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July 19, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 July 2026

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Cassandra

Helen Clark has been visiting the West Bank, formerly known as Judea and Samaria.

“It’s critical that we (recognise Palestine as a State), because what is the alternative? It is unthinkable.” She rejected suggestions made by some, including the Israeli government, that acknowledging Palestinian statehood effectively rewarded Hamas for its terror on October 7, 2023.

“Recognising now is a statement of belief in a future where two peoples can live side-by-side in peace,” Clark said.

I’m not sure what planet Clark is on. Firstly, look at the name of the area – Judea? But second, no Palestinian has accepted Israel’s right to exist. It is the stumbling block. Of course the settlers should not build new houses but it’s difficult to argue that Israel should encourage a country next,door hell bent on its destruction.
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July 19, 2026 8:03am
- kevn
  
  Quite the nosey one. Into everything that involves (potentially free) global travel. Like someone else.
  
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  July 19, 2026 8:15am
  - peterwn
    
    She has her charitable foundation with various donors (with more money than sense) which finances her ego trips. I cannot remember the extent of her taxpayer funded travel perks available to former MP’s.
    
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    July 19, 2026 8:28am
    - pdm
      
      As a former PM she probably has a few more travel perks than former MPs pw.
      
      What is more I suspect she will make sure she uses her full entitlements o she can report back to a compliant media lackey.
      
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      July 19, 2026 10:23am
      - Ghost
        
        only she doesn’t
        
        She claimed less than Jenny Shipley last year. National’s Phillip Burdon has claimed the most
        
        Article
        
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        July 19, 2026 10:32am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Could she be encouraged to move across to live next door to Jacinda and Australia could claim both of them ?. Their brand of economics is also going so well in Australian that they would feel right at home.
  
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  July 19, 2026 8:59am
- pb
  
  When did being “conservative” become, must support warmongers? Even Helen might be right occasionally.
  
  Herodotus mentions Palestine in 500BC, in his Histories. Not sure about your assumptions about Palestinians. Must do more image management and hand out more shekels if you want everyone to follow this line.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:05am
  - Cassandra
    
    The Romans renamed Judea as part of the province of Syria Palestina when they tried to eradicate the rebellious Jews.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:32am
- Bullion
  
  Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories and East Jerusalem has been ruled unlawful by the International Court of Justice.
  
  At the time of that decision, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the ruling and labelled it a “decision of lies,” and said, “the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria”.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/739158/helen-clark-on-the-disappearing-prospect-of-palestinian-statehood
  
  This why people accuse Israel of being an apartheid state. Israel view these territories as their own and exclude people from having a say in society based on ethnicity. Israel is not a democracy with universal enfranchisement. Palestinians can’t vote for who has power over them. Israel collects taxes from Palestinians, but Palestinians get no representation. Israel treats Palestinians differently under law as well.
  
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  July 19, 2026 10:21am
Pope Punctilious II

Hosking puts a well-aimed boot into the Nats, pointing out the government should have stopped local council co-governance deals in their first year in office. https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-is-this-why-the-national-vote-is-soft/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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July 19, 2026 8:05am
- RoboRob
  
  Agree with almost all of that, except the bit where he assumes they will do something about it in the remaining 10 sitting days. I am pretty sure they wont. As I suggested on here last week, it could be a vote winner for the Nats to show some strength here. They just need the right person to front it.
  
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  July 19, 2026 10:31am
artemisia

Two Featherston residents tried to sue ANZ for $2 million after being told their unpaid council bills could be debited from their bank account. … The residents demanded that the bank prove it had authority over “the living man or woman”, challenged the validity of the mortgage, and claimed local rating laws did not apply to them.

A search of their names indicate they are heavily relying on biblical references to support their claims.

While superficially amusing, and struck out by the judge as an abuse of process, there are costs involved. Will the overdue rates be paid? Or will Herman van Velzen and Elizabeth van Gool stand staunch in their beliefs or render unto Caesar.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361007951/judge-throws-out-featherston-residents-2-million-theft-claim-against-bank
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July 19, 2026 8:06am
- peterwn
  
  The ANZ as mortgagee will pay the rates. This provision is in the Rating Act (or whatever it is called). So it is fully legal for a mortgagee to pay outstanding rates and this is not open to challenge. The mortgage agreement would allow the mortgagee to recover such outstanding rates plus an admin fee. Normally the lender tacks that on to the outstanding amount of the mortgage, but the agreement would allow the lender (where a bank) to nick the amount out of the borrower’s bank account. So the legal situation is quite clearcut and the borrower’s BS is not going to sway a judge.
  
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  July 19, 2026 8:37am
  - artemisia
    
    Correct peterwn, mortgagors pay one way or another or take the consequences.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:35am
- greybeard
  
  https://publicnoticesnz.com/affidavit-of-status-life-elizabeth-of-the-house-of-van-gool-and-herman-of-the-house-of-van-velzen/
  Basically they are on ( or from ) a different planet.
  
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  July 19, 2026 10:38am
Cassandra

Another thought occurs to me – where’s UNDRIP in all this? By any definition Jews are indigenous to Judea!
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July 19, 2026 8:23am
Yvette

Cassandra, UNDRIP supposedly defines the nation of India, colonised as a portion of the British Empire, as indigenous people from the date of Independence. The Jews overtaken by the Babylonians and then the Egyptians are not so easy to figure out as their history identifies more than one coloniser, and like North American Africans, post slavery, are they then indigenous Africans or indigenous North Americans?
Drink more coffee.
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July 19, 2026 8:42am
- AitchW
  
  UNDRIP as a UN body will always support the terrorist Gazans. UNRWA employs known Hamas members, allows its schools and hospitals to store Hamas weapons, launch rockets into Israel and even held Israeli hostages.
  The UN is hopelessly compromised.
  It will never help Israel.
  
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  July 19, 2026 8:50am
- Cassandra
  
  Apparently India defines all Indians as indigenous so that the actual indigenes – the hill people, Nagas etc – cannot get special status.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:02am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Apparently India defines all Indians as indigenous
    
    I don’t think that includes the 40 Million or so who were born and live out of India.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:42am
- mike
  
  People opining on what UNDRIP means might benefit from reading he declaraation.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:42am
  - Cassandra
    
    I’ve read the whole thing. It doesn’t define indigenous but UNESCO does and Jews are classic indigenes. They predate everyone else by a thousand years.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:53am
    - Bullion
      
      What do you mean they predate everyone else by a thousand years? The oldest pyramids are more than a thousand years older than an identifiable Jewish culture.
      
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      July 19, 2026 10:29am
      - Cassandra
        
        In Judea. What is now called the West Bank. Which was the topic, not Egypt, ffs.
        
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        July 19, 2026 11:02am
Pope Punctilious II

Damien Grant latest article in Stuff misrepresents both the modern-day National Party and Chesterton’s famous fence:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361007534/inside-cerberus-coalition-deep-ideological-divides-behind-political-growls
He describes the Nats as “small-c conservatives” who believe “If something exists, it was put there for a reason. Caution must be exercised before tearing down something if we don’t understand its purpose.”

No Damien. Leaving in place (and even supporting) questionable policies put in place by the previous left-wing administration (e.g. the smacking ban) is not what is meant by Chesterton’s fence. What Chesterton had in mind was time-honoured institutions like marriage between a man and a woman. Maybe Damien’s ideological filter means he struggles to accurately perceive and describe political reality.
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July 19, 2026 8:49am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  The smacking ban is a terrible example. No civilised nation can permit children being hit by parents. Or anyone else.
  
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  July 19, 2026 10:23am
peterwn

“Please just give us ferries that work and spare us the politics – Editorial” so proclaims a Herald headline responding to the responsible Minister (Winston Peters) announcing the names of the new ferries and the operating arrangements. (matters that needed attending to at the appropriate time).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/please-just-give-us-ferries-that-work-and-spare-us-the-politics-editorial/premium/F3QKORBXZRAUHKYQS5FUWVKA6I/
(paywalled)

Anyway the Herald writer must be be living under a rock. If the editorial writer had being paying attention to what is happening, he/she would have recognised that:
1. Two workable ferries have been ordered and are currently under construction for delivery 2029.
2. Contracts have just been let for doing the necessary terminal rearrangements at Wellington and Picton. These arrangements make maximum use of what is there already.
So given these actions have been approved at Government level and are underway, there is nothing else that the Minister has to do to ensure workable ferries apart from usual Ministerial oversight.
And decent journo would have reported the facts rather than to try and smear the Government.
And some people still seem to think that the cancelled IREX ferries provided the answers. They will not accept that these cancelled ferries were turkeys and were not fit for purpose. Tasmanian Government ordered two ferries for the Bass Strait service and they never entered service as they were quite unfit for service. They ended up ordering two more less ambitious ferries.
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July 19, 2026 8:56am
- mike
  
  It’s just having a go at Peter for his lame attempt to make political capital out of naming two boats.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:38am
  - peterwn
    
    He is a politician hang it all! This is quite normal behaviour for a politician. Perhaps Chris Luxon’s ‘problem’ is he does not do this often enough.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:42am
    - R
      
      People who understand the subject that they are talking about don’t need to jump fences like Winston does for political expediency.
      
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      July 19, 2026 9:50am
  - AitchW
    
    Who named the boats?
    They deserve recognition for giving them short, easily remembered and, in a lot of ways, appropriate names.
    Compare the ferry names to the te Reo monstrosities that we are lumbered with so very often. The CRL station names are a classic example.
    I wonder what mike might have called them?
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:53am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Does the Herald have a go at lame attempts to make political capital by Labour or the so-called Greens?
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:00am
peterwn

So an alleged National supporter woke up one morning with a brain fart and realised he should be voting NZ First (with the implication others should be doing the same).
In due course that same person could wake up one morning wondering what he had done – “I never expected Winston to get into bed with Labour!”
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July 19, 2026 9:00am
- Cassandra
  
  I can’t see WP going with Labour. I can see him having a spell as PM of a Nat/Act coalition.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:06am
  - mike
    
    Ther are none so blind as those who cannot see.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:35am
  - Jigsaw
    
    Cass- the thing about history is to actually learn from it and while it doesn’t necessarily repeat it does tend to rhyme.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:40am
  - pdm
    
    Cass – 18 months as Prime Minister is the biggest BAUBLE yet for Peters and only Labour will give it to him.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:30am
- RichardF
  
  I might vote NZ First this year. I voted ACT in 2023. Why would I hold my nose and vote for NZ First? Because I prefer a NZ First/Labour government than a Labour, Greens, TPM & TOP one. National are letting the right block down. They should be polling high 30s/early 40s but they have bled votes to their coalition partners. I voted National for 20 years before changing to ACT. I would rather stick with ACT but am worried the left block can sneak in due to a weak National Party. I like NZF’s Citizen voting policy too. Meanwhile Luxon would turn us into Mumbai for some votes.
  
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  July 19, 2026 9:37am
  - AitchW
    
    Richard, that sort of thinking is what delivered us the Labour led cluster of a government in 2017.
    Voting for someone you don’t want to keep someone else you don’t want out is just nuts.
    Vote for a party which actually wants businesses to succeed. We don’t need a Winston Peters do nothing handbrake!
    We need a foot on the economic accelerator.
    
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    July 19, 2026 9:57am
  - Ghost
    
    When people did this to keep the greens out did it work? There were still Green ministers.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:02am
  - kowtow
    
    You’re not holding your nose. You’re cutting it off to spite your face.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:09am
  - pdm
    
    RF – why not vote National then and lift their vote.
    
    Or try this idea which I heard a couple of weeks ago.
    
    National with 48 Electorate Seats should be encouraging its voters to Vote National in Electorates and Party Vote ACT to ensure a stable Government after the election.
    
    What do you think.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:34am
  - RoboRob
    
    I have considered the same but currently I am still voting Act, enough more centrist voters are with NZF and I would rather Act had a stronger voice against NZF / NAT if the right manage to get back in.
    
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    July 19, 2026 10:34am
Handyman

The problem is having two countries with irreconcilable differences. I am talking about Gaza (ruled by Hammas) and the West Bank (ruled by the PLO). Which country was Clark referring to?
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July 19, 2026 9:37am
Ra Henare

Coalition increases tax on the less wealthy????????????????

It could be argued that the introduction of 14 power balls in NZ Lotto will affect the poor.

Its known that people with less money buy lottery tickets as a hope for a better future.

The 14 balls will increase chance of winning from
~1 in 38.4 million to ~1 in 53.7 million

So more tickets will be bought as the jackpots become more rare.

As a sop, the payout cap moves from $50 Mill to $60 mill. A further sop is a new so called level 8.

So a conspiracy theory could be that they killed off the gambling tax income from the Greyhound racing fraternity. The Govt has hit the lotto players’ wallets (via increased taxation on gambling).

So the vain hope of getting out of the poverty trap is getting harder and harder for desperate people.

I expect all the wealthy will now start throwing insults at these people by demeaning the fact they are being stupid by gambling. Obviously they have comprehension of how desperate some people are. What should they do. Take the luck dip money $12 and put in a savings account earning buggar all taxable income?

What price hope for a better future?

In desperate times I would have thought a better option would be to reduce the odds. 5 balls instead of 10 for a more regular big money payout??

A new policy for NZ First? Cut the number of Powerballs in NZ Lotto?

The Minister in charge of Lotto is ACT MP Brooke van Velden,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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July 19, 2026 9:37am
Ghost

with this mentality Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington better watch out

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) appeared on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, hosted by Laura Ingraham, on Friday and provided new color about his bill to sanction Canada over the toxic wildfire smoke that has created an environmental disaster across parts of the U.S.

Article
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July 19, 2026 9:40am
RoboRob

Terrible interview with Tame and Paul Henry this morning. An attack piece from start to finish, gotcha questions and all. Henry probably should have avoided Tame until he was more up to speed with Act policy.

A great example of the bias on TVNZ. Certainly tame doesn’t go this hard on those on the left.
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July 19, 2026 10:36am
Ghost

Hey Wellington council

This is actually how you do it

A name has been chosen for the new Timaru and Mackenzie joint water entity, with Central South Island Water emerging as the preferred option at a shareholders committee meeting on Monday.

Timaru District Council corporate services general manager Stephen Doran said the entity was unlikely to require a consumer-facing brand because it would operate as a natural monopoly.

“[We] won’t actually be selling anything to anyone or needing marketing,” Doran said.

Article
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July 19, 2026 10:59am

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