RNZ reports:

The number of children living in motels has reached a record high, despite the Government’s pledge to combat child poverty.

As at March 31, there were 4368 children living in motels across the country – up by 480 in three months. At the end of December there were 3888 children in motels.

Call me old fashioned, but I think kids should grow up in houses, not motels.

RNZ reports:

The Government splashed $37.6 million on private security guards for MIQ hotels in eight months after announcing it would use its own guards instead.

Despite ending its contracts with 15 security companies, the number of private security guards working at the hotels each day has now increased by about 20 per cent.

This comes amid a struggle for the Government to recruit its own guards, with just 48 working so far.

So they announced they were starting their own security operation and in eight months they have only managed to hire 48 staff!!

Figures obtained by RNZ show in January about 244 private security guards were working at MIQ hotels every 24 hours, costing $198,000.

So that is around $800 a day per security guard. Someone is making good money.

Newshub reports:

James Shaw is “quietly confident” he isn’t about to lose the Green Party co-leadership role after a Dunedin-based activist announced a challenge. 

James Cockle, a software developer living in Dunedin, has revealed he will challenge Shaw, an MP since 2014 and current Minister for Climate Change, for the party’s male leadership role at its upcoming annual general meeting (AGM), where the leaders are re-elected. 

“I am running because I believe it is time for the Greens to share their vision of what New Zealand would look like under Green Party leadership,” Cockle said in one of several videos he has released explaining his run. 

“I believe the time is right for the Greens to become a major party in this country, to become the major party and to become the Government. I believe that is what we ought to be going for now.” …

He wants to see “real leadership” and “direction” and for the party not to be “Labour’s little helper”. Under him, the Greens would take a conservationist approach to consumption, support the rewilding of natural spaces, and ensure social institutions leave nobody behind.

Shaw will win of course. What will be interesting is how many votes Cockle gets. Under 10%, Under 20%. If more than 20%, that would be significant.

The Stuff headline:

A Dunedin City councillor received a threatening email from a community board member before the council voted to include Māori representation on two key committees.

A threatening e-mail? Did she go to the Police? Was it violence that was threatened? Arson? Theft?

Cr Carmen Houlihan said she received a ‘’threatening’’ email from a community board member before Wednesday’s debate.

The email, seen by Stuff, said: “You will no doubt vote how you wish but I thought I would pass on my little piece of info … believe me the quiet Kiwi will vote next election.”

The e-mail, if described correctly, is not a threat. Stating that someone may receive fewer votes because of how they vote on a controversial issue is part and parcel of politics. If you regard such an e-mail as a threat, you are a snowflake.

A standard definition of a threat is:

an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage

It is disgraceful of Stuff to label the e-mail as a threat. Of course this only happens because it is an issue on which they are incapable of being impartial.

I remember warning several National MPs that if they voted against same sex marriage, it could damage them politically down the road. According to Stuff I was making threats against them! Of course if a centre right political figure complained to Stuff that someone warning them of electoral consequences was threatening them, I guarantee it wouldn’t be a story or headline.

The Herald reports:

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel will not seek re-election, saying she would have needed her late husband by her side to stand again next year.

Dalziel has held the mayoralty for three terms, being first elected in 2013.

Dalziel is generally regarded as having done a good job in her first term. Resident’s satisfaction with Council went from 70% in 2013 to 74% in 2016. In her second term it dipped from 74% to 62% and in her third term has dropped to 49%, half way through.

This is also reflected in Curia polling on her net favourability. We started polling in 2012 and her net favourability has been:

2012: +32%
2013: +52%
2014: +41%
2016: +39%
2017: +41%
2018: +10%
2019: +15%
2020: -4%

So she was hugely popular before she go elected in 2012 and 2013. From 2014 to 2017 she maintained very high favourability of around +40%. Then it dropped massively in 2018, recovered slightly in 2019 but in 2020 she went negative for the first time.

My reading of that trend line is that if she was standing in 2022, she would lose if there was a popular and/or competent challenger.

RNZ reports:

Almost 2000 managed isolation rooms sit empty each day, while New Zealanders trying to get home say they are struggling with an ongoing lack of vouchers.

Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has been releasing vouchers in batches, but high demand has seen them snapped up in minutes, and there are no rooms showing as available for the next four months.

This is a disgrace. Kiwis can’t get home for four months, and there are 2,000 empty rooms.

The problem is the MIQ system is designed by Government for Government. It is inflexible and unresponsive. There is no focus on customer service. It is designed purely to make it easy to administer rather than easy to access.

The ministry said others were unavailable as it changed the way returnees were grouped, and moved to a “cohort” intake system.

That meant up to 1983 rooms were empty this week, while about 3000 were occupied.

40% of rooms are empty!!

Yet they won’t let anyone else in.

Could you imagine a private sector operator that would refuse to take any more bookings, yet had a 40% vacancy rate. They’d be bankrupt of course.

The Government has repeatedly said it will not increase capacity in MIQ, because of staffing and resources required.

Disgraceful. They’re saying it would be too much hard work to allow NZers to return home easily.

What a responsive Government would do is set a target, such as no returning Kiwi should have to wait more than say three months. And then simply deploy the resources needed to meet the demand. This is not that hard. It is not rocket science. Businesses do this every day.

The June 2021 Roy Morgan is out.

Party Vote

• Labour 38.5% (-6.5% from May)
• National 29.5% (+1.0%)
• Greens 12.5% (+1.5%
• ACT 11.5% (+2.5%)
• Maori 2.5% (+1.0%)

Seats

• Labour 49 (-16 from election)
• National 37 (+4)
• Greens 16 (+6)
• ACT 15 (+5)
• Maori 3 (+1)

Direction

• Right 57.0% (-5.5%)
• Wrong 33.0% (+4.5%)

I’d caution about reading too much into the 6.5% drop for Labour from May to June. Roy Morgan does tend to bounce around a bit.

What I think you can conclude though is three clear trends:

• Labour’s support is well down on the election result, and dropping
• ACT and Greens are doing relatively well
• National is bouncing around in the 20s (but high 20s is better than law 20s)

This shows the potential that is there for National to do well, should they cease generating negative stories about themselves. The drop in the country direction (while still positive) shows that there are a growing number of people worried about where things are heading, and want a better alternative. National needs to provide it.

Labour will not be too worried about one poll, but if another was to come out with a 3 rather than a 4 for them, then I’d expect some Labour MPs in marginal seats or lower down the list to get nervous. However with over two years to the next election, they have lots of time to improve.

The Herald reports:

The Government denies accusations it has “sneakily” changed the vaccination rollout dates after wording on the Ministry of Health’s website was altered.

On the Unite Against Covid-19 website, which provides estimates on timeframes for the staged vaccine rollout by priority group, the wording for Group 4 has been changed from “being vaccinated from 28 July” to “they will be able to book their vaccinations from 28 July”.

It comes after the Ministry was accused in May of quietly changing the timeline on when the general public will be vaccinated from “from July” to “from the end of July”, without publicising the change.

So the public were promised that Group 4 (ie everyone else) would be able to get vaccinated from July. Then they changes it to be from 28 July, ie just before the end of the month. And now it turns out all you can do on that date is book yourself in for a vaccination at some future date which could be August or September.

An auction for lunch with David Seymour to raise money for the Child Cancer Foundation is now at over $10,000.

This is a huge amount for a meal with a leader of a minor party. You expect to see those amounts for a meal with the PM.

Seymour not only had a very good run up until last year’s election, but has continued it since.

Newshub reports:

Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi thinks Aotearoa could be the “best nation in the world” – but not necessarily as a democracy. …

“We need to start looking at how Maori can participate more equally and equitably in that particular space in a tiriti-centric Aotearoa. Not in a democracy, because… democracy is majority rules, and indigenous peoples – especially Maori at 16 percent of the population in this country – will lose out, and we’ll sit in second-place again.”

Credit to the Maori Party for being honest that they want to abolish democracy in New Zealand and are against the notion of everyone having equal rights of one person one vote.

Their vision is what Fiji was after the 1987 coup A majority of seats (37 of 70) reserved for the indigenous minority. Anyone not indigenous was a second class citizen.

Not a country I would want to live in. I believe that having your bloodline determine your voting rights is wrong.

New Zealand has, for the most part, held out against the worst aspects of partisan politics of other countries. 

Take the relationship between Democrats and Republicans in the United States, or the Brexiters and Remainers in the UK; there exists between the two sides a hostility that borders on hatred and disgust.  

When leaders of these groups exhibit hostility towards the opposing side, the same behaviour is accepted or normalised towards the supporters. 

Understanding the other side’s point of view, even if one disagrees with it, is central to any hope for civility in civic life. But in many cases, attempts to rationalise a position or argument by either side are often met with contempt or, at times, aggression. There have even been instances of families and friendships splintering or businesses being targeted because of someone voting for Trump or Brexit.  

Covid-19 only further exacerbated the situation. In the United States, the hyper-partisanship that had been simmering away for the best part of a decade boiled over into an almost uncontrollable state. Both sides feared the other either maintaining or gaining power at the election, afraid that the return of civility wouldn’t be possible with ‘the other side’ leading the country. 

Even with Joe Biden as President, America remains hopelessly divided. 

Back at home, Labour and National voters don’t treat each other with that same hostility. In comparison with other Western nations, New Zealand has always been a relatively relaxed country, politically speaking. It’s still possible to be friends with someone who votes a different way. 

But as the rest of the world becomes increasingly more polarised, is blind partisanship starting to creep into New Zealand? 

Analysis undertaken by the US’s National Bureau of Economic Research looking at long-term trends in affective polarisation – people’s negative feelings towards those of the opposing party – argues that partisanship has risen in New Zealand over time.  

Indeed, public opinion in the wake of Covid-19 would seem to support this hypothesis. 

During the first few months of Covid-19’s arrival in New Zealand, there was a genuine sense of unity felt across the country. You just needed to look at the polling to see that.  

But when it became clear that the virus had been contained and we returned to normal life, cracks in that unity started to appear. 

If anyone dared to criticise the continued handling of the pandemic – such as the multiple failures at the border in the latter months of 2020 – supporters of the Government would accuse them of anything from being a part of Plan B, to actually wanting thousands of New Zealanders to die. 

Disapproval expressed about Jacinda Ardern or Labour more generally in the months leading up to the election was considered taboo, particularly online. Being supportive of the Government’s overall response to Covid-19 was irrelevant if you were critical; to do so meant you weren’t a loyal member of the ‘team of five million.’  

The focused has shifted in 2021 to the success – or failure – of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout. 

In recent weeks and months, most media coverage has described it as a shambles. And while the public might not be too fussed, most would agree that it isn’t going smoothly. 

Hipkins and Ardern haven’t exactly done themselves any favours on this front. Promising to be at the front of the queue while declaring 2021 to be the year of the vaccine were unfortunate statements made by a government that has a questionable record of delivery. 

But right on cue, any criticism of the state of New Zealand’s vaccine rollout causes an outcry amongst Labour cheerleaders, evoking a similar sentiment to Greta Thunberg’s “how dare you?” It is almost treated as blasphemy.  

Equally, there are others who refuse to admit that the Government’s response to the pandemic was appropriate and one of the best in the world. Any attempts to reason with them fall short. 

These reactions – from both staunch supporters and detractors of the Government – demonstrates a total inability to accept that two things can be true at once. Either things are as good as we can expect or as bad as they could be.  

It should be acceptable to hold the position that New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 was a good one while simultaneously being critical of it when things go wrong – particularly when they are avoidable – without fear of the response you might receive. 

Of course, New Zealand isn’t anywhere near close to having the same levels of political partisanship and polarisation as in other countries. No one’s businesses or relationships are at risk because of voting preference – yet. 

But the current environment is one that, if left to fester, could see us succumb to the same sorry state of affairs that we see in the likes of America.  

I don’t like the idea of New Zealand as a country where political opponents are also political enemies. Do you? 


Monique Poirier has a Masters degree in Political Studies, and is a former small business owner and Parliamentary staffer. She is the Campaigns Manager for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance.

The Herald reports:

The British influencer who sensationally claimed to be “transracial” and who identifies as Korean, has been hit by a wave of death threats after coming forward with their new identity.

Oli London, who also identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, told TMZ that the hate has been relentless.

“This week has been insane — I’ve literally had thousands of death threats,” they said.

“People telling me to kill myself, people telling me they’re going to come and find me and shoot me. Like, really extreme stuff,” said London, who partially bases their look on K-Pop star Jimin.

Thousands of death threats because his racial identity is different to his biological race. Now that is clearly hate speech.

Radio NZ report:

A Northland District Health Board report released this week shows the homeless population of Whangārei increased from 21 people to 293, between 2018 and 2020.

These people are mostly living in vehicles or around bridges and toilets.

If this happened under National, it would be the lead item in every media outlet for weeks on end, A 1000% increase in people living in cars or under bridges in a major city.

I’ve spent a couple of decades convinced that the convictions against Peter Ellis are unsafe. That doesn’t mean I’m convinced beyond doubt that he is innocent but that I am convinced there is more than reasonable doubt.

When I read last year that someone had come forward alleging Ellis abused them, ten years before the Chch creche case, I did wonder if this was proof he was guilty as the complainant had no connection with the other complainants.

But the Supreme Court has ruled the allegations as inadmissible, and reading through you can see why. There are huge credibility gaps in the complainants identification of Ellis. A summary is:

• She says Ellis was her babysitter and abused her in 1982 or 1983 when she was 4 or 5.
• She says Ellis worked or volunteered at a kindergarten, where her mother was a cleaner. A longstanding employee says she does not recall Ellis ever working there. A former civic creche employee says Ellis never worked in childcare before the Civic Creche.
• She says Ellis’ mother worked as a barmaid at the Royal George Tavern in Christchurch in 1982/83. Ellis’ siblings all say their mother never was a barmaid and lived in Twizel until 1986.
• She says she felt guilty in 1993 when she watched the trials for not reporting the 1983 abuse. This contradicts here later claim she recognized him as the abuser in 2007 when watching a documentary.
• She says she told her boyfriend about it when she was 15. The boyfriend has no recollection of this.
• In an ACC counselling session in 2006 she said the perpetrator was an uncle and then later a babysitter

You can see why the Supreme Court ruled the allegations as inadmissable. It is a good reminder that memories can be confused.

Allister Heath writes:

First it was their implacable, undemocratic hostility to Brexit, then their embrace of wokedom, and now their pathetic boycott of GB News, the centre-Right TV start-up. What is going on in boardrooms across Britain and the West? What has it come to when the likes of Ikea and Nivea cannot tolerate free speech and media plurality, and yet continue to trade in China and Saudi Arabia?

A generation of craven corporate apparatchiks, in thrall to the latest American nostrums, have lost their moral bearings. There was a time when business was conservative-leaning but apolitical, and senior executives voted Tory or, at a stretch, for Tony Blair. Increasingly, this is no longer true: in a historic miscalculation, swathes of British businesses have shifted to the radical Left, embracing its cancel culture and adopting explicitly political mission statements.

We are starting to see this in NZ, with some corporations using their advertising power to force out broadcasters they disapprove of.

Some firms employ the wrong, badly trained people in their social media teams. Instant judgment is rendered by a junior employee, often one who is so imbued with Twitter culture that they no longer realise the difference between social media and the real world. They confuse confected campaigns, as with advertising boycotts, with spontaneous outrage. A better strategy would be to ignore Twitter bullying: the mob’s power is usually illusory.

Good advice.

There is a better strategy for companies that still want to compete in the real world: have no truck with this madness, stamp out all prejudice, embrace absolute meritocracy and instigate a nurturing culture of mutual support and respect. Offices should be ideology-free and devoid of thought-police: the corporate purpose must be to unite people from all backgrounds to make money ethically, not to organise readings of Robin DiAngelo’s abysmal White Fragility and purge dissenters.

Can only agree.

As astute Kiwiblog readers will know one of the key functions of government is to care for those who – in a moment – or over a lifetime – struggle to care for themselves.

Wikipedia actually does a pretty good job of describing the nature and processes of our democracy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Government

The “opposition” is supposed to function to hold the government to account and the more dysfunctional the more the government can take liberties. The media is also assumed to have a key role in keeping the government focussed on “what matters.”

Having known Mike King for a good few years now and seeing his work with young people I am dismayed by all of the entities described above. Mike’s passion is the mental well-being of New Zealanders – especially the young. It blows my mind that in the year to June 2020 we had 654 Kiwis take their own lives in our small, beautiful nation. A government (clearly including the bureaucrats) opposition and media need to be looking for every opportunity to improve this situation. Mike and his organisations are by no means the complete solution but given all that we have spent on covid – with 6.4% the annual deaths of suicide- Mike King’s programmes have to we worth $5m per annum.

The treatment of Mike King by the Ministry of Health officials is a national disgrace.

This Wednesday – 7th of July – we have Mike in one of NZ’s smallest towns – the beautiful Russell – Bay of Islands. He is doing a support event at Eagle’s Nest (12:30 – 2pm).

Mike is then speaking from 3 – 4pm at the Nauti Penguin and from 5:30 – 7pm at the Russell Boating Club – taking his message of hope and support to small town NZ. If you can motivate media to be here – please do.

Having Mike’s counselling programme funded through the Ministry of Health simply NEEDS to happen. We have invited Ashley Bloomfied as we can facilitate a face-to-face. The last word from his PA was that he hadn’t discounted the trip. Please ask him to be here – or at least very senior officials ([email protected])

This is a moment for the young people of NZ.

Alwyn Poole
Villa Education Trust
[email protected]

Pleased to see 10 candidates standing for four positions on the National Party Board. Some years there isn’t even a contest, so good to see so many standing. The candidates are:

• Alastair Bell
• Grant McCallum
• Lliam Munro
• Aryana Nafissi
• Jannita Pilisi
• Felicity Price
• David Ryan
• John Sunckell
• Stefan Sunde
• Sylvia Wood

Closer to the conference I’ll try and blog a summary of each candidate.

Stuff reports:

A prisoner who stomped and stabbed a fellow inmate to death faces the possibility of becoming only the second person in New Zealand to be sentenced to life without parole.

Stuff understands Siuaki Lisiate has no interactions with fellow inmates and is being housed in the same part of Auckland Prison at Paremoremo as the terrorist responsible for the Christchurch mosque shootings. So far, the mosque shooter is the only person in New Zealand to receive a life sentence without parole.

Lisiate’s interim name suppression lapsed on Tuesday, and he can now be revealed as the man who used a weapon made from sharpened pencils and a piece of sharpened aluminium to stab Blake Lee to death inside an exercise yard in March 2020. Lee is the second prisoner who Lisiate has killed inside Paremoremo.

So he did his original offending to get into prison, and has twice killed within prison. Obviously he should never ever be released as he would be a threat to the public. I don’t support the death penalty but he would be a poster child for it, if we did, The other prisoners need to be protected also and if he has twice killed other prisoners, he will try and do so again.