Radio NZ reports:

The government will pass a law preventing companies from being sued over climate change damage in many cases.

The law, which applies to current and future cases, will stop a High Court case against Fonterra and six other major emitters in its tracks.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the Climate Change Response Act would be amended to prevent courts from making findings of liability in tort from damage or harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

I am 100% in favour of the law change. We have judicial activism gone mad. The courts invented a new type of tort where companies engaged in 100% legal activities can be sued because someone doesn’t like the Government’s climate change policies.

It is for Parliament to set climate policies, not the Supreme Court. This is not Parliament retrospectively amending a statute they got wrong. This is Parliament reasserting its sovereignity.

A privilege to attend the above event last Friday.

As opposed to ill-informed assertions that “every brain learns the same” world leading Neuro-Scientist David Eagleman (Stanford University); …

” … suggests that while the basic neural architecture is similar across brains, individual brains learn and adapt in unique ways due to life experiences and genetic predispositions. He emphasizes that the brain is highly malleable and constantly rewiring itself, but the specific pathways and connections formed are unique to each individual.” (The Brain: The Story of You)

I have known Tennille and Gavin Murdoch, the Forest School founders, for a while. They are wonderful educators and the Forest School has existed for 10 years as a one-day a week provision for students near their Orewa base. They thoroughly deserved the approval to create a Charter School.

The key theme of the opening was very much that across NZ there are many children, for a range of reasons, who need a different provision and a range of teaching/learning methods to thrive in education and begin to find their place in the world.

The children attending this school are clearly loving it. It was also obvious that the parents of the children are a HUGE part of the provision.

Having been to a significant number of Charter Schools in NYC and the wider USA I do hope the government can get the settings right in their second term (assuming that they are re-elected). The huge need is for large schools/chains to provide in a pathway changing way for marginalized groups. New Zealand has the biggest achievement gaps in the OECD and the current government has barely attacked the problem and even seems comfortable with Ministry made predictions that the new qualifications will accentuate the gaps. As present less than 0.2 of 1% of children in NZ have the Charter School opportunity. Keep in mind the Ass. Minister’s post-election promise was:

“Seymour says he’s learnt much from his previous attempt to establish the charter model here, although most of the lessons were political rather than pedagogical. This time, he’s going big and going fast.

“There’s probably going to be a couple of hundred of these schools by the time Labour gets back into power. And it’s going to be big, powerful communities with lots of capital and lots of lawyers.

As an aside; my wife came from Brazil 17 years ago. What a privilege for her to meet and have a photo with Deputy Prime Minister Dave Seymour.

The Herald reports:

The Skotel Alpine Resort owner in Whakapapa Village claims the Department of Conservation is pandering to failed businesses in the Tongariro National Park when it comes to allocating staff accommodation.

Sam Clarkson is seeking village accommodation for at least eight Skotel employees, essential for fire evacuation, he said, but all buildings currently vacant are reserved for a possible future operator of the derelict Chateau Tongariro. ,,,

Clarkson said he’s at a loss to figure out how Skotel can warrant just two staff beds, while the Chateau commanded 116 staff beds when it closed in 2023. (The measure of beds is based on bedrooms.

Skotel has 56 guest rooms, a dining room and 35 fulltime staff.

The Chateau has about 115 guest rooms and a dining room, and, for many years, included the operation of a cafe and tavern. In its deeper past, its operations also included ski field businesses such as rentals. 

It had about 36 staff when it closed, but, according to the Ruapehu District Council, its staff numbers averaged 75-100 from 2015 to 2020.

This seems bizarre. The Skotel is actually there and operating (I stayed there with the kids recently, and it was great) yet they can only get two beds for their staff, while 116 are reserved for a defunct hotel.

Why not allocate eight to Skotel for this season, and revise the following?

The ratio between the two seems out of kilter, even if the Chateau is open. Wouldn’t a better way be to just auction off the beds each season and allow any local business that wants on site accomodation for staff to apply?

The Herald reports:

Resources Minister Shane Jones invited leaders from the minerals sector and diplomats, including a high-ranking official from the US State Department, for a critical minerals roundtable at Parliament today. 

Jones spoke frankly with attendees about the US’ keenness to develop minerals supply chains and about the Government pondering minimum prices for certain resources in order to establish viable operations for their extraction. 

During the part of the meeting open to media, Jones said he wanted to create a “narrative” that critical minerals were a “legitimate part of the New Zealand economy”.

Critical minerals are, well critical. We should absolutely be mining them – both for our own use, and to export. Any anyone against that should hand in their cellphone, computer and electric car.

A major concern of the meeting was price. Resources prices can fluctuate wildly. Resource powers, including China, have been accused of dumping resources on the market to collapse prices, making those states’ competitors unviable. This allows those states and firms to retain market dominance for certain minerals. 

Jones discussed the possibility of establishing a price floor to combat this in a discussion with Sloper, the Australian High Commissioner. 

“It’s been reported to me there are firms in Australia and at various times in New Zealand who do shutter because there’s no point in them operating if the price for a certain key mineral collapses,” he said.

But Jones said there were challenges in establishing a minimum price for resource exports because it potentially violated provisions in New Zealand’s free trade agreements, which generally prevented the Government from intervening in pricing. 

‘We’ve struggled with how do we commit to a floor price without violating the provisions of a host of trade agreements that successive New Zealand governments have signed up to,” Jones said. 

He added it was “fair to say there’s been an allergic reaction from some of the senior politicians to the idea of a floor price”.

As there should be. We got rid of minimum prices for farming in the 1980s, so let’s not bring them in for mining.

Like many I am not against cycleways. I am against cycleways done badly.

The new shared path cycleway between Wellington and Petone is a great example of one done well. The existing cycleway is terrible and actually ends 1 km before Petone – on the wrong side on SH2!

What I like about this one is:

• Is totally seperate to the road, so much safer
• Is big enough for both cycling and pedestrians
• No car parks were destroyed in making it, so doesn’t cripple local businesses (in fact would be good location for pop up coffee places)
• Connects two cities together
• Also acts as a seawall barrier protecting SH2, and the rail link, adding resilience

I am keen to try running it soon. Run to Petone, have a coffee there at one of their great cafes, and then run/walk home.

The NZ Herald reports:

The audio of an exercise by Labour candidates and supporters in the Wellington region on how to avoid answering difficult questions from the public has been widely leaked. …

Edmonds: “Every week I have to stand up in the House and ask a duck-faced horse – did I get that right – questions every single week, and I have the glory of being able to question her, or debate her in debates and to talk through media …

Charming. Don’t you recall all the outrage over anonymous trolls on Twitter comparing Ardern to a horse, and here you have the No 3 in Labour calling Nicola Willis a duck-faced horse.

The Post reports:

Wellington is set to lose what is described as its only sexual harm prevention organisation, with Government funding cuts blamed.

RespectEd Aotearoa ‒ founded in 2015 by Wellington Rape Crisis, WellStop, and HELP ‒ has announced it will close in August. Three staff will lose their jobs. …

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi (PSA) said the closure would lead to preventable sexual violence unless the Government restored funding.

“Prevention works,” said PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons.

“When you cut prevention funding, more people will be raped and subjected to sexual violence.”

Locking up rapists works also. Where is the proof that this particular organisation has been effective? Just because you have good intentions, doesn’t mean you are effective.

“Without a change of course, RespectEd Aotearoa will not be the last to fall,“ Fitzsimons said.

“The blame for this, and the consequences of rising sexual violence, sit squarely on the Government’s shoulders.“

RespectEd staff member Juliet Leeming said the closure came as sexual violence was on the rise.

It is not surprising that a former Labour candidate blames the Government for everything. But do we actually have rising sexual violence? The best data in the Crime and Victims Survey. The media just report claims without checking them, but we like to look at data. So what has been the annual prevalence rate for sexual assaults:

• 2018: 2.0
• 2021: 2.1
• 2022: 1.9
• 2023: 1.8
• 2024: 2.1
• 2025: 1.6

So the prevalence rate is actually lower than any time in the last seven years. An inconvenient fact.

The ODT reports:

Jo Galer is on track to win the Dunedin City Council by-election over former mayor Aaron Hawkins.

At 1.30pm today, Ms Galer (8845 votes) was in first place and Aaron Hawkins (8099 votes) was second, followed by Conrad Stedman (6482 votes) in third.

The result is based on counting of about 85% of returned voting papers.

It takes a special talent to go from being elected Mayor, to being unable to even win a ward seat. Tory Whanau managed it, and now Aaron Hawkins. The final result was very close, but again so rare for a former Mayor to be unable to even win a seat.

Ms Galer, who was endorsed by Crs Russell Lund and Lee Vandervis, stood on a platform of prioritising basic infrastructure including in South Dunedin, capping rates and stopping cycleways.

Sounds a popular position.

These are eye witness accounts, not third or fourth hand rumour. The Daily Mail also has extracts, from morgue staff:

The terrorists shot their eyes, their faces and their breasts, and even targeted their most intimate parts, to destroy their beauty and rob their loved ones of a final goodbye.

Women were stripped, bound, stabbed, shot and burned. They were executed both during and after rape amid an orgy of violence in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

Heads were decapitated. Pelvic bones shattered. Even after death, sexual assault continued.

At this point, I think of the NZ academics who called October 7th legitimate resistance.

Oliver Hartwich has written a very enjoyable satirical novella, called The Martian Audit. An extract from Chapter 1:

Xylos lowered the ramp. He stepped out, ready to embrace the acoustic guitar lifestyle.

He was met with a silence that was not so much peaceful as it was litigious.

A white ute sat by the fence line. Leaning against it was a man.

He was not smiling. He did not have a dog. He was wearing a high-visibility vest that seemed to absorb the joy from the surrounding air.

He checked his watch. He checked the landing struts. He made a note on his clipboard.

“Greetings,” Xylos said, extending a long, slender hand. “We come from the Valles Marineris. We seek the simple life shown on your transmission Country Calendar.”

The man looked up. His name tag read WAYNE. His eyes were the colour of a council meeting room wall.

“Afternoon,” Wayne said. “South Wairarapa District Council.

You the owner of this structure?”

“It is a Class-4 Interstellar Transport,” Xylos corrected.

“Right,” Wayne said. “So, a non-consented dwelling.”

He walked around the ship, tapping the hull with a pen. “You’re in a Significant Natural Landscape overlay. You’ve exceeded the height-to-boundary ratio. And judging by the sheen on this alloy, you’re well over the visual reflectivity limits. I’m going to have to issue an abatement notice.”

The novella is free to download and read.

There are often calls for the US Cabinet to remove Donald Trump from office using the 25th amendment. One of the lawyers who helped draft the 25th amendment makes an important point:

Its purpose is limited and precise: to address presidential inability and fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. It was not meant to address political dissatisfaction with a president. ..

The framers of the 25th amendment declined to place in the amendment a definition of inability. They made reference to conditions or circumstances that would prevent the president from discharging his powers and duties, mentioning physical and mental illnesses, permanent and temporary.

Lawmakers at the same time, however, were clear that unpopularity, incompetence, impeachable conduct, poor judgment and laziness were not covered by the term “inability.”

These issues should be dealt with by impeachment, or an election. Not by the 25th amendment.

I’m amused that Labour parties always claim they are the party of diversity, yet UK Labour is about to replace their white male leader with another white male leader (Milliband or Burnham). All 19 leaders of the UK Labour Party have been white males.

While the Conservative Party doesn’t bang on about diversity. It just elects who they think is the best person for the job. And since 1977 they have had three female leaders, one British Indian leader and one British African leader.

Matt Nippert reports:

Charlotte Stanley, general manager of regulator Charities Services, addressed the Charities Review Board in July 2024 to deliver the findings of a five-year investigation into political funding by the Waipareira Trust for the campaigns of its chief executive, John Tamihere.

This funding occurred through what she described as “inflated payments” to Tamihere, a former candidate for Auckland mayor, and later Te Pāti Māori candidate and co-leader, and current party president.

Stanley recommended the Charities Review Board (CRB) take the ultimate sanction available to it and deregister Waipareira.

“The trust had engaged in support for political candidates or parties by way of support to its CEO, which is not charitable. In addition we think that the trust also does not qualify as charitable because of inflated or excessive payments to its CEO for his personal benefit,” Stanley told the CRB, according to briefing notes for the meeting.

Ms Stanley was 100% right, but sadly her board are cowards and backed down.

Here’s what the so called charity did:

1. Spent $393,993.16 on two political campaigns – Tamihere for Mayor, and Te Pati Maori for Parliament. Any board member who approved that should be sacked for not knowing it was illegal.
2. When caught out, defended it as legitimate, and finally under pressure agreed it would be repaid and converted it into a loan.
3. Then did nothing to actually have the loan repaid, and charged no interest on the loan.
4. Again under pressure, they then paid Tamihere a bonus salary of $393,993.16 – the exact amount of the loan, allowing him to repay it.

It is worth noting 99% of their income comes from taxpayer funded contracts. They have charitable status because they are meant to be helping the community, not the CE’s political ambitions.

Henry Cooke writes:

There are good reasons for our politicians to look seriously at the long-term affordability of superannuation.

It is by far our largest benefit, and largest single-ticket item, taking up around 16.6% of tax revenue and 5% of GDP. It costs close to five times what we spend on the unemployment benefit or more than our entire educational system. And given we are both living longer and having fewer children it seems set to eat up more and more of the wider budget. …

One of the reasons superannuation has become such a big-ticket item is the way it is “indexed” – the way that it automatically goes up over time.

All other benefits are indexed to match regular price inflation. So if you’re severely disabled and get a supported living payment, your benefit goes up in track with the price of a basket of goods every year – hopefully meaning you can continue to pay for the necessities in life.

But because superannuation is seen as a special other type of payment whose beneficiaries are more deserving, it is indexed to wage inflation. Wage inflation typically outguns price inflation over time, and this means that people on super don’t just keep up with prices rising, they keep up with wages too.

Treasury had a look at what changing the indexation to regular price inflation would look like recently. It would unsurprisingly save a huge amount of money – reducing the necessary taxes by so much that GDP per person would be $4900 higher per person by 2065.

This I 100% support, with one minor change. I’d index NZ Super to say inflation +0.25% so the level does increase slightly in real terms, but not as much as indexing it to the average wage does.

Radio NZ reports:

A developer is calling on the Upper Hutt City Council to let it build what it believes to be a crucial road, so it can construct 1600 homes.

Guildford Timber Company (GTC) wants to build the road through an area of council-owned land known as the Silverstream Spur, home to a number of native bird species.

It had been looking to develop 330 hectares of its own land for the homes in Silverstream, a 30-minute drive from downtown Wellington’s, since 2007.

It wanted to establish a link road between its sites on the ridgeline and valley floor, saying the “the best access available” was through the Silverstream Spur.

In 2024, Upper Hutt City Council decided to rezone the Spur as a natural open space, which would not allow for the development of a road on the land.

So the homes will be on private land – they just need an access road over the Silverstream Spur.

GTC stressed that a road would only take up a small part of the Spur – about a tenth of the area.

“I think there’s a misconception in New Zealand that just because an area is bush, it must have ecological merit and is somehow surviving by itself, and frankly that’s not the case. You know, land needs to be managed and it takes resources and people to do that,” Griffin said.

The project will produce 1,600 homes, see $500 million spent locally, create 200 jobs and also see 16 kms of walking and biking trails. Should be a no brainer.

A BSA decision:

TVNZ breached broadcasting standards in its reporting of comments by President Trump in an item on the arrest of the man suspected of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found.

The Authority has upheld three complaints that the 1News item, broadcast on 13 September 2025, breached the accuracy standard by misrepresenting the President’s comment, “I couldn’t care less”, in response to a question.

The report’s introduction stated, “[W]hen the President was asked what he’d do to unite the country after this tragedy, he said, ‘I couldn’t care less’, blaming the radical left, and vowing to go after political violence”. This was accompanied by a large banner with a photo of Trump and the words, “I couldn’t care less”.

So viewers were led to think Trump said he didn’t care about the shooting or uniting the country. But in fact:

The BSA found this was inaccurate, as Trump actually said: “Well, I’ll tell you something that’s gonna get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less”. It found the obvious interpretation was that the phrase about not caring related to getting in trouble for comments he was about to make. 

Very different.

The annual donations returns were recently published, and the media focused on how CR parties had more than CL parties. They failed to look at the trend,

In the table below I compare 2025 donations to 2022, as like vs like. Both are mid years in the three year cycle.

National and ACT in 2025 got in around 20% more than in 2022. A modest increase.

The huge increases were Labour, Greens and NZ First. They all quadrupled their donations.

In an absolute sense, Labour had the biggest increase of almost $2 million.

Now let’s look at how the donations are made up.

With small donations under $1,500 National and Labour do best bringing in $2.1 and $1.4 million. Labour has an impressive 65,000 small donors. ACT and Greens also have over 10,000 small donors.

In terms of medium sized donors, National cleans up. They had over 600 donate an average 2,300. National gets in 10 times more than other parties when it comes to medium sized donors.

National also does best with large donors, but the average donation is around $18,500. Labour is lower at $13,500 but ACT is $39k, NZF $24k and Greens $21k.

The proportion of donations that comes from large donors is:

1. NZ First 69%
2. ACT 61%
3. Te Pati Maori 55%
4. TOP 52%
5. National 43%
6. Labour 36%

It is worth reflecting that the average large donor to National gives $18,500. This is 0.3% of their total donation revenue. Anyone who thinks that a donation of that size can influence policy is being ridicolous.

The Herald reports:

New Zealanders don’t “really care” about the details of one of the Labour Party’s key election policies, leader Chris Hipkins claims. 

The New Zealand Future Fund, which Labour unveiled last October with little detail attached to it, is intended to take the dividends of some Crown assets and redistribute them into New Zealand businesses, with the aim to incentivise job creation. 

The party has not said what assets may have their dividends redirected into this fund as it has said it won’t decide this until after the election, once it receives advice from officials.

This is from the party that came up with a plan to build 100,000 houses on the back of a napkin. They think details don’t matter. They do.

There is a lot going on in education.

Significant reports that the changes in curriculum and method at a junior level are not having the desired effect.

New English, maths primary curriculums had little effect on achievement, first results show.

Curriculum changes are being delayed.

New timeframe for years 0-8 curriculum rollout clarified, union claims win.

Qualifications changes are far from straight forward. I began teaching in 1991 and heard all of the timeline promises, the theoretical underpinning, and educational enhancement promises for NCEA. My, well thought through, expectation for the secondary school curriculum/qualifications is that the education sector has 12 years of chaos ahead. This is a combination of the Minister of Education having been captured by a very narrow range of ideologues and advisers, the deep incompetence of the Ministry of Education, the entrenched opposition of the teacher unions, and poor design from the outset.

NCEA replacement ‘not going to suit our young people’ says teachers’ union.

I am no fan – in any way shape or form – of the teacher’s union – but, like a broken analogue clock – they are right twice a day.

This is serious, but I was a little stunned by Ryan Bridge saying that “Old School is the Best School.”

I went through high school at Wanganui Boys College from 1980 to 1984. I then taught at Tauranga Boys’ College (1991 – 96), Hamilton Boys’ (1997-98) and St Cuthbert’s College (1998 – 2001). That time spanned the transition to NCEA that was supposed to be fully in place by 1996, but took until 2002.

What we had before that was a disaster. School Certificate results were determined around a 50% pass rate in English – destining approx. half of the students to fail – no matter how good teachers were. I remember one student at school asking a future All Black … “What were your best three years at school – 5^th form?”

Sixth Form certificate for schools was based on their School Certificate results (e.g. I got a “1” in economics because I had earned it in the previous year with my School Certificate result in that subject). Because I was “Accredited” UE and, knew that I would be from the beginning of the year, I did very little in the 6^th form, except practice my goalkicking and perfect my Euchre playing in an accounting class. University Bursary earned you diddly squat but you went through the charade.

“Old School is the Best School” Ryan?

I am deeply unsure why – given the choices the Minister is making – why she did not simply mandate Cambridge exams as the NZ qualification. It would be MUCH cheaper and also likely to be of much higher quality that the Ministry/NZQA combination will come up with.

I have to bring a lighter note. A couple of posts back a commenter doubted my assertions about caning in the 1980s. I raised the situation where two of us in my class lapped the other 28 in a PE run and all of those slow-pokes were caned. I mentioned that my co-conspirator in that crime was also caned 27 times by one teacher for not doing his homework. I should have mentioned that he was also caned by a teacher affectionately know as “Nude Nut” for the sin of blowing his nose.

I contacted the gentleman who had been thrown into doubt. Here are his responses:

“I remember both occasions vividly, especially being padded in advance for submitting the set 1000 lines as actual lines on a page instead of the required phrase. Poor Mr Ton, it sounded like he was caning a bouncy castle. A bean bag would’ve felt more.”

 “I also remembered the PE teachers reclining on chairs and rising only to rethreaten those running to lap those that could be lapped or deserving to get caned as well. The same teachers I remembered with one of them shoving you into the school pool after swimming, i.e., you were in your uniform and wearing your school bag. Brilliant educational facility.”

“I’d forgotten about being caned for blowing my nose, but there can’t be too many people punished that way for such a heinous crime. I mean what was the intended corrective behaviour that intervention was seeking to achieve?”

“Nude also had that affectation of cradling the back of his hand on his forehead and for someone teaching English, could barely speak it coherently. No wonder we were bored to distraction. He’d mumble some loose connection to the reading matter he’d then repeat it as scribble on the board until the bell saved us all. He couldn’t run a bath, let alone a class.”

“Or – if you walked into the classroom with a jacket on, he would yell “jacket off” – which was hilarious to 14 year olds. On some occasions we would all walk in with a jacket on and then pile them on one desk. Many times when he turned his back to write on the board someone would say “NUDE”.”

Maybe a good vent would be for people to tell their “old school” stories of what education was really like. I got freaked out at primary school by a teacher who seemed to love smacking bottoms and ended up being banned from teaching as he took his behaviour further with a selected few.

Please tell your stories!

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