General Debate 10 July 2026

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Cassandra

General Jack Keane is Trump’s go to for military advice. He says that Iran’s new regime is just another version of the old one, determined to acquire a nuclear weapon, continue to fund the likes of Hezbollah , annihilate Israel and torment the West. “The US should finish the job “.

Trump says that the ceasefire is over and that the new regime is “ nuts”.

We’re in for more strife.
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July 10, 2026 8:00am
- David George
  
  We’re “in for more strife” either way.
  At least Marco Rubio understands; “death to the West” is no mere slogan. Vance and President Trump are now realising it. The pathetic weasels we have as Western leaders haven’t the courage to confront the evil that is the Islamic regime.
  Finish the job.
  
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  July 10, 2026 8:25am
  - Dougal10
    
    This has been on the table for a while , just last week we had reports of an increase in oil production announced by some nations , these nations are basically saying finish the job you are being conned .
    
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    July 10, 2026 8:41am
  - mike
    
    Finish the job?
    Like Afghanistan or Iraq?
    
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    July 10, 2026 8:48am
    - David Garrett
      
      A rare uptick from me Mikey boy…Not something you would ever dream of doing re a comment of mine. (You’ll probably downtick this one!)
      
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      July 10, 2026 9:44am
      - mike
        
        Au contraire …
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:22am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I was thinking more the Roman obliteration of Carthage.
      
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      July 10, 2026 10:16am
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      Either of those have anything to do with the Trump administration?
      
      Please explain any relationship.
      
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      July 10, 2026 4:45pm
      - mike
        
        The US lacked the ability to wiñ in Afghanistan and Iraq, and cannot win over Iran.
        Trump had to surrender to the Taliban and will have to surrender to the ayotolĺahs as well.
        
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        July 10, 2026 5:31pm
  - igm
    
    Time to use the heavy artillery . . . Islam deserves no consideration anywhere.
    
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    July 10, 2026 8:50am
    - David Garrett
      
      igm: My views of Islam are well known…but nothing justifies the killing of kids
      
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      July 10, 2026 9:47am
      - igm
        
        Pity Islam did not see it your way. They have no respect for children or women. Look at the atrocities they committed in Israel.
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:04am
      - David George
        
        Respect for life, the sanctity of life as Christians say, is central to our culture. Some not so much – like the Islamic regime sending kids out as human mine sweepers for example.
        
        “During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran’s forces were no match for Saddam Hussein’s professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child’s neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them.”
        http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/ahmadinejads-demons
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:29am
      - mike
        
        Perhaps David George needs reminding of the many, many times Christians have shown no respect for life.
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:33am
      - imalwaysright
        
        DG
        “My views of Islam are well known…but nothing justifies the killing of kids.”
        
        I made the same point several times when Israel was bombing Gaza.
        It didn’t go down well with the brave KB keyboard warriors who seemed to think shooting through a child to kill a terrorist was acceptable.
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:49am
      - I remember when
        
        Yes Mike. I remember the Crusades like they were yesterday.
        
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        July 10, 2026 11:34am
      - Jack5
        
        World Muslim population: about 1.8 billion.
        
        But has bombing yet brought total victory without soldiers on the ground dying on the ground?
        
        Vietnam? The Blitz on Britain? The V2’s on London? The Stuka fleets in the Operation Barbarossa attack on Russia?
        
        Well perhaps Japan, 1945. But that entailed nuclear attacks and vast fire bombing. It then entailed occupation by almost a million Allied troops.
        
        Here’s a map of Allied bombing of German cities – and still soldiers had to take the country.
        
        https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/air-war-germany-map/
        
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        July 10, 2026 12:07pm
      - David George
        
        The Irish have a bonfire tradition, this year some locals have built a massive tower of wooden pallets topped with a mosque. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the effigy was being treated as a “hate-motivated criminal offence”.
        They got it lit before the authorities could intervene. Way to go Paddies.
        https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/26268383.moygashel-bonfire-lit-asap-threats-remove/
        
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        July 10, 2026 12:20pm
      - kowtow
        
        ‘Way to go Paddies’
        
        I think you’ll find the people responsible for this particular expression of ugly sectarianism don’t represent the majority of “Paddies” at all.
        
        In recent years that committee has also burned an effigy of a police car , an Irish PM and in the past no doubt the Bishop of Rome would have featured .
        
        Some of these bonfire committees hide a long and violent tradition that has well and truly poisoned the political discourse of that island.
        
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        July 10, 2026 1:43pm
      - leoj
        
        Then how do you explain the cry of “God is Great” by some radical Islamist terrorist when he claims responsibility for a blatant public mass killing?
        
        The Christian west’s valuation of life will always lose to the radical Islamist who doesn’t care who he kills.
        
        It’s not an even playing field because they operate under totally different rules.
        
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        July 10, 2026 6:54pm
  - Gulag1917
    
    Psychologically Muslims are tougher than us and it is that which wins wars.
    
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    July 10, 2026 12:05pm
    - Phronesis
      
      Depends what you mean by tougher. They are clearly more willing to die for their beliefs.
      
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      July 10, 2026 1:18pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        You don’t win wars by dying for your country, you win wars by being strategically smarter, better armed, or more numerous and making your opponents die for their country.
        
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        July 10, 2026 6:08pm
    - Charlotte Wells
      
      Repeated Muslim invasions of Europe have been beaten and the invaders sent packing.
      
      Back then Europe had hard men, great warriors, and recognised the clear and present danger.
      
      Now, not so much.
      
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      July 10, 2026 2:02pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Yes, the emasculation of the last two generations has allowed these bastards to strut around the streets doing as they please.
        
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        July 10, 2026 3:48pm
- surfing
  
  Trump has left the world in the dumpster. Iran now think they have control over the Hormuz strait.
  
  I think it is time to deal with Iran. Better now than in 20 years time.
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:58am
  - leoj
    
    Name another world leader who has the guts.
    
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    July 10, 2026 6:56pm
- Cassandra
  
  And Brent went from 60 to 70 immediately.
  
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  July 10, 2026 10:24am
- Simon
  
  “We’re in for more strife”
  
  100% and that strife will come to NZ in the form of the National party reaction to events. Never underestimate the gross stupidity of National and the harm they have inflicted to date.
  
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  July 10, 2026 10:38am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Good grief.
    
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    July 10, 2026 1:00pm
- pb
  
  America. Fresh off a defeat by goat herding Taliban, about to be defeated by rug merchants.
  
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  July 10, 2026 4:11pm
  - mike
    
    How do rug merchants respond to carpet bombing?
    
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    July 10, 2026 4:33pm
  - Charlotte Wells
    
    Do explain how Afghanistan was perpetuated by the Trump administration.
    
    Take your time, I will wait. But I’m not holding my breath.
    
    Ditto for how the Trump administration has anything to do with Iraq.
    
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    July 10, 2026 4:43pm
Cassandra

We don’t know where elephants go to die but , breaking news, we now know where it is for has-been NZ MPs.
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July 10, 2026 8:01am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Where?
  
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  July 10, 2026 10:17am
  - Cassandra
    
    According to AI it’s Beaches and Islands but in fact it’s NZF. But you knew that.
    
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    July 10, 2026 10:26am
    - Jack5
      
      Do you reckon the former All Blacks captain, Taine Randell, has gone to NZ First to die, Cassandra?
      
      https://newswire.co.nz/2026/04/former-all-blacks-captain-taine-randell-enters-politics-with-new-zealand-first/
      
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      July 10, 2026 12:14pm
      - Cassandra
        
        No. He’s not an ex MP.
        
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        July 10, 2026 4:26pm
- Littletramp
  
  Will there be any similar “Opportunity” for Labour’s has been MP’s?
  
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  July 10, 2026 11:21am
  - Charlotte Wells
    
    Good one.
    
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    July 10, 2026 2:04pm
- Nūhaka Native
  
  As long as the so called ‘has-beens’ do enough to get the centre-right coalition back, we should all be happy. The Latest Curia poll shows NZ First on about 10%. National is just about 30%. Fortunately, the Labour/Green ‘creation’ of TOP is around 3%.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/692027/coalition-holds-majority-in-latest-taxpayers-union-poll
  
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  July 10, 2026 4:32pm
Damocles11

‘ The US has launched new airstrikes against Iran, hours after Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict unless Iran stopped attacking ships in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran, which was burying its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday, responded by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant.
The tit-for-tat strikes were the largest since Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 17 June aimed at extending the ceasefire and giving space for negotiations for a permanent truce.
They came as Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed, threatening to do so “with even greater force”.’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/09/iran-trade-strikes-ceasefire-extended-donald-trump
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July 10, 2026 8:07am
- Cassandra
  
  Not sure about uptick for a mention of the Guardian!
  
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  July 10, 2026 10:23am
  - Damocles11
    
    I thought it was a risky move. 🤣
    
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    July 10, 2026 10:27am
Scott

Trump wins freedom for Chinese pastor:

“Former Vice President Mike Pence publicly praised President Donald Trump on Monday for successfully securing the release of pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, a prominent underground Christian leader detained by Chinese authorities.

In a post on X, Pence said Trump “should be commended” for raising the case directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a state visit to Beijing, adding it was “Truly Treasure in Heaven to see this godly man of faith set free.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, Jin’s family thanked Trump and acknowledged the swift release would not have been possible without Xi’s intervention.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pence-commends-trump-winning-freedom-beijings-zion-church-pastor-ezra-jin-from-chinese-detention

No other leader in the west or anywhere else seemingly cares a hoot about the persecution of Christians in China. Trump is the only president whose ever talked about the plight of Christians in China or indeed anywhere else.

This is another reason why I support President Trump. He’s the only leader who cares enough about the persecution of Christians to do something about it.
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July 10, 2026 8:16am
Swifty

She’s farmed just out of Taupo since the 80s – and well regarded by locals I understand.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-singer-bonnie-tyler-dies-aged-75
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July 10, 2026 8:46am
Nukuleka

Cassandra: maybe it’s all the excitement of waking up to the fabulousness that is Matariki, but I am baffled and haven’t a clue what your post is about. What elephants? What has-been NZ MPs? Context, please?
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July 10, 2026 8:49am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Another ex MP, this time from National, has surfaced as an NZ First candidate.
  
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  July 10, 2026 8:59am
- pdm
  
  Nuku – NZFirst being the MP’s Graveyard for has been/never were up to much MP’s.
  
  Namely (so far) Nash, Laws, Ngaro and Hipango.
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:00am
  - mike
    
    Shane Jones
    
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    July 10, 2026 9:03am
    - mike
      
      Also Dail Jones, Jack Elder, Peter McCardle and Gilbert Myles.
      
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      July 10, 2026 9:10am
  - Dougal10
    
    The first would have been winston himself i guess
    
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    July 10, 2026 11:25am
- Cassandra
  
  Hipango joins NZF etc.
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:11am
- Paulus
  
  Can’t find the bloody Kumera to plant today !
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:47am
  - David Garrett
    
    Paulus: Indeed…I think they’ve modified this ridiculous claim that “Matariki” – which there is zero evidence was ever a celebration of anything – is a symbol that kumera needed planting in six weeks fron now…or something. Totally absurd for an event which – like Easter – moves around the calendar year upon year.
    
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    July 10, 2026 9:51am
    - Cassandra
      
      How, I wonder, did Maori work out what 6 weeks was? Counting the Sundays?
      
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      July 10, 2026 10:09am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Easy as, 1 full moon to next full moon then a new moon.
        Or possibly the Suns declination when rising / Setting will get a close enough idea. etc. Depends why they would need 42 days for ?
        
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        July 10, 2026 12:16pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      The abolition of the “holiday” should have been on the first 100 days list of the government.
      
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      July 10, 2026 10:20am
      - David Garrett
        
        Bene: Sadly mate, cancelling any holiday – no matter how unjustified said holiday is – would be electoral poison – and this one in particular. You can imagine TPM and the Greeens jumping all over it as “further traumatising/suppressing Maori”…and similar nonsense.
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:25am
      - mike
        
        Just chill and enjoy the holiday. Just like normal folks will.
        
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        July 10, 2026 10:30am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Yes David I get that. But in the first 100 days the government could have done 100 things that were not done. Abolish this holiday on a Monday. By Tuesday the communists and the Labour Party would have been enraged about the next thing.
        
        So many lost opportunities.
        
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        July 10, 2026 11:25am
      - leoj
        
        Luxon?
        
        He’s scared of his own shadow let alone brave enough to quash a holiday which was a figment of maori imagination.
        
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        July 10, 2026 7:02pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      The only sense to me is for Tribes on the Eastern Seaboard will see it rise ( Close to ) on the Winter Solstace, Otherwise like you say. It makes no sense .
      
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      July 10, 2026 12:12pm
KKNZ2025

RIP Bonnie Tyler
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-singer-bonnie-tyler-dies-aged-75
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July 10, 2026 8:52am
- David Garrett
  
  KK: Yes, a wonderful voice…and quite the looker too…even though I don’t fancy blondes!
  
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  July 10, 2026 10:22am
Southern Raider

The World Cup is providing a glimpse into the muslim way of thinking.

The Egyptian coach parades around in a Palestinian flag, yet his country has the biggest border wall with Gaza.

On any media site this week you could read conspiracy theories about why Argentina won over Egypt and all the comments claiming FIFA fraud were from muslims.

Now muslims have been editing the wikipedia page of the French referee to now claim he’s Jewish to justify why Egypt lost.
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July 10, 2026 8:55am
Yvette

Te Papa’s Treaty of Waitangi exhibition tikanga approved vandalism?

Précis: Charges against activist Te Wehi Heketoro Ratana for a protest at Te Papa Treaty of Waitangi exhibition were dismissed. The Crown withdrew the prosecution after the defence proposed a statement of tikanga from Te Ururoa Flavell to the Crown. Prosecutors said there was sufficient evidence, but the Crown Solicitor decided against a jury trial due to public interest concerns. Te Papa acknowledged the Signs of a Nation exhibit required changes and is now redeveloping it with iwi Māori and Treaty experts.
https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/03/10/charges-dismissed-against-te-wehi-ratana-over-te-papa-treaty-protest/

“The Crown Solicitor decided against a jury trial due to public interest concerns” –

• Does that mean that Ratana, in consideration of tikanga, would have been found Not Guilty? – and in effect that was what has happened.
• Would tikanga have become the actual issue on trial?
• Or in fact a court case could have involved aspects of the Treaty, which parties didn’t want on trial?
• Would establishing Ratana’s motivation have required a resolution of the Maori versus English texts of the Treaty and whether sovereignty was ceded or not, or could a trail establish, under law, that the question of sovereignty can not indeed the resolved in a court of law.

In R v Ellis, the Supreme Court itself ushered in tikanga, with some having awaited the opportunity to do that with a suitable case (even although nobody involved in the Ellis case seemed to be Maori).

Now, in a case where tikanga was definitely involved (through “the statement of tikanga from Te Ururoa Flavell to the Crown”) but the case was dismissed as not being in the public interest.
But the tikanga aspect, and any precedent that the case could have set, or it becoming a trail of the Treaty itself, are all surely the very reason the case should have been in the public interest – and still is
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July 10, 2026 9:19am
- Mark Adams
  
  Yes of course your points are all perfectly valid.
  But it is also not in the public’s interest for the public to be allowed to determine what’s in the public interest…
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:34am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Is there an Aotearoan version of monopoly? If so, the Chance and Community Chest decks should include a “tikanga” card, replacing the old free get-out-of-jail card.
  
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  July 10, 2026 1:07pm
mike

Why have a bunch of comments been deleted?
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July 10, 2026 9:32am
- BananaLlama
  
  because sometimes commentators fly too close to the sun.
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:35am
Damocles11

Voice-over in a Matariki TV ad:
“We stood against the might of the Crown”.
What a stunning message of national unity. 🤦🏻‍♂️🥴
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July 10, 2026 9:36am
- Scott
  
  Very interesting comments here from a Maori Christian who doesn’t celebrate Matariki. Neither does his church celebrate Matariki. It’s something from the past that is best left behind –
  
  Source: YouTube https://share.google/qcZacBBIcAPgujY8E
  
  I would say it’s a revival of old pagan practices of the past. Which in my opinion is best left in the past.
  
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  July 10, 2026 9:44am
  - Southern Raider
    
    The Ngati Whatua guy on OneNews explained how the hāngi food was placed on a raised platform as an offering to the sky gods to get good favour for the season coming.
    
    I instantly thought that’s got some serious pagan vibes about it.
    
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    July 10, 2026 10:05am
    - mike
      
      Now do transubstantiation.
      
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      July 10, 2026 1:08pm
  - mike
    
    Christians merely adopted the traditional pagan festivals.
    
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    July 10, 2026 10:25am
    - Don Beckett
      
      What absolute rubbish !
      
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      July 10, 2026 11:07am
      - mike
        
        I look forward to your explanation for the dates of Christmas and Easter.
        
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        July 10, 2026 12:57pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        You are the one making the claim – back up what you say with uninvented facts.
        (I’m quite aware of those misguided & non-factual claims BTW.)
        
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        July 10, 2026 3:33pm
    - mandk
      
      @ mike
      
      Christians adopted the dates (although that is debatable) not the festivals themselves.
      
      At my church, we celebrate the coming of God incarnate to the world, and his resurrection from the dead, every Sunday.
      
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      July 10, 2026 1:21pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Scott: Yes…but that’s some bone carving around his neck! Par for the course I suppose…
    
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    July 10, 2026 10:32am
    - Scott
      
      Quite true David. But the fellow is talking sense. So I’m going to look past the bone carving! 😁
      
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      July 10, 2026 11:48am
- imalwaysright
  
  The news has been showing the constellation in a much magnified form that takes up a fair acreage of the sky.
  
  Many will be disappointed when they try to find it.
  
  God knows how the ancient Maoris spotted it.
  
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  July 10, 2026 2:24pm
  - mike
    
    One suspects they used their eyes.
    
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    July 10, 2026 4:36pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Bionic?
      
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      July 10, 2026 6:09pm
Damocles11

Remember that today you can celebrate by sharing food with family, telling each other stories, peering up at the stars, just going for a walk, driving somewhere in your car, boiling the jug, doing some gardening, picking your nose….the possibilities are endless! 🫶
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July 10, 2026 9:39am
- imalwaysright
  
  “….the possibilities are endless!”
  
  Don’t forget the employers celebrating paying their employees to not work…
  
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  July 10, 2026 11:10am
kowtow

Once upon a time this was unheard of. What’s happening?

‘Sixteen driver testing officers have been suspended with a further seven stood down following an investigation by the NZ Transport Agency.

The investigation relates to abnormal test results, with about 650 drivers needing to re-sit tests’

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/driver-testing-officers-suspended-650-drivers-be-re-tested
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July 10, 2026 9:53am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I wonder if any particular demographic will emerge, on either side of the affair.
  
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  July 10, 2026 12:33pm
- Dougal10
  
  Well if any of the tests were the final one they dont need to redo as that particular test is gone next year , which means it is just from learners to restricted that counts , so these people should be better drivers already as they are driving. Usually this shit is a beat up with one provider bagging another or officials looking to change providers so find a box not ticked . If it was serious like the truck driver licences the licences would already be pulled .
  
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  July 10, 2026 5:57pm
Yvette

Invented by the Courts in the 1980s, the ‘partnership’ concept has been thoroughly discredited – including by former Prime Minister David Lange who explained:

“Democratic government can accommodate Maori political aspiration in many ways. What it cannot do is acknowledge the existence of a separate sovereignty. As soon as it does that, it isn’t a democracy. We can have a democratic form of government, or we can have indigenous sovereignty. They can’t coexist and we can’t have them both.”
https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/muriel-newman-parallel-societies

And while David Lange added – that he really didn’t believe Queen Victoria would sign a treaty of equality and partnership with “500 thumbprints”.

… to take any “akin to partnership” a step further, did placing your chiefly thumbprint or moko ID diagram on the Treaty give you co-governance in your own colonisation?

Sorry if that has made anyone choke on their Matariki bowl of bacon, kumara and spud hot-pot
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July 10, 2026 9:59am
Handyman

Matariki has quickly become our lowest profile public holiday.
I suspect it is due to a combination of being mid winter and the lack of “Massive Matariki Sales”. Apparently Matariki is sacred (unlike Christmas or Easter?) so Maori banned its commercialisation.
In the new Labour/Greens/Maori/TOP government, the Matariki Commission will spend millions of taxpayer money on “educating” people on why Matariki is our most important public holiday.
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July 10, 2026 10:02am
- Ian
  
  The thin edge of commercialising and breaking said sacredness of Matariki – I just got an email from the Grand Casino, Dunedin, advertising Matariki themed prize draws…
  
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  July 10, 2026 12:26pm
- Damocles11
  
  Central government already spends $3 million a year on this holiday, educating people that it’s about ‘sharing kai with whanau’. Also it’s about making resolutions for the New Year…just as pre-European maori did(?)
  
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  July 10, 2026 12:38pm
- AitchW
  
  I see no great affection or enthusiasm for Matariki celebrations. It’s just another day off, not unlike Kings Birthday and Labour Days.
  It was a supremely cynical move by Ardern, pure bread and circuses. Lolly scramble politics identical to Labour’s election campaign.
  Free GP visits, free maternity scans, free money for solar, free public transport. No vision, no aspiration, no ambition. And hopefully no chance!
  
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  July 10, 2026 1:44pm
  - Ghost
    
    Huh? Free gp vists started for under 6 year olds by the Jim Bolger government. The Key government extended that to after hours. The Key government then made it under 13 year olds
    
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    July 10, 2026 2:21pm
    - AitchW
      
      Don’t be disingenuous, you know what I mean.
      
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      July 10, 2026 10:28pm
    - Ghost
      
      your post was bullshit and you know that, but its ok if you can’t be honest and just want to spin another lie
      
      disingenuous, go look in a mirror
      
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      July 10, 2026 11:28pm
- JerJer
  
  Not anymore. That may have been the case the first year they had the fake celebration, because Jacinda was around. Now it is a day off, with loads of sales advertised. Very few People care what Māori activists think these days. Corporates are now cleaning out all the people that organised useless activities like Maori week, pacific island week, alphabet person week etc. they provide nothing, so bye bye.
  
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  July 10, 2026 2:21pm
  - kowtow
    
    Corporates cleaning out .
    
    I don’t see that. I see them ramping up .
    
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    July 10, 2026 3:18pm
    - JerJer
      
      I assumed so too. My mother works for a very woke insurance company (one of the majors). They just fired all of their woksters as described above. I see Jason Paris has gone from One NZ. He is as woke as. Don’t know whether he got pushed or not. Hopefully the new guy cleans house in that cesspit. Many of these corporates are getting squeezed for money, so as soon as a the squeeze comes, the useless are gone.
      
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      July 10, 2026 7:16pm
      - Quail
        
        JJ and KT
        I do so hope you are correct !
        NZ. needs to face reality , economic , racial, social ,gender etc etc
        One country ,one people under one law!
        
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        July 10, 2026 8:58pm
Southern Raider

Anyone know details of NZ Electoral Law?

I saw an electoral commission advert for the Maori role which stated if more Maori enrol on the Maori roll then they get more Maori into Parliament.

Is this correct that number of Maori MPs on list or seats could increase?
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July 10, 2026 10:16am
- Damocles11
  
  ‘The Royal Commission on the Electoral System, established in 1985, gave considerable thought to the future of the Māori seats. Its 1986 report concluded that separate seats had not helped Māori and that they would achieve better representation through a proportional party-list system. The commission therefore recommended that if its favoured mixed member proportional (MMP) system was adopted, the Māori seats should be abolished.
  As the prospect of electoral reform became more real from 1992, some Māori began to rally to the defence of their separate system. Eventually, following strong representations from Māori organisations, the seats were retained under the new MMP system. Their number would now increase or decrease according to the results of the regular Māori electoral option.
  Before the first MMP election in 1996 the number of Māori seats was increased, for the first time in their 129-year history, to five. Two more were added by 2002, and the total has remained at seven.’
  
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  July 10, 2026 12:36pm
- Ghost
  
  The amount of people on the Māori roll helps decide how many seats. The next boundary review is 2030, so it is set at 7 seats until the 2032 election
  
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  July 10, 2026 12:58pm
  - KKNZ2025
    
    The Maori electoral roll is self selecting & everyone on it has mixed ancestry.
    
    eg. Willie Jackson is primarily of European descent
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6uodxm
    
    The race based Maori seats are an oxymoron.
    
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    July 10, 2026 4:00pm
- CJames
  
  The numbers of Maori electorates are set until 2032
  
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  July 10, 2026 1:05pm
- mandk
  
  According to Copilot, there are 33 people of Māori descent in Parliament, spread across 6 political parties.
  
  Why should the number of Māori seats be increased?
  
  Māori clearly have no problems being selected and elected, and they are already overrepresented relative to their share of the wider population.
  
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  July 10, 2026 1:09pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Why????
    Racism, that is why.
    Abolish ALL Maori seats!!! ( that will be seen as racist- dunno why)
    
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    July 10, 2026 4:01pm
imalwaysright

If the ancient Maori had thought of studying the Sun and the Moon we could have had every Sunday and Monday off as Public holidays…
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July 10, 2026 10:24am
OlderChas

This from the Taxpayers’ Union:
“But the Taxpayers’ Union has uncovered that the Education Ministry employs 37 full-time staff to oversee the school lunch programme.

Not cook, not to tender contracts, but to “oversee” the third-party lunch providers.

It includes 22 advisors, nine managers, and a healthy serving of taxpayer-funded travel.

Official Information Act documents reveal those staff spent $129,754.90 on travel in just one year.

That includes:

$10,265.26 for three trips to the Chatham Islands
$17,676.95 flying the General Manager between Rotorua (where he lives) and Wellington (where he works).
And after all that bureaucracy, the Auditor-General found the Ministry still “did not have sufficiently robust mechanisms to measure, manage, and monitor” the programme’s performance. ”
Un-bloody-believable!

Bureaucracy Racks Up $129k In Travel And Little In Outcomes

[Mod – link add]
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July 10, 2026 10:44am
I remember when

Mother dies after leaving ED: Stuff.
The mother , aged 40, who died while trying to reach treatment in Hawke’s Bay article made some claims that I found interesting.
The outcome will be informative.
I was in ED on Saturday morning for a number of hours and left shortly before the mother arrived.
While I was there a patient, after approaching the staff several times, stood up and announced they had been there for 12 hours, and pointing to another that they had been there 13 hours.
I heard them later saying they had apologised.
The second time I was triaged, after I had dozed off and been woken, the nurse mentioned 12 hours and twenty four hours, although I didn’t fully comprehend their message.
I took it to be that it could take 12 hours to get treated and if I went home and came back later I would be treated more promptly.
I wonder how patients that ‘leave without treatment’ are measured when assessing average wait times.
Once the day staff started at 7 am things seemed to move much quicker, suggesting departments were being reopened.
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July 10, 2026 11:20am
Damocles11

‘In a speech punctuated by frequent bursts of applause, Modi declared that just as sugar sweetens milk, Indians integrate and sweeten societies globally.
“Just as when sugar is added to milk it makes it sweeter,” he said.
“Just as we Indians infuse the world,” he continued to a crowd estimated at 20,000.
“The milk comes from Australia. However, the tea is made the Indian way.”
“I am the tea vendor – the chai wallah,” Modi said to huge applause.’

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-indians-infuse-the-world-thousands-cheer-narendra-modi-at-stadium-extravaganza-20260709-p60e26.html
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July 10, 2026 12:26pm
- imalwaysright
  
  And Luxon is the kai wallah…
  
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  July 10, 2026 2:29pm
Swifty

It is imperative that NZers retain the ability to operate with cash and for ever more.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361004284/jeweller-30-years-shocked-after-bank-accounts-frozen-over-money-laundering-concerns

Can you just imagine what situation we could be in when totally at the mercy of banks, officious bureaucrats and control-freak politicians who would have us cashless and with every transaction logged and tracked online.

And of course the ability to completely lock us out of our accounts and dough etc at the merest whim.
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July 10, 2026 12:31pm
- crash
  
  We are already at the mercy of banks – and various Government entities have the power to freeze bank accounts. If your bank account is frozen, so is access to cash.
  
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  July 10, 2026 2:12pm
Swifty

We’ll know our country is on the road to recovery when RNZ have lead stories on people proclaiming they are ‘unapologetically European’.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-ao-maori/695637/troy-kingi-on-matariki-whanau-and-being-unapologetically-maori

I myself think that day a very long way away.
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July 10, 2026 12:39pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  No need to wait. This man is ‘unapologetically European’ to anyone but Stevie Wonder. He looks remarkably like a European man, if his features count for anything at all. Based on the RNZ photo, he has made an attempt to Maorify himself by circling his nose, cheeks, and chops with some felt pen, or ink, circles to make his skin look darker.
  
  He is not alone in practicing this sort of identity politics, given Labour’s long-time Maori spokesman has about as much Maori DNA in him as a turnip.
  
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/05/08/willie-jackson-has-2-04-maori-blood/
  
  It can pay off – very well indeed.
  
  Australia has its own Troy King(i), fiction writer, Bruce Pascoe, who has revealed no aboriginal ancestors in his family tree yet has been made a Professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne.
  
  https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/andrew-bolt/bruce-pascoe-finally-confronted-over-fake-aborigine-claims/video/4122d71333c7afccfbc5854a7dd28a1d
  
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  July 10, 2026 5:49pm
Jack5

Human fascination with the Pleiades — Matariki — goes back 100,000 years to when present human beings’ ancestors were still in Africa.

Tales about a missing seventh star from the Pleiades group span early international cultures, and “astro-photographer” Ian Lauer explains what various cultures’ explanations have in common.

Lauer does a good job for us lay folk.

His 14 minute video, which includes telescopic pictures of the six-star group explains its fascination since all our ancestors were still in Africa.

https://youtu.be/ZmP8dZ-iznc?si=Pw_E_eCGieg_FbMA

Another good account of the Pleiades Seven Sisters legends:

https://youtu.be/PSWcMVn_XgY?si=LGk23SEI-fg6cNxB
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July 10, 2026 1:00pm
1st Violin

Messier 45

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/nasas-tess-spacecraft-triples-size-of-pleiades-star-cluster/

The stories of Science are thrilling and engaging: no shouting at clouds, no praying to deities, no rending of the soul in spiritual superiority. Enjoy your holiday (sic), read some books, stay educated.
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July 10, 2026 1:04pm
Yvette

How long is a piece of string …
The lack of kites in the air over Matariki is a big problem for Harko Brown, an expert in traditional Māori games and kite making. How else will those who have died in the past year find their way to the stars if not for the string of a kite?
“Lots of iwi believe that the kites are a way for the dead spirits to enter the heavens.”
Māori used kites for many purposes including fishing, surveillance through divination, carrying away grief and sorrow, and predicting the weather. But their most important role was —and is for some Māori— a conduit between the physical and spiritual realms, bringing messages to the deceased or specially prepared kumara to sustain Matariki for the coming year.

… bearing in mind that the closest Matariki star to Earth: Maia (and its neighbour Merope), sit roughly 344 light-years away from us, while the furthest star from Earth: Celaeno, at roughly 434 light-years away from us.
This means that within the core group of bright stars, the furthest star is roughly 90 fucking light-years out yonder back into space than the closest one!

To reel out enough manu tukutuku string to reach Maia, your kite-line would need to be long enough to match Earth orbiting the sun roughly 3.46 million times. Given that Earth completes one orbit a year, it would take our planet about 3.46 million years of continuous travel through space just to cover the length of your kite string! The kumari would surely arrive stone-cold by then.
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July 10, 2026 1:40pm
- mike
  
  Now apply yourself to Jesus turning water into wine.
  
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  July 10, 2026 2:54pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    I can turn wine into water…
    
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    July 10, 2026 3:54pm
pb

With the snow plastered on the alps of the south island, don’t forget to get a sleeping bag that is 10 degrees south of expected minimums. Minus 5 sleeping bags are no good for minus 5 weather. Apparently, he discovers in extremis, you need to -10 when buying sleeping sacks. If you expect -10, get a -20 bag. The snow is wonderful, it covers all in a virgin white finite.
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July 10, 2026 4:21pm