General Debate 21 September 2026

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Cassandra

Michael Johnston of The NZ Initiative, addressing current MPs: “Most of you will be back in Parliament next year, although few of you deserve to be. On the other hand, based on your work this year, you’d struggle to find jobs anywhere else.”

Would you employ Chippy, Chloe or Willy Jackson? Or for that matter Uffindell or Goldsmith or anyone from the Maori Party?

I have jobs for Penk, Seymour and a few others, all the ACT team. I’d want to give Penk a bit of coaching, perhaps get him to read Machiavelli.

Most MPs have now got the best paid job they’ll ever have.
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September 21, 2026 8:01am
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  Yup, the Good Old Days when the MPs provided service at their own cost have long gone.
  
  Unfortunately there is no effective filter to select good people as MPs. The list system does not really achieve that at all.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:16am
  - Quail
    
    CMM
    Agreed !
    As commented “ ad nauseam “ MMP is a disaster that is destroying democracy or any semblance of it in New Zealand!
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:24am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Very few MPs are allowed to influence policy. We may as well pay them to stay home.
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:44am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Good Old Days when the MPs provided service at their own cost
    
    MPs were paid a “honorarium” from 1854 and a salary from 1892. I suppose one might regard the mid to late 1800’s as the “good old days” ….. 🙂
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:00am
- Damocles11
  
  Nicola Willis was a director of The NZ Initiative in 2016 and 2017, and the ‘fixing the basics’ guff that National trot out, in lieu of a policy platform, is mainly along the lines of The NZ Initiatives priorities.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:18am
- peterwn
  
  Paul Goldsmith would be highly employable. Most National MP’s has successful business or professional careers before entering Parliament, and can pick them up again after leaving Parliament. A very old example was Jack Watts, National’s first Finance Minister. When he left Parliament he set up a law firm which still bears his name (Minter Ellison Watts Stone).
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:18am
  - mike
    
    Goldsmith could resume writing hagiographies.
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:33am
  - Cassandra
    
    A few examples would be handy. I’ve met Goldsmith. Not my cuppa.
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:50am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I honestly know little about Paul Goldsmith.
  
  He is a historian. A lifetime political staffer. Worked for both John Banks and Phil Goff.
  
  Has a black belt in taekwondo.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/114877115/national-portrait–paul-goldsmith-a-career-of-tradeoffs
  
  I have been less than impressed.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:21am
  - BeaB
    
    You say you know ‘little’ about Paul Goldsmith but also that you are not impressed.
    That’s quite a leap. Why not find out a bit more before you rush to judgement?
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:27am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Mr Goldsmith is also a talented pianist. Heard him play on the radio a few weeks back.
    And a second dan black belt in Taekwondo.
    Handy!
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:35am
    - mike
      
      “Don’t kick me, I’m only the piano player”
      
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      September 21, 2026 8:47am
    - kowtow
      
      Not in the National Pardy under Luxon.
      Remember Bayly got booted for barely raising a limp wrist.
      
      Hiiii yaaaaa!
      
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      September 21, 2026 8:52am
Yvette

With AI, one of the most vast dangers so far may be –
President Trump on Monday rejected calls from leading artificial intelligence executives for new limits on the technology, writing on social media that the industry already has the only guardrail it needs: “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”
He dismissed safety concerns as a “hoax” that would give China the upper hand in developing the technology. He argued that “the people that say AI is going to destroy the World” are the same ones warning about climate change — which he also insists is a hoax.
– New York Times (subscription)

In a February 2017 opinion piece for The Guardian discussing Donald Trump, Scottish comic and writer Frankie Boyle famously wrote: “Of course, presidents always enter office with something to prove, it’s just rarely their sanity.”
In that same article, he made his scathing comment about [Western] karma, describing Trump as:
“…a man so obnoxious and unhappy that karma may see him reincarnated as himself.”
At the moment the world is experiencing his Second Coming
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September 21, 2026 8:01am
- kowtow
  
  Frankie Boyle ?
  
  Oh dear, what more can one say.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:18am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Politicians are getting on the ‘bash the supermarkets’ bandwagon. Have I got bad news for them.

Oil prices are through the roof and the NZD is in the toilet. What effect on grocery prices do they think this double whammy will have?

And as a follow up – interest rates are heading up.

Brace yourself, people. You ain’t seen nutting yet.
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September 21, 2026 8:01am
Tomtoddy

“This is an Aussie competition and it will be won by an Aussie team. Take whatever steps are necessary.”
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September 21, 2026 8:02am
- Frank the tank
  
  Shouldn’t have been necessary – should have been up by 12-18 at half time.
  
  Warriors still lack that elite playmaker that only Stacey Jones has come close to that can make those big plays in the pointy end of the season.
  
  That ref has a history of poor showings in big matches with all 3 decisions duds.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:13am
- Observant Octagenarian
  
  My wife just made an astute observation:
  “The Warriors – Rugby League’s version of the Chiefs”
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:19am
NeverMindTheBollocks

I see that Diana is back in the news.

Sure, she did some good things, with anti land mine campaigns and acceptance of people with HIV and AIDS.

But really, no one would now care, if she had been ugly. It’s an indictment on us all.
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September 21, 2026 8:02am
Damocles11

Two communists are talking to each other. One communist says to the other “if you had two houses would you give me one?”

The second communist says “of course I would, you’re my communist brother.”

The first communist says “If you had two cars would you give me one?”

The second communist says “of course I would, you’re my communist brother.”

The first communist says “if you had two chickens would you give me one?”

The second communist says “NO”

First communist “why not?

Second communist says “because I DO HAVE two chickens”
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September 21, 2026 8:12am
artemisia

At an event in the US Nigel Farage said he wants to hijack their ICE tsar and bring him to the UK “to secure our borders”.

Mr Farage might have to fight off Germany. And Ceuta.
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September 21, 2026 8:14am
Cassandra

The biggest issue of the day? Ed Sheeran drops Macklemore from his show because Macklemore is an anti-Semitic Hamas supporter. Sheeran’s supporting acts, mostly Irish, pull out. Hamas supporters turn up at Sheeran’s concerts to protest. Good. I hope they all get everything off their chests.
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September 21, 2026 8:16am
- Damocles11
  
  Sheeran now performing humiliation rituals at his concerts, crying and begging for forgiveness. The leftists are pouring scorn on him and condemning him for portraying himself as ‘a victim’. It is really horrible stuff.
  
  Macklemore performed in full ‘Jew-Face’, complete with massive hooked nose….and that’s ok(?)
  The world has gone mad.
  
  https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/2101675032111988976
  
  https://x.com/Robbie_Reasons/status/2101604916913492441
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:34am
- mike
  
  Macklemore is an anti-Semitic Hamas supporter
  
  Nope.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:35am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Oh yes he is.
    https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16138409/Rapper-Macklemores-anti-Semitic-Jewish-costume-sparks-renewed-fury-pro-Palestine-backlash-against-Ed-Sheeran-continues-Greta-Thunberg-latest-condemn-singer.html
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:45am
    - mike
      
      It’s nice to give you something almost true to argue about, seeing you can’t be enthusiastic about Trump anymore.
      
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      September 21, 2026 8:49am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Sigh, nice try with the smear but I have said many times that Trump is a lying narcarstic clown.
        However, they have got Iran in a box and despite all the drama the US economy is going very well. Certainly better than ours. So frankly I would rather have a very flawed leader like Trump than spineless ones like Luxon or downright globalist fascists like Macron, Carney, Van der Leyen, Starmer, Burnham and co.
        
        ‘U.S. forces have supported the passage of more than one billion barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months while Iran has exported none under Washington’s “ironclad blockade,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper announced Saturday.
        
        Cooper said American forces reached the milestone while providing coordinated protection for more than 2,000 commercial ship transits through the strategic waterway.
        
        “Clearly, momentum is building,” he said in a video update.
        
        The volume of crude oil, cargo, and liquefied natural gas moving through Hormuz over the past two weeks is higher than at any point in the six months since the war began on February 28, Cooper said, while the strait’s primary transit lanes remain clear of mines.’
        https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/19/centcom-1-billion-barrels-move-through-hormuz-ironclad-blockade-holds-iran-to-zerocentcom-1-billion-barrels-move-through-hormuz-ironclad-blockade-holds-iran-to-zero/
        
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        September 21, 2026 9:03am
      - mike
        
        US economy is in the toilet, barely supported by the AI stock bubble, and it has lost the war with Iran. I hope it comforts you to pretend you never worshipped Trump.
        
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        September 21, 2026 9:14am
  - cmm (semi-retired edition)
    
    I expect that this is a move that will both make and break fans.
    
    Why can’t these people just keep their mouths shut and leave the politics to politicians?
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:46am
    - mike
      
      Perhaps they want to speak about their beliefs. There’s nothing particularly wrong with condemning war crimes, is there?
      
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      September 21, 2026 8:52am
  - Cassandra
    
    mike: yep. Take a look at the false nose pic. Hamas is the elected government of Gaza and would win an election in the WB.
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:53am
    - mike
      
      Hamas, despite its initial support from Israel, has emerged to be the preferred choice for Palestinians seeking self-determination.
      
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      September 21, 2026 8:59am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Only in Gaza.
        The rest of the ME hate them.
        And everyone hates Iran now too.
        Who would have thought that now we have the Sauds and Lebanon working with the Israelis.
        Even Morocco is exchanging Embassies now with Israel
        Thats gonna sting all the Jew Haters out there. And all the doom casters saying WW3 is going to break out.
        Not how they thought things would end up at all.
        
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        September 21, 2026 9:08am
- All_on_Red
  
  Just a correction Cass. Sheeran didnt drop him. The owner of the Stadium (who is Jewish) banned him.
  And all the other Stadium owners followed suit.
  
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  September 21, 2026 9:04am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    The right of free speech does not entail an obligation to provide a platform
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:09am
Scott

I went and had a coffee yesterday afternoon at a local cafe. I know the owners, a very nice Indian couple who have a young family. The cook was an Indian fellow, the food was good. The waitress was a lovely Indian girl who made me a nice coffee.
So I have no animus against any of these people. In fact I like them.

But, it was a business owned by Indians who employed Indians. And this pattern is happening everywhere in our town. Almost every business in the main street is now owned and run by Indians.
How is this benefiting New Zealanders?
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September 21, 2026 8:21am
- Ian Boag
  
  I guess the NZers who (presumably) sold them the business felt like it was helpful? Broadway in Palmerston North is chocka with Asian eateries – Thai, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Cambodian, Japanese, Vietnamese. Not sure what should be done about it.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:41am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Vietnamese. Not sure what should be done about it.
    
    Suggest that they also open a Vietnamese cafe/eatery in Gisborne… (please, pretty please)
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:07am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Are the indian community in Masterton not New Zealanders?
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:41am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Hard to say. The vast majority of people of Indian ethnicity in NZ have moved here in the last 25-30 years.
    
    From my observation, Indians stick to their own caste group. Importantly, although they live here, their kids are paraded around the extended family and caste group back in India, when it comes to marriage. Kiwis, whether of Indian heritage or otherwise, are not considered good enough.
    
    This leads to what the UK has found: far from Indian migrants over time becoming just like us, in fact you get first generation immigrants, every generation – and we have very little say on who arrives as a spouse.
    
    I don’t know that this is an outcome intended by the framers of our immigration policy.
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:02am
- AitchW
  
  They may be New Zealanders.
  I’m a New Zealander. By choice, my family moved here in the 70s. I’m educated here, paid tax all my working life.
  My two employees are New Zealanders. One was born here the other wasn’t.
  Does that benefit New Zealanders?
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:43am
  - mike
    
    Bang on!
    
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    September 21, 2026 8:56am
- imalwaysright
  
  “How is this benefiting New Zealanders?”
  
  They may be New Zealanders.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:47am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    “How is this benefiting New Zealanders?”
    
    They’re doing all the work, as far as I can tell.
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:09am
- Simon
  
  Low wage mass immigration from the third world doesn’t benefit NZ. It does benefit the neoliberal managerial state.
  
  The confusion on this blog is that thinking that the managerial state and NZ’s interests are the same.
  
  National party for eg, interests are not the same as its majority voter’s interests. National are part of the managerial state.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:49am
- kowtow
  
  When “multiculturalism” is really monocultural.
  
  or inclusiveness is really exclusive.
  
  1984 and all that.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:54am
- mike
  
  How can you tell that all those ‘Indians’ are not New Zealanders?
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:55am
- cmm (semi-retired edition)
  
  Scott: If they were serving you some special Indian treat it would be a different matter, but I presume you just got a generic coffee.
  
  I can’t see the benefit in importing low skilled people when we already have rafts of those. Yes, certainly bring in the Indian doctors and nurses, but we don’t have to take their waitresses and Uber drivers do we?
  
  Of course people are going to feel more comfortable hiring “their own”. They probably speak Hindi when there are no customers around. It is probably also easier for them dealing with employment issues etc.
  
  On top of that there almost universal distrust of Maori amongst the ethnic enclaves.
  
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  September 21, 2026 9:12am
kowtow

Guy Body cartoon today’s herald .

Hagar throwing a book grenade .My next book.

How out of touch is the paper , thinking most readers would get it.

I certainly didn’t . ( Do now thanks to the Platform)

As for the Herald , how very “Beltway”.
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September 21, 2026 8:22am
crackle

Was very disapointed to hear the PM to use Chloe’s talking points on Zb this morning.
Im finding it increasingly hard to vote, can’t vote left really don’t want to vote for a govt coalition the Chistopher Luxon leads.

If you want to improve affordability grow the damn economy. I suggest slashing corporate tax rates as a starter might even get a new grocery chain interested if it 14% instead of 28%
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September 21, 2026 8:24am
Tomtoddy

Qatar has funded American universities to the tune of $60 billion over the last few years – yes, Billion not million.

Qatar openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood demands Islamic dominance, oppresses secularism, opposes Western values and institutions, funds terrorist organisations.

Hard to believe there isn’t some very deep connections.
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September 21, 2026 8:34am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Qatar’s actions in this respect are odd, really. The country is a hereditary monarchy.
  
  You’d have to think that the Emir and his family will be ahead even of lawyers up against the wall when the revolution comes.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:40am
- Master Mariner
  
  Qatar is an interesting Outlier.
  Qatar is a conduit for Muslim Brotherhood just as much for Hamas and Hezbollah with local offices instigated by the US/ Israeli interests. It was also where negotiations with the Taliban was conducted.
  It is/was the Navy Base for the 5th Fleet.
  Interesting Qatar is the most closely aligned to Iran sharing the worlds biggest Gas Field.
  Qatar is a useful state for any diplomatic solutions with Iran.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:56am
- kowtow
  
  Likewise China funding tertiary in the west , bigly.
  
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  September 21, 2026 8:57am
- mike
  
  Qatar is a close ally of the US and benefactor of the Trumps.
  
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  September 21, 2026 9:01am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Free planes!
    
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    September 21, 2026 9:03am
BeaB

At the weekend, my local New World was packed with shoppers, most of whom were leaving with stacked trolleys.
The shop was brightly lit and well-stocked. Prices were good ($2.99 for a large cauliflower, $20 for two large Scotch fillet steaks) and there were plenty of choices. People were chatty and happy.
Why do politicians hate them so much? Even Blind Freddy can see their ignorant interference will drive up prices.
Luxon must really hate successful, efficient NZ-run businesses? Does he deserve my vote? No.
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September 21, 2026 8:34am
Simon

National’s grim stupidity over breaking the super markets has opened a Pandora’s Box. Even worse proposals of direct state interventions into private businesses from left wing nuts jobs. With from a National perspective of leaving no effective opposition to these mad proposals.
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September 21, 2026 8:39am
plc

Guess it wasn’t their year
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September 21, 2026 8:40am
Positan

I’ve been wondering whether the disgraceful, bottle-throwing behaviour evinced by sore-loser Warriors fans towards the referee is more than just a symptom of the ever-increasing violence epitomised in all the endlessly televised haka which seem to represent the failings of haka-renderers to articulate themselves in a civilised way.

I’ve gone from taking real pride in watching the All Blacks’ haka before a game to being now utterly repelled at the violence implicit in examples of the performance which show complete regression from civilised conduct to rampant savagery.

Believe me, today’s haka as performed are not raising the image of New Zealanders in so many cultured, international circles.
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September 21, 2026 9:05am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  raising the image of New Zealanders
  
  reminds everyone we are a bunch of savages.
  
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  September 21, 2026 9:11am

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