General Debate 19 August 2026

Like this:

Like Loading…

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment42

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (42)

Login to comment or vote

Yvette

“I think voters would punish that kind of game-playing” – Chris Bishop, National

… [Willie] Jackson said “when you start working the system like that” it would “threaten” the future of the Māori seats, which were initially introduced to improve Māori representation in Parliament.
“I think we have to be respectful to Māori voters – and Māori voters want to vote for the best person; they don’t want to be voting on an overhang.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2026-labours-willie-jackson-says-te-pati-maori-strategy-could-threaten-integrity-of-maori-seats/SSO7N664D5AD3K4YTKX7J57EXE/

Māori seats were created in 1867 to give Māori a guaranteed voice in Parliament, overcoming early voting rules tied to individual property ownership which excluded most Māori who owned land communally. Though originally meant to be temporary, the Maori seats became permanent and now supposedly ensure proportional Maori representation. Since the conditions establishing no longer exist to determine of voter qualification, the Maori seats are an anomaly.

Further –

The “waka jumping” law forces a Member of Parliament to give up their seat if they leave or are expelled from their political party during a parliamentary term. Its official name is the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act 2018.
Section 55D (a)
The statement referred to in section 55C(c) must be in writing and signed by the parliamentary leader concerned, and must—
state that the parliamentary leader reasonably believes that the member of Parliament concerned has acted in a way that has distorted, and is likely to continue to distort, the proportionality of political party representation in Parliament as determined at the last general election …
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2018/39/en/latest/#DLM7478605.

If it is a problem that a Member “jumping party” is likely “to distort the proportionality of political party representation in Parliament”, what of a Party standing in an Election with the publicly expressed intention to do just that in having more seats than represent their actual party note?

The famous phrase “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” is often misattributed to Sun Tzu, but it was actually a portion of the tikanga of Napoleon Bonaparte.
11 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:01am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Don Brash has raised the same point:
  
  As Rawiri Waititi noted, many Māori candidates standing for Labour and other parties are already likely to enter Parliament through their party lists.
  
  That admission matters.
  
  Māori representation in Parliament is clearly no longer dependent on the existence of separate Māori electorates.
  
  https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/don-brash-te-p%C4%81ti-m%C4%81ori-just-made-our-argument-for-us
  
  I might also add that seven of the twelve Party leaders now in Parliament are Māori, and every party in Parliament has had at least one Māori leader except Labour.
  
  So why, in 2026, do we continue to maintain electorates defined by ancestry?
  
  19 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:24am
- pdm
  
  It is also quite possible if Labour win all 7 of the Maori seats and Labours Party Vote is in the mid 20’s as some Polls show then they will get no List MP’s and perhaps even cause an overhang.
  
  Especially as they are also expected to pick up about 5 marginal seats presently held by National.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:28am
  - kowtow
    
    Now that National has proudly settled the Nelson Tenths , at great cost to the taxpayer , yet again,they’ll be picking up a huge number of Maori voters ………not!
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 8:38am
  - peterwn
    
    That would make things interesting between Tamatha Paul and Ayesha Verrall in Wellington North. A Labour overhang could be disastrous for Ayesha unless she can take the seat off Tamatha.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 8:39am
- AitchW
  
  We on the right need to vote tactically, electorate vote National, party vote ACT.
  We need a solid overhang to keep the socialists out.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:46am
- Michael Johnston
  
  It’s not quite right to say that the Maori seats were created “to give Māori a guaranteed voice in Parliament.”
  Initially there was a modest property requirement to be eligible for the vote. About 75% of men met that requirement (women did not have the vote at the time). Bnt because Maori land ownership tended to be tribal, a far lower proportion of Maori men met the requirement. The Maori seats were created, with no property requirement, to ensure that all Maori men could vote. After that, until the property requirement was abolished, all Maori men, but not all non-Maori men, could vote. So not only was New Zealand the first country to extend the vote to women, it was also the only one to extend it to all indigenous men before implementing universal male suffrage – which it also did well ahead of most other countries (I think some Scandinavian countries might have done so sooner).
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:59am
NeverMindTheBollocks

NZ gives refugee status to US citizens. Two US children with a Jordanian/ US father and a Jordanian mother are allowed to stay here, along with the mother. The parents are divorced. She fears being sent back to Jordan, where she has family. They were only here because he was a student.

Frankly, it’s not our problem. She can take the kids to the US and apply for asylum there herself. Or, she can return to her homeland to be with her family. Her kids can move to the US as adults, if they want to.

My prediction is that we will pay to bring her kids up, who will then take off to the US. She will stay here on benefits. Ta-ta, suckers!

Our pockets are being rifled by the bleeding hearts of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. And bit by bit, we become poorer.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/1055669/us-siblings-become-nz-refugees-as-more-than-20-americans-claim-asylum
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:03am
David Garrett

Good morning from the Kingdom…a nice cool morning up here…21C as I write
8 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:05am
- Scott
  
  Nice to hear from you David. I can report it has been very cool here in the Wairarapa. Cold southerlies today and maybe it will get to 10C? Tonga sounds way better. 😎
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:14am
  - David Garrett
    
    Scott: Yep, pretty nice up here in the middle of winter…we pay for that in January and February when it is bloody awful
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 9:16am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Sounds terrible for the roses, David
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:19am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  David G – when will you be back in NZ to conduct your scientific super market queue survey? I am eager to know how much tax sheeple are willing to pay.
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:19am
- Biscuit
  
  Only 7.2C as I type in THIS Kingdom, David.
  
  I’d like it a TAD warmer by the time our foursome tees off at Noon, heh. Forecast is for a top of 11C this arvo…
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:25am
  - David Garrett
    
    Biscuit: I thought you were in Thailand? I must be mistaken…surely it doesn’t get that cool up there?
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 8:31am
    - Biscuit
      
      Oh you’re v. wrong, David.
      
      I’m in Upper Hutt.
      
      I did my mid-teen years at a boarding school in Singapore whilst my folks were up in KL, then Malaysia’s capital city, but only got as far north as Penang and never to Thailand.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      August 19, 2026 8:37am
      - David Garrett
        
        Biscuit: Ah.. I’m confusing you with someone else here who posts from Thailand…enjoy your golf game.
        
        1 0
        Report
        August 19, 2026 8:46am
      - pdm
        
        One of Chris Hipkins loyal Upper Hutt subjects is Biscuit.
        
        1 0
        Report
        August 19, 2026 9:02am
- pdm
  
  6c here in Hastings as I type.
  
  mrspdm has conscripted me to prune a friends roses. Got a couple of hours in last week before the rain not sure I will get some done today or not – and then the sun breaks through (weakly).
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:32am
  - Biscuit
    
    Talking of which, pdm, I have just transferred $455.78 to Tiaki Wai, being the first instalment to the outfit that will be sending me quarterly water bills from here on in.
    
    Apt that I was just looking at The Telegraph from London online and Matt, their cartoonist, has a Water Company exec bemoaning the rainfall there and muttering that it is ‘heartbreaking to see our customers getting all this free water’…
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 8:47am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Ghastly night in Gizzy and not too flash this morning…very reminiscent of every 2nd day in Wellington.
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:46am
  - Biscuit
    
    Much more badmouthing of ‘The Riviera of the South’, Maggy, and you may well find yourself one Christmas Card short this December!
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 8:49am
- KH
  
  Greetings from the Heart of the Desert.
  3.9c here in Central Otago. And a glorious blue sky calm day.
  The thing is with our huge solar gain (aka sunshine) it’s great to be outdoors.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 8:57am
Dr John

I have just found a Kiwiblog post from three years ago which detailed National’s plans for roading. Can someone please tell me which of these commitments have been completed, which are in progress, and which have been quietly forgotten? I note the South Island isn’t mentioned, nor is an Auckland harbour crossing.
1. Four lanes from Whangarei to Tauranga
2. Manukau to Drury highway
3. Onehunga to Mt Wellington highway
4. 21km of highway south of Hamilton
5. Petone to Grenada link road
6. Second Mt Vic tunnel
7. Removal of North-South traffic from the Basin Reserve
8. Auckland Rapid Transit
9. Lower North Island rail upgrade
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:09am
- mike
  
  Was only a promise. Never based on reality.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:19am
imalwaysright

Goldsmith won’t attend a defence meeting with his Australian and Japanese counterparts.
NZ private sector suppliers will also miss out on access to decision makers and potential business.

Goldsmith said he wasn’t able to ‘ make it work’, but he hasn’t elaborated on what took precedence.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1046389/couldn-t-make-it-work-new-defence-minister-cancels-australia-meeting
3 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:16am
- pdm
  
  Perhaps as one of PM Luxons most loyal supporters Goldsmith is not allowed to stray too far from the PM’s side at the moment lest another coup eventuate.
  
  Said only partly in jest.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:04am
- Ghost
  
  Ummm, because he was already scheduled to sign the Treaty Settlement with Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:05am
surfing

Fenz say….
https://www.fireandemergency.nz/about-us/our-commitments/our-commitment-to-working-with-maori-as-tangata-whenua/

“We will strengthen our cultural capability, diversity and inclusion, so that we better reflect and engage with the communities we serve.”

Yet, looking at the leadership team…
https://www.fireandemergency.nz/about-us/what-we-do/our-structure/

1 maori? the leadership team should take their own words, and hire maori to replace themselves.
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:17am
Southern Raider

As a capitalist we seem to have reached an economic and social juncture.

Capitalism raised hundreds of millions out of poverty, however it now seems to have lost all sense of social licence. In a period of high mortgage rates and a cost of living crisp our banks have made record profits and our gentailers have just announced the same for power.

We have a major cost of living crisis yet these big corporations that we don’t have ability not to engage with offshore jobs, cut workforce and keep increasing prices to the detriment of our society.

Yesterday it was announced that electricity inflation was down to 9.5%. How is 9.5% something to celebrate.

Not sure of the solution but it’s broken.
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:36am
Scott

Act write this in their latest newsletter:

“The current Government was elected to fix the rampant and deliberate racism that grew up under its predecessor.

Since November 2023 it has: removed the separatist Māori Health Authority, given communities a referendum on Māori words, cancelled Three Waters with its co-governed boards, replaced the ‘Aotearoa Histories Curriculum’ with a balanced view of human history in New Zealand, issued a Cabinet Circular that services must be delivered on need, not race, so things like diabetes medicines and bowel cancer screening are no longer funded along racial lines…”

All of the above is true. But the govt has met resistance from the public sector which Act has proposed a number of new measures to try and fix. Also the media and the liberal elites and the local councils have worked hard to continue with co governance and the racial grievance mentality.

But I would say this govt has done a lot. Legislation has been changed, the labour agenda has been thrown out. National did far more than they usually do. They actually rolled back Labour’s initiatives.
NZ First have ably spoken out against the Maori party and the Maorification of NZ and Act has been excellent on this as well.

Given the racial radical mentality that so many in NZ embrace we have a govt that has done a lot to rectify the situation IMHO.
2 3
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:37am
- surfing
  
  What about the maori fire engines? Act do a few sensible things, but then they allow something as absurd as maori fire engines slip through the cracks.
  
  0 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:06am
  - mike
    
    What’s a Māori fire engine?
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 9:21am
- Cassandra
  
  But not enough Scott. They’re just tinkering,
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:25am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/361022045/chart-says-stock-market-ready-crash

This is an interesting article, explaining quite clearly the dangers of sharebuying.
3 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:37am
- RoboRob
  
  I wont read Stuff but I would hazard a guess that this article is a fluff piece full of partially informed misinformation.
  
  Yes you can lose money buying individual shares, potentially everything. However historically over the long term the share market ALWAYS recovers from any ‘crash’. In fact continuing to buy in during the crash is what generates the best profits. The historic average yearly returns of the US stock markets is around 9.5% depending on who you listen too.
  
  So yes, the market is likely to have a major correction at some point, possibly soon. But that’s only a bad thing for day traders. People making regular investments will get an opportunity to buy on ‘sale’.
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:00am
  - pdm
    
    Our aggressive KiwiSaver ahs been doing very nicely so far this year and I see no reason why that will not continue.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    August 19, 2026 9:06am
Southern Raider

I have a regular catchup with someone in the construction industry in Auckland. It’s a direct reflection on the massive hole that the Auckland and to some degree rest of the North Island economy is in.

Economists in the media were trying to paint unemployment as a backward looking metric and the future is brighter.

However in construction layoffs are still going, every week another companies goes into liquidation, enquiries about projects are massively down and forward orders are still flatlined.

At the same time economists are picking a couple of rate OCR hikes before the end of this year.

What positive metrics are there for the economy in Auckland and the North Island as I’m struggling to see any?
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:42am
artemisia

Mental health surge among (but not only) our young people is getting a fair bit of airtime these days. Sometimes under the chapter headings of disability or youth unemployment.

Alex Berenson takes a poke at this in his substack Feelings don’t get you fed .

… a lot of self-diagnosis from women who have gone to TikTok Medical School, where the curriculum is light on organic chemistry and heavy on vegan cheese. Looks humorous but actually is quite dark. Especially as the post’s conclusion is – they want the pills.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/feelings-dont-get-you-fed
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:51am
- pdm
  
  arti we never heard of Mental Health when I was a teenager or in my early 20’s.
  
  Apart from mysterious places like Porirua Hospital, Lake Alice, Carrington and Cherry Farm. I cannot recall actually knowing any inmates of those institutions.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:10am
Swifty

I’m a bit perplexed about this story:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-ao-maori/1052527/ancient-waka-excavation-no-govt-assurances-around-further-funding

Isn’t this a no-brainer? The money just must be found and the waka remnants preserved.

Or is there something fishy going in here which is behind the govt’s reluctance to date?
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
August 19, 2026 8:52am
- mike
  
  I should think the government would be able to find some way to fund this.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  August 19, 2026 9:25am

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Can someone explain to Labour what lawyers do?

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 13K other subscribers

Highlights

Target achieved II
Good progress on attendance
Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments

Links

The benefit of law
Point of Order
What the GOPe Genocide means – for the GOP
No Minister
The International Court of Justice Climate Liability Ruling Sets a Worrying Precedent for Pandemics and Public Health
Utopia
Open Mike 19/08/2026
The Standard
NRL Predictions for Round 25
Stats Chat
"What's far worse than the Arday tragedy is the philosophical state of higher education that erodes all of this."
Not PC
Word of the day
Hompaddock
The Dumb Lives Matter Parliament protest revenge backlash is why NZFirst is in double digits
The Daily Blog
An urgent move to not fix anything
No Right Turn
Trans Group Admits They’re Not The Experts
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
Reader mailbag - prediction markets
Offsetting Behaviour
Insights from the Polls
NZCPR
Yet more “pretty (il)legal” stuff from the Reserve Bank
Croaking Cassandra
Reactionary bookends.
Kiwipolitico
THE WORKING FROM HOME RACKET BY PUBLIC SERVANTS
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Get Vaccinated Tomorrow Or Shut Your Pie Hole
Cactus Kate
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker