Stuff reports:

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office was aware of a 2020 email, revealed by Stuff on Tuesday, in which sacked minister Stuart Nash divulged Cabinet discussionsto two donors.

Neither Ardern nor her chief of staff were informed, Hipkins said, and the severe breach of Cabinet rules was not “covered up”.

But National Party leader Christopher Luxon said it was clear there had been a two-year cover up that suggested a broader culture of improper behaviour.

“Clearly people inside the prime minister’s office were aware of the issue, and so what kind of culture is that if you don’t actually flag those issues higher up the chain?”

It is almost beyond belief that the PMs Office knew of this e-mail, and it was not elevated up.

I know the person who handled OIAs for the PMs Office for the Key/English Government. If she had come across an e-mail from a Minister which divulged details of a Cabinet meeting, including who voted which way etc, then she would have set a new land speed record on her way to the Chief of Staff’s office.

Unless the Ardern staffer was extremely extremely junior, such as a mail clerk, it is impossible to fathom how they didn’t raise this with someone.

What needs to be revealed now is what was the role or job title of the staffer, did they raise it with anyone else at all in Ardern’s Office, and is that staffer still there?

Linked to that is we also need to know what was the OIA request that it was deemed out of scope for.

If I had to have a mandatory book for school students to read it would be the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. E.g.

“A huge young Vogon guard stepped forward and yanked them out of their straps with his huge blubbery arms. “You can’t throw us into space,” yelled Ford, “we’re trying to write a book.” “Resistance is useless!” shouted the Vogon guard back at him. It was the first phrase he’d learned when he joined the Vogon Guard Corps.

When Ford enquired as to whether the guard enjoyed his job, he told him that the hours were good, but that most of the actual minutes were “pretty lousy”. According to his aunt, being a spaceship guard was a “good career for a young Vogon”, as it included a uniform, a low-slung stun ray holster, and mindless tedium. Although the guard didn’t seem to know why exactly he was doing his job, he couldn’t think of any alternative, and thought he’d better stick to what he knew, hoping to eventually be promoted to Senior Shouting Officer.”

Or

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

When you wonder why this is the case: “Almost a quarter of young Kiwis struggling with mental health – report.” And add in international reports that show NZ is the OECD country with the highest incidence of bullying.

Who do kids look up to? (And you may think children don’t notice the adult world but they actually watch in intensely).

• A Prime Minister who has not only failed in all of his portfolios but to preserve a political position lied for political gain at human expense: Former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has admitted he released incorrect and personal information about then-pregnant journalist Charlotte Bellis.

• A Prime Minister that lied about women travelling to Northland during the government’s covid-response: The women were publicly vilified for crossing the border with then Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins accusing them of using “false information to travel across the border”.

The Richie Cunningham act to impress the older folk of NZ does not stand up to the record of poor behavior from Prime Minister Hipkins.

• A Minister of a range of things – Michael Wood – who calls protesters at Parliament a “River of Filth”, calls an incredibly well qualified, experienced and acclaimed academic a “Right-wing hack” and then goes public on someone Immigration NZ has allowed into NZ and tells NZ that is not views that are “vile” but people: “I find many of her views repugnant, and am concerned by the way in which she courts some of the most vile people and groups around including white supremacists,” Wood said. Surely there needs to be an investigation as to whether he incited violence.

• Or a Minister of Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence who states: “I am the prevention violence Minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and it’s white cis men’. Then doubling-down by offering no public apology (although – apparently apologized to the Prime Minister).

• Or teachers who are not getting what they want so put kids on the street (or cost parents a day of their 4 weeks annual leave) march on Parliament, presumably to hear from politicians, and then shout down the Minister of Education will bull-horns yelling “Do your job!”

• Or the closest thing we have seen in recent NZ to a lynch mob, preventing free speech, assaulting a NZ guest, thumping people, and yelling in the face of grand-mothers.” Then the justification that it is okay to assault someone as long as you have a sad back-story.

• Or venues being shut-down through threat of violence and speakers being shouted down.

It has all been profoundly embarrassing globally. To see how debate should take place see the most recent interview of Piers Morgan and Richard Dawkins. Or look up the debate of the late Christopher Hichens with his brother Peter. Or David Lange at Oxford.

With all of this from leaders and adults; why do we wonder about reasons for why young people go feral on social media and become violent in public and at our schools. The next time one of them abuses someone online, thumps them at school or throws a substance on them – they can simply say: “I did it because they disagree with my opinion.”

The Social Credit Party has deregistered from the Electoral Commission. Maybe it is because they finally got their wish and had a Government that just started printing money, or maybe it was the death of their leader, Chris Leitch in January.

While I am not a fan of the party and its anti-semitic origins, they were a major force in NZ politics. In 1954 they got 11% of the vote and in 1966 got 14% and one MP for one term. Then in 1978 they got 16% and a seat and in 1981 got 21% and two seats.

After that they decline over nine years to 1.7% and joined the Alliance. They split from it in 2005 and since then had got between 0.03% and 0.07%.

Are you passionate about local democracy? We’re looking for a Local Government Campaigns Manager to join our team in the fight to hold councils to account for their wasteful spending and bloated bureaucracy. 

You’ll be responsible for analysing trends in council spending, researching policy issues, and briefing our members and supporters on developments in the local government sector. 

You’ll also lead our work to make the case for reforming local government to protect local control, maintain democratic accountability, increase transparency, and improve incentives. 

You’ll present to elected members and speak persuasively on radio and television, and co-ordinate others to do so. Oversee multiple social media channels and create email and blog posts to inform. 

Our Local Government Campaigns Manager also runs our sister organisation: The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance. You will play a major role holding New Zealand’s largest local authority and its elected representatives to account.

We are looking for someone with a few years’ experience in politics, communications, public affairs or community activism. Some experience in either central or local government would be a bonus. 

The Taxpayers’ Union is New Zealand’s largest political advocacy group on the centre-right, using the power of our 175,000+ subscribed members and supporters to fight for Lower Taxes, Less Waste, More Accountability.

We combine hard-hitting original research with people power to expose examples of wasteful government spending, stop new taxes, fight for transparent government, and hold politicians to account at both the national and local level.

This role is based in our Auckland CBD office, and you will work closely with our Wellington office. 

So, if you’d be proud to play a leading role in one of the most subscribed and effective grassroots organisations in New Zealand, let’s talk!

Salary is competitive and negotiable based on experience. 

To apply for this role, please provide a CV and a cover letter outlining your experience and how it is relevant to the role by Friday, 14 April 2022. We reserve the right to make an appointment prior to this date should a suitable candidate be found.

For further details, please contact [email protected]

https://www.seek.co.nz/job/66389646

Stuff reports:

Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed were donors to his campaign, which he said was a serious breach of trust and expectations for ministers.

“His conduct is inexcusable,” Hipkins said. “He is no longer a Cabinet minister and won’t be coming back.”

Nash had already had three previous warnings, so this was a case of finally out on his fourth strike.

While there is no question Hipkins had to sack him, he will be a loss to Labour. He was one of their few moderate MPs who actually understood the private sector. He had good instincts on law and order issues, and not having him around the Cabinet table will weaken Labour.

Nash was not a tribal politician. I met him before he became an MP, and have always had a friendly relationship with him. He isn’t one who thinks his side is right on everything, and the other side are wrong on everything.

Presumably this means Nash will not contest the election. He was always far more popular in the seat than Labour were, so if he does stand down, this makes it more likely National wins it back.

This post is by PaulL, regular commenter and occasional contributor.

One of my early reactions to the Posie Parker / Stand Up For Women protest / meeting / debacle on the weekend was to ask “where were the Police?”

I’d seen earlier commentary suggesting that the organisers had needed to spend $10K for a security firm, and needed a security plan. I’ve seen mention of things like this before – that you have to ask the Speaker for permission to protest at Parliament, that you have to have a traffic control plan to march in protest etc etc. It always seemed a bit weird to me that if you’re law abiding and organise a protest you have lots of obligations, but when you’re Extinction Rebellion or whomever, you just go stop traffic, so clearly these requirements are things you can just ignore if you’re young and silly.

This time it was even more dissonant – I get that if you’re actively planning to disrupt traffic you might need to have a plan. But if you’re having a peaceful protest (mostly just a group of people meeting and having speeches), and someone else threatens to turn up and cause disruption, it falls on you to make the security and safety plan. Why are those turning up to counter protest not obliged to have a safety plan?

Radio NZ report:

Not a single warning sign has been installed near fixed speed cameras, three and a half years since the policy was first announced.

In November 2019, then-associate transport minister Julie Anne Genter said a new ‘no surprises’ approach to safety cameras would introduce warning signs in high-risk areas.

It was announced alongside a suite of programmes to tackle unsafe speeds, including reducing speed limits around schools, rolling out more cameras on unsafe roads, and streamlining the process for communities and local authorities to determine the appropriate speed limits for their regions.

While progress has been made on those other issues, it appears the warning sign rollout has not even begun.

Last month, in a Written Parliamentary Question to then-police minister Stuart Nash, National’s transport spokesperson Simeon Brown asked how many fixed speed cameras had been signposted with warning signs each year, for the past five years.

Nash responded: “I am advised that police has not signposted any fixed safe speed cameras with warning signs in the past five years.”

The only skill this Government seems to have is with announcements. When it comes to actual implementation, they once again score a zero.

Radio NZ reports:

Wellington’s mayor admits council is partly responsible for hospitality operators struggling in the capital. …

Golding wanted council to clean up the streets, better understand the industry’s needs, make consenting and licensing easier, and ensure the capital was affordable for students.

People were choosing other cities for their studies, leaving the capital’s bar and restaurant owners in the lurch, he said.

“That’s a huge workforce for us, not to mention their disposable income when they go out at night and they spend a bit of money, that all contributes you know, but they’ve got nowhere to live.”

Golding said hospitality was let down by a series of disinterested mayors, and they were pinning their hopes on Tory Whanau.

Whanau said she heard them – as an inner-city dweller who frequented local bars and restaurants, she was the person for the job, and things would soon change.

“I do know things have been a bit tough lately and our council has a part to play in that, especially along Courtenay Place and of course Cuba [Street], where it’s becoming quite pricey to even have a bar there.”

She would push council to strip back the bureaucracy faced by bar and restaurant owners, she said.

“The biggest issue that I’m hearing from our bar owners is the licensing and consenting process, we need to make it a lot easier.

“So I’m going to work with council officers to see what we can do, make it more streamlined, make it a bit quicker, so we can get those bars up and running.”

The paperwork was just signed for a fresh council role of city manager, who would work with bars and restaurants to make consents more accessible, Whanau said.

Pleased to see this attitude from the Mayor that the Council has been part of the problem, and they need to make licensing and consenting easier. I hope she succeeds.

One News reports:

The wait to admit ambulance patients is called ‘ramping’ and is seeing some ambulances parked up at hospital drop-off bays for more than an hour — frequently longer.

Things have to be bad when not even ambulances can get their patients into ED.

The latest data from 15 hospitals from Whangārei to Southland show that 3000 ramping hours were recorded in the first quarter of 2019.

That figure had jumped considerably by the last quarter of 2022, which showed ramping hours had risen to 9756.

So waiting time in ambulances has tripled in three years. Patients have spent a total of 407 days waiting in ambulances to even get into ED.

Radio NZ reports:

One of New Zealand’s spy agencies has revealed it helped prevent three recent domestic terror attacks by identifying people who made threats.

The information was shared at Parliament’s Intelligence and Security committee this morning.

Government Communications Security Bureau director-general Andrew Hampton told MPs one operation involved an ideologically motivated individual making bomb threats.

The other two involved a white supremacist who was displaying concerning behaviour online and another who threatened to use firearms and explosives at a public event.

“In all three operations, the GCSB was able to combine lead information from other agencies with our unique technical capabilities to help identify the individuals who had each taken great care to anonymise themselves online.”

Thank you GCSB.

A reminder that Green Party policy is to abolish the GCSB. For a party that goes on about the evils of white supremacy so much, it is fascinating that their policy is to prevent the GCSB from stopping them commit acts of violence.

A post by PaulL, regular commenter and sometime contributor.

Once again in NZ we’re seeing our public discourse being taken over by the fringes, and no room left for anything in the middle. You’re with us or you’re against us.

I see both sides feeling threatened, but not a lot of empathy for each other. I see both sides talking past each other, and attributing sinister motives to the other side.

I also see a lot of common ground, common ground that isn’t being identified and agreed upon, and that isn’t being talked about in the media. Without common ground there really cannot be discussion. This is a worrying trend I’ve seen overseas, and I guess Bryce Edwards is right when he says that it’s an ugly stoking of culture wars in an election year.

I see a debate that isn’t going to be easily resolved by focusing on rights. Because the core of the debate is a conflict between two different sets of rights, a conflict that can only be resolved by compromise. But compromise only occurs with discussion. I don’t understand what the path is to a resolution that is acceptable to both sides.

This is what Marama Davidson said yesterday.

There are two issues here. The first is that she is wrong. In New Zealand here is the data for violent offending for 2022:

• Gender: 79% male, 21% female
• Ethnicity: 51% Maori, 29% European, 11% Pacific, 2% Indian, 1% Asian

If she is talking about the entire world, then we also have some data. Different countries define violent crime differently but the definition of homicide and rape is similar so allows comparison.

The top five countries for homicide:

• El Salvador
• Jamaica
• Lesotho
• Honduras
• Belize

The top five countries for rape are:

1. Botswana
2. Lesotho
3. South Africa
4. Bermuda
5. Sweden

So it is very clear the Minister is wrong. But that is not the biggest issue. It is her trying to stir up racial hatred.

Imagine if a different Minister or violent prevention said “I am the prevention violence Minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and it’s coloured cis men”

Would you not expect them to be out of office within minutes or hours if they had said that?

Davidson clearly has views and animosity that are impervious to the facts. Will Hipkins retain her as a Minister?

A guest post by Caitlin Griffin:

I am finally home and sitting down with shaking hands to detail what happened today – Saturday 25 March – at Albert Park in Auckland. 

I had been planning to go and see Kellie-Jay Keen speak when she came to New Zealand. I share many of her concerns about the erosion of female-only spaces and the medicalisation of gender non-conforming children. These issues generally get zero media attention in New Zealand and, when they are reported on, are reported in a very biased and one-sided way. 

As such, I was pleased to be able to go along and listen to KJK speak in Albert Park. Kellie’s main prerogative however, is to offer a platform for ordinary women to speak and so I prepared a speech and looked forward to being able to say my bit. 

I prepared a speech that began by talking about my own experience as a 10-year-old, being involved in a domestic situation. I was going to try and explain to the pundits out there the fear and anxiety I experienced for many years after this when I unexpectedly encountered a man. I was going to talk about the necessity at the time of seeking refuge in a women’s shelter, and the primal need for a secret safe space away from all men. And I was going to try and explain that it doesn’t matter if you’re a good guy, a bad guy or a guy in a dress – a man is a man and for women who have been traumatised that is enough to paralyse them with fear. It’s not personal, it’s just how it is.

I wanted to share this story to try and explain to the “we just want to pee” crowd that there are very good reasons why we have female-only spaces. Dignity, privacy, religious/cultural reasons, breastfeeding and trauma being just some of them.  

I wasn’t going to speak to much about why biological men shouldn’t be incarcerated with women or play in female sports – because I believe that to the majority of people this is self-evident. I was however going to use my platform as an opportunity to let New Zealand women know that this is not just a ‘U.S.A’ or ‘overseas’ issue – that we have men imprisoned with women here in New Zealand right now. We have men competing – and winning – against women here in New Zealand right now. Because where else would I have been able to say this? I have written to MPs of all parties – they know women are concerned, and many even say they care. But will they speak out? Will they represent these views? No. I have written to journalists whom have written incredibly biased and incorrect stories about this issue – but will they offer an opportunity for an alternative view? Will they correct their stories? Will the Broadcasting Standards Authority censure them? No. 

Finally though, I was going to have a platform to speak. I was going to use my platform to inform parents that surely – no matter where you stood on this issue – the idea of teaching children as young as 5 about that people can be born in the wrong body does not pass the sniff test. Surely having New Zealand’s own Ministry of Education encourage and formally advise schools to socially transition children without their parents’ knowledge would not sit well with many parents? Surely parents would be horrified to learn that the MoE refers to girls as “menstruators” and encourages schools not to use the term ‘mum and dad.’ I was going to use my platform to speak about the exponential increase around the world of distressed adolescent girls – with no prior history of gender dysphoria – suddenly declaring they are ‘trans’ and demanding puberty blockers and binders. We know that there has been an exponential rise in he use of puberty blockers in the last decade but we don’t yet know how big of a problem this is in New Zealand because robust centralised records are not being kept. We can’t measure it, report on it, analyse it. Therefore we may have a small population of children transitioning – or we could be world leaders. We wouldn’t know – officially anyway – how we are faring with this. 

While we have no way of recording or tracking official data, many parents, women and teachers have shared anecdotal stories. We have connected over Facebook and joined secret groups to share our stories, our concerns and try and research what we can. What we can see so far is that many people – particularly women and parents – are worried. We are seeing what is happening around the world – the closure of the Tavistock Clinic in the UK, Sweden, Finland and many US States banning the use of puberty blockers due to a huge rise in sterilised, irreversibly damaged ‘detransitioners’ standing up and asking why this was allowed to happen to them? And yet here in New Zealand we don’t even report what is happening overseas – let alone here in our own country. Most New Zealanders have no clue whatsoever that a debate is raging around the world about this.

So when I heard KJK was coming here I was excited. I like KJK because she doesn’t call herself a feminist, or ‘gender critical’, or any other label in particular. She is a mum who is just fiercely pro-woman. Just like me. And just like me, she is angry about what is happening. I put my hand up to help out and I offered to be a marshall on the day. 

With the increasing hysteria over her visit however, and the fact that I was newly pregnant, it was suggested that my being a marshall wasn’t a great idea. The concept that I might not be safe helping out was odd and foreign to me, but so be it. I would still go, I would still speak and I would do what I could to help. I also knew many women who had been intending to attend but the sheer vitriol and whipped up hysteria of the previous week from activists and many parts of the media meant they decided not to. Especially those who had been planning to attend with children or were physically vulnerable. 

I arrived early at the Art Gallery café to work on my speech and soon found that a number of other women had shown up to speak and listen. I was by far one of the youngest at 35 years old and surrounded by inspirational older ladies of all political persuasions, backgrounds and sexualities. One had come from Hamilton with her son, one had caught the train from Papakura and told me some fascinating stories about her grandparents in the war and how they got out of Germany. Many were quite timid and frightened, but determined to be allowed to say their piece. Several had bad hips, bad legs, and a myriad of other ailments that will pester us all as we age. I am describing here for you the overwhelming majority of women who attended – so that when I describe the fear and violence later you can compare that with this motley crew of determined silver haired women. 

On the way to the rotunda, I was surprised by the sheer number of counter-protesters. All the counter-protesters, at that stage, seemed pretty relaxed and chill and I hoped we could each do our thing. I was proud that it looked as though we may just be able to each have our views and have our say without any abuse or nastiness. As it drew closer to 11am however, more and more counter-protesters streamed in with loud speakers, whistles, recorded sirens, and other noise makers. The numbers were staggering and the noise was deafening. I started to wonder how we were going to be able to make our speeches and hear KJK. They encircled around the entire rotunda, penning us in and were a lot closer than I had anticipated. I was nervously waiting for the promised police presence to come and stand between us, but this never occurred. 

I moved into the rotunda and was in there when KJK arrived. As soon as she arrived, an activist who was also in there under false pretences, threw what looked like tomato sauce or soup all over KJK and the women who stood next to her. It seemed almost as though this was a signal of sorts, because suddenly there were no more barriers, no more fences – we were utterly surrounded without any protection. I couldn’t see a single marshall in the crowd and feared for their safety as the sea of screaming, chanting, and feral protesters swarmed around the rotunda. 

For awhile, they stayed off the rotunda and we made an effort to get a couple of elderly & disabled women up onto the rotunda with us. My thinking at that stage was that the police would arrive any moment and create a safety barrier around us, so if we could just hold on and keep the most vulnerable women out of the mob we would be ok. 

However, as time went on, it became apparent that the police were not there and were not going to turn up. I think the protesters sensed that as well, because they started to get more and more feral and entered onto the rotunda. KJKs security team formed a human shield around her and I believe that in doing so they saved her from serious harm. Eventually KJK and her security team made a break for it and I hoped this would settle the crowd down and that they would back off – it made no difference whatsoever. The protesters on the rotunda were overwhelmingly men. Not men in dresses as you might expect at such an event (although there were some) – just ordinary looking men. They shoved women, they screamed in our faces, they leered at us, spat at us, and they tried to forcibly topple over a section of steel gate onto the women sheltering from them on the other side of it. 

As we were completely surrounded, we could not escape. At one point I contemplated climbing out over the seats to exit the rotunda, but the rotunda is surrounded by rocks. I wasn’t confident that I wouldn’t get accidentally or purposefully shoved and fall onto the rocks and get trampled. At this stage had grave concerns for my personal safety and the safety of my 11 week old baby. I kept thinking if they surge, if I fall, if I get trapped under that fence section, if I get punched – I could lose this baby. I kept asking myself – where are the police? How can I get out? What can I do? 

I texted my husband who wanted to come and get me – but how? There is no way at that stage he would have been able to get to me and besides, there was no way he’d get there in time. I asked him to call 111. It took him 8 minutes to get through to them and they told him there were police already there and more on the way. This was patently false. There were no police as far as the eye could see, there were none on the way and I saw none when I finally did manage to get out. And the protesters knew it – you could tell. They knew they could act with impunity. You could tell they knew that had the blessing of the media, the Government and now seemingly, the Police. At one point someone pointed their flag at one of the ladies up there with us. She grabbed it and it broke. He then used the shard to try jab her in the stomach. I had to dodge out of the way to avoid getting accidentally stabbed with it. I’ve never been so scared. 

At this point, a tall man there asked if I was ok. Please bear in mind that when I say ‘asked’ I mean he ‘yelled’ because the noise was phenomenal, and you had to lip-read as someone yelled a question at you to maybe understand what they said. He had a camera so I asked if he was news and he nodded yes. I said no, I wasn’t ok, that I was 11 weeks pregnant and terrified. Despite my best efforts at bravery I started to falter at the point and got teary. Good reporter that he is I suppose, he took that opportunity to ask me some questions and get my name. He then – and I am so grateful for this – asked if I wanted help to get out. I did and so he grabbed my hand and led me out. Behind on the rotunda I left behind the elderly lady with the walking frame and at least two other marshalls who had been up on the rotunda and I’m not sure who else. I had no idea if KJK was safe or if she had made it out or if the Police had helped her at all. I was shaking, felt sick and just stood back watching the rotunda and cried. I desperately looked for some other Marshalls to see if they were ok, and eventually found some of the women I arrived with. 

All I wanted to do today was speak and try raise some awareness for how some of these contentious issues are affecting women and children. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, or scream at anyone or even really engage in protest activity. I just wanted a platform to say my piece. 

I knew the Labour Party, the Greens and the legacy media had whipped this up into some kind of fascist, Nazi, anti-trans hysteria based on lies and disinformation. But I still always had faith and belief that our police force would do their duty and provide a barrier between us and the counter-protesters. I still believed that even if some really wacky people turned up, the police would keep us safe. 

I underestimated the hysteria that had been whipped up. I overestimated the police. I never seriously thought I would be in real actual danger attending a speaking event in New Zealand. 

I think Heather Du Plessis Allen asked earlier in the week – why was KJK invited here? Wasn’t it just inviting drama? Well let me answer that. KJK was invited here because she is me. She is a mother, and a woman who is fed up with the erosion of female-only spaces, fed up with being called a ‘menstruator’ or ‘pregnant person’ and fed up with watching young gender non-conforming or children who will likely grow up to be gay or lesbian if left alone being prescribed off-label drugs developed to castrate male sex offenders or treat prostate cancer that lead to irreversible damage. KJK was going to give ME, a Kiwi woman, a voice, a platform. KJK was invited here because I wanted to listen to her, and last time I checked, I’m allowed to do that.

 We are not ‘anti-trans’ – I don’t particularly give a shit about whether people are trans or not to be honest. Dress how you want, sleep with who you want, and live your life. But don’t claim that your so-called “feminine” inner gender identity gives your male body the right to play on female sports teams, don’t record male rapists as women in the crime stats, don’t use our changing rooms and don’t be jailed with us. More importantly, don’t teach my child that boys can have a period, don’t teach my tom-boy daughter that she really must be a boy if she likes rugby and hates her period, don’t tell young lesbians they have a ‘genital fetish’ if they refuse to have sex with a woman-identifying-man with a penis and don’t socially transition my children at school behind my back. Is that really so fucking unreasonable? Did that really warrant the violence and mob today? Do those views really justify men shoving, stampeding, and spitting at women and having the media paint me as a Nazi?

This is an election year. I was put in danger today because of the Labour Party, the Green Party, and the legacy media whipping up a frenzied mob of hatred against KJK and therefore by extension, me and other ordinary Kiwi woman who have the temerity to believe that biological sex is real and it matters. I was in danger because the lies and fake tears of rainbow-clad thugs were printed and broadcast without any attempt at balance or even actual journalism.

I was in danger today because our police force – for whatever reason – decided not to do their job and stand between peaceful women trying to speak and a baying mob. I was ultimately put in danger though, because very few people in this country will stand up to the so-called “diversity and inclusion” bullies and defend women’s rights to our own services, spaces, and sports. Instead, the majority sit silently by and tacitly give your consent to this. And I have no idea why. Especially National and ACT. These people will never vote for you, no matter how many ‘big gay outs’ you attend. You say you believe KJK had the right to speak, but you all say you disagree with her views. Which ones exactly? Which view mentioned above precisely, do you disagree with? This isn’t rhetorical. 

It’s time to show up Christopher Luxon and David Seymour and not with weasel words about supporting freedom of speech. I want to know, as do thousands of other New Zealanders, where do you actually stand. Do you, or do you not, support my right as set out in the Human Rights Act for sex separated facilities, services, and sports. Do you or do you not support Matthew Nelson, aka Emma Nelson, aka Pandora Electra, who viciously stabbed three people in a restaurant being in a women’s prison because he feels “safe” there.

And if any of your female “liberal” MPs are telling you that this is all going to calm down and go away and to not rock the boat. Good fucking luck with that. 

Until you start speaking up for women, I will not vote for any of our major parties. I’m a mum of three (soon to be four), and a small business owner. I pay taxes out the whazoo and am engaged with my wider community. I am a good civic-minded citizen and today I learnt that it is all for nothing. I expect to be able to speak to MPs about what happened today in person and I expect MPs to stand up and ask why the police provided no protection today. I expect MPs to denounce the violence shown towards peaceful women today in no uncertain terms. And most importantly – I expect to know where your party stands on these issues.

One thing you can be sure of after today is that we won’t have to invite someone like KJK here from the UK again. I am angry after today – and so are many many women and men. If there is one thing being pregnant in the middle of a feral mob does – is it makes you fucking angry and it makes your husband even angrier. And unlike the violent rabid (mostly student & unemployed) trans activists, we won’t use that anger against middle-aged women. We will use that anger politically and publicly to shame politicians until you do your bloody jobs and represent us.

DPF: If anyone thinks that it was merely a loud and boisterous protest, I suggest you look at the video in this story on Radio New Zealand, and consider how safe you would feel in that situation.

Newshub reports:

There are serious concerns about the management of Te Pūkenga as it asks for more money for I.T. systems while course completions are plummeting and some enrolments are down. …

It’s not only staff that were struggling – provisional data provided to Newshub Nation revealed fewer students were completing their courses each year since 2019, with Māori and Pacific students suffering the most. 

Labour loves centralising, and their polytechnic merger has costs hundreds of millions of dollars and the outcome has been fewer students actually completing their courses.

It should be a sackable offence.

It is fascinating to see so many of the Twitter left celebrating that they managed to physically prevent someone from speaking at Albert Park. They are so convinced of their moral superiority that they can’t imagine that the precedent may one day have them at the receiving end.

But imagine how they would react to a scenario like this.

A controversial anti-semitic speaker is coming to NZ, hosted by a controversial pro-Hamas group in NZ. They label themselves as being merely pro-Palestinian but their opponents claim they are anti-semitic and their rhetoric and even their presence in NZ is a literal danger for Jewish people.

They turn up to Albert Park to be met with 3,000 Jews and their supporters who drown them out, demolish barriers keeping them back, yell abuse and even throw liquid over them. The speaker doesn’t get to speak to their few hundred supporters who wanted to hear what they were going to say, and flees in a police car for their own safety.

If this was the scenario, would this be seen as a great victory for tolerance?

Police released data on ram raids to an OIA request. The number of raids for each calendar year has been:

• 2017: 119
• 2018: 128
• 2019: 181
• 2020: 121
• 2021: 410
• 2022: 810

I may be wrong, but it looks like ti has increased slightly.

Peggy Noonan writes:

Have we totally lost our marbles? An American grand jury is apparently about to criminally indict, for the first time in history, a former president of the United States. This is a weighty and meaningful act. It couldn’t have more gravity. And so the charge will be … falsely accounting for hush money paid to a porn star?

One of the marks of personal maturity is a sense of proportion. A healthy democracy has a gracious sense of the rightness and wrongness of things, and is alive to symbols and signs. Is this, perhaps, the wrong indictment to bring?

On and in the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump encouraged and unleashed an assault on our Constitution. Before that he appears to have waged a concerted and thuggish effort to overturn a democratic outcome in the state of Georgia.

For these things he deserves it all — the indictment, the handcuffs, the mug shot, the hauling into court, the bail hearing. Georgia and Jan. 6 are big and serious events, worthy of the strictest legal approach and subject to all legal remedies. These events are being investigated, the former through a state grand jury, the latter through a federal special counsel.

You say, but those cases aren’t ready! Then wait. Allow a serious process to play out seriously.

Charging him in the Stormy Daniels case is below us — not below him, but us. The subject matter is below us. The nature of the charges is below us. The players in the drama aren’t people of import who stand for big things, they’re not fate-of-the-republic people, they don’t have any size. They’re tacky lowlifes doing tacky low-life things. The case involves a questionable legal theory that depends on the testimony of Michael Cohen, who is half-mad in his own right and also in the way all “close Trump advisers” past and present are half-mad: money-addled, fame-addled, power-addled, screwball in their thinking.

I very much agree with Noonan on this.

Indicting Trump over how a payment was classified seven years ago in relation to him hooking up with a porn star 17 years ago is ridiculous. It looks petty and will backfire if the DA proceeds.

Many many legal commentators, left-leaning, have said the case is shaky.

There are, as Noonan says, much more important and stronger cases. Obstruction of justice charges over his denying he held top secret classified comments could see his in real trouble. The fact the Judge has said his attorney has to testify, is an indication that there is strong proof that he lied to his own attorneys.

Indicting Trump over obstruction of justice will harm Trump. Indicting him over Stormy Daniels will help him.

A guest post by a reader:

On Saturday 18 March, in Melbourne, a group of mostly women gathered outside Victoria’s Parliament. Lead by a petite blonde Brit the “Let Women Speak” rally was supposed to be an opportunity for women to share the personal impact of gender self-identification (ie. males being able to identify as women based purely on their say-so) and male violence.

A group of men (though that’s a harmful assumption since no one asked their pronouns) dressed in black and wearing balaclavas were facilitated by police to crash the rally. Why this was allowed by police has never been explained. Because clearly what a group of women want at a rally about their sex-based safeguarding and protection is masked men.

The black clad invaders then performed Nazi salutes on the steps of Parliament and unfurled a sign. At which point a group of women, many of whom had gathered to talk about the impact of male violence on their lives were *checks notes* roundly condemned for not acting violently toward masked men. And on social media and in the press the two were then conflated into one evil entity.

What has followed in the last week can only be called a damning indictment on the legacy media in both Australia and New Zealand. Leaving what they sneeringly call “alternative” media to be the only platform where actual facts and balance can be gleaned.

Oh, and by the way, that includes the Australian Jewish Association who had members at the event and who has issued a statement criticizing both the policing and stating “it is shameful that some politicians and media are now trying to smear this women’s movement with the false accusation of involvement with Nazis.” But never mind them. After all, what would Jews know about Nazis.

So, first of all, congratulations, if you happen to have any concern, any at all, about male bodies that self-identify as women in women’s spaces, services, or sports then according to the legacy media you can now take your pick of being “Nazi-adjacent”, an “extreme right-wing bigot” or “hate-fuelled”. Yes, that includes Angie Jones, the woman who organized the Melbourne rally and who is left leaning, has a history supporting gay rights, and Jewish.

It would also be the 67% of New Zealanders who in a recent Curia poll oppose male bodies in women’s sport.

The idea, the very notion, that women might want to gather together IN PUBLIC and talk about the outrageous notion that sometimes, just sometimes, some women want spaces away from male bodies, regardless of how those bodies identify, unleashed what kind only be described as a tidal wave of self-righteous performative coverage from people who self-identify as journalists. Here’s a sample of egregious examples:

NewsHub on Wednesday went with Ms Keen allegedly using a hand signal linked to white supremacy on a YouTube video. A hand signal so disturbing and offensive that, unlike images of maimed, dying and dead people in the rubble of Ukraine, Syria, or Turkey, it apparently needed to be blurred to protect the public. 

I watched the unedited video multiple times on Twitter trying to get a screen grab of this horrific gesture of white supremacy that needed to be blurred out and it was so fleeting, so fast, that I couldn’t despite multiple attempts. Because Posie Parker/Ms Keen, as it turns out, is a massive gesturer and flings her hands around a lot while talking. And the truth is that Newshub know that if they hadn’t blurred it everyone watching would have seen it for the flying jump into defamation that it is. But never mind because the internet has very kindly found us another woman doing this despicable gesture.

Then Breakfast TV Thursday morning sees Matty McLean and Shaneel Lal on the fainting couch. While Matty’s eyebrows do some Laurel Hubbard worthy heavy lifting, Shaneel starts with the arson “attack” on the Rainbow Youth centre in Tauranga last year that proves that New Zealand is a cesspit of “queer hatred”. Never mind that the two men convicted had mental health challenges, intellectual disabilities, and developmental difficulties and at sentencing the judge made clear that the arson wasn’t motivated by malice towards the LBGT community, and that the choice of the building was incidental but you do you Shaneel.

Back to the beige fainting couch. Having been lobbed the Matty low ball of being asked if he is concerned about the safety of trans people turning up to protests Shaneel summons their non-binary bravery “this is the first time I have feared for my own safety… incredibly scared of being there.” Matty murmurs supportively in what appears to be a live audition for a role in Shortland Street should the breakfast TV gig not work out.

And they are not wrong. They have reason to be fearful because *checks notes* in Melbourne the three people arrested were all transgender activists, not that you’ll find anyone in the mainstream media fessing up to that. Meanwhile, good old Aotearoa Twitter, that beacon of reasoned and rational debate, there are transgender activists talking about packing bricks in their bags for the protest. If I was a police officer faced with the choice between a bunch of women wanting to talk about male violence and women’s spaces and protestors threatening to pack bricks I know which way I would be facing in Albert Park tomorrow.

As much as I’d love to stay with this touching moment between Matty and Shaneel on the beige couch, we need to move on to other members of the media who are refusing to be left behind in out competing each other in the witch hunt.

Today FM, that stunning and brave media organisation most notable for sending two of its presenters off for “re-education” for not reading the memo about affirming “pregnant people” and pronouns. They’re also known for well, nothing. Their ratings are in the toilet, their management is quitting all over the show, and the only people who listen to them are… I have no idea. It’s a mystery. 

But we’re going to give Lloyd and Tova a shout out in their frantic pursuit for relevance because they at least did one of those time honoured traditions of objective and considered journalism in their respective thought pieces yesterday. And by that I mean they linked to each other’s opinions and their own coverage as proof that Posie Parker is a “hate-fuelled, anti-trans, neo-Nazi supported” bigot. Don’t you just love it when elite urban liberal journalists quote each other as proof that someone with opinions they don’t like is evil? 

Oh and Lloyd announced that he was joining the protest. You do you, Lloyd. Be a good man and take some tissues for Shaneel. And maybe keep a wide berth of any of your pink or blue haired friends carrying a suspiciously looking heavy handbag. 

Back to Tova, who must be desperately missing her television career right now because there’s no thrill of chasing people in a red beret when you’re on talkback radio. Once she’s done quoting Lloyd as proof that Posie Parker is evil, Tova just goes straight for disinformation claiming, Speaking of liberal democracies, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Victoria has expelled an MP from the party for attending one of these hateful rallies. 

It’s not true. What did happen is that John Pesutto, the new Liberal Leader in Victoria in the job for all of three months after the Libs took an absolute caning in the state elections last year, stated that he intends to seek a vote on expelling Moira Deeming. Moira attended the rally where she read out a statement on behalf of a Muslim constituent whose religious beliefs require that she access sex segregated services and facilities in certain circumstances and so is being impacted by males claiming to be women entering those spaces.

His decision came after his staff performed a through and independent review by *sigh* looking up Posie Parker on Wikipedia and reading an entry that had been maliciously edited by transgender activists. Now, I would have thought that any male political leader might have thought twice about opining on where one of his female MPs may go and who she may talk to but that’s just me with my weird beliefs about women having agency and autonomy. Especially women elected by their constituents and speaking at an event on behalf of one of them. And a women Muslim of colour that that. 

Whether or not Moira will be expelled is the matter or both enormous angst and a matter for next week. Pesutto is digging in, he may have the numbers because for some reason the Victorian Libs are more afraid of the extremists who think that male rapists should be in female prisons than they care about holding onto what is left of their own dwindling supporters. Maybe once he’s done Matty could invite him for a session on the couch and they can slap themselves on the back for putting a stop to those damn annoying women with opinions speaking.

Back to Tova and her disinformation. Tova is using a lie about Moira Deeming to demand Christopher Luxon “stand up” and ban his MPs from being in the vicinity of either Albert Park or Civic Square over the weekend in case they hear opinions her and Lloyd don’t like.

Luxon, who when asked anything remotely controversial tends to resort to a word salad, at least remembers that in theory his party has a literal value of “individual freedom and choice” so he dodges the question by saying no one has expressed an interest in going. But you can guarantee that behind the scenes he is contemplating putting GPS tracking and/or geo-fencing on the principled MPs who do actually believe in freedom of speech and association and hearing alternative viewpoints.  

Someone should tell Luxon about that 67% of bigoted hate-fuelled New Zealanders who don’t support male bodies in women’s sport. Because bigots tend to vote. But I digress. Politicians are a whole other post. As are the rest of the media, I’m looking at you RNZ, Stuff, TVNZ and NZ Herald, I’ll get to you if DPF lets me do another column.

So here we are. It’s Friday. 

We all know what the media want this weekend. Shame on them.