arsenal in the final of the Champions league :

https://www.dailymail.com/sport/football/article-15861885/My-eyes-burning-tear-gas-hit-streets-Paris-joyful-celebrations-European-glory-escalated-shameful-riots-engulfed-city-dawn-writes-JAMES-SHARPE.html

Instead of celebrations there were riots including setting fire to cars, beating up a lone Arsenal supporter and at least one death. The thing is the rioters are immigrants or children of immigrants. They are not white sons of France. And the majority will be Muslim. Although the Daily Mail takes pains to not point this out. There are Muslim dominated no go areas in Paris. Setting fire to cars is common in Paris. All immigrants doing this and majority Muslim.

So this is today’s news in the Daily Mail this morning. We should stop mass immigration here to this country and we should be very careful about who we do take from certain countries. These things happening in Britain and France can easily happen here. Just give it time.
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June 1, 2026 8:04am
- David Garrett
  
  Scott: I hope you went to church yesterday? I had very pleasant Godless day!
  
  But on to your post…your description of Flanagan and others as “Muslim apologists” is entirely apposite. The reality is that those Daily Mail stories are entirely typical, revealing the simple reality: Muslims and their bloodthirsty values are totally incompatible with western values – it’s that simple.
  
  There used to be a particularly stupid Muslim apologist here called “Stephie boy” – soon renamed by this fellow commenters “Stupid Boy”
  
  Whenever a comment like yours appeared, he would make an inane response, usually saying the 55 Muslim refugees in Dunedin were all lovely people – which may of course been quite true, but also beside the point.
  
  Also note from those stories that the terrorists/killers are often born in the host country – meaning they cannot be deported. This is going to become more and more of a problem as time goes on.
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:07am
  - Charlotte Wells
    
    The problem will go away when the Muslim invasion is complete.
    
    Then it’s Sharia law for everyone. By that point it will be convert or die.
    
    It’s how it worked in every other nation they have conquered.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:10pm
    - Gulag1917
      
      Not going to happen.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:11pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Has anybody considered that the mass Muslim violence stories are all Europe-based?
    
    The same Europe that allowed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of DISPLACED YOUNG MEN from countries bombed by Europe.
    ie Libya, Syria etc etc.
    
    I don’t read about Muslim violence in Russia, for example, which has a large Muslim community, or Cambodia either.
    
    It’s another sunny day in the BIG Kingdom. With a cool 25c with a slight breeze this morning.
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:06pm
    - Paulus
      
      Was not the breakup of the Soviet Union due to the fact that the Stansin the South were Muslims and growing rapidly whereby the total Soviet Union at the time was over 50% Muslim hence the breakup
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:42pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Russia’s approach to dealing with Muslims in Russia has been far less gentle than in the west. Chechen wars, Dagestan conflict, North Caucasus insurgency, Tajikistan conflict… Putin’s regime and his clent warlords in the ickystans cheerfully murder any troublemakers keeping a firm lid on things.
      
      Muslims are pretty pragmatic in dealing with superior military powers – they generally just buckle under and do what they are told like any other sane population does.
      
      It’s only when unhinged pacifists and bend-over-backwards virtue signaling wokesters (‘feminised thinking’) hold sway that the fringe islamic extremists gain sufficient license (and tolerance from wider muslim community in absence of any repercussions), that it becomes really problematic. The jihadist hydra only ever becomes a problem in the absence of strong cohesive govt control and pushback. Which is why ISIS rose in a power vacuum and Islamic nutjobbery is generally worst in places with no effective govt.
      
      There isn’t much trouble with Muslim fundamentalists/jihadists through the wealthier gulf states because the govts there know they have to smack them down with extreme censure whenever they make trouble to keep it from growing. Executions, life imprisonment, torture, banishment, and a degree of sippenhaft (kin liability) to reduce the incidence. A level of response that bleeding hearts of west are not comfortable with meting out.
      
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      June 1, 2026 6:21pm
    - Jack5
      
      Ra H’s …I don’t read about Muslim violence in Russia …
      
      There was the Chechen Muslim atrocity at a Moscow Theatre in October, 2002. Russen special forces’ gas is blamed for the death of 132 hostages plus the death of the attackers.
      
      Two years later when Chechens seized a school at Beslan, 186 children died and 148 other people.
      
      The same year, Islamic State terrorists killed 150 people at a concert in Krasnagorsk, about 25km from Moscow.
      
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      June 2, 2026 12:22am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Just a small fact.
        It was NOT a Chechen MUSLIM atrocity at any of the events you describe.
        
        They were all attacks by Chechens who wanted.
        
        “”an immediate end to the Second Chechen War and the total withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.””
        
        You are conflating Muslim terrorists and Chechen “freedom fighters”””
        
        You seem to have fallen in to the trap of assuming that due to the Chechen population(Under 2 million) being mainly Sunni Muslims…..that religion was the cause of the activities described.
        
        That is incorrect.
        
        Its about as daft as saying American Christians attacked Iran.
        
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        June 2, 2026 4:08pm
- Philview
  
  I know several Muslims who I like. I would describe them as middle class types who have typical concerns on crime, good schools for their children etc. Whatever level of faith they have has never come up in conversation. A couple are Iranian and supportive of Trump.
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:32am
  - David Garrett
    
    Phil: Of course there will be Muslims like the ones you describe! Just at there are millions of Catholics – at least in the West – who quietly ignore – their religion’s teachings on birth control.
    
    Such people as your friends prove absolutely nothing – other than along with the fanatics and those who quietly believe what their bloodthirsty holy book teaches, but don’t act on it – there are exceptions who pose no threat at all.
    
    But their children might – in the fullness of time. As I have said in another comment, it is the children of the migrants who pose the greater threat.
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:42am
    - Skottowe
      
      “….millions of Catholics – at least in the West – who quietly ignore – their religion’s teachings on birth control.”
      
      Some years ago, on another blog site, I had exchanges with young Catholics who firmly believed that the Church opposes abortion only, but accepts all other forms of birth control. This isn’t so, of course: last I looked, the Vatican website made it clear that the Church opposes all forms of birth control.
      
      However. In the far reaches of the Catholic church – countries like this one, eg – it’s very likely that many priests take a liberal view of, for instance, the oral contraceptive. Or they’ve concluded that they have no business interfering in Catholic bedrooms (my late mother used to say something along those lines). However it’s come about, it appears that there’s a younger generation which believes the Church’s stance on birth control to be conditional.
      
      I grew up Catholic: I vividly remember the anguish among extended family members, brought about by the dire consequences of what they saw as a sacred obligation. Its hard-line stance on birth control is one of the reasons I left the Church, almost 60 years ago now.
      
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      June 1, 2026 11:52am
      - kowtow
        
        Vatican website made it clear that the Church opposes all forms of birth control.
        
        That’s simply incorrect .
        
        The RC church has no objection to a natural birth control method ie the rhythm method ,aka Roman roulette.
        
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        June 1, 2026 12:52pm
      - David Garrett
        
        kowtow: I think you mean Russian roulette…and that’s exactly what is known as “the rythmn method” is: for women other than those who have very stable cycles, an excellent chance of getting pregnant on what should be “safe” days.
        
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        June 1, 2026 2:05pm
      - alwyn.a
        
        @DG
        We knew it as Roman Roulette.
        Russian Roulette was much more dangerous, at least in its possible outcome. It involved putting a single bullet in a revolver, spinning the chamber, putting the muzzle to your head and pulling the trigger.
        On second thoughts perhaps the possible outcomes are similar.
        
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        June 1, 2026 2:43pm
      - Skottowe
        
        Kowtow: “That’s simply incorrect.”
        
        No. It isn’t. The Church is opposed to all forms of birth control, though commenters and documents qualify the issue by using the term “artificial”. Aside from abstinence, there are no efficacious “natural” methods of birth control/family planning. The rhythm method? You’d get much hollow laughter from my immediate and extended family. I still recall a relative proclaiming its virtues. I looked at her belly and thought (but didn’t say), you’ve got another one in there! I was correct….
        
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        June 2, 2026 12:53pm
    - Taieri
      
      Of course there will be Muslims like the ones you describe!
      ———-
      
      Considering that Muslims constitute about a quarter of the world’s population, the mischief making adherents of that religion are a very small minority. While most of them are very different from us culturally, they are not the blood-thirsty monsters some make them be, they are just a normal people trying to do the best in their lives. I spent long periods in Muslim countries, worked and associated with their people and can’t really fault them. Having said which, I’m not in favour of Muslim immigration for a very simple reason – its excessive scale. When too many of them arrive, they change the cultural makeup of a host country, have no motivation to integrate and tend to live parallel lives, entirely different from the rest of the host population. The lives spent in an ethnic ghetto, where the main point of focus is their local mosque. Their children find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand, they no longer belong to the country of origin of their parents, but on the other hand they don’t feel that they truly belong to a country where they were born, especially if they grow up in traditional, conservative households. And that’s when the problems start…
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:36pm
      - Paulus
        
        It only take one fanatic Muslim to cause chaos.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:44pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Your logic, David, should also then apply to your rhetoric about a few Muslim extremists/terrorists reported by such gossip rags as the Daily Mail.
      
      Of course, the Daily mail seems to fall outside the usual dump on MSM for misinformation.
      
      So, David, applying your logic.
      You say.
      Such people as your friends prove absolutely nothing.
      
      Surely then
      Such people as your occasional fanatics prove absolutely nothing.
      
      Some context from Gemini
      Europe wide annual (2023)
      Muslim attacks 24
      Non Muslim Attacks 26.
      
      Guess not so much emotion with the rabid right-wing/left-wing/separatist “terrorists.”
      
      Standing by for all the “”numbers”” from those supporting you David.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:19pm
      - Jethrod
        
        GOOGLE AI says there is 5 to 7% of the European population is Muslim, 25 to 30 million.
        So ordinary maths says 570,000,000 aren’t Muslim.
        Mmmmm!
        
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        June 1, 2026 4:33pm
  - David George
    
    Dan Burmawi:
    “Your Sunni Muslim friend outside his habitat is not lying to you. He is genuinely warm, genuinely tolerant, genuinely committed to the pluralism he expresses in your company. Your Shia Muslim colleague at the office is not performing a deception when she treats her non-Muslim coworkers with respect, humor, and the full human complexity that makes her someone you would call a friend.
    She is exactly who she appears to be. And she is not a representation of Islam.
    She is a specimen in ecological release.”
    
    “In the habitat of Islam, in the societies where Islam is not one option among many but the total environment, the theology is not a private preference. It is the air. And the behavior it produces is not what you observe in your friend outside that habitat any more than the behavior of a lion in a zoo is what you would observe if you removed the bars.”
    
    https://www.danburmawi.com/p/the-habitat-and-the-specimen
    
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    June 1, 2026 11:11am
- leoj
  
  Islam is completely and totally incompatible with western culture.
  
  Why do so many Muslims want to emigrate to Christian countries? Then take their incompatible religion with them, demanding that Islam be accepted? Christians don’t expect to do that in Muslim countries.
  
  Like oil and water – they do not and cannot mix.
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:48am
  - Taieri
    
    Why do so many Muslims want to emigrate to Christian countries?
    ————–
    
    For the very same reasons that other people emigrate. To improve their lives.
    Why do they take their religion with them? Their religion is not just a religion, it’s their way of life, they can’t just discard it. And when there’re enough of them, it’s only natural that they will expect that their religion deserves to be given its rightful – in their opinion – place. One of the first things immigrants do, is setting up a place of worship and cultural interaction, because such places make it easier for them to survive the initial cultural shocks of a new country.
    This is not a phenomenon specific to Islam, just about all ethnicities used to start their lives in new countries in exactly the same way. The difference is, that the Irish or Italian Catholics of the bygone era didn’t really differed all than much, in both, the appearance and culture, from the Anglo-Saxon hosts in British dominated countries and, in time, integrated and assimilated relatively easily with the host population.
    Now, of course, that there’s no longer mass emigration from the predominanty European countries all this has been forgotten, but it was really just the other side of the very same coin.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:51pm
    - ISeeRed
      
      Their “way of life” created conditions they fled from, which they want to duplicate here. Make it make sense.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:19pm
  - Gulag1917
    
    If the West would stop bombing the Middle East there would be less reason to emigrate.
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:12pm
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      I far as I am aware the west isn’t bombing sub-saharan africa.
      
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      June 1, 2026 5:32pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Maybe consider that Muslim-majority countries are third world.
    They seek a better life.
    
    Along with Venezuelans (Non Muslim)
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:22pm
David Garrett

Good morning from Rancho Garrett…Couldn’t believe how warm it was when I got off the plane yesterday…Picked up by the daughter…had an early dinner with her…Excellent day!
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June 1, 2026 8:06am
- Cassandra
  
  And off to the to the tailor?
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:23am
  - David Garrett
    
    Cass: Nah…but off to Farmers! I used to shop at Hallensteins, but they have clearly abandoned the “older man” market.
    
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    June 1, 2026 8:29am
- igm
  
  What pseudonym is the downticker going under today.
  He, of late, has adopted a Irish theme; wonder if he has attended mass?
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:54am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Irish theme ?
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:08am
Michael Sommerville

I read the Birthday Honours with interest. My name was not on it – no surprise there. But there seems to be a category that is missing. There is no award given for services to white men. Plenty to Maori, Chinese, Indian etc. and to women’s affairs but none for the Caucasian blokes.

This is a little tongue in cheek.
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June 1, 2026 8:15am
- Paulus
  
  Whilst there are some well deserved awards I note one from Tokomaru Bay in the the award is for Maori Clay Sculptures.
  Blimey not Shit from Clay at last, perhaps, but is it to keep the Maori numbers up again as appears still to be the case ?
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:44am
- Positan
  
  Mike, no need for your tongue to be cheeked. You point out a glaring failure in our “recognition” of service which is very much underlined throughout today’s PC, virtue-signalling and woke understanding of Kiwi life.
  
  White men establish the floor mats along with most of the other undertakings that “enable” those of other races – but mainly Maori – to perform “services” to their own.
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:45am
- Philview
  
  I did note honours to people like Barry Soper, Elizabeth Rata and Michael Johnson who have written with intellectual integrity in recent years in the face of much pressure.
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I suggest you read this latest offering from one of our latest Dames…. Dame Elizabeth Rata… on her expose of how the co-governance/tribal rule strategy has been worked into our daily existence.
  
  https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/professor-elizabeth-rata-new-zealand-s-public-culture
  
  She completely demolishes the myth that NZ Governments tried to suppress the Maori Language.
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:00am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    She’s a hero. And she’s faced years of ostracism by her fellow educational academics for having the “wrong” views.
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:15am
    - R
      
      In education views, Proff Rata is a rarity; it is not often that the minority view is correct.
      
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      June 1, 2026 10:20am
    - Paulus
      
      Is she now considered wrong kind of Maori ?
      
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      June 1, 2026 11:36am
      - Alwyn Poole
        
        She is not Maori.
        
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        June 1, 2026 11:55am
      - Notsofast
        
        I think she is non Maori, despite the surname.
        
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        June 1, 2026 11:56am
      - Skottowe
        
        “Is she now considered wrong kind of Maori?”
        
        Some years ago, I heard her being interviewed. Regarding her ethnicity, she said that she wouldn’t discuss it, because, whether or not she’s of Maori descent, that issue got in the way of what she was saying. Difficult to disagree.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:05pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Maggy: What Professor Rata does not say is that “speak English only at school; Maori at home” was the policy of Sir Apirana Ngata, who was Minister of “Native Affairs” – as Te Puni Kokiri was then known – from 1928. Ngata explained that this policy was necessary so Maori could participate fully in “the modern world”
    
    As for the old saw about kids being “beaten for speaking their own language” – yes of course they were! The strap and the cane were standard tools for enforcing the rules right into the 1970’s – as of course you know. Many younger commenters may well not know that
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:23am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      So you are perhaps suggesting that the Maori kids were caned for speaking Maori out of turn while the white kids were caned for speaking English out of turn? Or for breaching other stupid rules?
      
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      June 1, 2026 9:46am
      - David Garrett
        
        BY: Pretty much…”speak only English at school” would have been a strict school rule – obviously it was only Maori kids who could infringe…and YES they would have got “beaten” as was the custom of the time.
        
        And all the kids – brown white or brindle – would have had a hole host of other rules for which the penalty for breaching same was the strap – for the younger kids – and the cane once you got to high school.
        
        I was caned frequently at school – I left in 1974 – and not once did I think it was unfair. We all knew what the rules were.
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:03am
      - AitchW
        
        DG I too was caned on occasion at school. I left at the end of 1980.
        Every caning (and sandshoeing in the junior school) was the result of some breach of either school or house rules.
        Except one. Falsely accused of tomfoolery after tipping backwards off a low stool in science class.
        I was angry about that one!
        
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        June 1, 2026 11:31am
      - Ra Henare
        
        and of course punishment Canned for boys repeatedly having long hair. ie ignoring haircut orders
        Girls wer punished (not canned) for having skirts too short. (detentions)
        
        Schools in the 50s/60s/70s were a law unto themselves. Tomorrow’s schools and ending corporal punishment lead to the pansies we have in charge today. IMHO
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:29pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        per molestias eruditio “true education begins with physical abuse” – St Augustine
        
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        June 1, 2026 6:26pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Talking in class was usually punished, irrespective of the language used.
      
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      June 1, 2026 9:47am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Correct.
        They called it ‘discipline’.
        It worked, and so did we…
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:10am
      - Gravelroad
        
        Yes. I got one of those blackboard cleaners with a sold wooden handle chucked at me by the fifth form science teacher once. For talking.
        Just missed me. Landed on the desk in a clatter and a cloud of chalk.
        Never forgot it though.
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:36am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I ducked in Std 2, when Mr Hooker threw the chalk duster at me (for talking, as usual).
        It hit the girl in the desk behind me.
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:46am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        On cold frosty mornings a number of us would willingly line up for the strap on our hands by our classroom teacher at the start of school.
        
        Sure warmed up our hands.
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:50am
    - Paulus
      
      These punishments were universal as I got caned in my London School often, I did not know what for.
      Did me no harm either as I suspect I earned the cane.
      
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      June 1, 2026 11:38am
    - Skottowe
      
      “…”speak English only at school; Maori at home” was the policy of Sir Apirana Ngata, who was Minister of “Native Affairs” – as Te Puni Kokiri was then known – from 1928.”
      
      Indeed. The ineluctable rules of language survival and revival apply to the Maori language, as they do to all languages. It isn’t necessary to teach it in schools, but it must be spoken in the home, preferably exclusively.
      
      If the language is to survive at all, Maori children must have it as their first and only language (native speakers, is the term from linguistics), at least for the first four or five years of their lives.
      
      Bilingualism isn’t enough, when a language is critically endangered, as is Maori (I have a family member who’s bilingual). It’s very difficult to find out if there are any native speakers left, but it seems likely that if there are any, they’re around my age.
      
      My spouse is a native speaker of a language other than English. They spent the first 5-6 years of their life in that language environment, then came to NZ. When they speak now, it’s unaccented Kiwi English. But when we return to that country, the native language reasserts itself, and locals hear a native speaker. It’s a wonder to behold….
      
      The critical thing about learning a second language is that the younger one is, the easier it is. Another of the ineluctable rules about language acquisition is that, with few exceptions, the outside age for fluent (but not unaccented) language acquisition is around the mid- to late twenties. The older we are, the more difficult it is to learn and retain another language. When you hear about older Maori claiming that colonisation stops them from learning the language, it’s bollix. They have difficulty precisely because they’re older.
      
      I can vouch for the difficulty of learning and retaining another language when one is older. I learned the Maori language when I was a young adult, so my facility with it was greater than with Mandarin, which I learned in my late forties-early fifties. I have forgotten most of it. French, on the other hand, which I learned in high school, sticks with me. When we went to Paris, many years ago, the language came flooding back, despite long years of my not using it.
      
      Noam Chomsky’s language “black box” is open for business from our birth, until sometime in our teens. After that, we can still acquire a language, but usually not with native-like pronunciation.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:46pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Skotte: Why on earth are you referring to your spouse as “they” as if you were a woke 20 year old? No-one here gives a fuck if your spouse is male; a goodly number of us are irritated by plural references to a single person.
        
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        June 1, 2026 2:10pm
      - Skottowe
        
        David Garrett: “No-one here gives a fuck if your spouse is male…”
        
        I don’t wish to reveal my spouse’s sex. Neither does my spouse. The they/them terminology is clunky, but there’s nothing better that I’ve seen.
        
        I’ve been commenting on blog sites for long years. Until recently, I used my own name, but no longer. My name is distinctive and I’m easily found. After approaches from complete strangers – who took exception to my opinions – and given the febrile environment we now live in, I’ve opted for anonymity, both for me and for my spouse.
        
        You don’t have to like this, or the terminology which I use. I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks. Don’t read my comments if you don’t want to. No skin off my nose.
        
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        June 2, 2026 1:03pm
  - R
    
    It is only the ideologically deluded activists who ever believed that myth. The true facts have been available for years, just not presented in the editions of the revised NZ history, presently used in our education(?) edtablishments
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:35am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “It is only the ideologically deluded activists who ever believed that myth.”
      
      Its their linguistic holocaust.
      
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      June 1, 2026 10:13am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The most frightening thing Professor Rata said was in an interview with Leighton Smith:
    
    ” We are now seeing children leaving school without sufficient vocabulary to verbalise their thoughts.”
    
    (My paraphrase).
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:36am
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      Exactly what the socialists want.
      
      If you cannot speak clearly then you cannot think clearly and others will do your thinking for you.
      
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      June 1, 2026 3:00pm
  - Taieri
    
    She completely demolishes the myth that NZ Governments tried to suppress the Maori Language
    ———-
    
    She’s not the first one to do it. A good job too, but I’m afraid that it’s all “blowing into the wind”. You don’t need to convince the convinced, and the others will just ignore her good efforts.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:56pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Dame Susan Hassall was Headmaster (sic) of Hamilton Boys High School for 25 years. She was interviewed on Radio New Zealand and sounds like a measured individual. However, I have two issues with her story:
  
  Firstly, 25 years is way too long to be in a CEO role. The CEO sets the direction for an organisation and over time, fresh thinking is important. It’s not as if the school was an enterprise founded by Hassall; it’s a public entity. Could the Board not have found someone new during that period to pick up the baton? To be fair, it’s not just Hamilton Boys. Wellington Boys and Wellington Girls both have a history of Headships lasting decades.
  
  Secondly, for a woman to lead a boy’s college is problematic. Particularly through puberty, and in this age of missing fathers, boys need a male role model to look up to and learn what being a good man looks like. For all her virtues, Hassall could not be that person. And if you think this comment is sexist, consider the counterfactual. I do not expect the next head of Wellington Girls to be a man.
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:38am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Well, perhaps not Wellington Girls’ College, but Southland Girls has…
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2019032035/southland-girls-gets-first-ever-permanent-male-principal
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:37am
    - Ian
      
      I guess that NMTB’s point was with a female head of a boys college, there was not the male role model to look up to ( missing fathers and all). With a male head of a girls college, the girls role models are probably their mothers at home being that there probably aren’t any “missing mothers” as most single parent households these are headed by a mother…
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:58pm
    - Skottowe
      
      “…Southland Girls…”
      
      Ha! My late mother was dux of that school, a whisker over a century ago.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:53pm
  - lifesgood
    
    Baradene College, Auckland, all girls, had a male Principal for many years. He was well loved and highly respected by both students and their families
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:39pm
  - R
    
    From observation of the teaching fraternity at Hamilton Boys, a significant element of the teacher’s were men.
    
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    June 1, 2026 5:39pm
- pdm
  
  MS sorry fat fingers got you a downtick by mistake.
  
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  June 1, 2026 3:30pm
Cassandra

Anna Richards, an Australian, writes in the UK’s Telegraph: “Aussies have a habit of claiming things that aren’t ours – pavlovas, Russell Crowe, Crowded House – but smashed “avo” on toast is (almost) certainly true blue.”

She tops it with a poached egg but adds: “Of course, there’s been plenty of additions since then – crumbly feta, blistered tomatoes still on the vine, a scattering of chilli flakes – but even as simple as the original may be, I can’t think of another dish that an entire generation is willing to give up home ownership for. Order a flat white alongside for the full Australian breakfast experience (although ask any Kiwi and they’ll say that’s another thing we’ve stolen).”
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June 1, 2026 8:22am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Does anyone really need to “claim” smashed avocado on toast?
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:53am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I thought Nigella had claimed it….
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HibNGXsqcAk
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:11pm
Pope Punctilious II

I was too cynical to see this ever happening, but sometimes it’s a great pleasure to be proven wrong. Elizabeth Rata is now a dame, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving. For decades she has drawn attention to the damage being done to our education system by postmodernism and radical “progressivism”. She and Michael Johnston are the driving force behind Erica Stanford’s much-needed reforms.
King’s Birthday Honours 2026: The full list – knights, dames and all other recipients – NZ Herald https://share.google/vkhKNpO5oq2ZjTI3U
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June 1, 2026 8:23am
- Ra Henare
  
  Paywalled
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:33pm
- Skottowe
  
  “Elizabeth Rata is now a dame, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving.”
  
  Absolutely agree. This appointment has almost restored my severely-dented faith in the honours system.
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:59pm
  - Michael Sommerville
    
    It might be because we have a National led government.
    
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    June 1, 2026 4:05pm
Positan

During Labour’s recent “ginger-session” for its MPs, a questioner asked “would they rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?”

Graphic stuff! Surely the closeted Labour-types would have benefited materially from some prior input as to the actuality of animal biology – or, even more appropriately, from express guidance on the writing of children’s bedtime stories.

However, one singularly important and relevant matter that simply failed to soar from such childish discourse was any impression that this Labour crowd were even remotely possessed of employable talents – let alone, any sort of disernible capability that they could perform as government.

In times past, when a demonstration of overt lunacy was treated far more aptly than is accorded today, all of those participating in what was supposed to be a “ideas session” would have found their livelihoods swiftly and permanently curtailed.

Today, all we can expect is that the mainstream media will always seek to downplay such bizarre aberrations while continuing to extol political futures for such demonstrably less-than-intellectual individuals.
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June 1, 2026 8:24am
- Gravelroad
  
  Previous to this vulgar outburst from the Labour Party kindergarten big day out, I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of duck sized/faced horses or horse faced/sized ducks. What are they?
  Is it a code familiar to those in the world of leftism?
  I do know a bit about the noble horse.
  And even ducks have a certain presence.
  Both the horse and the duck would give these Labour Party people a run for their money in intelligence however.
  
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  June 1, 2026 8:46am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I’ve come across it before. It’s a form of mental ice breaker, to get people thinking on their feet. It’s been blown up out of all proportion, in my view.
    
    Of greater interest is who leaked the tape, as this indicates that not all is well in Camp Labour.
    
    And, of course, with the election just months away, why the media are not grilling Chris Hipkins daily as to the whereabouts of Labour policy on just about everything.
    
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    June 1, 2026 8:59am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It’s not original….
    
    It appears to be a debate question that has done the rounds of USA internet and political sites since at least the early 2000s.
    
    https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2012/09/where-obsession-horse-sized-ducks-came/323236/
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:07am
    - Positan
      
      Quite demonstrably today, NOTHING about NZ Labour is remotely original. That’s why the quality of their representatives is as low as it is.
      
      In the good old days of FPP, every standing candidate had to persuade their electorates that they were worth voting for. Look now at those who previously couldn’t get elected – like Andrew Little – whom MMP enabled to sail into parliament.
      
      Standards and capabilities on that side of the House have been rock-bottom ever since.
      
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      June 1, 2026 9:35am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Andrew Little – whom MMP enabled to sail into parliament.
        
        Why single him out when there are so many other examples like Steven Joyce, Nicola Willis, Bill English, Don Brash, Paul Goldsmith, Winston …. ?
        
        Ask chatgpt about it – there are quite a few from both sides. 🙂
        
        old days of FPP
        
        People over 50 remember them well. Under 50 not so much … 🙂
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:01am
      - Quail
        
        Positan,
        Absolutely.
        It is MMP that is destroying democracy in NZ.
        
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        June 1, 2026 11:36am
      - Taieri
        
        Bill English
        ———-
        
        Bill English was an electorate MP for 24 years, starting with Wallace and then for Clutha-Southland.
        Peters was an electorate MP for 14 years, first for Hunua and then for Tauranga.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:01pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @Ian Boag @ 10:01AM
        
        Not to mention Chris Finlayson.
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:24pm
      - Jethrod
        
        What a brilliant idea that is!
        
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        June 1, 2026 4:44pm
- artemisia
  
  All future contributions to Labour ‘ideas sessions’ will have any creativity, performance and ideas left right out of them. In case there is another leak. (Guys, one leak does make a summer.)
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:31am
NeverMindTheBollocks

In recent time TVNZ news (I know, I know) has taken to frequently including the weather report twice: once at the end, as is traditional, and the other up front. The upfront weather report takes the form of dire warnings of Biblical proportions, and seems to me to be designed to worry the older demographic that makes up a material proportion of their audience.

Some would call that elder-abuse.
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June 1, 2026 9:06am
- Ghost
  
  No one would call it elder abuse, some would make things up worse than msm though
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:20am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Are you questioning my observation on One News’ arrangement of its weather reporting, Ghost? In which case I invite you to investigate and report back.
    
    As to the elder-abuse comment, I freely admit to a level of hyperbole. However, I have witnessed firsthand a level of anxiety amongst older friends about the frequency of yellow / orange / red weather warnings. These are people who grew up trusting the media, and are resistant to accepting that this may no longer be true.
    
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    June 1, 2026 9:44am
    - Ghost
      
      I dont need to investigate, my 86 year old father and 84 year old mother watch 1news and no Benedict they also get their weather from their iPad, their phones and their smart watches through the day. Never have they considered the weather to be fear mongering, or has the weather scared them. You are worse than the msm with making up crap.
      
      And do we have Benedict giving his usual weather moan yet? Last time that fool whinged about the way the weather was predicted there were floods and a landslide that killed people. Some of you are far worse than the msm
      
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      June 1, 2026 10:03am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “And do we have Benedict giving his usual weather moan yet? Last time that fool whinged about the way the weather was predicted there were floods and a landslide that killed people.”
        
        Interesting. It must have been a while back as, until recently, I was on a sabbatical from Kiwiblog. It must also have been an egregious weather mistake on my behalf if you have borne a resentment and decided that I was a fool. 🙂 While not disputing your recollection, I have no such recollection myself.
        
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        June 1, 2026 10:18am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Ghost. One swallow(your Parents) does not make a summer (the majority of elderly who watch and belive TVNZ)
        
        The good news. So much weather horror predictions that oldies I know, report YET ANOTHER crap prediction.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:38pm
      - MCōs
        
        Three swallows if you include me and indeed an entire flight if you include all the old codgers in our family
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:21pm
- MCōs
  
  I hadn’t noticed
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:45am
  - Ghost
    
    That’s because you dont spend your night looking for something to have a group whinge about the next day like these sad people
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:04am
    - David Garrett
      
      Ghost: No offence intended, but do you perhaps have a form of bi-polar disorder, as I do? Your comments are, on the whole, considered and reasonable…then suddenly we get one likr the above, abusing Benedict.
      
      Although he occasionally took me to task, I see BY as one of our best commenters – he is certainly not “a fool”.
      
      Gotta take this meds regularly mate; two caps for me every morning, and a different one at night – along with the gout pill.
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:12pm
      - Ghost
        
        no, I just get sick of the bullshit and the liars. I actually think someone who whinges about forecasts that ended up causing flooding, land slides, huge damage and deaths to be a bloody idiot.
        
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        June 1, 2026 12:49pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Ghost: Well, you could pick a much better target for your ire than BY; Mikey Many Names seems to have left us again, as has WS (or perhaps he is on an extended holiday?) There are – sadly – a good few others who fit your label. Bene is not one of them IMO
        
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        June 1, 2026 12:55pm
      - Ghost
        
        IMO he is in the same league as WS. The vaccine pushing is boring, oh look a new member pushing vaccines, like we don’t know. the moaning his work involves Māori instead of getting another job is boring and completely predictable. IMO the best contributors are those who are pushing back on the echo chamber this place too often becomes, the ones that challenge you, but they often don’t last long, probably because of the abuse the blog piles on them.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:39pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I don’t know what you are referring to. Can you cite my comment that has upset you so much?
        
        As I commented previously,, I presume that this was more than 12 months ago.
        
        I don’t recall ever ridiculing weather forecasts. Both metservice and weather watch provide excellent forecasts. What I may have ridiculed is the mainstream media reporting of weather forecasts and of weather events. If you are referring to such a comment, such ridicule was deserved.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:34pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        ”
        the moaning his work involves Māori instead of getting another job…”
        
        You definitely have me confused with someone else.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:59pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Hopefully TVNZ news will die with its audience.
  
  The idea of waiting until 6pm each day to find out the weather forecast from some clown on TV playing the fool with woke place names… 😩
  
  That is ridiculous even for old people.
  
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  June 1, 2026 9:52am
  - MCōs
    
    Nobody has to wait until 6pm
    As it happens I’m in the demography you are keen to see die off along with the local tv news.
    I have the alternative of watching a plethora of other foreign news channels, but none have local NZ content — obviously.
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:56am
    - kowtow
      
      Only these days it’s not “local” . It’s TDS , focussed on all things Washington DC.
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:56pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      But of course, Mcos, you are in the Kingdom of Smiles.
      The thread is talking about Kiwis in Kiwland.
      
      Many who actually do watch the 6pm news for the weather
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:41pm
      - MCōs
        
        I’m in NZ
        Of course there is international news, along with domestic, and President Trump is the most influential person in that regard; more so than any other recent US politician
        Btw
        It seems that reporting his outrageous self aggrandizement with the hint of astonishment or his egregious criticisms of people he disagrees with is labeled TDS
        
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        June 1, 2026 2:59pm
      - Charlotte Wells
        
        “It seems that reporting his outrageous self aggrandizement with the hint of astonishment or his egregious criticisms of people he disagrees with is labeled TDS”
        
        No, it’s the constant twisted negative coverage, bullshit, and proven lies that are labelled TDS.
        
        Exactly the same for the commentators here that gleefully repeat the above and add in a twist of giving us the benefit of their bile laden insults.
        
        Furthermore they never cease to believe the latest lie without ever learning from all the previous that were exposed.
        
        There was even a commentator here a few days ago that referred to Trump as a rapist and paedophile.
        
        And another that probably still doesn’t believe E Jean Carroll is being investigated for perjury.
        
        Those are the TDS afflicted.
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:13pm
      - pdm
        
        mrspdm and I do like to see what is forecast for the next day. An old habit and at 80 &75 we are approaching the old category I think.
        
        The unknown place names and other gibberish does annoy us though.
        
        BTW there has not been a weather forecast yet that has caused us panic and we also take in the 6am forecast on NewstalkZB Monday to Friday.
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:44pm
  - OlderChas
    
    And the hopeless diction/elocution. shocking even in this day and age. There was one that elocuted perfectly when she was promoted to “Teleprompter Reader” on the main desk, but “reverded” to droppin’ g’s, d instead of t etc. as soon as she was back on the weather show.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:52pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  As an older person (sadly) who has had a knowledge of meteorology as an essential part of my primary employment, I have never taken the gloom and despondency of TV weather forecasts too seriously. We all thought that meteorologists were pessimists.
  
  My son and his family are holidaying on the West Coast. While he advises that it has been wet, it has not reached the biblical proportions of the forecasts.
  
  I used to think that Dan, the weatherman, was a breath of fresh air but that fresh air has now become stale. And I can’t stand the two women who stand in for him while he has his day off. I turn the sound off and look at the pictures.
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:12am
  - OlderChas
    
    Agree entirely with you re Dan.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:53pm
    - MCōs
      
      I believe Mr Dan started off his career in America where his flamboyant style and English accent probably had a certain appeal.
      Out here in the land of the anti-woke, monosyllabic mullet wearing, Speights drinking Kiwis it’s frowned on
      
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      June 1, 2026 3:44pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Apropos of the whispers of DOC mismanagement in its northern region, the Post has a story (paywalled) that includes DOC’s failure to protect Raoul Island from unauthorised landings. There’s also a claim that $1m+ of campground revenue remains unpaid. Both stories involve local iwi, sad to say.

It also looks like there is more to come.
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June 1, 2026 9:23am
Simon Arnold

For those that are looking for digital ID I see China can supply https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/world/china-surveillance-solomon-islands-trump-nepal.html but I also see the Solomon Islands were churlish enough to turn them down in the end.
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June 1, 2026 9:35am
artemisia

The government has passed legislation under urgency allowing automated systems to make MSD welfare decisions.

The usual suspects are very very worried. Helen White, Ingrid Leary and Ricardo Menendez March all have serious concerns.

Perhaps neither they or the journalist are not aware of MSD’s Automated Decision-Making Standard. It is reviewed every 3 years, most recently this year.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/596791/new-law-allowing-automated-benefit-decisions-to-modernise-welfare-system-government-says
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June 1, 2026 9:54am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Hard though it is for me to type this, I do share with Opposition politicians a level of unease about the use of Urgency for both this and other Bills that in recent times have been rammed through the legislative process. Given the limits in NZ on the powers of the Executive, proper scrutiny of proposed legislation is one of the few means that citizens have to hold Governments to account.
  
  Just remember, when the Left returns to power, they will certainly think about doing likewise.
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:09am
  - AitchW
    
    Around 90 bills had at least one stage debated under urgency by the last Labour government.
    The precedent has already been set.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:50pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Wellington City Council spent $600k on a website for the opening of its new central library, and then lied about it. Councillors were not told by staff of this. There’s more detail in the linked article.

Of equal import is that the website is separate from the website for the rest of the library service, let alone Council. It does not pop up if you search for it, unless you use the Maori name (accepting that this might change now that it has hit the news & that people are searching). It’s actually a low value website, if getting the story out there is what the point of a website is.

This is a case in point that Council staff and Council spending is out of control. The place needs to be eviscerated.

https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=180507

https://www.tematapihi.govt.nz/
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June 1, 2026 10:02am
- greybeard
  
  [Leave out the casual racism comments here please. holy mod]
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:43pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Another IMHO failed transition to online news.
  
  Veterans Affairs (Why is there one? says this veteran). With its own effing Minister.
  
  They used to produce a glossy(expensive) magazine, which was mailed out.
  
  They have now gone online. It’s a disaster.
  Check it out and give your opinion.
  https://www.veteransaffairs.mil.nz/
  
  They have just converted the expensive printed pages to a system that requires veterans to scroll page by page and use magnifying glasses.
  
  Have suggested they fire the kiddies who produced this crap and copy the way news is presented by modern news outlets.
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:55pm
- Paulus
  
  Council Staff are said to be irrelevent to what Councillors want as they say a Councillor can get the boot every three years, but the Staff can never be unelected.
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:55pm
rouppe

The resident hater on Stuff of men, conservatives, the current government, personal aspiration and success has written another column, ostensibly having an epiphany after Gerry Brownlee invited her to parliament to observe budget week.

Yes, Verity Johnson.

She still misses the mark a bit.

In other words, I wrote him off as a pale stale boomer male who’d bounce between patronising me and dismissing me. And in doing so, I learnt a lot more about myself than I did about him.

Namely that I spent all my time with People Like Me. And I also assumed that People Like Him hate People Like Me. They see us as the latte drinking layabout millennial spawn of Satan. And I never bothered to find out if that was true.

Never bothered to find out if that was true…

That, Verity, is called bias. Maybe even ignorance. And someone with those traits having such a prominent outlet is what’s driving this country into the ground.
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June 1, 2026 10:04am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I’m not sure whether Verity was ever a journalist, or simply someone invited to express an opinion. Either way, it behooves one to understand the opposition before passing comment. How can you understand the pros of an argument if one does not also understand the cons?
  
  If indeed Verity has experienced a moment of epiphany then all power to her arm; but she’s no spring chicken and you have to wonder why it’s taken her so long.
  
  Hopefully, she will write about it.
  
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  June 1, 2026 12:42pm
  - pdm
    
    A braver person than I ‘Gunga din’ clicks on anything published under her name.
    
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    June 1, 2026 3:52pm
- Taieri
  
  I wrote him off as a pale stale boomer male
  ————-
  
  She may not be a “boomer” male, but she’s just as pale and even more “stale”. Not sure why anyone allows her to publish her regurgitated crap.
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:05pm
Andrew Worth

I noticed Hegseth’s comment that New Zealand is freeloading was discussed in comments yesterday, but I didn’t see anyone point out that as no mutual defense agreement exists between the US and New Zealand, there are no defense obligations either way.
I do agree that we really need to bump up defense spending to around 2% of GDP.
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June 1, 2026 10:07am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That is not correct. There is a detailed defence cooperation agreement.
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/us-nz-defence-arrangement-signed
  
  However New Zealand is not an in an allegiance with the USA like Australia under Anzus.
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:22am
  - Andrew Worth
    
    It is correct because a defense cooperation agreement is not a mutual defense agreement. There are no obligations in that agreement for the US to defend NZ, or for NZ to meet any minimum defense spending level.
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:29am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes I agree. The Minister could have said so. But then the media would have turned it into a drama.
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:47am
    - Andrew Worth
      
      I agree the minister would not have been smart to point out Hegseth was talking shit, but as the minister didn’t, and no one in the comments at this blog did, I thought I would, because I think it’s a significant point.
      
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      June 1, 2026 10:51am
      - Taieri
        
        no one in the comments at this blog did
        ———
        
        I did.
        
        Comment:
        MAY 31, 2026 10:44AM
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2026/05/general_debate_31_may_2026.html
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:09pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Bene: Alliance old boy, not allegiance. The only allegiance we as a country maintain is towards old Charlie Boy, in Buck House, over in London
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:18pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Yes well spotted.
      
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      June 1, 2026 4:21pm
- MCōs
  
  2% of GDP strikes me as an arbitrary figure conjured up only in recent times.
  I’d have thought our defence spending should be appropriate to the situation we find ourselves in
  Some hugely expensive gun emplacements were built around Auckland and Wellington during WWII, but not finished until peace had been declared.
  Furthermore
  They would no doubt have been easily circumvented
  What does Hegseth propose we spend our few paltry resources on instead of stuff the public wants like increased salaries for police and healthcare workers to keep them in the country?
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:34am
  - Andrew Worth
    
    It’s more about putting enough into the defense forces to maintain something that can do the jobs it might be called upon to do. So it needs to have a high level of professionalism, we need maritime surveillance, and some form of plausible naval combat assets. If a major conflict were to kickoff we’d need something to protect our sealanes and interests in the southern Pacific.
    Obviously there is no way to objectively measure what that would entail.
    
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    June 1, 2026 10:42am
    - Quail
      
      AW,
      Historically ,apparently the plan was to have a nucleus of trained military so in the event of conflict there would be adequate staff to train the civilian volunteers and conscripts.
      Cadet corp at schools , and compulsory military training, and conscription.
      There are many ways to raise the Defence GDP figures that could benefit the local economy.
      A recent example there has been talk of a dry dock for the Navy . That could be used for other ships.
      In other conflicts the NZ defence force was supported by acquiring privately owned firearms for training and the home guard.A review of the plan to disarm NZ could assist.
      Some of these actions could be reinstated ( hopefully not conscription) so the GDP Defence spending figures actually would be raised with the increased GDP benefitting all NZ. Not just foreign shipyards
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:13pm
- Philview
  
  Was the journalist who raised the New Zealand question trying to throw Penk under the bus?
  
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  June 1, 2026 1:44pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  I see Wayne Mapp [ Mod – this ain’t debate ]
  
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  June 1, 2026 5:08pm
Damocles11

Cringeworthy. 😬
‘“Hi, uh, Verity it’s Gerry Brownlee.”
I was in the gym when the green text message voicemail popped up.
He was very civil. He’d been reading my work. He was worried about young people. (Er. I’m sorry. What?) He was worried about how disillusioned we seem, how we don’t think either party, or even the system itself, is working for us. He didn’t want us turning away from the system. That’s how you get extremism. (Er. Ok. Didn’t realise he’d noticed.)
“I just want you to come down to Parliament on budget week. I want you to see what we do from the inside. I think it may give you a little more faith in us.’”’

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360985831/hi-verity-its-gerry-brownlee-voicemail-accidentally-restored-my-faith-democracy
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June 1, 2026 10:23am
- Damocles11
  
  “how we don’t think either party, or even the system itself, is working for us.”
  
  Two party state? 🤔
  
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  June 1, 2026 2:29pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  If it is a true story, I don’t know why Mr Brownlee bothered.
  
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  June 1, 2026 4:23pm
Red Rooster

I am in Australia at the moment. In senate estimates last week, Senator Matt Canavan asked an array of civil servants whether they were aware of the new IPCC report that now regards the extremist projections in past reports as implausible. Almost to a man or woman they were not. He reminded them that Australia’s policy around climate and energy uses the most extreme case (now implausible) as the basis for their settings. He commented that they were likely to continue as if they were on autopilot unless someone took responsibility.
So now we come to NZ and the Climate Commission who similarly use the extreme case as the basis for their climate advice and reports.
Who is going to challenge these turkeys to reset their advice based on the IPCC latest advice or are we on autopilot as well?
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June 1, 2026 10:24am
- Benedict Yu
  
  It is a good point. I think we are on auto pilot.
  
  The flip side is that the Government is not really doing much to reduce emissions to meet even the 2030 obligations. The plan seems to be to fail and stare down those who lose their minds. Which is just Chloe end some activists.
  
  The government wants to not mention climate change or net zero. They hope that the international framework quitely collapses. If they took it seriously there would be a senior minister in charge.
  
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  June 1, 2026 4:28pm
Gary Benner

Regarding current negotiations with Iran, it has been reported:

President Donald Trump described Iranian officials as “very tough negotiators” and emphasized that the United States is taking a patient approach to securing a broader agreement.
…
Trump also said the regime was ‘seriously fractured’. ”

I’m reminded that it took 2 nuclear bombs to bring Japan to reason, and stop war in that theatre. It seems a pattern for these sorts of regimes that if requires a 1 – 2 punch to take them out.

Hardliners in the IRGC are not going to give up their power and control easily, but it is interesting to note that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted a letter of resignation, indicating that there is more to come from within, and Trump’s strategy of waiting this out (just around the corner of course), is the best course of action.
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June 1, 2026 10:33am
- Andrew Worth
  
  Well, if you think it’s OK for the US to use nukes to advance their goals, I assume you think the same applies to Russia and China.
  
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  June 1, 2026 10:48am
  - Gary Benner
    
    Andrew, I guess you really need to understand the context.
    
    In 1945 the USA, alongside allied troops, were in a very difficult battle against a very vicious and violent regime. I have had first hand revelations from my wife’s uncle who was held in a Japanese POW camp. Not a nice lot!!
    
    The use of the very first (and second) nuclear device in war did two things:
    
    1. ended a war that had a very high attrition rate (and note the Japanese regime did not stop after the first bomb, so were complicit in the second)
    
    2. taught the world of the power of such devices, to the extent that they are used solely as a method of defence, purely by having one. And that is proven by the fact that no country has every used them in a wartime context since.
    
    I would suggest that any country that uses a nuclear device as a method of attack is doomed, as so many others also possess such a device, and methods of delivery, so it would be seen as a suicidal move.
    
    The problem with Iran is that the regime is idealogically motived, and being suicidal is part of their mentality – remember the suicide bombers!! I don’t see North Korea in the same light – they just want to hang around in this world to keep the light of the family dynasty shining bright.
    
    China and Russia, they know the game.
    
    It seems the Islamists are captivated by their 27 “virgins” awaiting them in heaven. With such a closed and idiotic mindset, you cannot have them wielding such a weapon.
    
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    June 1, 2026 11:53am
    - Notsofast
      
      In the case of Iran, this is the only window for eliminating the theocracy, they would never use a nuclear weapon, but if they had one the citizens would be permanently doomed.
      There is the reason for this war.
      It is a difficult line of reasoning because most in the West are indifferent to the suffering of the Iranian women, and care only for their self interest in matters of cost of living and so on. I hear it all around me while trying to argue for Trump and this war. Cuban friends also say Trump is the only chance in a 100 years, they pray he eliminates the regime before the Democrats return.
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:06pm
      - MCōs
        
        With regards to Cuba (& Iran for that matter) what do your friends have in mind to replace the existing governing system or will the island deteriorate to something similar to Haiti?
        Obviously there’s no going back to the corrupt system that existed before Castro
        
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        June 1, 2026 2:24pm
      - Notsofast
        
        Mcos
        
        Specifically, I refer to a local immigrant whose mother was a legal immigrant to the USA from Cuba, in 1972, after being in a “concentration camp” for 2 years.
        They talk every second day, and her mother says she is fearful of getting her hopes up. They sincerely consider Trump the only chance now or forever.
        Very much the feeling for Iran, and to be pro war and liberation is a lonely enterprise I find.
        
        As to the method, they are close to Venezualans who are elated, last I heard. So Castro in Mamdani’s penitentiary?
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:12pm
    - Andrew Worth
      
      The recent war between the US and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other, started with the US and Israel attacking Iran.
      The use of nukes by one power opens the door for the justification of the use of nukes by other nuclear powers
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:16pm
      - Peter S
        
        BS. It started well before that, with Iran behind much of the terrorist activity in the M.E. for decades.
        The current escalation is not a new conflict, it is simply the most recent phase.
        
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        June 1, 2026 12:23pm
      - marcw
        
        What would you have done …
        IF Iran had the means and did detonate a nuclear device over, say, Haifa?
        
        Remember, there are around 90 million Iranians who don’t support the IRGC or the mullahs.
        
        When I say what would you have done, I include USA, UN, Gulf States as a collective you. What would be a possible response?
        
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        June 1, 2026 12:46pm
      - Andrew Worth
        
        marcw is this hypothetical use by Iran of a nuke after it’s been nuked by the US? It seems to me that’s the more likely sequence of events.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:01pm
      - marcw
        
        Where did I mention use of nukes by the USA? If you don’t want a discussion, fine, just don’t divert.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:15pm
      - kowtow
        
        Peter S
        
        Yes decades ago.
        But more recently Oct 7 .
        
        Israel/USA entirely justified in this. ideally for regime change and a free Iranian people.
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:10pm
    - Yvette
      
      Gary Benner, you are selling yourself short by 45 virgins.
      As I have been told here in the past, if you are going to get something wrong, get it wrong accurately
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:20pm
    - Andrew Worth
      
      “Andrew, I guess you really need to understand the context.”
      What an arrogant claim.
      
      “I have had first hand revelations from my wife’s uncle who was held in a Japanese POW camp.”
      Look up the meaning of “first hand”, if it had been “from my wife’s uncle’s sister’s hairdresser” I would have been really impressed.
      Here’s some pointless information to add to yours: My late neighbor, Jack Sanders, was also a Japanese POW, he wouldn’t buy anything from Japan for 40 years after the war.
      
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      June 1, 2026 12:26pm
      - AitchW
        
        I had an uncle who was a Japanese POW.
        He too steadfastly refused to buy anything Japanese.
        The irony was that although he was starved almost to death in the camp, his most severe injury was from a crate of chocolate bars parachuted into the camp after liberation by the Americans. The falling crate hit him and broke several bones, he was in a full body cast for weeks!
        
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        June 1, 2026 1:13pm
      - [email protected]
        
        My father was a Japanese POW for 11 months in Indonesia. My mother didn’t know if he was dead or alive. His brother died in that prison camp of malaria.
        
        He would sneak out at night to forage for food in the jungle because the POWs were starving. Then sneak back in because there was no place to go.
        
        He never said anything bad about the Japanese to us kids. When I asked why he said that the Japanese soldiers guarding him were in just as bad a shape – starving too.
        
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        June 1, 2026 3:51pm
      - rouppe
        
        If Gary’s wife’s uncle spoke directly to Gary about it, that is first hand.
        
        It’s unclear whether that was the case, but it’s definitely not dismissible.
        
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        June 1, 2026 4:16pm
  - Charlotte Wells
    
    In the context on WW 2, bombing the recalcitrant warmongers to the table was right.
    
    I would also suggest that if Russia had nuclear weapons there might be a peace memorial in a couple of German cities.
    
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    June 1, 2026 12:26pm
- Damocles11
  
  No to the use of nukes. Killing hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of civilians to get rid of a cadre of hardliners is beyond abhorrent.
  The US should demonstrate how its ‘powerful’ conventional military options can resolve the current impasse. At the moment Trump is afraid to do anything more than what he has done so far, which has left the matter totally unresolved. If the matter cannot be resolved, one has to question what the military campaign achieved. “Their navy is gone, their airforce is gone” is sort of beside the point: the threat Iran posed was primarily from a nuclear weapon, if one could be built. The secondary threat was drones and ballistic missiles, which Iran still has.
  
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  June 1, 2026 11:18am
  - NothingLeft
    
    In a couple of years the swarms of small AI drones and other robots starting to appear in Ukraine will be able to take out military and other militant arms of a regime like Iran at a small fraction of the cost and with far less personnel losses for the superpower using them.
    
    And US and China will also have constellations of laser platforms in space to lay waste to any country that pisses them off. Sniping all fuel, comms and power infrastructure, cars, trucks, and starting fires anywhere they want to.
    
    Send a country back the 17th century in a few hours or days, at low cost and with little loss of life.
    
    Seems also like we might be near tipping point with electric vehicle costs and solar + batteries coming down to the point where they will be cheaper than fossil fuel tech and start to reduce demand for oil etc – taking away a lot of income from these despotic oil producers.
    
    And AI will disrupt everything too, making it even easier for AI superpowers to dominate 3rd world icky-stans.
    
    Playing for time is most likely to the advantage of USA
    
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    June 1, 2026 3:17pm
    - rouppe
      
      I’m actually surprised that the laser platforms that have been tested in controlled circumstances on a range, haven’t been field tested in the Strait.
      
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      June 1, 2026 4:19pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        still too fragile and expensive, but the kinks are being worked out with some systems starting to enter service and fiber lasers have dropped dramatically in price and increased hugely in power – you can buy 100kW laser cutters now for a few $100k which are the basic tech. Ukraine, Iran and Gaza conflicts have lit an enormous fire under drone defense development and procurement at scale. And cheap satellite launch (SpaceX) will obviously see it deployed at scale in space by those that can afford to do so (China and USA) – the ultimate ‘high ground’
        
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        June 1, 2026 6:34pm
- AitchW
  
  GB there is a theory that Japan was on the verge of surrender before the bombs were dropped, but the Americans really, really, really wanted to drop them regardless.
  Now, I don’t know if that is true, but it sounds plausible…
  
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  June 1, 2026 11:35am
  - Andrew Worth
    
    I believe there was actually an attempted coup against the Emperor after the use of nukes because he wanted to surrender but hardliners in the military didn’t.
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:06pm
    - kowtow
      
      Elements of the army attacked the royal palace in order to seize the recorded “surrender” broadcast .They failed to find it and also lacked support from the broader military.
      
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      June 1, 2026 1:22pm
  - kowtow
    
    The excellent historian Max Hastings makes the point that irrespective of who was President and/or the circumstances the fact the allies had the bomb meant it was inevitably going to be used .
    
    Nothing to do with Russians , teaching lessons , or any other conspiracy theory .
    
    From AI
    
    ‘British military historian Max Hastings concludes that while the atomic bombs were not strictly necessary to force Japan’s eventual defeat, President Truman’s decision to use them was understandable in the context of 1945. He argues that Allied leaders, desperate to end the war, viewed the bomb not as a unique moral threshold, but as a logical extension of the devastating city bombings already underway.’
    
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    June 1, 2026 1:19pm
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      Simple maths says the bombs made sense.
      
      Compare how many died from the bombs against how many would have to be killed to secure the mainland islands and get a surrender.
      
      Then add in how many allied and US servicemen would have also died.
      
      A few thousand died so millions could live.
      
      Post-modern revisionists have no real contact with history.
      
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      June 1, 2026 3:22pm
TripeWryter

As Alwyn Poole rightly noted, the new Dame Elizabeth Rata is not Maori.
Nee Elizabeth Fraser, she is the widow of one of Matt Rata’s brothers.
It seems the ‘Progressives’ such as the Aotearoa Education Collective – some of whom were interviewed by TVNZ on Budget Night – don’t like her.
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June 1, 2026 12:08pm
- AitchW
  
  In my experience anything with either Aotearoa or collective in the title is wet, woke and /or racist.
  
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  June 1, 2026 12:41pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Indeed;
  
  However, according to Rebecca Wirihana, herself an early Kura activist, “Elizabeth has been wiped out of the history of kura kaupapa”.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Rata
  
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  June 1, 2026 12:45pm
  - mogg
    
    With Verity Johnson comment, have you considered that she could be writing tongue in cheek, as with satire, a type of black comedy. When she was writing in the Dom Post I would often comment, she accused me of being a male, I was convinced she was just playing a part.
    She could have taken the Jay Mcinerney type approach as in ‘Bright Lights Big City’, it is a very funny book about 1980s New York life.
    
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    June 1, 2026 2:22pm
    - pdm
      
      Mogg – is she that bright?
      
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      June 1, 2026 3:59pm
- lifesgood
  
  Well they wouldn’t, would they?
  
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  June 1, 2026 12:46pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360986573/watch-australian-tourist-smashes-cafe-vietnam
Poor fat pasty bugger.
Probably couldn’t get it up for his bargirl and she told her friends.
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June 1, 2026 5:46pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360986696/winston-peters-initiates-talks-save-moana-pasifika-super-rugby-side

1. Winston Peters is, as usual, trying to garner support. From anywhere.

“Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says he has instructed officials to engage with New Zealand Rugby “with urgency” to explore “all possible options” to save the Moana Pasifika rugby franchise.”

– exactly WHICH officials have been instructed by Peters to engage with NZ Rugby ? Let us see their names and positions.

2. Moana Pasifica , the racially-selected rugby team, can’t win games and are not worth the effort. Have we ever had any response from the players and officials ( other than Umaga ) ?

3. Is it not time that Mark Mitchell, the Sports Minister, came out and (a) put paid to any suggestion that the NZ paxpayer would support this failure of a team and (b) that Peters and Jones were out of line and should stay out of the issue ?
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June 1, 2026 7:47pm

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