General Debate 03 June 2026

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Benedict Yu

Why is Winston Peters getting involved in the future of a rugby franchise? This is what happens when politicians get into so called economic or regional development. They develop a saviour mentality.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/597016/hawaii-consortium-emerges-as-potential-saviour-for-moana-pasifika

Also why did the Government give the franchise a loan of $2.75 million in 2022, which is now unlikely to be repaid?
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June 3, 2026 8:02am
- pdm
  
  BY – it could be a good thing though.
  
  Funding a Professional Rugby Team and buying back the BNZ are surely 2 strikes on the road to oblivion or at least back to 5% to 8% in the polls.
  
  Maybe the extra funding for the `black hole’ that NZ Rail has always been will be the 3rd strike – or perhaps the Northland Economic Zone – or will Peters dream up something as bizarre as 1 and 2 as his final hurrah.
  
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  June 3, 2026 8:23am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Don’t forget the draconian elimination of the greyhound racing industry.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:31am
  - zulumonster
    
    “… surely 2 strikes on the road to oblivion or at least back to 5% to 8% in the polls.”
    I suspect not. His policies are each deliberately designed to target a small portion of the electorate, and a Venn diagram of people supporting each of his policies would have little overlap. His superpower is knowing how to get different segments of the electorate on board with a single policy idea without alienating them with any of the other policies.
    His great advantage is that many of his voters do not have the capacity to take on too many different ideas at the same time.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:44am
    - R
      
      It’s not only many of the NZF supporters who don’t have the required intellectual capacity. How do you think Ardern and Labour received so much support in the 2020 election. The situation is not much better now, despite Roy Morgan polling, which ic usually the most accurate.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:04pm
      - leoj
        
        It never ceases to amaze me that NZF voters forgot how Winston screwed the country in 2017 yet voted him back in again in 2023.
        
        He will screw us again.
        
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        June 3, 2026 4:40pm
      - MCōs
        
        How do you know Roy Morgan is the most accurate, other than it may be the closest to your point of view?
        Wikipedia has the most recent polls by all the main polling companies prior to the last election
        Roy Morgan were pretty bad in that although the accumulation of the eventual coalition was three out the numbers for each party were way out and that’s going to be important this year.
        
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        June 3, 2026 7:58pm
      - Ghost
        
        according to DPF’s analysis roy morgan wasn’t the most accurate
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/10/how_the_polls_look_vs_provisional_results.html
        
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        June 3, 2026 8:07pm
  - Burtland
    
    add the Provincial Growth Fund rort
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:45am
- Damocles11
  
  Just more of the same ‘belt tightening’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ that sees us spending more in Budget 2026 than Budget 2025. “More pork for Winston!”
  
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  June 3, 2026 8:27am
- MCōs
  
  Peters is almost certainly involved in helping Moana Pacifika because they’ve been hung out to dry to a certain extent and there’s votes to be had.
  As an email I received from the Spinoff points out New Zealand First’s current roster includes MPs or major candidates sourced from Labour (3), National (5), ACT (1), the New Conservatives (2), and NewZeal (1).
  “Winston Peters’ appetite for widespread immigration may be limited,” Toby Manhire also writes, “but when it comes to his own party’s borders, the door is open, it would appear, to all stripes, to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:30am
- R
  
  2022?…..vote buying in the leadup to the 2023 election. Another example of Labour ‘dead money’ investment.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:45am
- Scott
  
  I don’t mind Winston getting involved in the future of a Pacifica team. The left involve themselves in everything and so the right also needs to be involved in the culture.
  
  The Pacifica team seems to be a good natured bunch celebrating pacific culture and without a grievance mentality. So I’m good with it.
  
  Getting involved in Hawaii seems an interesting idea and would greatly expand the global reach of Super rugby.
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:41am
  - RoboRob
    
    We have much better things to spend our money on then another countries rugby team. If a private buyer wants to bail them out, go for it.
    
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    June 3, 2026 11:10am
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      It’s hardly another countries team, more like auckland “B”
      
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      June 3, 2026 11:34am
      - RoboRob
        
        Auckland are hardly good enough to have an ‘A’ team 🙂
        
        /One eyed Cantab
        
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        June 3, 2026 1:37pm
- Eugene
  
  Yet handing over $5m of NZ taxpayers money to one of Australias richest sporting businesses as a gift for agreeing to hold one league game in Auckland is fine apparently? They will sell out Eden Park within minutes and were always coming anyway. They played the government for suckers.
  
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  June 3, 2026 11:30am
- Ra Henare
  
  Simple answer: Benedict.
  
  Its election year, and the Pacific Island community has a large number of voters.
  
  262,755 in 2023 according to 2023 census. Larger now, I suspect.
  
  and many of that group 18-28 yo, are rugby fans
  
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  June 3, 2026 3:14pm
igm

Why did Peters make Ardern PM.
Why did he scuttle greyhound racing.
Is he untrustworthy or is he senile?
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June 3, 2026 8:07am
- HalfFull
  
  Untrustworthy.
  
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  June 3, 2026 8:58am
- imalwaysright
  
  Its amazing that a Government can destroy an entire industry, appropriate their assets, and destroy the livelihoods of those dependent upon it, yet they can’t pass a law to make everyone in a house, where an infant is tortured to death, jointly responsible for the crimes.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:23am
  - Spam
    
    What? The government hasn’t appropriated the assets of the Oil & Gas Industry.
    
    ooooohhhh! Your talking about the OTHER industry they destroyed.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:42am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Good point Spam.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:48pm
- Razork
  
  The story I have heard is that Entain (owners of the TAB) were losing millions on broadcasting the greyhound races.
  Must cost quite a bit to cover them live and the betting pools on the dogs are very low so no profit.
  
  Dunno how all that equates, but it has struck me as odd that the betting agency didn’t back the greyhound industry and put up a fight.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:38am
  - Ghost
    
    Greyhound racing was making a profit for the TAB. It was cheap to run and had a decent betting volume
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:46am
    - Razork
      
      Ok, not what I have heard (loss of $12M on NZ dogs) but anyway if they were making money why not fight for it?
      I assume they will continue to carry coverage of the Aussie dogs, because of course they don’t have the filming and production costs of that.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:45pm
    - leoj
      
      You have been misinformed.
      
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      June 3, 2026 4:42pm
      - Ghost
        
        Greyhound racing for the TAB saw between $300 million and $350 million betting turnover in NZ per year. after Entain took over the TAB they increased the stakes for greyhound racing, as mentioned in the greyhound racing annual report in 2023. Because of the low cost of running the races it made a nice little profit for the TAB
        
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        June 3, 2026 5:39pm
  - pdm
    
    Surely that was Entain’s problem.
    
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    June 3, 2026 11:47am
- Poppax8
  
  Can’t he be both untrustworthy and senile?
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:54am
- R
  
  He recognized, as did the thinking element of electors; that Ardern was naive, gullible and would be easier to manipulate than Bill English, and Winston no doubt believed that Labour would make him PM in gratitude for restoring them to the TREASURY benches
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:00am
  - leoj
    
    Balldedash [ Mod – cool it ]
    
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    June 3, 2026 4:45pm
- MCōs
  
  He’s predictably unpredictable
  The worst trait in a politician
  I see he’s inching up in the polls.
  
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  June 3, 2026 11:14am
- NothingLeft
  
  Narcissist who has for 48 years cared far more for baubles of power than NZ and knows that there will forever be fresh crops of geriatrics with failing memories of his past betrayals that will vote for him.
  
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  June 3, 2026 1:28pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    It’s interesting to do a bit of research rather than babbling on about one’s bias.
    
    The NZ Election Study(From 2023 Election) noted that NZ First successfully courted voters from the post-pandemic “freedom movement” and those with low trust in mainstream institutions.
    
    This anti-mandate, anti-establishment platform attracted a slice of younger and middle-aged anti-authority voters who wouldn’t traditionally fit the “superannuitant” profile, slightly widening their age distribution.
    
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    June 3, 2026 3:20pm
BarryB

I sometimes wonder about the state of the world.
Now and again I see comments on this blog that defy common sense and logic.
For example the question about military spending.
99.9% of the time the military are not fighting wars or battles. They are a domestic resource. In Australia when there is a storm you will hear that the army and airforce have been deployed so as to provide help. In the US the National Guard is almost on constant ‘domestic’ duty – sea rescues, disaster help etc.
The rule in running an army is that for every soldier holding a gun you need seven -7 – support people. Truck drivers to deliver supplies, cooks, field medical teams, warehouse operaters, supplies coordinators, planners, mechanics and engineers and all kinds of people to make sure it all runs well. These are the same skills that any commercial enterprise needs.
Here in NZ the army used to be the outfit that installed Bailey bridges. Im sure they don’t have the resource to do that any more. I think in cyclone Gabrielle the main help from the military at the time of the storm – was a unimog (40 years old – although it could have been private as many are in private hands). The three men in their own boat who saved many were forestry workers incorrectly called military at the time.
Even when they expanded the help, they were unlicensed to distribute water (the Navy. A stupid rule, but they should have been up with it. Mind you I suppose a minor thing compared to an unqualified ships captain running the ship ashore….).
The Military provides jobs and most helpful is that the military trains people especially in the trades. It gives people a skill to use in civilian life. The Military also trains docters and aircraft engineers and diesel mechanics (we will be using diesel well into next century)

The purpose of a military in countries like NZ or Japan or Australia or any island or isolated country is domestic support. For example the crash that killed 3 people the other day near Waiouru – who got there first? 2 military ambulances from the camp.

Yet some comments about military spending indicate that the author(s) is/are completely ignorant of this aspect. Its like what modern education did to spelling. ie: the way I spell the word is correct – sort of “My Truth”. Put in an understandable way – you waste money on welfare or you spend money on the military.

It is worth noting that democracies that have compulsory military training (including public service) seem to be particularly successful economies.
Sweden, South korea, Turkye, Norway, Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, Thailand and others. Yes there are non-democracies – but its notable that they are usually finacial basket cases.
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June 3, 2026 8:11am
- pdm
  
  BB – those 3 young Maori guys in the boat were asked by someone they were rescuing off a roof if they were Army.
  
  Their reply was – ‘nah we are just 3 Maori boys in a boat’.
  
  That is my memory of it
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:39am
  - R
    
    Mine too! .. A good example of typical RURAL NZ community spirit and responsibility
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:48am
- Ra Henare
  
  Barry,
  one of the most sensible, reasonable (and nonemotional) Posts I have read in KB in a very long time.
  
  Well done
  
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  June 3, 2026 3:22pm
- virtualmark
  
  Job #1 for our defence force is to defend New Zealand. I know I know, they’ve never had to do that (in reality we are an expeditionary military).
  
  Job #2 is to help New Zealand’s standing with our key allies, such as the other Anglo countries. This is where that expeditionary bit is relevant. But our poor investment over the last 40 years has undermined our offering here.
  
  Job #3 is to maintain a cadre of institutional knowledge and training so that we can rapidly expand the size of our military in an emergency such as the two World Wars. This is largely why we have a top-heavy defence force with more officers than we ostensibly need.
  
  Job #4 is to help out in domestic emergencies such as the Christchurch earthquake, various cyclones, Pacific Island emergencies etc. It’s important work but it’s not the driving rationale for having a defence force.
  
  In the last 3-5 years Job #1 has become more urgent (for example see the Chinese Navy exercises in the Tasman last year), and Job #2 has become more critical because our allies are running out of patience with us.
  
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  June 3, 2026 4:32pm
Yvette

India FTA and UNDRIP
With the NZF / National Coalition clause on the status of UNDRIP surely whoever included it in the India FTA was ignorant of that aspect of their work and is incompetent and should be dismissed, or they have their own agenda and for that should be dismissed.

In terms of the FTA itself, if New Zealand lets it progress with this unresolved as it should be, what does that tell the Indian side of this agreement, since their Embassy or Consulate will not be unaware of argument over this matter. Does New Zealand just box on with a FTA which is in error and India knows that we know it it is?

And where is Winston? – it is his Coalition Agreement item which is being breached.
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June 3, 2026 8:20am
- Damocles11
  
  Winston is worrying about the things that matter to Winston: rugby, racing, and the perks that go with engaging in overseas diplomacy.
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:26am
Damocles11

‘Israeli warplanes have launched dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon despite a purported new agreement supposedly brokered by Donald Trump aiming at bolstering the tattered ceasefire in Lebanon.
The US president said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah and both agreed that “all shooting will stop”.
But on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported 30 Israeli strikes across the south.
The Israeli military also issued a new evacuation warning for the southern city of Nabatiyeh before new strikes, accusing the “Hezbollah terror organisation” of violating the ceasefire.’
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June 3, 2026 8:23am
- lastmanstanding
  
  It seems to me Trump has met his match with the Iranian leaders. Trump is used to doing deals. He is not used to dealing with fanatics who dont want to win at all and any cost. Iran wants a Nuke and it wants to use it to blow Israel off the map. Its not about buying or selling real estate. I suspect at some point Trump will walk away. The cost to the West will have been and will continue to be high. The only way Trump could have “won” would have been to do a Hiroshima and even that may not have worked. These people are like cockroaches.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:26am
  - septic skeptic
    
    You say Iran wants a nuke and will use it against Israel. Iran had a fatwah (religious prohibition) against having a nuke.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:41am
    - RoboRob
      
      Yeah, they were just enriching uranium far more then is required for energy generation for the hell of it. They did it in massive underground bunkers to protect from storms.
      
      Remind me again who makes the religious rules in Iran, would that be the same people running the government?
      
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      June 3, 2026 9:51am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Could it be that the value of a nuclear weapon has been negated purely because it is so overwhelmingly destructive?
        Any country who deployed one would be annihilated very quickly. Basically a suicide device.
        Plenty of bad guys seem to have them but haven’t used them.
        
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        June 3, 2026 10:18am
      - RoboRob
        
        @imalwaysright
        
        Nope, just the opposite. The bad guys that have nukes, i.e. Nth Korea, have proven that once you get nukes you can do whatever you want without fear of military retaliation from other stronger powers. That’s precisely why Iran is desperate to get them. Once they have nukes, they can bomb and terrorise to their hearts content knowing that the US and Israel would not do the sort of military attack they just did.
        
        There is also the non zero chance they would immediately just launch them at Israel the moment they get them. They have now proven they care little for their own lives or those of their citizens.
        
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        June 3, 2026 11:16am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      I’ve lost track of how many times this has been mentioned, but even aside from the fact that such a regime is not to be trusted, fatwas can be withdrawn or rescinded. IIRC Khomeini rescinded one stupid fatwa that banned chess (this in the former civilisation of Persia).
      
      But aside from that and the usual “neoliberal warmongers”, it’s obvious that even President Obama didn’t believe it, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered pursuing his JCPOA agreement.
      
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      June 3, 2026 9:55am
    - David George
      
      Don’t believe their BS “skeptic”. The Ayatollahs are world champ level liars, they’re literally Hell bent on getting the Bomb.
      
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      June 3, 2026 10:02am
    - David Garrett
      
      septic: In that case, why were they enriching uranium to weapons grade?
      
      At some point during this totally unnecessary war, the Yanks offer to supply them with uranium enriched to the point it could be used in nuclear power stations forever; the Iranian refused that offer.
      
      The only conclusion you can reasonably come to is they want to build a bomb. Why else would they want weapons grade uranium?
      
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      June 3, 2026 10:04am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Yes they did and Chemical Weapons.
      The Fatwa ended with the life of the Ayatollah.
      New Territory now.
      
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      June 3, 2026 2:09pm
    - Paulus
      
      So What !
      They will do whatever they want without excuse.
      
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      June 3, 2026 2:15pm
    - leoj
      
      That meth must be really good!
      
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      June 3, 2026 4:50pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    A point I’ve been making for a while now, even if people thought I was being a bit harsh in 2025 when I said (following Midnight Hammer) that the only way this stops is to kill every Mullah in their government and the top five layers of the IRGC – even while acknowledging that regimes can’t be toppled by airpower alone.
    
    But as I wrote the other week in The Art of the Eschatological Deal:
    
    It’s been quite clear for some time that Trump also doesn’t believe the regime-change-via-airstrike theory either.
    
    Unfortunately he still believes in an even more outlandish theory; that he can cut a solid and enduring deal with the remaining bits and pieces of the regime. The following article makes it clear why that is not possible.
    
    The TLDR version is that the regime is dedicated towards a religious project far in excess of even the standard Islamic desire for Dar al Islam across the entire world (as if that aim is not crazy enough):
    
    I don’t want to double up on links but within that piece is a link to an article that lays out just how fucking crazy the Iranian leadership is, even in the eyes of their fellow Muslims in the Gulf, for which I’ll leave this quote about the belief in the “occluded Iman” and the need to bring about his return via an end-of-days event:
    
    But this orientation collides at every point with the mainstream Sunni worldview, which treats Judgment Day as a matter of divine concealment rather than political schedule. Sunni tradition forbids the forcing of providence and regards any state organized around accelerating the end of history as a deviation from Islam rather than its fulfillment. The Arab world reads the IRGC through this very lens, and what it sees is not a pious republic being tested, but a heterodox project masquerading as the fulfillment of faith, structurally incapable of assessing its strategic failures.
    
    The same article quotes a recent interview on some Arab TV channel where the guy, who actually knew Khamanei, expresses his amazement that Iran has actually been attacking people in Iraq who have sent them oil for years.
    
    Yes, they are that irrational.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:42am
  - Damocles11
    
    Could it be that, having been subjected to an attack that killed their head of state & caused widespread devastation, the Iranian leadership is now seeking revenge & is content to string Trump along indefinitely while inflicting as much economic pain on the US and its allies as possible? They have a strategy in other words. Trump described the Iranians as “crafty” in their negotiations to date. But no, let’s negate any critical thinking around that and instead hurl words like ‘insane’, ‘crazy’, and ‘cockroaches’.
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:35am
  - Ehlana
    
    Trump did tell CNBC he couldn’t care less if the negotiations fail and that they had started to get very boring.
    Then went on Trump Social and said the talks were continuing at a rapid pace.
    
    Choose your truth.
    
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    June 3, 2026 11:05am
    - Damocles11
      
      I gave you an uptick as you stated the truth and got a downtick. Not sure what it is about stating basic facts that seems to trigger members of the cult.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:23pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    US weapons are too expensive with too limited stocks to use in this sort of conflict. They burned through years and many $billions of Patriot missile production in the first days of war. They need to place a $20billion dollar order in with Ukraine ASAP to get a more economic $1-50k per shot solutions to suppress the hell out of the IRGC any time the poke their heads above ground.
    
    Trump wouldn’t like that though.
    
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    June 3, 2026 1:33pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Last.
    Thanks.
    Nothing like a bit of emotive hyperbole void of facts.
    To start my day with a laugh.
    
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    June 3, 2026 3:25pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Trump is used to negotiations where if you don’t like the deal you just walk away. He’s never been about “win win” deals, just “my way or the highway” ones.
    
    But he’s brewed up a crisis in the Persian Gulf that he can’t just walk away from. And that is exposing that the “great negotiator” doesn’t know what he’s doing.
    
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    June 3, 2026 4:36pm
  - leoj
    
    Trump needs to finish the job.
    
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    June 3, 2026 4:47pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Remarkably busy on The Terrace this morning. With the Budget being passed last week, no doubt some of the apparatchiks are turning up to the office to secure funding for their projects.

As I strolled along, I eyed up the public servants coming the other way, and idly wondered which of them looked capable of heading up to Northland to attend an in-person meeting to demand payment of the overdue DoC holiday park revenue.
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June 3, 2026 8:33am
- AitchW
  
  But are there any more bicycles in the gold plated racks?
  
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  June 3, 2026 5:42pm
Yvette

“Confirm that the Coalition Government does not recognise the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as having any binding legal effect on New
Zealand.”

“So let’s put it in the India FTA. Then we can point out that is an example of its dire mis-use, because UNDRIP has no binding legal effect on New Zealand.”
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June 3, 2026 8:53am
Hugh Jarse

Looking forward to the headlines in the media on this result. https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10241-nz-national-voting-intention-may-2026
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June 3, 2026 9:00am
- Raphael
  
  TOP getting over 5% is a small worry. But does look like most of that is from Labour supporters.
  The Media has been giving them a LOT of positive free press lately.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:22am
  - Spam
    
    Of course they have. A hard-left party with a veneer of being centrist? What’s not to like (from the media’s perspective)?
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:44am
  - Damocles11
    
    My hope is that TOP end up getting about 4.7% at the election, meaning a whole lot of leftists will have wasted their vote.
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:38am
    - RoboRob
      
      Delicious 🙂
      
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      June 3, 2026 11:08am
    - Nikola Donatello
      
      Sometimes voters can do odd things. In the 2002 election United Future came from nowhere to get 6.7 percent of the vote and 8 seats.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:54pm
      - RoboRob
        
        The infamous worm effect
        
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        June 3, 2026 1:38pm
  - Nūhaka Native
    
    TOP are just Labour/Greens dressed in Teal clothes. Their general manager is Iain Lees-Galloway, a former Labour cabinet minister. Their leader, an upper middle class progressive full of luxury beliefs, typical of left wing parties these days. She can’t even say what a woman is, quote “I’m not a Dr”. Hard won, female sex based rights are important. If TOP deny that reality, what else do they get wrong?
    
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    June 3, 2026 6:06pm
- hmmokrightitis
  
  Tumbleweed, guaranteed. Whereas if it were the other way around, it would be wall to wall breathless all day long.
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:28am
  - pdm
    
    HDPA covered it briefly this morning.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:41am
- Ghost
  
  Media don’t report Roy Morgan, haven’t for a long time. Only one that does is Chris Lynch
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:36am
  - Philview
    
    The swings in recent RM polls are too much to be credible. Also I don’t believe voters are looking at the current opposition and seeing a Government in waiting so perhaps this poll is more accurate.
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:20am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Agree RM has always swung up to 10% from poll to poll. It makes for dramatic headlines but I think their methodology must be flawed.
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:20pm
  - Interested Party
    
    Historically you maybe correct, but over the last year it is referenced all the time, especially when the Nats are going down
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:50am
- mogg
  
  Doesn’t this turnaround coincide with the disappearance of Maiki Sherman from our tv screens.
  
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  June 3, 2026 11:04am
  - Paulus
    
    Do you not think that Maiki Sherman will turn up soon somewhere in the media, after all she needs a huge salary to keep her lifestyle.
    And the real rich Maori lefties love her.
    
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    June 3, 2026 2:22pm
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  I must say I tend to distrust polls far out from elections.
  
  People might talk one way, but when it comes to actually placing a cross on election day they might act very differently.
  
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  June 3, 2026 11:10am
- Ra Henare
  
  ah back in the good old days when Roy Morgan polls were pooh-poohed by many (non-MSM) as being out of touch with reality.
  
  While the MSM applauded the results when they showed good results for the left and wackos.
  
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  June 3, 2026 3:27pm
Cassandra

The Australian newspaper reports that Labor backbenchers, teal MPs and trade unionists are protesting about AUKUS and the submarine deal. There’s also some doubt about the One Nation policy. A developing story.
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June 3, 2026 9:22am
- MCōs
  
  I see Pauline Hansen’s One Nation party leads polling in Oz, which came as quite a shock to the woman.
  While she reckons she could handle the job of PM, she didn’t sound too keen on the idea.
  With the job comes responsibility & on the other hand merciless derision, particularly for women PMs
  I doubt if she’s willing to take on either
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:50am
  - RoboRob
    
    I imagine scaling a small party up rapidly is a very difficult proposition. If ACT won jumped from 8% to 30% almost overnight, for example, it would be very difficult to scale up the party, even if Seymour himself is competent. Reform is likely having this issue in England too. World wide it appears people want change and the incumbent major parties are perceived as mirrors of each other with minor differences. It’s also why someone like Trump gets in in the US. Whilst republican he is only that in the loosest of sense.
    
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    June 3, 2026 10:16am
imalwaysright

Police bodycam footage of the UK Police handcuffing and arresting fatally stabbed Henry Nowak has been released.

https://youtu.be/9ecrzegPsyY?si=s1aiwqQ8hbJ2iQps

If they did this to a muslim every Police station in the UK would be torched.
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June 3, 2026 9:29am
- nigel2010
  
  as a UK citizen i am ashamed by the way the UK police have handled this from the on scene officers who were more interested in making an arrest before they even ascertained what happened and left the victim dying while drowning in his own blood while handcuffed and begging for help, to the weak apology from senior police and to the politicians who have been absolutely silent but who took the knee over George Floyd but would not even mention a young man who was murdered and framed for a racial attack, The dignity from the father and his powerful words made me weep, this should never ever be let to happen again
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:20am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Just got a new UK passport as I am visiting Scotland later in the year. I don’t think they will accept my NZ passport as I was born in UK. I feel like posting it back to them.
    I think the cops at the scene were basically just following their training. Huge amounts of time spent on anti-racism. Consequently less time spent on assessing a situation, first aid, when you need to put people in handcuffs, when it is appropriate to address someone as “mate”. The cops know that they can have this interaction and still remain on the force. If they had cuffed the Sikh on suspicion of a serious assault and the guy on the ground had turned out to be a drunk white supremacist they would have been out of a job so fast their feet wouldn’t have touched the ground.
    
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    June 3, 2026 12:31pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      There’s no need for shame etc. This is not even political, its ideological.
      You can’t control that unless you are there.
      In which case , you are obliged to storm Parliament ….and burn it.
      
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      June 3, 2026 1:54pm
- mogg
  
  The UK policing watchdog has since said that “the officers at the scene did nothing wrong.”
  Henry Nowak who was on the ground had been stabbed five times, he was treated as the criminal while the Seikh man with the knife was treated as the victim.
  Nowak was stabbed because he was white and he was left to die because he was white.
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:42am
  - NothingLeft
    
    To all appearances Henry just looked like a semi-conscious drunk who had needlessly bothered a Sikh family. Understandable that the police assumed as much in the middle of the night on a weekend.
    
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    June 3, 2026 1:38pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Now Now nothing.
      Can’t have common sense here when everyone is having an emotional dump on UK Police.
      
      I guess you read the sentencing notes of the Judge before jailing the Sikh to 20-something years, life without parole.
      
      https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Digwa-Final-Sentencing-Remarks.pdf
      
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      June 3, 2026 3:33pm
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      Police training is to assume nothing.
      
      In the words of Marcus Penn; “Assumption is the mother of all fuckups”.
      
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      June 3, 2026 6:27pm
- BananaLlama
  
  There have been major riots before but the state didn’t care and cracked down hard on the nativists. It’s just lately that the British people are waking up to the fact that their government is a hostile occupying power that wants to suppress their dissent at all costs.
  
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  June 3, 2026 5:03pm
Yvette

Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for May 2026 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) up 4% to 51.5%, opening a large lead over the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Parliamentary Opposition, down 6.5% to 41.5%, the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll finds …
For the Parliamentary Opposition, support for Labour plunged 7.5% to 26.5%, support for the Greens increased 1.5% to 12.5%, and support for Te Pāti Māori was down 0.5% to 2.5%.

This puts the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Parliamentary Opposition at 41.5%,

But surely that should be Labour Greens Opposition at 39 percent because on 2.5 percent, the Maori Party would not be in Parliament?
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June 3, 2026 9:33am
- Ghost
  
  Yes they would. Māori party get in on the Māori electorate votes
  
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  June 3, 2026 9:37am
  - pdm
    
    Maori Electorate seats. Not necessarily votes.
    
    Hence the overhang.
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:43am
    - MCōs
      
      2.5% represents 3 seats. If they were to win other than three of the Maori seats there would be an overhang.
      Who knows what will happen in those seats?
      
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      June 3, 2026 10:36am
  - Yvette
    
    Ghost, your comment is of course valid.
    
    But Roy Morgan’s New Zealand political poll asks respondents which party they would give their party vote to if an election were held today. The reported figures are usually presented as a national party vote, not broken out separately for each Māori electorate.
    
    There is also a practical issue: the seven Māori electorates contain only a small fraction of the total electorate. A typical Roy Morgan sample of around 800–1,000 people would yield too few respondents in any one Māori electorate to produce reliable electorate-level estimates without conducting a dedicated oversample.
    
    Are Māori voters included in Roy Morgan polling? Yes.
    Does Roy Morgan ask for party-vote preference? Yes –that is the core question of the poll.
    Does Roy Morgan publish separate party-vote results for Māori electorates? Not in its standard public polling, as far as can be determined
    
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    June 3, 2026 9:56am
- MCōs
  
  They don’t show a number for TOP.
  If they clawed their way to 5% , not unreasonable in these anti establishment times, they would have six seats to throw around
  I note the Ray Morgan poll shows 7% going to parties not in parliament.
  A lot of people didn’t vote last time . . . .
  
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  June 3, 2026 10:58am
  - pdm
    
    They say TOP are at 6% in the Other category which is 7% so TOP are easily polling best of the rest.
    
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    June 3, 2026 11:51am
    - Gravelroad
      
      From what I have read about the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” TOP outfit, I won’t be voting for them.
      Not even with a gun pointed at my head……
      
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      June 3, 2026 12:36pm
      - marcw
        
        Yes, if the media did their job (I know!) they would be discussing how they were going to implement their policies on co-governance and He Puapua – both of which they embrace.
        
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        June 3, 2026 1:18pm
      - MCōs
        
        If they’re polling around 6% there’s no point in asking them how they can implement their policies.
        Parties like One Nation have made all manner of impractical promises over the years knowing full well they’ll never be held to account
        Now that’s changing as third parties rise in prominence and suddenly there’s a debt to pay and their backers will want their pound of flesh
        
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        June 3, 2026 4:09pm
- Nūhaka Native
  
  Under the recent Roy Morgan poll, TOP would get 7 seats as they are on 6%. They are just Labour/Greens dressed up in Teal. So I guess the ‘left’ block get 47.5%. Thankfully, it looks like they still don’t make it into government.
  
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  June 3, 2026 6:11pm
Swifty

Foul here in West Auckland, thunder storms overnight and torrential rain. The house was shaking so much I even started to question my atheism and prayed to God.

And god answered!

https://x.com/octavio_01/status/2061561300048544193?s=46
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June 3, 2026 10:00am
nova

Stuff continue to report on MP’s housing allowances, in an incredibly biased fashion. This article is framed positively towards Hipkins, and in all the recent reporting I haven’t seen a single question to Hipkins about which of his MPs are claiming the allowance. Of the 28 MPs they cite, they cherry pick 4 National party MPs and 1 NZ First to call out by name. Reporting from a few years ago stated that Kieran McAnulty was claiming the allowance to live in his wife’s Wellington home. I wonder if that is still the case? The media certainly isn’t in a hurry to enlighten me. https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360986773/mps-claiming-accommodation-allowances-something-were-looking-hipkins-says
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June 3, 2026 10:04am
Damocles11

‘Nearly 400 hospitality businesses went into liquidation in the year to March, with company failures across the sector jumping 49%.
The latest Centrix Credit Indicator shows 399 hospitality firms were placed into liquidation over the past 12 months, up from 268 a year earlier.
At the same time, hospitality businesses were seeking finance at a faster rate than any other sector. Credit enquiries from the industry rose 26% over the past year, ahead of agriculture and other service industries.
Only the construction sector recorded more liquidations, with 768 companies placed into liquidation over the same period.’

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360987211/hospitality-failures-surge-49-nearly-400-businesses-close
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June 3, 2026 10:44am
- MCōs
  
  No empty shops in Mangere Bridge. The cafes are all doing well from what I can see
  Meanwhile a few minutes down the road in Onehunga there’s a lot of empty shops
  
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  June 3, 2026 11:02am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Mcos
    The trend among the Chosen Ones (previously the Public Service) is to order their publically funded food on the internet.
    
    Leaving the office in order to use ones own publicly funded posh dole to buy top quality grub in order to stabilise ones fat arse is no longer necessary.
    
    Public service efficiency in action….
    
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    June 3, 2026 12:58pm
  - Ehlana
    
    Perhaps more realistic rentals in Mangere Bridge?
    
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    June 3, 2026 5:48pm
imalwaysright

A caller to the Platform this morning said that Internal Affairs have said that the cost of water to households should be 2.5% of the median wage.

He also said that Councils are using this figure as their reference point rather than the actual cost.

If true, is it the job of Internal Affairs to price water supply, and how did they arrive at 2.5%?
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June 3, 2026 10:46am
- NothingLeft
  
  Getting near the point where septic tanks and rainwater collection are a cheaper option.
  
  How did water utilities get so expensive? Another example of death-by-regulation in the name of ‘safety’ and ‘environment’ with no actual significant benefits to population to justify the 100’s of percent increase in real cost over last few decades?
  
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  June 3, 2026 1:43pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Good point Nothing,
    There are plenty of houses that are able to collect drinking water,dispose of gray water , and compost waste.
    Why aren’t the Greens (and the Gov) promoting this?
    
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    June 3, 2026 1:59pm
Swifty

The education unions keen to protect their patch from competition, irrespective of the benefits to students and their families.

Not to mention taxpaying New Zealanders.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/597068/erica-stanford-plans-to-increase-pay-for-tradies-working-as-unqualified-teachers
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June 3, 2026 11:22am
[email protected]

The government is spending $30 million to put 30 Kw of solar panels on the roofs of 500 schools.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360987247/solar-panels-coming-500-schools-30-million-government-initiative

This is an excellent expenditure of tax payer money. These solar panels will pay for themselves in saved power costs in 5 or 6 years and then become profitable. A 20% return on investment is very, very good.

Too bad they are only doing 500 schools when there are over 2500 schools in New Zealand.
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June 3, 2026 1:04pm
- marcw
  
  500 fewer customers paying for power to companies who have fixed costs in supplying power to the whole community. Guess who’s power prices will rise to make up the difference, and obliged to pay the “buy back” power at times when it’s not useable? Yes, it will mean more price increases for everyone else, ironic really, when it is them who have had their pockets picked to pay for the solar installations.
  
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  June 3, 2026 1:28pm
- NothingLeft
  
  It’s inefficient. The same 15MW of panels put into a grid scale solar farm costs about half as much and is cheaper to maintain. Or can install twice as much for the same investment.
  
  Schools aren’t in sunniest parts of country either.
  
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  June 3, 2026 1:50pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Why pick solar? – if the aim is to subsidise power for schools – then doing it by putting solar on individual schools is a daft (expensive) way to do it.
    
    Just figure out a way to subsidise the power in a fashion that delivers about the same amount of power that the panels would have delivered – at times when the panels would have delivered it. Don’t make it worse by talking about batteries. No subsidy on power delivered on a cold cloudy winter morning of course. Would take a bit of working out, but doable.
    
    The idea is nuts …. bananas ….. It would be interesting to know the names (public servants? consultants?) in the Ministry who came up with this brain fart …. and hear them defend it. 🙂
    
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    June 3, 2026 6:36pm
- greybeard
  
  How many quotes for panels / labour do you think they got ? Someone is going to make a lot of money here.
  
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  June 3, 2026 2:23pm
- rouppe
  
  “Some of the first schools to benefit will be those with gas or diesel boilers that are scheduled for replacement.”
  
  I’ve got gas cooking, water heating and space heating. I’m available to be set up with a solar replacement system.
  
  What number do I call?
  
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  June 3, 2026 2:50pm
- CJames
  
  It is a silly policy for which the cost benefits aren’t there. This time of year, how much power will solar produce at 8:30 when they want classrooms heated up? Plenty of power in mid summer like school holidays- where will that go? Wholesale price on sunny days falls to near zero nowadays. Be like Australia and they will be constrained off. No-one wants that electricity and all the fixed costs are still there.
  The policy is just feelgood soundbites to get morons to praise it.
  
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  June 3, 2026 5:51pm
  - [email protected]
    
    Did you read the part where it said “batteries”? You can heat the schools in time for students to feel comfortable without the expense taxpayers would otherwise have to pay for.
    
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    June 3, 2026 6:17pm
    - CJames
      
      Did you bother doing the economics on actual generation from solar? Have you seen data from commercial facilities? Peak generation in NZ for Monday was only 45MW.
      Batteries this time of year have next to no charge in them at dusk as schools would still be importing. Even the grid batteries have done no charging over six of the last seven days.
      
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      June 3, 2026 7:33pm
    - CJames
      
      NZ has 250MW grid solar peak over last seven days just over 150MW and not even depth of winter yet.
      
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      June 3, 2026 7:36pm
    - CJames
      
      I did the fag packet numbers, average school say 10 classrooms gets 30kW and 40kWh batteries installation. Taking 70% of average grid solar for last seven days as generation and average classroom usage 4kW morning till 10am and 2kW rest of day, they will be importing from grid almost all day but will have some charge after 3pm if the school doesn’t run much equipment after kids go home – don’t put the jug on in the staffroom though. That would still mean batteries flattened overnight from things like security lighting and residual power usage.
      Checked numbers with a friend who has domestic 5kW and 17kWh batteries – almost every day over last couple of weeks his batteries flat before 6pm.
      
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      June 3, 2026 8:18pm
Bernard Black

I was stupid enough to watch some of TV one news last night.
I got as far as the appearance of Hone Harawira at the Waitangi Tribunal banging on about that changes to smoke free legislation will “kill hundreds of Maori” before I had to turn it off.

I wonder how the average Maori feels about being portrayed as some sort of naughty toddler who needs their pacifier taken from them for their own good.

But what I really couldn’t understand was why Hone felt the need to wear dark sunglasses while giving his diatribe.
Surely complety hiding your eyes in such a setting is rather rude.

There are few reasons to wear dark glasses inside.
You suffer from migraines and the harsh lighting can set them off.
You are a drugged up rockstar who needs to hide the fact that you are off your trolley.
You smoked lots of dope and your eyes confirm it.
You are a complete prat who think they make you look way cool.
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June 3, 2026 1:10pm
- RoboRob
  
  In Hones case I suspect options B,C & D.
  
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  June 3, 2026 1:40pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Hone was disrespecting the kawa of a New Zealand taxpayer funded platform, where taking off sunglasses is the correct thing to do.
  
  But hey, what does Hone care about the protocol of other peoples?
  
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  June 3, 2026 6:35pm
Ghost

Hopefully caught on security camera

A fire at Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s Auckland electorate office is being treated as suspicious, police say.

Article
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June 3, 2026 1:46pm
Swifty

Nothing will change until we start handing out lengthy jail sentences followed by deportation for any non-citizens.

Fines, even of a few tens of thousands, is clearly no deterrent.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-and-justice/597114/landscaping-company-forced-migrant-worker-to-pay-45-000-for-job
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June 3, 2026 2:14pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yep, revocation of citizenship and deportation of foreign criminals and their dependents is the only currency they understand.
  
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  June 3, 2026 6:36pm
mogg

Meanwhile Templeton Emerging Markets trust listed on NZX is up 101% over the past 12 months.
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June 3, 2026 3:33pm
greybeard

On the Hosking show this morning ( hosted by HDPA ) Ginny Andersen said that New Zealanders are not worried about the maori takeover of democratically-elected councils and were more worried about their household bills: I can assure her that I was worried about it, as I suspect were a couple of million of other New Zealanders.
Thank goodness that practice has now been stopped, due mainly to ACT influence.

Ginny Andersen is grossly out of touch with voters – may she reap the whirlwind.
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June 3, 2026 5:25pm
- AitchW
  
  Ginny is simply parroting the Labour ideology. Independent thought is frowned on.
  
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  June 3, 2026 5:47pm
- Nikola Donatello
  
  Folk can be worried about more than one thing.
  
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  June 3, 2026 6:04pm