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August 18, 2026 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 18 August 2026

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Ghost

Hopefully Oman ignore trump and can reach a deal with Iran.

President Donald has Trump threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a US deal with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz and called for Iran to surrender.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, referring to ongoing talks between Oman and Iran on control of the strait, while Washington is also pursuing its own talks.

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August 18, 2026 8:01am
- virtualmark
  
  The Mad King.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:08am
  - kowtow
    
    No , in Oman it’s Sultan . In Iran it’s mullahs running the show and yes , they’re all mad and bad.
    
    Iran busily hanging protesters and Omanis barely able to keep their particular bit of desert together either , without huge western interventions.
    
    So we should all stop pretending that the Big T is the only nutter in this sad scenario.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:13am
    - virtualmark
      
      No. Listening to Trump is like open mic night at the Assisted Living Facility. He’s incoherent, delusional, and reckless. The thing with Trump is that in addition to being a narcissist, sociopath, grifter, rapist, traitor, and serial criminal, he’s also an idiot.
      
      Sure, the MAGA faithful still love him. But outside that small stunted universe he’s as popular as herpes.
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:30am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Like the Democrats & 70% of his listeners he has triggered you along with those others. Sure, Trump is a big blowhard & says some outrageous things using extreme hyperbole & pissing a lot of people off including me – but most of it is to get a reaction, or throw his detractors off the scent and trigger them.
        Otherwise, just ignore him.
        
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        August 18, 2026 2:29pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Listening to Trump is like open mic night at the Assisted Living Facility.
        
        I love it! And I agree. The idea of bombing the Omanis – one of his biggest allies in the Middle East, and the conduit for negotiations with Iran – is beyond insane. I am seriously beginning to wonder if he would actually encourage Netanyahu to use tactical nukes on Iran. And yes, I am very serious.
        
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        August 18, 2026 2:55pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Don, saying you should ignore it when the President of the United States says he will bomb the shit out of an allied country is moronic. Sure, if a New York property developer were to say it then I would ignore it. But Trump sits in the Oval Office and that means his words mean something.
        
        I’m not triggered. And I don’t have Trump Derangement Syndrome. I just have good character judgement.
        
        Trump has always been a test of basic judgement, character and decency. Many have failed that test.
        
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        August 18, 2026 3:53pm
      - Ghost
        
        David, you might find this interesting….
        
        https://x.com/FmrRepMTG/status/2089069623706603837
        
        hey are discussing using nuclear weapons on Iran in strategy meetings.
        
        Yes you read that correctly. It’s real. I’m not speculating, I know.
        
        And it’s pure evil.
        
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        August 18, 2026 3:59pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Oh, and I agree the mullahs are bad. But they’re not mad. They’ve been completely rational the whole way through this.
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:32am
      - virtualmark
        
        Downtickers are those who lack the mental agility to distinguish between what they don’t like and what is actually happening.
        
        The Iranian’s rational objective is regime preservation. They don’t care about the amount of damage to their military or to their population, as long as they remain in power. And like most stern authoritarian regimes they can tolerate a LOT of pain, because they have an iron grip on dissent.
        
        Their secondary objective is to become the regional hegemon. Clear overt control of the Strait of Hormuz gives them that. The revenue they stand to make from tolling the Strait equals a massive percentage of their current GDP (estimates range from at least 25% of GDP to a lot higher, depending on where you think the toll lands).
        
        You might not like them (I don’t). You might wish they weren’t there (I do). But reality is they are there and they will come out of this conflict with more geopolitical power than when they started it.
        
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        August 18, 2026 12:51pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        And you consider that sane ??
        
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        August 18, 2026 2:30pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    If you watched the video clip when he said the US would own the SoH, he grinned & almost winked, so it w as obvious to me & many others that he was having one of his wind-up jokes.
    
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    August 18, 2026 10:41am
    - BananaLlama
      
      He tells too many lies Don, you shouldn’t trust a word he says in jest.
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:04am
    - Ghost
      
      No, he gave a very uncomfortable laugh.
      
      That comment can be viewed here
      
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0x1OdzAg7sg
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:12am
    - mike
      
      After 10 years off non-stop bullshit, you’re still going with ‘he’s only joking’?
      
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      August 18, 2026 1:16pm
    - Hard Cheese
      
      The problem is the world stage isn’t the place for wind-up jokes. You might think he’s trolling when he talks about bombing Oman, invading Greenland, or making Canada the 51st state and it’s all a big laugh ho-ho-ho, but he’s eroding decades of diplomatic negotiation and establishment of global soft power that will take decades to rebuild, even if it can be in some cases
      
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      August 18, 2026 3:42pm
- surfing
  
  Frankly I’m sick of all the lies that come out of the White House around this war (and most things these days).
  
  How many times has Trump claimed victory, yet, the opposite is true.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:14am
  - kowtow
    
    Of course and as said so many times before , the first casualty in war is the truth.
    
    Make no mistake though ,all sides , including the intermediaries Pakistan have made claims of it’s over or victory multiple times.
    
    Trump isn’t alone in this.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:16am
    - imalwaysright
      
      The second casualty of war is our money.
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:50am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Donald needs to get a grip. Oman are not the bad guys here.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:20am
  - mike
    
    Trump can’t very well admit that he is the bad guy.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:46am
- Cassandra
  
  Iran reaching a deal with Oman is a terrible idea – Iran wants to toll Hormuz. I think we can safely ignore the proposed bombing of Oman.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:20am
  - mike
    
    Along with most of the empty threats?
    
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    August 18, 2026 8:43am
- Cassandra
  
  Now a source close to Trump says he’s contemplating nuking the Pickaxe facility. That’d make quite an impact.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:53am
  - Notsofast
    
    Would that be a bunker buster going deep then a small device to irradiate?
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:02am
  - mike
    
    Wait a mo, didn’t he ‘obliterate’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities a year ago?
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:02am
- KH
  
  It’s this sort of madness from the USA that is leading middle east countries to get rid of the trouble magnets USA bases.
  Tricky to get rid of them, without a lash back from the White House. But the ME countries are quite smart, they will find a way, even it it takes some time.
  
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  August 18, 2026 11:47am
  - kowtow
    
    If they’re so smart why are there US bases there inthe first place.
    
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    August 18, 2026 3:39pm
mike

So, yesterday President Trump decided to cozy up with Kim Jong-un. Today, he threatens to bomb Oman, a long-time US ally.
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August 18, 2026 8:04am
- Northshoredoc
  
  11 dimensional chess etc etc
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:18am
- David Garrett
  
  The man is clearly deranged
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:52am
  - mike
    
    In bonus Trump news, he has blamed vandalism for damaging the turf where he held his failed 250th party. Also, the supreme court has again reaffirmed the judgment that Trump is a rapist.
    
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    August 18, 2026 8:59am
  - Hard Cheese
    
    17 downtickers think he’s sane, apparently. LOL
    
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    August 18, 2026 3:51pm
artemisia

Two thirds of New Zealanders with an intellectual disability can’t find work, report finds Clearly that is not ideal for those impacted.

IHC senior advocate Shara Turner … said people with intellectual disabilities were often first out the door when the economy was struggling. …. government intervention can really help people with intellectual disabilities.”

I guess this issue is similar to youth unemployment, also too high. Employers employ people with skills and experience that are worth their pay, even if only minimum wage.

“Government intervention” means give us more OPM. How about instead of asking for OPM Shara Turner could consider advocating a different approach.

For example, rellies in Australia who were unemployed off and on said there was a requirement to work 15 hours a week. Work for the dole – shock, horror. One rellie worked at a council plant nursery in the next suburb, said there were several folk not readily employable who had been there for years . It was their job, a chance to feel valued, build skills, socialise and have a lunchbox in the fridge with their name on it.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/1025162/two-thirds-of-new-zealanders-with-an-intellectual-disability-can-t-find-work-report-finds
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August 18, 2026 8:07am
- Gravelroad
  
  In the smallish town here there used to be a couple of small businesses for people with intellectual disabilities.
  One was horticulture based. The other was carpet mending and rug binding. Involving (shock horror) use of machinery!
  Have been to both and they provided good service. The people who worked there seemed to love it.
  Then a few years ago, it was decided by “professionals” that these enterprises were “not appropriate” and “demeaning” so were just abruptly shut-down.
  The workers were left very sad.
  Their jobs gone.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:22am
  - David Garrett
    
    Gravel: Yes…I remember there being a large “sheltered workshop” round the corner from me in Christchurch. As you say, shut down for ideological reasons thus depriving many of meaningful work. This was back when we were allowed to refer to people as “handicapped ” rather than “differently abled”. Did that ridiculous euphemism ever catch on?
    
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    August 18, 2026 8:58am
    - mike
      
      Disabled is the commonest term.
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:03am
      - pdm
        
        Intellectually Handicapped is the title when I was growing up with my Uncle who was a couple of years older than me in the 1950’s.
        
        Seems a sensible description and/or title now as well.
        
        He and many of his contemporaries held down jobs suited to their capabilities and it is a shortsighted tragedy that they were stopped from doing so.
        
        My uncle who turns 83 in a week or two sold newspapers, did firewood and worked in a small quarry into his early 60’s and then had that work taken away from him for no good reason.
        
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        August 18, 2026 9:27am
      - Don Beckett
        
        It was Helen Clark who decided that the Sheltered Workshops took away IHC peoples’ dignity because they were paid less than the average wage, so put into law that they had to be paid the minimum wage, which effectively put the the sheltered workshops out of business.
        There were two in Tauranga that had to shut down, putting around 100 people out of work and taking away their dignity.
        
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        August 18, 2026 10:49am
    - Mr T
      
      I used to use the so called sheltered workshops for piecework, ie payment per item but they lost the business when the workshops had to pay the minimum wage to staff and then they were far from competitive, and soon the whole business unit closed.
      
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      August 18, 2026 4:06pm
  - peterwn
    
    A good solution would be for an intellectually disabled person to receive a below-minimum pay rate together with a partial benefit. However this would not fit left wing ideology. IHC used to run ‘sheltered workshops’ so intellectually disabled people could do useful work (but not at the same level as an ordinary basic job) but Helen Clark decided they should be paid minimum wage so the arrangements ended.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:02am
    - mike
      
      Ended by the current government, it appears.
      https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2024/06/21/sheltered-workshops-and-wage-top-ups/
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:06am
      - cmm (semi-retired edition)
        
        You’re twisting facts. There is a distinction between lower wages and wage top ups.
        
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        August 18, 2026 9:29am
      - KKNZ2025
        
        It was Labour under Helen Clark who kowtowed to the Unions to stop them being paid below Award rates. That action killed a thriving disabled support system that many companies supported across NZ.
        
        I worked in a large mfg company (division of a multinational) which for many years employed a disabled labour hire company in Lower Hutt to do basic manual work, packing, promo collations etc. The staff got a big sense of pride & self respect from this work. It wasn’t very efficient & could have been done cheaper however the company saw it as a social engagement – we never publicised it.
        
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        August 18, 2026 10:19am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: Mikey boy is twisting facts? Go on!
        
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        August 18, 2026 11:23am
    - tavita
      
      Garath Morgan was advocating a ubi but no minimum wage. That would help both this situation and youth employment.
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:08am
    - Mr T
      
      Totally correct, see my comment above
      
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      August 18, 2026 4:07pm
  - Paulus
    
    Our wonderful local one in the BOP was closed too sadly to all, except as closure was led by the Unions and I believe Helen Clark’s Government.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:29am
    - R
      
      True. The same Helen Clarke who closed the mental health facilities.
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:38am
      - David Garrett
        
        CLARK….also we never had a PM called John KEYS
        
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        August 18, 2026 11:41am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Was it the minimum wage that killed the workshops?
    
    I think they were on about $5/hr or something until some do-gooder turned up and started reading the riot act about treating the people like slaves.
    
    Now they get nothing…
    
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    August 18, 2026 10:14am
    - David Garrett
      
      Imalways: It was the same before youth rates – vehemently opposed by Labour – were introduced…$10 an hour to learn some skills and have something to put on a CV…or $2 an hour (the dole) sitting at home playing on the internet and becoming unemployable…
      
      Possibly the best speech I ever heard Roger Douglas make was highlighting the above…dear old Roger got quite animated…
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:57am
      - imalwaysright
        
        DG
        Yes, I watched a documentary about US cotton pickers in the 1930’s.
        
        The President visited the area and was shocked to learn that their pay was only 50c per day ( can’t remember actual rate), and immediately raised it to $1.
        
        Very quickly there were many unemployed. One wife said she wished the President had REDUCED the rate, as her husband would still have a job.
        
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        August 18, 2026 12:26pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Absolutely. Most people want to work. They want to feel valued and they like the social interaction that comes with having colleagues.
  
  For people who fall outside of the norm, society needs to assist them. The government’s role is to create structures that enable the private sector to do their bit on a value basis. A flat minimum wage is not helpful here.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:26am
- kowtow
  
  All part of the msm relentless negativity in the run up to the election.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:48am
Yvette

Te Pati Maori Tricky Tactic
There are 7 Māori electorate seats for the 2026 election. Te Pati Maori urge voters on the Māori Roll to vote for them in those Māori Electorates and vote for a left bloc party with their Party Vote.

If Te Pāti Māori (TPM) only gets 2% of the nationwide Party Vote, they’d normally only get 2 or 3 seats in a standard 120-seat Parliament.
However, MMP rules prevent parties from losing electorate seats they win, so if TPM wins all 7 Special Seats, as is their intent, the 4 or 5 seats won above their 2% party vote allocation become overhang seats, expanding Parliament to 124 or 125 MPs.

The strategic advantage is to encourage voters to give their Party Vote to Labour or the Greens instead of TPM.
⚬ Those Party Votes directly increase the seat count for Labour / Greens in the standard 120-seat allocation.
⚬ TPM’s electorate wins can get bonus seats on top of that 120-seat baseline.
⚬ The overall seat count for the left bloc expands, potentially allowing them to command a parliamentary majority even if the center-right win a higher total percentage of the nationwide popular Party Vote.

TPM can focus on winning electorate seats without much concern about their party vote. Getting Maori on the Maori Roll to vote for another Left Bloc party increases that party’s wins but doesn’t affect TPM’s Maori seats wins

Both TPM Co-leaders attempt to portray the giving of the Party Vote to other left bloc parties as a vast sacrifice by them and their party, akin to Maori who fought in World War II, a HUI interview being held in front of walls of photographs of relatives who are war heroes.

A question that is perhaps of interest is Do the seven Special Maori Seats make this tactic easier and so constitute an advantage for those on the Maori roll, accessible only through Maori descent? So another reason why Maori Seats should be removed, especially as the property-ownership rules that first necessitated them no longer exist.

And are TPM Co-leaders being upfront about over-hang seats boosting their to-date poor ratings in various polls?
And is this a sacrifice “for their mokopuna” or merely tikanga as John Tamihere defines it?
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August 18, 2026 8:08am
- Northshoredoc
  
  The current two leaders of the Maori Party come across as low rent grifters but I suspect there are enough dunces about to vote for them that we can expect both to be back in parliament.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:21am
  - kowtow
    
    The hats and tats are a sure sign of the grift.
    
    An awful lot of time , effort and expense seems to go into image over substance with that pair .
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:19am
    - Albie
      
      And not to forget the supersize tiki’s hanging off their necks!
      
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      August 18, 2026 11:55am
- rouppe
  
  A question that is perhaps of interest is Do the seven Special Maori Seats make this tactic easier and so constitute an advantage for those on the Maori roll, accessible only through Maori descent?
  
  Of course it does. An electorate is supposed to represent the people in it. There are two overlapping electorate seats in any given place, with one seat restricted by race.
  
  I can’t think of a single other country where a similar electoral system exists. Out of interest I did a bit of a query on native American Indians and how voting works there and they still vote on the same roll, for the same House or Senate elections as everyone else.
  
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  August 18, 2026 8:24am
  - RoboRob
    
    Unfortunately the only way we will be able to ‘get rid’ of the Maori seats is likely to be convincing Maori to move to the normal roll.
    
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    August 18, 2026 8:49am
    - Grizz
      
      Or all of us move to the Maori Roll making the Maori seats irrelevant. Anyone can enroll in the Maori Roll. No proof is required.
      
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      August 18, 2026 8:56am
    - Paulus
      
      Maori cannot be convinced to anything if the Price is right and in this cage huge.
      
      Whilst on Tauranga Port expansion is now to go ahead !!!!!
      But what are the hidden secret agreements with Maori and how much will it cost.
      Will we ever know as it of course will be regularly reviewed as not ever enough for them.
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:35am
  - Yvette
    
    Rouppe
    New Zealand is not the only country with multiple electoral rolls.
    
    Taiwan, Croatia, Slovenia, Lebanon, Cyprus and Colombia use separate electoral registers primarily to guarantee representation for indigenous populations, ethnic minorities, or religious groups.
    
    Germany, Bolivia, Lesotho, and UK: Scotland and Wales can have overhang seats.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:00am
    - rouppe
      
      I looked up Taiwan. While there are two rolls, there are significant differences. If I may quote from AI:
      
      ## 1. Choice vs. Compulsion
      
      * In New Zealand: Enrolling on the Māori roll is entirely optional. Māori citizens choose whether they want to register on the Māori roll or the general roll.
      * In Taiwan: There is no freedom of choice. Under Article 35 of Taiwan’s Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, if a citizen is officially registered as having Indigenous status, they are automatically placed on an Indigenous roll. They are legally barred from voting or running for office in the general geographic districts, even if they live there.
      
      ## 2. The Internal Division
      Unlike New Zealand’s single unified Māori roll, Taiwan further subdivides its Indigenous electorate into two separate rolls based on historical colonial classifications:
      
      * Lowland (Plains) Indigenous Roll: For voters whose ancestral lands were in the plains regions.
      * Highland (Mountain) Indigenous Roll: For voters whose ancestral lands were in the mountainous regions.
      
      Voters receive color-coded ballots on election day based strictly on which of these two specific rolls they belong to.
      ## 3. Allocation of Seats
      
      * In New Zealand: The number of Māori seats is dynamic and changes based on how many people choose to sign up for the Māori roll.
      * In Taiwan: The number of seats is completely fixed. Out of the 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan (Parliament), exactly six seats are reserved for Indigenous representatives—three assigned exclusively to the Lowland roll and three to the Highland roll.
      
      Plus Taiwan runs a Mixed-Member Majoritarian system, which has significant differences to our MMP system.
      
      So kinda sorta not really the same
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:53am
      - Jigsaw
        
        Why would we try to emulate Taiwan? Surely democracy indicates what is the best and correct way.
        
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        August 18, 2026 11:10am
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  There is nothing stopping others from using the same rort.
  
  For example, a party called the Blue Party could come into existence. Blue Party are not the National Party, but are just broadly aligned with them.
  
  National Party no longer to stand in electoral seats, but Blue Party does. National encourages their supporters to vote for the Blue Party candidate, but party vote for National.
  Likewise, Blue Party candidates encourage people to party vote for National.
  
  Everyone could play this game if they wanted and it would be a race to the bottom. If one party starts to do this then it is inevitable that everyone will.
  
  In some ways this started a long time ago: Green have had a “give us your Party vote” stance for a long time. Act maybe have done some of this too.
  
  Of course the way to fix this is to tweak MMP. Have a pool of electoral seats and a pool of list seats. That way all votes count properly. As it stands, the electoral vote only really counts in an overhang situation. That could be fixed very easily.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:40am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Have a pool of electoral seats and a pool of list seats. That way all votes count properly.
    
    And proportionality goes out the window – which is the most significant reason why we went to PR in the first place. We could equally well just go to list-only PR like most European countries use.
    
    I asked chatgpt about what happens in list-only countries. What is the equivalent of “my MP” – too long to summarise here.
    
    https://chatgpt.com/share/6a83827d-b5e8-83ec-9929-016f10dbc477
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:54am
    - cmm (semi-retired edition)
      
      I’ll wager that many voters don’t know how our system works and believes we have two votes.
      
      In reality, one of them is close to worthless much of the time (eg. two ticks blue is largely a waste of time). Losing a by election often does not change the number of seats a party holds – except in rare cases of overhang.
      
      The core idea of MMP is surely to have a mix of both proportional and elected. That would best be achieved by the following:
      
      Have, say, 50% of the seats electoral seats and 50% of the seats list (party) seats.
      One vote goes to the electoral seat which is first past the post.
      The other vote selects the proportional members from the parties.
      
      The electoral vote elects a person. That person can be a member of a party, but need not be. They are free to change party at will as they are elected as an individual (just like FPP).
      
      The party vote elects a party. Therefore the party “owns” that seat. The list person on that seat serves at the pleasure of the party. They can’t change party or become independent.
      
      That is a much cleaner and simpler system and, I believe, is far closer to what the average NZer thought they were getting.
      
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      August 18, 2026 2:34pm
  - rouppe
    
    The first thing is to eliminate dual electoral rolls. Then we have a “pure” MMP system, not the hybrid one we have now.
    
    Then see how that changes things.
    
    The strategy you outline is a feature on MMP. In my 40 years experience implementing business rules in an IT context, if you have to keep adding rules to fix problems with the original set of rules, the original rules are crap.
    
    If, after having only 1 roll for awhile, the feeling is that the MMP system allows for too much dilution of the will of the people, change the system. I originally voted for STV. I still rate that above MMP and FPP.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:58am
    - leoj
      
      The simplest tweak is to restrict the party vote to the List Seats only, not to the entire parliament.
      
      That would be the true definition of Mixed Member, a mix of electorate seats and list seats.
      
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      August 18, 2026 10:13am
- Crafty
  
  TPM have no ethics at all so why is anyone surprised they try this? You wait until they are in government and their corrupt behaviour will come out in full force.
  
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  August 18, 2026 12:29pm
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    At some point it is unethical to allow people with no ethics to exploit loop holes without also responding.
    
    That causes a race to the bottom – everyone gets down in the mud. As bad as that is, just letting the unethical get away with it is worse. Hence why we deal to criminals.
    
    When Gerry used lethal gas in the trenches in WW1 the only ethical thing to do was to respond in kind.
    
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    August 18, 2026 2:40pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Is this a joke article? One of Stuff’s opinion writers masquerading as a journalist reports a question and answer made to Christopher Luxon.

“The dominatrix, Felicity Maera-Wallace, told Stuff afterwards that she was serious about the public sector restructures having a flow on impact for sex workers.

“They definitely resulted in losing my customer base,” she said, claiming customers still wanted her services, but could no longer afford it.

“The fact is, demand is there, but the clients are staying home and wanking to free porn, not because they want to, but because that’s what they can afford,” she said”.

Her thesis seems to be that a sizeable proportion of laid off public sector employees in Wellington use dominatrix and other sex worker services.

I have my doubts, but her solution appears to be that more public servants should be hired, to keep her business in clover.

Words truly fail me.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361021447/christopher-luxons-advice-struggling-dominatrix
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August 18, 2026 8:15am
- graham
  
  Haven’t read Stuff for some years, but from comments I see here and elsewhere I get the feeling they’re in a race to the bottom of the “gutter press awards”.
  
  With lurid sex stories masquerading as serious journalism, clickbait headlines, and journalists that seem determined to scrape the bottom of the barrel, one can’t help but wonder if they’re trying to reimagine themselves as the ‘new and improved’ version of The News of the World.
  
  Remember last year when one of their so-called “top journalists” Andrea Vance got in a snitch with National Nicola Willis and female MPs over pay equity, wrote a column where she talked about “girl bosses”, “girl-math”, and then went completely out of control by using the C-word? And Stuff defended it! They seem incapable of recognising when they’ve over-stepped the mark.
  
  Best thing to do in my opinion is to ignore Stuff, if they’re going to continue to descend to the level of tawdry gutter press.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:38am
  - Ghost
    
    Lurid sex stories? No, not on stuff.
    
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    August 18, 2026 11:23am
- R
  
  And people with this mindset and level of economic comprehension, are allowed to vote.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:42am
- Swifty
  
  Yep, pursuing their political agenda and tying us all up in rules and bureaucracy by day, but at night pleading “More mistress, MORE!”as they get their botties whipped.
  
  Heh. Yep, that sums up our Wellington-based Labour-loving civil service! 🤣
  
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  August 18, 2026 10:26am
- Ghost
  
  He was asked a question, he answered. Nothing wrong with stuff covering it.
  
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  August 18, 2026 11:18am
- virtualmark
  
  So she’s in Nelson, but she’s worried about public sector cost cutting resulting in less business for her?
  
  Just how many public sector employees can there be in Nelson? Sure, Wellington is a company town and the company is the Government. But Nelson???
  
  This smacks of a setup intended to embarrass Luxon.
  
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  August 18, 2026 12:55pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Canterbury hapū Ngāi Tūāhuriri has placed a rāhui over its customary whitebait season this year because of “continuing abuse” (my quotes).

What does this even mean? Are other members of the hapu shouting at the fishers? Other Maoris who want in? White baiters who disapprove of hapu members being given rights to go white baiting when no one else can?

I suspect the latter, but the storey is so poorly written, I have no idea.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/regional/1033491/ngai-tuahuriri-places-rahui-over-customary-whitebait-season-after-ongoing-abuse
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August 18, 2026 8:15am
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  One would hope that a hapu is “customary law” that controls “customary rights”. Therefore the hapu would apply to those Maori who abuse customary rights.
  
  Of course since whitey brought Pax Britannica, the hapu has no teeth. Nobody is going to get whacked on the side of the head with a mere for violating a hapu.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:13am
  - RoboRob
    
    I thought that when IWI place a rahui on something the local council generally enforces it and prevents anyone from using whatever has been rahuid?
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:41am
    - cmm (semi-retired edition)
      
      I would have thought the local councils do not have the power to enforce whitebait harvesting.
      
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      August 18, 2026 4:33pm
      - Colville
        
        Yip.
        Its a pure guilt trip.
        
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        August 18, 2026 4:56pm
  - R
    
    ‘Nobody…get whacked’, don’t count on that in the present political activist climate.
    
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    August 18, 2026 9:45am
- Southern Raider
  
  Yes the article rambled on and didn’t seem to have any actual detail or a point to it.
  
  What I fail to understand is how around 20% of the population could be able to access customary fishing rights which kind of negates the point of having any fishing restrictions at all.
  
  Also the constant claims that Iwi are the guardians, custodians and original conservationists of our flora and fauna. There is zero evidence to back this up and in fact the evidence points more towards pillage and extinction. Even today they decry commercial fishing but have outsourced their fishing rights to offshore interests.
  
  Then there is the case of the pet breeding bull in Northland that was murdered and then partially slaughtered in the middle of the night. Was that done under customary rights?
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:32am
slightlyrighty

And in politics in NZ today….

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361021447/christopher-luxons-advice-struggling-dominatrix

Given the Dominatrix is deaf, how does one communicate the safe word if your hands are tied??
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August 18, 2026 8:26am
- KH
  
  I thought it was just a typical story we get from Stuff. Along the lines that if the government would spend more on civil servants business would prosper.
  Fleur Fitzsimmons of the PSA would be proud of this comment from the dominatrix.
  “…….. The dominatrix, …..Felicity Maera-Wallace asked Prime Minister Christopher Luxon about whether he was concerned about public sector cuts impacting sex workers in Wellington. They definitely resulted in losing my customer base,” she said, claiming customers still wanted her services, but could no longer afford it……..”
  
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  August 18, 2026 11:59am
- Colville
  
  slightly…
  
  You clench your arse muscles to the plug inserted and spell it in morse code…. 🙂
  
  (like that chess grandmaster that was cheating? !!)
  
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  August 18, 2026 4:58pm
Crafty

Looking through the msm stories this morning, it’s really shocking how many stories are attacking National. I’ve no problem with scrutiny but the quantity of stories attacking them is just completely excessive. Yet we have the possibility of a Labour/Greens/TPM/TOP government and the lack of any scrutiny on this extreme left collection of parties is really concerning. Kiwis deserve to know what they may be voting for.
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August 18, 2026 8:35am
- Southern Raider
  
  Even after Q&A in the weekend where Jack Tame showed up the massive issues in TOPs policies the media articles yesterday were all about how Helen Clark thought it was a “train wreck” of an interview as opposed to diving into the actual policy fla
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:34am
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    To be fair, the people who might have been interested in TOP are so superficial they are going to be put off far more by Helen Clark’s trainwreck comments than a proper breakdown of the lunacy.
    
    Clark’s intervention though is a massive red flag about how worried Labour are of TOP eating their lunch. She wouldn’t have been rolled out otherwise, especially to attack a fellow brave pioneer female politician.
    
    (Wasn’t attacking young women politicians the evil that led to us losing the wonderful La Ardern, Hels?)
    
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    August 19, 2026 12:40am
- R
  
  It’s not just the quantity, BUT the QUALITY of the journalism!
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:48am
- Prince
  
  Will no-one think of the deaf dominatrices.
  
  9 0
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  August 18, 2026 9:59am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Glad you got the plural of dominatrix right 😎.
    
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    August 18, 2026 12:05pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The benefit of a classical education!
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:25pm
Ian

Article on Stuff. A vandal in Torbay, Auckland shooting up vehicles with an air rifle using 6mm steel pellets. Put dents in a van and punched a clean hole through a windscreen. Obviously capable of serious injury and more. And people criticise police at the Sylvia Park shooting because “it was only an air rifle”…
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August 18, 2026 8:57am
- I remember when
  
  Remember the police attempt to fit a tracker to a drug vehicle which resulted in a death by air rifle a while back.
  Article in NZ Herald 18 May 2010.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:33am
  - peterwn
    
    The perp’s lawyer tried to claim it was ‘self defence’ but the Judge as a matter of law did not put that issue to the jury. The ‘self defence’ claim failed to meet any of the three legs for a ‘self defence’ claim. The perp was never in any danger (apart from being arrested in due course).
    
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    August 18, 2026 11:36am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  6mm air guns usually (always?) fire plastic air soft pellets, it’s more likely 5.5mm(.22).
  
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  August 18, 2026 12:54pm
  - Colville
    
    It will be a .22 but the [Mod -deleted] repeaters dont understand guns/maths/numbers
    
    If it was a .25 then its seriously dangerous.
    
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    August 18, 2026 5:01pm
Flossie

Driving in the Coromadel yesterday I noted on two occasions vehicles with a large yellow sign “Kura”. Presumably School bus. We have many tourists driving campervans around our roads so I wonder what do they understand them to be? These vehicles have special rules around them for the safety of the children.
Creeping Maorification.
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August 18, 2026 8:57am
- David Garrett
  
  Flossie: Yes..up here in the Kingdom that are called SCHOOLS funnily enough. But then the Tongans are very sensible – they tend not to invent words for things that didn’t exist pre European contact.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:01am
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    I expect Kura is a heavily distorted borrow word (distorted from “school”) like policeman => pirihimana.
    
    IMHO these bullshit labels should not be used in any safety situations (road signs, vehicle markings, signage in hospitals and airports,…).
    
    The “SCHOOL” on a school bus is a safety sign and should not be tampered with.
    
    Nor should EXIT signs:
    https://safetygenius.co.nz/product/te-reo-maori-signs-putanga-exit-luminous-340×200/
    
    24 2
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    August 18, 2026 9:25am
    - Southern Raider
      
      Wait unto they need to evacuate the new CRL stations in a hurry and all the English second language visitors are struggling to determine where is the exit sign because it’s written as the second word, at the bottom and in smaller font.
      
      I’m actually okay with having dual language signs, but there should be one national law around public signage and English should be on top (unless it’s a recognised Māori place name) and Te Reo on the bottom. National could have had a quick easy win here but enabled AT to open the only metro train line in NZ with garbled signs.
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:38am
      - R
        
        National have no control over the machinations that pass for management in AT,or Auckland for that matter.
        The Coalition may have been able to correct the applicable legislation, had it not been for the ‘baubles man’
        
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        August 18, 2026 12:34pm
      - Ghost
        
        You would have to be completely stupid to not know how to leave the station when there are big signs saying “way out”. Even foreigners would know what that means
        
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        August 18, 2026 12:37pm
      - OlderChas
        
        Prior to the problem with the language on the signs – will the announcement to evacuate in an emergency be first announced in the Maori language?
        
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        August 18, 2026 6:16pm
      - Southern Raider
        
        OlderChas probably will be. From memory announcements on the trains in Auckland are in Te Reo first
        
        Surely not alerting and evacuating Te Reo speakers first would be racist?
        
        2 0
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        August 18, 2026 7:31pm
    - mike
      
      I expect it’s not.
      
      2 12
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      August 18, 2026 10:14am
      - Fender
        
        Post of the day mike, even tops your 5 words earlier
        Consistency is important so we know your account hasn’t been hacked
        
        5 1
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        August 18, 2026 12:53pm
    - peterwn
      
      Exit signs nowadays depict a running person, you probably cannot purchase an illuminated exit sign saying ‘EXIT’.
      
      5 0
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      August 18, 2026 11:28am
      - R
        
        Where the will exists, most anything can be manufactured.
        
        3 0
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        August 18, 2026 12:36pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Yep, we all know Latin.
        
        1 0
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        August 18, 2026 1:10pm
- pdm
  
  More further indication of the epidemic that is Maorification Flossie.
  
  The following appointed but unelected positions paid and with voting rights were installed at Hastings District Council last week.
  
  Hastings District Council unelected iwi positions:
  
  * Māori Standing Committee: 8
  
  * Waste Water Committee: 5
  
  * Risk and Assurance Committee: 1
  
  * Performance and Monitoring Committee: 1
  
  * Strategy and Policy Committee: 1
  
  * Community and Civic Futures Subcommittee: 1
  
  * Infrastructure Delivery Subcommittee: 1
  
  Total: 18 appointed iwi positions.
  
  As I say – it is an epidemic/onslaught!!!
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:05am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Have you not realised that there is now not one school in NZ that has been renamed with a moari name. They may have kept the old one but it is now below the ‘new’ one.. if you wish for a waste of taxpayer money in the form of virtual signalling for some psuedo-exceptionalism there is the proof.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:07am
  - Ghost
    
    Strange, the schools I drive by do not have Māori names anywhere.
    
    6 6
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    August 18, 2026 9:11am
    - RoboRob
      
      Fendalton Open Air Primary school (FOS) has been renamed ‘Tūora’.
      https://fendalton.school.nz/
      
      You will see the web site even has a handy translate button to (by default) translate the web site to Maori. FYI, the obvious option should be one of the Chinese languages as the bulk of the student population are asian. I believe there was 1 Maori kid there when my boys attended.
      
      The really sad thing is that the name had a lot of history. The school itself is very old and the name stemmed from the concept of students studying outside being good for learning. The buildings were designed with large open doors and verandahs etc. All of that is thrown out for some random Maori name and the history is removed from the school.
      
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      August 18, 2026 9:37am
      - Ghost
        
        As I said none that I drive by have. Actually just about to drive by Barton on the way to the chiropractor. Highfield school also has no Maori name, along with mountain view, st Joseph’s, sacred heart etc.
        
        7 6
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        August 18, 2026 9:49am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Ghost
        
        Certainly not all schools are being renamed, but quite a few have. Perhaps more so in the cities.
        
        https://www.burnside.school.nz/
        Burnside high is now, ‘Burnside High School : Te Kura O Waimairi’
        
        Cobham intermediate is now, ‘Wairarapa Cobham Intermediate School’.
        
        That’s just the schools my kids went to. So 100% hit rate for them.
        
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        August 18, 2026 9:59am
      - Ghost
        
        Which is what the person above claimed, all schools now have Maori names, which they don’t. Perhaps the downvoters will express their views, I’d have thought they would be happy to know schools have remained with English only names.
        
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        August 18, 2026 10:10am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      Yet!
      
      1 0
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      August 18, 2026 1:02pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, but you keep pushing your false claim if it makes you happy. Seems having Māori names on schools is something you want, instead of accepting it hasn’t happened like you falsely claim
        
        1 5
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        August 18, 2026 1:08pm
      - muzled
        
        Just checked my old skool name, a very white savage coloniser name and yep, it’s now got a long nigh on unmemorable name.
        
        Interestingly it’s got – Whanganui in it.
        
        But it’s not in Whanganui where the h is silent so how is it pronounced?
        
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        August 18, 2026 1:16pm
- Paulus
  
  All schools were automaticall give close to a school the street names both ways Kura and School named underneath.
  One I know did not want it but tough it was done.
  Who authorised this, Maori Education Department, I guess.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:09pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    I thought kura were freshwater crayfish.
    
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    August 18, 2026 1:11pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    And yet when I enquired (a few years back) about the waste of money on changing schools signage to add in “Kura” our local councillor ASSURED me they would only be changed as the old “school” signs aged. Yeh right. Aged my left testicle.
    
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    August 18, 2026 4:35pm
Yvette

One Public Service for all
ACT will restore a public service focused on need, merit, neutrality, and results.
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/actnz/mailings/59226/attachments/original/PublicService_policy_03.pdf?

No particular cultural or spiritual practice should be an expectation of public service.

This seems to as yet not received much main stream media cut through.
Perhaps Bishop Brian needs a little rev [sic] up
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August 18, 2026 9:09am
- RoboRob
  
  When Hosking asked Luxon if he supported the policy, he danced around the question and didn’t answer. He said he would focus on cutting costs and size of government agencies (although of course that was a promise last term too).
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:39am
  - RoboRob
    
    You might want to downvote this but have a listen to yesterdays interview, that is exactly what Luxon did.
    
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    August 18, 2026 10:26am
    - Cassandra
      
      Typical Luxon. Doesn’t address the issue and gives a diversion in response.
      
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      August 18, 2026 1:42pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    I very much doubt Luxon will support it. He’s terrified of being called a racist.
    
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    August 18, 2026 12:08pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      “He’s terrified of being called a racist.”
      
      Yes Pope, isn’t it ironic that the most effective way to avoid being labelled a racist is to support racism….
      
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      August 18, 2026 12:35pm
- mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  ACT is pretending this is to stop Māori cultural or spiritual practices. In reality, it’s to remove all requirement to be a good employer.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:52am
  - rouppe
    
    What a load of tosh.
    
    I was going to say why but since you tend to make sweeping unsupported statements I thought you’d appreciate the same in return.
    
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    August 18, 2026 10:03am
    - mike
      
      Toss all this?
      Chief executive of department and board of an interdepartmental venture to be good employer
      (1)A chief executive of a department and a board of an interdepartmental venture must—
      (a)operate an employment policy that complies with the principle of being a good employer; and
      (b)make that policy (including the equal employment opportunities programme) available to its employees; and
      (c)ensure its compliance with that policy (including its equal employment opportunities programme) and report in its annual report on the extent of its compliance.
      (3)
      In this section, a good employer is an employer who operates an employment policy containing provisions generally accepted as necessary for the fair and proper treatment of employees in all aspects of their employment, including for—
      (a)the impartial selection of suitably qualified people for appointment (except in the case of ministerial staff); and
      (b)good and safe working conditions; and
      (c)an equal employment opportunities programme; and
      (d)recognition of—
      (i)the aims and aspirations of Māori; and
      (ii)the employment requirements of Māori; and
      (iii)the need for greater involvement of Māori in the public service; and
      (e)opportunities for the enhancement of the abilities of individual employees; and
      (f)recognition of the aims and aspirations, employment requirements, and the cultural differences of ethnic and minority groups; and
      (g)recognition of the employment requirements of women; and
      (h)recognition of the employment requirements of people with disabilities.
      Do you find it interesting that Seymour wants to ditch merit-based selection and safe working conditions?
      
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      August 18, 2026 10:18am
      - rouppe
        
        Where has Seymour said he’s intending to ditch that?
        
        Ditch merit based selection? From Yvette’s link:
        
        Hiring and promotion decisions should be based on merit, skills, experience, and the requirements of the job.
        
        The thing is, Mike, my experience with Socialists is that whatever comes out of their (your) mouth, I assume it is a lie unless it can be verified.
        
        Now I’m not going to go searching for verification of your unsupported statements, that way lies insanity. So if you want me to believe you, you’ll have to provide evidence that he intends striking those provisions from (what I assume is) employment law.
        
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        August 18, 2026 10:54am
      - Yvette
        
        Mike : Do you find it interesting that Seymour wants to ditch merit-based selection and safe working conditions?
        
        • The moment you like or dislike something, you have stopped seeing it the way it actually is.
        ________________
        
        ACT will restore a public service focused on need, merit, neutrality, and results.
        https://assets.nationbuilder.com/actnz/mailings/59226/attachments/original/PublicService_policy_03.pdf?
        
        14 1
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        August 18, 2026 10:55am
      - Ghost
        
        No they won’t. They will claim they will want to, but Kiri Allan’s interview gives little hope of this beast being controlled
        
        1 9
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        August 18, 2026 11:02am
      - mike
        
        You don’t read very carefully.
        Seymour proposes to ‘repeal section 73 of the Public Service Act, and its equivalent in the Crown Entities Act’.
        I have provided above the contents of that section.
        
        3 6
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        August 18, 2026 12:57pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        “Aims and aspirations of Maori” is typical of way the mission of the public service has been perverted. What about the “aims and aspirations” of New Zealanders of European, Chinese, or Indian descent? Same answer: the public service is not there to meet anyone’s “aims and aspirations”. Hilarious that the idiots who wrote that stuff apparently see no contradiction between “the need for greater involvement of Māori in the public service” and “an equal employment opportunities programme”. As for “the employment requirements of Māori”, the public service is not there to meet ANYONE’S “employment requirements”. It’s there to carry out the policies of the government of the day.
        
        9 1
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        August 18, 2026 12:57pm
      - mike
        
        Pope
        You missed this:
        (f)recognition of the aims and aspirations, employment requirements, and the cultural differences of ethnic and minority groups; and
        
        1 7
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        August 18, 2026 1:27pm
      - rouppe
        
        Finally…
        
        The only pieces of S73 that DOESN’T have to do with identity politics is:
        
        (3) In this section, a good employer is an employer who operates an employment policy containing provisions generally accepted as necessary for the fair and proper treatment of employees in all aspects of their employment, including for—
        (a)
        the impartial selection of suitably qualified people for appointment (except in the case of ministerial staff); and
        (b)
        good and safe working conditions;
        
        3(b) is covered by the Health and Safety At Work Act 2015
        
        That leaves 3(a) which is the point of the amendment. Everything else is identity politics, twisting itself up to acknowledge all the different identity groups (except white men).
        
        As an aside, using the word ‘good’ to define what a ‘good’ employer means, violates one of the most basic tenets of language.
        
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        August 18, 2026 3:31pm
  - leoj
    
    Sucking up to maori won’t make them like you.
    
    14 3
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    August 18, 2026 10:17am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes indeed mike, as well all know, “good employers” discriminate against white males. And observing tikanga and reciting karakia will make us all more moral and more enlightened.
    
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    August 18, 2026 12:32pm
rouppe

A dominatrix is complaining about difficult times.

The dominatrix, Felicity Maera-Wallace, told Stuff afterwards that she was serious about the public sector restructures having a flow on impact for sex workers.

“They definitely resulted in losing my customer base,” she said, claiming customers still wanted her services, but could no longer afford it.

It seems a large proportion of her clients were government workers, who get off on being dominated.

That explains a few things…

Maera-Wallace used to work and live in Wellington, but moved to Australia to find work. For personal reasons, she moved to Nelson – but said the return to Aotearoa had cost her hugely. Returning home came with a $60,000 per year salary cut, she said.

If you move to Nelson, a retirement town, and think your income is going to be the same as it was in Sydney, you haven’t thought it through.
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August 18, 2026 9:10am
- Southern Raider
  
  She’s lucky she moved back to Aotearoa and not NZ
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:39am
- kowtow
  
  ‘It seems a large proportion of her clients were government workers, who get off on being dominated.’
  
  Yep, bunch of white , guilt laden, middle class men ( and women)many possibly immigrants from woke Britain , willingly being whipped and beaten up by a Maori woman.
  
  Just about sums the whole thing up.Tied up and delivered.
  
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  August 18, 2026 10:41am
- Ian
  
  Nelson’s a town a lot of people retire to (including me), but it has a lot more going for it than just being populated by retirees of which you seem to be insinuating are all of the people that live here are. Anyway, the question is what job or business did she have in Australia that paid her $60K more than here? She should have stayed. Funny that the personal reasons for moving to Nelson didn’t last long that she moved to Wellington to start her sex work business. And being a deaf dominatrix, the clients would have to use sign language to plead “beat me, beat me”….
  
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  August 18, 2026 11:04am
  - Paulus
    
    What is, beat me beat, me in Maori please ?
    
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    August 18, 2026 1:13pm
    - marcw
      
      More koha, more koha …?
      
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      August 18, 2026 2:46pm
    - Ian
      
      Don’t know, but you would have to know Maori sign language being that she is deaf….
      
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      August 18, 2026 3:20pm
  - rouppe
    
    but it has a lot more going for it than just being populated by retirees of which you seem to be insinuating are all of the people that live here are
    
    I did say retirement town, not that all residents were retired. And intended no slight on the town or region.
    
    However to statistics:
    
    Paraparaumu is accepted as being a retirement town. 24.2% of the residents there are over 65.
    
    Nelson has 21.6% of the residents there over 65.
    
    The national average is 16.6%.
    
    I’ll stand by my characterisation of Nelson as a retirement town. But please don’t be offended. Though I was assuming the older cohort will have less interest in the services of a dominatrix. Based on my interests at age 64¼.
    
    Happy to be contradicted on that point by anyone over 65…
    
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    August 18, 2026 3:43pm
I remember when

At present we have a mixture of FFP (Electorate) Seats with MMP making up the percentage of the vote.
So one tick for your electorate candidate (FFP) and one tick for MMP members.
An alternative might be to restrict the MMP vote percentage to the number of MMP members required.
The number of electorate seats may have to be changed, perhaps 50/50, 70/30, ?
Perhaps based on the number of representatives considered necessary to give satisfactory electorate cover.

Just musing!
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August 18, 2026 9:24am
Harro104

On the 2nd Harbour Bridge: The Bishop/ Brown Meola reef study is daft. Geologically a good place for a bridge, economically bad. No one wants a bridge to no-where from Birkenhead to Point Chev. How about connecting areas of economic activity that actually matter to the national economy like Takapuna and the CBD?
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August 18, 2026 10:11am
- Southern Raider
  
  The issue for me is the entry and exit points are heavily congested. How does adding more bridge capacity at Northcote and CBD not just create bigger bottlenecks either side?
  
  On the existing route I would just add a train line to Takapuna to connect that main centre and focus growth around.Takapuna as a hub.
  
  Then spend way less money fixing up SH16 and widening the Upper Harbour Highway route.
  
  The best option would have been connecting to John Banks proposed eastern motorway as that would have bypassed Spaghetti Junction/SH1, but unfortunately that option is gone for ever.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:03pm
  - Handyman
    
    Yes the Upper Harbour route makes sense. All the housing growth of the North Shore is above Constellation Drive and after the rail tunnel is open there will be reduced traffic on SH16 motorway. (reportedly).
    
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    August 18, 2026 1:43pm
- BananaLlama
  
  They need to just bite the bullet and put in train and tunnel to the North Shore. It’s not going to be cheap but as you say building a bridge to no-where is just a waste of money.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:43pm
- Handyman
  
  It makes sense if you think of it as a CBD bypass. A large percentage of traffic over the harbour bridge is not for the CBD. The Meola bridge would go straight into the Waterview tunnel and all points south.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:49pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL2MiifToVs
Act Leader On The Changes That He Wants For The Public Sector.
Act leader David Seymour on the culture-blind, talent-driven, secular changes that he wants for the public sector . [These are all great ideas. Lets see how many survive coalition negotiations. Ministers need to be in charge of their portfolios. They’re the ones who are voted in. Not bar coded cat ladies and chinless wonders. CEOs can run stuff day to day. Ministers need to have the final say though.]
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August 18, 2026 10:33am
- Paulus
  
  Ministers should have th final say but today’s predominently senior women will have the final say as the Minister will be out in a couple of years, but they will not.
  They will engineer the Minister’s demise anyway.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:17pm
  - sungsamning
    
    They’ll certainly try. There’s a good case for ‘public service’ jobs to be term limited too. Say twelve years total. Then they move on into the real world.
    
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    August 18, 2026 4:10pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvx9roRg-D0
Trump calls for cut to ROK-U.S. drills, citing high cost and unthreatening N. Korean leader.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he will “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the high costs of the drills.
The announcement comes on the very day Seoul and Washington kicked off their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills.
Park Jun-han reports. [Some months ago; Kim Jong Un scrapped the Reunification Ministry. so, I guess the long term goal is detoxifying the dangerous situation in the Korean peninsula. President Trump may also be seeking South Korean assets to assist in the Gulf.]
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August 18, 2026 10:33am
- Albie
  
  I read Bob Woodward’s 2018 book on Trump’s first presidency. The opening of the book if I remember covered Trump’s aids desperately trying to hide a speech Trump had written declaring that the US would immediately withdraw all troops from South Korea. That would have been before Trump became besties with Kim, so he has history on this.
  
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  August 18, 2026 12:14pm
  - kowtow
    
    In an interview with Playboy Mag in 1990, he slagged off the SK’s for taking USA for a ride .
    
    ( according to an article in UK media today)
    
    And that’s not giving anyone an excuse to go doing your own “research”……..
    
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    August 18, 2026 3:47pm
Ghost

The results in these questions are interesting, looks like TOP have some support for their polices

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361021674/was-it-really-train-wreck-have-your-say-opportunity-and-its-policies
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August 18, 2026 11:31am
- KKNZ2025
  
  Marxists are everywhere
  
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  August 18, 2026 5:12pm
imalwaysright

Luxon on the leadership challenge:

“”In this case, it was pretty straightforward. One individual launched a challenge that failed. We moved on to a confidence vote and we went out of that room united.”

Article: ‘Luxon said he didn’t know what the vote was, but that he had the full support of his caucus.’

So Penk raised his hand and asked to become the Leader.
They had a vote that was secret except for the result.
It took nearly three hours.

And Chris Luxon doesn’t know how many voted for him, but says all of his caucus support him ?

‘I know I have her full support’: Christopher Luxon says Erica Stanford backs his leadership | RNZ https://share.google/h85s1zRUiJnlhQdms
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August 18, 2026 11:45am
- Paulus
  
  Umm to that !
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:17pm
peterwn

So the suspended (presumably on full pay) Financial Markets Authority CEO wants her job back now and her lawyer has gone to the Employment Relations Authority. She has arguably lost the confidence of her employer and her staff. An employer cannot afford to carry an apparent lame duck in a CEO role, and the Employment Relations Authority should be taken right out of the picture in such cases. If prospective CEO’s do not like the idea of diminished employee ‘rights’ they should not apply for CEO jobs.
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August 18, 2026 11:46am
imalwaysright

Is the invention of TOP designed to stretch credulity around taxation and thereby make the slightly less crazy tax policies of the Left more palatable?
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August 18, 2026 12:59pm
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  I don’t think TOP really want to win any elections.
  
  I think they are just a psy-op to shift the Overton Window.
  
  By being more extreme than Green on most issues (eg. UBI) they normalise such conversation and make the Greens seem reasonably moderate.
  
  This is a sales tactic as old as the hills.
  
  Nobody buys the $5, 300 fridge at Noel Leeming, but its mere presence makes the $3,700 fridge look like an OK price.
  
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  August 18, 2026 1:48pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Not unless they are the same fridge.
    
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    August 18, 2026 2:36pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Yes, exactly my point.
    They are there to stretch the envelope, and the envelope applies as much to the Centre as it does to the Left.
    
    A Nat/Act/NZF coalition can also appear moderate, or even taxphobic, while still introducing high taxation.
    
    TOP is a concept that seems designed to subjugate NZ no matter who gets elected.
    
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    August 18, 2026 2:39pm
Ghost

We had an area of the road closed off at one stage, it did not last too long as it meant the mayors pub was losing thousands of dollars a day.

But to the mentally challenged idiots at the councils, a road is built for a car, a motorbike or even a bike to go along it. A road is not a place to have a pop up bar, or a place to paint all over the road.

Article

Squiggly lines, planter boxes and a bar leaner with a view of a closed road formed some of the centrepieces of a road closure trial in Dunedin’s town belt.

If you want to paint shit all over something, or have a pop up bar how about having it in the council chambers because the mentally challenged residents currently residing in them have no idea what they are doing
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August 18, 2026 1:48pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Ghost, that’s nothing. This has been going for years in Wellington.
  
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  August 18, 2026 9:34pm
cmm (semi-retired edition)

It will be interesting to see if/how the USAF respond to questions about the aborted flight today.

I would be surprised if they say it was caused by headwind (even if it was). That would give away some of the technical capabilities information about the aircraft – something they would normally prefer to keep under wraps.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361021785/mystery-us-air-force-flight-aborts-antarctic-trip-returns-nz
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August 18, 2026 1:53pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Clearly this shows the need for every flight to include a couple of Maori publically funded documentary makers, retracing the Maori exploration of Antarctica in a waka, in a Globemaster, who are apparently able to recite a waiata, or some such incantation, thereby repairing said Globemaster mid air.
  
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  August 18, 2026 2:48pm
- mike
  
  I think the technical capabilities of the aircraft are well known.
  The article gives the reaon.
  
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  August 18, 2026 4:07pm
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    Technical capabilities are not the same as operational capabilities. Operational capabilities include policy and risk analysis etc – things not on the spec sheets and are generally restricted.
    
    For example, a plane’s top speed etc will be on the spec sheet, but the wind speed at which to abort a mission would typically be determined by various factors including the urgency of the mission and other risk calculation factors.
    
    The article has been updated to say it is “mystery space activity”. A “space activity” NOTAM generally means there is a possibility of debris due to a space junk/satellite reentry.
    
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    August 18, 2026 4:40pm
    - peterwn
      
      Surprised it is still called NOTAM instead of NOTAP.
      
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      August 18, 2026 7:30pm
cmm (semi-retired edition)

Stuff says there is a daycare concern after Gun City moves in next door.

Ummm, why? Criminals are generally denied gun licenses. That makes gun shops less likely to have scumbags around them.

I’d be worried if a booze shop or a vape shop opened up next door. I’d also be worried if a WINZ office opened up next door.

All those lower the tone of the neighbourhood and bring in the scumbags.

But a gun shop? No.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361021574/daycare-concerned-after-gun-store-unexpectedly-moves-next-door
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August 18, 2026 4:23pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/te-ao-maori/361021929/nelson-tenths-bill-passing-finally-settles-180year-land-disp

“Finally settles”: yeah, right.
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August 18, 2026 7:53pm

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