General Debate 23 July 2026

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Cassandra

Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega has announced that the country will no longer hold elections. “The days when parties backed by the Yankees ……. would return to power are over – never again,” he said. (Reported in the Guardian).

Great idea. Saves money and opposition politicians can go and get proper jobs. Cuba has been doing this for years, with great success. Its economy is not all that good but no member of the Castro family is unemployed.

One man, one vote. Once.
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July 23, 2026 8:01am
- Im Right
  
  South American countries (along side African ones) have always been a hotbed of dictators running the show, should come as no surprise really.
  The money they get from the drug trade makes the dictators millions/billions into their (offshore) bank accounts.
  One thing you will never see, a poor dictator!
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:09am
Simon

National net zero nut jobs.
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July 23, 2026 8:02am
- Albie
  
  Simon, National are just doing what they always do, managing our country’s decline better than Labour.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:37am
rouppe

And Nash has resigned from NZ First.

What a liability.
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July 23, 2026 8:10am
- imalwaysright
  
  Good riddance. I’m surprised NZF accepted him as a candidate.
  
  Nash is the leading man in the movie in his head.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:15am
  - kowtow
    
    Together with Jonsey’s regular outre outbursts one could argue it’s actually an acceptable feature of the Winston First party.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:25am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I wonder what Nash will do now? His return to politics didn’t last long, and his career with Robert Walters didn’t last long.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:33am
  - Scooter
    
    Especially after his initial bad comment on what is a woman, now this about maternity leave. It seems he has bad form when it comes to women.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:39am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  A liability to NZF, just as he was to Labour.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:35am
- sungsamning
  
  Can’t say I’m devastated by that news.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:36am
- pdm
  
  Here is the question though.
  
  Nash goes for what is usually a legitimate campaigning statement even if he got his facts wrong re Katie Nimon.
  
  Jones insults PM Luxon and the Office of Prime Minister and stays in Cabinet and in the Party.
  
  Justice Winston Peters style.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:55am
imalwaysright

“Katie took nine months off on full pay, went back for a week, then took another month off.
“Laziest MP I’ve ever come across. Nice woman, but ill suited to the rigours of being an electorate MP,” –Nash.

“You need to go back to the 1920’s, because they need their ignorant man back” –Nicola Willis to Nash

Which statement is sexist?
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July 23, 2026 8:11am
- Frank the tank
  
  Which statement is sexist?
  
  Who cares is a more pertinent question.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:25am
- David Garrett
  
  Imalways: I read the story on Stuff
  
  It contradicts what Nash says about her leave – 10 weeks maternity leave doesn’t sound excessive to me; 10 months perhaps is if one is supposed to be representing the people in an electorate.
  
  The wider question of course is can women both pursue demanding careers and be a good mother…I am sticking my head out and saying No, which of course immediately opens me up to accusations of being sexist or a Luddite – or both. I really don’t give a fuck.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:29am
  - imalwaysright
    
    …And busy mum Willis should show some respect to the men, and women, of the 1920’s who built the backbone of this country.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:54am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  “Sexist” must be the second-most overused word in NZ, after the “r” word of course. Luxon just confirmed his empty-headedness by using it.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:39am
Yvette

Fiction becomes fact? –

Ardern told the radio station even though the Government had to make some tough decisions in their COVID response, she can look back on them knowing she had saved lives.

“One of our critical advisers through this, who’s from the science community, mentioned to me the other day that on their calculation, give or take possibly 5000 people have been saved by what we had done,” she said.

“So in those moments, I think of that. Now those 5000 people, they don’t know who they are. “They don’t know that it was them that has been potentially protected by these measures. But I just keep that in my mind. It’s been hard but the flipside would have been even more painful.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350487894/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-she-can-see-the-light-as-new-zealand-deals-with-wicked-perfect-storm-cost-of-living-crisis

“History in its making” – readers will have noticed how “give or take possibly 5000 people being potentially protected” within a short sentence or two, became “those 5000 people, who don’t know who they are” but we saved!

Now we have talk about “knee-pads”

“Christopher Luxon is very selective in the way he seems to approach standards of ministerial conduct. He’s right that Stuart Nash’s recent outburst was unacceptable, but so was Shane Jones’ insinuations about him performing oral sex on a visiting foreign leader, Winston Peters making masturbation jibes live on TV and Shane Jones’ outright racism towards Indians, yet the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing about any of that.

____________
Footnote, or foot-in-the-mouth note: was Winston worse
One AI source –
There are no documented reports, broadcast clips, or formal complaints regarding him making a masturbation comment or gesture live on air.

Another AI source –
What’s wrong with you people? Do I need to come and put a brand on your head? We’re not going with Labour — I haven’t been around this long to come on this programme to talk about that sort of wanker question.”
It was reported by 1News, which described it as an angry rejection of the coalition question. So “masturbation jibes” appears to be a loose characterisation of his use of wanker—not a reported explicit comment about masturbation.

On Jones, The earliest mainstream report that explicitly states the interpretation as a sexual meaning, was an RNZ report published July 21 (republished by Indian Weekender). It says the phrase was “widely interpreted as a reference to oral sex.”
Jones then denied that meaning, saying it referred to “bowing and scraping,” and claimed it could have meant “gardening” or “volleyball.” So Jones disputes the interpretation of sexual innuendo.

It does make voting harder when you have to read between the lines of what media has already read between the lines of what politicians actually think they have said …
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July 23, 2026 8:21am
- Cassandra
  
  How knee pads means oral sex when Jones was clearly referring to obsequiousness is a mystery.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:36am
  - David Garrett
    
    Cass: Come on…you are either being very naive or you are taking the piss. Why would you need knee pads for volleyball?
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:37am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Temu | Volleyball kneepads https://share.google/1sAZO2CXtQz8Dehfv
      
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      July 23, 2026 8:43am
    - Cassandra
      
      Naive I guess. That interpretation did not occur to me. I think I prefer my naivety.
      
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      July 23, 2026 8:51am
      - David Garrett
        
        Cass: the term entered the lexicon when Monica Lewinsky told friends that she was getting her pair of “presidential knee pads”…she didn’t need them to play volleyball with “Slick Willie”…
        
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        July 23, 2026 8:56am
  - Inandout
    
    Cass, never thought of my carpet layer in those terms.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:45am
- David Garrett
  
  Yvette: A minor point, but this overuse of the word “community” irritates me no end ..Ardern refers to an advisor “who’s from the science community”…why not just say ” who is a scientist “?
  
  We have every kind of “community ” these days except one – we never hear of “the criminal community”. Too close to “the criminal class” perhaps.
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:36am
  - rouppe
    
    My opinion during that time was that there was too much individual “community”, and not enough “society”.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:46am
- rouppe
  
  Jones then denied that meaning, saying it referred to “bowing and scraping,”
  
  Neither of which involves the knees touching anything else.
  
  claimed it could have meant “gardening” or “volleyball.”
  
  Except the context of the speech had nothing to do with either.
  
  I have no time for Shane Jones. He wasted PGF money – our money – during Jacinda’s administration and as far as I can work out he’s doing the same this term with the RIF. He’s allocated money for upgrades to :
  * National Ringatū Marae Complex
  * Rātana Pā Buildings
  * Ngāmotu Marae
  * Parihaka Papakāinga Infrastructure
  * East Coast & Hawke’s Bay Whenua Māori
  * Taranaki (Maori trust) Farmland Productivity
  
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  July 23, 2026 8:39am
  - Inandout
    
    rouppe, his Maori blood obviously flows thicker than any thought of funding misuse.
    
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    July 23, 2026 8:56am
Scooter

I think Luxon and the Nats will be loving the latest Nash controversy. After weeks of the 2 party’s having a go at eachother we have a real clanger with Nash and his latest foot in mouth debacle. Now Luxon has grown a backbone and ruled him out in Govt so Nash has resigned. But National need NZ First so will be tainted anyway. It will be interesting how Winston handles this going forward as he gave Nash a second chance, after another derogatory remark about what is a female. Michael Laws will now have to watch everything he says, although I think he has more self awareness and intelligence than Nash. Paul Henry on the other hand might be even more of a liability for Act. Grab your popcorn it’s going to be probably the most interesting lead up to the election.
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July 23, 2026 8:28am
sungsamning

https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/21/the-left-wing-unicorn-hunt-for-the-white-male-working-class-voter/
The Left-Wing Unicorn Hunt for the White Male Working-Class Voter.

Democrats can’t win back the white working class with staged populism while embracing the policies and elites that drove those voters away. [Dems would love to ship these ‘unicorns’ to the dog food factory. However; they have to try and appeal to them. Bill Clinton was the last one to do that. Don’t bet the farm on that happening in 2028.]
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July 23, 2026 8:39am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHLbiuUtQkU
David vs the Media: Kiwi kids just SMASHED a ten-year record.

COVID made not showing up to school normal. By 2022, regular attendance had collapsed to just 39.6%. Now it has surged to 64.2%, the best Term 2 result in a decade. Accountability is back, the excuses are running out, and nearly 200,000 more kids are walking through the school gate every day. [What ever they’re doing to bring the students back must be working. Who’d have thought they’d find accountability attractive?]
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July 23, 2026 8:39am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Note for Mods:

There is a wp2shell vulnerability for WordPress core that is actively being exploited. NIST have covered it at NVD-CVE-2026-63030.

Best have a look. There is a patch. [ Mod – tell DPF, not us. All a bit above our pay grade ]
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July 23, 2026 8:55am

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