General Debate 14 September 2026

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greybeard

DPF: it looks as though we can submit multiple entries of your questionnaire. Is that a bug or a feature ?
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September 14, 2026 8:07am
- MCōs
  
  Maybe you can, but why should you unless you want to skew the results, which is pointless, unless you filled out the questionnaire a couple of hundred times
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:23am
  - David Garrett
    
    MCos: Good point…I will be most interested in how many readers KB gets daily on average. I suspect we already know the demographic answers: Mostly over 45, mostly male…but then who knows? I was astounded when Curia’s poll on approval of three strikes showed 48% in favour among Green voters. So surprised that I thought it was a typo, and should have been 18%… DPF assured me it was not a typo.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:33am
  - greybeard
    
    Chill out man: I am simply bringing it to someone’s attention.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:36am
NeverMindTheBollocks

In all of the extensive and celebratory coverage of the new CRL carried across various media, I haven’t seen a single comment from anyone saying

– great, the CRL is a game changer, I’m going to leave the car at home now and my daily commute will be by train.
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September 14, 2026 8:10am
- septic skeptic
  
  Listened to part of an interview with Len Brown on red radio. He was waxing lyrical about what immense benefits it would bring and what an achievement it was for him to get this started. Then qualified it all by saying it was not a silver bullet! More likely a gold plated white elephant IMO. Ludicrous cost to benefit ratio.
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:10am
  - David Garrett
    
    septic: You have to admire the gall of “pants down Brown”. If I had been caught fucking a much younger employee in a Council meeting room I would have completely disappeared from public life…or gone to Australia.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:34am
- R
  
  Reason! The CRL is of NO benefit to probably 80% of the Auckland commuting population , it doesn’t serve the travel needs of the majority. Gold plated Art gallery as it may be.
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:40am
  - Flossie
    
    Never mind 80% of Auckland – zero of the rest of the country.
    
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    September 14, 2026 10:00am
- alex Masterley
  
  Some comments.
  My daily commute is 10 minutes from home to office. Public transport took about 45 minutes pre- CRL. Havent tried public transport post CRL as no opportunity but am unlikley to change my commuting habit.
  I am waiting to see the effect of the CRL after the initial excitment fades and there have been a few stoppages mid route. Getting to Grafton/Newmarket will be a pain in the backside.
  My wife and I tested the CRL yesterday. we went into town from Kingsland got off midtown and wandered down to Britomart and returned to Kingsland. All I can say is it was a train ride. Quicker to town but that is all.
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:43am
artemisia

NZ’s largest electricity consumers seek bipartisanship on policy

A worthy aim. Is the subtext – no more Captain’s Calls. Please.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/1360716/nz-s-largest-electricity-consumers-seek-bipartisanship-on-policy
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September 14, 2026 8:11am
- kowtow
  
  We need more “firming” capacity.
  
  Coal please.
  
  Local , cheap , proven , plentiful.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:36am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Yes, coal.
    
    Then develop geothermal, and then search for gas.
    
    Or, here’s an idea, we could do all three at the same time…
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:17am
    - R
      
      ‘same time’………bit smbitious for the NZ bureacracy. No vote winning WELFARE in the idea.
      
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      September 14, 2026 9:42am
    - Raphael
      
      Then get to work on legislation to allow modern modular nuclear reactors (and flay the Greens every thime they try block it)
      
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      September 14, 2026 10:01am
Master Mariner

An interesting development overnight and assumed it would of been evoked sooner.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/White-House-Weighs-Defense-Production-Act-as-US-Refineries-Maxed-Out.html
Summary is that they will sanction Petroleum products for the war machine.
Having recently visiited ( Anchored) the Singapore large refineries , The thing immediately obvious was the lack of production due to shortages there. This was confirmed by Pilot during Pilotage. In addition the amount of Tankers “Arrested” due to sanctions.
Here is a great summary from “Whats going on with Shipping”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76tCHtJfmQ
VLCC Tanker rates from Persian gulf to Asian refineries is hitting 1mill day rate.
How long before S.Korea restricts Petroleum Products ?
What is NZ Strategy / Plan on further restrictions / Costs.?
Is the Media asking Former leaders about the infamous “Captains Call” and it consequences which should be immediately obvious to all by now?
Jack Tame and Megan Woods interview ?
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September 14, 2026 8:18am
- David Garrett
  
  “… assumed it would HAVE been invoked sooner…”
  
  Shame on you MM! You being in the “senior” demographic on KB
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:55am
Maggy Wassilieff

Richard Prebble is asking questions…

Once I would have dismissed as paranoia the idea that the public service might deliberately sabotage a government’s re-election.

https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/richard-prebble-is-the-public-service-neutral
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September 14, 2026 8:18am
- Swifty
  
  Yes, and let it be known by future generations that, if our public service neutrality is destroyed, it was the New Zealand left which did it – like a parasite taking over and ultimately destroying its host.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:30am
- Inandout
  
  Maggy, the PS has been Labour aligned for many decades but now the department bosses seem to have discovered their immense power. A $30 million computer cock up hidden from the Minister, and then crickets. The fault lies squarely with Luxon.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:32am
  - RoboRob
    
    There need to be consequences when you stuff up or intentionally work against the government. Unfortunately in NZ we no longer remove or resign people regardless of their actions . Even actions that lead to death are not sufficient for a sacking and the managers don’t have the integrity* to resign.
    
    * Lets face it, a lot of the falling on swords that used to happen was to avoid being sacked. Since we don’t sack people any more the ‘integrity’ is also gone.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:14am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Hate to break it to you Roborob, but there’s nothing in the treaties about ethics…
      
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      September 14, 2026 9:19am
  - Sacha
    
    @Inandout: are you saying that Luxon knew about the cock-up and the Minister didn’t?
    And who is the Minister?
    Why is their name not mentioned but the PM’s is?
    Are you, Inandout, a labour supporter?
    Hmmm.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:27am
- mike
  
  Richard Prebble should reflect on his own role in weakening and politicizing the public service.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:33am
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    Perhaps he weakened it, but how did he politicise it?
    
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    September 14, 2026 8:39am
    - mike
      
      The state sector has been steadily politicized since the 1988 Act. Minister have been able to interfere in appointments and have their hench persons to interfere in day-to-day business. Departments are much less likely to provide neutral advice and much more likely to blindly acquiesce in political nonsense.
      
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      September 14, 2026 8:45am
      - RoboRob
        
        From where I am sitting the issue seems to be the reverse. Ministers are completely unable to interfere in staffing or remove people, this has led to a total lack of responsibility from underlings and a public service that ignores government policy.
        
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        September 14, 2026 9:16am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Oh yes. The current situation is the fault of Richard Prebble. 40 years ago. 🙄 The Public Service in the 1990s was just fine. A fraction of its current size.
    
    Many things wrecked it. Notably Jacinda who repealed the State Services Act and enacted the Public Service Act. She then turned it into a bloated spiritual monstrosity.
    
    The public service union cannot be allowed to run a campaign called “change the government”. If necessary legislation should be passed under urgency to make that clear.
    
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    September 14, 2026 8:44am
    - mike
      
      The root of the problem is the ‘reforms’ of the 1980s and 1990s. The architects of that cannot escape blame because their successors failed to repair the damage.
      
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      September 14, 2026 8:48am
      - cmm (semi-retired edition)
        
        You missed an opportunity… The root of the problem is surely Captain Cook coming to mess up perfect Aotearoa.
        
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        September 14, 2026 8:59am
    - Tomtoddy
      
      Is that sarcasm Bene? About Prebble? The most damage was actually done by Helen Clark.
      
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      September 14, 2026 9:23am
      - David Garrett
        
        Tom T: I would have thought it was bloody obvious Bene was being sarcastic…His second sentence makes that clear – at least to me.
        
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        September 14, 2026 9:57am
    - MCōs
      
      The number of public servants at 1980 was about 72.5k
      This was reduced to about 32k by about 2000. However as well as mass redundancies the SOEs were established to get the numbers down and they are not public servants. For example Transpower, KiwiRail, New Zealand Post.
      Some people I knew were made redundant when the MWD shut down, had huge payouts and after a short holiday started working again doing the same stuff as consultants to the government.
      
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      September 14, 2026 9:56am
- R
  
  If there was any doubt about the public servants’ credibility and political neutrality in the performance of their taxpayer paid performance; the last three years have highlighted that doubt very clearly
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:00am
  - RoboRob
    
    And yet, find a government minister that will say anything negative about the public service. Find a minister that doesn’t have faith in their CEO, even if the CEO has lied to their face.
    
    The issues stem from the head. Ministers have removed themselves from control and responsibility and now the departments are running wild.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:19am
- R
  
  Richard Preeble, in govt 1980’s, was instrumental in establishing this problem . Consequences
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:48am
Jethrod

Janet Dickson, the real estate agent who won’t take Te Reo lessons and has been really thrashed by the law system. So much so she won’t have her real estate licence renewed, effectively leading to a sacking from her real estate company.
From what I have seen, the company that employed her, Harcourts Howick, hasn’t taken a side in this dispute. Harcourts is one of the larger, if not the largest real estate companies in New Zealand and I would have thought they would have a position on this.
REINZ seems to have rolled over with the legislation that caused this very unfortunate incident, namely taking the knee to the Treaty of Waitangi.
What a turn up for the books if residential, commercial and industrial property buyers and sellers, just ignored this company for, mmmm, say a month. We wouldn’t want to completely destroy an NZ company, just enough to show a dent in their profits.
Check out the article on the Free Speech Union website.
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September 14, 2026 8:22am
Yvette

Why has the Opposition not upheld the principle of a neutral public service and called on the PSA to abandon its political campaign?
And what about the strike?
Did the 10,000 strikers lose pay for the hours they were not working?
Or did we pay for the walkout?
Once I would have dismissed as paranoia the idea that the public service might deliberately sabotage a government’s re-election.
– Richard Prebble, on Brash and Mitchell
https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/richard-prebble-is-the-public-service-neutral

Pity there is no “journalist” intestinally bold enough to ask Hipkins about a neutral public service.

Of course when the PSA has registered as a third-party election promoter. Its campaign is called “Change the Government”. It has distributed election material in government workplaces. and its slogan is “Change the Government”, only those in Opposition can benefit – supposedly
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September 14, 2026 8:27am
- imalwaysright
  
  “Did the 10,000 strikers lose pay for the hours they were not working?”
  
  I wonder if any of those at the strike had signed in as ‘working from home’?
  
  Certainly not, that would be fraud…
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:32am
- mike
  
  The PSA’ role is to support its members. Changing the government would be in the best interests of its members.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:35am
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    No problems.
    But do it on their own time with their own resources.
    
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    September 14, 2026 8:40am
    - mike
      
      As they do.
      
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      September 14, 2026 8:49am
      - cmm (semi-retired edition)
        
        Now you’re just lying.
        Government workplaces are not their resources.
        
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        September 14, 2026 8:56am
      - Swifty
        
        I understand PSA members have been plastering their workplaces with ‘change the govt’ notices.
        
        Not on their own time and not their own resources.
        
        And we haven’t forgotten your regular claim that because the PSA doesn’t directly donate to the Labour Party that means they’re politically neutral. We all knew that was bullshit, as has been proven by recent events.
        
        I note too that the head of the CTU, Sandra Grey, when interviewed on Tame over the weekend, let the cat out of the bag. When asked about the CTU’s tax policy she replied “At this stage, WE are only looking at a capital gains tax” totally mirroring Labour’s position.
        
        Oops. Silly Sandra. I wonder when she’ll stand as a Labour candidate. Can’t be too far away.
        
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        September 14, 2026 9:13am
      - David Garrett
        
        Mike: Oh dear me…if the PSA is distributing “postcards” to their members’ desks telling their members to change the government, that is not on their own time.
        
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        September 14, 2026 9:59am
  - Gravelroad
    
    So no moral outrage then if a farmers organisation (for instance) directed its members, workers and rural supporters to vote National/ACT to change the government – in their “best interests”?
    Different when the left does it, of course.
    
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    September 14, 2026 8:47am
    - mike
      
      Federated Farmers cannot ‘direct’ its members any more that the PSA can.
      
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      September 14, 2026 8:51am
      - Jethrod
        
        That is bollocks!
        Unions are renowned for stand over tactics, so much so in the union I belonged to for 6 years, secret ballots for things like strikes and other sensitive things, were always denied, so that a “UNITED” front could be shown.
        At a particularly important meeting , at which the renowned Bill Anderson attended, there was so much hooha at the denial of a ballot, that said Bill made a motion agreeing to a secret ballot.
        No united front on that one! Vote came in about 20% against the initial motion. So it was a lose for detectors, but a first for the Northern Pulp and Paper Workers Union. A SECRET BALLOT!!!
        
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        September 14, 2026 9:37am
    - cmm (semi-retired edition)
      
      The farmers organisations are using their own resources. Big difference.
      
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      September 14, 2026 8:57am
  - artemisia
    
    Some might consider changing the government to one led by David Seymour is in the best interests of taxpayers including public servants. Maybe there will be public servants on strike with ACT placards and handing out postcards.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:04am
  - JJ56
    
    Unfortunately public servants sign on to be politically neutral, it’s an important constitutional check (the alternative is a complete clear out every time the government changes).
    
    It is a bit like an auditors’ union promoting a scheme that would allow shareholders to be ripped off.
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:22am
  - Yvette
    
    Mike, to some, the PSA restating that doing the core work they are officially assigned to do would be in the best interests of its members
    
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    September 14, 2026 9:27am
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  We taxpaying turkeys are voting for Christmas.
  
  “It has distributed election material in government workplaces”
  
  Geez, when was the last time you were in a school staff room?
  
  For me it was around 2007 or so when I was asked/volunteered to tutor some kids on robotics. The union posters all over the wall definitely tilted strongly Left. I just bit my tongue and focused on the robotics.
  
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  September 14, 2026 8:37am
Maggy Wassilieff

Trust the polls?

You don’t need a pollster to tell you how to cast a pivotal vote. You just need to know what you want. It’s not that complicated.

https://www.clairerobinson.nz/blogs/my-advice-to-a-strategic-voter-is-dont?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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September 14, 2026 8:37am
cmm (semi-retired edition)

This woman claims she was abused and that , at least partially, excuses her actions.

What nonsense. That is not a cause. All the people I know who admitted to being abused as kids have gone 100% the other way and are perhaps overly protective of their children.

If you need therapy, get therapy. Don’t take it out on kids.

10 years (no doubt to be reduced with parole) for this? Absurd.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/selica-wright-auckland-house-of-horrors-abuser-seeks-reduced-sentence/74AP2WXVJFHPFEPC65VFBIU3JA/
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September 14, 2026 9:04am
- Bobba Fret
  
  She is a real POS.
  
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  September 14, 2026 9:49am
I remember when

An Unusual Plume of Dust Is Headed to Florida: NY Times.
“Saharan dust often reaches South Florida, but rarely this late in year.”

So its not an unusual plume of dust, it just doesn’t usually happen now.
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September 14, 2026 9:06am
JJ56

For all the Chicken Littles running about over AI, there is a useful pretty dispassionate unpicking of what happened (unusually) at https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/09/12/when-ai-agents-started-working-together/
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September 14, 2026 9:26am
Handyman

What is really unusual is the lack of hurricanes. This year is the lowest hurricane activity since satellites have been able to measure them. There have been in preventative closures of oil platforms in the Gulf of America so far this hurricane season.
Experts are stumped but say there is still a chance of a catastrophic hurricane before the midterms.
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September 14, 2026 9:41am
Ghost

Bill Maher used the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to say something that once required no courage at all: terrorists are terrorists

Maher then referred to a poll that showed that one in five young Americans now holds a positive view of Osama bin Laden (which would have been unthinkable 25 years ago) and compared it to how Luigi Mangione came to be seen as a folk hero; he assassinated Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. In both cases, a killer becomes a symbol of grievance, and the actual victims become a footnote to a woke narrative about systemic injustice.

Article

video

1 in 5, strangely I’m not surprised.
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September 14, 2026 9:42am
Bobba Fret

Anyone have an appointment this week at the Mt. Albert Medical Centre?
Is it even open?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/medical-centre-refused-doctor-defibrillator-after-man-collapsed-outside-witness-claims/MWDONROZF5E7JAII27AIIXENF4/
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September 14, 2026 9:50am

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