General Debate 25 February 2025

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Clyde

Luxon demonstrated on Hosking this morning why a word salad is not an alternative for plain speaking in the Bayley issue.
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February 25, 2025 8:02am
- Scooter
  
  Talking of salads, Luxon was being particularly “oily” in that interview. Just answer the bloody question, would he have sacked him or not. Luxon is quickly becoming the “I have no opinion” PM.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:10am
  - Raphael
    
    It annoyed me when I was watching the livestream yesterday and he refused to say if he would have sacked Bayley had Bayley not resigned first.
    
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    February 25, 2025 10:30am
    - Raphael
      
      To be clear, I found his refusing to actually answer more irritating than if he had just said yes or no.
      
      That is my biggest complaint about Luxon. He’s lukewarm, neither hot nor cold on any topic.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:55am
    - Colville
      
      Really??
      
      When asked if he would have fired Bayly had he not resigned, Luxon responded “well he wouldn’t have met my expectations and I think that’s a pretty fair assumption”
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:35pm
    - alphabeatrium
      
      To be fair, those questions are themselves very annoying. “What would you have done if [thing that didn’t happen] happened?” What would you say to me if an elephant danced across your keyboard? Answer quickly.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:55pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        alphabeatrium: “What would you say to me if an elephant danced across your keyboard? Answer quickly”
        
        Hosking didn’t ask anything remotely as out there as that.
        
        Listening to The Platform today it seems Luxon did eventually declare (I can’t remember who to) that he would have fired Bayley if he didn’t resign.
        
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        February 25, 2025 7:53pm
- Simon
  
  Luxon struggles with the leftie MSM interviews because he secretly agrees with the interviewer. The hard part for Luxon in MSM interviews is to gaslight the [Mod – deleted] that continue to support National.
  
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  February 25, 2025 10:06am
Chuck Bird

Hosking has just demonstrated why Luxon is doing badly and he told him.
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February 25, 2025 8:02am
- Grunter
  
  What a train smash….for Luxon
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:03am
- Souvlaki
  
  Another train wreck.
  He clearly has developed ‘testicular atrophy’ by fence sitting for too long!
  The condition is irreversible!
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:14am
- Sacha
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Hosking is a bore and a bully. He knows that by giving the PM a hard time he will lift his ratings with those who are ‘agin the government’.
  Little man syndrome.
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:17am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Come on. Sure he is trying to lift his ratings. But you think that a PM on top of his game could be “bullied” by a radio host?
    
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    February 25, 2025 8:49am
  - RoboRob
    
    Haven’t listened to this mornings Hosking yet. However Hosking is a good interviewer who asks hard question to whichever team he is interviewing. We shouldn’t applaud it when he destroys JA or Hipkins but complain when he makes life hard for Luxon.
    
    Asking the hard questions is what journalism / interviewing used to be about.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:09am
    - pdm
      
      Hard to see a difference between JA, Chippie and Luxon in responses to Hosking most Tuesdays RR.
      
      Hosking even tried to make it easy for Luxon this morning by pointing out to him that we New Zealanders expected straight honest answers from him.
      
      Yet still he dithered and ignored that very direct advice.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:16am
      - RoboRob
        
        Yes. Have now listened to the interview. Pathetic. Hoskings says, ‘the reason you are struggling is your inability to give straight answers, would you have fired him, yes or no?’. Luxon then spends 3 minutes attempting to not say yes or no. Is he a little thick?
        
        His minders would do well to have him listen to this interview.
        
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        February 25, 2025 11:04am
    - Paulus
      
      Agreed – with out being arrogantly rude !
      
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      February 25, 2025 2:19pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    Sacha: Would those ‘ agin the government’ seriously be tuned into Hosking in the first place?
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:19am
    - pdm
      
      We have a friend who heads up The Greens in Hastings.
      
      She hates Hosking with a Passion.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:18am
  - Clyde
    
    Sacha, what absolute BS. Hosking is top dog on radio and is there because, in the main, he doesn’t stand for obfuscation and crap. Ardern couldn’t stand the heat because she was so full of crap it was easy for Hosking to expose her. She was much more comfortable in the arms of the comms dept of the Liemore Pardy called RNZ. I’d say Hosking is more aware than most of what middle NZ is thinking and hence his impatience at Luxon’s prevaricating over plain talk. And hence his high ratings.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:36am
  - kowtow
    
    Luxon needs to worry about his own ratings .
    
    After that interview I now know why he’s so afraid to be interviewed by Plunket.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:53am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I can’t imagine Key handling an interview badly, and he dealt with that little prick John Campbell on more than one occasion, a Labour-Green operative with a byline who wanted to take down Key far more than Hosking wants to take down Luxon.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:00am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Sacha: “Hosking is a bore and a bully.”
    
    Nope. He’s interesting because he is a lot quicker than nearly all pollies and is able to keep them on their toes.
    
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    February 25, 2025 7:56pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I still remember where I was when I heard that John Key had resigned. I certainly did not celebrate. I would feel very differently if Chris Luxon went.
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:18am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    I hope every day that he will step down. Too late for him to wake up. His word salad nonsense will not change. Ardern taught him well.
    This morning on a TV1 interview he was asked about his opinion of the relationship with China re the live fire in the Tasman sea. Nek minut he was waffling about China and North Korea. It was a yes or no answer required!
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:25am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      You hope Luxon will step down? Who do you imagine the Nats would replace him with? How would we be better off with Willis or Bishop in charge? I’m no fan of Luxon, but the problem with the Nats goes far deeper than the present leader.
      
      It’s very hard for the minor parties to muscle in on the big two. Perhaps our best (faint) hope of real change is a hostile takeover of the Nats by a Trump-like figure. But who?
      
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      February 25, 2025 9:33am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Simeon Brown.
        
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        February 25, 2025 11:29am
      - wsk12345
        
        There must be someone decent who doesn’t agree with the teals on climate, spending etc, and who is just biding their time. Please!!!!
        
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        February 25, 2025 11:46am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        In NZ, who are “the teals”?
        
        In Aus they are the “fake independents” wooing comfortable lefty women and their simps into voting for them (with the “strong woman” vibe) while actually voting hard left and green policy once in power.
        
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        February 25, 2025 8:02pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Luxon is singlehandedly reviving the Labour party.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:29am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Ardern with a blue tie.
        
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        February 25, 2025 11:55am
  - Positan
    
    Benedict, it took some time after Key had left to discern that he’d left us a pile of festering problems – like permitting the outrage of enabling Maori to sign up to UNDRIP and “empowering” them to pretend they are “indigenous” and claim all manner of unjustified privileges.
    Key knew the track we were on was down hill – and sadly, he chose to bail out while everyone still thought he was a good guy. I’ve had no time for the man ever since.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:33am
    - Inandout
      
      Pos, I recall Key returned the foreshore to the tribes after Helen wisely kept the beaches for all NZers. I think he also ignored the massive pile of signatures supporting some sort of corporal punishment for children. And of course he lifted the GST to 15%. As for Key doing a runner and leaving the hapless Bill English to carry the can, well history will eventually judge him on that.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:40am
      - Paulus
        
        When GST was raised so other personal tax figures were rebalanced to a neutral position.
        Stupid, or just left wing ignorant.
        
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        February 25, 2025 2:23pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        When GST was raised so other personal tax figures were rebalanced to a neutral position.
        
        I think you will find that overall tax went up for people at the bottom and down for those at the top.
        
        Key did expect it would increase the total tax take by about $4bn. This was in 2010. Coincidentally this is about the size of transfusion that NZ needs for the defence force … so raising GST to 20% and tweaking PAYE could do the job ….
        
        It’s “pretty hard” to balance off (through the whole range) a fixed rate tax (GST) against a variable one (PAYE).
        
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        February 25, 2025 3:38pm
  - kowtow
    
    I don’t remember where I was but it certainly wasn’t on the grassy knoll.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:00pm
    - Jack5
      
      And the bloody pirate flag Key wanted for NZ.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:10pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  FYI
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/christopher-luxon-prime-minister-talkings-gang-charges-andrew-baylys-resignation-and-a-new-oil-refinery/
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:21am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Bayly would have been demoted (not sacked)
    ‘Made a meal of this” Hosking.
    Luxon was talking shit, and he knows it.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:34am
    - pdm
      
      Luxon was talking shit, and he knows it.`’
      
      SO – yes he was but, can you be sure he knows it?
      It seems to be his way and are the people in his Caucus (including Cabinet members) and staff game enough to front him on it?
      
      Who would know and would they speak out?
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:26am
- Scooter
  
  Will he do an Ardern and bail out?? See what I did there.
  
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  February 25, 2025 10:13am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    “The tank is empty.” One of her compulsive lies.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:31am
    - kowtow
      
      I always thought that was a very odd metaphor for her to use given her hyper public stance on all things climate catastrophic .
      
      Given how she liked to cosplay as an indigenous princess I’d have thought ;
      
      “The kete is empty ” more appropriate.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:04pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      One of her first lies to the nation was one of omission.
      She knew she was pregnant before the election but kept it secret.
      People may not have voted for her had they known.
      
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      February 25, 2025 5:19pm
- MCōs
  
  Christopher Luxon’s problem, in my opinion, is that he hasn’t been in the game long enough to lie convincingly
  Or distort the truth, maybe
  
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  February 25, 2025 12:04pm
  - kowtow
    
    Nope , it’s not that .
    
    As he’s a puppet ( and we still don’t know who is pulling the strings ) he just can’t/won’t give a straight answer .
    Unless it’s to do with the Treaty and we all know where the centre and left wings of the Nats are on that one.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:07pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      His game playing with Hosking this morning made him look like he was hiding something or trying to fool us.
      Not a good look.
      
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      February 25, 2025 5:24pm
  - PeeJay
    
    While you might be right if he had a previous career as a straight-shooting type, as his background is as a corporate suit, he will be a master at spin, so I don’t think that’s quite right.
    
    While I don’t know the guy and have never met him, every time I see him or listen to him, I get a sense that he is one of those folks that desperately wants / needs to be liked by everyone. He seems to crave that ‘guy you could have a beer with’ vibe that Key had and seems overly keen to get the media to like him.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:54pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Yes and no. Yes he isn’t good at obfuscating and avoiding answering questions. No, thats not the primary issue. His issue is that he is too afraid to answer questions for fear of offending someone.
    
    Look at this mornings question, ‘would you have sacked Bayly if he hadn’t resigned?’. Too scared to say Yes for fear of offending Bayly supporters / people who think he should have his MPs backs. Too scared to say No for fear of offending people who want someone firm and decisive.
    
    So his answer, waffle and avoid answering. The result, everyone assumes he would say the opposite of what they want and people think he is shifty / indecisive.
    
    If he cant answer questions like that, no wonder people wonder where he is on the big issues.
    
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    February 25, 2025 1:11pm
Grunter

The Luxon/Willis “Go for Growth” strategy is a “rolling thunder” of activity! It’s great to see all the details and new initiatives coming out each week….//
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February 25, 2025 8:02am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLO2CZNXxg4
Explaining the German election results
Last chance for the establishment parties to do at least some rights wing policies. Spoiler alert they won’t.
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February 25, 2025 8:03am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I remember the days when left wing was communist or something like that. So I was surprised that the old East Germany voted solidly for the supposedly far right Alternative Fur Deutsheland.
  This “far right” epithet is thrown about much too often these days.
  I see there was an area south west of Frankfurt on Main that went AFD. The only part of the old capitalistic West Germany.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:08am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, me too. I hope the AfD becomes the biggest party by the next election.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:03pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5avFtO66g4
Thousands of British Patriots Gather In Southamptom Shouting Mass Deportation Now!
Witness the passion and determination of British patriots as they take to the streets of Southampton to demand mass deportation NOW! In this powerful and thought-provoking video, you’ll see citizens exercising their right to free speech and assembly, calling for change and demanding action from their government. From emotional testimonials to rousing chants, this video captures the energy and conviction of those who refuse to be silenced. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on this critical issue. What do you think about mass deportation and the role of government in addressing immigration concerns? Let us know in the comments!
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February 25, 2025 8:03am
- 7kiwi11
  
  Mass deportations are never going to happen. The reason? Because the vast majority of the immigrants that they are protesting about are there legally.
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:58am
  - Matt Long
    
    When the old rules no longer function, you have to decide whether to hand control to the caliphate or make new rules. I’m reasonably certain the caliphate will have no qualms about mass deportations of non Muslims who don’t submit.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:06am
  - sungsamning
    
    They could be paid to leave on a voluntary basis. Thatcher tried that policy, from memory.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:04pm
    - kowtow
      
      Older than that .
      
      Excerpt from Powell’s speech 1968 .
      
      “The natural and rational first question with a nation confronted by such a prospect is to ask:
      “How can its dimensions be reduced?” Granted it be not wholly preventable, can it be limited,
      bearing in mind that numbers are of the essence: the significance and consequences of an alien
      element introduced into a country or population are profoundly different according to whether
      that element is 1 per cent or 10 per cent.
      The answers to the simple and rational question are equally simple and rational: by stopping, or
      virtually stopping, further inflow, and by promoting the maximum outflow. Both answers are
      part of the official policy of the Conservative Party. “
      
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      February 25, 2025 2:29pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  I expect Starmer the farmer-harmer to denounce them as racists and bigots.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:34am
  - sirknz
    
    He will ship them all off to Ukraine to allow the takeover of the UK to continue unabated.
    
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    February 25, 2025 10:03am
artemisia

China spreading its territory and resources wings. Yes it is. But need to bear in mind China has eliminated extreme poverty with close to a billion citizens lifted out of that. That’s a serious change in actual survival level of real families. It doesn’t happen by sitting on hands and waiting for manna to drop into laps.

Groups and countries have fought for survival since the dawn of time. Not always succeeding. China is succeeding.
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February 25, 2025 8:14am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  China has a PLUMMETING Birth Rate.
  
  You will have one child supporting two elderly parents and up to four grandparents.
  
  In the old China the old were supported by younger members now with the one child policy that is a distant memory.
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:19am
  - David Garrett
    
    Fighting: I believe they have abandoned or even reverse the one child policy
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:07am
    - Phronesis
      
      They have abandoned the policy but that degree of social conditioning is hard to reverse.
      
      The thing that scares me about Chinese demographics is that they are legendary for playing the long game but anyone can see that their demographics are such that if they plan on making a move militarily they have to do it reasonably soon.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:45am
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      But no one is having kids as they cannot afford to.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:32pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    Almost everywhere, including New Zealand, has a PLUMMETING birth rate. And women are not going to reverse that by having more children. Many governments have tried various policies and programmes to encourage that, and in no case has it been successful.
    
    The prospect is that in the near future there will not be enough productive young people to create and hand over the resources needed to support the elderly in the manner they expect, and have the numbers to vote for.
    
    If not immigration,then what?
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:24am
    - Eastlander
      
      This argument is entirely spurious since there are very few economically productive migrants left to scoop up. In Britain they have found themselves lumbered with ‘care workers’ who don’t know how to butter toast and throngs of roadmen milling about outside schools and taking photographs of children.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:03am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Are you denying that there’s a problem, or asserting that there’s a better solution? Either way, I’d be interested in your evidence and reasoning, thanks
        
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        February 25, 2025 11:45am
      - Eastlander
        
        Let’s start with the fact that TFR is dropping across the board. India, once a byword for fecundity has fallen from 6 births per woman in 1960 to 2.01 as of 2022. Thailand is down to 1.32 (lower than New Zealand!) and Vietnam is at 1.94. Those African states which are not riven by war are going the same way – Ghana is at 3.51 and trending downward, Kenya at 3.3, Rwanda at 3.75. Nigeria is down from its peak, and judging by the experiences of other African states that will continue. So the assumption that there is a dependable cohort of immigrants to draw upon is only going to become less and less tenable.
        
        Then there’s the quality of the migrants – there isn’t a lot of reason for ‘top talent’ to come to New Zealand, so you won’t get that. Hard-working people who want a better life than their own country can afford is the best you can reasonably hope for, and quite frankly not all countries have a lot of people like this to hand off to us. Consider that migrants use government services as well as providing them, and then consider what net benefit you really get if a hypothetical ‘care worker’ also brings half a dozen relations with them.
        
        Even ‘high-quality migration’ is a double-edged sword since the migrants have wills of their own and a large enough migrant community entrenched in the government and private sector can bend the state to its well at the expense of the native population.
        
        The crash in birth rates across the world didn’t happen by accident, governments everywhere adhered to anti-natalist policies and pushed anti-natalists propaganda to their populations at all levels. Teenagers learn from an early age that the worst thing that can happen to them is pregnancy, that it will destroy their lives, that if it is to happen at all it should be deferred to some later date when material conditions for a perfect. Remove this factor and you will eventually see a change, even if it comes too late for many of the people who bought into the propaganda. Then the problem can be left to self-correct.
        
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        February 25, 2025 1:25pm
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        “TFR is dropping across the board” – yes, I started my original comment by pointing out that almost everywhere has a PLUMMETING birth rate.
        
        Several governments have tried “reversing anti-natalist policies”, putting in place measures such as providing more generous childcare provision, such as tax breaks and extended, fully-paid maternity leave, and requiring companies to offer new mums and dads more flexible working hours, and provide workplace creches. Are you advocating the same sort of thing here, even though the approach hasn’t actually succeeded anywhere else?
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72p2vgd21no
        
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        February 25, 2025 3:30pm
      - Eastlander
        
        Hungary has had some success with its policies. But anti-natalism is deeply ingrained in all societies and won’t disappear quickly, and it is probably too late to prevent a sharp population crash in most countries, The future will belong to large conservative and religious families (they still exist).
        
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        February 25, 2025 3:56pm
      - BananaLlama
        
        The decline in birth rates can’t be reversed with government policies only and using immigration as a crutch is only importing future elderly into our country.
        It is a very, very, serious problem and will have far worse consequences than global warming.
        In my opinion at some point in the future couples who are willing to make a sacrifice and raise a family will be highly valued citizens of any country.
        
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        February 25, 2025 7:12pm
- kowtow
  
  China is only “succeding” because the West has de industrialised at its own expense and is failing . having moved so many factories there.
  
  Western capitalists sought cheap , unregulated production there and then western politicians , having adopted environmental neo religion could boast about their carbon credentials, as all the jobs had gone to China.
  
  And to your pointand talking about irrational national or global policies look at how Pacific nations blame the west ( and the west go along with) nonsense re sea level rise , carbon neutrality , net zero etc and yet those very same Pacific nations embrace the biggest ‘carbon polluter” of the lot , building coal power plants which we in the west have closed , stupidly .
  
  Complete , utter hypocrisy .
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:32am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Chinese Demographics being as they are, with an aging population and les and less working age people, we will see in short order the cost of Chinese Labour increasing as factories struggle to attract workers.
    
    Of course this will be great for those workers, but may result in some industries moving countries. We are already seeing more and more “Made in Vietnam”, “Made in India” stickers.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:25am
    - Phronesis
      
      I saw “Made in Myanmar” for the first time just yesterday.
      
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      February 25, 2025 10:49am
    - Jack5
      
      As living standards rise, manufacturing moves to a new low-wage country.
      
      There are other factors, however. Why isn’t manufacturing soaring in Pakistan, with quarter of a billion people?
      
      Relevant to NZ exports, a falling population in China will help consolidation of land holdings and thus bigger, more competitive farms.
      
      This week, China has announced a policy to bolster its farming:
      
      https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-announces-rural-revitalisation-plans-annual-policy-blueprint-2025-02-23/
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:25pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Coal power plants. NZ does not close them (stupidly) we stupidly import coal instead of using our own.
    Whose bran dead idea was that?//
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:43am
    - RoboRob
      
      Megan Woods?
      
      We cant close our coal plant because we dont have a replacement for it. When we are short of power we have to power it up.
      
      Re coal, the official line, which I dont believe is….
      ‘The plant was designed to run on a specific type of coal which has to be imported. The coal field it is sitting on is the wrong type’.
      
      I think the real answer is. If we dig up coal that counts towards our CO2 emissions, whereas buying other countries coal, not so much. Yes I realise that makes no sense but most thats most of the climate policy.
      
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      February 25, 2025 1:19pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Huntly was built there for a reason.
        The power station could have been built in places by the waikato river where there is no coal. The wrong type of coal is a nonsense. NZ imports shit dirty brown coal from Indonesia.
        What coal did Huntly power station run on before Huntly coal was the wrong type of coal? Meremere used to have a chain line of buckets from the mines in waimarino. What kind of coal was that?
        So Huntly coal is high grade coal good for steel production furnaces. WTF is Huntly? Not a furnace? It can also run on natural gas. Oh, what happened to the gas.? LPG now – soon to be imported!
        My head hurts.
        
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        February 25, 2025 4:48pm
- sungsamning
  
  China deserves credit for setting the parameters for the elimination of extreme poverty. However; the real credit belongs to Joe and Jane Six Pack buying Chinese goods from Walmart, and the Warehouse.
  
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  February 25, 2025 12:06pm
  - MCōs
    
    J & J probably didn’t look at the label to see where their cheap stuff was manufactured
    
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    February 25, 2025 7:21pm
Yvette

The incoming Deputy Prime Minister [David Seymour] said he did not see enough New Zealanders in top jobs as actors, directors and producers on Cameron’s Avatar movies, which Film Commission figures show have got a total of $208,604,126 in taxpayer cash.
“It should be a condition of wanting to do business here,” Seymour said.
He described the subsidy scheme as “a bit cringe”, and said imposing such conditions would help “de-cringe” it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360592283/david-seymour-wants-decringe-avatar-and-force-socialist-director-james-cameron-use-kiwi-actors-top

I find two things this article doesn’t clarify –
Does subsidy mean money the Government pays to the film company, or tax, GST or whatever that the film company does not pay the Government. One is real taxpayer money, the other is money not yet collected so in fact no more real than in people’s minds.

And what does “a bit cringe” and “de-cringe”, mean? – when the term, if you call it that, is the crux of the article. It is as annoying to me, an average reader, as finding the whole sense of a paragraph in an article hangs on a Maori word which is not translated, and I am denied the understanding of what I am trying to read.
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February 25, 2025 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  ‘The taxpayer subsidies seem set to continue in some form, with Seymour conceding “every other country gives these subsidies, and if New Zealand doesn’t, we lose the industry”.’
  
  That just results in a race to the bottom in who can offer the biggest bribes.
  
  I really don’t see why the long suffering taxpayer should be forced to underwrite some of the wealthiest and most useless of industries in the world.
  
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  February 25, 2025 8:46am
  - riffer
    
    It’s a simple business proposition. Spend $200 million. Get $800 million of benefits.
    
    Surely it’s not that difficult to understand?
    
    2 18
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    February 25, 2025 9:42am
    - kowtow
      
      They say the same thing about hosting Olympics and other circusses .
      
      Any evidence ?
      
      Other than ny constant tax demands and a slowing economy.
      
      Anyway it’s not really a “business” proposition , it’s quasi socialism.
      
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      February 25, 2025 9:58am
      - riffer
        
        You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it think, it seems.
        
        1 4
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        February 25, 2025 12:11pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Spend $200 million. Get $800 million of benefits.
      
      One of the many things I loved about the movie Shakespeare In Love was its little shout outs to Hollywood, as in the following scene.:
      
      Fennyman: Play takes time. Find the actors, rehearsals, let’s say we open in two weeks. That’s, what? 500 grundlings at tuppence a head. In addition 400 backsides at threepence. Penny extra for cushions. Call it… uh… 200 cushions. Say two performances for safety. How much is that Mr Frees?
      
      Frees: Twenty pounds to the penny Mr Fennyman
      
      Fennyman: Correct
      
      Henslowe: But I have to pay the actors and the author
      
      Fennyman: Share of the profits
      
      Henslowe There’s never any
      
      Fennyman: Of course not
      
      Henslowe: Oh Mr Fennyman… I think you might have hit upon something.
      
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      February 25, 2025 11:21am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, time for Seymour to turn his new department into a NZ version of DOGE.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:08pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Seymour is pointing out that for the sort of money that NZ may be providing it is quite embarrassing that no New Zealanders seem to be employed??? If Cameron was making that movie in Hollywood he’d get no government funding AND to be in the run to be even consider for an Academy Award the film from actors to caterers would need to double tap every DEI box going……in short its a rort!
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:16am
- Ghost
  
  New Zealanders work in the productions, from crew, to small acting roles to lead roles which Cliff Curtis had.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:34am
  - riffer
    
    Not to mention the special effects folk over at Weta. Huge amounts of money going there.
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:43am
    - Quail
      
      Riffer
      Huge subsidies too.
      Perhaps Sir Peter could tell us actually how much?
      And a real CBA (without the notional benefits) would reveal just how much this has cost taxpayers.
      
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      February 25, 2025 2:37pm
sirknz

Reason number 25,398,314 as to why stuff takes so long to do and costs so much.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/lake-rotokakahi-protest-expected-as-tarawera-sewerage-project-restarts-amid-new-legal-stoush/LFPS4J7C4RAOBKZ7GXGMZUX46Q/

I wonder if the ‘koha’ paid to those ‘most affected’ to date is currently $0?
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February 25, 2025 8:37am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Obvious the “koha” bill for the “wahi tapu” area has not been paid, or the hand is out for more.
  No such thing as full and final settlements.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:58am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Exhibit B
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360592505/committee-member-pockets-8000-after-attending-zero-meetings-two-years
  
  14 1
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  February 25, 2025 10:23am
  - pdm
    
    Looks like he is representing a Maori Ward.
    
    Co Governance working as expected and these people want their own Parliament.
    
    Give me a break.
    
    9 1
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    February 25, 2025 11:31am
    - John Loveridge
      
      Nice work if you can get it.
      
      2 1
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      February 25, 2025 12:15pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Need some Elon Musk types. This Country is being taken to the cleaners by freeloaders.
    
    3 2
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    February 25, 2025 4:54pm
- rjay
  
  With that threatening haka I trust that the organisation behind this will be labeled a gang just like Destiny is supposed to be!
  
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  February 25, 2025 5:34pm
Rusty

On this day in history 25th Feb 2007 Al Gore won an academy award for his “Inconvenient Truth” movie.
That movie is still laughable and inaccurate rubbish.
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February 25, 2025 8:41am
- riffer
  
  LOL. 90% of Oscar winning movies are laughable and inaccurate rubbish too.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:44am
  - All_on_Red
    
    And like the movie ‘Inconvenient Truth’ all fiction.
    
    12 0
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    February 25, 2025 10:41am
    - wairarapapaul
      
      The movie “Idiocracy” is supposed to be fiction but it’s turning into a documentary.
      
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      February 25, 2025 1:08pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  It is the Bible to the Greens!
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:59am
- sungsamning
  
  It was played in British schools. There was a court case. Further screenings were then accompanied by a rebuttal of the more egregious lies.
  
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  February 25, 2025 12:10pm
- PurplePen
  
  From that movie “Within the decade, there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.” Al Gore (2006), An Inconvenient Truth.
  
  Ah ha ha ha ha hahaha.
  
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  February 25, 2025 3:02pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Yep and “the father of climate alarmism” James Hansen made some very stupid failed predictions as well. These failed alarmist predictions are legion and they are concrete proof that these people do not know what they are talking about.
    
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    February 25, 2025 8:10pm
colina

Really !!!!
The Government has made key decisions on a Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) framework to enable businesses to benefit from storing carbon underground.

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/carbon-capture-one-step-closer
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February 25, 2025 8:48am
- Spam
  
  Well, the plus is that they’re not proposing subsidies. If companies want to invest and do this, then that’s fine. Personally, I doubt it is economic at the current carbon tax price.
  
  The big issue that will get people excited is what happens in 50 or 100 years, when the company that injected the CO2 is long gone. Who monitors the injection well integrity / leakage?
  
  Personally, I don’t see it as any more risky than the current regulations around plugging and abandoning gas wells. It is reasonably safe and effective. I also think the consequences of a leak of CO2 is an order of magnitude less than those of a leak of gas. But it won’t stop the ignorant-types who are just anti-everything from protesting. It will be a stalking horse for the pro-deindustrialisation crowd, who simply think that CO2 capture allows companies to “pollute”. (You know: like recycling allows pollution / sarc)
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:43am
  - Matt Long
    
    The underground carbon capture schemes I have seen create various rock carbonates. Calcium Carbonate is a common naturally occurring one, appears very stable until mined.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:14am
- Taieri
  
  And what are the energy requirements to carry out the said Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage likely to be?
  
  5 1
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  February 25, 2025 9:53am
- artemisia
  
  Norway, Iceland and maybe more have been doing this – carbfix – for a couple of decades. Sending rocks into the deep of the sea. New Zealand has a lot of sea.
  
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  February 25, 2025 12:02pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Rocks? What’s the story with “rocks” going into the sea?
    
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    February 25, 2025 8:17pm
Tom Barker

David Seymour told Paddy Gower that he admires film director Taika Waititi. Does he agree with Waititi’s statement that this country is “racist as fuck”?
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February 25, 2025 8:48am
- Blog-aholic
  
  You can admire a man for his works (lets look at Henry Ford) and you can vilify him for his beliefs (lets again look at Mr. Ford).
  That said Mr. Cohen is part of the problem when he says things like that, not part of the solution.
  He uses one background in NZ to bolster his image and the other one in hollywood to garner funding and other things….
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:20am
  - sirknz
    
    I thought I was the only one who called him ‘Mr Cohen’, or ‘Taika David Cohen’ his birth name.
    
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    February 25, 2025 10:18am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Well Waititi is probably right – but for the wrong reason. DEI = discrimination against straight white males.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:36am
  - riffer
    
    If you consider that reducing the proliferation of straight white males going from, say, 85% to 70% is discrimination. Still a heap of straight white males doing all right.
    
    How does it go? When you’ve had privilege for so long, any reduction in privilege looks like discrimination?
    
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    February 25, 2025 9:47am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      The quote is ‘When people are used to special treatment they see equal treatment as discrimination.’
      
      13 2
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      February 25, 2025 10:00am
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Please provide hard evidence that straight white males have enjoyed unearned “privilege”.
        
        4 0
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        February 25, 2025 12:24pm
    - Eastlander
      
      Straight white males have never been privileged, if they stood on top of the world it is by virtue of having created almost everything of value in it. The resentful outsiders who have tried to prove the contrary have never even reached the giddy heights of mediocrity. Maori privilege meanwhile is real and exists as a matter of law and policy, and those gifted with it have done nothing but admire themselves and demand opportunities to reap without having sowed.
      
      21 2
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      February 25, 2025 10:09am
      - riffer
        
        Yawn. Ok Boomer.
        
        1 15
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        February 25, 2025 12:12pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Uhuh
      Perhaps you could explain this ‘white privilege’ to my 19 yo son.
      He did the Health Sciences course at Otago last year seeking entry to Medical School to be a Doctor.
      He got an average of 90% over seven subjects and didn’t get selected
      But his Immigrant friend from Croatia who only got a 83% average got selected.
      Some privilege huh
      
      Btw he is now doing a Degree in Engineering but what a waste. He would have been a good Doctor.
      
      23 3
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      February 25, 2025 10:46am
      - wsk12345
        
        Only 90. I know a white lad, excellent all rounder (sport music head boy etc) who got a 94 average and didn’t get in.
        
        14 0
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        February 25, 2025 12:00pm
    - Yabster
      
      oh the dei/socialist- “privilege argument” – so fucking boring – nothing to do with hard work, intelligence, sacrifice huh- sums up the public service funnily enough….
      
      14 1
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      February 25, 2025 11:23am
  - mandk
    
    Quite so.
    
    There’s an awful lot of Māori privilege in NZ.
    
    17 0
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    February 25, 2025 10:22am
- john1234
  
  Waititi is correct – this country really is racist as fuck. As are pretty much all other countries. What he doesn’t realise is that this racism is spread around. Maori are certainly no less racist than Pakeha and same goes for Chinese and other ethnic groups. It is unfortunate but true that racism is a byproduct of an ingrained instinct to stick to a group of your own. It is what allowed our caveman forebears to form survivable groups that eventually formed into civilisations. No point pussy-footing around this inconvenient remnant of how we came to be where we are.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:58am
Spam

I’ve been reading the New Zealand Energy substack. Generally a good read. Last nights’ article (linked above) on electricity price spikes that happened yesterday with the HVDC cable maintenance outage coinciding with no wind is one such example. $2397.54 / MWh on a typical weekday in summer.

If we don’t have reliable baseload energy supply, this country is stuffed. Note to National: “Electrify Everything” as a policy is exacerbating the problem if we don’t have the generation (baseload) to support it. Solar and wind are NOT going to solve the problem (neither is pumped-hydro, batteries or hydrogen, incidentally).
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February 25, 2025 9:10am
- JohnRidd
  
  Well said Spam.
  
  People think if we get enough wind and solar, we will be able to shut down the Huntly power station.
  
  The truth is we need Huntly because the hydro and geothermal isn’t enough to back up the wind and solar we already have. If we increase wind and solar, we will need more back up power.
  
  That back up can come from coal, gas, hydro geothermal or nuclear.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:24am
  - PurplePen
    
    Genuinely asking. wouldn’t everytime we use wind or solar mean water doesn’t need to be taken from a hydro scheme? Or am I missing something.
    
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    February 25, 2025 3:08pm
    - JohnRidd
      
      That is a fair question.
      That is the reason why wind power in NZ is only insane, rather than completely insane.
      
      Hydro provides some back up but we don’t have enough hydro to completely back up wind.
      
      Also there is often a lot of wind when it rains. Not so much in summer when it doesn’t rain so much.
      
      Hydro is good for base load. It doesn’t like to be ramped up and down rapidly, which is what is needed to back up wind. Gas is much betterat that.
      
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      February 25, 2025 3:58pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Rubbish. Hydro is used for fast reserve and frequency keeping both of which require very fast response. Gas in a combined cycle plant (the efficient type) can’t do this. Open cycle gas can but it’s way less efficient.
        
        Most hydro comes from snow melt not rain.
        
        The reason it can’t back up wind is twofold: constraints (wind in NI can’t be backed up by hydro in SI with HVDC constraints). And hydro only has so much capacity. We have, what, 1500 MW of wind? Can’t back that up with the hydro we have. Esp with major constraints.
        
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        February 25, 2025 7:39pm
- Clyde
  
  I closely follow what is being generated, by who, and by what. The HVDC cable between the islands has been out a bit over the last weeks – tripped out a while ago and is/was out for maintenance. As a result, Huntly has been burning coal flat out for weeks.
  
  Coupled with that, while Hawea is relatively full at the moment, I suspect that Contact are saving that as hard as they can in anticipation of a huge shortfall this coming winter. Ditto with Meridian on the Waitaki schemes. My understanding is that the Feb inflows into the Clutha catchment are the lowest since records started in the 1920’s. If there isn’t much water, and in winter there never is much wind, then our maximum consumption will clearly outstrip our generation capacity. If that happens, towns will be turned off or other similar measures. Put really bluntly, NZ relies heavily on coal, gas and diesel to supplement the base load. Wind is NOT the answer. One day NZ will wake up to the fact that nuclear – which is renewable – sited near the place of consumption is a perfectly good solution to the current energy crisis.
  
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  February 25, 2025 9:46am
  - goNZ1
    
    I noticed Contact have saved up 1000 tonnes of coal they say are needed for Huntly operating at full noise all Winter.
    From what I know of mechanical things like Rankines, running them on max output nonstop for weeks or months on end leads to unscheduled breakdowns, especially given these units are seriously old.
    Stock up on batteries and candles Citizens!
    
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    February 25, 2025 10:20am
    - wsk12345
      
      I work in the sector. There’s a good reason we installed a big wood burner with facility to cook on top.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:03pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Have more faith my son, Believe harder that renewables are the cheapest form of electricity generation. Then miracles will happen. /
        
        2 0
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        February 25, 2025 8:25pm
    - Spam
      
      Starting them up and shutting them down (as they currently are frequently required to do) is much worse. The machines are designed as baseload, they’re being run as peakers / firming capacity when the wind is gusty or it’s a cloudy day the wind or solar gets variable. It will only get worse as the fraction of wind and solar increases.
      
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      February 25, 2025 12:28pm
  - Eastlander
    
    One for Auckland, one for Christchurch. Perhaps one for Southland too. Legislate through regulatory and iwi obstacles and it could work.
    
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    February 25, 2025 10:23am
  - Phronesis
    
    Te Anau / Manapouri are the big concern at the moment. Will be interesting to see what happens if they can’t supply the contracted power to the smelter.
    I don’t know when their resource consent is up for renewal but I would be very surprised if there isn’t serious push back against allowing the lake levels to be as low as they are now.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:06am
  - kowtow
    
    Good an you clyde .
    
    If our te meedia paahti banged on endlessly about our newly found energy insecurity ( due to lack of investment , divestment from”fossil fuels” etc) like they do about the alleged state of school lunches ,
    then perhaps more people would become aware of the dire state of our de industrialisation , factory closures , unemplyment , capital and labour flight and inflation .
    
    But instead we get the Wets constantly telling us ;
    
    Nestle won’t play with us .
    
    All good, ’till the lights literally go out.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:27pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  What does solve the problem is that word that starts with “N”
  Don’t say it, people go all funny when they read it!
  
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  February 25, 2025 10:09am
- kevn
  
  Spam… Check todays generation numbers.
  https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/live-system-and-market-data/consolidated-live-data
  
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  February 25, 2025 10:33am
  - wsk12345
    
    Gonna be interesting when we lose that 600 MW of gas fired plant.
    
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    February 25, 2025 12:05pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Why? A trailing legacy of the commie clown show?
      
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      February 25, 2025 8:27pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Readers may be interested in two posts I’ve done over at No Minister on this subject.
  NZ Power Blows
  
  New Zealand and Renewable Energy
  
  The second one is based on the writings of semi-retired power engineer Chris Morris and includes links to a three part series he did on Australia’s transition to renewable energy. I also included a link to a paper by Cambridge Professor of Technology (PhD in Engineering) Mike Kelly’s (Net Zero for New Zealand) which concluded that:
  
  The cost to 2050 will comfortably exceed $550 billion, a workforce comparable in size to the health sector will be required for 30 years, including a doubling of the present number of electrical engineers, and it will need about 10% of the global annual production of lithium, cobalt, neodymium and other materials. On the manpower front, New Zealand will have to rely on the domestic workforce, as I assume that every other country in the world is working towards the same target. If they were not all so working elsewhere, the value of the New Zealand specific target is moot.
  
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  February 25, 2025 11:48am
  - kevn
    
    Tom… Who was building the huge new (power hungry) data centre in Auckland? Microsoft springs to mind but I could be wrong.
    
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    February 25, 2025 11:59am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      It’s Microsoft and they’ve got a contract with one of the power companies to build a geothermal plant dedicated entirely to the data centre.
      
      Ah, Got it before my edit time expires. Microsoft signs 51MW geothermal PPA in New Zealand
      
      The arrangement will see Contact provide Microsoft with all the renewable energy attributes generated by Contact’s new 51.4MW Te Huka Unit 3 geothermal power station.
      
      That article lists more than just MS:
      
      AWS signed a 103MW wind PPA with local energy company Mercury earlier this year. Australian IT service provider Datacom has also partnered with Mercury to supply its NZ data centers with renewable energy.
      
      There must be more to the AWS story than that. No way would you tie a 24/7 data centre to a non 24/7 power source.
      
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      February 25, 2025 1:09pm
      - Jack5
        
        Tom’s … No way would you tie a 24/7 data centre to a non 24/7 power source.
        
        Presume you’re talking about the Mercury partnership.
        
        Geothermal, like hydro, is 24/7, and thermal can be, too.
        
        Meanwhile in addition to China’s DeepSeek advance in artificial intelligence, this trend may lead to a move away from huge, power-thirsty AI data centres.
        
        This is from the web site, Cordial Infrastructure:
        
        The post-DeepSeek era points toward a future dominated by smaller, geographically distributed data centres rather than concentrated AI training facilities.
        
        This transformation particularly benefits edge computing and regional data centres that support mature AI applications, as the market emphasis shifts from training to practical deployment.
        
        https://www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com/post-deepseek-rethinking-data-centre-power-demand-and-market-dynamics/
        
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        February 25, 2025 1:58pm
      - Spam
        
        They may have contracted for the power, but they will be connected to the same grid as everyone else. What they are contracting for is to take a given load at a given price. Who actually generated the electrons doesn’t matter (same as the gas market works).
        
        The interesting point is: what happens to their contract volumes if there is not enough generation (in total, not just from that particular thermal plant)?
        
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        February 25, 2025 6:54pm
goNZ1

A new poll by Harvard CAPS-Harris reveals the majority of the country backs President Donald J. Trump and his actions to bring much-needed reforms that are making America great again.
Americans overwhelmingly support President Trump’s agenda.
81% support deporting criminal illegal immigrants.
76% support a “full-scale effort to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government.”
76% support closing the border with additional security and policies.
69% support keeping men out of women’s sports.
68% support government declaring there are only two genders.
65% support ending race-based hiring in government.
63% support “freezing and re-evaluating all foreign aid expenditures and the department that handled them.”
61% support reciprocal tariffs.
60% support direct U.S. negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
59% support cutting government spending already approved by Congress.
57% support ending the ban on new offshore drilling.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/new-poll-shows-massive-support-for-president-trump-and-his-agenda/
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February 25, 2025 9:38am
Grunter

In Russia, the government demanded once too many times that Apple give them the encryption key to people’s iCloud accounts. In response, Apple turned off end-to-end encryption for Russian users so that the government cannot force them to hand it over.

“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in Russia given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” Apple said in a statement, adding: “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

Again, in Russia,a 74 year-old woman was arrested and fined for peacefully standing with a sign that said: “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” She was holding that sign too close to an abortion clinic.

Sorry, typos above//
This didn’t happen in Russia. This happened in the UK.
17 3
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February 25, 2025 9:44am
- kowtow
  
  Yep and did you see where a woman was visited by the stasi , sorry police , in manchester for using social media to hold local politicians to account.
  
  No crime , no incitement .
  
  This from a force that can’t /won’t solve real crimes.
  
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  February 25, 2025 11:54am
Chuck Bird

Nothing in Oz with the [Mod – deleted] PM. I do not think there has been anything here. Has anyone seen anything in NZ?

Many buildings, monuments worldwide are lit up in orange in memory of the Bibas family

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/many-buildings-monuments-worldwide-are-lit-up-in-orange-in-memory-of-the-bibas-family/
7 4
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February 25, 2025 10:33am
- kowtow
  
  Thank you for posting that .
  
  meanwhile in NZ pizzas are genocidal!
  
  “A major international food chain was barred from an official O Week event over links to Israel.
  
  Domino’s Pizza was disallowed a spot at the Otago University Students’ Association’s “Tent City” event last week.
  
  It was off the back of the OUSA adopting a Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) position,”
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/domino%E2%80%99s-gets-o-week-takeaway-message
  
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  February 25, 2025 11:51am
  - Inandout
    
    kow, and these cretins still continue to use other Israeli devices all the time, mustn’t miss that text message. I am sure the government will review that Uni’s funding, won’t you Mr Luxon?
    
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    February 25, 2025 4:37pm
goNZ1

just listened to the Hosking interrogation and I would say Luxon will have lost another 5% support from that , appalling evasion on what seems fairly a safe area , goodness knows why Luxon or his advisors cant see how bad this sounds!
21 2
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February 25, 2025 11:06am
Steve Otto N Shore

Treaty Principles Bill.
Judge David Harvey’s Oral Submission. Where Was He Right? And Wrong?
He is talking referendum.
Luxon is not doing his job, not doing what the people voted him in to do.
Needs to be gone.

Video 18 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6SDdlOAevI
6 5
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February 25, 2025 11:40am
- PurplePen
  
  The YouTube video only provides two snippets of Judge Harvey’s submission. Here’s the full 10 minutes
  
  https://youtu.be/sMNJVI5MLHg
  
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  February 25, 2025 3:37pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Thanks. I only got the short clips via Batchelor’s video.
    
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    February 26, 2025 8:22am
Colville

People dont trust Councils to spend their money wisely…I wonder why..?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360592592/tauranga-city-council-pulls-plug-28m-waterfront-walkway-amid-125-rates-rise

The estimated cost of $28m for 800m of walkway did not deliver value for money, Drysdale.

(no shit Sherlock!!)

That is $35 million for a kilometer… $35,000 per step!!
19 0
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February 25, 2025 11:43am
- greybeard
  
  Who on earth does the costings for these council projects ?
  Council staff ? Private developers / engineers ?
  Sounds like the same lot which costed the Wellington City-to-Sea bridge repairs/removal.
  
  9 0
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  February 25, 2025 12:52pm
- rangitoto
  
  H&S compliance $27.5 million. Build cost $0.5 million.
  
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  February 25, 2025 3:03pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Why is my 11.40 comment in moderation?
DPF has clearly said I can post these links and videos.
I have an email from him saying so, please check. I don’t want to waste DPF’s time by going through it all again.
6 5
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February 25, 2025 12:00pm
goNZ1

CHECK out NZ195 AKL – Hobart keeping away from Warships area off Tazzy
https://www.flightradar24.com/ANZ195/39402e24
6 0
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February 25, 2025 12:16pm
Paulus

My daughter went Wellington to Melbourne early Sunday in a direct route.
2 0
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February 25, 2025 2:35pm
David Garrett

Eight years – out in three or four – for this abominable offending:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360592941/man-jailed-inexplicable-sexual-offending-towards-infant-and-toddler

And the prick is 30 – the chances of him being diverted away from this kind of offending are very slight. I am not allowed to say what I think should happen to this mis-wired excuse for a human being.

Ron Brierley was still offending in his 80’s.
13 0
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February 25, 2025 2:44pm
- Ghost
  
  I watched a really good sentencing on YouTube the other day from the USA. The judge gave the guy the maximum sentence for killing a child and then said, and I will make sure everyone in the prison knows that you are there for murdering a child.
  
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  February 25, 2025 2:51pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Ghost: Yep…I don’t give a fiddler’s fuck what happens to this sorry excuse for a human being during the three or four years he will serve.
    
    7 0
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    February 25, 2025 3:17pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Sad that the 12 year old’s mother says she can’t trust men around her daughter.
  One POS should not extend to all males.
  However the sentence should be doubled for the other bit about recording with a toddler. He will offend after his reduced sentence.
  
  5 1
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  February 25, 2025 5:07pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  That’s a very odd headline ‘Stuff” has used.
  
  There’s nothing inexplicable at all, if you read the Herald version:
  
  The defendant had displayed sexualised behaviour since primary school and had shown an intensified interest in sexual activities, specifically with young children in recent years,
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/damian-nigal-archbold-jailed-for-sexual-abuse-of-infant-and-toddler/WYIXEEW2ENB5THRDK3TZECUS4I/
  
  2 0
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  February 25, 2025 7:13pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360592932/unknown-illness-kills-over-50-people-part-congo-hours-between-symptoms-and-death
A cynical person might think that the Congo is being used as a test-bed for some sort of germ warfare.
3 1
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February 25, 2025 3:27pm
Northshoredoc

Another tawdry hitjob by the tedious Maiki Sherman on one news this evening.
4 1
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February 25, 2025 6:21pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Stop watching them. They’ll go bankrupt and fold even sooner.
  
  6 0
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  February 25, 2025 8:34pm
DimChappie

Three quit Covid Inquiry Phase 2 because of “concern about processes”. Anyone wanna guess what concerns might be involved here?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/542963/covid-19-inquiry-executive-director-and-assisting-counsel-resign
4 0
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February 25, 2025 6:52pm
MCōs

While America/Russia/Ukraine/Israel may be dominating the news elsewhere in Thailand the call centre scams have been top of all the news bulletins
I’ve been here for almost four weeks and Trump might as well not exist on the endless TV news shows I’m obliged to watch!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/beatings-torture-and-electric-shocks-freed-scam-compound-workers-allege-horrific-abuse
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February 25, 2025 8:29pm
Ghost

To quote Porky Pig, “Thats all folks.

New Zealand First minister Shane Jones admits the Crown cannot afford to reopen or build a new oil refinery, with a report showing it would cost up to $7.3 billion.

Article
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February 25, 2025 8:47pm

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