Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has taken aim at Te Pāti Māori, calling them “radical extremists” and accusing them stoking racial division.
Peters was responding to Te Pāti Māori’s promotion of the nationwide protests planned for Budget Day and comments made in recent days by party MPs. He criticised the use of imagery of pistols in the protest’s advertising on social media, saying “make no mistake, racial division is exactly what they want, not unity.”
“They don’t want democracy, they want anarchy,” Peters said.
This is what people need to understand. We have a political party in Parliament that doesn’t want democracy, that doesn’t believe in equality of suffrage. They want to stoke conflict, not resolve it.
A spreadsheet blunder has resulted in Wellington Water asking for less money than it needs from every council in the region – to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
The last-minute request for increased funding was made in a week when cash-strapped councils are making major decisions on long-term plans, with one mayor labelling the water agency “incompetent”.
The mistake – described as a miscalculation where programme management costs had not been budgeted for – was revealed in Thursday’s Greater Wellington Regional Council meeting.
The Post understands this now increases Wellington City Council’s budget by $9m, while Lower Hutt’s budget blowout was said to be significantly higher. Mayors and council staff were not able to confirm the numbers on the record ahead of Friday’s Wellington Water Committee meeting.
Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy, a long-time critic of Wellington Water, said it was “beyond belief” and “just incompetent”. The discovery of the error could not come at a worse time, when councils were almost finished budgeting one of the toughest long-term plans in local government history.
That $9 million is an extra $100 or more per household.
Wellington Water committee chairperson and Hutt City mayor Campbell Barry said he became aware of the issue in the past 48 to 72 hours and staff were working through what it would mean for the Hutt.
“I’ve been really clear to Wellington Water they need to front up to this issue at the water committee [on Friday] and give a full explanation, and the steps they are taking.
Time for Councils to sack their reps on the Wellington Water Committee and replace them with ones that will hold Wellington Water to account.
Remember the dramatic defection of Labour MP Meka Whaitiri to TPM on 3 May 2023. Shortly after the defection it emerged that, at the request of the Labour caucus, longtime friend and colleague Kiri Allan had taken an estimated 10-hour return car trip to get to the bottom of the… pic.twitter.com/SybygEw9GA
It’s only $300 but it’s still wrong to claim accomodation in Havelock North when the purpose of the trip was purely about trying to convince a Labour MP not to defect.
In theory this bill should not be needed, but in practice it is. One aspect I really like is it allows someone who is “cancelled” to take a civil suit against the venue seeking costs and exemplary damages.
Here we have Te Pati Maori saying the revolution is here, with crossed guns as imagery. Sarah Palin got crucified by many media for merely posting an imagine of a politician in cross-hairs. Imagine an ACT MP posted something showing pistols and calling for revolution? It would lead every news story.
This is from the official Day of Action page. Just the usual stuff about the Government wanting to wipe out Maori, they need to seize power and get rid of the parliamentary system.
Currently, the worst offenders are Te Pati Māori and others aligned with them. Not only are they using ethnic-based slurs and attacks on people’s identities, but they are also using all sorts of evidence-free claims to foster outrage. …
The new version of the Māori Party, which regards its predecessors as too moderate, has decided to escalate the claims, obviously in the hope of getting more attention. Now, there are claims of “extermination”, “systematic genocide”, and “white supremacy” levelled at opponents. …
Te Pati Maori have become the indigenous version of Donald Trump.
When someone starts organising a protest with pictures of guns and calling it a revolution, it's time to call it out. They do not represent Māori. They represent a small group who are fanatical about race and who are creating enormous division.
I have no doubt Chris Hipkins is the worst and most ignorant (or dishonest) Minister of Education our nation has seen. He said this on ZB last week: “If people are concerned about kids who aren’t achieving in mainstream schooling, the area to look is alternative education and activity centres.”
Hipkins and Ardern said to NZ before banning Charter Schools in 2018 that they would develop Designated Character Schooling. They – and their Ministry accomplices – turned down several brilliant applications. Hipkins and the teacher unions walk hand-in-hand blindfolded while: – a significant portion of our primary school teachers cannot do basic English, Maths, or Science. – the top 30 high schools see an average of 87% of their leavers attain UE, for the bottom 30 high schools it is 2.7%.
We are not talking being concerned about a few kids Mr Chipster – but around 40% of our high school students in abject failure.
Charter schools are a part of the solution but the last introduction of them was an appalling policy and implementation failure that was saved by a few high quality and incredibly dedicated educators and social entrepreneurs who carried the camel across the desert.
Parata had no enthusiasm and was a hand-brake. The Ministry of Education ran interference and were incompetent and obstructive at every turn. The teacher unions were delighted to have something to bang on about to give their members the false impression that they actually do something for their fees and care about kids. The contracts contained aspects that were, frankly, stupid and were first seen by those organisations willing to start the schools on the day they had to sign in October of 2013 (i.e. followed by a 3 month run in to start). Individual Charter School organisations took the Ministry to formal mediation on up to six items. The media did what NZ media does – took press releases from the left and ran them as fact.
And yet … the skill, passion and perseverance of a few individuals, organisations and supportive families and students has allowed some widespread enthusiasm and support for their introduction. They are needed – but everything must be done well.
The contracts must be good. The goals set exact, important and achievable.
The authorisation boards – and whoever is writing the policy and contracts – should be meeting constantly with previous providers. All of the Ministry reports of the last tranche are abject nonsense are not worthy of being door-stops. My understanding is that few previous providers have been consulted at all.
Authorisation and monitoring must be completely independent of the Ministry and any reference to protecting bums on sets in the Ministry’s network of schools.
The schools must be completely transparent in all aspects. When I was involved in the two Villa Education Trust Charter schools they were acknowledged as being the most transparent by evaluators and had very high relative results for NCEA from their Y10 leavers who went into State schools. Their first two external evaluations as Designated Character (State) Schools had their results diving and investigations being started for avoiding OIA’s.
They must be allowed to grow when they succeed and closed when they fail.
Just restarting Charter Schools, kind of like last time, will do very little good at all. There are already too many signs that this is going to be the case.
Starting them expertly and in good numbers – could significantly improve NZ Education for the good of NZ children, their families and society as a whole.
We've all made poor purchases from time-to-time, but have you ever spent $193.807 million on some poorly-made documents and a decommissioned bacon factory? pic.twitter.com/yXQoStveqM
An insightful interview with Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis in the Herald. Was nice to see they can hassle each other:
In return, Luxon says he has discovered Willis has “a wicked sense of humour”.
He had a painful brush with that sense of humour just before the interview.
It was a totally deserved one. He and Willis were inspecting his newish digital photo frame, one of the few personal items in a very spartan office.
He had brought it to add a homely touch to his “gilded cage” – the ninth-floor office of the Prime Minister.
Willis then narked on him, telling us the first time she saw his new photo frame the photo displayed was a portrait of himself.
She was merciless in her mockery. She even took a selfie of herself next to the photo in question, which she shows off.
She laughs and laughs and notes that she totally understood why he would want photos of himself to look at, saying somebody might want to start the day looking at something that inspired them.
“So here you are, starting your day looking at an image of yourself to motivate you.”
He takes it very well, laughing and trying to explain that at that stage he had not curated the photos that would rotate through it.
The exchange dispels any doubt Willis might defer easily to Luxon and whether he can handle having the mickey taken out of him.
I regard it as a very good thing that you can take the Mickey out of your boss, and that your boss can handle it.
With that, I suggested she’d already answered the Theresa May memorial question, ‘what’s the naughtiest thing you ever did?’ (the former British PM famously replied that she’d, gasp, run through a field of wheat), but Willis says no, the question would be lost on her because she did a lot of naughty stuff – and started young.
“I remember I literally, at my primary school, turned the power off at the mains, which led to everyone in the school having to evacuate and go onto the field and them asking who had done it and so yeah, I did naughty stuff.”
Reminds me of my kids a bit. This week we were walking through a rest home and passed a group of residents. One of them had a beautiful hand carved walking stick. My youngest (4) stopped as he passed him, grabbed the walking stick and declared it was now his staff and walked off with it! You are equally mortified and amused. And yes it was promptly returned.
But the legislation has had unintended consequences. We’ve seen what happens when an interpretation of Te Tiriti is placed above the needs of the child.
In some cases, we have seen “reverse uplifts”, where a child is removed from a loving foster home to be placed with relatives deemed more culturally appropriate.
I have seen firsthand the devastation on caregivers’ faces and the pain in their voices after being told a “forever home” did not necessarily mean just that. I saw the damage caused to a family being threatened with a reverse uplift because they were not Māori, who by the grace of God managed to find a Māori ancestor generations back in their bloodline. That was enough to save them from a reverse uplift.
So a reverse uplift would have occurred if it were not for the fact they could find an ancestor from six generations ago, and somehow this is meant to be good for the child?
Then we had the very public case of a young girl referred to as Moana. Moana was traumatised and neglected for years before being removed and placed into a safe, loving home – until a social worker decided they needed to remove Moana from their care because a Pākehā family could not provide for her cultural needs.
All I’m asking is for Oranga Tamariki to make sure that we’re putting safety and wellbeing first. Everything else must come second to that.
Cultural needs are important, even very important. But they should not be a binary test that over-rides all other criteria.
It is true that my own experience informs my politics. I grew up dealing with Child, Youth and Family, and I learned that what matters most in a home is stability, love, and safety – not race.
But more relevant than my own experience is that of children harmed today under Section 7AA.
Child abuse is a national shame, and people have been calling for years for something to be done to protect our most vulnerable children. Now that we are doing something about it, those same people respond with personal attacks and call us racists.
Every child deserves to wake up every morning knowing that they’re going to be safe. Because ultimately you have to be able to survive to enjoy your culture. And at the moment, we are working with children in care who need our help just to survive.
Te Pāti Māori are calling for a by-election and the establishment of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) after the National Party’s donation botch.
On this issue I agree with them. I have supported one for many years. There’s many things such a body could do such as investigating a charity illegally funding a political party.
“When the brown party is late to file a disclosure, we’re referred to the Police and Serious Fraud Office. When the National Party doesn’t disclose, it’s a ‘mistake’ and ‘poor error of judgement’. This is not one law for all.
This is blatant playing of the race card, stating that the legal authorities treat parties different based on the skin colour of their members.
The Electoral Commission has only known of the incorrect donation return for a few days. They have in no way decided not to refer it to the Police, yet alone dismiss it as a mistake. In fact I’ll be astonished if they do not refer it.
The Maori Party was referred in 2021, after it transpired they had not disclosed $320,000 of donations. The decision to refer was only done five weeks after the Electoral Commission was notified.
So there has been no different treatment at all between the two incorrect donation returns. I suspect Te Pati Maori knows this, but they prefer to stoke racial resentment.
A chasm is opening in New Zealand’s traditionally bipartisan foreign policy regarding the Government’s potential involvement in Pillar II of Aukus. If not managed carefully by the National and Labour Party leaderships, it risks locking them into positions on our primary security arrangements that will flip-flop with every change of government, reduces our security options, and diminishes our credibility on the regional stage.
Yep foreign policy should be stable.
Conversely, defence minister Andrew Little was more enthusiastic about New Zealand exploring the benefits of Aukus Pillar II for our defence and security framework.
But in the six months since going into Opposition, Labour have now firmly hoisted their colours to an anti-Aukus mast. In February, the party’s associate foreign affairs spokesman Phil Twyford called Aukus an “offensive warfighting alliance against China.”
Seems hysterical. AUKUS is not an alliance like ANZUS or NATO. It is primarily a technology sharing agreement. Considering how small fry we are, I’d say we’d potentially gain a lot from it.
If Australian Labor can come to the party on Pillar I, then why is its New Zealand counterpart resisting a much more benign engagement in Pillar II?
A good question.
Helen Clark’s views on Aukus have been rehearsed publicly, and consistently, over the past three years. However, her criticism that the new Government’s interest in Aukus is a break from bipartisan consensus doesn’t bear scrutiny. Labour in government engaged with Aukus, and the new Government is continuing its work. It is Labour’s flip-flop, and Hipkins’ inability to explain it on security terms, that is widening the differences.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is clearly frustrated that Clark has captured much of the public debate on Aukus, and even more so that the Labour Party are now adopting her opposition. But her leadership on the debate occurred at a time when both the previous and current governments were largely silent in the conversation. “We’re evaluating it, we’re not sure, wait and see,” are not compelling counter-punches.
Clark has almost become Leader of the Opposition in exile on Twitter. Everyday she is tweeting against the Government in almost every policy area there is.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China’s support for it, was a key moment in European perceptions of China’s transformation from a strategic challenge to a strategic threat.
That’s what change me also.
There are various short-, medium-, and long-term scenarios in the region with differing probabilities. The most plausible scenarios are:
The region becoming less tense. For this to happen, China would need to renounce its current aggressive stance, declaring a hostile takeover of Taiwan as off-limits, withdrawing from provocative conduct in the South and East China Seas, and disengaging in undermining the international rules based order.
Alternatively, the United States capitulating to China’s superiority in the region.
The status quo being maintained: a challenging environment with potential flash-points between the major powers, but no further escalation.
Increased escalation leading to a protracted cold war between the major powers.
A hot war between the US and China.
Before reading what Hamish thinks is the probability of each, I’d say (1) is a pipe dream, (2) is highly unlikely and (5) is highly undesirable and unlikely. So the future is probably (3) or (4).
Price thinks (4) is most likely – a new Cold War.
Aukus candidates may resist describing it as a deterrence to China’s aggression, but advocates need to do so. China’s aggression is a real challenge, now universally accepted by the West. If advocates for Aukus do not frame it as a deterrence, then the deal risks being framed as a proponent of aggression by its opponents, as Twyford has in New Zealand.
MP expenses from Jan to March 2024 are out and there are a few interesting observations.
Despite being suspended on March 14, newbie MP Darleen Tana has the highest expenses ($28,570) from the Greens, and amongst the opposition parties she is only bettered by Labour’s Arena… pic.twitter.com/WP37ZtKIvo
And although Golriz Ghahraman resigned on Jan 16 she still incurred $11,920 of expenses. That includes $6,292 of accommodation costs which may have committed. But $4,738 of ‘surface’ travel?
That does seem exceptionally high, especially as she was overseas until the 13th of January so that is $12,000 of expenses over three days? Perhaps there is a simple explanation such as unclaimed expenses from the previous quarter?
UPDATE: The Greens have said some of it is from the previous quarter and also it appears MPs who resign can keep charging up expenses for a month after their resignation.
In this Insight, we analyse anonymised NCEA data linked to later employment for the recent cohort of primary teachers to better understand what might be driving secondary students’ falling performance in maths and science. Our results show that one in four new primary teachers failed NCEA Level 1 maths, and more than half failed Level 1 Science. Many choose not to pursue Maths and Science beyond Level 1, but those who do are more likely to fail than pass.
Level 1 NCEA is not a high standard. It is a minimum that should be needed.
This would partially explain why over time our achievements levels in maths and science has declined.
NZIER proposes a number of useful solutions:
Like in secondary schools, have some specialist maths and science teachers at primary level. Comparison to health sector when you have GPs and specialists
Secondary trained teachers could be employed by primary schools to provide specialist maths and science support for primary teachers
Secondary trained teachers could teach maths and science in primary schools
New roles for maths and science specialists could be created with their own ITE pathway and higher remuneration to attract students with stronger maths and science skills.
Auckland Council has spent almost $150,000 on a statue at a park where it later removed a rubbish bin, sparking outrage from the chairman of the council’s revenue committee.
The sculpture, at the Pakuranga Rotary Walkway, was installed in November last year, two months later a bin was removed from near the statue.
Local councillor Maurice Williamson, who chairs the council’s Revenue, Expenditure and Value Committee, said the statue is nice but not essential.
Hard to disagree.
“There are bins being removed that are frequently used, some that are overflowing in fact. People are incensed, I took my dog out for a walk and noticed bins missing left, right and centre.”
Auckland Council head of area operations parks and community facilities Julie Pickering said public art played a vital role in a livable city.
No they are not vital. They are nice. They are pleasant. Water, rubbish is vital. I’d argue playgrounds and libraries are close to vital. Art is not.
She said when considering what rubbish bins to remove in the area, the council factored in whether the bin was in an area where people are likely or able to carry their rubbish away.
This sums up the contempt for the public. We have decided that you should carry your rubbish away with you, rather than have rubbish bins in popular parks. It is one thing to get rid of rubbish bins that are rarely used, but getting rid of frequently used rubbish bins is the Council trying to change the behaviour of its citizens, rather than be useful to them. We see the same culture in trying to force people out of cars.
Published in Social Science & Medicine, the study found nearly 30% of the country’s vape stores are within 400 metres of a school and 71% are within 800 metres.
Author and Canterbury University public health expert Matt Hobbs said: “I have been surprised by just how many vape stores are near schools and to see the magnitude of difference between numbers of vape stores in the most deprived and least deprived communities.
The public health activists do this all the time to try and make something mundane appear shocking.
They measure 800 metres as the crow flies, so it might actually be 1.2 kms away walking or further.
But more importantly 800 metres radius is a huge amount. It is 200 hectares. So any building within a 200 hectare space from a school is included. That’s almost 500 acres.
There are 2,500 schools in NZ so if none of them were within 800 metres of each other, these 800 metre radius circles would total 500,000 hectares.
I showed here what a 1km radius around every school looks like in Wellington.
I suspect over 70% of the population live within 800 metres of a school. So portraying this as something sinister is silly.
I took part in the Tough Guy/Tough Gal challenge in Wellington on Saturday. Not because I am one, but because it looked like a fun challenge.
It’s a 6 km course at Camp Wainui. Early on in the course you have to crawl through some tunnels, and then over several climbing walls. Then up into the bush. For the first km or also you’re carefully avoiding the muddy puddles but then they get larger and larger and finally you get to the stage where you stop diverting around them and just plough on through up to your knees. The trail is pretty slippery and muddy.
At the end of the first bush section you have to crawl through some culverts with flowing water, and then into the stream. The bottom drops away suddenly from being ankle high to waist high, and I also lost my footing so actually ended up soaked up to my neck.
Next you have some more crawling underneath wires and a further bush track. Then a series of pipes to crawl through and more climbing walls. At this stage I notice that both my knees are bleeding from crawling through the pipes and tunnels.
Then we have the hill the organiser called Everest. I didn’t think it looked that big, but what I didn’t realise is the route up is a straight line on a steep slope. It’s almost impossible to do without the climbing ropes, and by the time you’re onto the fourth 20 metre rope section you’re cursing and swearing, as everyone else is.
Finally you get to the top pretty exhausted. The track down is equally steep and after trying to walk it, I follow the trend, and just slide down on my behind. This is actually quite fun except for the odd time you pass over a small rock. Braking is difficult and several times you get rear ended, or plough into someone else. Luckily everyone is laughing.
At the bottom you think you’re near the end as it is close to the finish line, but actually you are probably only two thirds of the way through. Don’t believe the race marshalls who seem to all be trained up to never tell you how far you are from the end when asked, and all say “You’re almost there”. You’re not!
Then come a series of water barriers or ponds where you get soaked up to your waist again. Its pretty tiring wading through but at least you get to wash the mud off your hands.
The last couple of kms are mainly bush tracks which are so muddy by now you have to work hard not to fall over. I was around 90% successful! It twists and turns a lot but finally it starts heading towards the finish area. You go through a small wire challenge where you go over not under, and then repeat the initial tunnel and climbing walls. Finally the only things between you and the finish line is a pond/lake. It’s only 10 metres through or so, but it is deep and very cold.
But it does wash off most of the mud before you cross the finish line.
It was tough, but really fun. Only race I’ve done where I wasn’t even once focused on my time, just on getting to the end. Great camaraderie from other participants, and very welcome communal showers so your car doesn’t end up as dirty as you.
While I wasn’t focused on my time during the race, I was pleased to find out I finished in the top third, which I thought was okay for a 56 year old!
A south Taranaki iwi will use only te reo Māori when corresponding or speaking with central government officials from now on and hopes other iwi and kaupapa Māori organisations will follow suit.https://t.co/19VAFUMxQg
— Marc Daalder 😷 Wear a Mask (@marcdaalder) May 21, 2024
They’re entitled to do this, but I was curious about how seriously they take their commitment to te reo. I checked out their website and the Iwi doesn’t even have a te rep version of their website. And their newsletters are primarily written in English.
So they are saying they will only use te reo to communicate to the Government, but don’t use te red to communicate to their own members!
Stats NZ will abandon its office space in Auckland central at the end of this year after numerous staff expressed safety concerns about leaving the premises due to an increasing level of “intimidating behaviour” in the surrounding city streets.
The government department has even gone to the length of hiring a security guard for the 10 storey building on Greys Avenue.
They have also reassured staff they can work remotely.
An email sent to all Auckland staff at Statistics New Zealand, titled “Your safety at 80 Greys Ave”, has been seen by the Herald.
Stats NZ technology, operations, commercial and collections leader Emma Jones said she was “fully aware of the growing level of incidents in the area and generally intimidating behaviour”.
“At times it does feel uncomfortable just heading out for sushi at lunch,” she said.
Stats NZ will not be renewing its lease when it expires at the end of the year.
This is a terrible indictment on Auckland – a government agency saying it will move, because the CBD isn’t safe.
There needs to be a clamp down on anti-social behaviour so staff feel safe to go out for lunch,
